Slam Dunk nostalgia scores big at box office

The highly anticipated Japanese animated sports film The First Slam Dunk has scored a major box office success riding a wave of nostalgia from Chinese fans born in the 1980s and '90s.

The film began screening in cinemas across the country at midnight on Thursday and, according to the live tracker Beacon, had grossed 389 million yuan ($56.4 million) as of Monday. On China's popular review site Douban it scored a 9 out of 10 rating from fans.

The movie is an adaptation of the popular manga series Slam Dunk created by Japanese author and illustrator Takehiko Inoue, who also directed the film, and tells the story of high school students pursuing their basketball dream.