A sneak peek at China's Spring Festival holiday movies

Several major film productions have announced that they are joining the Spring Festival moviegoing period. China's box office lineup for the week-long holiday starting on January 21 is taking shape, despite chances of last-minute, minor changes.

Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, falls on January 22 this year and will see the release of seven domestic titles, according to the schedule already disclosed by film data platforms.

Atop the list of most-anticipated holiday films compiled by box office tracker Maoyan is "The Wandering Earth II," a prequel to the 2019 sci-fi blockbuster "The Wandering Earth." More than 1 million Maoyan users have expressed interest in seeing this film starring Wu Jing and Andy Lau, according to data as of Friday.

Shen Teng led the cast of Zhang Yimou's suspense comedy "Full River Red," which boasts more than 770,000 Internet users expressing interest, ranking second.

Coming in third place on the chart is the historical drama "Hidden Blade" starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, with the number of people expressing interest hitting 480,000.

The other films are "Boonie Bears: Guardian Code," the newest instalment in the domestic animated comedy franchise which remains one of the most regular entries into the Spring Festival holiday; "Five Hundred Miles," a comedy starring Zhang Xiaofei, a comedienne best known for her part in the 2021 dark horse "Hi, Mom"; "Deep Sea," an animated fantasy by Tian Xiaopeng, the helmsman of the critically acclaimed "Monkey King: Hero is Back"; "Ping-pong of China," a sports drama directed by Deng Chao which is the latest to announce it's joining the holiday.