Avatar grosses most in China at opening day box office

BEIJING, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Hollywood blockbuster Avatar scooped about 33.03 million yuan (about 4.8 million U.S. dollars) on Monday, becoming the most successful film in China in terms of opening day box office.

Director of the movie James Cameron and his wife Suzy Amis pose at the  premiere of "Avatar" at the Mann's Grauman Chinese theatre in Hollywood, California December 16, 2009.  (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Avatar has made history by defeating director Zhang Yimou's A Simple Noodle Story that raked in 21 million yuan on Dec. 10, said Gao Jun, deputy general-manager of New Film Association, one of the leading distributors in the country, on Wednesday.

The company boasts the largest IMAX screen in the country with 390 seats at the China National Film Museum, where tickets for Avatar are hard to come by.

"The tickets for today were sold out before 10 a.m.," Song Lichen, communication officer of the museum, told Xinhua Wednesday.

Song said the museum had to play the film four to five times a day to meet the demand since Tuesday. In the past, it played at most three times.

Weng Li, the spokesman of China Film Group Corporation, said a snowing Monday failed to discourage people from watching the film.

A poll done by the popular social networking site kaixin001.comon Wednesday attracted 74,970 users, 85 percent of whom were planning to watch the film.

James Cameron's 3D epic had grossed 1 billion U.S. dollars globally as of Jan. 5.

The film tells of a paralyzed veteran Marine's journey to a planet called Pandora where he helps defend the indigenous race against avaricious colonizers.