Growth in China’s box office is set to be back on target with double digits this year, said the nation’s media regulator, as the world’s second largest film market recovers from a limp 2016 due to blockbuster titles that may have rekindled interest.

This year’s receipts at the box office will rise by 11.6 percent to 55 billion yuan or 8.31 billion US dollars, shooting ahead of the anemic 3.7 percent rise last year, said Zhang Hongsen, vice minister of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television during a presser on Friday on the sidelines of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

“The rapid development of the film industry has been a highlight for China’s culture industry,” Zhang told a press conference in Beijing.

The vice minister gave special mention to Wolf Warrior 2, a patriotic film about an ex-special forces soldier saving Chinese civilians in a war-ravaged region of Africa. The film unquestionably snatched the Chinese film box office crown, raking in 5.6 billion yuan in receipts in little more than a month's worth of screenings this summer, dwarfing the 3.4 billion yuan made by the previous top-grossing title.

Though the official acknowledged the film's commercial success, the emphasis was on the critical acclaim and the patriotic and heroic values espoused in the story.

"Films should have 'social' and 'educational' benefits, and not be simply driven by profit,” Sun Zhijun, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party Central Committee, said at the same press conference.

“Market share, distribution figures, box office and audience ratings shouldn’t become the only criteria that matter. We cannot be the slave of the market and led by the nose,” said Sun.

Analysts previously warned that the nation needed to brace itself for a relatively slack growth in 2017, allowing time for filmmakers to adjust to the rising demand for quality over quantity, a shift in taste that manifest in 2016. Box office revenue last year grew a meager 3%, nearly at a standstill in contrast to an uninterrupted decade of double-digit growth which preceded it.

The number of theaters and silver screens mushroomed throughout the country in lockstep with the film industry boom – the number of film screens proliferated at an annual rate of close to 40% between 2011 and 2015. But in 2016, as the novelty of going to the films began to wear out for people in lower-tier cities, and as audiences in first and second tier cities began to grow more selective, the box office took a hit.

However, as the officials have forecast, this year looks more promising for the industry, and the 55 billion yuan box office appears to be reasonably within reach.

Ticketing receipts totaled 27.2 billion for the first six months of 2017, an official figure that did not include Wolf Warrior’s 5.7 billion yuan earnings, as well at other decently performing films during the summer season, such as the fifth film the Transformers franchise. The total box office as of the end of this month's national holiday was close 45 billion yuan, according to estimates by CGTN.