As of Friday afternoon, Ning Hao's Crazy Alien became the first holiday film with ticket sales exceeding 1 billion yuan ($148.31 million), real-time data from box office tracker Maoyan showed.

China's first big-budget sci-fi movie The Wandering Earth ranked second with 954 million yuan, followed by Han Han's Pegasus (721 million yuan) .

This year, up to 13 movies have been slated for release during the holidays around the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, which is a peak season for Chinese cinemas.

At around 2 pm, The Wandering Earth became the second holiday film with ticket sales exceeding 1 billion yuan.