China has become the world's first market this week to make a full box office recovery, according to UK-based film industry analytics firm Gower Street on Thursday.  

The five targets created by the company track and compare different countries' and regions' path to recovery. 

The highest benchmark – stage five – requires the film industry of the market to make the equivalent of the top quartile of weekly earnings from the past two years. And to achieve that goal, China needs to create a weekly box office of 1.27 billion yuan.  

After achieving the stage-five goal, according to the firm Gower Street, a particular market "should react as normal, with an ebb and flow dependent on the release calendar."

However, China has surprised the whole world within five days into the week starting on August 21, earning 1.31 billion yuan by the end of the day Tuesday.  
The big success was attributed to a massive box office sale on Qixi Festival, also known as the Chinese Valentine's Day, with the daily box office hitting 500 million yuan (73 million U.S. dollars), the highest among that of any single market across the globe in the era of COVID-19 pandemic, showing the strong revival of the domestic film market.  

"Love You Forever" even beat last year's animation blockbuster "Ne Zha" to become the new Qixi Festival winner.  

In addition, the domestic war epic "The Eight Hundred" ranked second with its earnings of 189 million yuan, and has given a boost to the big-budget production, helping the box office surpass the 1.1-billion-yuan mark five days after its official release and a week of preview screenings.  

Disney's movie "Mulan" has yet to receive an official release date in China, but is expected to hit theaters soon. 

Read more:

China's daily box office exceeds 500 million yuan on Qixi Festival 

Box office tops a billion yuan a month after reopening of cinemas

(Cover photo via VCG)