Comedies to debut in China's Spring Festival season

Several domestic comedies are scheduled to hit the big screen during the Spring Festival holiday, including novelist and director Han Han's third highly anticipated film.

Starring popular Chinese comedian Shen Teng, Han's film, "Fei Chi Ren Sheng", tells the bittersweet story of a racing driver who tried to regain his past glory on the track, according to Yingshikoubei, a social network platform on TV and film information.

A promotional event for ‘Fei Chi Ren Sheng’ is held in Beijing on December 3, 2018. [Photo: VCG]

The Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, is traditionally a time for family gatherings in China. The week-long holiday is also considered one of the most competitive and lucrative seasons for movie makers.

China's box office raked in more than 5.72 billion yuan (830 million U.S. dollars) during this year's Spring Festival holiday.

In 2019, the holiday will run from Feb. 4 to Feb. 10.

Other box office competitors include Stephen Chow's latest sequel to his semi-autobiographical comedy "King of Comedy" in 1999, and Jackie Chen's costume-film "the Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang."

The box office revenue in China, the world's second-largest film market, rose 13.45 percent in 2017 to more than 55.9 billion yuan.

The overseas box office and sales revenue from Chinese movies exceeded 4.2 billion yuan in 2017, up 11 percent year on year.