White Snake holds a sting in the 'tale'

The film premiered in theaters nationwide on the Qixi Festival, also known as Chinese Valentine's Day, the seventh day of the seventh month on the Chinese lunar calendar, which fell on Aug 10 this year. As of Thursday, it had grossed more than 245 million yuan ($34.2 million) at the box office, making it one of the highest-grossing blockbusters of the summer, according to tracking platform Maoyan PRO.

White Snake: Afloat marks the conclusion of the White Snake trilogy. The first movie was released in 2019, and the second installment, centered upon the green snake, was released in 2021.

The first film, which grossed an impressive 470 million yuan at the box office and fictionalizes a brand-new romance set 500 years before the original folklore, is widely viewed as a turning point for the success of Light Chaser Animation, one of the country's largest studios that focuses on producing animated movies inspired by Chinese history and culture.