SSTM Unveils Return Highlights: Giant-Screen Film Horse power Premieres Worldwide, and Palace Museum Co-Branded Blockbuster Exhibition “Galloping Wonders” Opens for Pre-Sales

After being absent from public view for more than two years and undergoing the largest-scale upgrade and renovation since its establishment, SSTM pressed the accelerator on its return at the start of 2026. On January 9, the world premiere of the world’s first giant-screen film themed on a Chinese zodiac animal, Horse Power, was grandly unveiled at the newly renovated Giant Screen Theater of SSTM. At the same time, as one of the flagship opening programs, the Palace Museum co-branded blockbuster exhibition “Galloping Wonders” officially launched early-bird ticket pre-sales.

The year 2026 is the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac. The production team of Horse Power traveled across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, endowing this life epic about horses with a globalized visual language. It is reported that the film will be released successively through the cinema networks of more than 200 science centers and science museums worldwide, and will make its Americas premiere in Texas, the United States, one week after its China premiere, promoting the international communication of traditional Chinese zodiac culture.

As the first major exhibition after reopening, “Galloping Wonders” marks the first collaboration between SSTM and the Palace Museum. The exhibition takes civilization as its warp and nature as its weft. On one side are 27 precious horse-themed cultural relics from the Palace Museum making their first appearance in Shanghai, ranging from the Han and Tang dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties, and spanning from saddles, bridles, and military equipment to ritual vessels and painted scrolls. On the other side are 11 rare specimens, including the Mongolian “Eight Steeds” representing the spirit of steppe nomadism, the Akhal-Teke horse known as the “Heavenly Horse” symbolizing legendary exchanges between East and West, and the Shire horse embodying European chivalric spirit, among other iconic breeds. These “horses,” representing the ancient and the modern, and the East and the West, converge in the same time and space, providing the most vivid annotation to this epic of civilization in which humans and horses advance side by side.

On the eve of the reopening of the physical venue, SSTM has “taken the lead” in its return through content, using “one film” and “one major exhibition” to announce to society that this update is not only an upgrade of urban infrastructure, but also another in-depth exploration of how Shanghai empowers cultural confidence with cutting-edge technology and tells China’s stories well in an international language.