Update: Film on Nanjing Massacre tops 1 billion yuan, leading China's summer box office

Xinhua
02 Aug 2025, 09:20 GMT+10

BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- "Dead To Rights," a film on the Nanjing Massacre, has stormed China's summer box office, surpassing 1 billion yuan (about 140 million U.S. dollars) in just eight days.

Directed by Shen Ao, the film became the first post-Spring Festival release to achieve this box office milestone and has maintained its daily box office dominance in China since its July 25 debut, according to industry trackers Maoyan and Beacon.

The film has topped daily box office charts in all provincial-level regions across the Chinese mainland for five consecutive days through Friday. To date, it has drawn over 30 million admissions, demonstrating strong audience resonance.

"Dead To Rights" centers on a group of Chinese civilians who take refuge in a photography studio during the Japanese aggressors' brutal occupation of Nanjing.

In a desperate attempt to stay alive, they are forced to assist a Japanese military photographer in developing film -- only to discover that the negatives contain damning evidence of atrocities committed by Japanese forces across the city. They secretly keep the negatives and risk their lives to deliver them to the outside world, hoping that the truth would be revealed.

"Dead To Rights" currently holds an 8.6 out of 10 rating on Douban, a key film review site.

According to the latest projections, "Dead To Rights" is now expected to gross over 4 billion yuan in total revenue, a further upward revision from earlier estimates. If achieved, this would make it China's second highest-grossing film of the year to date, trailing only the animated blockbuster "Ne Zha 2."

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