Martial arts adventure "The Forbidden Kingdom" raked in 16 million yuan (2.3 million U.S. dollars) in Chinese mainland within 24 hours after its Thursday debut, the Beijing News reported on Saturday.
The movie sets the highest opening day box office record in China this year, according to the newspaper.
The movie, featuring two of China most well-known kung fu stars Jet Li and Jackie Chan, tells the story of a modern American teenager hurtled back in time to ancient China, where he is charged with a task to free the fabled warrior -- the Monkey King -- with the help of kung fu masters played by Chan and Li.
China's two major box office blockbusters this year, the military drama "Assembly" directed by Chinese director Feng Xiaogang, and the war epic "Warlords" by Hong Kong director Peter Chan raked in 15 million yuan and 10 million yuan respectively on their first day of release.
A record 1,228 copies of "The Forbidden Kingdom" -- 683 film copies and 545 digital copies -- were ordered for its mainland screening.
"It is reasonable to assume box office income will top 100 million in first week," said Wu Hehu, vice president of the Shanghai United Cinema Line, which operates a chain of cinemas around China.
"The cinema line showed over 30 movies around the country on April 24, and brought in 1.48 million yuan in total. 'The Forbidden Kingdom' alone contributed 1.37 million yuan," Wu said.
The kung fu adventure also brought in 1.03 million HK dollars in its first day public release in Hong Kong on the same day, while the "Happy Funeral", a local-made light comedy ranking No.2 in box office income in Hong Kong on Thursday, brought in only 270,000 HK dollars.
(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2008)