Warner Bros' re-release of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" cast its spell over China's weekend box office, grossing about 94.7 million yuan (over 13.6 million U.S. dollars) from some 16,000 screens nationwide in three days.

The first installment from the Warner Bros' multi-billion dollar "Harry Potter" franchise, which was originally released in China back in January 2002, returned in a 4K 3D digital restoration for the first time on Friday, August 14.

The 19-year-old movie, remastered in 3D and in IMAX versions, has broken several records since reopening in the country, surpassing its previous total China gross of 5.6 million yuan (about 806,000 U.S. dollars) in just two days.

The film made  a stellar 31.6 million yuan (4.5 million U.S. dollars) on opening day and continued its splash on Saturday with some 33.2 million yuan (4.8 million U.S. dollars) in box office take, nabbing the biggest single-day gross and the best single weekend performance since China's cinemas reopened last month.

Christopher Nolan's sci-fi adventure "Interstellar," another reissue of the entertainment giant, came in second with 30.5 million yuan (4.4 million U.S. dollars) for a cumulative box office of some 867 million yuan, including its 2014 haul, according to Maoyan, China's movie-ticketing platform.

British war film "1917" and domestic crime thriller "Sheep Without A Shepherd" ranked third and fourth, respectively earning 25.6 million yuan (3.7 million U.S. dollars) and 23.6 million yuan (3.4 million U.S. dollars) in the past week.

Another new release over the weekend is Sony's "Bad Boys For Life." The action-packed piece, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, took fifth place on the current chart with a three-day gross of 22.3 million yuan (3.2 million U.S. dollars).

The past week saw further screens returning to service in China, and an easing of mandatory seating restraints in some parts from August 14, from 30 percent of capacity to 50 percent, enabling more tickets to be sold.

Boosted by the Harry Potter reissues and new social distancing rules, the total weekend box office has increased by 29 percent to 21.9 million U.S. dollars, according to the box office consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Chinese cinemas are now into their fourth week of reopening after COVID-19 hiatus. In this week, "Harry Potter" is facing strong competition from local war epic "The Eight-Hundred," which will officially launch on August 21.

Directed by Guan Hu and produced by Huayi Bros., the hotly anticipated movie is based on a pivotal battle in 1937 during China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

Universal's "Trolls World Tour" and "Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains," which premiered in Cannes Critics Week last year, are also set to hit the theaters on the upcoming weekend.