China Box Office Breaks World Record With $548M in One Week

China's movie box office just smashed the world's seven-day sales record for a single territory, racking up an astonishing $548 million in ticket sales over the Chinese New Year's holiday period, plus Valentine's Day on Sunday.

The record gross crushes the prior record set by North America six weeks ago, when Star Wars: The Force Awakens lifted the territory to $529.6 million from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1.

The record one-week haul also is considerably more than the Chinese box office generated for the entire year just one decade ago. In 2006, China's total box office was approximately $327.5 million.  

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Hong Kong hitmaker Stephen Chow's latest comedy Mermaid helped fuel the historic total, grossing $275.1 million for the week, according to data from Beijing-based box office monitor Ent Group.

Wong Jing and Andrew Lau's From Vegas to Macau III, starring Chow Yun Fat, came in second, pulling in $119.6 million in seven days. Fantasy blockbuster sequel The Monkey King 2, starring Aaron Kwok and Gong Li, also raced past the $100 million mark, earning $116.2 million.