|
The film, based on a Chinese folk story, had
taken in 46 million yuan ($6.73 million) at the box office by 8
p.m. local time (1200 GMT), according to online ticketing
platform Maoyan - a slow start compared with other blockbusters.
"Mulan" has provoked a backlash on overseas social media over
its star's support of Hong Kong police and for being partly
filmed in the Xinjiang region, where China's clamp-down on
ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims has been criticised by some
governments and rights groups.
Chinese authorities told major media outlets not to cover the
film's release in the wake of the uproar, four people familiar
with matter told Reuters, further weighing on its chances of
success.
Starring big-name Chinese-born actors - Jet Li, Gong Li, Donnie
Yen and Liu Yifei - "Mulan" was tailored to appeal to audiences
in China, the world's second-largest movie market.
But there was no major media build-up and no star-studded
premier or red carpet launch.
Online reviewers in China seemed more concerned about the plot
than the politics.
"EXTREME REVIEWS"
The film, which has already been released on Disney’s streaming
service in many markets, was rated 4.7 out of 10 on China's
popular social media site Douban.
Some posters pointed out historical inaccuracies, including the
use of buildings that only appeared hundreds of years after the
film's setting.
The movie's "pre-sales started too late, and it got quite some
extreme reviews before the premiere," said Liu Zhenfei, an
analyst with Maoyan.
"On top of the fact that it is impacted by piracy issues,
because the storyline is Chinese, it faces higher expectations
when shown in China," he said.
The ticketing company predicted Mulan would likely take in less
than 300 million yuan in ticket receipts during its entire run
in China.
By comparison, "The Eight Hundred", a patriotic movie about
China's fight against Imperial Japanese during World War Two,
earned 141.3 million yuan on its first full day in August.
People coming out of the first screenings of Mulan said the
politics had not put them off.
"We should not make art political," said Shanghai cinema-goer
Gao Wenxing, 23.
"As a Chinese person, I don't think there is anything wrong with
Liu Yifei's action," she added, referring to the actress who
plays the Mulan and angered many with her support for police in
Hong Kong at a time when the city was embroiled in unrest.
When asked in the past about the reaction to the film's Xinjiang
shooting, China's foreign ministry has reiterated Beijing's
denial of the existence of re-education camps in the region,
calling facilities there vocational and educational institutions
and accusing anti-China forces of smearing its Xinjiang policy.
($1 = 6.8365 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Additional reporting by Thomas Suen in Beijing and Shanghai
Newsroom; Editing by Brenda Goh and Andrew Heavens)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
