AceShowbiz -

Making a breakthrough as the first 007 film to be officially released in China, "Casino Royale" smoothly got its premiere in the country yesterday, January 29 with stars Daniel Craig and Eva Green flying in especially for the event.

"It's been an ambition of mine to get here, and I wish I had more time," Craig remarked while sipping a cup of coffee in a five-star Beijing hotel ahead of the screening.

Also pleased with the Chinese censor board's decision to permit the movie enter the country was director Martin Campbell even though he openly showed his uncertainty upon the reaction the film would get in the country.

"After 21 films, it's obviously very significant, given that we are the first Bond film to be shown here," he commented. "The fact that we got it through without any censor cuts at all seems to me to be some kind of achievement."

In the meantime, executives are reported to put high hopes on the film and expect it to be the biggest grossing foreign movie ever in China with receipts seen exceeding 100 million yuan ($12.86 million). The flick itself is currently shown in the local theaters dubbed into Chinese and in the original English.