China's box office breaks single-day record

China's box office has broken its single-day record as Chinese flocked to cinemas to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year.

According to Maoyan, a professional box office tracker, Chinese cinemas raked in more than 1.43 billion yuan (US$210 million) in sales on Tuesday -- the first day of the Year of the Pig.

The holiday around the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, is a peak season for Chinese cinema screens. The previous single-day record, 1.27 billion yuan, was on last year's New Year's Day.

China has the world's second largest film market, with a box office revenue of over 60.9 billion yuan last year.

The sector's performance during Spring Festival is highly watched as it gives indications for the whole year revenue and viewers' favorite titles.

Last year, the season contributed nearly 10 percent to revenues and produced "Operation Red Sea" and "Detective Chinatown II," two of the year-round box office hit films.

The season is usually dominated by domestic productions. This year is no exception.

Tuesday's top three were all comedies released that day. Ning Hao's "Crazy Alien" topped the list with more than 403 million yuan, followed by Han Han's "Pegasus" and Stephen Chow's "The New King of Comedy."

China's first big-budget sci-fi "The Wandering Earth" and animation "Boonie Bears: Blast Into The Past" came in the fourth and fifth places respectively.