Nation's films rise as major force

Taking second place after Ne Zha in the highest-grossing slot, The Wandering Earth, a sci-fi blockbuster adapted from the eponymous novel by China's first Hugo Award winner Liu Cixin, was the 12th top-earning film worldwide.

Along with director Ning Hao's Crazy Alien, also inspired by a novella written by Liu, and other Spring Festival blockbusters such as Pegasus, a comedy hit, The Wandering Earth took the monthly grosses in February to 11.2 billion yuan, the world's highest for a single month.

Edward Cheng, CEO of Tencent Pictures, one of the film's backers, said, "The Wandering Earth employs Chinese-style storytelling to convey the country's values and understanding of a shared future for humankind, as well as demonstrating Chinese ways to solve problems."

Directed by sci-fi fan Guo Fan, the movie is set in the year 2075 and uses 2,003 special-effect shots, 75 percent of them produced by domestic companies.