China has its first sci-fi movie blockbuster. "The Wandering Earth" has raked in over 440 million dollars in ten days. And it's on track to become China's highest grossing film. Now, the US is getting the chance to see what the excitement is all about. CGTN's John Terrett explains.

For the lunar new year 2019, China's filmmakers are boldly going where none has traveled before - deep, deep space! This year's spring break blockbuster "The Wandering Earth" is thrilling audiences at a small number of movie houses in the United States.

JOHN TERRETT NEW YORK "The movie is playing here on New York's famous 42nd Street over there at the AMC theater. Being paid to watch a movie - how great is that!'

The story: The sun will soon engulf the earth. The United Earth Government has built giant rocket engines all over the planet to propel it to a new home in the solar system. What could possibly go wrong. Earth on a collision course with Jupiter, that's what! Yanked off course by the giant planet's force of gravity. The movie is based on a sci-fi novel by Chinese author Liu Cixin and stars Wu Jing the martial arts expert and actor who put his own money in to help fund the project.

ARASH AZIZI FILM CRITIC "Everyone is very excited about this film, the first time a sci-fi film has opened the lunar new year, you usually have actions or comedies. The more audience you bring, ultimately this is good news for world cinema and it's good news for Chinese cinema."

The showing I attended was at 11:40 in the morning but still had a reasonable size audience despite the unearthly hour.

"It's not the kind of blockbuster we think of, it's what's your attitude towards earth, towards the universe and what's your attitude towards the universe and towards humanity between the universe and the people."

"I think this is a great movie and previously I hadn't any expectations for Chinese sci-fi movie but this one really shocked me and I think there will be many more Chinese sci-fi movies in the future."

"It was a good effort I think and definitely the effects were excellent."

I'm not going to tell you whether Earth makes it, you'll have to see the film or read the book to find out, but Chinese astronauts play a big part in the struggle to survive.

JOHN TERRETT NEW YORK "So what did I think. Well I thought it was a blockbuster along the lines of any Hollywood movie you've ever seen in this genre. I thought there was a really good human interest plot woven in. But the really frightening thing of all is that you can just imagine something like this happening, not next week or next year but maybe a hundred or two hundred years into the future. And that's a pretty sobering thought. JOHN TERRETT, CGTN, NEW YORK."