The Hollywood action film “Karate Kid: Legends” starring Jackie Chan, with an investment of $45 million (approximately HK$350 million), recently suffered a dismal defeat in the Hong Kong film market. The movie premiered in Hong Kong on June 5th and as of 6:00 pm on June 6th, it only garnered $8,772 (around HK$69,000) in box office earnings over two days.
Titled “Karate Kid: Legends” in Hong Kong, the film, which claims to integrate Kung Fu and Karate, earned only $6,060 (approximately HK$47,500) on its opening day in Hong Kong on June 5th. It not only failed to surpass Hollywood blockbusters like “Ballerina,” “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” and “Lilo & Stitch,” but also trailed behind the Hong Kong movie “Unforgiven,” starring Anthony Wong, ranking sixth on the daily box office chart.
On the second day, the daily box office of “Karate Kid: Legends” in Hong Kong dropped to $2,700. As a result, the total box office earnings of the film in Hong Kong over two days amounted to only $8,772, equivalent to HK$69,000. Industry insiders estimate that at this rate, the final box office gross of “Karate Kid: Legends” in Hong Kong will not exceed HK$1 million.
Aside from Hong Kong, “Karate Kid: Legends” is set to premiere in mainland China on June 7th. As of now, the film’s advance ticket sales in China are only 820,000 RMB, indicating that reaching 20 million RMB at the Chinese box office may be a challenge.
Of note, Jackie Chan has not had a box office hit in recent years. In 2017, films like “Kung Fu Yoga” and “The Foreigner” propelled him to the peak of the mainland Chinese market, but his success quickly declined with subsequent films like “Bleeding Steel,” “Vanguard,” and “Vanguard: The Mystery of the Dragon Seal” seeing diminishing returns.
Last year, Jackie Chan’s fantasy action film “Vanguard” with an investment of 360 million RMB suffered a major flop after its release in mainland China. The film only grossed 79.9 million RMB in a month, estimating a loss exceeding 300 million RMB. This disappointing performance surpassed that of “Mr. Canton and Lady Rose,” making Chan the actor with the highest annual losses.
In Hong Kong, Jackie Chan has not had a film that surpassed the 5 million ticket sales mark for a long time. With “Karate Kid: Legends” performing even worse in Hong Kong, it may break the record for the lowest box office earnings of Jackie Chan’s starring movies. Netizens lamented: “It seems that those once iconic Hong Kong superstars no longer have a market in Hong Kong.”