China's most expensive fantasy epic film Asura pulled after disastrous opening weekend at box office

Beijing: China’s most expensive fantasy epic film Asura has been pulled from cinemas after a dismal opening weekend, a media report said on 17 July. [caption id=“attachment_4760891” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still from Asura. Image from Twitter[/caption] The 750 million yuan ($112 million) film reportedly made less than 50 million yuan on its weekend debut, the BBC reported. The movie is loosely based on Buddhist mythology and is set in a fictional world ruled by six regimes, including the realm ruled by a greedy, three-headed king (a lso named Asura) who plots to invade Tian (heaven), a sacred land and a symbol of goodness and truth. Producers are reportedly planning to rework the movie and release it again at a later date. Unless the film achieves much greater success the second time round, Asura’s $105 million loss would make it one of the biggest flops in movie history. The elaborate fantasy film was backed by some of China’s major movie companies: Alibaba Pictures, Zhenjian Film Studio and Ningxia Film Group. Before its release, the film was showered with praise by state media, with the China Daily calling it the “most hotly anticipated blockbuster of China’s competitive summer season.” According to the same report, posts regarding the film on Weibo had garnered 390 million views by 10 July. Almost 1,800 articles on public WeChat accounts, had  1.22 million clicks in the past three months. (With inputs from Indo-Asian News Service)