Diverse film lineup drives China's summer box office past 11 billion yuan

China's summer box office has surpassed 11 billion yuan (about 1.64 billion U.S. dollars) as of Friday evening, driven by a diverse mix of domestic and imported titles.

According to the latest data from online platforms, daily box office has exceeded 100 million yuan for 42 consecutive days. The summer movie season has drawn over 300 million moviegoers across more than 35 million screenings, with momentum continuing to build as new films hit theaters.

Although the summer movie season is drawing to a close, theaters in Beijing remain bustling, with many moviegoers reporting multiple visits this summer.

"I'm here today to watch The Odyssey. I watched Once Upon a Time in the Middle East a couple of days ago. It was really, really good," said a moviegoer.

This summer's movie season has featured more than 120 Chinese and foreign films, offering a rich variety of fresh themes and genres including war epics, sci-fi adventures, crime thrillers, and traditional Chinese-style animation, providing a wide range of choices for audiences with diverse tastes.

Kung Fu Soccer, All Wishes Come True, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day currently rank as the top three box office hits of this season. The anti-war and food-themed film Once Upon a Time in the Middle East has seen steadily rising critical acclaim and box office.

The comedy-mystery animated film Mystery of Chang'an is set to officially premiere on August 22, offering audiences an audiovisual experience that blends Eastern aesthetics with a wealth of imaginative ideas.

"The film actually has quite a lot of elements to it, like fantasy, suspense, adventure, crime-solving, and comedy," said Li Yingying, the film's producer.

In addition, imported films such as the thriller-adventure The End of Oak Street and the 4K restored version of the cinematic classic The Shawshank Redemption are also set to premiere in August, further enriching the summer movie lineup.

Industry insiders say that with several new releases poised to hit theaters in the coming weeks, this year's summer movie season is expected to close on a strong note, laying a solid foundation for the steady and positive growth of the film market throughout the year.

Diverse film lineup drives China's summer box office past 11 billion yuan

A super El Nino event officially formed in September 2026, monitoring data from China's National Climate Center showed on Friday.

Zhao Junhu, chief forecaster at the center, said that the equatorial central and eastern Pacific entered an El Nino state in May this year, with sea surface temperatures in the key monitoring region rising rapidly and continuously from May to September.

The three-month running mean of the sea surface temperature (SST) index in the monitoring region has remained above 0.5 degrees Celsius for five consecutive months. The index exceeded 2.5 degrees Celsius for the July-September period, meeting the threshold for a super El Nino event.

The event is classified as an eastern Pacific-type El Nino, in which the warmest sea surface temperatures are concentrated in the equatorial eastern Pacific.

Monitoring data showed that sea surface temperatures across most of the equatorial Pacific in September were above average of the same period, with temperatures in the warm pool of the eastern Pacific exceeding the climatological average by more than 3 degrees Celsius.

The SST index for the monitoring region reached 2.94 degrees Celsius in September, up 0.35 degrees Celsius from August. The average index for the July-September period stood at 2.54 degrees Celsius.

Based on a combination of domestic and international dynamical climate models and statistical forecasting methods, the center expects sea surface temperatures in the equatorial central and eastern Pacific to continue rising over the next three months, peaking in late autumn or early winter, Zhao said.

The event is expected to become the strongest El Nino on record since systematic monitoring began, he added.

Super El Nino event formed in September: China's National Climate Center