China's 2025 summer movie season has delivered a robust performance, with box office topping 11 billion yuan and merchandise sales soaring.
The box office, including presales, reached 11.035 billion yuan (about 1.54 billion U.S. dollars) as of 10:35 Beijing time Monday, according to box office tracker Dengta Data.
Over 150 films were released during the summer movie season, which runs from June 1 to August 31, with domestic movies driving significant revenue.
War epics such as "Dead To Rights," "Dongji Rescue" and "Mountains and Rivers Bearing Witness" resonated deeply with audiences.
Leading the charts is "Dead To Rights" which tells the story of a group of Chinese civilians who took refuge in a photography studio during the Japanese aggressors' brutal occupation of Nanjing in 1937.
As of Sunday, the film grossed over 2.75 billion yuan since its release on July 25. It is projected to gross up to 4.2 billion yuan in total.
Meanwhile, the animated films "Nobody" and "The Legend of Hei 2" have won both acclaim and commercial success.
"Nobody," a spinoff from the popular "Yao-Chinese Folktales" series, shattered the record for Chinese-made 2D animated films. Debuting on August 2, it has already grossed over 1.26 billion yuan, securing the second spot on the summer box office chart.
"The Legend of Hei 2," the sequel to the 2019 animated hit, also performed well, grossing nearly 472 million yuan since its July 18 release.
The summer movie season also has seen a surge in movie merchandise sales, translating on-screen success into a 120 percent year-on-year growth in revenue.
"Nobody" alone contributed nearly 30 percent to this growth. The film has launched 207 branded merchandise items and also collaborated with over 30 brands to create a diverse array of 400 licensed products, ranging from plush toys and stationery sets to puzzles and cards.
China's 2025 summer box office tops 11 billion yuan, merchandise sales soar
China's 2025 summer box office tops 11 billion yuan, merchandise sales soar
The Chinese Embassy in South Africa on Monday held an event in Pretoria, the country's administrative capital, to celebrate the launch of the 2026 China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges.
This year also marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and African countries.
Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Wu Peng said that over the past seven decades, under the joint guidance of leaders from both sides, China-Africa people-to-people and cultural exchanges have continued to expand, yielding fruitful outcomes.
Noting that the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, Wu said China and Africa need to uphold fairness and justice, strengthen solidarity and mutual assistance, and enhance exchanges and cooperation more than ever before.
Taking the launch of the China-Africa Year of People-to-people Exchanges as an opportunity, Wu called for upholding the original aspiration of friendship, solidifying the foundation of cooperation, enhancing two-way efforts, and accelerating the building of an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era.
Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, South Africa's deputy minister of women, youth, and persons with disabilities, said South Africa and China enjoy strong and historic bonds of friendship as close international cooperation partners in the political, economic, social, technical and multilateral domains.
"The significance of people-to-people is really about how we elevate the people's life to a just and equitable stance that we want to see. We want a better Africa; we want a better world. And that for us is significant," said Letsike.
"Through people-to-people exchanges, we promote mutual understanding, and that is the basis of building mutual trust, building peaceful coexistence. People-to-people exchange is a very important instrument for peace and mutual understanding," said Bongani Maimele, director of international relations with South Africa's National School of Government.
The opening ceremony of the 2026 China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges was held at the African Union headquarters on Jan 8. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the two sides will jointly host nearly 600 cultural and people-to-people exchange activities in 2026 to enhance exchanges and mutual learning between the two civilizations, and promote mutual understanding and connection between the peoples.
Organizing the 2026 China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges is an important consensus reached by leaders from both sides at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Summit in 2024.
Chinese Embassy in South Africa unveils 2026 China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges
