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The Chinese side of the Force is strong with Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen in ‘Rogue One’

(Global Times)    09:20, January 09, 2017

Chinese fans at the Thursday midnight premiere of <em><em>Rogue One</em>: A <em>Star Wars</em> Story</em> in Beijing Photo: Li Hao/GT

  Chinese fans at the Thursday midnight premiere of Rogue One: A Star WarsStoryin Beijing Photo: Li Hao/GT

Rogue One: A Star WarsStorybecame the box office champion over its first weekend in the Chinese mainland. However, despite receiving better audience reviews in China than Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and featuring two Chinese stars, Rogue Onestill lagged far behind The Force Awakenswhen it comes to box-office revenue.

Opening during a weekend with no real competitors, the space action blockbuster easily dominated theaters with a screen share of nearly 40 percent. Consequently, it earned an opening day box office of 71.36 million yuan ($10.37 million) and has collected 186.52 million yuan as of Sunday afternoon. Yet, what the film has earned over three days only comes close to the 196 million yuan The Force Awakensmade on its first day.

Chinese hope

Rogue Oneboasts many "firsts" for the Star Warsfranchise series. It is the first stand-alone film in the series, as well as the first film to not feature a Jedi. However, what's most important for Chinese audiences is that this is the first Star Warsfilm to star Chinese actors. The choice has paid off as mainland director and actor Jiang Wen and Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen have left a deep and favorable impression on audiences in China.

Ever since the Chinese mainland became the world's second-largest film market following North America, Hollywood has been keen to have a bigger piece of the pie. In an attempt to attract Chinese audiences into cinemas, Hollywood filmmakers came up with a simple idea: have Chinese actors and actresses appear in their films. From Iron Man 3to Transformers 4and the more recent Independence Day: Resurgence, there have been numerous attempts at this.

Yet, few of these appearances have satisfied Chinese audiences as most of them were little more than short cameos that were neither interesting nor indispensable. For this reason, when news hit that Jiang and Yen were joining the cast of Rogue One, expectations were low as most audiences saw the move as yet another lazy marketing attempt to make more money in China.

"Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen's performances were quite impressive," Yang Wen, 26, told the Global Times on Thursday night.

"I had heard they would have more meaningful roles from reviews online, but they still surprised me when I watched the film myself. I am not a Star Warsfan, but I loved this one."

Thinking this new Stars Wars film is better than The Force Awakens, veteran Star Warsfan Charles Zhang felt that the strength of Rogue Onelies in the fact that it was a side story, which allowed it to have more creative freedom.

"I wasn't surprised to see Donnie Yen perform well in a completely English language film since he lived in the US for a time, but Jiang Wen's performance was astonishing. I never thought he would be so natural in Rogue One," Zhang said.

Currently, Rogue Onehas a 7.6/10 on Chinese film site Mtime and Chinese media review site Douban.

Chinese fans at the Thursday midnight premiere of <em><em>Rogue One</em>: A <em>Star Wars</em> Story</em> in Beijing Photo: Li Hao/GT

  Chinese fans at the Thursday midnight premiere of Rogue One: A Star WarsStoryin Beijing Photo: Li Hao/GT

Under a shadow

While it has been well-received so far, Rogue Oneis not performing as well when it comes to box office in China.

The difference in box-office earnings between The Force Awakensand Rogue Onein the mainland may be tightly linked to market environment. While the former film was released in the beginning of 2016, when the Chinese mainland market was still on the rise, the market began to cool off in April and remained low throughout the rest of the year.

The decreased number of fans who attended the midnight premiere in Beijing on Thursday night is proof that this cool down is still in effect in 2017.

Another reason that Rogue Onemay not be performing as well is that, as a side story, this film is not as important to the overall franchise as The Force Awakens. This can be reflected in the budgets for the two films. While The Force Awakenshad a budget of $245 million, the budget for the new film was $200 million, according to film site Box Office Mojo.

This comparatively lower performance wasn't just limited to China, Rogue Onedidn't perform as well as The Force Awakensin the US as well. Statistics on Box Office Mojo show that Rogue One's opening weekend box office in North America was $155.08 million while The Force Awaken's was $247.97 million; the two film's 22-day totals were $461.36 million and $781.13 million respectively.

Increased imports

Due to the market slowdown that took effect after April, the Chinese film market saw a dramatic decrease in market growth for 2016.

While 2015 saw year-on-year growth of 48.7 percent, growth in 2016 was limited to a mere 3.73 percent.

A record number of 92 foreign films were imported into the mainland in 2016, three more than 2015.

The China-US agreement on imported film draws to an end this year. If last year's market slowdown continues, it may put pressure on the Chinese government to increase the annual quota in an effort to maintain market growth.

As the first imported film of the year, Rogue Onehasn't set any box-office records, but its performance is a good way to kick off 2017.

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Web editor: Kou Jie, Bianji)

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