Presales for the sequel to the 2009 Hollywood hit Avatar has reached nearly 14.5 million dollars in the Chinese mainland. The blockbuster will hit Chinese screens on Friday as the country continues to relax its COVID-19 policies. Xu Xinchen has more.

Days before its global premiere, Chinese movie goers got a chance to book tickets for the Avatar: The Way of Water.

The presale crossed the 100-million-yuan mark or 14.4 million U.S. dollars in the Chinese mainland, three days after tickets became available.

MI RUOXI General Manager, New Media Center Wanda Film Holding "From the sales data, we can clearly see Chinese fans' passion for this movie."

The premiere day box office for the new Avatar installment is estimated to reach 250 million yuan or 36 million U.S. dollars.

As China eases COVID-19 restrictions, theaters in China are hopeful that more movie goers will come.

JACKY ZHU Head of Retail Research, JLL China "For me I would like to go to cinema with my friends watch this movie as well."

Jacky Zhu is a commercial real estate expert who is recovering from COVID.

JACKY ZHU Head of Retail Research, JLL China "I know there are over 10,000 cinemas in China now. That means more than 6,000 to 7,000 cinemas were not open to audience due to all kinds of reasons. But since the ease of restriction policies, the operating rate jumps back to more than 70 percent quickly in December. China is stepping back to a new normal synchronizing with the global market, and there is no doubt China is one of the biggest markets for movies and should not be ignored by any key stakeholders industry."

And it's not just Avatar, a hot season awaits other new movies in China as well.

MI RUOXI General Manager, New Media Center Wanda Film Holding "During the past three years, COVID has impacted the whole film industry including movie theaters. But now, we can see that it is getting better. People may only focus on the release of Avatar now, which has caused a huge boom. But we will have a continuous release of excellent films in the Spring Festival, such as Wandering Earth 2. It is worth looking forward to the Spring Festival movie season. I think we should know that the industry needs time to recover, at least for the next year."

China still leads the world movie market, but with only half the box office sales that it had prior to COVID. Huge potentials exist as China eases COVID restrictions, but a full recovery will need lots of patience and efforts. Xu Xinchen, CGTN, Chengdu.