“Mojin – The Lost Legend” has broken the box office record for a local language IMAX film in China, overtaking China’s all time box office champ “Monster Hunt.”

As of Wed, Jan 6, “Mojin” had $27.1 million in IMAX’s China theaters, compared with $27.0 million for “Monster Hunt,” which was released in summer and held on screens for two months.

“Mojin,” a tomb-raiding action adventure based on a popular series of novels and directed by Wuershan, was released in mid December. “Mojin” had scored $245 million in its run to Friday (Jan. 7), so the score represents some 11% of its receipts in China. “Monster Hunt” scored over $380 million in total, implying a smaller IMAX portion

“Mojin,” previously known as “The Ghouls” in English, was backed by Wanda, Huayi Brothers and Enlight Pictures.

IMAX has expanded hugely in China, with Wanda Cinema Line and Korean company CJ-CGV’s Chinese circuit two of its largest clients anywhere in the world.

Coping with the special circumstances of China – and the rapid pace of exhibition development – IMAX has long operated a dedicated IMAX China subsidiary. That unit was separately listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at the end of last year and raised new capital to finance the construction of a Shanghai lab that converts more local language movies into the IMAX format.

The record for “Mojin” fell some two days before some 269 IMAX screens in the Middle Kingdom are turned on to the Saturday (Jan. 9) release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”