(CFP)

Author-turned-director Guo Jingming has scored another box office hit with his controversial movie Tiny Times 3. It raked in more than 320 million yuan ($51.6 million) within four days of its July 17 release, knocking Hollywood blockbuster Transformers 4: Age of Extinction off the top of China's weekly box office charts for that week.

Born in 1983 in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Guo is a popular young-adult fiction writer. He first became known to readers in 2003 when his novel Ice Fantasy was published. He established his own company in 2006, and began publishing juvenile fiction magazine Zui Novel.

Despite his success, Guo is a polarizing figure. He was involved in a plagiarism scandal a few years ago and has been accused of advocating materialism. The movie series Tiny Times is based on the novels of the same name by Guo and tells a coming-of-age story of four girls from different backgrounds.