John Woo's historical epic "Red Cliff", reportedly the most expensive film ever made in Asia, has earned 108 million yuan (15.8 million U.S. dollars) in Chinese mainland since its cinema debut last Thursday.

The opening weekend box office takings are a record for a Chinese film, compared to other domestic blockbusters such as Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower"(96 million yuan) and Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported on Tuesday.

"Red Cliff" beat the Dreamworks production, "Kung Fu Panda", which earned about 50 million yuan in ticket sales on the opening weekend.

It also opened strongly in Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia, including the Republic of Korea and Singapore, taking in a total of 25 million U.S. dollars across Asia.

Hollywood blockbuster "Transformers" took five days to break the 100 million yuan (15 million U.S. dollars) mark in the Chinese mainland last year.

"Red Cliff" revolves around the epic Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD, a decisive battle, immediately prior to China's Three Kingdoms period, between allied forces of the southern warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan, and the numerically superior forces of the warlord Cao Cao.

Award-winning Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, Taiwan supermodel LinChi-ling and Taiwanese-Japanese heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro are among the film's A-list cast.

(Xinhua News Agency July 17,2008)