Hollywood, Bollywood top China holiday box office

With the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards set to unveil its winners on April 15, people are already talking about Tomorrow Is Another Day, because of its four nominations at the awards. Aside from Teresa Mo's nomination for the best actress, the movie has been nominated for best actor, best new performer and best new director.

The directorial debut of scriptwriter-turned-filmmaker Chan Tai-lee is based on a true story－a woman's struggles while taking care of her son who has autism and finds her husband cheating on her with a young mistress. Tomorrow Is Another Day will be released on the mainland on April 20.

Taiwan singer-actress Liu Jo-ying, also known as Rene Liu, will appear on the big screen for the first time as a director. Us and Them will be released on April 28. The movie starring pop idols Jing Boran and Zhou Dongyu tells a bittersweet love story about two people over the course of a decade.

On Friday, the highly anticipated movies to be released are Dwayne Johnson's sci-fi adventure Rampage and Natalie Portman's Annihilation. Japanese animation Mary and The Witch's Flower by director Hiromasa Yonebayashi, once a major creator at the prestigious Studio Ghibli, will hit Chinese theaters on April 28.

The rest of April will be a battleground for domestic films, which currently outnumber foreign movies.

"April is a bit special as it is in the middle of two lucrative box-office seasons－the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday and the May Day holiday," says Jiang Yong, a Beijing-based trade analyst, adding that more market potential for domestic films will be created in coming days.

But Gao Yitian, a veteran film producer, still has concerns about the Chinese box office.

"Many good low-budget movies still find it hard to earn enough screenings at theaters, which means audiences can't easily buy tickets for such films, even if they want to watch them," Gao says.