China's movie market saw a strong recovery in July as domestic movies raked in more than 8.7 billion yuan (around 1.2 billion U.S. dollars) at the box office.

"Lost in the Stars", a suspense crime film, successfully ignited the enthusiasm of the movie goers on June 22. By July 1, the cumulative box office figures this summer have been higher than previous years' data.
On July 25, box office figures in July exceeded seven billion yuan (nearly one billion U.S. dollars), setting a new box-office record for July.
"Looking at the cumulative box office from June 1 to June 30, in fact, before June 21, that is, before the Dragon Boat Festival, this year's market was actually running at a low level. After July 22, that is to say, after the Dragon Boat Festival, the overall box office started to run at a high speed," said Zhao Dan, data analyst.
After the success of "Lost in the Stars", the film "Never Say Never", which tells the story of a former boxer who decides to train orphans from rural places to give them a future, was officially released in July. The box office of both films saw significant rise in the month.
"In fact, several films have expanded the market together. The position and type of 'Never Say Never' is very different from 'Lost in the Stars'. So it wisely chose to preview when 'Lost in the Stars' had heated up the entire market. It can be called 'adding fuel to the fire', which is a win-win result," said Hu Jianli, secretary general of China Film Critics Association.
Other latest films such as "30,000 Miles from Chang'an", "Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms", and "One and Only" further helped release the potential of the market.