At the start of February, an entertainment website in China listed 20 films to watch for in 2017. Heading the list of movies on its roster was “The Summer is Gone” which premiered on March 24 in China.
Award-Winning Movie
The movie, which won the Best Film award at the 2016 Golden Horse Awards, is written and directed by Dalei Zhang as his directorial debut. It is about Kong Weiyi, a 12-year-old boy who lived in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 1994 and his memories of his father whose job was affected by the transition of government-owned enterprises to private companies.
However, the film flopped in China. On its first day of showing, “The Summer is Gone” earned 718,000 yuan only or $105,000. The amount is not even one percent of what “Kong: Skull Island” earned which opened on the same day as the art film, China Plus reported.
100 Screenings
The director acknowledged that because the movie is an art film, a lot of movie houses in China were not willing to screen “The Summer is Gone” since art movies are known to be poor box-office drawers. According to iQiyi Pictures, one of the studios behind the film, there are 100 screenings scheduled for “The Summer is Gone.”
Dalei Zhang said that the studios coordinated with some online ticket-selling platforms to see how many moviegoers were interested in watching the film. Those who did were made to choose the place and date when they want to view “The Summer is Gone.” The 100 screenings schedule is the result of the preset quota for a screening venue being reached, Global Times reported.
Despite the poor box-office results of the movie on its opening day, the director was not disheartened. Dalei Zhang said a sequel is underway with the same cast, although Kong Weiyi would be a 16-year-old in the upcoming film.