'Transformers: Age of Extinction' Starring Mark Wahlberg & Nicola Peltz Becomes No. 1 Movie of All Time in China

By Matt Lloyd Jul 15, 2014 09:11 AM EDT

'Transformers: Age of Extinction' Starring Mark Wahlberg & Nicola Peltz Becomes No. 1 Movie of All Time in China

The new movie Transformers: Age of Extinction starring Mark Wahlberg and Nicola Peltz became China's No. 1 highest grossing film of all time. The film has made over $222.7 million in ticket sales in the country, beating out former record holder Avatar's $221.9 million, and that is just in the films first 10 days! The movie could make over $500 million or more when all is said and done.

How did this happen? The movie all along was designed to captivate the country with much of the movie set in China and putting Chinese elements throughout the film, helping to win favor with the people. The Michael Bay film had its premiere in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong as well. The movie also got a timely premiere across the country's 18,000-plus movie screens. China's box-office market is the largest outside of North America, and expected by some to pass the U.S. as the biggest in the world by the end of the decade.

Transformers: Age of Extinction is one of the few Western blockbusters to arrive in China contemporaneously with its premiere in the U.S. and elsewhere - thereby minimizing the market opportunity typically seized by bootleggers hawking pirated copies and so boosting box-office sales.

Transformers: Age of Extinction did not receive much critical praise in the U.S. with Richard Roeper calling it "relentless," and Peter Travers at Rolling Stone refused to give it even one star.

Did you see Transformers: Age of Extinction at the theater yet? What did you think of the movie?