"Monkey King: Hero Is Back" is one of the most successful animated films in China. (Photo : Reuters)
"Monkey King: Hero Is Back" becomes the fastest Chinese animation to surpass the 200-million-yuan mark, a standard measuring a movie's success, after it reached the milestone in less than six days.
The box-office record was previously held by the most recent instalment of "Boonie Bears," which took around three weeks to hit and surpass the mark.
Though the animated film took a little longer to pick up good ticket performance, "Monkey King" was able to cope and top the daily box-office list for the past two days. The movie opened lower than expected on July 10, and lost to the movies "Forever Young" and "Tiny Times 4."
"Monkey King," which took eight long years to complete, had a record high of 50 million yuan.
Well-received by fans, the movie was rated 8.5 out of 10 at the Chinese IMDB-like website, mtime.com.
"Monkey King," also set to hit U.S. theaters, is based on the legend of Monkey King. The film revolves around a Chinese heroic legend and its battle against evil in perilous times.
Though the film was injected with a little bit of Hollywood, its bold and creative story has attracted several Chinese cinema aficionados, citing the movie's emotional appeal.
One netizen posted after watching the film: "The film sets a new high-bar for the domestic animation film, when I walked out of the theater, I was crying."
The movie is the directorial debut of Tian Xiaopeng. He previously worked on a TV animation called "A Journey to the West" back in the 1990s as its producer.
