The Chinese government has ordered movie theaters to stop showing "The Da Vinci Code" from Friday, movie industry officials said Thursday.

People chant slogans during a rally to protest against the Da Vinci Code in Karachi, Pakistan May 31, 2006. Christians Joint Action Forum organised the rally against Da Vinci Code, the story of a Vatican cover-up involving Christ and his supposed offspring. [Reuters]

Chinese authorities said the withdrawal -- an unprecedented move -- was to make way for local Chinese movies, a movie company executive said Thursday, declining to be named because she isn't authorized to speak to the media on the matter.

"This is coming directly from the Film Bureau," she said, adding that it's the first time the government has pulled a foreign movie from theaters.

Having made 104 million yuan (US$13 million) since its release on May 19, it was on its way to becoming one of the highest-ever earning foreign films in China, the movie executive said.

A woman holds a cross during a rally to protest against the Da Vinci Code in Karachi, Pakistan May 31, 2006. Christians Joint Action Forum organised the rally against the Da Vinci Code, the story of a Vatican cover-up involving Christ and his supposed offspring. [Reuters]

A man who answered the phone at the press office of China's Film Bureau in Beijing said he was "unclear" about whether the film was pulled from cinemas. He declined to give his name.

Wu Hehu, spokesman for Shanghai's United Cinema Line Corporation, said he received a notice to stop showing the film, but he didn't know why the order was made.

"This is such short notice from the film's distributor. They will stop showing it from tomorrow," Wu said.

"I don't know the reason either. We just do what we are told to do," he said.

"The Da Vinci Code" has been opposed by Christian groups because it suggests Jesus fathered children who continued his lineage. China's state-backed Catholic church urged followers to boycott the film, but only few of China's 1.3 billion people are Christians, with estimates ranging from 16 million to 47 million.

The movie was given the widest release yet for a foreign film in China, with 393 prints sent to theaters, breaking the record of 380 prints set by "King Kong" last year, its distributor Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International and Sony Pictures Entertainment said earlier.

The film executive said the film's box office proceeds were approaching that of "Pearl Harbor," which made 105 million Chinese yuan (US$13 million) as the No. 2 foreign film in Chinese box office history.

"Titanic" is first, fetching 359 million yuan (US$45 million).

Such figures still pale in comparison to the U.S., where a Hollywood hit can make hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars domestically alone.