by Xinhua writer Zhang Yunlong
BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- War epic film "The Eight Hundred" continued to smash records as China's weekly box-office revenue reached a new high since movie theaters reopened on July 20 following months-long closure due to COVID-19.
The film, which formally hit theaters on Aug. 21, scored more than 1.8 billion yuan (about 260 million U.S. dollars) at the box office as of Sunday afternoon.
It led Sunday's China box-office chart with over 100 million yuan, contributing more than 70 percent to the daily total, data compiled by Maoyan, a movie-ticketing and film data platform, showed.
Directed by Guan Hu, "The Eight Hundred" depicts Chinese soldiers' defense of a warehouse against the invading Japanese army during the Battle of Shanghai in 1937. It is Asia's first commercial film entirely shot using IMAX cameras.
Since previews began on Aug. 14, "The Eight Hundred" has won unanimous praise from moviegoers and critics.
Yin Hong, vice chairman of the China Film Association and a professor at Tsinghua University, hailed "The Eight Hundred" as a movie that "Chinese filmmakers should be proud of."
It created a new milestone for Chinese war films, or even Chinese films, following the 2007 Feng Xiaogang film "Assembly," he said.
On Aug. 25, only four days after its formal release, the film became the first movie to make over 1 billion yuan this year in the world's second-largest box-office market. Some critics deemed it a meaningful development in boosting market confidence.
"The Eight Hundred," according to Yin, represents the prevailing topnotch production standards of Chinese films, and is "second to none of any international big title."
In its latest estimation, Maoyan forecasted the film to generate a total revenue of around 3 billion yuan at the box office.
ROBUST WEEKLY GROWTH
The China box office revenue has seen robust week-on-week growth since the reopening of theaters last month.
As of Saturday, China's box-office receipts for the seven-day period from Aug. 24 to 30 hit a new high of more than 1.6 billion yuan, a sharp rise from the previous week's 960 million yuan, according to Maoyan.
The heart-warming romance film "Love You Forever" that was released Tuesday, on the Qixi Festival, drove the daily China box-office revenue for that day to exceed 520 million yuan. It's the highest single-day figure since reopening of theaters.
Qixi, also referred to by some people as Chinese Valentine's Day, falls on every 7th day of the 7th month according to the Chinese lunar calendar and celebrates the legend of the annual meeting between the mythological figures of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.
Directed by promising filmmaker Yao Tingting, "Love You Forever" contributed more than half of the box office total on Qixi by grossing 277 million. Meanwhile, "The Eight Hundred" claimed the second spot on the daily box office chart with nearly 190 million yuan.
Since cinemas resumed business starting from July 20, an increasing number of film enthusiasts are visiting theaters in China.
The number of moviegoers rose from 4 million to 8.6 million within four weeks, before rocketing to 26 million from Aug. 17 to 23.
From Aug. 24 to 30, this number further soared to around 45 million, showed data as of the end of Saturday.
MORE QUALITY FILMS
The past couple of weeks, since Chinese movie theaters were greenlighted to reopen last month, have seen more than 80 percent of film production enterprises resume work and production and over 9,200 movie theaters reopen, according to Ming Zhenjiang, head of the China Film Producers' Association.
"It shows again that the conditions and environment remain favorable for the growth of China's film industry over the long term," wrote Ming in an article carried by China Film News.
The film industry's rapid recovery has a solid foundation, which is Chinese audiences' support and love for domestic films, Ming said, urging filmmakers to improve the supply of quality products to maintain and stimulate moviegoers' enthusiasm and market vitality.
Several major films have announced their release dates for China, with Christopher Nolan's latest sci-fi action feature film "Tenet" scheduled for Sept. 4, while Chinese comedy feature "My People, My Homeland" and long-awaited animated film "Legend of Deification" set for Oct. 1, the National Day.
Deemed by social media users as a "companion piece" to the 2019 blockbuster "My People, My Country" that also debuted around the National Day, the upcoming "My People, My Homeland" adopts a similar storytelling technique of collective creation -- one film contains multiple stories by different directors.
With a China box office revenue of more than 3.1 billion yuan, "My People, My Country" was hailed by critics as a new height for Chinese patriotic films in terms of both the artistic quality and popularity.
Comprised of five stories, "My People, My Homeland" has one of the best known Chinese filmmakers, Zhang Yimou, as the executive producer, and Ning Hao, as the general director.
"Legend of Deification," a feature from the companies behind last year's China box office champion "Ne Zha," which grossed more than 5 billion yuan in China, tells the story of Jiang Ziya, a mythological figure.
Jiang Ziya is a genius strategist from the novel "Fengshen Yanyi," or "The Investiture of the Gods," a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) book that inspired "Ne Zha," the Chinese film about its eponymous hero.
The seven-day National Day holiday last year proved a lucrative season, contributing 5 billion yuan to the yearly China box office collection of over 64 billion yuan. Enditem
