Stalingrad‘s depiction of the battle between Hitler and Stalin during World War II has taken the Chinese box office by storm. In fact, the 3-D movie has now become the highest-grossing Russian release to ever hit the Chinese box office. Directed by Fedor Bondarchuk, the movie has already made $8.3 million in China and $47.7 million in Russia. Not bad for a film that had a budget of $30 million.

The producer of the film, Alexander Rodnyansky, spoke about the different entities that helped contribute to the success of the movie. “The success of Stalingrad is a convincing testament to the fact that an alliance between Russian filmmakers, IMAX technology and Hollywood studios can create films that will be appreciated by audiences in multiple markets. We are very grateful to our partners at Sony China for the incredible marketing campaign that they mounted in support of our film and to our partners at IMAX Corporation,” he said.

Talks are swirling surrounding the submission of the recent Stalingrad film for a potential consideration at the Oscars. However, not everyone has been impressed with the manner in which the movie relayed historical events. There is an online petition in Russia were debates have been heated about the film. Some feel that the portrayal of German soldiers in the movie was historically at odds with the real-life brutality these soldiers inflicted.

The Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from August 1942 until February 1943, claimed thousands of lives. It has been estimated that as many as 850,000 supporters of Germany were wounded or ended up missing as a result of the devastating battle. Many believe that the battle was one of the defining historical events that influenced the ending to World War II. The irony of Hitler’s interest in attacking Stalingrad by what many historians classify as sheer hatred of Joseph Stalin, should not be lost when considering the ultimate outcome of the war.

[Image Via YouTube]