Reportedly Asia's most expensive ever film, the widely anticipated "Red Cliff", debuted in Beijing on Thursday with thousands staying up to see the first showings just after midnight.

Normally early-retiring Beijingers set aside their reservations about the midweek late night to sit through the two-and-a-half-hour first instalment of the two-part battle epic -- and most gave it a warm welcome.

The 80-million-US-dollar historical drama opened in 48 Beijing cinemas under the Chinese title "Chi Bi" and was still drawing cinemagoers later on Thursday.

The Capital Times Cinema sold 186 tickets for the first show, compared with fewer than 10 tickets for the midnight opening of the Hollywood blockbuster Ironman in late April, said a security official surnamed Liu.

About 1,000 seats in UME Huaxing International Cineplex were taken, and New Capital Cinema sold all 1,730 tickets, most of which were bought by an IT company.

"I think the movie is worth watching," said 18-year-old Zhen Li, who sat the national college entrance examination last month. "The grand martial scenes and the heroes' integrity are really impressive. But I found some minor mistakes concerning historical facts and I hope next time the director will pay more attention to detail."

The first episode of "Red Cliff" opened across Asia on Thursday, and its second episode is set to be released in December. By then, a condensed version covering both episodes will also be released outside of Asia.

"I am looking forward to the second episode, for sure," Zhen said.

A woman surnamed Zhang expressed concern that the heroes' characters failed to match historical accounts. "Maybe the style is more likely to be favored by young people, because of its humor and all-star cast," she said.