Checking out the cinema listings and screening times at Beijing's movie theaters, I have to breathe deeply and feel it's hard to choose a movie to watch. It's not because there are too many choices, but that I am given only one - the patriotic epic Beginning of the Great Revival. From 9:30 am to 10 pm, that Chinese "blockbuster" is screened over and over every 20 minutes in every cinema on multiple screens. And its strength is so enormous that even Kung Fu Panda and Captain Jack Sparrow are no match for the movie behemoth. They've been relegated to one screen only in cinemas like Megabox and Wanda.

Seeing this, I realized that it wouldn't be a problem for the production company, China Film Group to meet their goal of a box office take of over one billion yuan. The only thing that matters is how much they will exceed that number.

Statistics from Chinese movie website entgroup.cn, show that by last Sunday, Beginning of the Great Revival was already in pole position at the box office, earning 110 million yuan ($17.58 million) in only five days since its premiere the previous Wednesday. It's been seen by 3.2 million movie goers on 89,160 screens across the country. Nevertheless, four US films, Kung Fu Panda 2, the latest Pirates movie, Fast Five and Skyline still rounded off the top five movies.

But it is still unknown if they can keep their places in the list. Until Sunday, Kung Fu Panda 2 generated 530 million yuan ($80.37 million) in China, while Pirates was close behind with 457 million yuan ($69.33 million). Panda had been showing for 23 days and Pirates 4 for 31.

Helping Great Revival to box office dominance is that as the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China approaches on July 1, many Chinese companies are gifting free tickets to their employees, which will boost the box office to a new high. And we can't ignore the fact that many will be willing to pay themselves to watch the star-studded epic.

But expats in China, who probably won't get a free ticket for Great Revival still hope to see some upcoming foreign movies in Chinese cinemas, like the latest sequel in the Transformers franchise, along with many Chinese film fans of course. Transformers: Dark of the Moon will open in the US July 1, but will only open in China 20 days later. The first two Transformers films were among the highest earners in the Chinese mainland. The last of the Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 will be released worldwide on July 15, but in China on August 4.

In a random street interview in Sanlitun, only one out of 10 expats said they wanted to see Great Revival, and that was only because a Chinese friend had asked him. Only three said they'd heard of the film. After learning what it's about and how starry it is, they still said they'd prefer to watch movies like the latest Harry Potter rather than seeing many unfamiliar Chinese stars, which may mean that the overseas release of Great Revival will not be as successful as producers hope.

Lin Yigu contributed to this story

Special Coverage: 90th Anniversary of CPC