(FILE)

Director Feng Xiaogang expects his latest disaster film about the Tangshan earthquake in 1976 to become the highest-grossing film in China's history, with box office earnings topping 500 million yuan ($73.5 million).

Feng's film, Aftershock, opened in theaters throughout the country on July 22.

The Tangshan quake was one of the deadliest natural disasters of the 20th century. More than 240,000 people were killed when the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the city in Hebei Province on July 28, 1976.

The 130-minute tearjerker, costing more than 100 million yuan ($15 million), focuses on the quake's aftermath through the story of a mother's three-decade journey to an emotional reunion with the daughter she thought she had lost in the quake. The mother had to make a choice between saving her daughter or her son and she picked the boy. The daughter, later saved by her foster parents, held a grudge against the mother for 32 years.

Feng, 52, is China's top money-making filmmaker. His products also include Big Shot's Funeral starring Hollywood star Donald Sutherland, Banquet starting Zhang Ziyi and war epic Assembly.