Just days after the Jan. 4 premiere of Hollywood blockbuster Avatar in China, the box offices across the country had gone beyond 100 million yuan, thanks to the enthusiasm of huge number of Chinese movie fans.

So far, the Hollywood disaster film 2012 has fetched the most at the box office in China's history at 460 million yuan.

Though almost every movie theater in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai gives Avatar top billing, with as many as 20 show times a day, Chinese viewers still find it tough to get a ticket.

In Shanghai, to get an IMAX ticket for Avatar can mean waiting in freezing weather all night for a show three days later.

Shanghai local media reported that on Friday, around 500 people were queuing for tickets at 8 a. m. in front of the downtown Peace Cinema, including some who had waited for 12 hours.

China Film Group Corp. Estimates are that the total box office take may ultimately top 500 million yuan.

As the year's first foreign movie in China, the sci-fi film has grabbed the imagination of tens of millions of Chinese.

With a lack of IMAX theaters, people are traveling long distances to see the movie.

Movie fans came equipped with quilts, wooden stools and snacks, in a scene reminiscent of that at train-station ticket windows before the Lunar New Year holidays in China, when huge numbers of Chinese travel to be with family.

In southern China, the IMAX-equipped Dongguan Wanda theater has seen a huge influx of people from Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

In the end, the general manager of the theater had to beg forgiveness on his knees twice to sooth the angry audience who drove a long way to see the movie;

the theater had to refund each audience member the full ticket price as well as 200 yuan for traffic expenses.

Wednesday afternoon, due to a technical breakdown of the system, the movie was suspended for an hour, and the sound didn't synch with the picture.