Chinese animated film Ne Zha has proved to be a big winner in this summer's box office.[Photo provided to China Daily]

New animated film based on a mythological figure smashes box-office records, Xu Fan reports.

Smashing box-office records in animation, the film Ne Zha has proved to be a dark horse, tipped to lift up the Chinese film industry, which has experienced a slowdown in the past five months.

The film, which topped the mainland's ticket-revenue charts for four consecutive days, has grossed more than 800 million yuan ($116 million) since it hit domestic theaters on Friday, according to live box-office tracker Maoyan.

Ne Zha's takings totaled over 100 million yuan in the first day itself, surpassing the threshold figure faster than any other Chinese animated film.

The film has also broken two other box-office records.

By bringing in 138.5 million yuan on its opening day, Ne Zha has overtaken previous record-holder Despicable Me 3 to top the country's opening-day charts for animated films. It also earned 225 million yuan on the second day, an increase of 23.3 percent from the record set by Disney's Zootopia in terms of single-day box-office rankings for all animated films in China.