As the holiday season draws near, a series of new movie releases have given China's film market a big boost. The country's domestic box office revenue exceeded 1.1 billion yuan ($168 million) last week, a near 70 percent jump from the previous week, data from China's leading ticket platform, Maoyan, showed. It marked another peak after the National Day holiday – a golden week for the country's movie market that ended in early October.

Among several new releases slated for the holiday season, the Chinese crime thriller "Shock Wave 2" got a head start, racking up 78.9 million yuan on its debut last Thursday. It has since been leading the domestic box office chart, which garnered 400 million yuan in four days, according to Maoyan.

Directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Herman Yau, the movie is a sequel to the 2017 hit movie "Shock Wave." It stars veteran Chinese actors Andy Lau and Lau Ching-wan playing bomb disposal officers. 

Together with its good performance in ticket sales, it got fairly good reviews among Chinese netizens. It scored 9.4 out of 10 on the Maoyan rating system, and eight out of 10 on Douban, the Chinese version of Rotten Tomatoes. 

Maoyan estimates that the movie is likely to break the one-billion-yuan mark in total revenue and become one of the highest-grossing films of this year, following epic war movies "The Eight Hundred" and "The Sacrifice," drama film "My People, My Hometown" and animation "Legend of Deification."

Coming in second was the Chinese fantasy film "The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity," which raked in over 250 million yuan last week after opening on Christmas Day. 

Adapted from the Japanese novel series "Onmyoji" written by Baku Yumemakura, "The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity" is directed by Guo Jingming, a popular Chinese writer and director known for his "Tiny Times" series. It stars popular movie stars Mark Chao, Deng Lun and Wang Ziwen. The film is rated 8.7 on Maoyan, but only 5.1 on Douban.

Pixar's new animated film "Soul" also premiered on Christmas, but it only gained 36 million yuan at the box office last week, Maoyan shows. Despite its moviegoer turnout, the film has earned the highest rating in terms of reviews, with 9.6 on Maoyan and 9.1 on Douban. The movie is directed by award-winning American animator and director Pete Docter who is known for the animated films "Up" and "Inside Out."

(Cover image designed by Du Chenxin)