Six of the best for Spring festival cinemas

All six upcoming films competing for the Spring Festival market unveiled behind-the-scenes stories during a promotional event hosted by the China Film Administration, the industry's top regulator, at the China National Film Museum on Wednesday.

Titled "2025, See You at the Theaters", the event brought together cast and crew members from six films: the fantastic epic Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force, the animated sequel Nezha 2, the suspenseful comedy Detective Chinatown 1900, the Chinese navy-themed action film Operation Hadal, the animated feature Boonie Bears: Future Reborn, and the martial arts epic Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants.

Since the six films, all set to debut on Jan 29, began online presales on Saturday, advance ticket revenue has surpassed 370 million yuan ($50.8 million) as of Wednesday night, according to Maoyan Pro, a live film data tracker.

With a diverse range of genres and stellar casts, this year's Spring Festival — the country's biggest box office season — has set a record for reaching 100 million yuan in presale revenues in the history of all Spring Festival releases.

Operation Hadal, the first film of its kind to feature deep-sea battles involving submarines, was revealed by its creators to have been shot on soundstages in Qingdao, Shandong province, with the total area of the facilities spanning 46,000 square meters.

The event also highlighted policies for movie ticket subsidies during Chinese New Year, with a project launched in December that has scheduled to invest no less than 600 million yuan to attract more theatergoers.

Lai Li, an analyst with Maoyan Pro, said that the current lineup is being widely recognized as the most appealing in recent years for the Spring Festival box-office season. With five out of the six movies being sequels of commercially successful franchises, Lai predicted that the upcoming New Year holiday could potentially break a record in ticket sales.