BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- "Detective Chinatown 3," the latest installment in Wanda Pictures' well-received "Detective Chinatown" comedy film franchise, has overtaken the 2019 American superhero film "Avengers: Endgame" at China's box office.

This comes only four days after Beijing Culture-backed comedy "Hi, Mom," which also hit theaters on the Spring Festival, or Feb. 12, made the same achievement.

The cumulative ticket sales of "Detective Chinatown 3" as of early Saturday afternoon, its 16th screening day, surpassed 4.25 billion yuan (about 656 million U.S. dollars), the total generated by "Avengers: Endgame."

Hitting this milestone also meant the new picture by franchise director Chen Sicheng climbed one notch to rank fifth on the all-time ticket sales chart covering all films ever screened in China, as compiled by box office tracker Maoyan.

The top three earners on the chart are the action-adventure film "Wolf Warrior 2," the animated fantasy "Ne Zha," and the sci-fi movie "The Wandering Earth," all domestic productions, with total revenue of 5.69 billion yuan, 5.03 billion yuan, and 4.68 billion yuan, respectively.

"Hi, Mom," the maiden directorial project of Chinese comedian-actress Jia Ling, is currently in fourth place, with revenue only 40 million yuan less than "The Wandering Earth."

A sequel to the 2018 comedy hit "Detective Chinatown 2," which raked in nearly 3.4 billion yuan, "Detective Chinatown 3" was originally set to be released during the same holiday a year ago but was postponed due to the COVID-19 epidemic.