Beat the heat at the movies

As temperatures soar and schools break for summer, China's film market is heating up alongside the weather — entering its longest and one of the most lucrative box-office season of the year. From June 1 to Aug 31, more than 100 movies have been released or are set to hit theaters, aiming to attract millions of young viewers enjoying their holiday.

As of Tuesday, iconic star Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning has topped the summer box-office charts, grossing 455 million yuan ($63.5 million) since its debut on May 30.

As the latest chapter in the globe-trotting adventures of superspy Ethan Hunt and his fellow teammates, the film sees them confronting a rogue artificial intelligence capable of triggering humanity's extinction. Featuring dazzling stunts — including Cruise's Hunt diving into a sunken Russian submarine in frigid waters — the film has scored 7.7 out of 10 on the popular review aggregator Douban, with some netizens commenting that it reminds them of the golden era of Hollywood action blockbusters.

The second highest-grossing summer movie is award-winning director Peter Ho-sun Chan's crime film She's Got No Name. Featuring a stellar cast, the movie — which brings together 23 veterans like actress Zhang Ziyi and actor Lei Jiayin — is inspired by a sensational case: A woman, after suffering years of domestic violence, murders her husband in Shanghai in 1945.

In an earlier interview, Chan revealed that he decided to make the film for several reasons: his interest was sparked by reading Jiang Feng's novella Fan An (Reversal of a Verdict), which employs a journalist's perspective to revisit the woman over half a century later; the backdrop of a turbulent era; and his late father's long-held dream of living as a writer in Shanghai.

Due to the controversial responses to the global premiere of She's Got No Name at the 77th Cannes Film Festival last year, Chan spent over six months reediting the film, extending its length to nearly four hours. Since then, the director decided the film would be divided into two parts — with the first part released this summer and the second part yet to confirm a screening date.

Close on the heels of She's Got No Name, in third place is another Hollywood film, How to Train Your Dragon, a live-action remake of the 2010 animated fantasy film.

Other Hollywood blockbusters include the American sports film F1: The Movie, starring Brad Pitt as a former Formula 1 legend, and the sci-fi action thriller Jurassic World Rebirth. Additionally, fans of comics are highly anticipating DC Universe's new superhero film, Superman.

Aside from these live-action blockbusters, animated movies are also a major draw during the summer, with 14 currently scheduled for release.

Beijing-based Light Chaser Animation Studios' upcoming Curious Tales of a Temple, which features six stand-alone stories adapted from Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) novelist Pu Songling's Liaozhai Zhiyi (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio), is one of the most anticipated. The creators of the movie are best known for Chang'an, a box-office sensation in the summer of 2023, which chronicles the decades-long friendship between poets Li Bai and Gao Shi during the golden era of literature in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Nobody — the first feature-length film of the phenomenal hit animated series Yao-Chinese Folktales — will re-create the series' iconic roles, such as a piggy monster who resonates with many fans who see themselves in him — an average individual. The film is produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio, one of the oldest animation companies in China, which gained international recognition more than half a century ago.

Some popular foreign animated movies are also competing for the Chinese mainland market, such as the American title Elio, Pixar Animation Studios' new tale which recounts an 11-year-old boy's cosmic journey; Japanese feature Detective Conan: One-eyed Flashback; and French hit The Little Prince, a 2015 classic scheduled to be rescreened in a Mandarin-dubbed version voiced by celebrities like Yi Yangqianxi and Zhou Xun.

Lai Li, a veteran analyst with the showbiz information tracker Maoyan Pro, says that most industry insiders hope these animated films will spark domestic theatergoers' enthusiasm for animated films, especially following the huge box-office success of Ne Zha 2 earlier this year.

"The summer is packed with appealing films, which could largely boost theater operators' confidence and might even push box-office revenues beyond expectations," says Lai.

As this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the World Anti-Fascist War, two upcoming films will revisit this chapter of history. The film 731 is about the Japanese Imperial Army's Unit 731 and its brutal bacterial experiments in Northeast China, and Dongji Rescue is based on the true story of Chinese fishermen's daring rescue of British prisoners of war from a sinking Japanese cargo ship in 1942.

In addition, highly anticipated Chinese live-action films include maverick director Jiang Wen's new movie Ni Xing Ni Shang (Put Up or Shut Up), which recounts a 17-year-old's pursuit of his musical dream, and director-actor Da Peng's The Lychee Road, a Tang Dynasty comedy adapted from a best-selling book by novelist Ma Boyong.

Zheng Yang, an associate professor at the Film-Television and Communication College of Shanghai Normal University, estimates that the summer will ultimately gross 17.5 billion yuan at the overall box office, with an optimistic estimate reaching 19 billion yuan. According to Maoyan Pro, the summer season last year grossed over 11.6 billion yuan, with more than 72 percent generated by domestic films.

He analyzes that the summer market signals a new trend — upcoming films like 731 and Dongji Rescue show that Chinese filmmakers have become more adept at crafting wartime epics within commercial genres.

Several highly anticipated films are adapted from renowned works, such as The Lychee Road and Curious Tales of a Temple, making them more likely to attract online attention and expected to serve as strong boosters in heating up the summer season, adds Zheng.