Films chase summer holiday crowds for box-office boost

More than 60 Chinese and foreign films are gearing up to contend for the summer vacation, one of the most lucrative box-office seasons in China.

Some crew members of the upcoming movies attended a promotional event organized by the China Film Administration, China Movie Channel, and the new media center of China Media Group in Beijing earlier this month.

The most highly anticipated titles include Dongji Island, inspired by the real-life story of Chinese fishermen rescuing British prisoners of war from a sinking Japanese cargo vessel; and The Litchi Road, which fictionalizes a Tang Dynasty (618-907) low-ranking official's nearly impossible mission to transport lychees over a long journey.

Besides, several animation films will also be released during the summer, such as No Body, loosely inspired by the 16th-century novel Journey to the West; Liaozhai Lanruo Si (Chinese Studio — Lanruo Temple), about the romance between a female ghost and a young scholar; and Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Bright New Dawn, the latest installment of the long-running franchise about a group of anthropomorphic goats and their foes — a wolf couple yearning to eat them.

For Hollywood blockbuster enthusiasts, they will be delighted to see big-budget foreign tentpoles including How to Train Your Dragon, Jurassic World Rebirth, and F1: The Movie.

The summer season, which typically runs from June 1 to Aug 31, has already grossed 700 million yuan ($97.5 million) at the box office, with Tom Cruise's action spy film Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning currently topping the charts for the period.