On January 22, just as Empresses in the Palace began to surge in popularity and break into the mainstream, the box office of Interstellar came extremely close to the record set by Avatar.
Online buzz surrounding Empresses in the Palace was exceptionally high, but almost everyone within the film and television industry was closely monitoring Interstellar.
With ten days left in its theatrical run, Interstellar had already grossed 1.284 billion, leaving it just thirty million shy of Avatar's record.
Chapter 494