(Yicai Global) July 13 -- China’s cinema ticket sales during the summer season that began on June 1 have exceeded CNY7.3 billion (USD1 billion), CCTV News reported, citing data.

Chinese mystery drama Lost in the Stars is the highest-grossing movie so far this summer as it racked up CNY3.2 billion (USD446 million), data from ticketing platform Maoyan showed. Chinese drama Never Say Never and US blockbuster movie Transformers: Rise of the Beasts ranked second and third with CNY1.1 billion and CNY650 million (USD90.7 million), respectively.

China’s June box office grossed CNY4.1 billion, the second-highest ever after the CNY4.2 billion racked up in June 2019, according to Maoyan.

The summer box office still has great potential, as the monthly ticket sales in July and August are generally higher than in June, Central China Securities noted.

With the domestic film scheduling returning to normal and the continuous introduction of imported movies, the Chinese film market is expected to rebound this year. 2023’s box office is expected to gross CNY45 billion to CNY50 billion (USD6.3 billion to USD7 billion), recovering to between 70 percent and 80 percent of the pre-pandemic level in 2019, according to Western Securities.

Editor: Futura Costaglione