China box office smashes summer records, Hollywood contributes little
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Chinese actor Zhu Yilong stars in suspense thriller Lost In The Stars.
PHOTO: GOLDEN VILLAGE
Follow topic:
BEIJING – The summer box office in China has reached a new historical high, raking in 17.8 billion yuan (S$3.3 billion) as of Friday morning for the 2023 summer movie season, with domestic films performing far better than Hollywood hits such as Barbie.
So far, four films have surpassed the two billion yuan benchmark at the box office, another record for the summer film season, including suspense thriller Lost In The Stars starring Chinese actor Zhu Yilong – currently showing in Singapore cinemas – and crime drama No More Bets, which opens in Singapore on Sept 14.
It is a highlight for consumption in a year that has witnessed a sluggish recovery in spending by Chinese consumers after the country abandoned its stringent Covid-19 policies at the end of 2022.
According to the China Film Administration, 2023’s summer film revenue, which covers June to August, has surpassed the previous record of 17.78 billion yuan achieved in 2019.
Despite sport not being a usual hit with Chinese film audiences, One And Only – a street dance film about a young man’s dream – has broken the record for the highest-grossing domestic sports film in China, earning more than 850 million yuan by Friday, according to Alibaba-backed movie industry data provider Dengta. Starring Huang Bo and Wang Yibo, it opens in Singapore on Thursday.
Hollywood films did not fare as well.
Barbie, which stars Margot Robbie and has performed tremendously well in global markets, brought in just 246 million yuan after almost a month on screen. Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One made about 350 million yuan in more than a month of screening.
As of Friday morning, official data revealed that a total of 435 million tickets were sold since June. REUTERS
