Historical epic advance ticket sales soar as China's holiday nears

The historical epic The Battle at Lake Changjin jointly helmed by Chen Kaige, Hark Tsui and Dante Lam has seen its advance ticket sales soar as China's seven-day National Day holiday, usually a lucrative moviegoing period, nears.

Set in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53), the film tells the story of the Chinese People's Volunteers soldiers fighting bravely in freezing temperatures in a key campaign at the titular lake.

It sold more than 57 million yuan ($8.82 million) in pre-sale tickets as of Sunday morning, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the total advance sales of eight new titles that are set for release around the holiday and tracked by film data platform Maoyan.

Featuring a star-studded cast led by Wu Jing and Jackson Yee, the film has remained atop Maoyan's list of most-anticipated holiday films for the National Day holiday, with more than 930,000 internet users expressing interest in seeing it as of Sunday morning.

A patriotic film roughly translated as Me and My Father's Generation has garnered more than 16 million yuan in advance sales. The four-part anthology co-directed by Wu Jing, Zhang Ziyi, Xu Zheng, and Shen Teng is slated for debut on Sept 30, day-and-date with The Battle at Lake Changjin.

The advance sales data cover both Sept 30 and the National Day holiday from Oct 1 to 7, which is known as a golden week for major cultural and tourism consumption in China.