'The Hunger Games' now timed for Chinese New Year

The Chinese debut of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1" is now set for February 2015, coinciding with the arrival of the Chinese New Year.

The Year of the Goat begins on February 19, 2015, and February 8 now sees "Mockingjay - Part 1" end its hunt for a suitable Chinese release date.

The film had broken away from an international November rollout at the last minute, then thought to be favoring a January date in a bid to help balance foreign and domestic revenues at the Chinese box office.

But as pointed out by Chinese movie news site Mtime, January is already crammed with big name Hollywood imports, with the "Night at the Museum" threequel arriving on January 4, musical "Annie" on January 9, Jeff Bridges' "Seventh Son" on January 18, "The Hobbit" trilogy closer on January 23 and Angelina Jolie's directorial debut "Unbroken" on January 30.

Earlier in the year, "Transformers: Age of Extinction" was given its June worldwide premiere in Hong Kong, and Chinese cinemagoers have contributed nearly a third of the film's international, $1bn take.

Domestically, that placed the Michael Bay action film -- portions of which were shot in China -- ahead of hit homegrown comedy "Breakup Buddies" ($187m CN) and a Chinese legend brought to life in "The Monkey King" ($167m CN), and was believed to have been instrumental in the search for a new "Mockingjay" date.

Starring Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role and with Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Julianne Moore and "Age of Extinction" support Stanley Tucci among its cast members, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1" currently stands as the US's second biggest movie of the year, behind "Guardians of the Galaxy"; if Chinese audiences take to it as they did to "Transformers," the resulting international impact could see "Mockingjay" become the fifth-biggest film of the year worldwide.