It's all about speed when it comes to ticket-snatching for the yearly Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF).

On Monday, when the Beijing Film Panorama of the ninth BJIFF launched its online tickets booking system, a fierce competition broke out in the city.

According to the BJIFF, the total box office earnings exceeded 2 million yuan (300,000 U.S. dollars) within the first minute, and at 12:09 p.m. BJT, only nine minutes after the booking system opened, the amount exceeded 6 million yuan (890,000 U.S. dollars).

On top of the list of hottest films is a 4K restored version of the 1968 science fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey” directed by Stanley Kubrick. The organizers said that the tickets were sold out in five seconds, setting a new record in BJIFF's history.

A number of Hollywood classics were ranking high, such as "Schindler's List," "Gone with the Wind," "Singin' in the Rain" and "Pulp Fiction." Some of the Chinese and other Asian films were also sought after, for instance, "Ashes of Time" directed by Wong Kar-Wai. The movie is based on the characters of a novel by Chinese Wuxia novelist Louis Cha, also known by his pen name Jin Yong, who passed away on October 30, 2018.

Several films based on Jin Yong's novels were among the panorama section this year, as a tribute to the late literati.

The BJIFF is a chance for film enthusiasts to revisit their favorite filmmakers' works. A plethora of series are presented to the public under different themes, such as "Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China."

Among the most welcomed series – "New Wave Echos," which includes several representative films like "Paris is Ours," "The Cousins," "Pauline at the Beach," and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," which has "Stagecoach" and "The Wizard of Oz."

This year, the BJIFF has stopped selling ticket packages for movie franchises, therefore, it is now quite easy to tell which one of the franchise films is the most loved: "Mad Max: Fury Road," the tickets of which were sold out in an instant.

Some said it is harder to get a ticket for the Beijing Film Panorama than a ticket home during the Spring Festival travel rush.

Losers in the fierce battle of ticket-snatching would usually ask for an extra ticket on social media, where the trading price could be double or even triple of what it is worth. Even so, it is still hard to get one.

So, have you got a ticket for your favorite film?