Chinese comedy sets new box office record

BEIJING, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- By Tuesday, "Lost in Thailand" had taken in over 1 billion yuan (160.5 million U.S. dollars) at the box office and become the highest-grossing Chinese domestic film to date.

The box office achievement even exceeded that brought by the 3D version of "Titanic", according to independent organization "Dianyingpiaofangtieba" on Weibo.com, China's Twitter-like microblogging website.

It's a miracle that over 30 million people went to watch the comedy in 21 days, according to the post that had been forwarded for over 29,000 times by Wednesday noon.

The relatively low-budget comedy follows the adventures of two rival Chinese businessmen and a simple-minded pancake maker in Thailand.

James Cameron's "Titanic" in 3D took in 935 million yuan in Chinese theaters in 2012 and was the year's highest-grossing imported film.

China's box office record was set by "Avatar," which took in nearly 1.4 billion yuan in 2010.

"Lost in Thailand" premiered on Dec. 12 and is expected to remain in theaters until mid-January.

Official statistics show that China's film industry earned 14.35 billion yuan at the box office from January to November 2012, with domestic films contributing to less than half of that revenue.