BEIJING, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese box office raked in more than 5.1 billion yuan (about 813 million U.S. dollars) in March, up 51.7 percent from a year ago, with a total of 140 million tickets sold, according to Maoyan, a major film database in China.

Domestic action film "Operation Red Sea" led all films in sales, with nearly 1.1 billion yuan earned in the month.

"Operation Red Sea" was followed by Marvel Studios superhero film "Black Panther" and American sci-fi action film "Pacific Rim: Uprising", which took 659 and 547 million yuan respectively.