Domestic sci-fi comedy "The Mermaid" set a new box office record in Chinese movie history, pulling in about 2.47billion yuan (about 378.9 million U.S. dollars) by Friday night.
"The Mermaid" broke a previous record of 2.44 billion yuan held by another domestic movie, "Monster Hunt," to top the league table of Chinese box office, according to statistics from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
The film, by renowned Hong Kong director and comedian Stephen Chow, was released on Feb. 8, Chinese Lunar New Year.
A total of 3.6 billion yuan of box office revenue was generated in Chinese market from Feb. 8 to Feb. 14, which covered the Lunar New Year holiday the Valentine's Day, and about 100 million visits to movie theaters had been recorded during the period.
Chinese box office rank is led by five domestic movies, and five foreign ones, including "Fast & Furious 7," "Transformer 4," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Jurassic World" and "Avatar."
