Fast & Furious 7 breaks box-office records

But he also cautioned against bowing to economic imperatives alone.

"Chinese directors really need to consider both the artistic and commercial aspects of their movies," Feng said at the China Film Directors' Guild awards ceremony on April 12. "I hope Chinese moviemakers will resist and survive."

This year a number of big-budget Hollywood blockbusters have made their way to China. Many upcoming movies are sequels of high-grossing franchises. The alien-themed animation Home is set to be released on April 20 and the superhero movie Avengers: Age of Ultron on May 12.

Yu Dong, CEO of the Nasdaq-listed film studio Bona, predicts homegrown movies will have to fight against top Hollywood blockbusters in the years to come. He urges major Chinese movie studios to unite to survive the "coming winter".

However, trade analysts say the record set by Fast and Furious 7 had to do with more than just the movie itself.

"Other movies that came out in Chinese theaters around the same time were weak," says Wei Huan, an analyst with Entgroup, a Beijing-based research group of entertainment industry. "Obviously, Fast and Furious 7's special effects and its solid fan base since the first installment 15 years ago also came into play."

She also attributes the box-office success to the large number of screenings and Walker's death; some scenes had to be completed with the help of computer software and by using his brothers, Caleb and Cody.

Fast and Furious 7 had 10,397 screenings across China on Sunday, compared with 4,855 screenings for Transformers 4 at its Chinese debut last year.

Chinese media earlier reported that Universal Pictures would make three more sequels for the Fast and Furious franchise, apparently also taking into account its movies' sales in China, the world's second-largest movie market.

Vin Diesel, Jason Statham and Michelle Rodriguez were in Beijing last month for the premiere and also appeared on a talk show aired by Jiangsu Satellite TV.

Wei says Fast and Furious 7 might eventually even make 2 billion yuan at the Chinese box office, thus replacing Transformers 4 as the highest-grossing movie in the country's history.