It's a new year and a new New Year's Day box office record on the Chinese mainland.

Chinese theaters on January 1, 2021 raked in 599 million yuan ($92 million), according to ticketing firm Maoyan – more than any previous year. The single-day revenue surpassed the previous record of 357 million yuan ($54.68 million) set on the same day in 2018.

Two domestic films, released on December 31, 2020, led the gains. "A Little Red Flower," which tells the story of two families and their battle against cancer, grossed 246 million yuan ($39.22 million) on the first day of the new year, while Chinese comedy "Warm Hug" reeled in over 160 million yuan ($24.51 million). "The Shock Wave 2," released during the Christmas period, came in third place with 92.92 million yuan ($14.23 million).

China's film market has been slowly recovering since the second half of 2020 after COVID-19 forced cinemas to temporarily close their doors and hindered work on new productions.

Last year, the country's box office recorded 20.3 billion yuan ($3.11 billion), according to data from the China Film Administration. The top 10 grossing films are all domestic ones, amassing altogether 12 billion yuan ($1.84 billion), or 60 percent of the total. War drama "The Eight Hundred" topped the list with 3.1 billion yuan ($475 million), followed by anthology comedy film "My People, My Homeland" with 1.8 billion yuan ($276 million).