Bumper festival's film bonanza anticipated

Eight movies are gearing up to contend for the forthcoming Spring Festival, one of the country's most lucrative box-office seasons, and most of them are comedies, according to a report released by Beacon, a movie information tracker.

The most anticipated include actress-director Jia Ling's Yolo, novelist-turned-director Han Han's Pegasus 2, Zhang Yimou's Article 20, the Andy Lau vehicle, The Movie Emperor, and Viva La Vida, the final part of director Han Yan's Life trilogy.

Yolo, a heartwarming tale about an oversized woman seeking recognition, has topped the "most-wanted-to-watch" list on Taopiaopiao, one of China's largest ticketing services, for two consecutive weeks, according to Beacon.

A survey conducted by the tracker shows that a 30.4 percent of audiences regard Jia's second directorial effort as their first choice if they decide to go to theaters during Spring Festival, surpassing all other holiday movies.

While Pegasus 2, a film about a former car racing champion, is primarily attracting a male audience, Boonie Bears: Time Twist, the 10th installment of the enduring animated franchise named after the titular bear siblings, is the most appealing choice for families.

Beacon also released a new version of the report updated to use artificial intelligence, which allows industry insiders to conveniently obtain box-office predictions and other data.

The upcoming Spring Festival holiday will last eight days, and is highly anticipated by most industry insiders.

Chen Jin, a veteran analyst with the Beacon Research Institute, said that the festival, which along with the summer season accounted for half of last year's box-office revenues, is of pivotal significance to the healthy growth and recovery of the domestic movie market.