Summer cinema gets top billing

As summer draws to a close, China's cinemas are wrapping up a lively three-month box-office season on an upbeat note, underscoring the vast potential of the country's film market.

Statistics from the China Film Administration, the sector's top regulator, show that this year's summer movie season, which ran from June 1 to Aug 31, grossed nearly 12.5 billion yuan ($1.84 billion), up 4.45 percent year-on-year and marking a second consecutive year of growth for the June-August period.

The season also recorded 340 million admissions, up 5.86 percent from the same period last year, helping push China's overall box office for the year above 28.3 billion yuan, according to Maoyan Pro, the industry tracking arm of ticketing platform Maoyan. Meanwhile, the average ticket price for the summer season was 36.7 yuan, the lowest in five years.

Kung Fu Soccer, the sports comedy marking iconic Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Chow's return to the director's chair after a seven-year hiatus, topped the summer box-office charts, raking in 2.3 billion yuan.

Despite its commercial success, the film, which follows a women's football team's underdog victory, has received mixed reviews. Supporters have embraced the nostalgic experience of revisiting Chow's signature brand of nonsensical humor, while critics have taken issue with what they see as a shallow and unconvincing plot and cast of characters.

Although it received the lowest rating among the summer's top three box-office hits — earning just 6.3 out of 10 as of Thursday on the major review aggregator Douban — Kung Fu Soccer found a strong audience in lower-tier cities, which accounted for the largest share of its box-office revenue.

Zuo Heng, a researcher at the China Film Art Research Center, says the film faithfully re-creates the familiar formula of a classic Stephen Chow production — complete with over-the-top performances and slapstick humor that appeal to die-hard fans while also attracting younger viewers. However, without Chow's own on-screen presence, the film somewhat lacks the essence of his distinctive style.

Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, the third feature-length film by director Wen Muye, has earned 1.95 billion yuan, taking second place on the summer box office charts. The film has received a high rating of 8.7 out of 10 on Douban. It stars actor Shen Teng as a Chinese chef struggling to survive in a war-torn Middle Eastern country, who risks his life to rescue more than 20 children trained as suicide bombers by an extremist armed group.

Unlike most war films, this movie uses Chinese cuisine as a narrative anchor — with dishes, in a sense, becoming characters that drive the plot. The protagonist begins as a kitchen virtuoso, preparing exquisite dishes with dazzling precision. Near the end, however, he and the children flee from pursuing extremists and take shelter in a village where he cooks a humble stew with whatever ingredients and simple tools are available. The contrast is deliberate. When everything falls apart, food becomes less about culinary skill and more about care — a symbolic gesture of mutual aid that transcends borders.

"In most regular anti-war movies, this theme and attitude are shown from one of the rival sides," Zuo says. "But this story is different — it's told from a third-party perspective, and it tries to persuade people at war to put down their weapons and return to the most basic human need: eating well. And as the ending suggests, when the war finally ends, people will remember the efforts the Chinese have made."

The summer's third-highest-grossing film is also a Chinese production. All Wishes Come True!, an innovative retelling of the legend of the Eight Immortals, has earned 1.84 billion yuan. The legend can be traced to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), was developed during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and took shape in the novel Dong You Ji (Journey to the East) in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

"The film's English title — All Wishes Come True! — reflects a universal theme that can resonate with people everywhere," says Ying Xujun, president and CEO of Pearl Studio and executive producer of the movie. She says she hopes that the film can serve as a cultural bridge, sparking foreign audiences' curiosity about China and encouraging them to visit the historic sites and natural landscapes that inspired the scenes in the film.

Hollywood blockbusters also proved popular during the summer. Tom Holland's superhero film Spider-Man: Brand New Day grossed 1.5 billion yuan to rank fourth, while Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey earned 603 million yuan to take fifth place.

The fierce competition in the summer box office, one of the most lucrative periods of the year, was also reflected in the release schedules. At least 11 films withdrew or rescheduled their planned releases, marking the largest such wave in five years.

Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Association, says the reasons behind the phenomenon are complicated. An increasingly competitive market has created new challenges for the industry, forcing filmmakers and their marketing partners to consider release schedules and target audiences more carefully.

Lai Li, a market analyst at Maoyan, says this year's summer box office, despite a sluggish start in the first few weeks, gained steady momentum as the season progressed, signaling that China's film industry is moving toward "a steady recovery".

With both revenue and admissions rising amid a diverse mix of genres, the summer season has once again demonstrated that the stable development of China's film market depends on a steady supply of quality productions, Lai adds.