Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Maoyan Entertainment 2023 Interim Results Conference Call. A copy of the earnings announcement can be found and downloaded from the company's investor relations website at ir.maoyan.com. At this time, all lines are being placed on listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for questions following today's presentation. I'd now like to hand the conference over to IR Senior Manager for Maoyan Entertainment, Michelle Yu. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Thank you, operator. Good morning. It's my pleasure to welcome everybody to Maoyan Entertainment's first half 2023 earnings call. Joining me for today's call are Mr. Peter Zheng, our Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Leon Li , Financial Director; and Ms. Xia Zheng, Vice President. The presentation will be conducted in English, and the question-and-answer session will be conducted in Chinese. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that the management comments during the call will include forward-looking statements based on our current expectations, which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and may not be realized in the future for various reasons.
Furthermore, information about general market conditions comes from a variety of sources outside of the company. This presentation also contains some unaudited, non-IFRS financial measures that should be considered in addition to, but not as a substitute for, measures of the company's financial performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. Please do take a minute to read the risk factors and the non-IFRS measures discussion in our first half 2023 earnings release. And with that, let me now turn the call over to Peter to get started.
Thank you, Michelle. Welcome everyone. During the first half of 2023, the entertainment industry got back on track, benefiting from the domestic consumption recovery and the strong policy support from the government. According to the China Film Bureau, the box office of Chinese movie market increased by 53% year-over-year to RMB 26.3 billion. The national live performance market also experienced robust growth.
According to the 2023 first half national live performance briefing, the total box office of national commercial live performance soared by 673% year-over-year, with audience numbers increased by 10 times. Alongside the industry recovery, we captured growth opportunity and achieved impressive results that outpaced the market. During the reporting period, we further optimized our record and hit new record highs in both our top line and bottom line.
We also achieved significant operating and financial breakthrough in our entertainment content service, and our promotion and distribution service maintained its market-leading position. Looking first at our entertainment content service. In the first half of 2023, we enhanced our market competitiveness by further strengthening our movie promotion distribution capability. Coupled with exceptional movie selection capability and efficient execution, our entertainment content service delivered outstanding results.
During the reporting period, we were involved in 24 domestic movies, a new high compared to the first six-month period in previous years. Those movies contribute more than 60% of overall domestic movie total box office in the period and occupied nine out of the top 10 spots on the domestic movie chart. We also recorded a historic high in terms of the market share and top movie coverage. Moving to the promotion and distribution service.
During the period, we promoted and distributed 23 domestic movies, representing about 80% of the total domestic box office. Among them, we distributed 13 movies, an all-time high for the first half year. Many of the movies topped various box office charts. A standing out result was "Full River Red.'' The movie topped the Spring Festival season and took in RMB 4.5 billion at the box office.
The figure makes it the sixth highest-ranking movie box office in China movie history. Another one of our leading distributed movie "Godspeed," championed the Labor Day holiday and exceeded RMB 1.18 billion at the box office. Those results showcase our industry-leading promotion and distribution system, high-quality service, and organization capability. We also broadened and deepened our participation in top-tier movies.
With the diligent effort, we are steadily growing our involvement in this sector. In terms of box office, we were involved in the top three movies of Spring Festival, the top two over the Labor Day holiday, and the number one during the Dragon Boat Festival. Following the summer holiday, a number of movies that we were involved was released. Many of those earned great audience reviews and recorded excellent box office results.
Some of those including "Lost in the Stars," '' Never Say Never," "Creation of the Gods.'' Going forward, we are involved in a broad array of movies scheduled for release in the second half of 2023, such as "Lost to Win," Johnny Keep Walking!" We also have an abundant pipeline of quality content in the works, such as "Shining from Wanshan," and "The High Wolf." Those are in addition to our self-produced movie, including the "Endless Journey of Love," Game Star."
All of those are on track to be released in the near future. Next, our online ticketing service business. Throughout the first half of 2023, we concentrated on improving our service capability that enhanced the user experience. We provide a diversified suite of marketing solutions to promote the sales of product and cinema members. Notably, we were honored once again to be chosen by prestigious Beijing International Film Festival to provide the ticketing service and comprehensive marketing solution. Since the beginning of the year, Tenyas demand has boasted rapid recovery of the live performance market.
To better capture rising growth opportunities, we actively broadened and deepened our presence in the sector. In the first six months of the year, both the GMV and the number of the performance we served surpassed the pre-pandemic levels. Across many categories, including concert, sports events, music festival, all recorded remarkable growth. In particular, we served as the general ticketing agent for many top-tier concerts. Looking to the future, we explore the opportunity across the investment, production, and IP development for the live performance. Our Hong Kong ticketing service has also achieved a steady growth and is progressing.
During the reporting period, we delivered high-quality ticketing and operating system for Hong Kong urban ticketing system, covering many well-known performers. Now, we cover a little bit about our advertising and other service business. During the period, we continued to develop effective promotion distribution solutions to create great value for our clients. Through our extended channel network, we helped the movie increase their exposure, expand the audience coverage across the dynamic and diversified scenario.
Supported by our enhanced marketing effectiveness and improved commercialization efficiency, the total number of the project we served reached a new high, increasing by 85% year-over-year. Before closing, I would like to share some of the detail about our work with AI technology. We have continued to build and strengthen our AI power technology capability as a catalyst to enhance our own service, promote the progress of the overall industry with innovative products.
In particular, we have been gradually implementing AI technology products in our service and have already made some very encouraging breakthrough. For example, the promotional distribution stage, we have enhanced our promotional efficiency with dynamic material and solutions. We also utilize AI technology to enhance our data analysis capabilities and improve Maoyan Pro's box office forecasting capability.
Moreover, we launched several AI-powered tools and products to help our partners further explore AI's massive potential in the movie industry. To sum up, recovery accelerated across the entire industry. Going forward, we will continue to leverage Maoyan's leading competitiveness across our business lines, deepen our penetration in top-performing movies, and strengthen our infrastructure service capability.
We will also work to develop our AI power, technology capability, and expand our application scenario along the value chain to benefit the whole industry. At the same time, we will capitalize our leading position and advanced technology to explore more opportunities at home and abroad. Thank you, everyone, for your time. Now I will return over to Leon to walk you through the details of our financial results.
Thank you, Peter, and hello, everyone. I will now briefly go through our financial highlights for the first half of 2023. As a reminder, all the financial numbers we are presenting today are in RMB, and all percentage changes are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise stated. In the first half of 2023, China's entertainment industry rebounded rapidly and recovered more than expected. The robust growth of China's film and live performance market boosted the confidence of all practitioners in the industries. During the reporting period, we grasped valuable opportunities to strengthen our businesses and achieve an outstanding first half of 2023 was our strongest half year ever, and both our top line and bottom line hit new record highs. Now let's move to our financial results.
Our total revenue increased by 84% from RMB 1.2 billion in the first half of 2022 to RMB 2.2 billion in the first half of 2023, driven by encouraging revenue growth in entertainment content services and online entertainment ticketing services. Revenue from entertainment content services increased sharply from RMB 533 million in the first half of 2022 to RMB 1.1 billion in the first half of 2023, up 106%.
The increase was mainly because of two reasons. First, we distributed or produced 24 domestic films, much more than the past fiscal half years. Second, a few of the films we re-distributed and produced, such as "Full River Red," and "Godspeed," achieved extraordinary box office. Revenue from our online entertainment ticketing business increased from RMB 592 million in the first half of 2022 to RMB 1 billion in the first half of 2023, up 72%.
The increase was mainly due to the fast recovery and growth of China's film and live performance market. For example, the box office of China's film market increased by 53% to RMB 26.3 billion, and that of China's commercial live performance soared by 673%. Revenue from our advertising services and other business increased by 23% to RMB 81 million in the first half of 2023 from RMB 66 million for the first half of 2022. The increase was mainly due to the growth of our e-commerce services, represented by the in-venue food and beverage pre-ordering services with the full recovery of China's film industry in the first half of 2023. Our gross profit for the first half of 2023 was RMB 1.1 billion, up 77% from RMB 372 million for the first half of 2022.
Our gross margin for the reporting period was 50.1%, remaining relatively stable compared with 52.2% for the first half of 2022. Our selling and marketing expenses increased by 33% to RMB 366 million from RMB 276 million in the first half of 2022. We increased marketing and promotion spending as our business grew quickly in the reporting period. Our general and administrative expenses slightly increased by 4% to RMB 187 million from RMB 179 million in the first half of 2022.
As a result of the foregoing, our operating profit for the first half of 2023 increased by 180% to RMB 518 million, from RMB 185 million in the first half of 2022. Our net profit for the first half of 2023 was RMB 405 million, hitting a record high and representing an increase of 167% from RMB 152 for the first half of 2022. Our adjusted net profit for RMB 456 million, representing an increase of 95% from RMB 234 million in the first half of 2022. As our performance grew substantially, our balance sheet continued to be optimized and maintained stronger and healthier.
As of June 30, 2023, our cash and cash equivalents and other forms of bank deposits were RMB 3.76 billion, increased by RMB 1.36 billion from RMB 2.4 billion, as of December 31st, 2022. In summary, the fast recovery of China's entertainment industry fully reflects its strong resilience. We are very confident in the long-term growth potential of the industry. Moving ahead, we will continue to focus on the industry to further expand our services and products, offerings and reach broader markets, both home and outside of mainland China. This concludes our prepared remarks for today. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask your question, you may press star, then one on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. The Q&A session will be conducted in Chinese. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question today comes from Xueqing Zhang with CICC. Please go ahead.
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The next question comes from Rebecca Xu with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
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Your next question comes from Xiaowen Sun with Haitong Securities. Please go ahead.
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The next question comes from Chen Junxu with Guangfa Securities. Please go ahead.
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The next question comes from Vicky Wei with Citi. Please go ahead.
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The last question comes from Alex Lu with CITIC. Please go ahead.
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That is all for today.
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question-and-answer session and our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.