From January 1 to May 21 of this year, mainland China's box office sales reached 10 billion yuan, or around US $1.6 billion, the country's film authority announced on Friday.

According to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, the box office sales in the first five months of the year was equivalent to the sales for the entire 2010, the year when China's film market registered rapid growth.

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Last year, it took six months for mainland China's box office sales to surpass the 10 billion yuan mark, official data showed.

Based on the statistics released by the film watchdog, local films in China continued to dominate the country's film market, the second biggest in the world, with box office sales of 5.61 billion yuan, or around US$899 million.

Foreign films, meanwhile, generated a total of 4.41 billion yuan, or US$706 million, in the year ending May 21. Domestic films took up 56 percent of the movie market share in mainland China, while the rest was taken up by international films.

Following the release of the box office figure on Friday, experts and analysts said China's movie market will take around 28 billion yuan, or US$4.48 billion, in sales this year. The figure, however, is still far from the film market in the United States, which generated sales of US$10 billion last year.

Five of the top 10 movies that were released in mainland China during the period mentioned were domestic films, led by action-packed fantasy film "The Monkey King", which generated 1.04 billion yuan (US $166 million) in ticket sales.

Surprisingly, a foreign film took the second spot with 718 million yuan (US $115 million). "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" was considered as the most successful foreign film in China during the reported period.

The Hollywood film was followed by the movie "Dad, Where Are We Going?", which took in 695 million yuan (S $111.4 million).

TagsChina Movies, Top Movies in China, China Film Market, The Monkey King Movie, The Monkey King