Domestic comedies highest-grossing during holiday

BEIJING - Chinese comedies have raked in the most money during the Spring Festival holiday, beating foreign rivals like the Hollywood blockbuster Cloud Atlas.

"Odyssey," a fantasy action comedy directed by Hong Kong comic actor Stephen Chow, has taken 422 million yuan ($67.73 million) in the five days since it premiered on February 10.

It has taken the majority share at the mainland box-office, according to figures from the movie's producer Huayi Brothers Media Group.

For three consecutive days "Odyssey" set new box-office records for a single day for a Chinese movie, the producer said. On Valentine's Day, it peaked by taking 122 million yuan on the mainland, breaking the single-day record of 112 million yuan set by "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" in 2011.

The "101st Marriage Proposal," a low-budget domestic romantic comedy took 45 million yuan on Tuesday, its release day. The film took 30 percent of the day's entire ticket sales.

It set a new record for a romantic movie on Valentine's Day, according to its producer, New Classic Media Corporation.

In addition, Chinese animated films have done well during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, which started from February 9.

Figures show that the latest installment of "Pleasant Goat and the Big, Big Wolf," which hit the screens on January 24, saw it pass the 100 million yuan mark during the holiday.

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