Photo/Star Wars Episode VIII poster

Jan. 9 (NBD) -- As of 18:20 of Monday (January 8), The Ex-File 3, a low-budget film co-presented by Huayi Brothers Film Co., Ltd. and Xinshengtang (Tianjin) Culture, has collected 1.364 billion yuan (209.95 million U.S. dollars) in China since its release 11 days ago. The film is expected to gross 2.3 billion yuan (354.02 million U.S. dollars) in total at the box office.  

However, The Last Judi, a new Star Wars movie rolled out by Disney-Lucasfilm, only collected 200 million yuan (30.78 million U.S. dollars) in its China run since January 5. 

The Disney-Lucasfilm production has been successful worldwide, but why it was outperformed by the low-budget The Ex-File 3 in China?

'The Ex-File 3' echoed by female audiences

The row piece rate of The Ex-File 3 was only 16 percent at first. As the box office of the film kept climbing, cinemas arranged more screening for it. So far, the row piece rate of the film has reached 41.2 percent. 

According to statistics released by China's online movie ticketing platform Maoyan, The Ex-File 3 is well-received in second-tier Chinese cities, with an attendance rate of 19.2 percent. In particular, female audiences have contributed 60.8 percent to its box office. 

Film critics noted that the success of The Ex-File 3 is largely contributed to the topic, which is easily to be echoed by audiences with similar experience. The word "Ex-" represents regrets in life, then who hasn't?

The box office of The Ex-File 3 is unexpectedly high, which even give rise to doubts of fake box office numbers. 

Tian Yusheng, director of the film, said to media that Huayi Brothers would never do such thing to deceive audiences. This year, the company has released two New Year films and both of them won audiences by their contents. Even if the contents won't be accepted by audiences, the company won't fake box office numbers to save faces.

Tepid interest shown in Star Wars franchise

China's reluctance towards the 40-year-old sci-fi franchise has history behind it — the original Star Wars wasn't available to China when it was released in 1977. The series has a decades-long stronghold on American popular culture, but the same isn't true for the Chinese film market. 

Film critic Wu Jian explained to NBD that Star Wars was first introduced to China in 2016. The characters and laughing scenes cannot be clearly identified by Chinese audiences. They only consider it as a film with terrific special effects.

Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm, the maker of Star Wars, in a 4.05-billion-U.S.-dollar deal paved the way for a new series of Star Wars feature films. So far, three Star Wars films have been introduced to China.

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens collected 810 million yuan (124.68 million U.S. dollars) in its China run in 2016. However, compared to its worldwide box office, its performance didn't hit expectation in the Chinese market.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was released in China in January 2017. The inclusion of China-audience friendly stars, such as Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen still failed to work its magic. The film only pocketed 477 million yuan (73.42 million U.S. dollars), while its worldwide box office has totaled 1 billion U.S. dollars. 

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi was released in China in January 2018. But the response to it was mixed. According to Maoyan, the row piece rate of the film on January 12 already fell to 0.6 percent. The film's total ticket sales revenue in China is estimated to stand at 366 million yuan (56.33 million U.S. dolars). 

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn