China's original sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth has grossed more than 4 billion yuan (595 million U.S. dollars) at the box office since its premiere on February 55th.

Many foreign media gave special reports, discussing the significance of the country's first film set in space.

The New York Times said in an article that The Wandering Earth opens amid grandiose expectations that it will represent the dawning of a new era in Chinese filmmaking. It is one in a series of ambitious, big-budget films tackling a genre that, until now, has been beyond the reach of most filmmakers here — technically and financially.

"Both The Wandering Earth and Crazy Alien are adapted from works by Liu Cixin, the writer who has led a renaissance in science fiction here, becoming the first Chinese winner of the Hugo Award for the genre in 2015. His novels are sprawling epics and deeply researched. That makes them plausible fantasies about humanity's encounters with a dangerous universe," according to the New York Times.

The Financial Times said that the leap into sci-fi reflects Chinese filmmakers' growing budgets and confidence to tackle topics previously monopolized by Hollywood.

The South China Morning Post also wrote in its report that, "Like Hollywood space movies where Americans are portrayed as the only ones capable of saving humanity, here Chinese astronauts are the sole adventurers among the global space community determined to complete the arduous task of fending off the apocalypse."

An article on Australian website Flicks.com highlighted the different values of Chinese and Westerners reflected in the film. It said that the film integrates Chinese cultural virtues of duty, humility, self-sacrifice, and loyalty, both to family and society as a whole into its breathtaking plots.