As of January 11, several new films have announced their release dates for the 2026 Spring Festival. "Pegasus 3," co-produced by six listed companies—Maoyan Entertainment, Damai Entertainment, Bona Film Group, China Film Group, Wanda Film, and Hengdian Film & Television—has already announced its Spring Festival release. In addition, several other highly anticipated films are expected to compete in the Spring Festival film market.
The Spring Festival film season, as the busiest and most competitive period of the year, has always been a battleground for leading film companies to release their blockbuster films. Notably, the 2026 Spring Festival film season lasted for nine days, setting a new record for the longest Spring Festival film season in history.
"The 2026 Spring Festival film season is a crucial juncture for the Chinese film market, following the record-breaking box office performance of 'Ne Zha' in 2025. This longest holiday will be a comprehensive test for the Chinese film industry," said Yang Huaiyu, a senior researcher at Shanghai Xiazhi Liangshi Consulting Management Co., Ltd., in an interview with the Securities Daily.
Specifically, as a sequel to the IP, "Pegasus 3" benefits from the high popularity accumulated by its predecessors. Previously, "Pegasus" and "Pegasus 2" grossed 1.728 billion yuan and 3.361 billion yuan respectively, achieving not only impressive box office results but also maintaining stable word-of-mouth, laying a solid market foundation for the sequel.
An industry analyst told the Securities Daily reporter, "The 2025 film market has repeatedly proven the box office appeal of a successful IP. In the future, there will only be more and more serialized IP films. They not only have the audience's emotional connection and trust built up by previous works, but also reduce investment risks. Judging from the cluster of top film companies behind 'Pegasus 3,' IP films have become an important direction for listed companies to 'grab.'"
According to reports, several highly anticipated films, including "Boonie Bears: The Big Adventure," "The Swordsman: The Wind Rises in the Desert," "The Silent Awakening," "Project Panda 2," and "The Battle of Penghu," are expected to be released during the 2026 Spring Festival.
Among them, "Boonie Bears: Every Year" is produced by Fantawild Animation (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. The "Boonie Bears" IP has been released 11 times, with a cumulative box office of 8.102 billion yuan. It has been a "regular player" in the Spring Festival film season for many years and has a stable audience. It is an important representative of family-friendly films during the Spring Festival.
Yang Huaiyu believes that the success of the three animated films released in 2025—*Ne Zha 2*, *The Little Monster of Langlang Mountain*, and *Zootopia 2*—and the proven success of merchandise sales demonstrate the significant advantage of animated works in generating diversified revenue streams, further enhances the market value of animated films. "With a stable IP audience and the inherent animation attributes, it's almost certain that *Boonie Bears: Every Year with a Bear* will have a considerable number of investors."
"The Swordsman: The Wind Rises in the Desert," produced by Damai Entertainment, is adapted from the comic of the same name. With nearly 270,000 people indicating they want to see it on Taopiaopiao, it enjoys high market attention as an IP adaptation. Similarly, "Silent Awakening," also produced by Damai Entertainment, boasts 310,000 people indicating they want to see it on Taopiaopiao, making it a popular contender for a Spring Festival release.
The aforementioned analyst believes that the advantage of the "longest Spring Festival film season in history" is that it provides more time for word-of-mouth to build and for audiences to watch films multiple times, which is beneficial for the sustained box office performance of films with strong word-of-mouth. However, it should be noted that the Spring Festival film season has always exhibited a competitive landscape where the strong get stronger, and the entire film market in 2025 showed a clear Matthew effect. This pattern is likely to continue in the 2026 Spring Festival film season. This means that if new films cannot generate strong word-of-mouth in the first two days of release, they will struggle to gain sufficient growth in terms of theater scheduling and audience attention, potentially limiting box office growth. (Securities Daily reporter Li Haoyue)
