LOL @ them rejecting she-chink hero.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3852975&forum_id=2#35108250)

If so, 180

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3852975&forum_id=2#35108876)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3852975&forum_id=2#35108775)

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Falls Short in China

The movie opened to just $28.7 million, a sign Disney hasn’t hooked Chinese moviegoers yet

Actors Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill pose for pictures as they arrive for the Chinese premiere of 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' in Shanghai.

Actors Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill pose for pictures as they arrive for the Chinese premiere of 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' in Shanghai. PHOTO: ALY SONG/REUTERS

By Ben Fritz

Jan. 7, 2018 1:51 p.m. ET

20 COMMENTS

The Force is weak in China.

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” opened to a soft $28.7 million in China this weekend, less than the prior two installments in the series. That signals that Walt Disney Co. DIS -1.43% hasn’t succeeded in its efforts to gain momentum for a prized franchise in the world’s second-largest movie market, where it previously wasn’t well known.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” opened to $52.5 million over two days in 2016 and last year’s spinoff “Rogue One” took in $32.4 million on its first three-day weekend.

After the first six “Star Wars” movies went virtually unseen in the previously closed-off Chinese market, Disney DIS -1.43% pulled out all the stops to try to generate interest in droids, lightsabers and the force, hosting splashy premieres and publicity stunts, commissioning pop songs and building an area to teach visitors to its new Shanghai theme park about the series.

Few expected it would be an instant smash, but the fact that “The Last Jedi” underperformed even last year’s “Rogue One,” which it is beating in most of the rest of the world, indicates Chinese audiences still aren’t taking to the Skywalker saga. The new movie was No. 2 behind the local comedy “The Ex-File: The Return of the Exes.”

Disney didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Worldwide, “The Last Jedi” has now grossed just over $1.2 billion, making it the 13th highest grossing film of all time and another massive success for Disney.

Domestically, many in Hollywood were unsure before the film opened Dec. 15 whether it would perform closer to “The Force Awakens,” another sequel in the franchise’s primary story line but the first new “Star Wars” film in a decade, or last year’s spinoff “Rogue One.”

The answer has turned out to be somewhere in the middle. After opening to $220 million, close to “The Force Awakens’” $248 million and well above “Rogue One’s” $155.1 million, “The Last Jedi” has slowed down.

This weekend it grossed an estimated $23.6 million in the U.S. and Canada. That is barely above the $22.1 million “Rogue One” collected on its fourth weekend in theaters and well behind the $42.4 million “The Force Awakens” grossed.

The disparity could be due to critical opinions by some hard-core “Star Wars” fans of the new movie, despite its strong reviews and an A audience rating from market research firm CinemaScore, or overall less excitement about the third movie in three years.

The No. 1 movie in theaters this weekend was the family comedy “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” which has had a remarkable run since opening the Wednesday before Christmas. Its tickets sales dropped only 28% from last weekend, compared with 55% for “The Last Jedi,” as it grossed $36 million. The restart of a franchise last seen in 1995, with new stars Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, has been a major hit for Sony Pictures Entertainment and has now grossed $514 million world-wide.

The horror sequel “Insidious: The Last Key,” produced by Sony with Blumhouse Productions and released domestically by Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures, opened to $29.3 million, a healthy start given its low budget.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3852975&forum_id=2#35111825)

many of the aspects of the movie that incorrectly struck XO brehs as pandering to the Chinese (like the fat gutter asian glorping BBC) were actually tests similar to the ones the movie issued to western nerds... yes they'll all eat rancid shit with a spoon as long as it's flavored with popular IP and sprinkled with cgi, but HOW big and steaming a pile of sjw shit can be served up before some people start saying no thanks

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3852975&forum_id=2#35112306)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFI_iu4SjiE

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3852975&forum_id=2#35114744)

Disney may have had new hope for the Star Wars film franchise in the world’s largest movie market, but a subpar opening weekend in China suggests cinemagoers are feeling less than nostalgic for “The Last Jedi.”

The eighth chapter of the beloved sci-fi series made a disappointing $28.7 million in its China debut last weekend — far less than its two most recent predecessors, stand-alone title “Rogue One” and seventh episode “The Force Awakens,” which raked in $30 million and $52 million, respectively.

For China’s small but enthusiastic subculture of Star Wars fans, the latest film was a visual feast hampered by a protracted plot and uninspired characters. On popular review website Douban, the new film is rated a fairly weak 7.3, based on over 43,000 reviews. The most upvoted review complains that “the whole film really insults the IQ of its audience,” and demands to know how the universe could possibly be ruled by such an incompetent Galactic Empire. “In Star Wars, it seems only Darth Vader had a brain — it’s such a shame he’s already dead,” the reviewer concludes.

These actors aren’t very beautiful, which may deter a lot of Chinese from seeing the recent films.

- Chen Tao, manager of fan forum Star Wars China

Throughout the weekend, Star Wars did not appear among the trending topics on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblog site. Instead, Weibo users seemed more interested in a domestic film, “The Ex-File 3: The Return of the Exes,” a romantic comedy that brought in an impressive $86.7 million on its second weekend.

Star Wars has struggled to gain traction in China since the original trilogy was permitted to screen in the 1990s, more than a decade after the first film’s release in 1977. Disney’s 2015 series reboot, “The Force Awakens,” failed to lure the Chinese masses, even with a huge marketing push that involved 500 stormtroopers marching along the Great Wall.

This time, however, Disney kept its marketing mettle in check, to fans’ apparent relief. Under a trailer posted to the official Star Wars Weibo account, one highly upvoted comment pleaded: “No. 1, please don’t get any ‘little fresh meats’ to act as ambassadors anymore. No. 2, could you leave enough space for the black dude?” In “The Force Awakens” promotional posters for the Chinese market, the image of Finn — played by John Boyega, a British actor with Nigerian ancestry — was greatly reduced in size compared with the same poster for the U.S. market.

Chen Tao, a project manager and longtime Star Wars aficionado who runs the fan forum Star Wars China, told Sixth Tone that the franchise has failed to live up to expectations in China because it arrived late to the market: Many potential viewers, upon hearing that a recently released film is actually the seventh or eighth in a series, feel they have too much catching up to do.

Other factors, according to Chen, include Chinese audiences’ preference for physically attractive protagonists and stories rooted in reality. He points out that, for example, superhero films from Marvel — a Disney cash cow that has enjoyed great success in China — feature recognizable settings, such as New York and even China, and are filled with larger-than-life leads who meet the public’s aesthetic standards. The Star Wars characters, meanwhile, look ordinary by comparison.

“These actors aren’t very beautiful, which may deter a lot of Chinese from seeing the recent films,” said Chen. “We fans often joke that if Finn were played by Will Smith, Chinese people might be more inclined to watch it — because he’s very handsome.”

For a lot of [Chinese] fans, the story of ‘Rogue One’ made us think of our own country’s revolutionary history.

- Chen Tao, manager of fan forum Star Wars China

Like the heroic Rebel Alliance, China’s Star Wars fans are a small but feisty bunch, said Chen — mostly university-educated urbanites with some English ability, in his observation. Chen meets with other fans only a couple of times a year, usually in groups of fewer than 20, at cosplay-heavy events such as Shanghai Comic Con or just for a no-frills meal out.

Wang Jiachen is a kindergarten teacher by day and a self-styled “real-life Jedi” by night: He meets weekly with fellow enthusiasts from the Shanghai Jedi Order to spar with lightsabers. The group, whose members on social media app WeChat exceed 200, occasionally perform choreographed battles at shopping malls and private events. New members are welcome, provided they bring their own lightsabers as well as their own Jedi or Sith costumes — depending on their affiliation with the competing factions in the saga.

“I’m a Jedi,” Wang explained, “so I bought a lot of Jedi lightsabers, but our group doesn’t strictly force members to belong to either the light or dark side.” He told Sixth Tone he joined the order in 2015, when he was looking for others to join him in seeing “The Force Awakens.”

To watch the new film in style, many Star Wars fans, including Wang and his troupe of cosplaying warriors, organized private screenings to which they could show up in full Rebel or Empire regalia, with their arsenals of weapons in tow.

Echoing the sentiments of many fellow fans, Wang and Chen both described the new film as visually appealing but riddled with issues such as atypical behavior from established characters. Luke Skywalker was particularly disappointing to Wang, who felt that the character’s brooding behavior didn’t jibe with the resilience and fearless optimism of the young Luke he had come to know from the original trilogy.

While last year’s film, “Rogue One,” wasn’t a box office success either, it was still enthusiastically received by China’s Star Wars fans. Chen appreciated the film’s positivity and its prevailing sense of hope. “For a lot of fans, the story of ‘Rogue One’ made us think of our own country’s revolutionary history,” he said. “A lot of characters in it were just like the Communist Party members who sacrificed themselves for the revolution.”

Despite the latest film’s well-publicized shortcomings and low Chinese box office earnings, Wang isn’t too down on “The Last Jedi.” “Overall, I still think the movie does have its innovative aspects,” he said. “I can see that it wants to break free from the old mold and remake itself.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3852975&forum_id=2#35130430)

Other factors, according to Chen, include Chinese audiences’ preference for physically attractive protagonists

Other factors, according to Chen, include Chinese audiences’ preference for physically attractive protagonists

Other factors, according to Chen, include Chinese audiences’ preference for physically attractive protagonists

Other factors, according to Chen, include Chinese audiences’ preference for physically attractive protagonists

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3852975&forum_id=2#35130490)