China box office surges 52.9% in first half of 2023

China box office surges 52.9% in first half of 2023, boosted by ‘Lost In The Stars’

‘Lost In The Stars’ proved the top grossing film in June.

China’s box office jumped 52.9% in the first six months of 2023 with ticket sales of $3.7bn (RMB26.3bn), marking the first such year-on-year increase since the Covid-19 pandemic. The top three boxoffice is Full River Red, The Wandering Earth II and Lost in The Starts

It does not mark a complete recovery as the figures remain 15.7% down on the same period in pre-pandemic 2019. But robust growth was seen in June with takings of $581.8m (Rmb 4.13bn), up 115% on 2022 and down a mere 0.8% on 2019.

The top grossing film in June was Lost In The Stars， it tells a story that He Fei’s wife, Li Muzi, disappeared during their anniversary trip. When she reappeared, he insisted that she was not his wife. As Chen Mai, a top lawyer gets involved in this bizarre case, more mysteries started to emerge. The director is  Rui Cui and Xiang Liu, writing by sSicheng Chen with the actors of Shuyi Gu and YIlong Zhu, Ni NI and Janice Man.