Citizens walk past movie posters at a cinema in Beijing on August 31. Photo:VCG

China's 2025 summer box office reached over 11.96 billion yuan ($1.68 billion), surpassing 2024's summer total of 11.64 billion yuan, the China Film Administration announced on Monday. 

The number of moviegoers reached 321 million, a year-on-year increase of 12.8 percent. The box office share of domestic films stood at 76.21 percent, according to a report analytics platform Dengta sent to the Global Times on Monday.

The top 5 highest-grossing films are Dead to Rights with 2.89 billion yuan, Nobody with 1.455 billion yuan, The Shadow's Edge with 879 million yuan, The Lychee Road with 678 million yuan, and Jurassic World: Rebirth with 567 million yuan.

China's summer movie season runs from June 1 through August 31 and is traditionally one of the country's most lucrative film periods. 

"The first half of this year's summer film season was lackluster, with several key films failing to meet expectations and resulting in the overall market being 'slow to heat up,'" Lai Li, a market analyst from ticketing platform Maoyan, told the Global Times. 

"However, in the second half, domestic films began to make concentrated efforts; led by highly-acclaimed works such as Dead to Rights, the audience's enthusiasm for moviegoing was ignited," he said. 

The film is based on actual evidence of the crimes the Japanese army committed during the Nanjing Massacre in 1937. With historical photos as a foundation, it showcases the resolute resistance of ordinary Chinese people against the atrocities of the Japanese army. 

After being screened in Australia, the US, Canada, and several other countries, the movie also sparked widespread resonance among overseas audiences.

"Plot is the most important factor when making moviegoing decisions, while sensory stimulation and emotional resonance enhance the movie-watching experience," Hei Mao, senior analyst at the Dengta Research Institute, told the Global Times when commenting on 2025's moviegoers' behavior. 

Both of the two analysts have great confidence in September, as more that 30 highly anticipated Chinese and foreign films are set to be screened in domestic theaters one after another. 

Several films connected to the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, such as Against All Odds, 731 Biochemical Revelations, and Survival will continue the summer season with diverse narratives and truthful artistic expressions about Chinese people's bravery and courage in defending their homeland.

Promotional material for Against All Odds

Against All Odds, based on the true story of the Hong Kong Independent Battalion of the Dongjiang Column, a guerrilla force led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to fight against Japanese aggression, will be released on Wednesday, the same day as the V-Day military parade. 

The film's director, Lau Ho Leung, said he hopes the work will "bring Hong Kong's lesser-known stories of resistance back into the public eye."

In an exclusive interview with the Global Times, one of the film's lead actors, Mitchell Hoog from the US, who played a Flying Tiger pilot rescued by Chinese people, shared, "It was hard for me to go back to normal life after ending the film as the story just sticks with me. I did not listen to any other music or films other than 1940s works at that time. I think it's a story that I'll reflect on for the rest of my life because it's such a powerful one."

Hoog also noted that this history is still relevant today. It reminds us that, "even though there were so many different people in the Pacific Theater during WWII, all of us had the sense of humanity that we have been trying to fight for one common goal," he added.

Also premiering on Wednesday is Chinese director Gao Qunshu's Survival, an adaptation from the memoir written by Li Min, a female soldier of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. 

From the perspective of an ordinary female soldier, the movie leads the audience to look back on the path to victory paved with blood and flesh through whizzing of bullets and the songs of soldiers during their 14-year fight in extreme hardship.