Scenes from the film Fast and Furious 7. Photo provided to China Daily
The Hollywood action blockbuster Furious 7, also known as Fast and Furious 7, has been quick to set a record at the box office in China.
By Tuesday night, it had taken 2.05 billion yuan ($330.5 million) since being released on the Chinese mainland on April 12, according to piaofang168. net, an online provider of real-time box office information.
The previous record was held by the 2014 sci-fi movie Transformers 4, or Transformers: Age of Extinction, which grossed 1.97 billion yuan in one month.
However, Furious 7 took only 15 days to surpass 2 billion yuan on Sunday, making it the first blockbuster on the mainland to reach this figure.
The movie has broken more than 30 records at the Chinese box office, including the single-day and first-day records.
About 52 million fans have flocked to theaters nationwide to watch more than 1 million screenings, according to Entgroup, a Chinese entertainment data service.
Most critics attribute the movie's huge success to the franchise's solid fan base in China and to the memory of lead star Paul Walker, who died at age 40 with a friend in a high-speed car crash in Santa Clarita, California, in November 2013.
Wei Huan, an analyst at Entgroup, also said that the Chinese box office slow season is in April and few big-budget domestic movies have been released during the month to compete for revenue.
Feng Xiaogang, one of the country's most commercially successful directors, said the records set by Furious 7 have raised the competitive bar for Chinese moviemakers.
While some domestic moviemakers have voiced concerns over the market influence exerted by Hollywood blockbusters, others have said they are confident about homegrown productions.
Director Li Shaohong, who heads the China Film Director's Guild, said, "The domestic movie industry hasn't shrunk in recent years under the impact of foreign blockbusters, but instead has seen record box office business."
According to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, more than 300 domestically made movies accounted for 54.5 percent of the 29.6 billion yuan box office last year.
Li said: "We need to find a balance between art and the market. Only really good movies can win audiences and also secure our future."
She added that the rapid rise in box office business in second- and third-tier cities can encourage local moviemakers to produce more films that are close to modern Chinese lives.
