A poster of Never Say Never, a film that narrates the story of how wrestling changes the lives of children from the countryside, is seen at a cinema in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in July. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Powered by a series of blockbusters from both home and abroad, China's film industry has accelerated its post-pandemic recovery.
The combined box-office revenue, including presale receipts, generated from June 1 till Sunday, reached an impressive 14.7 billion yuan ($2.05 billion), according to live tracker Maoyan. The figure surpassed the summer collections for the past two years. In 2022, the box-office revenue between June 1 and Aug 31 was 9.1 billion yuan, while the collection for the same period in 2021 was 7.4 billion yuan.
July 2023 became the highest-grossing July in the history of Chinese cinema with the overall box-office revenue surpassing 8.7 billion yuan, generated from the sale of 212 million tickets, according to movie information tracking service Beacon.
Lost in the Stars, featuring A-list actor Zhu Yilong, continues to be this summer's box-office champion. With its gripping plot twists and the resonating theme of not letting love cloud one's judgment, the crime thriller, which hit cinemas on June 22, has raked in 3.5 billion yuan to become the third highest-grossing film this year.
Director Zhang Yimou's historical suspense movie Full River Red and filmmaker Guo Fan's sci-fi epic The Wandering Earth II are the biggest winners of 2023. The two films were released during the Spring Festival holiday, China's most lucrative box-office season.
Two highly anticipated Hollywood tentpoles — Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse — were released in early June, but their performances were lackluster. While Transformers earned 653 million yuan, Spider-Man made 356 million yuan.
Never Say Never, a heartwarming movie about a mixed martial arts trainer helping children from the countryside pursue their dreams, has secured the second position on the summer box-office charts with a collection of 2.1 billion yuan.
Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms, a fantastic epic about overthrowing a tyrant 3,000 years ago, is an example of how Chinese blockbusters draw inspiration from the country's rich culture and history to engage local audiences. The movie adapted from a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) novel has raked in 1.6 billion yuan since its release on July 20.
Hit animation Chang'an, which tells the story of Li Bai and Gao Shi, two famous poets of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), has also grossed 1.6 billion yuan.
The rush to watch director Greta Gerwig's summer splash Barbie — the first movie to bring the Mattel doll to life — shows that thought-provoking and well-crafted Hollywood movies can captivate the evolving taste of Chinese audiences, industry observers said.
Despite being allocated only 2.4percent of all screenings on its opening day, July 21, in China, the movie distributed by Warner Bros Pictures managed to garner increasing attention from theater chains thanks to word-of-mouth praise and online reviews. By the fourth day, Barbie's screenings rose to 8.6 percent. As of Sunday, the movie had collected 220 million yuan.
Zhi Feina, a professor at the Chinese National Academy of Arts, said this summer's box-office revenue will possibly surpass the previous record of 17.8 billion yuan set in 2019, with an estimated gross of around 18 billion yuan, making it the highest-grossing summer season in history.
With other highly anticipated movies such as Meg 2: The Trench, starring Jason Statham and Wu Jing, and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, Zhi said the Chinese film market is experiencing a vibrant revival, which will boost confidence for the creation of more high-quality movies.
