Hong Kong director and comedian Stephen Chow (second from right) attends a reception for the release of the theme music for The Mermaid, a sci-fi comedy, on January 18 in Beijing. (Photo: China Daily/Jiang Dong)
Domestic sci-fi comedy "The Mermaid" remained queen of the Chinese box office in the week ending Feb. 21, pulling in about 920 million yuan (about 140.9 million U.S. dollars).
The film, by Hong Kong director and comedian Stephen Chow, was released on Feb. 8, or Lunar New Year's Day. It edged out another domestic movie, "Monster Hunt," to set a new Chinese box office record, pulling in about 2.47 billion yuan as of Friday night.
"The Monkey King 2" came in at a respectable second place, earning 264 million yuan during the week. The comedy-fantasy was also released on Feb. 8.
Comedy-action "From Vegas to Macau III," starring Hong Kong actors Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau, took in about 215 million yuan in the week to come in third, China Film News reported on Thursday. It also opened on Feb. 8.
"From Vegas to Macau III," was followed by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny," which earned 137 million yuan after opening on Feb. 19. It is a sequel to Oscar-nominated "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000).
Rounding out the top five was animated comedy "Kung Fu Panda 3," with 91 million yuan in the week. It was released on Jan. 29.
