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Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants Movie Sets Certain Box Office Records in First Days But Slowing Rapidly in Tickets Sold — 137 Comments

  1. I wonder where you get your information from because multiple points you’ve made are simply NOT true. I’ll break it down for you.
    Point 1: “Mostly negative reviews.” This is simply not true. I’ve been staying up to date with this. And Legend of the Condor Heroes has been receiving majorly rave reviews from passerby’s and even from renowned literary scholars especially those who are experts in Jin Yong’s novels. Passerby’s have been lamenting for days that any positive review they’ve made about The Condor Heroes has been bombarded by water armies not only insulting the film but Tsui Hark as well. So for you to say the black water armies have been cleared only 1 day later is unfounded.
    Point 2. Box office
    How do you expect the box office to improve when The Condor Heroes has been taken OUT of small theatres and only given 1 showing late at night in major cinemas. Since the 29th it has been forced out of theatres with its screens now down to a measly 5% while its competitors have 20% – 30% screens. I think it’s extremely unfair that you haven’t even bothered to mention this. The Condor Heroes is already facing extreme suppression and doesn’t need so called media to pile on with half-truths and misinformation.

  2. mmmh, said you want to shade black armies, but you are posting exactly what black army are spreading.
    Feedback between the audience is really good, but paid black armies is attacking everyone who reviews well, just a run around xhs and dy and you can see so many complaints because anyone has been attacked. Do you think this is fair?
    Also i would like to raise a point of discussion: why capitals are so invested into such strong black and forcing public opinion?
    After all they are already suppressing the movie with ridiculous numbers of shows. No movie can survive with 6/5% of screenings in it airing days, so why the suppression is so hard?
    Anyway, despite the suppression, tsui hark and xiao zhan are bringing the movie into new box office records into wuxia cinema.
    Wuxia has never been easy genre in mainland, no one expected huge bo, even Crouching Tiger was cold in mainland.
    So i do think it would better be objective and not fall into the black pr suppression tricks

  3. mmmh, said you want to shade black armies, but you are posting exactly what black army are spreading.
    Feedback between the audience is really good, but paid black armies is attacking everyone who reviews well, just a run around xhs and dy and you can see so many complaints because anyone has been attacked. Do you think this is fair?
    Also i would like to raise a point of discussion: why capitals are so invested into such strong black and forcing public opinion?
    After all they are already suppressing the movie with ridiculous numbers of shows. No movie can survive with 6/5% of screenings in it airing days, so why the suppression is so hard?
    Anyway, despite the suppression, tsui hark and xiao zhan are bringing the movie into new box office records into wuxia cinema.
    Wuxia has never been easy genre in mainland, no one expected huge bo, even Crouching Tiger was cold in mainland.
    So i do think it would better be objective and not fall into the black pr suppression tricks

  4. How is a movie supposed to get box office numbers if it’s basically banned from being shown in most cinema chains?
    It’s been a problem in Chinese cinema for a while and the hype around Legends of Condor Heroes has made it even more obvious to everyone. Every once in a while a bunch of movies gang up against a project that doesn’t own cinemas or isn’t to pay up for reserving showing and squeeze them out of a the schedule completely. The number of showings determines box office and you can guess what happens when the production company of a movie literally owns cinema chains or gives them “deposits” to reserve showings.
    For someone who reports on Chinese entertainment, you should be more informed on the topic and these issues. Chinese cinema has bad reputation and has sucked for a long time now precisely because of this vicious cycle of productions paying and /or owning cinemas => only letting their movies be shown . They are effectively forcing people to watch what they want them to watch. By simultaneously holding cinemas hostage cause cinema owners are struggling to stay afloat in the streaming era and are more than ready to accept abovementioned “deposits”. That’s why you never hear about these prefabricated “box office hits” outside of China and that’s why the leading actors never really get any benefits or public recognition from their supposed highest grossing hits.
    Something similar is happening in Chinese drama land too. Every drama is a hit, every drama breaks records these days. And international fans blindly eat this up and genuinely believe their favourite actors are recognised by the public in China. Partially, thanks to the same came of lazy journalism demonstrated in this article and article authors who have no idea what they are talking about and how the industry they are reporting on works.
    Also, I have only seen rave reviews from Jin Yong, Tsui Hark and wuxia fans. They honestly should just let this movie air internationally, far away from the deteriorating Chinese movie industry.

    • Sorry for all the typos, the website is not very convenient to use. My point is if you are going to post about Chinese box office, you should at least have some understanding about how it works and be able to do basic research. It makes me uncomfortable that as a reader I know more about the topic than someone with a platform

    • Finally someone spitting the real facts! So many artists are suffering of this since years!
      No wondering there is the so called winter in cent and their entertainment is tanking hard, it’s a snake who beats its own tail

      • If you bother to look at the data, it IS being suppressed. This movie has higher numbers of tickets bought, but it gets lower number of screening time slots than other movies with lower numbers of tickets bought. And worse, it’s given more time slots at ungodly hours like 9am and past midnight while other movies get more prime time slots in afternoons and evenings.

      • 5% of screenings, all shows at 9 am or after 10pm, but it’s not suppressed 🤣
        Sure dude

  5. FYI, the movie is being suppressed in China. How to explain why LOCH percentage of screenings when down from 16% on the first day of the CNY to the current 5- 6%, even when the movie has the highest or second highest attendance rate out of the 6 movies for the first 3 days. Compared that against the 25-30% screenings for the other 3 movies when their attendance rates are lower than loch. It’s not that tickets sales are slowing down but that the general public aren’t even given the screen times to buy loch tickets as the only show times available are early in the morning or late at night. I’m not going to go in details about how the other movies locking up the screen times and force loch out with their petty tricks to suppress the movie. Otherwise, why is loch doing so well in Honk Kong, with the highest attendance rate and more screens times added?

    Also, the movie is being maliciously downrated on Douban, where anyone can submit a review. The movie has high ratings on Maoyan and Tao Piao Piao, the two Chinese online movie ticket platforms that sells tickets and only those that bought the tickets can review the movie. I also recommend you look at the real reviews on XHS and Douyin, where the real passerby’s are and the reviews are overwhelmingly positive for loch, where they show long lines and full houses of people for loch screenings. The loch theaters are packed with different genre: young kids, seniors, Jin Yong fans, martial arts fans, lots of men. Go on xhs and douyin if you don’t believe.

    • I have seen many people being viciously attacked because their positive reviews on the movie or even some have directly the reviews taken down from the platforms
      They literally don’t want audience have tastes and opinions, just feed audience with their pre made products (which are always the same) just to make money
      It’s scaring and disgusting

      • Exactly. They are employing the same black tactics that they had used when his first movie, Jade Dynasty 1, won the Mid-Autumn box office back in 2019, earning the production company a profit of 20x its original budget and saving Xinli from bankruptcy. They are so scared of his box office potential, especially since Loch is a national IP (Jin Yong and wuxia)with a well known international acclaimed director Tsui Hark.

  6. You said before that the film is filled with black water army spreading falsehoods about The Legend of the Condor Heroes and that you wanted to wait for the watered reviews to clear out. And now only a day later you’re saying that everyone’s acting was mid except the new actress??? So THEE Tony Leung Ka-Fai is now a mid actor??? lol. I won’t even bother to argue about Xiao Zhan’s acting because that man has never disappointed. Also, I think it’s funny that you immediately believed all the copy and paste negative reviews and decided to run with it. At the very least you should watch the movie yourself before making such claims.

  7. This is another clickbait with biased information. AND IT WORKS! See people who have never commented (or even visited the site) took it. LOL.

    People either love XZ or hate him, perhaps due to 227. Online reviews about this movie are divided and polarized as usual regarding whatever about XZ. CCP propaganda aside, I’d like to see the movie myself to say anything about the moive.

    I also read news about how this LOCH adaptation got very low shares of show time at theaters nationwide in China. That definitely contributed to lower ticket sales compared with other movies obtaining higher shares of show time. It’s once again a case proving that doing business in China including C-ent has much to do with backing and strong connection with the authority. This is unfortunate for the LOCH producers, the actors, and the crew. Who would expect much effort and hard work would be discounted by factors other than the product itself? China is not relying on capitalism to thrive. Therefore, there are many factors behind the success of a business that doesn’t depend solely on quality of products. Movie industry isn’t an exception either. Regarding show time arrangement at Chinese theaters, nothing much can be done about that. Sign and SMH. XZ fans and LOCH producers can only hope for word by mouth to draw audience to fill out the seats for the movie.

    I hope some oversea streaming services would purchase LOCH cus XZ has a large international fanbase. Reddit Cdrama hasn’t been that friendly to XZ. Some fans created the other subreddit:Cdramafan. Immediately the latter diverted (?) much traffic from Cdrama subreddit to Cdramafan subreddit and people have have been freely fangirls XZ over Cdramafan non stop with even more comments. LOL. As much as Koala doesn’t like XZ, nobody should dismiss his popularity and international fame that still top all the C celebs.

    • @raydrop there is no official budget number. Anyone can make up a rumor. So unless the official comes out with that number you claim, everything is speculation. Based on the genre, 150-200m makes more sense. But I’ll wait for the official announcement like everyone else.

  8. Movies have to make 3 times the budget to break even and see a profit, especially if it’s released during a popular holiday period. So this movie making anything less than 1 billion rmb is considered a loss.

    • No one knows the budget yet but if we go based on the genre, it it probably cost around 150-200m rmb to make. So it needs 450-600m to make a profit. If we go by the lower range it already made profit and if we go by the upper range it’s right on track.

      • The rumored budget is actually 400 million. Add another 100 million for marketing during the holiday period. That’s 500 million, and that’s a conservative estimate. This movie would need 1.5 billion rmb to start seeing profit.

      • @raydrop

        Your is pure speculations, no one knows the budgets of the movies in the spring festivals, there are no official news about. So you can say 400, i can say 1000, other can say 50, the fact is no one knows

        Here looks like everyone has their hands in the pockets of China Film lol while in reality china film already made money selling rights for foreign distributors and their promo was basically for free (gov owned corporation and they used only gov medias for promo)
        These are just facts, what is in their pockets it’s known only by them

    • @raydrop There has been no official announcement about the budget. I’ve looked everywhere and have been unable to find a reliable source. According to movie insiders, Condor Heroes is already making a profit so the 500m budget is impossible.

    • Lolll. The wiki article can be edited by anyone and the soho article got their number from Douban which is another unreliable site. Unless China Film Group comes out and says the budget your guesses are unfounded. Idk why you’re so worried about the budget. You’re welcome to wait for the official announcement like the rest of us though.

      • 😂😂😂 Before the showing: My idol is so powerful! He’s in a BIG budget movie by the best director ever!!! Now: It’s just a low cost production….

        All that CGI because there’s no hand to hand combat in a martial arts movie must have been free. I applaud your consistent ostrich approach to logic.

  9. Why is the movie suppressed? Is there always a conspiracy theory whenever a movie expecting to fo amazing did just ok? So this was suppressed but nezha wasn’t? I don’t get it.

    • It’s not suppressed. It’s a simple supply and demand. Tickets weren’t selling, so theaters alloted fewer showings and more to movies that can earn them profits. Cinemas are businesses, owned by real people, needing to make money to support their families. Conspiracy isn’t going to pay their electricity bills.

      Loch has 6% screenings, Operation Dragon 6%, Boonie Bears 8.5%, and Feng Shen 10.9 %. Boonie Bears only has 2-3 % more screenings than Loch and less than Feng Shen, but it was able to overtake both and rose from 5th place to 3rd place. Therefore, screening allotment isn’t a cause of poor ticket sale, but a result of people not wanting to go.

      Currently Loch is 5th out of 6 for sales. If a theater is empty, or if fans buy multiple tickets just to boost numbers, there are no people to buy from the concession stands, no money to keep the theater open. So theaters do what makes sense.

      • Yawn 🥱 keep trying. Even one of the cinema, 星光影院, on Douyin came out to explain about the back door deals behind Spring Festival movie schedule:

        Google translate: Yes, let me explain to you that the Chinese cinema chain has given a 25% screening schedule, but this is just a suggestion. Direct-operated stores will be required to schedule 25%, but franchise stores will consider net profit more. The scheduling of the Spring Festival is actually a battle of capital. Almost all distributors have given a scheduling fee that is higher than the box office output. We chose two films to cooperate with, so we compressed the scheduling space of The Legend of the Condor Heroes. It is too inconvenient to tell you too much. This is probably the situation. I hope that one day in the future, theaters and audiences can choose what films to schedule.”

      • And loch is stable and happy by the way. Go check out their second roadshow in Wuhan today. The movie is doing well even with very limited screenings. Otherwise, why four black hot searches on Weibo today against loch after their wuhan roadshow. Why are the competitors still so pressed even after forcing them to singe digit screens? Because loch is still getting good word of mouth, good review.

      • FYI, loch is produced by China Film Group, which is state owned, therefore won’t participate in paying and locking up “reserved” screen times. So loch will definitely make a profit even with its limited screenings compared to the other movies.

      • @Moocy There are over 12000 movie theaters in China. For comparison, the US has about 2000. I also saw videos on XHS from movie theater owners complaining that Loch doesn’t fill their seats.

        Chinese people are practical. If a product sells, they sell it. If one doesn’t, they don’t. Currently, Loch isn’t making them money. People want money. It’s not complicated. Nezha is at 3 billion right now, projected to be possible 6 BILLION. Loch is 500 million, projected 600 million.

        “Capital” is your boogeyman enemy. Tsui Hark is one of the most successful filmmakers but “Capital” is against him? Against Jin Yong? Operation Dragon, which was a hit in Part 1, also has 5-6 % screenings, are they also suppressed? Loch is advertised as a nationalist film, but “Capital” is against that theme? Word of mouth is spread amongst friends and WeChat, does Capital control that?

        BTW, by the end of today, Operation Dragon, who had the same screenings, sold more than Loch in the daily data.

      • @Jmho lol did you look at the screen times for loch? It’s either 9 am or 9-10 pm. No other daytime/golden hour slots for loch. Of course they schedule plenty of midnight slots between 00:00- 06:00. Who watches movies in the middle of the night? Don’t bring your bullshit lies here spread by antis on xhs, weibo and douyin. You are parroting exactly the same black lies the antis are trying to spread. Go look at the golden hour ratio for loch. It’s the lowest for all the movies.

        You think Jin Yong and TH aren’t immune to capital suppression? Go look up Zhang Yimou, the most prolific and successful mainland Chinese director, having to beg for more screen times for his Sniper movie. He didn’t get them and his movie was suppressed. Loch is being promoted as a national movie but how is that going to help the movie get more screen times when the theater had already made deals with other movies locking up the screen times. Why on the first day some of the cinemas suddenly change screenings from loch to other movies and refunded their tickets, why is the screen playing loch only malfunction black screens but is fine for other movies?

        You and they can try to spread the movie tickets aren’t selling when they are going out of their way to sabotaged the movie by spreading lies about low attendance when it’s the highest attendance rate at the beginning before they started playing their dirty tricks

      • @jmho explain to me how loch with the highest presale for the CNY not only got only 16% of the screen slots but keeps losing massive screen slots day after day even with strong word of mouth and high attendance rate? Some of the other movies have lower attendance rate than loch but either only loses a little screen times or gains more screen times while loch keeps declining? Why is loch getting massive attacks from antis?

        https://x.com/luiz_fernando_j/status/1884267775931166779?s=61&t=GcaJrScWh6jPv86QqJqIig

        https://x.com/luiz_fernando_j/status/1884649125620445259?s=61&t=GcaJrScWh6jPv86QqJqIig

        https://x.com/luiz_fernando_j/status/1885017627594035466?s=61&t=GcaJrScWh6jPv86QqJqIig

      • @Moocy 16% is basic math. 100 divided by 6 movies. Pre-sales mean nothing when on the day sales don’t fill seats. The high pre-sale indicates fan’s enthusiasm, but having passerbys is much more important. It’s being called a fan movie.

        Why wouldn’t a theater want to make money????? None of your links make any sense of that. All of Chinese social media are laughing at fans blaming capital suppression. Now there’s even negative sales because fans refund tickets at the last minute then buy the next day to inflate sales. Theaters have figured out their plots. They raised the prices on the less desirable seats (edges, front) because they know fans will buy those, saving the middle seats (which should be more expensive) for passerbys. It’s very sad.

        The more fans whine about being the victim, the more derision and scrutiny they get. Social media are now calling out that all 3 of his dramas in 2023 did not meet expectations. The memes are spreading. People are off during CNY and have nothing to do. Don’t become a BJT Spring Mountain controversy. Fans should stop making excuses, stop trying to game the box office, own up that this wasn’t as good as they hoped for, lay low, and wait till the next opportunity.

        If you really want to get a pulse on what netizens think of Loch, go to Douban, Rednote, Douyin. X gives you fan filtered rosy glasses view. I am done with this conversation. Spinning in circles is pointless. Businesses want to make money. Loch wasn’t making money for them. It’s that simple. No conspiracies.

      • @Jmho i for being too harsh in my previous posts. Anyways I’m done arguing against antis rhetoric. I’m going to peace out ✌️.

      • Let’s put on our thinking caps. There is no universe in which the movie LEADING the pre-sales box office should have its screens cut down to less than half in just 3 days. So if you’re going based on Supply and Demand your analysis couldn’t be more wrong. Operation Dragon has made LESS than Condor Heroes but has more screens. Where is the demand in that? Since the 29th, NeZha and Condor Heroes were the only two films with higher gross over screens. But Condor Heroes is the only movie whose screens were drastically cut day after day. Movie Insiders have been discussing Condor Heroes suppression since the get-go. No offense but their words and their analysis holds more weight.

      • @Jmho I take back my apology as your recent comment didn’t show up until I made that post. I thought I was being too harsh but nope, you’re basically a XZ anti and hater, parroting the same black lies about him that his antis have been spreading. You can keep applying the same Western logic to the Chinese film industry, stay as ignorant as you wish and pretend that XZ and loch is flopping. I do have accounts on weibo, xhs and douyin. I don’t visit the cesspool that is Douban as you well know it’s an anti hunting ground for black materials and for fandoms to start fights. Even cnetz know Douban ratings are unreliable as it’s a battle ground for antis. I’m surprised that you remained as naive about the Chinese entertainment industry after having visited all four Chinese platforms yourself. Or maybe you’re just pretending.

        I only quoted those Twitter links here because I don’t know if weibo links will work here. I’m also quite familiar with the Chinese online apps maoyan and taopiaopiao. I know what the pulse of the netizens is in China. I also read about the harassment of good reviews of loch on weibo, xhs and douyin and denigrating those reviewers to only fans reviews. Here you are repeating the same black lies about the movie.

        You also really outed yourself as anti when you said all 3 of xz’s dramas didn’t meet expectations. How many times has The Youth Memories rerun on satellite tv, more than 34 reruns at last count, the last rerun on cctv1 as recently as last week? Sunshine by my side is also the same, with half the reruns of TYM but it also made Xinli a lot of money and is more than profitable. The Longest Promise was suppressed by Tencent but it went out of the circle with passersby and was used extensively by different official media to promote tourism. Did you fav accomplish all this too? Nope, your fav is probably still making idol dramas that international fans here love.

        Keep believing in your lies and spreading your lies but I’m done with you too.

      • @Jmho

        THANK YOU FOR BEING A VOICE OF REASON!

        Most of the posts defending LOCH’s box office numbers are basically about: record breaking presales, limited number theaters, “blackarmies” attack against positive reviews — insinuating a systematic “suppression” against the movie, which I found quite laughable. Like yours and a few other posts mentioned here, it’s just how the market works. Regardless of Tsui Hark’s big name or Xiao Zhan being the biggest liulang, capitals naturally will go backing movies that they consider will be most profitable. Blockbusters will definitely attract more theaters for showtime allocations. Presales can only do so much for box office numbers (how much is the percentage of presales contributing to the total number?), but word of mouth and the actual sales are the key. LOCH movie’s presales number probably got quite a boost from Xiao Zhan’s industry friends (Yang Zi’s bought out tickets in 9 theatres for example) in addition to his fans, perhaps also Tsui Hark’s friends & colleagues, Jin Yong’s fans, etc. But again, first impression & word of mouth matter more.

        I’m not surprised at all that Nezha 2 has been topping the chart and on its way to breaking its own record. It’s a beloved IP, and it’s a FAMILY movie, which is a surefire way to rake more money during the lunar new year holidays. Same goes for Detective Chinatown, though it’s a distant second. Even Creation of the Gods, a massive hit in 2023, struggles to compete with those two. I’ve said in the previous post that Xiao Zhan’s fans should celebrate that LOCH movie is able to compete with 3 big IPs, and still even makes it to Top 5, and I stand by it.

      • Why are these replies so butthurt at you for providing data. Instead of attacking you they should go buy some tickets so that their screenings won’t decrease even more.

      • You’re a rock, Jmho. Thanks for providing stats and all, and just being a sane person here amid all the delusional XZ fans.

      • @lenje
        I’m just back online today and I was about to believe all these suppression theory. But when you said the opponents are nezha, detective chinatown, and creation of gods… that suppression theory is overthrown for me. All three works you mentioned have always done well and have good word-of-mouth, not to mention they’re all sequel. And at the same time, legend of condor heroes is a story that has been made so many times it’s hard to squeeze some uniqueness out of it

      • @snow, where did @jmho provide stat? LOL. Here’s an actuary to provide free service to examine her data? But where did she show the stat? LOL.

    • Capitalism
      Other companies bought and locked all the screenings around 2 months before the release. This is the reason why nezha has so much screenings. This operation also requires a lot of money and it’s happening since years, not just this year. This year is just more vocal as issue because it involves a popular movie

      • @jhmo
        You are just a jobless hater who likes to bark lies online 🤣

        First of all, yes also operation red sea 2 is suppressed and wasn’t able to have a good space into broadcasting, but because the movie hasn’t received good reviews from the industry, isn’t suffering any black pr and their screening are rising a bit not (still a ridiculous 5/6 %) and yes today did more than loch because it had more screenings! The heavy suppression brought loch to have the less screenings in between all the 6 movies.
        Also many movie this year are not doing well at all.
        Loch sold many rights to foreign companies and spent zero for promo, so the arguments about doing 3x of budget have no sense (especially because no one knows the real costs of these movies..i heard rs2 costed 1b which is simply a bs)

        Saying that xiao zhan’s 3 dramas in 2023 is a giant lie that just unmask you as a brainwashed hater
        – the youth memories – highest success of Xixi company, many mainstream recognition, only drama (of 3) surpassing 30k on tencent, highest cvb in the last years during
        university exams period , still on rerun after 2 years
        – the longest promise – was suppressed, but officially registered by tencent as the more profitable drama for 2023
        – SunshineByMySide – even if the reception was milder (compared to the other 2) it’s officially reported into Xinli yearly reports as the drama which brought highest earnings to the company in 2023

        So, i suggest you to use your time to check some real facts instead that waste all of your time spitting lies online as a stup1d hater you are

      • @Momo666 Sure, I am a jobless hater. Maybe that’s why I understand money is important and needed to pay my bills and that movie theaters are businesses. They aren’t charity. They sell what people will buy. As for his dramas, I need to go look for jobs so I don’t have time explain the data to you. These 400+ replies will have to do. Whether you agree with it or not, it’s now the general impression of him. https://www.douban.com/group/topic/317930446/?_spm_id=MTY4NzMwODgz&_i=8438908y1xnngD,8552737y1xnngD

        Please Google the definition of “Capitalism”. You get brownie points for identifying that this is the reason why Loch isn’t being sold, but it’s not what you think. Nezha fills the house with all those screenings.

        BTW, presenting data and logic is too much for you to handle without resorting to insults, I suggest you stay off of Chinese social media sites. It’s not looking good for XZ. Again, the more fans cry conspiracy, the more the mocking backlash. Have a good day.

      • @Jmho, kudos to you for admitting being idle (jobless)! Perhaps you’ve spent too much time inflating negativity about LOCH. That’s why you have trouble landing a job. Employers would be turned off knowing you’re more passionate about online gossips and rumors than serious work. LOL.

  10. I haven’t seen it yet, but the cast looks horrible. China cinema is too much into baby-looking faces, or shall I say “faggot-looking?” Regardless, I haven’t seen anything worth watching coming out of China. Either it has no movie critics, or it has awful taste in entertainment. Meanwhile, South Korea has been amazing the world with its dramas like Crash Landing On You, Hometown Cha Cha, etc. Yet, their population is a tiny fraction of that of China. Go figure.

    • I assume English is not your first language. Non-native speakers tend to lack a sense of obscenity/propriety when expressing themselves in English. “F.t – looking”, that you wrote, is an obscene and hurtful thing to say.

    • Wow! This is very offensive! Were you brought up to be like this or are you still a minor, not knowing how a mature adult should behave online? LOL.

  11. The one who is really happy typing negative thing about this movie on reddit it turn to be wyb fans, so now tell me how we can see objective reviews from passerby if mostly they only attack lead actor for failure the movie. Isnt there also director?, screen writer? Lead actress?.
    In this situation of course they only care to attack xz cause he is the biggest fish in the pod and treat to their idol.

  12. Sorry to post something completely irrelevant, but I just noticed your Wu Lei banner, Miss Koala, and I find it hilarious. Indeed, it’s your blog, you do what you want!
    By the way, ever since the upgrade I can only post from a computer (and that, not always), it is impossible if I read you on mobile devices. If you can, please take a look to see if you can fix it (I suppose more are like me – if I am the only one having the problem, well, ok!).

  13. If you cannot stay impartial or don’t bother to fact check, then you shouldn’t post as a movie critic. I have friends who are complaining about not having prime movie showing times or being assigned large theatres or IMAX. Some showing that were packed were cancelled or rescheduled to give space to the other films. This is not due to the quality of the films but unfair competition.from companies who own the theaters and investigated in their films. check out show time yourselves. first place in pre-order has less than 16% percent of theater assignments. I just saw 2.5% of prime time theater assignment. If you show the movie only once and in the.midland of the night then of course people are not going to pack the room. Reviews I heard are great.

    • I checked the showtime in the US. Unfortunately it’s not widely available anywhere. I have to go to the neighboring state to watch it. It just doesn’t make sense to drive hours just to watch the movie.

      I’m still hoping for streaming sites like Netflix or Disney+ or Amazon Prime to purchase the streaming right. XZ has a large international fanbase. Streaming sites are the easiest access for international fans to watch his works.

      • But watching on big screen still feels a lot different, so I hope more theatres play the show internationally.
        I too wish too see it in theatre.

      • I hope so too. Nonetheless, many ppl use projectors at home. So, that’s an improvement from small TV or PC screen. We have an entertainment suite, a dark room, in our basement. It works like a small theater with projector. Many Americans watch movies at home nowadays rather than go to local cinemas.

  14. A box office and critical flop for Tsui Hark *sigh* I was really looking forward to this but the overall consensus about the movie dampened my spirit. I thought that even if it didn’t get stellar reviews from critics but still got hyped by the box office in China then it would still somehow be an enjoyable and fun watch. But it’s increasingly becoming clear this was a miss.

    • Box office flop? Loll. It’s currently the second highest grossing Wuxia film of all time. And in terms of critical acclaim. It’s gotten the most critical acclaim out of all the movies from academia to movie critics to official media to passerby’s. Y’all love to come on here and yap with nothing to back it up. That’s why no one can take y’all seriously.

      • If it isn’t flopping, then why are all the XZ fans crying about the movie being supressed, antis, black marketing, etc ?

      • @kokuto, there’s no contradiction between how showtime slots are unfairly distributed and how LOCH isn’t a flop, right? Use your brain rather than your hate! LOL. I hope you’re not a fan of WYB though coz I’ve seen so many of WYB’s fans coming out to have negative campaigns against XZ whenever he’s got a new work released.

      • Lol flop movie? It’s already the 2nd highest box office in wuxia after 5 days 🤣
        Old songs are integrate well in the movie and the audience really appreciated the choice, especially the fans of the story
        It should be better use your time in better ways than just be a simply hater. 🤷‍♀️

      • Lmao! Tsui Hark was one of the original producer on the iconic 1983 tvb drama adaptation. Please don’t embarrass yourself.

      • It was his only smart decision to use the theme songs to harness the nostalgia. Tries to cover up the martial arts film that had no martial arts. Btw, I am not only a jobless hater, but also old enough to know that CGI color waves aren’t martial arts.

      • @Jmho

        Yup, no proper martial arts and just CGI, and basically it was “Guo Jing’s CGI defeated Ouyang Feng’s CGI”. The 俠之大者 was really Ouyang Feng, hahahaha. So many memes floating around of XZ and Zhuang Dafei holding hands to save Xiangyang!

  15. I didn’t like the trailer. 1st one only focused on Guo Jing but had a split second of Huang Rong. Huang Rong is most people’s favorite and Jin Yong’s best written heroine. Then the subsequent ones, Hua Zheng was more eye catching. When the worst character becomes more appealing than everyone else, we have a problem.

  16. The movie industry is tough. Having fans means very little when it comes to the box office. You need the good graces of the general public and good word of mouth. I don’t know why fans are so defensive in the comments, yall bought all those presale tickets already and gave it a good initial boost. Not much else you can do if passerbys don’t care. It’s not your fault the movie flopped, other movies are also struggling like Operation and Fengshen. And those also have very strong backing,the public literally only cares about Nezha right now.

    • Yup, friends went to watch Nezha and they said it was very good, one said she’d want to rewatch it.

      Meanwhile, lots of criticism about how Tsui Hark has ruined wuxia and XZ isn’t even the biggest issue about the movie, although he and Zhuang Dafei are severely miscast.

      If a movie lines up for spring festival release, then don’t talk about “suppression”, because clearly the producers know what it’s like to release a movie during this festive period. Who is XZ that his fans think people want to suppress his film? Just a traffic star whose fans got too big for their boots.

      • LOL even the chairman of Bona Film Group came out to cry about suppression of his movie, Operation Hadal. Here’s the thing, why wouldn’t people want to suppress the movie with the most popular Chinese actor so that they can earn more money for themselves?

      • People here seem think having a cult like fan base is the same thing as being the most popular actor. Your fav is not a threat to these other movies, a cartoon kid is.

      • Which human in the right mind will attack a non-human character who can’t snatch their acting rice bowls? The most popular actor doing well in a movie however, does affect them.

      • @lilith awfully brave of you to claim someone as the most popular actor in China under a post about their movie flopping. Replace XZ with any other big traffic star and the result will still be the same. He’s not special.

    • LOCH has good reviews, though antis keep trying to brand all the good reviews as fans’ reviews while claiming the bad reviews without substantial analysis on the movie plot as “passerby’s reviews”. It’s not that “passerbys” don’t care, it’s evil suppression at work here. Operation and Fengshen struggled because their movies simply aren’t good, funny thing is they are still getting more prime screening slots than LOCH even though they don’t fill up as good as LOCH compared to the percentage of screens they were given.

      • So when other movies struggle, they’re bad but when XZ movie struggles, it’s being suppressed? Please make it make sense🤣

      • LOL this is crazy. So if XZ’s movies flop it’s because they’re “suppressed”? Only XZ movies are “suppressed”? Then why does he even keep making movies? Who the heck is he that people want to keep suppressing his movies? Fans are really delusional.

      • Because the data shows, duh. Not going to argue with obvious haters who I’ve never seen before on this site but suddenly popped out in droves in this article.

  17. LOL. I have already given up the hope for Koala to be less subjective about XZ. I didn’t even look for any positivity coming from her blogs about XZ, but just wish a bit less biased. But Koala is hopeless on this and the only purpose for her to post anything about XZ may be just for…..$$$$$$$. Koala needs to recoup the costs for maintaining the website anyhow. LOL. As she wish, negativity about XZ did bring more traffic and comments to her site, same old same old as usual. Look at the numbers of the comments on other threads though !!! LOL. People seem to lose interest in most of her blogs. 😭

    • What negativity? So if someone talks about how the movie is really performing in China they’re being biased and bringing negativity? Are you trying to threaten her into posting fake positive lies about a flop movie?

      • Antis are still rambling XZ’s The Youth Memories is a flop even given the fact that the drama is still playing on TV after two years since its premiere in 2023. LMAO.

        LOCH’s first week isn’t finished yet and antis already jumped on bandwagons driven by negative campaigns to declare its failure.

        Douban ratings are scams most of the time. Investors don’t really care a sh*t about Douban “ratings.” LOL. The Untamed used to have a very low rating on Douban thanks to XZ’s antis of course. But TU has had the longest streaming history among all C dramas on Netflix so far. The management of the international streaming giant aren’t stupid. They know who can make money for them. LOL. It’s still too early to give a verdict about LOCH’s business success.

    • I thought you were a capitalist? Why should Koala foot the bill and cater to people who just abuse them for whatever they post? I honestly do not understand the repeated outrage from a number of people over someone posting their own personal opinion and biases on their own damn PERSONAL blog. This isn’t an Xiao Zhan fansite or Associated News or even EW, they can post whatever catches their interest. If some people don’t like it, they don’t have to visit.

      • You’re not wrong by saying “if some people don’t like it, they don’t have to visit.” I just pointed out a fact exactly as what you implied here. Koala’s blogs have fewer and fewer comments of valid discussions and it’s logit to deduce the traffic coming through her site is declining too. The reasons? It’s so obvious she’s been relying on negativity more and more to attract visitors, i.e., click baits, not only specifically about XZ whom she always dislikes but would still tag to bring in traffic, but also other popular celebs, which many fans are just turned off and don’t bother to visit here site at all.

        LOL. I just sincerely gave her an advice for business management. If she didn’t really care about profits from ads, then she could have just talked at her whim cuz this is her personal blog. Then her site will gradually become a nest for close-rank gathering for fans of specific celebs and haters of other specific celebs too, and will become more and more biased that appears to be the direction her blogging site is going. But since she does care and continue to make money by feeding visitors negativity about actors she don’t like, this kinda business practice is really SHODDY.

        I’m pondering leaving her site forever. She used to be my favorite Asian drama bloggers and I only visited her site, no others, to get updates. Since I’ve found other sites where constructive discussions and reviews of dramas are more welcome than her site, I may as well just abandon her blogs. That said, I appreciate her respect for freedom of open/honest speech, not doing censorship. I also appreciate many valid conversations with some visitors her, including their drama recommendations.

      • @Somebody, I have been visiting this site for so many years I lost count. Koala’s personal post never really interest me as much as the discussion that comes from them. I enjoy reading the community chats alot. I have been to other sites.. not many offers as diverse opinions as this blog does. The day I stop visiting this site, it will never be because of Koala’s post…it will be because the chats are getting boring.

      • @HL, don’t you think the chats in these threads here are getting boring except for those smell like cesspools? LOL.

      • @Somebody, some are boring but I just read those that interest me. This blog is not endless like reddit or some other very popular sites..this has a end to each post. So that is good for me.

    • Because there’s many Chinese reviews from “passerbys” proving it isn’t bad at all. I’ll be sure to watch this movie when it’s released in international theaters on 20 Feb, to see for myself if it’s as bad as what XZ antis are claiming it to be.

      • Box office is flopping, Douban score is 5.5 and I’ve scene videos… Even dubbing has issue. There’s no need for more evidence.

      • To be honest with opponents like nezha, detective chinatown, and creation of gods, it would be hard to up them. Especially since these movies are sequel, people who liked the previous movie would watch it. With tsui hark as director no way this movie gonna be bad, but the opponent is just too heavyweight. Even creation of gods that isn’t as big was praised a lot for being unique, while legend of condor heroes is a story that has been adapted so many times in many forma

      • @Yuhyi Thing is, it’s a fact that those theaters were employing dirty tactics to suppress LOCH. You said LOCH is a story that has been adapted many times in many formats, I would argue that Creation of Gods is adapted more times, in fact it even overlaps with Nezha being from the same IP. In fact, theaters even outrightly said that the number of screens were predetermined via contracts with the other movies. LOCH’s low box office numbers isn’t organic, it isn’t based on natural supply and demand but artificially manipulated through decreasing its supply.

        I see so many complaints from both passerbys and fans online about how their LOCH tickets get refunded for no reason, they tried buying other time slots but also got refunded again; screen suddenly went black halfway during screening, then theater staff comes in and say there’s something wrong with the movie file and asked the audience to change to another movie instead; theater lights not being switched off or were switched on halfway when the movie is still running. The theaters are downright trying to make it inconvenient and uncomfortable for the people who wants to watch LOCH. Strangely other movies don’t have any of these issues at all.

  18. the one who kill Wuxia is unfortunately is the Wuxia lover.They always compare to the novel, and compare to the old drama, how can short movie compare to 58 episode of drama? (1983 series). WIth all the complaint it will kill the interest from newbie. Just imagine, if everyone look with open mind without comparing, the movie is quite good actually, and they praise it, the newbie will come, the movie will make box office, and more Wuxia movie will be made. Even the latest adaptation of the drama series Legend of Condor Heroes get very bad treatment, complaint from the audience and from suppose to 5 part, it stopped at part 1. So i guess it is really time to say goodbye to Wuxia !

    • i guess its chinese habbit…i heard they are the worst audience in the world, even the cruel Korean is mild compare to them. They love to criticize, try to find weakness and exploit it. The first day Nezha 2 only got 6.7 on douban….and with the ticket sold out so much, then more “good” people reviewing it, and it bring the rating to 8.6. In China, i believe you have to make super good movie that can shut the mouth of this black fans, otherwise they will kill it for sure. BTW the habbit to make the second lead its there, in so many drama too, so it is not surprising Hua Zheng get praised

      • Nezha2 opening score was 8.5. Don’t give misinformation. LOCH is getting bad score simply because it’s bad.

      • Good grief. Chinese audiences weren’t attracted to this Chinese movie based on beloved Chinese story that has had multiple popular Chinese adaptations. But because it has your fave, and you know better than them, it’s okay to bash 2 countries with billions of people?

        There’s a valid complaint that this “Wuxia” movie didn’t have any martial arts and relied on CGI. This is why Wuxia is dying, because of adaptations like this one.

  19. LOL. XZ antis’ adrenaline is going high and therefore XZ fans’ combat mode is on too. Therefore bingo, the traffic for Koala’s blog! Congrats Koala! LOL

    I did not plan to watch the movie due to the nationalist theme. But I was curious enough about the polarized reviews, box office sales, and whatnot to dig in. Therefore, I spent quite a bit of time doing web surfing LOL. Jing Yong’s fans raving about the movie are plenty, at least per what I’ve seen from Douyin. There are no statistics to accurately estimate positive reviews vs. negative reviews. As someone familiar with numbers and data, I don’t buy any random theory without evidence. But it’s true that Doyin top recommendations about the movie are mostly positive. There are one or two vids dissing the movie. But the majority are pretty good from Douyin’s top recommendation pages. There are fans sharing their watching experience, saying a lot of movie goers are in the older demographics, suggesting they may not know the young actors much but are fans of Jing Yong’s wuxia world instead. Otherwise, it’s usually very hard for older folks to go all the way to the local theaters at such inconvenient hours as late as post-9 pm or as early as before 9 am (LOL such a weird showtime slot and very unfortunate for LOCH producers). There are already many Jing Yong’s fans making short vids to analyze LOCH in more details than synopsis after they watched the movie, nothing much to do with the actors, but more about the filmatography and the plot anatomy. It appeared that they were more book fans than XZ’s or any other actors’ fans. The reviews were great and interesting.

    In short, I got very good reviews of this LOCH adaptation from Douyin.

    In some news and social media blogs, however, vitriol is plenty dissing the film and the actors. But many of the contents repeatedly parroted the same contents and messages that appeared all came from the same source to feed them, and you also read some of them up here LOL. These media sources including some Chinese tabloids outside China that have been known lacking credibility cuz the paparazzi-like “reporters” were known to take money to lay out what there were bought to say LOL.

    Based on very positive reviews from book fans on Douyin, I plan to watch the movie now even having to drive hours to the theater. Hopefully there won’t be snow again LOL. I personally don’t believe others’ review until I see the adaptation myself, more so as an avid book fan of Jing Yong in my youth. My favorite hero in Jing Yong’s world isn’t Guo Jing, however, but Wei Wuji.

  20. Been reading the comments, and it is either love XZ therefore suppression or dislike XZ therefore supply and demand. I do think XZ is a miscast, I don’t have good opinion of Tsui Hark and his wuxia movies because movies are not TV series, no luxury of time. I would prefer Zhang Yimou, at least not everything is earth tone and dusty and easier to see due to his love of vibrant colours and colour coding. That being said, why would any movie be so called suppressed if it can make big money? Is there some governmental guideline which prohibits certain movies from showing at certain times or is it a case of another movie doing so well this one was shelved aside? After all profit for cinemas matter. Don’t cinemas have preset number of days of showing for certain movies? Can they just shelve a movie aside just like that? Moreover this movie isn’t doing so shabby. It is top 5 in terms of earning in China alone, and we haven’t seen outside china yet since not released internationally. I just dont understand the need for any idol movie to be absolute no. 1 in box office with people going back to watch again and again like what happened with Titanic. The box office isn’t that shabby, and I do think the budget must be high too since salaries of the stars are probably more than half the cost. No stats, just opinion. Whether the movie is good or not is debatable. You have XZ fans, Tsui Hark fans, wuxia fans, Jinyong fans, LOCH fans, specifically Guojing or any character fans, action movie fans, fictional historical drama fans, fans of the TV series (the various versions) and those who just want to watch something for entertainment. You can’t please ALL of them but it feels like XZ fans have hijacked this movie. Im curious what Jinyong or LOCH fans have to say more than what XZ fans have to say.

    • It was your initial question that sparked my interest in this post. I am a long time fan of Wuxia and Jin Yong. I have seen extended clips of the fighting scenes. They aren’t what I expect in a Wuxia. The wire work is clumsy and made me dizzy like watching clothes being flung in a laundry machine. The lack of hand to hand combat is disappointing. I wasn’t expecting the grace and power of Jet Li or Donnie Yen level, but even half of 2022 Fox Volant would be ok.

      I was labeled a “hater” for presenting data and the most basic economic principles that can be found on Sesame Street. I never insulted XZ. I have watched more of his dramas than other 90’s actors. Are performance numbers an insult? XZ fans claim that he’s so hateable that people rather suppress him than make easy money for their financial livelihood. Is he that dislikeable? Lol, who is the “hater” here?

    • No one is asking for LOCH to be number 1 or given the most screening slots. People are simply asking the theaters to give more prime time screening slots to LOCH than what they are giving now because the demand for the movie is obviously higher than a couple of the other movies.

      Here’s the thing, theaters are deliberately suppressing LOCH screening slots because other movies signed contracts promising to give them larger percentage of the ticket sales than market rate in exchange for securing more prime time screening slots. Or contracts promising to buy up seats in past midnight time slots in exchange for more prime time screening slots, which is practically just giving money to the theaters to buy more good slots, essentially corruption. I find it ridiculous that some people keep defending these corrupted corporations who disrupt the supply and demand market just because they want to bring down the top actor.

      LOCH tickets kept getting refunded and people could not book them even though the time slot is still there with empty seats available. They went even further to disrupt the movie experience for people who are watching LOCH such as claiming the movie file is damaged and then redirecting people to change to watching other movies instead. Meanwhile movies other than the top Nezha have plenty of empty seats even in prime time slots.

      • Does this make sense? “Contracts” Tsui Hark has been in this movie business with hit movies for decades, wouldn’t he know to negotiate these so called screening contracts with kickbacks? He’s not a novice. You are telling me that Boonie Bears which has a much lower cost production budget is able to negotiate better than Tsui Hark and Loch? If Tsui Hark knows that he can’t compete with Boonie Bears with these contracts, why did he insist on squeezing Loch into this CNY time slot in order to lose money? Is he a charity like the theaters too? Or perhaps he knows that screenings are a response to market demand?

        And the Bears started with 8.6% screenings compared to loch’s initial 16 % and are now at 7.8% screenings, when did they negotiate these so-called contracts to decrease in screenings? Theaters do book them earlier because kids can’t stay up late, but that’s a logical response to wanting to make money. All this doesn’t pass the smell test. Do you have evidence of these contracts and Tsui Hark’s refusal to participate if they exist?

        “Refunded but can’t rebook even though there are empty seats” So theaters don’t want money?

        “Files corrupted, go to another” If the tickets have already been sold, bar coded and counted to be under Loch how does this benefit another movie? If fans are claiming that box office sales are being stolen, please file a police report. Why don’t they?

        I’m genuinely asking.

      • Paying for prime slots is not corruption, it is standard retail practice. Every big retailer sells product placement at prime selling spots, like near the cash register, at the endcaps facing aisles, at display cases. Why wouldn’t you expect the same for movie theaters?

        Every movie negotiates screens. That’s why the Chinese New Year releases are BIG movies and competition is cut throat, with many movies choosing to avoid airing at that time. If LOCH’s production sucks at negotiating screens, that isn’t supression, that’s simply sucking at putting out your movie … which I sort of doubt is happening, given the investment and creators of LOCH. Nor is supply and demand disrupted. If there really is demand, and not fan or capital inflation of buying empty theaters, the movie stays longer in the theaters.

        So, your contention is that all these other movies productions and theaters are throwing money away, because they want to bring down Xiao Zahn, instead of simply pursuing what is the most profitable to them???

      • @Jmho Someone above has already told you that even THE Zhang Yimou also has to beg for more screen times for his movie but didn’t get it still, but seems like you conveniently skipped over it. LOCH’s production company is state-owned, meaning they are subjected to more scrutinity and can’t make undertable deals to manipulate the market unlike other companies. What are you trying to say by randomly bringing up this Boonie Bears cartoon movie? Compare apples to apples, not oranges.

        As for ticket refunds, well, you should ask the theaters why they keep refunding LOCH tickets as it’s a fact that they did. When the theaters forced the audience to make a choice between not getting to watch a movie that day or change to another movie, of course the theaters will need to update the data depending on the audience’s decision. LOCH’s data will show increased ticket refund percentage and the new ticket sales to be counted towards the other movies. And you’re not genuinely asking, it’s clear from the negative tone you took towards this movie.

        @Kokuto It’s sad how you are fervently defending these corporations’ corrupted practices. This is not the same as retailers making it known to all suppliers that there are prime selling spots they can buy, otherwise, why did Zhang Yimou have to beg for more screening slots and the Chairman of Bona Films also cry about his movie being suppressed?

        If there is no demand, why are there people on XHS and Douyin lamenting they couldn’t watch LOCH due to the lack of suitable time slots and available seats? Are you going to claim it’s all from fans?

        I’ve already said above. To the theaters, it’s more profitable for them to earn undertable money by giving more screens to other movies. For other movies, it’s like they paid $100 to earn $110, better than not paying and earning $0 or go into red.

      • @Lilith
        I haven’t seen anything about Zhang Yimou begging for screens, other than a claim here. He doesn’t even have a movie airing now, does he? Do you have a link?

        All I found was this article talking about him and the film company accused of box office manipulation for Full River Red.
        https://www.thinkchina.sg/society/chinese-films-hit-it-big-during-cny-it-enough-save-industry

        “As screening schedules were adjusted according to box office performance, it was revealed since 24 January that there were discrepancies in the box office sales for Full River Red. Despite the movie’s superb opening, there was suspicion of fraudulent ticket sales and sold-out late-night “phantom screenings”.

        This led to a heated discussion and questions over screening schedules being manipulated by money, as well as fake box office takings. Netizens also dug up the news that Daniel Manwaring – IMAX China CEO appointed late last year – is Zhang Yimou’s son-in-law, sparking speculation that this is why Full River Red got more IMAX screenings.”

        Of course, they denied the allegations and started suing people spreading these rumors. So maybe THAT is why Zhang Yimou had to beg for screens, if he actually did. It seems far more reasonable to me that people complaining about suppression are playing victims and making excuses for the lack luster performance of their films. I mean, you’ve got to tell the investors and stans something. I don’t see the winners complaining about ‘suppression’ or making excuses.

        Corporations? Really? The corporations are more likely the production companies. Most movie theaters and companies I know of are failing and trying desperately to survive the narrow margins. Ditto any number of retailers, who are having problems competing with online giants. There’s a reason why theaters sell overpriced concession, because they aren’t making huge amounts off ticket sales. Everyone knows you can buy product placement in stores, and everyone knows you can buy screens, so it’s hardly corrupt — unless they are only selling to their brother in laws. And it isn’t like LOCH is being put out by noobs. They know how the CNY theater screens work.

        I didn’t say there wasn’t any demand. I’m saying IF there is a demand, the theaters will try to fill that demand, so they can make more money. One way to meet demand is to keep the movie in the theater longer.

      • @Kokuto

        Here are some chinese articles backing the claim up:
        https://www.sohu.com/a/520277164_358710
        https://www.163.com/dy/article/GUVSF5VD0517A8HL.html

        This Sniper movie where Zhang Yimou begged for good time slots was in 2022. Full River Red was in 2023, guess he learnt his lesson and joined in on the practice? Winners not complaining about suppression doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It just means that they don’t bother if they’re not at the short end of the stick.

        All I can see is you constantly making excuses for these corporations, or companies if you want to nitpick on the choice of terms. Why do these theaters and companies become desperate to survive narrow margins now? Because of this corrupted practice which you kept defending. Companies keep having to allocate a large part of their budget to theaters for securing good time slots, which will in turn affect the quality of their movies due to less budget or complacency that they will still get audience from suppressing other movies and monopolising the good time slots. That’s why less and less people visit theaters now. Not to mention they act like thugs to the audience with their dirty refund methods. Truly reaping what they sow.

      • @Kokuto While waiting for my previous reply to show up, it came across to me that your analogy of retail product placement is a bad comparison to movie prime screening slots.

        When people visit retail stores, they have enough time to browse through items that are not located near the cashier, endcaps or in display cases. And these items are within people’s reach. In the case of movie screening slots, if a movie is totally unavailable during prime time, people aren’t going to watch it. Most people won’t go out of their way to watch a movie at 9am or 12 midnight, especially in the cold weather.

        So instead of prime product placement spots, the current situation is more akin to stores deliberately placing most of this item on the highest shelf that is 3m high, out of most people’s reach. Then when some people managed to get the item and went to the cashier, the staff claimed this item is broken and asked them to buy another brand instead.

      • @Kokuto Correction: They only put 5 of this item on 3m high shelves while other brands/items have 20-50 qty on lower shelves.

        Plus when people managed to get the item and went to the cashier, the cashier sneakily breaks the item after payment has went through then proceeds to tell the customer that they can replace this broken item with another of a different brand.

      • @Kokuto Thank you. Now I understand what @lilith was twisting to insinuate “suppression”.

      • @lilith I see reading comprehension is as difficult as math for you. My apologies, maybe I shouldn’t have bothered with Economics 101, I overestimated its simplicity, that’s why this post has been going around in circles. Click on the Rednote link above. Last I checked, there were over 800 replies that explain how XZ fans refund money, to use that money to secure seats for another day. One might explain it at a level that is understandable for you. There is a blue “translate” button if you need it. Here’s another that shows how every day box office sales are negative at night. From 1/31 – 2/5. And no. It’s not entirely from theaters unilaterally refunding fans. A small part of it may be, but that is further logical evidence that they rather refund a handful of tickets in order to make more room available for Nezha, which actually fills seats. http://xhslink.com/a/rYiLjIufggj5

        Hey! I see your conspiracy theories in this post. The ones where theaters treat people badly because they don’t want money and repeat customers. The dog head means sarcasm. People are very amused.
        http://xhslink.com/a/9M2LqEbEirj5

        BTW, who do you want theaters to take away screenings from to give to Loch? Boonie Bears and Operation already have only 1 a day, but their ticket sales are better. The only movie that has lots of screenings is Nezha, but again, it’s making money for the theaters. They were struggling and are sooooooo happy and grateful to Nezha. I did see movie theaters offering to open up a screening for Loch. See this post. Book the theater and they will do it right away. Can’t? Hmm… Isn’t this your problem?
        http://xhslink.com/a/xXVxPXa16oj5
        http://xhslink.com/a/OeFBBUpQ9oj5

        I am unable to understand your rhetoric that keeps gaslighting me to believe theaters don’t want to make money. Can’t XZ fans take setbacks gracefully? Every time. Every poorly received work, there are excuses and pointing fingers. But keep going, if you wish. Keep whining illogically without evidence. The public is entertained by these sore losers and will remember how XZ can’t attract passerbys when his next project comes.

      • @Jmho Firstly, I am not XZ fan. I defend him and LOCH because the current situation reminds me of 227 all over again where you antis keep smearing him and his works with ridiculous and illogical claims, antis are now smearing that his fans were disrespectful to Nezha’s mascots on Weibo Night when they didn’t while YXHs’ clarification posts for this got removed. I am re-picking up my desire to defend justice. Secondly, you are the one pretending to have comprehension difficulties. This post is going around in circles because you don’t want to accept logic and keep trying to twist everything. The XHS posts which you posted are clearly made by antis, the comments in there even use the specific derogatory terms that XZ antis use to call him.

        I’ve already said it, it doesn’t make sense for fans to make ticket refunds, because they clearly would want to increase the movie’s box office sales. It’s pathetic how you keep trying to twist things to frame XZ’s fans.

        You claimed I’m gaslighting you? But you are the one who keep using gaslighting words like “Isn’t this your problem?”, LOL.

      • @lilith My mistake, you aren’t a XZ fan. You are just trying to brainwash people to believe theaters don’t want to make money and parroting every illogical excuse from the XZ fandom. Gaslighting. It is the movie’s problem that they are unable to attract fans to fill the theater. Sentence context. Poor reading comprehension or gaslighting me again?

        The links have data charts, but because the data doesn’t fit your assertion that theaters should give screenings to products that loses them money, you, Lilith the justice fighter, disregard it as antis. It’s been explained multiple times in very elementary terms why XZ fans refund and REPURCHASE. The 2nd one found the illogical tall tales that our justice fighter is propagating. 3rd and 4th explain how theaters make money from real live people, occupying the seats, purchasing the concessions, and contributing to the surrounding businesses that our justice fighter seems to overlook. Justice fighters don’t believe people should earn a living, must protect the performance image of someone else’s rich idol. The popular posts with thousands of comments and likes are even less charitable to his abilities, but our justice fighter is oversensitive to these relatively tame linked posts. The public is primarily flabbergasted by why fans twist themselves into these illogical knots.

        Btw, on the 1st day, 1/31, when Loch had 16% screenings, they also refunded 700k tickets. What do you think of that data? Shouldn’t theaters decrease screenings when a movie doesn’t perform up to expectations? I won’t bother to link, you don’t care about data when fighting justice.

        I will let you keep fighting for justice. Your results are very visible. Have a good day. 🙂

      • @Jmho And you are just trying to brainwash people into believing this movie’s low sales is organic. Yes, I will keep speaking out against antis like you who keep twisting data to propagate lies.

        Your story of refunding and repurchasing is simply ridiculous. Whatever concocted story you made up from twisting data can’t overthrow basic common sense – Why would XZ fans want refunds if it does not increase the movie sales and even show high refund data which will give antis like you a reason to mock the movie? Full stop.

  21. I am personally very happy Xiao Zhan have this chance to take on this role. I bet he is very happy to be able to play this hero… Is he miscast, I dont know till I watch it. Hu Ge did a fairly good job with this role but it was a long drama and I enjoyed watch his grown as Gou Jing.

    I hope Xiao Zhan will gain alot from this experienced too. This movie have not affect Xiao Zhan’s brand, this is his first high profile movie, he is getting good publicity from it.

    As his fan, I am looking forward to watch him on small screen next. I miss watching him.

  22. I don’t understand, as a long time drama watcher I have never cared to defend how commercially successful the works of my fav did. At the lowest level, if his acting is good I would praise his acting, if it’s not good I would just praise him as handsome. Let’s be real, one or two works not being at the top wouldn’t hurt xiao zhan at all. And with his high commercial ability, his tons of endorsement already set him up for life

    The opponents are nezha, detective chinatown, and creation of gods, all a sequel with the previous movie having good word of mouth. As an actor xiao zhan did his job well as the director instructed him to do, if the movie isn’t performing well it should be the director’s problem. As long as xiao zhan acting isn’t criticized, it won’t dent his popularity

  23. Since so many XZ naysayers are eager to mock LOCH to be a commercial flop and they were also hyped by unfavorable numbers to the movie, I’m sharing these most updated stat about the top C movies as of today (in the order of revenues):

    Nezha: Mo Tong Nao Hai (2025):
    Box office sale: 4.8B RMB, Screening slot: 71%, Attendance: 50%

    Detective Chinatown 1900:
    Box office sale: 2.27B RMB, Screening slot: 23.8%, Attendance: 34.2%

    Creation of the Gods II: Demonic Confrontation:
    Box office sale: 0.99B RMB, Screening slot: 7.8%, Attendance: 25.1%

    Boonie Bears:Future Reborn:
    Box office sale: 0.5B RMB, Screening slot: 7.8%, Attendance: 26%

    The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero
    Box office sale: 0.59B RMB, Screening slot: 4.1%, Attendance: 27.5%

    The most recent sales stat above provides a clear picture whether LOCH’s screening slot is unfairly distributed or not. Supposedly, the attendance rate and screening slot should match up. Obviously LOCH is outperforming CoG II and BB according the attendance rates even though it is only given the worst screening slot for merely 4.1% and the screening times were all at wee hours like after 10pm or before 9am LMAO.

    Except for #1 blockbuster animation (without human actors) and #2 Detective Chinatown, LOCH should have been given more screening time and better slots for displaying the movies than the other two. LOCH’s performance is actually topping at #3 if gauging the actual financial performance. If the movie theaters indeed want to make money, they soon should modify the screening arrangement and give LOCH a boost for their own profits LOL.

    I’m just using K4 math and very basic financial management knowledge to present a no-brainer analysis. LOCH is a flop MY A$$, you said it !!! LOL. LOCH is looking good and should be able to recoup the production costs or perhaps even gains a lot of profits as long as positive reviews I’ve read so far continue to spread to the movie goers and the fan community. For people in this thread hyping so hyperbolically about the “failure” of LOCH, get yourself with some basic education in math/stat/financial management first. When talking about business successes or flops, You should only rely on simple but real math, not your gossipy tongue and biased mind. LOL.

    • Since you asked for more data, let’s discuss this. Loch has 1.5-2.4‰ more attendance at this one moment in time that you are able to selectively pick and you feel it is entitled to more screenings? Isn’t this within the statistical deviation? I am curious, why didn’t you add in Operation? I have heard that attendance is improving for that one, but I haven’t seen any data charts on this because everything has been measured by tickets sales not attendance rates. Money earned is most important, Loch has been last in daily ticket sales this week.

      There’s an interesting phenomenon that occurs every night from about 11 pm to midnight. Loch has NEGATIVE sales. How can the box office be negative?? ? It’s because fans are robbing Peter to pay Paul. They refund the pre-sale tickets in order to buy for the next day to secure screenings, but then repeat the pattern. An analogy, this is like making a hair dressing appt each day, canceling at the last minute, then rebooking, taking up the person’s time so that they can’t earn money. Why would the hair dresser continue saving the optimal time for you? I would put you at the end of the day so that I can go home early when you inevitably cancel again. Actually, that’s kind. Most people and businesses would blacklist you completely. Rednote has tons of posts about this.
      http://xhslink.com/a/gvsJQskNp3b5

      Even more mind boggling for observers is that when fans refund tickets, they lose about 30‰ to booking fees. I am learning that pre-sale tickets aren’t completely fan purchased. But production companies and celebrity teams (capital) are also part of that. It is a common practice for capital to buy pre-sale to reserve screenings and then refund slowly in order to recoup their costs. But this isn’t usually noticed in the numbers because there would be enough passerbys to offset that into positive territory. But Loch didn’t have enough passerbys and so it’s obvious that fans are trying to game the box office.

      What’s even more outrageous is that capital doesn’t have to pay booking fees, they get their money back 100%! So these rich guys just let fans keep throwing their money into a pit. Some observers feel pity for fans being scammed, many young kids losing their savings and CNY lucky money. Others are more holistic, if feeding their money to capital gives them emotional value, let them. Especially since fans will backlash when reasoned.

      But the more this continues, the more fans whine and make this an indictment against XZ instead of the public just simply not responding to a bad movie, it puts the focus on HIM as a risky investment that doesn’t appeal to passerbys. Fans keep saying people hate him, so investors will believe them. This will affect his future projects.

      A reminder, the theater owner still suffer financial losses. Earning 30% in booking fees is not 100%, especially when you factor in loss of concession sales and employees hired to be idle, when those seats aren’t being filled by real bodies. Better to let Bears parents buy popcorn for their kids then have ghosts occupy theaters.

      Fans are losing a lot of goodwill. Rednote and Douban also have multiple posts about more fans’ antics. The public views his fan base as sad bullies who makes excuses, uses pretzel logic and manicured numbers with all the qualifiers because their idol can’t appeal to passerbys and should be avoided. I don’t have time to summarize. You can explore yourself. And if you are going to breakdown and insult me again, please note that everything I have stated above comes with receipts.

      • @Jmho There. You helped to prove my words, though you try to push all the dirty water to XZ fandom with illogical statements. Why would XZ fandom want a refund for their tickets when they want to increase the sales number? Because the actual fact is the negative sales is due to theaters force refunding LOCH tickets through the underhanded means stated in my previous comments.

        Common practice for capital to buy pre-sale to reserve screenings? LOL you questioned me for evidence of the contracts in your reply to me, but here you are, already acknowledging that it’s common practice beforehand (your reply here is before your reply to me).

        Clear as day that you are just a hater trying to smear LOCH, XZ and his fans.

      • BTW, you appeared very desperate to “prove” LOCH is a flop even though all you described so far can’t be regarded as evidence but nothing more than speculations.

        If I were the manager or the owner of a cinema franchise, I’d completely dismiss your arguments against LOCH cuz they were just a slew of invalid nonsense spamming the entire debate. LOL.

        My main point: LOCH isn’t a flop and continues to perform decent box office even the movie is given less favorable screening arrangement. From business perspectives, LOCH should be given more and better screening slots if cinemas really prioritize revenues as their primary goal. I doubt screening arrangement is purely a profit-oriented contract between theaters and movie production teams.

    • LMAO, you talked about 1.5%-2.4% difference in attendance within “statistical deviation” not meaningful? What nonsense did you try to imply? You haven’t even defined what “statistical deviation” you were talking about. Please be quiet if you know nothing much about data and stat !!!! Just humble yourself to admit you have zero knowledge of the meaning of these numbers. I haven’t touched confidence intervals yet regarding all the estimates (stat). LOL. Excuse me! You’ve been talking to an expert here!

      I don’t think I can educate you the basic theories of stat and survey with just a few lines in an entertainment blog. You need at least stat 101 to get very basic understanding. LOL. There are no points to discuss with you for nothing cuz you just proved yourself so ignorant and all your allegations against LOCH vs. other movies regarding box office sales or whatnot are based upon unfounded fallacy fed by some questionable sources. How can I take you and your pals of the same close-rank seriously? SMH

      • When and where did you cherry pick these numbers? You still didn’t answer why you didn’t include Operation. Doesn’t fit your narrative? I finally saw a chart that includes attendance rates. Feb 5, at 19:45, Loch had 12% attendance rates. That’s dead last. The next one is Operation at 14.6%. 2.6%!!!! Since 1.5-2.4 is so important to you, you must see the significance of 2.6%. Operation needs to clamor for theaters to take away Loch screenings and give it to them. Afterall, their 1st movie brought in 3.65 BILLION compared to xz’s Jade Dynasty 400 million. This track record… Why doesn’t Operation whine about suppression?
        http://xhslink.com/a/Fn3P52QIKpj5

        You have no comment on Loch being negative box office sales every night? Data above.

        Thank you for this opportunity to talk more about numbers. Here’s loch’s box office prediction. This was 2/4. It is less optimistic now.
        http://xhslink.com/a/YvzNTO01Dqj5

        Here’s something netizens dug up because they were tired of hearing fans cry conspiracy. This one I may give Loch the benefit of the doubt, but it does sound more credible than your suppression without evidence claims. Lianrui is the distribution company for Loch and also for Shining For One Thing, which was a CNY movie with 367 million pre-sale. Interesting how 2 CNY movies, distributed by the same company, both had over 300 million pre-sales. Are their fans as powerful as Xz’s? Maybe. Or perhaps a significant portion of pre-sales comes from the company and not fans. The movie ended up making 700 million. Seems like the audience reception was the same. Actually, no. Add in inflation and budget costs, Shining looks profitable comparatively.
        http://xhslink.com/a/8TN5wDjmMqj5
        http://xhslink.com/a/AW903gJaMqj5
        http://xhslink.com/a/Ks0GAHaPerj5

        The stock prices for China Film, the company that made Loch, fell 9.22% on 2/5. Investors must be satisfied. They, like the theaters, don’t like money.
        http://xhslink.com/a/P8chT4Yj0qj5

        Would you like more numbers? If you think these are indicators of success, then I wish XZ will have the same level of success each time. Reminder, these are performance numbers. I am impressed by your EQ where you consistently breakdown and need to personally insult people when your idol’s numbers are presented. Sincerely, you are a great representative of the fan base 👍🏼 Have a nice day.

      • Are you WYB’s fan? Cuz you acted and reacted like one. LOL. I copy pasted the stat from Maoyen on their Weibo site. Weibo didn’t allow me to copy the link since I don’t have a Weibo account.

        There’s no way to even verify if the links from RedNote you referenced are credible or not cuz those snapshots could have been easily photoshopped. However, there are no points for Maoyen to make up numbers on their Weibo official site. You could give me the links to those stat right on the official Maoyen website instead. Then your arguments would be more convincing.

        As I said, these exchanges with XZ antis like you have been futile and unconstructive. Online reviews from all sides including media and netizens about LOCH are polarized. You just believe what you believe. I’ll take whatever is considered credible per my professional judgment as a certified and respected actuary practicing in the US for decades. At this point, I don’t see LOCH a flop yet even though antis like you have been so hyped up by all the negativity about XZ’s works. How many movies are playing during the Lunar New Year period? To say a movie on top 3 (with human actors LOL) a flop is comical.

        What’s your purpose for dissing a movie so desperately that you didn’t even watch? You’re not a fan of any actors, Tsui Hark, or even a fan of Jing Yong, but you have been rambling long a$$ essays trying so hard to dissuade international fans from going to see the movie? Is that your motive? Well, I get it if you’re a WYB fan. LOL. Then have fun talking shit about XZ who forever is a better acting talent than illiterate. LOL.

      • Besides, there were tons of similarly malicious posts inundating Chinese social media with fake numbers alleging that The Youth Memories and The Longest Promise were flops when these two dramas of XZ were airing. But later on, Tencent officially announced TLP the most profitable project of 2023 to the ent company at the end of the year while TYM is still airing two years later now. LOL

        Chinese social media has the least credible sources of information in the whole universe! C netizens in general are as convincing as Bernie Madoff. LOL.

        With such weak “evidence” you snatched from random nugus on the Chinese social media that has no way to validate, do you think you can fool an experienced actuary like me? If so, I’d not be qualified to serve many of my clients who aren’t nobodies. LOL.

  24. https://i.ifeng.com/c/872IepQBlHI

    This popped into my sight today, a Chinese article: Yu Dong “opened up” Maoyan Taopiao Piao: The service fee is too high. Wang Changtian hit back and exposed the hidden rules of film scheduling in theaters.

    Wang Changtian also launched an “offensive” against theater chains and theaters: “I think we should also adjust a phenomenon. The theater itself is responsible for arranging films, but now it charges additional film arrangement fees.”

    He revealed that the money was not included in the accounts and was paid separately by the production company. He also said that during the fiercely competitive Spring Festival period, some films even had to pay hundreds of millions in scheduling fees.

    The “secret news” of this industry made the atmosphere at the scene instantly cold. The service fee is at least clearly marked and can be discussed openly on the table. The “film arrangement fee” seems to have entered a gray area. The pain points of the industry correspond to the hidden rules of the industry, and stubborn diseases are used to fight against stubborn diseases.

    The host immediately turned on the microphone and changed the topic. But this cannot hide the contradictions in the distribution of interests in the film industry.

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