Protagonists in summer blockbusters come in all shapes and species. But in China, the latest heartthrob on the silver screen is a baby-faced, green-haired monster that vaguely resembles a white radish with four tentacle-like arms.

Named Huba, the lovable character has propelled the movie Monster Hunt to the top of Chinese box office charts, where it has broken several records.

The fantasy action film has racked up more than 1.2 billion yuan (about $267 million Cdn) since it opened on July 16, according to state news agency Xinhua, making it the top-grossing Chinese film of all time.

It also shattered the opening-day record (172 million yuan or about $36 million Cdn) and the single-day record (185 million yuan or about $38.7 Cdn) for a domestic film and reached the one-billion-yuan mark faster than any other Chinese film, Xinhua said.

When compared against Hollywood productions, Monster Hunt is the sixth-highest grossing film in China. Furious 7 holds the record as the top-grossing film in China, followed by Transformers: Age of Extinction, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World and Avatar, according to Chinese box office observer 58921.com.

Set in an ancient world where humans and monsters coexist, Monster Hunt follows the life of a hapless young man named Tianying, who is accidentally impregnated with the heir of the monster kingdom. After giving birth to Huba, the baby radish monster, he is propelled into an epic adventure as he tries to protect his son against monsters and monster hunters.

Directed by Raman Hui, best known for animating and co-directing the Shrek series, Monster Hunt features both CGI monsters and live action from some of China's most popular actors. One of them is Yao Chen, who shared a photo of Huba with her 78 million followers on Weibo, China's popular Twitter-like site.

(Yao Chen/Weibo)

As Monster Hunt has been sweeping China's box office, Huba has been amassing a huge fanbase that includes some of China's biggest celebrities.

Also on Weibo, actor Bao Beier posted a photo of himself with Huba-style hair, which Monster Hunt's production team says is inspired by a plant called baby's tear.

(Baobeier/Weibo)

The movie's official Weibo account also shared photos of some pint-sized Huba fans.

(Zhuoyaoji/Weibo)

(Zhuoyaoji/Weibo)

Online retailers are already cashing in on the Huba craze. A search of "Huba" on China's e-commerce site Taobao returned more than 24,000 results, including human-sized Hubas, Huba-shaped piggy banks, and a voice-recording Huba that also lights up.

Monster Hunt's domination of the box office can't be explained solely by Huba's cuddly (if you are a fan of a radish-like baby monster) features, however. The film opened during China's unofficial box office blackout period, when foreign films are shut out to give domestic productions an advantage.