BEIJING – Chinese comedian and actor Shen Teng has edged out action star Wu Jing as the top-grossing actor in China, thanks to the success of racing comedy hit Pegasus 2.

The combined revenue of all the films featuring Shen, 44, in a leading role was about 33.5 billion yuan (S$6.24 billion) as of March 25 afternoon. This surpassed previous champion Wu’s total of 33.495 billion yuan, according to film data platform Maoyan.

Pegasus 2, the sequel to a 2019 blockbuster racing film by Chinese writer-director Han Han, has played a pivotal role in propelling Shen to the top.

Since its release during the lucrative Chinese New Year movie-going period in February, the film, which also starred Fan Chengcheng and Yin Zheng, has raced to a staggering take of 3.39 billion yuan at China’s box office.

Other top-grossing movies which feature Shen include Hi, Mom (2021), Moon Man (2022) and Full River Red (2023).

Wu, whose movie credits include Wolf Warrior 2 (2017), The Battle At Lake Changjin (2021) and The Wandering Earth 2 (2023), is in second place. Chinese actor Huang Bo, who starred in movies such as Crazy Alien (2019) and Leap (2020), is third.

Meanwhile, Chinese actress Ma Li continues to be the top-grossing actress at China’s box office. The cumulative earnings of films in which she played a leading role have reached 19.48 billion yuan, according to Maoyan.  

Ma, 41, has starred in top-grossing movies such as Goodbye Mr Loser (2015), Moon Man and Article 20, which is still showing in Chinese cinemas. Shen also starred in Goodbye Mr Loser.

American actress Scarlett Johansson, known for playing the superheroine Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, is ranked second. Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu, known for movies such Soul Mate (2016) and Better Days (2019), is in third place. XINHUA