BEIJING, May 17 (Xinhua) -- China's word-of-mouth hit "Dear You" continued its daily box office dominance for an eighth day on Sunday, as revenue forecasts continued to rise.
A low-budget, Chaoshan (Teochew)-dialect film directed by Lan Hongchun and headlined by first-time actors, "Dear You" had grossed 470 million yuan (about 69 million U.S. dollars) by 4 p.m. Beijing time on Sunday, according to film data platform Maoyan.
Opening on April 30, it has outperformed all other May Day holiday releases, including twist-filled crime thriller "Vanishing Point" and Hong Kong-set franchise entry "Cold War 1994," with their cumulative box office earnings currently standing at 410 million yuan and 273 million yuan, respectively.
Film data platforms Beacon and Maoyan have further raised their final box office projections for the film to around 1.2 billion yuan and 1.3 billion yuan, respectively, marking another significant increase from earlier forecasts of just over 1 billion yuan.
Reportedly produced on a budget of just over 10 million yuan, the film has emerged as one of China's biggest cinematic surprises of 2026. It is widely hailed for its emotional authenticity, grounded storytelling and unusually convincing performances from first-time actors.
The story draws on the history of "qiaopi," the letters and remittances sent home by earlier generations of overseas Chinese. UNESCO added the "qiaopi" archives to its Memory of the World Register in 2013.
On China's review platform Douban, the drama currently holds a score of 9.1 out of 10, making it one of the highest-rated Chinese films in recent years and among the best-reviewed domestic releases of the past decade. ■
