The action movie “Treasure in Front of the Gate”, with an investment of 200 million RMB, premiered on September 20th, the first weekend after the Mid-Autumn Festival. Surprisingly, on its opening day, it only grossed 700,000 RMB at the box office, and as of September 24th, the film had only made 1.36 million RMB in 5 days, with the production company receiving only 460,000 RMB, destined to face financial loss.
According to public information, “Treasure in Front of the Gate” is led by the producer, Xiang Zuo, and his wife, Guo Bitting, among others. The film tells the story of a martial arts gym owner who passed away in Tianjin in 1920, leaving his top disciple to take over, leading to various conflicts within the martial arts world. It was reported in mainland China that the film was initiated in 2021, completed filming in 2022, started promotion in 2023, and finally premiered this year.
Despite having renowned martial arts screenwriter Xu Haofeng as the director and Bruce Lee’s junior martial brother, Leung Siu-Hung, as the action director, and even with Xiang Zuo inviting top celebrities like Zhang Yimou, Andy Lau, Wu Jing, Shen Teng, and Hu Ge to shoot congratulatory videos before the film’s release, the movie only earned 680,000 RMB on its first day of release, ranking 9th in the daily box office rankings, with a 2.1% box office share and 5.7% of the screen time, and the midnight premieres accumulated to just over 700,000 RMB.
In response to this, mainland Chinese self-media “Dede Films” expressed regret, saying, “As a new film, and with Xu Haofeng directing, to only earn 700,000 RMB on the opening day, without even reaching a million.” They concluded that the film was “sentenced to death in just one day.”
By the 4th day of its release, the film had only earned 1.34 million RMB, and after 5 days, it had reached 1.36 million RMB, causing netizens to exclaim “It’s too tragic”, with “Dede Films” sharply stating, “If this movie had a different lead actor, even if Xiang Zuo were replaced by an actor like Andy Lau, I believe the box office results wouldn’t be so poor.”
Reportedly, this new film with a budget of up to 200 million RMB stars Xiang Zuo, Angie Chiu, Tang Shi-Yi, and Renke; additionally, Xiang Zuo also brought in his wife, Guo Bitting.
Before the film’s release, Xiang Zuo appeared confident in interviews. He referred multiple times to Donnie Yen in the film “Ip Man,” stating that Donnie Yen’s acting was only recognized after “Ip Man,” so he had high hopes for “Treasure in Front of the Gate,” believing that his own acting skills could shine in this film, which held significant meaning for him.
Data from mainland Chinese platforms shows that the box office results have been unexpectedly lackluster leading up to the National Day holiday, with the days before “Golden Week” being described as colder than the summer and Mid-Autumn Festival box office periods. On September 24th, the total box office earnings of cinemas in mainland China didn’t even reach 20 million RMB for the entire day, with not a single new film breaking a daily box office of 5 million RMB. Even the highly anticipated film “Treasure in Front of the Gate” only made 49,500 RMB on that day, accounting for 0.7% of screenings and only 0.2% of the box office share, with the lowest attendance rate, suggesting it would be difficult for cinemas to continue screening the movie.
As of September 24th, “Treasure in Front of the Gate” had only accumulated 1.36 million RMB in 5 days, with the predicted final box office not expected to exceed 2 million RMB. If the production costs of the film exceeded 200 million RMB, considering marketing expenses, industry estimates suggest the film would incur losses of at least over 200 million RMB, undoubtedly becoming one of this year’s major box office failures.
Known as the “Strongest Second Generation Star”, Xiang Zuo participated in the reality show “Beyond Infinity Class” this year, sparking discussions with his performance. When addressing the challenges brought by his status as a second-generation star, Xiang Zuo mentioned that most people’s impression of him is mainly as a “martial arts-savvy second-generation star,” labeling him as the son of Xiang Huaqiang and the husband of Guo Bitting, but he hoped people would come to know him as “actor Xiang Zuo.”
At 40 years old, Xiang Zuo, the son of Hong Kong film and television magnate Xiang Huaqiang, who has been actively investing in movies in mainland China in recent years, mentioned that due to his parents, no one had given him the space to act since he was 18, making him feel like a social recluse.
In fact, after playing minor roles in Jet Li’s “Fearless” and “The Warlords,” Xiang Zuo swiftly moved on to star in his own big-budget films, with his first leading role being in the 500 million RMB film “The Legend of the Gods.” Although this movie featured a star-studded cast from almost half of China’s entertainment industry, the final box office fell short of 300 million RMB, becoming a notorious flop in cinematic history.