Cinema's summer love story

The sunny weather is heating up China's cool first-half box-office returns as out-of-school students flock to theaters, Xu Fan reports.

For three consecutive weeks since the start of summer vacation, China's weekly box-office revenue has surpassed 1 billion yuan ($145.3 million), boosting the morale of struggling domestic filmmakers after a first-half slowdown.

With some Chinese schools closing for the summer break in late June, the first shots in the "battle" to get youngsters into theater seats were fired early.

Despite the withdrawal of several highly anticipated films, such as The Eight Hundred and Better Days, a number of others are gearing up to reap the rewards of the two-month-long holiday.

Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Association, says the summer vacation is one of the most lucrative box-office seasons in China.

"The box-office figures in the past three weeks are uplifting. Domestic cinemas will see a rise in the number of theatergoers due to a series of beneficial factors like the hot weather and students looking to fill their vacation days," says Rao.