John Woo's historical epic Red Cliff, reportedly the most expensive film ever made in Asia, has earned 108 million yuan ($15.78 million) in the Chinese mainland since its cinema debut on Thursday.

The poster of Red Cliff (Photo: mtime.com)

The opening weekend box office takings are a record for a Chinese film, compared to other domestic blockbusters such as Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower (96 million yuan) and Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported on Tuesday.

Red Cliff beat the Dreamworks production, Kung Fu Panda, which earned about 50 million yuan in ticket sales on the opening weekend.

It also opened strongly in Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia, including South Korea and Singapore, taking in a total of $25 million across Asia.

Hollywood blockbuster Transformers took five days to break the 100 million yuan mark in the Chinese mainland last year.

Red Cliff revolves around the epic Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 A.D., a decisive battle, immediately prior to China's Three Kingdoms period, between allied forces of the southern warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan, and the numerically superior forces of the warlord Cao Cao.

Tony Leung, Lin Chi-ling and Takeshi Kaneshiro are among the film's A-list cast.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2008)