The Chinese historical drama and war film "Dead to Rights," which portrays the horrors of the Nanjing Massacre, has raked in over 1.5 billion yuan (about 208.79 million U.S. dollars) in box office revenue as of midnight Sunday, eliciting deep emotional responses and prompting critical reflection since its release on July 25.
The movie temporarily ranked third on the 2025 China's domestic box office list, and continues to lead the box office of 2025 summer season.
The film breaks away from the grand narrative of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, focusing on the difficult and great transformation of ordinary people who initially seek only self-preservation to the brave warriors who ultimately sacrifice their lives to pass on evidence of Japanese army crimes.
"When I returned to reality from the story in the movie, I saw the beautiful city of Nanjing and its current urban development. I felt happy. This was what moved me the most when the film was nearing its end. As someone from Nanjing, the most important thing for me is to remember history," said moviegoer Zhao Chao.
The movie also topped the global box office over the weekend on Aug 2 and 3, according to Comscore, a U.S.-headquartered global media measurement and analytics company.
Starting from Aug. 7, the film will be released in theaters in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Malaysia, and Singapore. Preparations are also underway for its release in Russia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and other countries.
According to online platform data, as of 24:00 on Sunday, the single-day box office exceeded 380 million yuan (about 52.89 million U.S. dollars), setting a new record for the 2025 summer season
As of Sunday, China's summer box office has reached 7 billion yuan (about 974.37 million U.S. dollars) in total earnings.
Nanjing Massacre film stirs emotions, leads China's summer box office
