The projector will not start running until Wednesday, but Avengers: Endgame, a highly-anticipated American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios, has already showed its super box-office drawing power in the Chinese market, according to a report by thepaper.cn.

The movie's pre-release sales on the Chinese mainland surpassed 500 million yuan ($74.5 million) at 22:31, April 21, setting a new record in China's film history, data from the live box-office tracker Maoyan Professional Version showed.

Good news has kept on coming since the pre-sale began on April 12. The pre-release sales surpassed 10 million yuan, 30 million yuan and 40 million yuan on April 12, April 16 and April 19, respectively, and reached 58 million yuan as of Monday.

In addition, as Chinese fans are eager to taste the Marvel movie as soon as possible, pre-release sales for the premier at 00:00, April 12 and the whole first day reached a record of 11.7 million yuan and 16 million yuan as of Sunday.

Besides the astonishing box office, the ticket price for the premier is soaring, especially in the cinemas located at the core commercial circle of the first-tier cities.

A ticket for the premier at Wanda Cinemas at the Wanda Plaza in Wujiaochang in Shanghai costs 305 yuan, which has already been sold out. At the Jinyi Cinemas at Chaoyang Joy City shopping mall in Beijing, there are only a few tickets, priced at 255 yuan, left.

The box office of the Avengers movies in China has witnessed exponential growth these years. The previous three movies, The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018), earned 568 million yuan, 1,464 million yuan and 2,390 million yuan, respectively.

This year is even special because the Avengers: Endgame will premier earlier in the Chinese mainland than in North America, which has become a key factor for the box office hit on the opening day.

The Avengers: Endgame is jointly distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, China Film Group Corp and Huaxia Film Distribution Co Ltd in the Chinese market.

The stock price of China Film Group Corp has increased by 16.37 percent from April 12 to Monday.