China's box office hits 5 billion yuan in first five days of Lunar New Year

Chinese cinemas have raked in 5 billion yuan (about 740 million U.S. dollars) in sales in the first five days of the Lunar New Year, reports Xinhua.

China's sci-fi blockbuster "The Wandering Earth" took up the largest piece of the pie with nearly 1.6 billion yuan in the five days, followed by Ning Hao's "Crazy Alien" and Han Han's "Pegasus," according to Maoyan, a professional box office tracker.

Moviegoers watch a poster for "The Wandering Earth" at a cinema in Nantong, Jiangsu Province on February 10, 2019. [Photo: VCG]

Fourteen films were put on the big screen during the week-long Spring Festival holiday, which is a peak season for Chinese cinema screens. China's box office broke its single-day record with 1.43 billion yuan on the first day of the Year of the Pig as people flocked to cinemas to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

China has the world's second largest film market, grossing over 60.9 billion yuan in revenue last year.