A Chinese film producer’s request for her latest film to receive a greater share of screens nationwide has triggered more discontent than support.

The producer, An Xiaofen, wrote on May 26 on her Sina Weibo that her latest film, “Edge of Innocence,” which debuted on May 27, is a good film at all levels, but it only received a 5.5 percent share of cinema screens on its opening day. The latest installation of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise occupied 50 percent, and other two domestic films took 11 and 8 percent respectively.

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales/Salazar's Revenge” debuted on May 26 on the Chinese mainland. It was rated 7.5 out of 10 on Chinese media review site Douban on May 27, and almost all domestic cinemas granted a generous screen allotment to the new pirate flick. Meanwhile, a number of domestic films were far more stingily screened.

An said that the huge gap in cinema "real estate" essentially means the death of domestic films.

“If you decrease the screen share for "Pirates," the box office will not be affected; it just gives an opportunity for domestic films to survive. Please give more space to more domestic films. Do not let us die at the starting line,” the producer implored.

An is known for films and TV series including “Yip Man” and “In the Name of People.” She also boasted in her post that she was the producer of “Tiny Times,” which was widely panned for its bad production. On Douban, “Tiny Times” received a rating of 4.7 out of 10.

An's latest film, "Edge of Innocence," is based on the Japanese novel "Summer, the Portrait of a 19-Year-Old," by Japanese writer Shimada Soji. The film features several young actors and its main character is played by EXO singer Huang Zitao.

The film has not yet been rated on Douban. A few comments on the film indicated divided opinions, with some applauding Huang’s performance and others arguing that the film ruined the original novel.

“In this highly competitive industry, it is really rare to see good workers like us who rely purely on ourselves rather than anyone else ... The film took us two and a half years to shoot. All the difficulties made it better produced and more perfect,” An wrote.

An’s call on Weibo was not warmly received. Although it has been reposted over 16,000 times and received 9,300 comments, many argued that the lackluster success of An's film and others like it is due to the relatively poor quality of domestic films, which encourages cinemas to grant more space to foreign imports.

“We all want to see good films, and any movie will attract more viewers if it has a good reputation. You don’t need to beg for anything here,” commented one netizen.

China has been working to encourage and support domestic films. A month-long domestic film protection period has been unofficially maintained since 2004. Between June and July or July and August, overseas blockbusters are imported on a very limited scale. Their China debuts are often postponed until after the period so that more domestic films have a chance to compete for the box office market.