Ticket sales across nation on rise as movie-goers flock back to theaters, helping revive COVID-hit industry
Posters advertise the latest releases at a cinema in Shanghai. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
As the house lights dimmed, Pan Xiaona, a high school teacher from Beijing, settled back in her seat to watch the blockbuster movie New Gods: Yang Jian, which is playing to packed audiences at nearly 9,000 cinemas nationwide.
The animated film is produced by Light Chaser Animation, directed by Zhao Ji, and features the voices of Wang Kai, Li Lanling and Ji Guanlin.
Pan, 42, who has loved movies since childhood, said that over recent weekends she has watched five films with her teenage daughter at a packed cinema near their home.
“I went to see New Gods: Yang Jian the day it was released last month, because my daughter likes animated stories about Chinese myths,” Pan said.
“It was a welcome opportunity to escape the scorching heat outside while watching a beautifully shot movie that brings to life a celestial legend I once read to my daughter as a bedtime story.”
As of Aug 31, despite more than 20 percent of its cinemas still being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, box office receipts in China, including presale revenue, had surpassed 9.1 billion yuan ($1.32 billion) since June, a rise of 23.7 percent from the same period last year, according to movie information tracker Beacon.
Industry insiders said the three months from June typically shape the business concept for the summer movie season, which has earned sizable revenue in China since director Zhang Yimou’s martial arts film House of Flying Daggers became a hit in 2004.
With 223 million moviegoers attracted to theaters so far this summer, Chen Jin, a veteran analyst at Beacon, said the figures indicate that the domestic film industry has witnessed a robust recovery after a sluggish performance in the first half of this year.
Liu Zhenfei, an analyst at the Maoyan Research Institute, said this year has been the highest-grossing summer movie season since COVID-19 emerged in 2020.
In 2020, all Chinese cinemas were closed for six months from late January — reopening in July, resulting in the summer box office shrinking to 3.62 billion yuan that year.
With the pandemic efficiently under control in summer last year, earnings rose to 7.38 billion yuan, propelled by domestic blockbusters such as Chinese Doctors and Raging Fire, according to movie tracker Maoyan.
Due to sporadic outbreaks of COVID-19 earlier this year, more than 50 percent of Chinese cinemas were closed in late April, resulting in box office takings from March to May standing at just 2.2 billion yuan.
Liu said, “The rapid recovery this summer shows that China’s film industry has strong vitality and resilience, indicating that the local market has huge potential to expand.”
The sci-fi comedy Moon Man, the film with the biggest budget ever produced by popular Chinese comedy troupe Mahua FunAge, tops this summer’s box office charts with earnings of 2.9 billion yuan, followed by Lighting up the Stars, with 1.7 billion yuan.
In third place, Universal Pictures’ Jurassic World Dominion — the finale to the 30-year dinosaur-themed franchise — has grossed 1.1 billion yuan. The Hong Kong films Detective vs. Sleuths and Warriors of Future are in fourth and fifth places respectively.
Chen, from Beacon, noted that the box office for 25 days this summer, or nearly half the seasonal vacation period for students, was topped by Moon Man. He said the blockbuster, which was released on July 29, almost single-handedly revived a waning market.
Lu Jianing, head of Nanning Minzu Cinema in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, said most of his fellow cinema operators also feel the market has started to warm up again due to Moon Man, as Jurassic World Dominion — one of the few major Hollywood movies imported this year — has not performed as well as expected.
Residents of Changsha, Hunan province, line up at a cinema during the summer vacation. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Meanwhile, Lighting up the Stars, the second-highest-grossing movie this summer, centers on the funeral industry.
Lu said: “This movie explores Chinese people’s attitude toward death, and sets a somewhat sad tone that weighs heavily on audiences’ hearts. In general, the film is not a typical, or even ideal, offering for the summer season, which usually features more light-hearted productions.”
Chinese sci-fi movies featured prominently this summer, according to industry insiders.
The first such movie released for the season was director Chen Sicheng’s Mozart from Space, which debuted on July 15.
Exploring the stresses and challenges of parenting, the film features an alien sent on an unlikely mission to rescue a teenager from tedious piano lessons. The boy’s father wants him to become a musician.
Moon Man, which tells the story of an astronaut accidentally stranded on the moon, was released on July 29,
followed by Warriors of Future on Aug 5, which features Hong Kong star Louis Koo. The latter film centers on numerous robots fighting efforts by humans to genetically modify a species of lethal alien plant.
However, Mozart from Space flopped after attracting controversial reviews online, ranging from criticism of its unrealistic depiction of a Chinese middle school campus to “imagination that was devoid of logic”.
Warriors of Future, despite earning satisfactory revenue, also received mixed reviews, with some netizens complaining that its plot is flawed.
On the Douban review system, Moon Man scored 6.8 points out of 10 and Warriors of Future netted 6.3 points, while Mozart from Space scored 4.4.
Zhu Yuqing, an investment specialist at the China Film Foundation, said there has been a surge in the number of domestic sci-fi movies since the release of The Wandering Earth, a catastrophe-themed epic adapted from writer Liu Cixin’s novel. The movie became a “game-changer” following its release in 2019.
In August the following year, the China Film Administration and the China Association for Science and Technology jointly released 10 guidelines aimed at boosting sci-fi productions. Advice in the guidelines ranges from improving the level of special effects to attracting sci-fi writers.
Zhu said, “With these endeavors in recent years, this summer has witnessed a mini climax for domestic sci-fi films.” But he added that due to a poor investment environment, the future for Chinese sci-fi movies remains unclear.
Despite the rapid expansion of China’s film industry in the past decade, evidenced by more than 80,000 screens being set up nationwide — the most in the world — the nation still lacks big-budget movies rich in special effects, with some of its highest-grossing films being comedies.
Yu Chao, deputy general manager of Beijing’s Capital Cinema, said Chinese sci-fi movies are capable of becoming a mainstream genre in the local market, as an increasing proportion of local audiences are warming to local content with cultural connections.
He added that a new trend has emerged in China, with most Hollywood sequels or stereotypical tales losing their ability to attract Chinese audiences.
This trend was exemplified by The Lost City, starring Brad Pitt, which flopped in China. On the North American box office charts, the movie took top spot from The Batman for three consecutive weeks.
Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Association, said the nation’s film industry still faces a critical and difficult time and needs investment.
“In 2015, China’s annual box office takings rose by 48.6 percent year-on-year, as Chinese investors raced to put their money in the film industry regardless of the cost. Today, however, we lack money,” Rao said during a forum at the recently concluded 12th Beijing International Film Festival.
However, Yu said the industry’s current plight may have a silver lining.
“The Chinese film industry has experienced a tough time for the past three years, as the country has battled the pandemic. But those who are here to stay in the industry truly love cinema, so the departure of those chasing a quick profit may provide creative people with more time and a more relaxed environment to work on their projects,” Yu said.
The China Film Administration recently issued ticket coupons with a total value of 100 million yuan in an attempt to encourage movie fans to return to domestic cinemas.
Yu said, “We have high hopes for a full recovery of the movie market, but the main challenge remains a lack of quality blockbusters.”
