Stephen Chow's The Mermaid achieved a new milestone on Saturday by becoming first ever Chinese movie to gross $500 million at the country's box office.

The fantasy comedy film raked in $8.18 million on Saturday, ending the day with $502.9 million (RMB3.30 billion), according data released by Ent Group. The Stephen Chow directed movie took merely 27 days to reach this milestone.          

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The Mermaid, which was released on the eve of the New Year Holidays, has been setting China's box office on fire. The movie took merely 12 days to overhaul the box office record of Monster Hunt and become China's highest ever grossing movie.

Buoyed by The Mermaid's sensational run at the box office, China's film regulators have given the movie a three-month extension. No Chinese movie has ever gotten such a long extension, with most movies getting only one month.

The movie's three month extension will ensure that no Hollywood movie can surpass The Mermaid's box office record for some time to come.

Other movies released on the eve of the Chinese New Year are also performing impressively at the box office. The Monkey King 2 has collected $182 million so far and The Man From Macau 3 $170 million.

According to SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film and Television), China's box office business surpassed North America's in last month of February.

The Chinese box office grossed 6.87B Yuan ($1.05B) in February, as compared to approximately $790 million earned by the North American box office in the same month.

Movie critics and experts say that China's box officer revenue in February benefitted from the New Year holidays. Nonetheless, experts agree that this is a strong indication that China will soon overtake U.S. to become the world's largest movie market.         

TagsThe Mermaid, Stephen Chow