Cashing in on the Lunar New Year Holiday, the Chinese Box Office minted a whopping $100.5 million on Monday, the most ever for a single day in China's box office history. This is an impressive 78 percent jump from last year's single day box office sales during the Lunar New Year.

The movie that made the most business was much anticipated 'Mermaid', a comedy film directed by Stephen Chow. The comedy film made a staggering business of $40.9 million, including midnight screenings on Monday.

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This is the highest opening day returns by any Chinese movie till date. 'Mermaid', however, fell well short of the returns accured by Hollywood blockbuster Furious 7 on its opening day last year. Furious 7 grossed a whopping $63.2 million on its opening day.

Apart from 'Mermaid', two other highly anticipated movies 'Man From Macau 3' and 'The Monkey King 2' also hit a bulls eye at the box office. 'Man From Macau 3' made $26.9 on the opening day, while 'The Monkey King 2' collected $25.0 million, according to data from Beijing-based box office monitor EntGroup.

'Kung Fu Panda 3', however, lost the steam, as it could not compete with these 3 highly anticipated  movies. 'Kung Fu Panda 3' managed to rake in only $2.9 million on Monday. After 11 days of business, 'Kung Fu Panda 3' has made $106.3 million.

'Mermaid', 'Man From Macau 3' and 'The Monkey King 2' are expected to continue their strong performance throughout the holiday season. Mermaid is most likely to cross 100 million during this week.            

TagsMermaid, The Man From Macau 3, Chinese box office