(Yicai Global) Feb. 6 — China's box office hit CNY1.45 billion (USD21 million) on the first day of the Chinese lunar New Year, 13 percent higher than the CNY1.278 billion (USD19 million) last year, thus setting a daily box office record.

A total of 29.8 million tickets and 699,900 screenings sold at an average ticket price of CNY47.1 (USD7), data from online ticketing platform Beijing Maoyan Culture Media show.

Crazy Alien and Pegasus both passed CNY300 million, netting CNY409 million (USD61 million) and CNY319 million (USD47 million), respectively.

The New King of Comedy directed by Stephen Cheung achieved a first-day take of CNY272 million (USD40 million) to rank third.

The science fiction disaster film The Wandering Earth, which earned CNY203 million (USD30 million) on day one to come in fourth, scored highest on Maoyan's rating system among films appearing during the peak Chinese Spring Festival.

Other entries on the list include kids' cartoons Bonnie Bears: Blast Into The Past and Peppa Celebrates Chinese New Year, which appropriately premiered in the Year of the Pig of the country's 12-animal zodiac.

This year's Spring Festival box office is projected at over 10 percent to 20 percent higher than last year's CNY6.4 billion (USD949 million), reaching 7 billion to CNY7.7 billion (USD1 billion to USD1.1 billion)

Editor: Ben Armour