Box office of sci-fi films, TV series surges in China

China's sci-fi film industry surged to 17.2 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) in output value in the first half of 2019, according to a report made public Sunday.

The report, issued by the Shenzhen-based Southern University of Science and Technology and China Research Institute for Science Popularization, said sci-fi film industry in China raked in 20.9 billion yuan last year, including 3.37 billion yuan from domestic works.

China-made movies contributed 6.86 billion yuan to the total sci-fi box office in the first half of 2019, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the whole industry's output value.

In terms of TV dramas, 27 sci-fi online dramas were staged in 2018, with a total of 23.47 billion views and an estimated value of 3 billion yuan.