Chinese live-action, fantasy epic film "Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force" opened Wednesday, the Chinese Lunar New Year's Day, in a limited theatrical release in North America.

The highly-anticipated film is being released by Well Go USA Entertainment in Mandarin with English subtitles in over 180 selected theaters in more than 30 cities across North America, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Austin, Chicago, New York, Boston, Toronto, Vancouver and a few other cities with a large overseas Chinese population.

The film is available in IMAX theaters starting Wednesday and will be available in both IMAX and other theaters starting Friday.

Based on the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) novel "Fengshen Yanyi," or "The Investiture of the Gods," the film is the second instalment of the Fengshen Trilogy and the sequel to 2023's box office hit "Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms," which grossed over 373 million U.S. dollars worldwide.

Directed by Chinese filmmaker Wuershan, "Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force" stars Huang Bo, Yu Shi, Naernaxi, Chen Muchi, Kris Phillips (known in China as Fei Xiang), Naran among others.

The film, released simultaneously in China and the United States, is a huge success in China with an impressive debut of 477 million yuan (around 65.78 million U.S. dollars), according to Chinese movie-ticketing and film data platform Maoyan.

It has received positive feedback from Chinese moviegoers with a rating of 9.2 points out of 10 from over 49,000 viewers on the Maoyan platform.