In the news from Epoch Times on October 2, 2026, mainland Chinese actor Xiao Shenyang (Little Shenyang) is fulfilling his wife Shen Chunyang’s directorial dream. The couple has invested a significant amount of money and invited friends to shoot the comedy film “What Does It Mean to Be a Couple.” The film is scheduled to be released during the 2026 National Day holiday period, with pre-sales amounting to only 9.4 million yuan.
“What Does It Mean to Be a Couple” tells the story of a middle-aged couple experiencing the “7-year itch.” During a divorce cooling-off period, they unexpectedly switch souls and enter each other’s lives, leading to a series of hilarious incidents. The film’s title is derived from the common phrase “What do you mean” used by the couple during arguments and is said to mimic the Hollywood movie “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” with the real couple’s chemistry being a major selling point.
Xiao Shenyang, who plays the male lead, has utilized his over 20 years of relationships in the industry to support his wife and brought in dozens of top domestic comedy actors, including Jia Bing, Wei Xiang, Yu Yang, and Xu Zhisheng. Despite the film receiving a significant 20.8% share of screenings on its opening day due to the star-studded cast, “What Does It Mean to Be a Couple” only managed to secure a pre-sale box office of 9.4 million yuan.
Critics have pointed out that since Xiao Shenyang rose to fame with his skit “Not Bad for Money” on the Spring Festival Gala in 2009, many of the films he has starred in subsequently have ended up with dismal box office performances. For instance, his self-directed and acted film “Crossing the River with Fierce Insects” in 2018 received a rating of only 3.7 on Douban and was dubbed the worst film of the year. In 2025, his film “Extraordinary Trade,” with an investment of 100 million yuan, only brought in 15,000 yuan on its opening day and a total of 76,000 yuan in three days. His film completed in 2022, “The Luminous Incident of Xiangshan,” with a budget exceeding one hundred million yuan, earned less than one million yuan at the box office after being shelved for three years. On the other hand, Shen Chunyang has acted in only a few films before transitioning to directing, starting with a major film during the National Day holiday, indicating a lack of directorial experience.
Of course, the underwhelming pre-sales of “What Does It Mean to Be a Couple” starring Xiao Shenyang is not an isolated case but rather a reflection of the overall poor performance of this year’s National Day holiday films in mainland China. As of September 30, the total pre-sale box office for all new films during the National Day holiday period in mainland China was only around 66 million yuan, less than half of the same period last year, marking a new low in recent years.
Critics have argued that the “husband and wife collaboration/family and friends taking charge of core creative roles” model of Xiao Shenyang and Shen Chunyang, who lack formal training in film production, is viewed by the market and fans as a mere money-making or self-indulgence endeavor. Some netizens have joked that Xiao Shenyang’s lavishly supporting his wife as a director is akin to “pursuing his wife’s dreams as his own project,” teasing him for voluntarily undertaking the most easily criticized aspect of the production—the casting, acting in the lead role without pay, and willingly being directed by his wife on set.