“Avatar” took its record-breaking show to China and set new standards there as well.
State media Xinhua news agency reported today (Wednesday, Jan. 6), that the movie grossed more than 33 million yuan ($4.8 mil.) on its opening day in China Monday, Jan. 4, setting a new record, according to Yahoo News. That record was recently set by Zhang Yimou’s “A Simple Noodle Story”, a remake of the Coen brothers’ “Blood Simple”, which earned 21 million yuan when it opened on Dec. 10.
“The tickets for today were sold out before 10:00 am,” Song Lichen, the communications director for the China National Film Museum, where “Avatar” is being shown on the country’s largest IMAX screen, told Xinhua.
The agency quoted a spokesman for distributor China Film Group Corporation, Weng Li, as saying “Avatar” was likely to surpass disaster flick “2012” as the highest-grossing film of all time in China.
China currently allows 20 foreign films to be shown in local movie theatres every year on a revenue-sharing basis, according to Chinafilm.com, a government-linked website.