Sky Hunter is about the Chinese Air Force. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Unlike previous such movies, which recruited unknown actors, this movie about the early history of New China cast more than 100 A-list performers, including Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi, in cameo roles.

The movie quickly gripped attention of people who were not interested in political stories and became the highest-grossing domestic title in 2009.

Encouraged by the success brought on by star power, The Founding of a Republic had two follow-ups: Beginning of the Great Revival (2011) casting 108 stars and The Founding of an Army (2017) with more than 40 pop idols.

Zhang Yiwu, a professor at Peking University, says The Founding of a Republic is a successful commercial exploration of the zhu xuan lyu sentiment in movies, which invigorate national spirit and pride.

He says the genre concept was raised by a Chinese official in 1987, as movie regulators then hoped the domestic movie market could have some films to publicize mainstream values.

Such movies were clearly different back then, but the boundary has been blurred in recent years.

Hong Kong filmmakers have been invited to join such projects for their action scenes or visual spectacles.