"Bigfish & Begonia" and "Rock Dog," both currently in theaters, are now involved in huge controversies regarding box office returns and film quality.
After the 2015 "Monkey King: Hero Is Back," the highest-grossing Chinese animated film ever, anticipations were high for the two new films which had both gone through long, painstaking production processes.
Many had hoped the two films would raise the bars again and set new standards. But many people have been disappointed.
"Bigfish & Begonia" in free fall of expectations
"Bigfish & Begonia" – whose slogan was “12 Years in the Making” – had record-breaking box office sales last weekend. It made 74.6 million yuan (US$11.14 million) on its opening day and 224 million yuan (US$33.47 million) on its opening weekend, breaking the record for largest opening day and largest opening weekend sales for a Chinese animation.
The film, directed by Liang Xuan and Zhang Chun, however, encountered furious critics for its plot. Though it has been called utterly beauty on a frame by frame basis, many moviegoers labeled the story as "weak, lame, silly and cliché," shallowly exploiting of Chinese myths and ancient classics. Some even attacked its values and message, while others claimed that it copied the style of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. The audience rating fell to 6.6/10 on China's movie rating site Douban.com.
"They said they spent 12 years developing the project, "one internet user wrote. "But if they even spent 2 years of that time seriously developing and polishing the script, it would be much better."
The two directors later responded to critics by saying that the film was meant to deliver a message of a pure emotion rather than a cliché story about a love-triangle, and that they expected thousands of interpretations of the story since everyone has different experiences in life. They denied they copied Hayao Miyazaki and said that many oriental elements, including those in Miyazaki's works, are originally from ancient China. They also asked for tolerance as they are still new filmmakers and this is only their debut film.
"Rock Dog" struggles in box office
"Rock Dog," debuting on the same day of "Bigfish & Begonia," suffered more from a lack of attention from the market.
During the past weekend, the 3D animation adapted from a comic book written by Chinese rock star Zheng Jun debuted with 26 million yuan (US$3.88 million), a rather disppointing amount considering its US$60 million budget and the fact that it took 6 years to make.
Before its release, a rumor was circulating through the Chinese film industry that Wanda Cinemas sabotaged the film – which was produced by rival studio Huayi Brothers Media Corp – with a small number of screenings.
Wanda released a statement on Monday denouncing the rumor. "This is nonsense," Wanda's statement said. "Wanda Cinemas has never given instructions to ban 'Rock Dog' in any circumstances and Wanda's theaters have 500 showings per day of the film.”
On July 8, Huayi Brothers, the distributor of the film, issued an internal notice to its staff that two distribution executives were demoted due to their "significant faults" in their work.
But things went even worse and weirder, as the "ghost screenings" – when a large amount of tickets are sold to a non-existent audience to create hype for a movie — that once haunted "Ip Man 3" seemed to appear for showings of "Rock Dog" at several locations.
A total of 16 animated films from home and abroad will compete this summer for a share of the Chinese film market. Thus far in 2016, animated features have grossed 3.6 billion yuan (US$538.39 million) in China, but these earnings have been mostly for Hollywood blockbusters such as "Zootopia," "Kung Fu Panda 3" and "The Angry Birds Movie."