China's summer box office records 3-bln-yuan blockbuster duo for 1st time

People walk past film posters outside a cinema in Yubei District of Chongqing, southwest China, July 30, 2023. (Xinhua/Chu Jiayin)

BEIJING, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Crime thriller "No More Bets" saw its total box office revenue exceed 3 billion yuan (about 417 million U.S. dollars) on Wednesday, becoming the second film after "Lost in the Stars" to hit this revenue milestone during the ongoing summer movie period.

This is the first time that China's summer box office has produced two 3-billion-plus-yuan blockbusters, according to film data platforms Maoyan and Beacon.

Total earnings from the 2023 summer movie season, running from the beginning of June to the end of August, has also hit a record high of over 19.43 billion yuan as of Wednesday, a result that observers have attributed to a post-COVID cultural consumption surge as well as the supply of several quality films of diversified genres.

The top six earners are all domestic productions, with films "Meg 2: The Trench" and "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" ranking seventh and eighth with earnings of around 783 million yuan and 655 million yuan, respectively.