A sneak peek at Mid-Autumn Festival holiday Chinese film releases

A pedestrian walks by a poster of movie "Detective Chinatown 3" in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 17, 2021. (Xinhua/Chen Zhonghao)

BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Mid-Autumn Festival holiday starts on Sept. 19 and will last for three days this year.

Though highly-anticipated films like "The Battle at Lake Changjin" have opted for the more lucrative National Day movie period, China's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday box office still has much to offer to moviegoers.

"Cloudy Mountain," a disaster movie starring Zhu Yilong, which has recently begun its preview screening, is set to be formally released on Sept. 17, just two days ahead of the holiday. It remains one of the most anticipated movies of the holiday, according to film data platform Maoyan.

Sept. 19 will see the release of multiple titles, including romance film "To Be With You," family drama "All About My Mother" starring Xu Fan, comedy-drama "Happiness is Like Juice," animated adventure "Troll: The Tale of a Tail," according to the already disclosed schedule, which may be subject to changes as the holiday draws near.

Also slated for release on the same day is "Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue," a documentary by Jia Zhangke that turns the spotlight on a group of Chinese writers, including Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua, and Liang Hong.

China's box office revenue generated from Jan. 1 to Tuesday totaled 33.22 billion yuan (about 5.15 billion U.S. dollars), a much lower figure than the same period in 2019 before COVID-19.