After years of ups and downs, especially the three-year heavy blow from the Covid pandemic, China’s film industry saw a fruitful year in 2023, being an absolute bright spot amid the nation’s uneven consumption-led economic recovery. China's film industry staged an impressive comeback in 2023, witnessing a substantial 83 percent year-on-year surge in annual box office sales, reaching a substantial 54.91 billion yuan ($7.7 billion) with nearly 1.3 billion tickets sold throughout the year.   Film data platform Beacon, in collaboration with the Xinhua News Agency, released a report of the 2023 China film market's annual review, indicating a 70 percent surge in box office revenue compared to the last three years, returning to 2017 levels, with a 60 percent increase in attendance. Taking a look back on 2023, the Spring Festival's box office takings stood at 6.7 billion yuan, ranking second-highest from the holiday period, just behind 2021's record. Although the October National Day box office sales totaled 2.7 billion yuan, which was lower compared to the roughly 4 billion yuan recorded each year from 2019 to 2021, it still showed an increase from 2022's 1.5 billion yuan. The summer season was particularly remarkable, amassing 20.6 billion yuan and surpassing the 20 billion yuan threshold for the first time in China's summer box office history. The month of December alone saw a record-breaking 68 new releases gracing the big screen worth over 3 billionyuan.  Domestic blockbusters prevail China’s cinema-goers are showing heightened enthusiasm for domestic films last year, reflecting the achievements of the high-quality development of Chinese films, which helps to strengthen national cultural self-confidence. Tracking a changing trend in recent years, Chinese audiences now prefer local stories, evidenced by the fact that all 10 of the highest-grossing blockbusters last year were produced by domestic companies.Statistics from the China Film Administration reveal that domestic productions dominated the market, making up approximately 84percent of the national total.  Last year's box office champion, Zhang Yimou's historic suspense film “Full River Red”, and runner-up, director Guo Fan's sci-fi epic “The Wandering Earth II”, were released during the Spring Festival holiday, the nation's most competitive box office season. The success of “Full River Red”, the fictional account of a group of grassroots daredevils seeking revenge for Yue Fei, a patriotic general framed and executed during the Song Dynasty.The movie with a particular historic background earned 4.54 billion yuan to top the charts last year in China, and was also the eighth highest-grossing film worldwide. Widely regarded as a game-changing franchise in reviving homegrown sci-fi works, “The Wandering Earth” — the first installment of which was released in 2019 — returned to Chinese screens with a second edition, earning 4.03 billion yuan to take second position in last year's box office rankings. Released in a total of 39 countries and regions, the movie was one of the most influential Chinese blockbusters screened abroad last year. In addition to the main plot of the first installment, which tells of humans embarking on a 2,500-year-long expedition to escape the dying sun, “The Wandering Earth II” further contemplates digital life in exploring how human consciousness can be preserved on the internet to achieve "immortality" and the continuity of civilization. These concepts are intertwined with cutting-edge Chinese scientific advances such as aerospace and artificial intelligence, which have sparked greater interest among sci-fi enthusiasts. China's progress in scientific research and development provides fertile ground for inspiration in sci-fi works, which are also among the most promising genres to represent Chinese stories abroad and attract overseas audiences, film critics said. Meanwhile, movies adapted fr