Since its nationwide premiere on July 22 and playing on an unprecedented 4,000-plus screens in China, Feng Xiaogang’s disaster drama “Aftershock” has taken just two weeks to become the most profitable Chinese-language film ever, setting the all-time domestic box office record for a Chinese film with RMB 532 million ($79 million) in ticket sales. By taking the number one spot, “Aftershock” has unseated the 2009 star-studded propaganda movie “The Founding of a Republic,” a movie marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which earned RMB 420 million ($62 million).

The film is a tearjerker, about a mother’s three-decade-long struggle with the emotional repercussions of the 1976, 7.8-magnitude devastating Tangshan earthquake, which killed more than 250,000 people, and then the same, now broken family, reuniting in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that left more than 85,000 dead or missing.�The movie examines the aftermath of the earthquake through the story of a present-day mother’s three-decade journey to an emotional reunion with the daughter she thought she had lost to the disaster.

“Aftershock” also set a new box office record when it earned RMB 36.2 million on its first day, the most ever made by a locally made movie on opening day. �Aftershock�, with a budget of more than US$20 million, quite hefty by Chinese standards, is also the first Chinese-directed movie to be screened in IMAX theaters.�About half of the budget was provided by the Tangshan city government.

As the first Chinese film to be seen on IMAX screens, “Aftershock” represents the company�s investment in China. With the film’s success, IMAX Corp. expects to have 57 screens in operation in China by 2012.

China’s all-time box office champion is James Cameron’s sci-fi epic “Avatar,” which raked in $204 million this year, smashing the previous record held by disaster film “2012.”

Although little known in the West, Feng has directed a string of Chinese hits, including the comedies “If You Are the One” and “Big Shot’s Funeral,” along with the Chinese Civil War saga “Assembly.”

Feng Xiaogang

Also released in IMAX format, the movie was a technical breakthrough for the Chinese film industry, drawing on help from visual effects experts from South Korea and the post-production division of French media company Technicolor.

New Zealand’s Weta Workshop � the Oscar-winning design company behind the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy � advised on miniature models that doubled for 1976 Tangshan.

This is the second crown for Feng, whose 2008 romantic comedy “If You Are the One” earned RMB 350 million, a new record for Chinese cinema before it was outdone by the all-star epic “The Founding of a Republic” in 2009 with RMB 420 million.

I seldom watch movies made in China but �Aftershock� is one movie that I look forward to watching!