China is witnessing a colorful 2025 summer movie season with more than 60 new domestic and international productions in a variety of genres, spanning historical drama, suspense, action, comedy, and animation, reflecting the growing diversity and artistic range of Chinese film industry.
As of Thursday afternoon, the box office revenue, including presales, exceeded one billion yuan (about 139.09 million U.S. dollars) for the summer movie season, which runs from June through August, according to box office tracker Beacon.
"Films for this summer movie season are rich in terms of genres and themes, showing that Chinese movies have made progress in artistic creation when portraying lives of contemporary Chinese and telling historical events," said Yin Hong, vice chairman of the China Film Association.
Among the standout domestic releases is The Lychee Road, a comedy adapted from a novel by Ma Boyong that follows a Tang Dynasty beadle on a mission to deliver lychees to the imperial court.
Historical war film Dongji Island revisits a little-known WWII rescue mission, where local fishermen saved hundreds of British POWs off China's eastern coast from a Japanese cargo ship that was sunk by a U.S. submarine.
In animation, Strange Tales: Lanruo Temple draws from the classic Strange Tales, linking five iconic folk stories through a central narrative structure, including ghostly love story Nie Xiaoqian and Painted Skin, a tale of a demon disguised as a beautiful woman.
China witnesses colorful 2025 summer movie season
