China's box office soars to summer record

BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- China has marked a new milestone in the history of its summer box office, with staggering earnings of 17.8 billion yuan (about 2.47 billion U.S. dollars) in the 2023 summer movie season as of Friday morning.

Figures from the China Film Administration revealed that box office revenue for this year's summer moviegoing period, which runs from the beginning of June to the end of August, has beaten the previous record of 17.78 billion yuan set in 2019.

The total number of admissions reached 435 million as of Friday morning, the official data showed.

To date, the top six positions on China's 2023 summer box office chart are held exclusively by domestic productions. The suspense thriller "Lost in the Stars" leads the chart, and is followed by the crime drama "No More Bets," the sports movie "Never Say Never," the fantasy epic "Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms," animated feature "Chang An," and comedy-drama "One and Only."