Surprise winners at the Chinese box office

The latest figures show that the movie, starring A-listers Huang Xiaoming and Yang Mi, grossed 251 million yuan in the five days after its April 30 premiere, according to Piaofangba.net, an online service that monitors the real-time box office.

The Left Ear was another surprise for industry insiders.

As the directorial debut of Taiwan pop-star-turned-filmmaker Alec Su, the movie revolved on the third or fourth slot during the three-day holiday, and has so far grossed a total of 409 million yuan since its mainland release on April 24.

Most film critics attribute the commercial success to the two movies' solid fan bases, thanks to the popularity of the novels and the casts.

Silent Separation, inspired from the namesake 2003 hit online novel, was adapted to be a 36-episode hit TV series and topped audience ratings by 1.7 percent in January.

In addition, with around 171,000 fans who have written more than 1.8 million reviews - most of which sing praise of the stars - on Baidu Tieba, China's largest online fan forum of its kind, the movie appears to give birth to a safe market calculation.

Even the producers admit the project is initially conceived more as a commercial product than an artistic title.

Huang Bin, the director of Silent Separation, defines himself as a "product manager".