China's box office earnings in the first half of 2024 surpassed 23.9 billion yuan (about 3.2 billion U.S. dollars), data from the China Movie Data Information Network showed Sunday.

Topping the chart was domestic comedy-drama "YOLO", which tells the story of an unemployed woman in her 30s who still lives with her parents until she meets a boxing coach who may change her life. The film raked in 3.46 billion yuan in box office earnings.

Other hits included comedy-dramas "Pegasus 2" and "Article 20", which pocketed 3.39 billion yuan and 2.45 billion yuan, respectively.

The country's movie industry kicked off the new year with a record high revenue of approximately 1.53 billion yuan (about 216 million U.S. dollars) for the three-day New Year's Day holiday. Box office revenue during the eight-day Spring Festival holiday exceeded 8 billion yuan (about 1.13 billion U.S. dollars), with domestic comedy movies accounting for over 97 percent of the total earnings.

The box office revenue for the summer movie season, which runs from June 1 to August 31, had reached 2 billion yuan (about 275 million U.S. dollars) by Saturday.

More Chinese productions are slated to hit the big screen this summer. Reports show that 88 movies have already been rounded up as of July 19.