China's summer box office surpasses 8b yuan, Nanjing Massacre film hits over 2b

BEIJING -- China's summer box office earnings had exceeded 8 billion yuan (around $1.1 billion), with a film about the Nanjing Massacre grossing more than 2 billion yuan, as of Saturday morning.

Since its debut on July 25, "Dead to Rights," a film depicting Japanese atrocities during World War II, has dominated the daily box office charts. It earned nearly 80 million yuan this past Friday alone, according to Lighthouse Professional Edition, a box office tracker owned by Alibaba.

The movie currently enjoys an 8.6 out of 10 rating on Douban, a major film review platform. It is projected to gross up to 4.2 billion yuan in total.

Notably, 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. Several films related to this history have been released or are scheduled to premiere soon.

"Dongji Rescue," which tells the story of how Chinese fishermen defied gunfire to rescue over 300 British captives from the Japanese ship Lisbon Maru in 1942, was released on Friday.

It will be followed by "Mountains and Rivers Bearing Witness," a documentary chronicling China's resistance against Japanese aggression from 1931 to 1945, set for release on Aug 15 -- the anniversary of Japan's announcement of unconditional surrender.

A film depicting the notorious human experiments conducted by Japan's germ warfare Unit 731 is scheduled to hit the screen on Sept 18.

China's summer movie season runs from June 1 to Aug 31. The all-time summer box office record was set in 2023 at 20.6 billion yuan, while the summer of 2024 marked a trough at 11.6 billion yuan.