BEIJING, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- With soaring ticket revenue for "The Battle at Lake Changjin II" since its release on Feb. 1, or Spring Festival, the "The Battle at Lake Changjin" films have become China's top-grossing film series ever, replacing the "Detective Chinatown" franchise.

"The Battle at Lake Changjin II," a sequel to the 2021 war blockbuster "The Battle at Lake Changjin," topped 3 billion yuan (about 471.72 million U.S. dollars) in total earnings as of Thursday, the 14th, to hit the milestone in China's box office history, showed data by movie data platforms.

This achievement, in addition to a whopping 5.77 billion yuan from the first film, brings the two "Changjin" films' combined total to 8.77 billion yuan. It is higher than the 8.74 billion yuan generated by the three "Detective Chinatown" comedy movies of Wanda Pictures.

Set during the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-1953), "The Battle at Lake Changjin" tells the story of Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) fighting bravely in freezing weather in a vital campaign at Lake Changjin, also known as Chosin Reservoir.

Its sequel (of which the Chinese title also roughly translates to "Watergate Bridge") sees actors Wu Jing and Jackson Yee reprise the leading roles. It follows CPV soldiers of the same company as they take on a new task. And this time, their battlefield is a crucial bridge on the retreat route of American troops.

The week-long Spring Festival holiday, which ended on Feb. 6, is usually a lucrative moviegoing period in China. China's box office total for this year's holiday was 6 billion yuan, the second-highest ever for the same holiday on the record. "The Battle at Lake Changjin II" led the holiday sales chart, contributing over 40 percent of the total.