BEIJING - China's daily box office reached a new milestone on Wednesday, the Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year, generating an impressive and record 1.805 billion yuan ($249 million) in earnings.

The number of moviegoers on the day totaled 35.15 million. Both the box office revenue and moviegoer count surpassed the previous records set on the 2021 Chinese New Year, the China Film Administration (CFA) said on Thursday.

The annual Spring Festival holiday is one of China's most lucrative movie-going seasons, and runs from Jan 28 to Feb 4 this year, one day longer than previous years.

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Leading the box office chart are six domestic films which debuted on Wednesday - with genres including Chinese mythology, wuxia, which features martial arts and chivalry, comedy, fantasy, animation and drama.

Huajin Securities noted that these six new releases cover a diverse range of genres, catering to the tastes of various audience groups. It also highlighted that most of these films are installments in highly-rated, high-grossing franchises with strong reputations and large fan-bases.

Since December last year, the CFA has encouraged relevant institutions to allocate approximately 600 million yuan in movie-going consumption subsidies - a move analysts say is aimed at unlocking the full consumption potential of moviegoers.

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Kaiyuan Securities predicts that total box office takings will see a 6.7-percent year-on-year increase to reach 8.54 billion yuan during the 2025 Spring Festival holiday.