Three years after being put on hold, the mainland Chinese ancient costume war epic film “Heroes of Dunhuang” encountered a major setback after its release on September 25. The film had a budget of up to 300 million yuan, but so far, after being in theaters for 20 days, it has only grossed 17.7 million yuan, leading to a significant drop in the stock price of the film’s main controlling company, “Banacheng”.
“Heroes of Dunhuang” is directed by Cao Dun and written by well-known writer Ma Boyong, starring actors such as Zhang Yu, Dou Xiao, Lei Jiayin, and Zhang Yifan.
The film was originally set in the late Tang Dynasty, depicting General Zhang Yichao leading the Return Righteous Army to resist the Tubo rule and reclaim the Hexi region in a historical context. However, when officially released, crucial historical elements in the film were drastically altered. The historical figure “Zhang Yichao” was renamed to “Zhang Youcheng,” and Dunhuang, historically known as “Shazhou,” was changed to “Mozhou,” while the enemy forces, Tubo army, were ambiguously portrayed as the vague “Hexi bandits.”
Many Chinese netizens criticized the film, questioning why, if it is based on real historical events, even the hero’s real name could not be retained. Some viewers also believed that these modifications stripped the historical story, that originally involved ethnicity, politics, and war, of its depth. Many history buffs doubted, “Can this still be considered a historical film?”
Originally scheduled for release on December 22, 2023, “Heroes of Dunhuang” was suddenly withdrawn two days before the premiere, only to be rescheduled for release in late September this year, almost without proper promotional efforts. The presale performance was dismal, resulting in a situation where although the film was allocated to over 17% of theaters, the average number of viewers per screening was scant, leading to awkward situations where “projectionists outnumbered the audience”.
Speculations from the industry suggest that the multiple alterations in the film may be related to highly sensitive historical themes such as complex ethnic history, political place names, and border narratives. However, the actual reasons for the withdrawal and modifications have not been clarified by the film’s production team.
According to reports from Chinese media, since the main character “Zhang Yichao” was ultimately renamed as the fictitious “Zhang Youcheng” and the character’s identity was downgraded and blurred, actors were forced to do extensive voice dubbing in post-production to match the changes in names and places that did not align with the original dialogue.
The production team initially had grand ambitions, aiming to create a monumental epic film confronting history and portraying the passionate borderlands of the late Tang Dynasty. However, under the current film and television censorship environment, “Han-Tibetan historical relations,” “borderland ethnic conflicts,” and the “characterization of real historical figures” are considered high-risk red lines. In order to secure the release of the film, the production had to compromise for “safe choices,” disintegrating the true epic historical film of the late Tang Dynasty into a “renaming characters, turning enemies into bandits, and fictionalizing place names” road action movie.
Adding to the embarrassment, the film not only suffered a critical backlash but also had extremely lackluster box office performance. Data from the Chinese movie platform “Maoyan” indicates that on the first day of release, “Heroes of Dunhuang” grossed about 8.32 million yuan, with an accumulated box office of about 14.78 million yuan during the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival, and total gross earnings of only 17.7 million yuan up to now, even falling short in comparison to the re-release of the Marvel film “Avengers: Endgame”.
Industry estimates suggest that the overall production and promotion investment for “Heroes of Dunhuang” is approximately 300 million yuan. According to the theater revenue-sharing rules, in order to break even, the total box office revenue would need to reach at least 770 million yuan. Based on the current ultimate forecast of less than 50 million yuan, “Heroes of Dunhuang” is projected to incur staggering losses of over 250-280 million yuan, making it undoubtedly the “first box office disaster” of the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival and even the entire year.