Culture
2019.02.08 22:53 GMT+8

'The Wandering Earth' floats to No. 1 at Chinese box office

Wu Yan

The Chinese film market saw a dramatic shakeup after three days of fierce competition during the Spring Festival holiday, as the total box office of sci-fi film "The Wandering Earth" surpassed that of "Crazy Alien" to  rake in 1.1 billion yuan (160 million U.S. dollars) as of 7 p.m. BJT on Friday.

According to data from Maoyan, a leading ticketing website, "The Wandering Earth" came fourth on the first day of Spring Festival, following comedy films "Crazy Alien," "Pegasus," and "The New King of Comedy."

It moved up the ranks to the second place on the second day, and beat "Crazy Alien" on Day 3 to become the top grossing film for the day in China.

A poster of “The Wandering Earth” /VCG Photo

Adapted from Hugo Award winner Liu Cixin's novel of the same name, the movie tells the story of how humans are relocating Earth to a new home before the swelling sun devours it. When Earth flies past Jupiter, the gravitational pull of the planet launches immediate action to save the Earth from an obscure fate.

Hailed as China's first real sci-fi film, "The Wandering Earth" features many Chinese elements, from cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, to Spring Festival celebrations and the Chinese traditional thinking of dying at one's birthplace.

A still of “The Wandering Earth” shows the spirit of internationalism. /VCG Photo

Differentiating from individual heroism that Hollywood film often highlights, the movie shows that one person cannot save the day, but salvaging Earth requires people from around the world joining hands.

Examples of a collective mentality are aplenty: More than 70,000 fire-stones are transported by 410,000 people to help propel the planet; Chinese and Russian astronauts join hands to help people on Earth carry out a rescue mission; the idea of igniting Jupiter to push Earth forward was first initiated by an Israeli expert; and when a notice for help is aired globally, Japanese, British, Italian and Indian nationals, among others, volunteered to provide assistance.

The spirit of internationalism is shown as all people are united to save their home, a value that the Chinese sci-fi film underscores.

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