Advance box office sales during China's upcoming week-long Spring Festival holiday surpassed 325 million yuan ($50 million) as of Friday, data from the Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan showed. 

Topping the chart was "Detective Chinatown 3," a highly anticipated comedy from Wanda Pictures, which has seen its pre-sales exceeding 225 million yuan, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the total revenue. As a sequel to the 2018 comedy hit "Detective Chinatown 2," the movie had previously been scheduled to hit theaters during last year's Spring Festival holiday but was forced to postpone the release due to the COVID-19 epidemic. 

It was followed by time travel comedy "Hi, Mom" and fantasy thriller "A Writer's Odyssey," taking in 43 million yuan and 21 million yuan respectively, according to Maoyan. 

Meanwhile, movie theaters in Beijing will limit the seating capacity to 50 percent during the Spring Festival holiday as part of the epidemic prevention and control measures. Some cinemas might have to refund some of the movie tickets that were sold ahead of the holiday, Beijing TV reported on Thursday.

China's box office continued to see robust growth into 2021 after scoring a record high for New Year's Day earnings. The total box office revenue so far in 2021 has exceeded 3.49 billion yuan.

(With input from Xinhua)