中国's most expensive movie becomes epic flop
'Asura', which cost 750 million yuan ($113.5 million) and took six years to make, was pulled from cinemas on its 開始 週末
With a $113-million 予算, the most expensive Chinese film ever made has become a flop of historic 割合s, pulled from theatres on its 開始 週末 after bringing in a paltry $7.3 million.
Alibaba Pictures' special 影響s-激しい fantasy film "Asura" was ーするつもりであるd as the first instalment in an epic trilogy 奮起させるd by Tibetan Buddhist mythology, part of a 運動 by 当局 to 促進する 作品 耐えるing elements of 伝統的な Chinese culture.
The film cost 750 million yuan ($113.5 million) to make, 明言する／公表する マスコミ said, and opened on Friday, but Chinese ticketing 壇・綱領・公約 Maoyan said it only took in just over $7.3 million at the 週末.
By Sunday, the film's 公式の／役人 social マスコミ account 地位，任命するd a 声明 宣言するing that it would be 除去するd from theatres as of 10 pm that night.
"We 表明する our 陳謝s to all those who 手配中の，お尋ね者 to but won't have the chance to see it," it said.
Most of 中国's biggest blockbusters to date have been made with half the 予算 lavished on "Asura".
The 概算の loss of $106 million would make it the fifth-biggest flop in movie history 世界的な, behind frontrunner "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas" which 苦しむd losses of $125 million, によれば data from website Box Office Mojo.
明言する／公表する マスコミ had touted the movie before it was 解放（する）d, with the 中国 Daily あられ／賞賛するing "Asura" as "the most hotly an ticipated blockbuster of 中国's 競争の激しい summer season."
"It's a very imaginative movie. We 手配中の，お尋ね者 the film to raise 信用／信任 in our own culture and train more 国内の talent," Yang Hongtao, chairman of Ningxia Film Group, one of the movie's 支援者s, told the paper ahead of Friday's 開始.
Six years in the making, the film was 激しい on expensive visuals, featuring 2,400 scenes with special 影響s in its runtime of just 141 minutes, the paper 公式文書，認めるd.
Bankable Hong Kong actors Tony Leung Ka-fai and Carina Lau starred, while high-力／強力にするd foreign talent -- such as Oscar-winning Ngila Dickson, 衣装 designer for the "Lord of the （犯罪の）一味s" franchise -- also took part.
Yet the film 獲得するd a rotten 3.1 率ing on Douban, 中国's most 影響力のある 使用者 review 壇・綱領・公約.
"My god, it's horrifying! It's just a magnificent pile of excrement!" one 使用者 wrote.
Wildly different reviews on the country's two largest ticketing 壇・綱領・公約s 誘発するd a virulent retort from the movie's 生産／産物 team, 地位，任命するd Friday to its social マスコミ account.
On 開始 day, "Asura" netted an 8.4 率ing out of 10 on Alibaba-owned Tao Piaopiao. But on Maoyan, 支援するd by Alibaba's 競争相手 tech 巨大（な） Tencent, reviewers had given it just 4.9.
The team （刑事）被告 Maoyan of using 偽の, paid reviewers to 地位，任命する 1-星／主役にする ratings to artificially deflate the film's 得点する／非難する／２０, calling the 申し立てられた／疑わしい move "despicable, foolish, and ludicrous."
Many 使用者s 解任するd the film's team's 声明.
"It was garbage anyway," one reviewer wrote.
