Renowned director Chen Sicheng, known as the “Billionaire Director,” premiered his new film “Malice” in mainland China on July 5th. However, the film only earned 3.95 million yuan at the box office in its first nine hours, falling far short of expectations. On that day, the top three spots on the mainland box office charts were still dominated by three imported films, including “Jurassic World: Rebirth”.
Public information reveals that “Malice,” written and produced by Chen Sicheng, and starring Zhang Xiaofei, revolves around a mysterious double suicide case at Binjiang Third Hospital. Senior media personality Ye Pan (played by Zhang Xiaofei) identifies nurse Li Yue and her mother You Xi as suspects during the investigation, sparking public outrage and escalating the situation out of control. With a production cost of 200 million yuan, the film only grossed 3.95 million on its opening day of July 5th. Despite accounting for 19.8% of the screenings, second only to “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” the film’s box office share was only 8.6%, leading to an inverted ratio of screenings to box office earnings on the premiere day.
Box office platform data shows that even with nearly two weeks of preview screenings, “Malice” has only accumulated a total box office of 37.48 million yuan, significantly trailing behind imported films such as “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” “Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween,” and “F1”. Industry estimates suggest that at this rate, “Malice” may struggle to reach the 200 million yuan benchmark and recovering the production cost seems like a distant possibility.
Another domestically produced film similar to “Malice,” named “From Zero to Hero,” which also had preview screenings for two weeks, premiered on July 5th with an underwhelming box office performance. Directed by Rao Xiaozhi and starring Zhang Yu and Ren Suxi, the film had a 15.3% screening share on its first day, with only a 3.7% occupancy rate. It grossed 9.92 million yuan on the premiere day, bringing its total earnings to 32.79 million yuan, with a projected final box office revenue of possibly just 70 million yuan.
Among the five films premiered on the same day in mainland cinemas, Hollywood blockbuster “Jurassic World: Rebirth” demonstrated the strongest performance with a total box office of 237 million yuan in four days, potentially exceeding 600 million yuan in the end. Besides, Brad Pitt’s “F1” had a mere 4.3% screening share but a leading 17.5% audience occupancy rate, earning 21.28 million yuan in a single day and a cumulative total of 133 million yuan in nine days.
With “Malice” having a production cost exceeding 200 million yuan, some netizens questioned why a drama film would have such astounding production expenses. The self-media outlet “Reliable Movie” explained that the high costs stem from the significant fees demanded by Chen Sicheng and Zhang Xiaofei. It was pointed out that in previous films, such as “Lost in Russia,” with a cost of 220 million yuan, the director and screenwriter Xu Zheng alone received 87 million yuan. This explains why productions like “Hot and Spicy” and “Blooming Red” appear cost-effective on the surface but have hefty budgets nearing four to five hundred million yuan.
As the first director in Chinese film history to surpass a box office of ten billion yuan, Chen Sicheng faced box office disappointment last year with his film “Decryption”. Despite the film’s extravagant budget of 500 million yuan and a decade-long production, the investors who aimed for a target box office of 3.5 billion yuan only managed to earn 334 million yuan, resulting in an estimated loss of at least 300 million yuan.