Battle for the big screen

A woman teaches children in Shandong province's Jinan to mimic dance steps from the music video of A Little Apple, that has become an enormous hit in Chinese cyberspace. Zheng Tao / For China Daily

4 Chinese films to be screened at TIFF

Writing their own tickets

Han Han, Guo's major competitor, has just released his directorial debut, road-trip comedy The Continent.

Han is confident the film will pull in 800 million at the box office. Aside from the star cast and support from big-shot Hong Kong director Johnnie To, his online marketing campaign has proved a success.

Han has over 38 million followers on Sina Weibo, China's major micro-blogging platform. He has broadcast the filming process of the movie to his followers since he begun shooting.

The films trailer was released online in May, only three days after shooting was completed. It has been viewed 4.7 million times, creating a new record among Chinese movies.

"I don't care too much about the stunning numbers online. What matters more is whether the movie is good or not," Han said at the premiere.

However, when he invited popular singer Pu Shu to write the closing song for the movie, he must have had another idea in mind.

Pu, who has been away from the public eye for some 11 years, also brings a new element for a movie claiming to be dedicated to young people. The song was reposted about 340,000 times within 24 hours after being released online last week.

No one knows what other trump cards will be thrown on the table during the tense online campaign this summer, but one thing is certain: Domestic distributors have to quickly come up with more creative ways before they face the return of overseas blockbusters in August.