[Photo provided to China Daily]

The Shanghai-based film-production company has adapted the novel into a sci-fi movie.

The first round of performances of the drama has brought in nearly 10 million yuan ($1.52 million) from the box office and other spin-offs.

"The success of the series has opened a new chapter for China's sci-fi. It is also offering inspiration for those who want to do adaptations," says Liu Fangqi, whose team adapted the online novel The Lost Tomb－a tale of grave robbers－into a stage drama three years ago.

So far, the drama, titled The Lost Tomb, has been staged hundreds of times and has earned more than 120 million yuan.

What made the director happy is that The Lost Tomb attracted not just theater-lovers but also readers, who rarely walk into theaters.

He adds that it is quite a feat to attract readers, who are typically critical about turning a popular novel into a drama or a movie.

"We were prepared for criticism when we made The Lost Tomb. The unexpected good feedback gave us lots of confidence to adapt another popular work, The Three-Body Problem, into a stage drama," says Liu Fangqi.

The 33-year-old director grew up watching such Hollywood blockbusters as Jurassic Park and The Terminator and pursued his studies in France from 2007 to 2009. He first read The Three-Body trilogy when he was a student in university.