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Three and a half months after its release in the United States, "Crazy Rich Asians" finally arrives in China on Friday. But it remains to be seen if the film can be equally successful in the world's second largest film market.
At first glance, Cinderella's story of a Sino-American scholar who unknowingly fell for one of the richest and most eligible singles in Asia might seem like a natural success in the middle empire, with his fully Asian distribution, its Asian framework, its dialogue. Chinese and a happy ending.
But what made the film so innovative and distinctive in Hollywood – its range of Asian actors – is nothing new in China, where almost all theatrical releases feature mainly Asian talent. The representation of opulence and wealth is also badly displayed at a time when the communist government is attacking real and fictitious excesses.
And the release in China comes well after the end of the buzz around the film in the rest of the world. On Maoyan's main Chinese ticketing platform, thousands of additional users have indicated that they would like to see Bollywood's comedy drama "102 Not Out" and Twenty's teen romance in place of Crazy Rich Asians, all three open on Friday.
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"I do not think this one will do well at the box office here," said a Chinese operator, which nevertheless plans to allocate about 10% to 20% of the company's screens to the film. "I do not think the subject can be told to young audiences in China. I do not know how they will find this interesting story. "
Many people wanting to see the film would have already viewed it online, she added.
Relatives of the production team said they had no way of predicting the film's performance, as no directly comparable titles were released recently in China. The country sets a quota on the number of foreign films that it authorizes and rarely imports romantic comedies. "We are just very happy to be in," said a source close to the production Variety.
The closest comparisons could be with "Mamma Mia 2", launched in China in August, or "I Feel Pretty" by Amy Schumer, released in September. Both had a catastrophic return of $ 602,000 and $ 206,000, respectively. Another point of comparison could be the comedian "The spy who dumped me", which still reported only $ 8.9 million.
Kevin Kwan's original novel "Crazy Rich Asians" has never been a phenomenon in China, where it can not even be bought in Mandarin, and the cast of the film is little known to the Chinese public, at the Except Michelle Yeoh, who has a loyal fan base. In the Chinese marketing poster, Yeoh is placed near the center.
While the film may well showcase extravagant wealth, its marketing in China has sought to highlight aspects more in line with the Communist regime's "core socialist values" – a potentially clever decision as authorities crack down on spending. Luxury content officials deemed too entertaining or focused on accumulating wealth.
Last week in Beijing, director Jon M. Chu essentially disavowed every word of the title of the film. "The film is a satire," Chu told the Global Times. "It's not about" rich fools "or Asians," it's the opposite of that. This is the way all these things mean nothing and it comes down to our own relationships and the search for love and our own families. "
Although the title "Crazy Rich Asians" (in Chinese) was used for the film in Taiwan and Hong Kong, it was replaced in mainland China by what is translated into English as "An unexpected romance in search of 'gold,' the characters.
Warner Bros. even used terminology approved by the Communist Party to describe the film. "The American humor is perfectly combined with the Chinese style, and the independence and" positive energy "of the female characters are particularly touching," the studio wrote on its official Weibo social network account, using a sentence referring to sunny and inspiring material preferred by the Chinese authorities.
The reactions of Chinese viewers who have already seen the film have been mixed. Users of the Douban key platform gave it an average score of 6.2 out of 10.It begins with a quote from Napoleon who focuses on the Middle Kingdom ("Let China sleep, because it will wake up, it will wake up the world"), many people on the mainland had the impression of nothing to see with themselves.
"The opening quote is extremely misleading: The rise of China has no connection with this deceptive film full of stereotypes," wrote a user, adding that the focus on popular subjects of ethnicity and American identity gave the impression that the film had "built a church, I hung some red lanterns and sang some songs about the glory of the To criticize the film in the following manner: "A group of foreigners with Asian faces are falling into a pile of money."
But others remained enthusiastic about the idea of an Asian breakthrough in Hollywood. Whatever the problem, a user wrote, "Let's start by celebrating and supporting the box office, I guess, so we can get more news from Asia."
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