Asura

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qyiMhCgEDA

[GeneChing]

China's First $100M Film Pulled From Cinemas After Disastrous Opening Weekend (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/chinas-first-100m-film-pulled-cinemas-disastrous-opening-weekend-1127224)
8:19 PM PDT 7/15/2018 by Patrick Brzeski

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2017/03/4c_matthew_knowles_as_rawa_in_asura_2018.jpg
'Asura'

The producers of fantasy epic 'Asura' promoted the project as China's most expensive movie ever made, but it earned just $7.1 million over its opening weekend.

In the long lead-up to its release, Chinese fantasy epic Asura was promoted as China's most expensive film ever made, with a production budget of over $110 million (750 million yuan). So perhaps it's unsurprising that the film's producers, which include Jack Ma's Alibaba Pictures, decided to take desperate action after the movie opened to just $7.1 million over the weekend.

Late Sunday evening in Beijing, Asura's official social media accounts posted a simple statement saying that the film would be pulled from cinemas as of 10 p.m. local time. After landing in theaters with limited fanfare, China's priciest picture ever would vanish from the scene entirely.

Asura is co-produced by Zhenjian Film Studio and Ningxia Film Group — two of the investors behind the successful Painted Skin fantasy franchise — along with Alibaba Pictures Group and other minority investors.

The statement announcing Asura's retreat from cinemas supplied no explanation for the unprecedented move. But a representative from Zhenjian Film, which is credited as lead producer, later told Chinese news site Sina: "This decision was made not only because of the bad box office. We plan to make some changes to the film and release it again."

A spokesperson for the film declined to comment when contacted by THR on Monday.

The producers had hoped that Asura would serve as the kickoff to a major fantasy franchise — a property akin to China's own Lord of the Rings. The film is an original dramatization of ancient Tibetan mythology, with a vast set of characters occupying different heavenly realms. Teenage heartthrob Lei Wu plays the film's hero, a young boy who must embark on an epic journey to save Asura, a godly dimension of pure desire, after it is threatened by a coup from a lower kingdom. Veteran Hong Kong actors Tony Ka Fai Leung and Carina Lau also star as mythical demigods.

Some in the Chinese industry have expressed skepticism over Asura's purported $113 million budget — most of China's biggest blockbusters, such as Wolf Warrior 2 ($870), have been made for about half that much — but it's clear that the film's backers spent heavily on foreign production talent and lavish visual effects. The film's costumes were designed by Oscar-winner Ngila Dickson (Lord of the Rings), while Hollywood veteran Martín Hernandez served as audio director (The Revenant, Birdman) and Charlie Iturriaga (Deadpool, Furious 7) supervised the VFX work. The film is the directorial debut of Hollywood stunt coordinator-turned-filmmaker Peng Zhang (Rush Hour 3, Twilight 1 & 2).

Adding a layer of intrigue to the saga, Asura's backers are now alleging sabotage.

Some 90 percent of all Chinese movie tickets are bought online and two mobile ticketing platforms currently dominate the market, Alibaba-owned Tiao Piao Piao and Maoyan, partially backed by Tencent. Both services supply average user review scores for every film on release — numbers that have the same controversial power as Rotten Tomatoes' "tomatometer ratings" or Metacritic's "metascores" in North America. A third influential Chinese review aggregator, Douban.com, operates independently of the ticketing services and is known to attract a more discerning, sometimes snarky, reviewer community.

Just as trolls have occasionally gamed Rotten Tomatoes ratings in the U.S., Chinese studios have sometimes alleged that their scores were unfairly hurt by fake negative reviews — or that the competition was boosted by purchased positive ones. Such ghostwriters for hire are known in China as "shuijun," a pejorative term that literally means “water army,” because companies pay them to “flood” forums with fake reviews.

Asura's producers are now alleging that they were targeted by a particularly aggressive "water army" attack. In a second social media post, they say they discovered a large number of 1/10 reviews for Asura posted to Maoyan by suspicious accounts immediately after the film's release. Describing the episode as "the shame of the industry," they say a sizable discrepancy soon emerged between Asura's early average scores on Maoyan (4.9/10) and on Alibaba's Tiao Piao Piao (8.4/10). The statement concludes with a series of pointed statements directed at Maoyan, questioning the integrity of the platform's rating system and asking when the company will take action to address such problems. The post also ends with some disparaging words for the shadowy, unknown perpetrators of the campaign, saying that "whoever is behind this is dirty, stupid and ridiculous."

Asura's disastrously small debut may be the result of more important factors than a temporary rigging of Maoyan's ratings, however (After all, the ticketing service is usually estimated to have a market share of less than 40 percent).

A more obvious explanation could be that the film opened against uncommonly strong competition. During the same frame that Asura debuted to just $7.1 million, holdover blockbuster Dying to Survive added $69 million for an 11-day total of $366 million, while veteran actor-director Jiang Wen's much anticipated period action movie Hidden Man opened to a healthy $46.2 million. Both films also have been critical favorites: Dying to Survive ranks at 8.9/10 or higher across all Chinese platforms, while Hidden Man has an average score of about 7.4/10.

The available tracking data also suggests that the usual makers of a bomb — low audience interest, weak marketing — also probably played a part. "Based on our tracking, prerelease market heat for this movie was quite low — below average," a representative for Beijing-based market research firm Fankink told THR Monday.

Asura's score on Maoyan also moderated to 6.4/10 as the weekend progressed, while its rating on Alibaba's Tao Piaopiao dropped to 7.1/10 by Sunday. If Maoyan's score started unfairly low, Tao Piao Piao's may have been initially inflated (both ticketing services have since pulled Asura's scores, since the film is no longer on release). Meanwhile, on Douban, Asura has held to the uncommonly low score of 3.1/10. Fair play or the work of a water army? The Internet in China will soon have its say.

It's like the Great Wall (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/TOC/index.php?p=article&article=1341), only worse. Still wanna see it.

[Jimbo]

IMO, when a movie is touted as 'The most expensive movie ever made", it usually doesn't have a good outcome.

[GeneChing]

IMO, when a movie is touted as 'The most expensive movie ever made", it usually doesn't have a good outcome. True that.

Here's the trailer since the original one I posted earlier this year expired.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzBhG0WkUrM

[GeneChing]

http://image5.sixthtone.com/image/5/12/72.jpg

Epic Budget, Epic Fail: Chinese Blockbuster ‘Asura’ Tanks (http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1002621/epic-budget%2C-epic-fail-chinese-blockbuster-asura-tanks)
Opening-weekend sales for the $100 million production were so dismal that producers pulled the film from cinemas.

Kenrick Davis
Jul 16, 2018 2-min read

China’s latest fantasy epic, “Asura,” claimed to be the most expensive domestic production to date — but it didn’t even last three days in cinemas.

Six years in the making, the film was planned as the first of a trilogy based on ancient Tibetan mythology. The Alibaba Pictures production promised lush CGI from an award-winning, international team in its depiction of war between two heavenly realms. Marketing campaigns for the film emphasized its budget of $100 million.

But after opening on Friday, the film made a mere $7.1 million over its first weekend. By contrast, “Hidden Man,” a highly anticipated action-thriller by actor and director Jiang Wen, brought in $46.5 million. Meanwhile “Dying to Survive,” a dark comedy about cancer drug smuggling operations, defended its box office lead, racking up $68.5 million on its second weekend and even prompting a spike in online insurance sales.

Aggregate user ratings of “Asura” varied wildly across China’s two biggest ticketing platforms, Tencent-funded Maoyan and Alibaba-owned Tao Piaopiao, earning 4.9 and 8.4 out of 10, respectively. Users of review platform Douban rated the film a miserable 3.1 out of 10.

Following its weak opening, the film’s investors intervened. On Sunday, a statement posted to the movie’s social media pages announced without further explanation that investors had decided to pull the film out of cinemas nationwide.

Producers had earlier blamed the poor ratings and opening performance on the dark hand of “water armies” — paid online commenters — evident in the huge discrepancy between ticket platform reviews. But the Hollywood Reporter pointed to unusually strong competition, low audience interest, and poor marketing as obvious factors.

Producers complaining about reviews is nothing new. In 2016, one of the production companies behind Zhang Yimou’s big-budget blockbuster “The Great Wall” lashed out at critics for their poor reviews of the movie. (The production budget for “The Great Wall” was reportedly $150 million — higher than for “Asura” — but it was a U.S.-China co-production.)

On microblog platform Weibo, users criticized the producers’ poor choice of opening date and lack of promotion, in addition to lamenting all the time and resources that had been wasted on the production.

“It’s amazing that a film with so much investment behind it can fail to offer viewers a selling point, be barely known, and get panned online the moment it opens in cinemas,” reads the most-upvoted Weibo comment under the announcement that the film would be pulled. “Actors have already done the best they can do; the rest is the responsibility of you producers.”

Editor: Qian Jinghua.

(Header image: Actors and actresses promote the film ‘Asura’ in Wuhan, Hubei province, July 10, 2018. VCG)

Glad to hear Hidden Man (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68590-Hidden-Man) did well. Should we talk about Skyscraper (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69567-Skyscraper)?

[GeneChing]

Can China's Pricey Flop 'Asura' Be Rereleased Successfully? (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/can-chinas-pricey-flop-asura-be-released-successfully-1128413)
6:39 PM PDT 7/19/2018 by Patrick Brzeski

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/11/704_2047973_538900.jpg
Ningxia Film Group
'Asura'

When the big-budget fantasy epic opened to just $7 million, producers announced an unprecedented plan to pull it from cinemas, make changes and release it again. Insiders are skeptical.
Chinese fantasy epic Asura now ranks among the most notorious big-budget flops ever. Produced for $113 million (750 million yuan), it was China's most expensive movie ever made, involving some 200 foreign crew and cast from more than 35 countries, including at least one Oscar winner. Then it opened on Friday, July 13 to disastrous results, earning just $7.1 million.

But Asura's backers have a bold — some might say futile — plan to jump-start the troubled release.

Late on the Sunday evening of its opening weekend, Asura's producers released a statement announcing that they were pulling the film from cinemas at 10 p.m. that night. Then they gave an interview in the Chinese press outlining an unprecedented plan: they would make changes to the movie and release it again.

Several movies have been pulled from China's cinemas in the past — but never voluntarily, and always because of censorship issues.

In 2012, Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained was abruptly yanked from theaters just minutes into its release. Officials never gave an explanation for the sudden block, but the movie was able to reopen several weeks later after major cuts were made to its bloodshed and brief nudity. The intervening weeks did considerable damage, though, as many local fans turned to piracy to watch the leaked original version. Django ultimately earned just $2.7 million in China.

Last year, local film legend Feng Xiaogang got hit with a major release delay when his period drama Youth was suddenly postponed by censors after already making its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Cuts were ordered for a sequence touching upon China's politically sensitive 1970s military conflict with Vietnam, and the film missed out on opening over China's major autumn holiday period. But fans expressed an outpouring of sympathy for Feng and his team and the movie later became a big hit, earning $225 million.

So what are the chances that Asura might orchestrate a similar resurrection?

When contacted by The Hollywood Reporter earlier this week, a representative for the film's producers declined to comment or elaborate on the rerelease ambitions.

China industry analysts are generally skeptical of the plan though, particularly since Asura has already hit screens nationwide and been roundly rejected by the limited filmgoers who have seen it.

"Films are among the most perishable of products — a one shot thing," says James Li, founder of Beijing-based movie market research firm Fankink. "Unlike some consumer categories, there is very little chance to resurrect a movie once it is already out on the market."

Asura's story took an even stranger turn when the producers — which include Zhenjian Film Studio, Ningxia Film Group and Jack Ma's Alibaba Pictures — issued a statement during the opening weekend alleging that the movie had been sabotaged.

The companies claimed that ratings for the film on leading online ticketing platform Maoyan had been unfairly rigged by some unknown party paying ghostwriters to log a huge number of fake negative reviews, dragging the film's aggregate rating downwards. (Such ghostwriters for hire are known in China as "shuijun," a pejorative term that literally means “water army,” because companies pay them to “flood” forums with fake reviews.) Asura's early average score on Maoyan was 4.9/10, before climbing slightly over the weekend to 6.4/10, which still ranked as the lowest score of any major film on release at the time.

Reached by THR on Thursday, a spokesperson for Maoyan declined to comment on the company's handling of Asura's reviews.

But Maoyan wasn't the only platform to give Asura a poor score. Leading independent reviews aggregator, Douban.com, rated the film even lower. Douban is known to attract a more discerning, occasionally snarky, reviewer community; but its scores are considered China's most reliable among movie buffs. Douban's average rating for Asura sits at a lowly 3.1/10. A spokesperson for the company also says it is confident in the integrity of its reviews: "There is no abnormality in Douban's scores for this movie," a spokesperson told THR Thursday.

Asura's obvious first task would be to fix whatever viewers disliked so much about the original version (THR's review team, like most mainstream publications in China, didn't have a chance to review the film before it was pulled). Then they'll have to make a herculean marketing effort to convince the Chinese public that the new version isn't the same film that flopped so spectacularly.

Asura is an imaginative dramatization of ancient Tibetan mythology, with a vast set of characters occupying different heavenly realms. Teenage heartthrob Lei Wu plays the film's hero, a young boy who must embark on an epic journey to save the heavenly realm after it is threatened by a coup from a lower kingdom. Veteran Hong Kong actors Tony Ka Fai Leung and Carina Lau also star as mythical demigods.

Some classic films have been rereleased in China successfully in the past, such as James Cameron's Titanic 3D (2012, $145 million) or Wong Kar Wai's art house classic Days of Beijing Wild (2018, $3 million). "But those were classic titles that were rereleased in remastered versions or in 3D for the first time," points out Clark Li, founder of Daybreak Media, a film marketing and promotion company in Beijing. "Asura's case is very different," he adds. "I don't want to say impossible, but it's very unlikely."

The one wildcard potentially working in Asura's favor could be its newfound international infamy. The film's strange saga has attracted media attention around the world by now, generating plenty of name recognition and curiosity in the process.

"After all this, I actually really hope I get a chance to see it," one U.S. film exec told THR with a chuckle on Tuesday (while also asking not to be named because of ongoing business with Alibaba). "If there's anywhere I could see someone figuring out how to pull this off, it's China."

Still wanna see it. ;)

[GeneChing]

Come on now. Release it. It can't be that bad.

Can it? :p


AUGUST 1, 2018 1:02AM PT
‘Asura’: Fate of China’s Biggest Flop Remains a Mystery (https://variety.com/2018/film/news/asura-china-biggest-flop-what-next-1202890906/)
By PATRICK FRATER
Asia Bureau Chief

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/asura-cr.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1
CREDIT: COURTESY OF ZHENJIAN FILM STUDIO

Two weeks after it became the most expensive flop in Chinese history, the fate of fantasy film “Asura” remains unclear, with one of its stars telling Variety that he has no knowledge of any re-release plans, despite the producers’ pledge to relaunch the film.

The fantasy epic reportedly cost $115 million to make and was helmed by first-time director Zhang Peng, a well-known stunt performer and coordinator (“Wonder Woman,” “Twilight” saga). The producers, including Alibaba Pictures, yanked “Asura” from theaters July 15 after just three days, during which the film limped to a measly $7 million at the box office.

Although they promised to re-release the film, presumably after tinkering with it, the producers have given no further word of their plans. One executive involved with the production told Variety that “the decision lies in the hands of the investors.”

With a busy schedule of summer and early autumn releases, there looks to be no obvious window anytime soon to relaunch a new and improved version of “Asura.” Exhibitors may be willing to consider it for January, during the traditionally slow period between the Christmas holidays and Chinese New Year.

American actor Matthew Knowles, one of the lead stars in “Asura,” says he has no knowledge of any relaunch plans or new promotional tours. “It was a dream experience to be part of such a big and professional film,” Knowles told Variety. “It didn’t seem to get as much momentum as you’d expect. It got more attention after it was pulled.”

Besides its future, other mysteries surround “Asura,” such as the producers’ choice of release date, whether they had an inkling it would tank, and the negative reception it received on social media.

The film was director Zhang’s pet project and was six years in the making. The story centers on Asura, the dimension of pure desire in ancient Buddhist mythology, which comes under threat from a lower heavenly kingdom.

The distributors and producers chose a release date, Friday, July 13, that set “Asura” against one of the most anticipated films of the year, “Hidden Man,” directed by and starring larger-than-life Chinese actor Jiang Wen (“Rogue One,” “Let the Bullets Fly”). “Asura” was also up against the biggest surprise hit of the year, “Dying to Survive,” a fact-based comedy drama released one week earlier.

Exhibitors scheduled 118,000 screenings for “Hidden Man” for its Friday opening; 108,000 for “Dying to Survive”; and just 46,000 for “Asura.” On Saturday, the theaters readjusted according to the previous day’s results, which included a mere $3.62 million for “Asura,” giving more screen space to “Dying” while slashing screenings for “Asura,” whose revenue then fell by half.

When its earnings dropped even further Sunday, its fate was sealed. Producers Zhenjian Film Studio, Ningxia Film Group and Alibaba Pictures threw in the towel, announcing on social media that “Asura” was to be withdrawn.

“By Sunday evening, ‘Asura’ was already circling the drain, caught in a vicious cycle of low admissions, terrible reviews and dwindling screens, and the producers faced a Hobson’s choice of pulling the movie themselves or having it effectively pulled for them,” said Matthew Dresden, a lawyer at Harris Bricken in Beijing.

The producers allege that many of those terrible reviews were fake. They say 4,000 fake social media accounts were used to undermine “Asura” on review sites such as Douban, where the film’s highest rating was 6.4 out of 10, and Maoyan, where the highest was 3.1. Internet trolling is widespread in China, and companies can hire an “Internet water army” to spread their message or damage competitors, though the government is supposed to have clamped down on the practice earlier this year.

But questions remain over why the producers, particularly Alibaba, didn’t anticipate “Asura’s” disappointing performance. Alibaba’s Tao Piao Piao is China’s top site for movie ticket sales, which should have alerted the company to a looming flop. Some commentators say the reviews of “Asura” on Tao Piao Piao were excessively positive, suggesting that Alibaba did try to use its own vast social media and e-commerce ecosystem to neutralize the alleged trolls. But it’s also possible Alibaba was torn between two movies: The company owns a significant piece of “Dying to Survive.”

For such a big-budget production, “Asura” boasted comparatively low star wattage. Veteran Hong Kong actors Tony Leung Ka-fai and Carina Lau are its biggest names, but neither is considered a top draw for mainland Chinese audiences. The 18-year-old TV star Wu Lei might have provided a small boost. Knowles is a football player-turned-actor trying to establish a career in China and currently finishing a degree program at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.

Plans for “Asura” to launch a major franchise now look premature at best. Not only has the film not been sold to overseas distributors, but the producers have not even appointed an international sales agent. “We very much wanted it to go abroad, and were hoping that the box office in China would help it sell,” the executive involved in the production told Variety, speaking on condition of anonymity.

[GeneChing]

Another Film Yanked From Chinese Cinemas After Poor Opening, Producers Vow Rerelease (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/film-yanked-chinese-cinemas-poor-opening-producers-vow-rerelease-1137218)
11:45 PM PDT 8/23/2018 by Patrick Brzeski

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2018/08/screen_shot_2018-08-24_at_1.jpg
YouTube screengrab
'Kung Food'

The case of family animation 'Kung Food,' which opened to just $420,000 despite the support of powerhouse studio Beijing Culture, echoes the recent debacle of 'Asura,' China's biggest flop ever.
Chinese studio Yi Animation had high hopes for its first feature film release, Kung Food, an adaptation of a popular children's TV series about an adventurous steamed dumpling.

But after the animated film opened to just $420,000 last weekend — after costing $12 million and more than half a decade to develop and produce — the company and its partners resorted to desperate action. On Monday, the film was pulled from cinemas, with the director posting an apology to social media, saying he would make changes to improve the film and attempt to release it again.

Kung Food opened in a crowded weekend, facing off against the debut of Sony's big-budget animated feature Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (which has earned $23.1 million to date), as well as Warner Bros' holdover giant shark hit The Meg ($136 million) and Chinese blockbuster The Island ($180 million). Still, the severity of Kung Food's flop surprised many in the Chinese industry, given that the title was marketed and distributed by Beijing Culture, a local studio which has been on a two-year hot streak. The company was one of the lead producers of Dying to Survive ($450 million), China's biggest hit this summer, as well as the 2017 mega-blockbuster Wolf Warrior 2 ($870 million).

"Pulling the film was a mutual decision between the production company and distributor," wrote Sun Haipeng, Kung Food's director, in his apology post. "We only hope that after many years of effort, our film will be seen by more audiences. We will upgrade the film during this period of time, and when it is released again, everybody will see a more complete and better work."

The Kung Food episode echoes the recent, curious case of Asura, the Alibaba-backed fantasy epic now known as China's biggest flop ever. Produced at a cost of over $110 million, Asura opened to a disastrous $7 million in July, prompting producers to pull the film and allege that its release had been sabotaged. A representative for Zhenjian Film, the movie's lead producer, later told local media that changes would be made to the movie and it would eventually be rereleased (no updates have followed).

If either Asura or Kung Food do manage to get released a second time — and do so successfully — the producers will be setting an entirely new precedent for the film business. Classic movies and cult favorites have been rereleased fruitfully in various territories around the world — the best examples include George Lucas's lucrative Star Wars rereleases and James Cameron's 3D update of Titanic, which earned a huge $145 million in China in 2012. But industry insiders would be hard-pressed to come up with a single example of a film has been widely embraced by audiences after flopping, undergoing changes, and trying to open again ("Films are among the most perishable of products — a one shot thing," an analyst told THR in the wake of Asura's meltdown).

Unlike Asura, which features a boldly original story set in a mythical realm based on buddhist mythology, Kung Food was a big-screen take on an established piece of IP. The Kung Food television series, produced by the same Yi Animation in Guangzhou, has been broadcast on 120 Chinese satellite and terrestrial TV channels, including flagships like CCTV Children, Golden Eagle TV, and Kaku Children, as well as on leading online platforms iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video.

Like the TV series, the film version follows the adventures of Super Bao, an innocent and passionate steamed bun, who goes through untold hardships in a battle to save the world from flavorless food. Yi Animation had naturally hoped that affection for the established character would translate into big-screen success.

International film buyers and sellers may remember the project from the 2016 American Film Market in Los Angeles, where Yi Animation erected an enormous inflatable sushi roll character from the film outside of the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica.

THREADS
Kung Food (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?19274-Kung-Food)
Asura (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70661-Asura)