China's summer box office hits billion-yuan milestone in record time

BEIJING - China's box office revenue for the summer moviegoing period that began on June 1 has surpassed the 1 billion yuan ($139.86 million) mark, reaching the milestone in record time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The total summer box office earnings amounted to 1.11 billion yuan as of Tuesday morning, exceeding the revenue generated during the same period in any year since 2020, according to movie data platform Maoyan.

As the box office growth closely aligns with the film industry's recovery from the impact of the pandemic, observers hold an optimistic outlook for the summer movie period, the first since China downgraded its COVID-19 measures earlier this year.

While American titles, "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" and "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," continue to hold the top two spots on China's summer box office chart, with earnings of 303 million yuan and 250 million yuan to date, respectively, a number of major Chinese titles are set to land on the big screen later this month, including crime thriller "Lost in the Stars" and romantic drama "Love Never Ends."

Furthermore, July will see the release of "Creation of The Gods I: Kingdom of Storms," the first film of a highly-anticipated live-action, fantasy epic movie trilogy, and animated feature "Chang'an San Wan Li."

This diverse mix of titles is poised to contribute to the sustained growth of China's summer movie box office revenue.