Chinese war comedy tops 1 billion yuan, defying box-office slump

Chinese war comedy Once Upon a Time in the Middle East has grossed more than 1 billion yuan (US$148 million) in its first week, bucking a broader slump in domestic box-office sales and sluggish consumer spending.

Officially released last Tuesday, the film follows a Chinese cook struggling to survive after being caught up in the outbreak of a US-Middle East military conflict. It had crossed the billion-yuan milestone by the time figures were released just after midnight on Tuesday morning by box-office trackers Maoyan and Dengta.

The hit has become the domestic market’s highest-grossing war film of 2026 in both revenue and admissions, setting a five-year opening-day record for summer war movies while helping propel the Chinese mainland’s total summer box office above 10 billion yuan this year. The country’s official summer movie season runs annually from June 1 to August 31.

After pulling in an all-time high of 20.62 billion yuan in the summer of 2023, fuelled in part by post-pandemic pent-up demand, China’s box office cooled to 11.64 billion yuan during the same period in 2024 and reached 11.97 billion yuan last summer, according to China Film Administration data.

Industry insiders said the movie’s global perspective sets it apart.

“It presents a world story through Chinese eyes”, and this is something that China has rarely done before, said an industry insider surnamed Yu who declined to use his full name, citing more than a decade of experience working with China’s cinemas and distribution companies. Yu noted that the film offered international audiences insight into how Chinese people viewed human nature in global conflicts.…Read more by Sherry Wang,Mandy Zuo