China breaks global single-market monthly box office record

China's monthly box office revenue hit a record of 12.2 billion yuan ($1.88 billion) in February, setting the global single-market monthly box office record. And also marking the highest-grossing month the country has ever seen.

The figure surpassed the previous monthly record of 11.16 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) for February 2019.

Tear-jerker "Hi, Mom," the maiden directorial project of Chinese comedian-actress Jia Ling, led China's February chart compiled by the China Movie Data Information Network with revenue of 4.82 billion yuan, or nearly 40 percent of the total. It also made to the top three of the all-time ticket sales chart of films screened in China.

"Detective Chinatown 3," the latest installment in Wanda Pictures' "Detective Chinatown" comedy film franchise, placed second, grossing 4.3 billion yuan ($664 million) as of Monday and accounting for 35 percent of the total.

Fantasy thriller "A Writer's Odyssey" ranked third, with 900 million yuan ($139 million).

The top seven earners were all domestic titles released during Spring Festival, which was celebrated on February 12 this year.

"Hi, Mom" received the highest rating among all seven Spring Festival films: 8.1 out of 10 on Douban, a Chinese movie rating website. Box office tracker Maoyan has projected that the film will complete its run with total sales of 5.2 billion yuan ($803 million).

China overtook the U.S. to become the world's biggest movie market in 2020 despite being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The performance of February shows the recovery of the biggest movie market and also encouraged the confidence of the film industry.

(With input from Xinhua)