An employee of a cinema in Handan, North China's Hebei Province disinfects the foyer on Sunday to prepare for the movie theater's re-opening on Monday. (Photo: VCG)

China's weekly box office sales from Aug 31 to Sept 6 totaled 803 million yuan ($117 million), down by 54 percent week on week but up by 72 percent compared with the same period last year.

A total of 21.7 million moviegoers visited theaters during the same period, registering a 59 percent increase year on year, data compiled by the China Film News showed.

Domestically-made war epic The Eight Hundred raked in 467 million yuan, bringing its total collection from this market to nearly 2.4 billion yuan.

Sci-fi action film Tenet by Christopher Nolan, which was released on Sept. 4, came second on the weekly box office chart, grossing 205 million yuan.

Heart-warming Chinese romance film Love You Forever, which helped drive China's daily box office on Aug 25 during the Qixi Festival to a new high of over 520 million yuan, generated 55 million yuan from Aug 31 to Sept 6.

China's box office sales soared to about 1.74 billion yuan for the seven days from Aug 24 to 30, the highest weekly figure since theaters reopened on July 20, largely due to a boom in ticket sales generated by Qixi, which is referred to by some as Chinese Valentine's Day.