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"Asura" pulled from cinemas after mediocre box office sales

22 Jul – It was recently reported that "Asura" - the most expensive film ever made in China, has recently been pulled from cinemas.

As reported on Epoch Times, the movie which boasts a star-studded line-up and advanced special effects, was reportedly withdrawn from theatres after it failed to earn more than RMB 50 million three days into its release, despite reportedly costing RMB 750 million to make.

The movie, which was produced by Yang Zhenjian and serves as the directorial debut of stunt coordinator Peng Zhang, stars Carina Lau and Tony Leung Kar Fai as two of the heads of the titular three-headed demigod.

The producer also hired a large number of top Hollywood special effects team to realise the project, including Mexican visual effects master Charlie Iturriaga ("Deadpool", "X-Men: Days of Future Past"), costume designer Ngila Dickson ("The Lord of the Rings'), and audio director Martin Mernandez ("The Revenant").

However, despite the amazing line-up, the movie didn't receive the great reception as it expected. The movie only scored 3.1 points in Chinese movie rating site Douban, and 4.9 points on Maoyan.

In a statement released on 15 July, the movie stated that the investors have decided to pull the movie from theatres for "some changes".

However, some speculated that the film may have been sabotaged by fake reviewers, while others are saying that it was just bad timing and bad decision on the producers' part.

(Photo Source: Carina Lau Instagram)