--- title: China's February Box Office Tops $1 Billion description: It beat North America's haul for the first time canonical: https://time.com/4242875/china-february-box-office-1-billion/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-01T16:13:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:30:09.861Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: China's February Box Office Tops $1 Billion og:description: It beat North America's haul for the first time og:url: https://time.com/4242875/china-february-box-office-1-billion/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbaf0faaa40299a98/69887fb7e20a874bb6a8fc75/the-mermaid-china.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: People attend a promotional event with Hong Kong star Stephen Chow for the film, The Mermaid, in Taiyuan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: China's February Box Office Tops $1 Billion twitter:description: It beat North America's haul for the first time twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbaf0faaa40299a98/69887fb7e20a874bb6a8fc75/the-mermaid-china.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # China's February Box Office Tops $1 Billion, Beating North America for First Time > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Mar 1, 2016 4:13 PM UTC  People attend a promotional event with Hong Kong star Stephen Chow for the film, The Mermaid, in Taiyuan, China, on Feb. 17, 2016. People attend a promotional event with Hong Kong star Stephen Chow for the film, The Mermaid, in Taiyuan, China, on Feb. 17, 2016.China Daily/Reuters  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Mar 1, 2016 4:13 PM UTC China is still on track to surpass North America as the world’s biggest movie market next year. The country’s box offices [grossed more than North America’s for the first time in history last month](http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2016-03-01/chinas-box-office-tally-last-month-outpaced-north-americas), the Associated Press reports. (Last year, China’s box office haul surpassed that [of the U.S. for the first time](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-tops-us-778499).) Movie theaters in China [raked in $1.05 billion in ticket sales this February](http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2016-03-01/chinas-box-office-tally-last-month-outpaced-north-americas) (about 6.87 billion yuan), according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, which is about $260 million more than what North American theaters brought in during the same period. The biggest movie in China last month was _The Mermaid_, about a mermaid who plans to kill but ultimately falls in love with a property developer who poses a threat to her waters, which also is the highest-grossing film in Chinese history. It opened on Feb. 8, kicking off the Lunar New Year holiday period, and has grossed more than $460 million (about 3 billion yuan). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4242875/china-february-box-office-1-billion/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4242875/china-february-box-office-1-billion/"},"headline":"China's February Box Office Tops $1 Billion, Beating North America for First Time","datePublished":"2016-03-01T16:13:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:30:09.861Z","description":"The biggest movie in China last month was The Mermaid","url":"https://time.com/4242875/china-february-box-office-1-billion/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbaf0faaa40299a98/69887fb7e20a874bb6a8fc75/the-mermaid-china.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbaf0faaa40299a98/69887fb7e20a874bb6a8fc75/the-mermaid-china.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"People attend a promotional event with Hong Kong star Stephen Chow for the film, The Mermaid, in Taiyuan","caption":"People attend a promotional event with Hong Kong star Stephen Chow for the film, The Mermaid, in Taiyuan","creditText":"China Daily/Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4242875/china-february-box-office-1-billion/","name":"China's February Box Office Tops $1 Billion, Beating North America for First Time"}}]}] ```