Jurassic World Rebirth has become the biggest release in China since the peak Chinese New Year season as local films struggle to ignite the summe
Jurassic World Rebirth has become the biggest release in China since the peak Chinese New Year season as local films struggle to ignite the summer box office.
Universal’s dinosaur tentpole took a cumulative $64.6m (RMB463m) as of July 14, narrowly beating Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, which took $64.5m (RMB462m). It now ranks as the seventh highest grossing film of 2025 after five Chinese New Year hits led by local animated feature Ne Zha 2.
More significantly, Jurassic World Rebirth is on surpass to hit the landmark RMB500m ($69.8m), a milestone no release – local or international – has scored since Chinese New Year in February.
It is promising that Hollywood imports are making a comeback albeit not at the same scale as in past years. Jurassic World Dominion was the last US film to cross RMB1bn ($139.5m), having earned $147.7m (RMB1.06bn) in 2022.
Subsequent Hollywood hits were 2023’s Fast X ($137.3m/RMB984m) and last year’s Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire ($133.4m/RMB956m).
In the first six months of 2025, China’s box office took $4.07bn (RMB29.2bn), up 22.9% year-on-year. This was mainly fuelled by box office sensation Ne Zha 2, the first ever film to cross $1bn in a single market. The figures mark the third best results of all time and the best in five years, according to Chinese box office tracker Beacon.
China’s summer box office, which began on June 1 and runs through August, reached $418.5m (RMB3bn) as of July 12.
A diverse slate of films including Peter Chan’s She’s Got No Name, starring Zhang Ziyi, Japanese animation Detective Conan: One-eyed Flashback, live-action How To Train Your Dragon and Apple Original’s F1: The Movie were among the top summer performers.
But none reached RMB400m ($55.8m) aside from Jurassic World Rebirth and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, pointing to a lacklustre summer season. Last summer’s smash hit, family drama Successor, raked in more than $460.4m (RMB3.3bn), and ended up as the third highest grossing film of 2024.
No local Chinese film has yet to stand out out at the summer box office. As of July 13, Malice, produced by Chen Sicheng who has delivered hit thrillers such as 2022 summer breakout hit Lost In The Stars, made a mere $25.6m (RMB184m), while comedy drama A Cool Fish 2, directed by the same Rao Xiaozhi, took just $7m (RMB50m), compared to almost $111.6m (RMB800m) made by the first film in 2018.
The weekend box office (July 11-13) collected $51.3m, bringing the country’s 2025 running total earnings to $4.24bn, up 20.2% from the same period last year, according to Artisan Gateway.
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