(Yicai Global) July 25 -- Shares in Beijing Jingxi Culture and Tourism surged as much as 7.7 percent today after the Chinese production house’s latest blockbuster grossed CNY382 million (USD53 billion) at the box office within four days of its release on July 23.

Jingxi Culture’s share price [SHE:000802] was trading up 2.8 percent at CNY8.56 (USD1.20) as of 1.20 p.m. China time. Earlier in the day it hit CNY8.96. The stock price jumped 10 percent yesterday.

Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms, which is based on a well-known fantasy novel called Fengshen Yanyi or Investiture of the Gods, is the first in a trilogy that recreates mythical wars between humans, immortals and demons over 3,000 years ago. It took six years to produce and cost billions of Chinese yuan, equivalent to hundreds of millions of US dollars.

As the main investor, Jingxi Culture has made CNY250 million (USD35 million) so far from the movie, more than half of its total revenue last year, the Beijing-based company said yesterday. The firm has invested up to CNY1.3 billion (USD181.8 million) in the three films, accounting for between 20 percent and 70 percent of total investment.

The second and third episodes have been filmed, but the visual effects, background music and soundtrack have not yet been added, director Wu Ershan said on social media on July 23.

“A release date has not yet been set,” he said. “We need to consider the results of the first film before we continue the post-production of the next two parts.”

The trilogy could be Jingxi Culture’s big break. The production house, which has been in the red for the past four years, is predicting losses of between CNY18 million (USD2.5 million) and CNY23 million in the first half. This is an improvement on the CNY25.2 million it lost in the same period last year.

China’s film and television industry is on the rebound. China’s box office raked in CNY26.3 billion (USD3.7 billion) in the first six months, a jump of 52.9 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the China Film Administration. Over 600 million people went to the cinema over the period, a gain of 51.7 percent.

Editor: Kim Taylor