'Chinese Doctors' climbs to 5th place on yearly box office chart

Chinese Doctors, a cinematic portrayal of China's fight against COVID-19, moved up to fifth place on China's 2021 box office sales chart on Wednesday.

Wednesday saw its cumulative ticket sales exceed the revenue generated by Zhang Yimou's first spy film Cliff Walkers and domestic hit drama A Little Red Flower, and reach 1.198 billion yuan (about 184.51 million U.S. dollars) by 6 p.m., according to box office tracker Maoyan.

The achievement also means Chinese Doctors has become the third highest-grossing domestic film so far this year at China's box office.

Currently, eight of the top 10 earners at China's box office this year are domestic productions.

Chinese comedy films Hi, Mom and Detective Chinatown 3 lead the yearly chart, with earnings of 5.41 billion yuan and 4.52 billion yuan, respectively.

The only two foreign films in the top 10 are U.S. productions F9: The Fast Saga and Godzilla vs Kong, respectively ranking third and fourth with 1.39 billion yuan and 1.23 billion yuan.

Helmed by Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, the director of the 2019 blockbuster The Captain, Chinese Doctors spotlights dedicated health professionals racing against the clock to save lives during the coronavirus outbreak.