Controversial Mulan Flops in China
Mulan records a disappointing debut in the Chinese box office. For Disney, the disappointment is all the bigger as the company made some controversial decisions, which invited a lot of criticism, while trying to please the authorities of China.
Last weekend, the new version of Mulan hit the screens of Chinese cinemas. The debut turned out to be surprisingly weak and the revenue from ticket sales amounted to only 23.2 million dollars. This is not a fatal result in itself - studio's Aladdin achieved half the amount - but the expectations were much higher.
Many people expected the movie to break records. After all, it is an adaptation of a story inspired by a Chinese legend, and many popular actors have been featured in the worl. The filmmakers also changed the script in comparison with the animated original, so that the story would be closer to the original ballad about Mulan.
The result of the movie is all the more disappointing for Disney as a lot of effort was put into appealing to the Chinese audience and the authorities of this country. Actress Liu Yifei, who played the lead role, criticized the protests in Hong Kong, and the film's closing credits included thanks to the regional governors of Xinjiang. The latter, in particular, caused great controversy in the West, as this is the location of the camps where Uyghur Muslims are held.
Due to the coronavirus Mulan missed cinemas in the United States and some other countries. In these territories the movie made its debut on September 4 on Disney+. However, the movie is not part of the subscription offer. To get access to it we have to pay 29.99 dollars.
The digital option proved to be quite profitable for the studio. On the first weekend Mulan earned $33.5 million in Disney, over $10 million more than in Chinese cinemas.
The weak result of the film is only partly explained by the situation with the coronavirus. The cinemas in China are already operating normally, but the popularity of this form of entertainment has still not returned to the level before the outbreak of the pandemic. That said, Mulan was also not helped by the fact that the picture has generally been received coldly by viewers than the previous animated adaptations of Disney's animated hits. According to RottenTomatoes, only 51% of users gave the title a positive rating. It is often said that the changes deprived the story of the charm of the original. Professional critics were a bit more forgiving.
