Chinese Sci-Fi Comedy ‘Moon Man’ Boosts China’s Box Office By $310M

Since premiering on July 29, Chinese sci-fi comedy Moon Man has earned 2.1 billion RMB (310 million USD) at China’s box office alone.

The film raked in $129 million over its opening weekend, making it the highest grossing film in the world over the three-day weekend — a period that also marked Imax China’s most successful summer opening since September 2019.

After a series of lockdowns that have taken a brutal toll on China’s film industry, the country’s box office is slowly bouncing back with successful films like Moon Man, which was directed by Zhang Chiyu and produced by Mahua FunAge. One of China’s most prominent comedy production houses, the latter was founded in 2003, and has produced comedy hit after comedy hit.

The film is an adaption of comic series Moon You by South Korean illustrator Cho Seok, who is best-known for his webtoon series, which were also spun into TV shows like The Sound of Your Heart.

Moon Man follows a spacecraft maintenance worker, who is accidentally left on the moon and becomes the last human being in the universe (or so he thinks) after an asteroid destroys the earth.

The film’s box office success has proven that audiences can’t get enough of comedy duo Shen Teng and Ma Li, although some audiences have also complained that the two didn’t share much screen time together (to be fair, however, both characters occupied completely different celestial bodies).

Sci-fi blockbusters made a significant splash in China’s domestic market back in 2019 with the release of The Wandering Earth and Crazy Alien, which respectively raked in $700 million and $327.6 million.

That said, Shanghai Fortress, a sci-fi film that was also released in 2019, floundered. Not even a star appearance by Lu Han , a former member of boy band Exo, could save the film from being skewered by critics.

Earlier in June, indie film Lighting Up the Stars also helped boost China’s box office. The heartwarming drama about an unusual friendship between a funeral director and an orphaned girl grossed 32 million USD in three days.

Based on the success of the two summer blockbusters, could China finally be making its way back to the forefront of the international film market?

All images via IMDb