(Yicai) July 3 -- Cinema ticket sales in China during the first month of this year's summer holiday have exceeded CNY2 billion (USD279.1 million), receiving a significant boost from imported movies.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, the live-action version of How to Train Your Dragon, and Detective Conan: One-Eyed Afterimag were joined by two Chinese productions in the top five last month, with each raking in over CNY100 million (USD14 million), according to several ticketing trackers.

China's summer cinema season starts June 1 and ends Aug. 30. Box office earnings topped CNY11.6 billion (USD1.6 billion) last year, with ticket sales over the first month this year similar to that a year earlier.

Detective Conan: One-Eyed Afterimage has outperformed expectations among imported flicks and is on track to set a series' highest box office in the Chinese mainland, Chen Jin, a data analyst at Dengta Professional Edition, told Yicai.

Jurassic World: Rebirth, which premiered yesterday, has already grossed over CNY13 million (USD1.8 million), Chen noted, adding that other upcoming imported action blockbusters, such as Superman and The Fantastic Four, are also new installments in popular franchises among Chinese audiences, Chen added.

Imported films have temporarily outperformed domestic films, while China's film market still must pick up this summer and needs more blockbusters to drive overall growth, Lai Li, a market analyst at Maoyan Entertainment, said to Yicai.

Some 101 movies are scheduled for release in China over the summer, including 20 animations.

China's box office topped CNY29.2 billion in the first half of this year, a record high since 2020 and only behind that of 2018 and 2019 historically, according to data from Dengta Professional Edition. Animation blockbuster Ne Zha 2 raked in CNY15.4 billion since premiering on Jan. 29, contributing more than half of the total.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev