“Journey to the West: Demons Take Revenge” may have broken the single-day record at China’s box office with its opening day 5.53 million yuan earning, but it failed to break the record of “The Mermaid,” 2016’s blockbuster Spring Festival winner.
However, with bad ratings for Stephen Chow’s 2017 movie, which averaged 6.9 out of 10 from the four major film portals Douban, Maoyan, Gewara and Mtime, word spread around that the movie is not that good. Asia Times forecasts the movie would lose the status of having the biggest number of screens.
Word of Mouth Impact
Nevertheless, “Journey to the West: Demons Take Revenge” is expected to earn at least 1.8 billion yuan ($260 million). But in the coming days, Jackie Chan’s “Kung Fu Yoga” expects to overtake Stephen Chow’s film as the top grossing movie because of word of mouth.
From third place on opening day, “Kung Fu Yoga” is currently in third place and by Tuesday is expected to be in first place. So far, Jackie Chan’s movie has earned 390 million yuan ($56.7 million) in three days of exhibition. But the movie is being accused of fraud.
Dubious Data
According to data from the real-time box office tracking app of Maoyan, the Sparkle Roll (Yaolai) Cinema Line of Jackie Chan allocated almost 40 percent of the Saturday showtimes to “Kung Fu Yoga” which is not in proportion to the national average of 17 percent. Similar dubious numbers were observed in Sparkle Roll’s data concerning Jackie Chan’s recent film “Railroad Tigers.”
There were a number of locations of “Kung Fu Yoga” shot in Dubai in August 2015. Dubai residents would be able to watch the scenes shot in the city when the movie opens at the UAE capital city this week, The National reported.
But the biggest loser is “Buddies in India” which has been denounced by critics and Chinese audience for overt sexism and shallow cultural stereotypes. The poor camera work of first-time director Wang Baoqiang has also been noted by viewers.