Once one of the most anticipated films to contend for China's lucrative Spring Festival holiday, Hong Kong director Peter Chan's volleyball-themed film, Leap, "returned" to domestic silver screens after postponement due to COVID 19.

Opening on Friday, the movie starring actress Gong Li as former volleyball legend Lang Ping has grossed about 150 million yuan ($21.99 million) as of Sunday, knocking down the war epic, The Eight Hundred, to top the country's box-office charts.

Aside from regular formats, Leap also has been released across Imax screens, providing a more immersive experience to recreate the Chinese women's volleyball team's Olympic victories between the 1980s and 2010s.

In an earlier interview with domestic reporters, Gong revealed that she had visited the training base of the China women's volleyball team to observe and study professionals, making her more prepared for her role as the sports legend Lang Ping.

A renowned figure to Chinese with her nickname, "the Iron Hammer", Lang is the first person in volleyball to win Olympic titles both as a player in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and as a coach in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Lang's daughter, the United States-born Lydia Bai, stars as her mother in the character's early years, and Gong portrays Lang in later years.

Director Chan recalled in a recent interview that he was contacted about three years ago by the China Film Administration, the country's top sector regulator, to ask him to helm the project.

Despite Chan saying he was not a sports fan, he was impressed about a Chinese women's volleyball team's competition in Bangkok in late 1970s, when Chan was studying at a high school in Thailand.

That memory, etched in his mind for decades, led Chan to sign onto the film. He discussed it with his long-time collaborative scriptwriter, Zhang Ji, to expand the theme to a wider scale, which also reflects the changing values of Chinese people over sports, thanks to society's reform and opening-up.

Chan and his team spent more than a year collecting piles of historic stories, as well as interviewing many sports professionals and experts.

The tone was pitched to depict Lang and her friend, another prestigious coach, and their devotion to Chinese women's volleyball, with actors Huang Bo and Peng Yuchang playing the same character at different ages.

The film has scooped 9.3 points out of 10 on Maoyan, and 9.2 points on Tao Piaopiao, the country's largest online ticketing services.