"Cliff Walkers" tops China's box office with presale gains

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- "Cliff Walkers," the first foray of renowned Chinese director Zhang Yimou into the spy genre, topped the Chinese mainland box office chart Thursday with a presale earning of about 7.36 million yuan (1.14 million U.S. dollars), a day ahead of its official debut, data from the China Movie Data Information Network showed Friday.

Starring Zhang Yi and Yu Hewei, the action heavyweight tells a story on how four communists working on a secret mission have faced with a grim mire after being betrayed by renegades.

Heartwarming film "Sister" ranked second, generating 4.34 million yuan in box office revenue on Thursday.

It was followed by the re-released U.S. fantasy film "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and Japanese animation film "Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet," which respectively raked in about 2.84 million yuan and 2.7 million yuan on Thursday. Enditem