Despite critical acclaim and a Golden Globe win for Awkwafina, ‘The Farewell’ tanked during its opening weekend in China and failed to break even into the top 10.
The Farewell star Awkwafina made history by becoming the first actress of Asian descent to win a Golden Globe, but her victory didn’t seem to generate enough interest among moviegoers in China.
Despite near universal critical acclaim and a China-set story, The Farewell bombed at the Chinese box office, making just $290,000 during its opening weekend, according to box office tracker Ent Group.
In the United States, The Farewell has earned $17.6 million.
The flop was widely anticipated as advance ticket sales for opening day amounted to only $7,350 by the end of Wednesday. Seats had been on presale since Nov. 14.
Directed by Lulu Wang, The Farewell tells the touching story of a Chinese-American writer, Billi (played by Awkwafina), who returns to China to spend time with her grandmother, who has been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Billi’s family travels to the grandmother’s home in Changchun, in China’s northeast, to stage a fake wedding between her cousin and his Japanese girlfriend so that the entire extended family can bid the grandmother a final farewell.
‘The Farewell’ failed to resonate with Chinese audiences, who might have perceived the story as too American.
Although the film was shot on location in Changchun and 80% of the dialogue is in Mandarin Chinese, The Farewell failed to resonate with Chinese audiences, who might have perceived the story as too American.
(Read more: ‘The Farewell’ is up for best ‘foreign’ film. Chinese audiences don’t think it should be.)
The Farewell barely made a dent in the Chinese box office, where the top-grossing films—a local rom-com called Adoring and the final installment of the Ip Man saga—made $9 million and $8.5 million over the weekend.
Industry analysts compared it to the cool reception of Crazy Rich Asian when it was released in China in 2018.
Having grossed more than $236 million worldwide—making it the highest-grossing romantic comedy in a decade—Crazy Rich Asians made only $870,000 on its opening weekend in China.
(Read more: Chinese audiences offended by ‘Crazy Rich Asians’)
In a story in November about why films about Asian-Americans don’t resonate with Chinese audiences, Chinese tech media site 36kr predicted that The Farewell as an indie film would have a tough time in China.
“Compared to Crazy Rich Asians, The Farewell’s brand awareness is much lower,” the story said. “Few theaters will screen it.”
Only 1.3% of available slots—amounting to about 3,500 screenings—in Chinese cinemas on Friday were dedicated to ‘The Farewell.’
Only 1.3% of available slots—amounting to about 3,500 screenings—in Chinese cinemas on Friday were dedicated to The Farewell, according to Maoyan, the film’s distributor in China.
For all the weak ticket sales, The Farewell has had a better critical reception in China than Crazy Rich Asians.
While the latter scored only 6.1 out of 10 on the film rating website Douban, The Farewell has a score of 7.6.
Maoyan also released a series of promos to try and make the film relatable to Chinese audiences. One video of grandparents and their grandchildren sharing secrets they’ve kept from each other went viral on the Chinese internet.
But Wang, the director, has also acknowledged that the film’s positive reception in the United States might not translate to box office success in China.
But Wang, the director, has also acknowledged that the film’s positive reception in the United States might not translate to box office success in China.
“We’ve gotten a really tremendous response so far,” she told Variety on the red carpet at the Golden Globes last week. “But they’ll also see it’s not really a fully Chinese movie, and I’m really interested to see how they respond to that.”
Jane Zheng, a China-based producer for Seesaw Productions, which co-produced The Farewell, has been studying what kinds of movies can appeal to both Chinese and American audiences.
“Although we say good movies can travel [across cultures], audiences [in different places] have their own movie-viewing habits.”
“Although we say good movies can travel [across cultures], audiences [in different places] have their own movie-viewing habits,” she told the South China Morning Post. “As a producer, we have to be clear about the movie’s target market.”
(Read more: Can an Asian-American film do well in China?)
The Farewell, she said, was aimed at the North American market, adding that the production team decided against changing the film’s script to cater to Chinese demands, including having a different actress play Billi, making her less Westernized, and giving her a boyfriend.
“Billi is based on director Lulu Wang’s own story,” Zheng said. “If we make her more Chinese or get Angelababy to play her, it will no longer be Wang’s life.”
Wang told the Post she had neither the American nor Chinese audience in mind when she made the movie.
“I made it for myself, my family and the people who are like me, who have one foot in America and [another] in China.”
“I made it for myself, my family and the people who are like me, who have one foot in America and [another] in China,” she said. “The key is not to make movies to appeal to a particular market but to make something from the heart that makes you laugh, cry, and feel human.”
At the Globes, Wang told Variety that although The Farewell was “a little bit more Chinese” than Crazy Rich Asians, “it's still told through the perspective of an American woman.”
Adapted from an article first published in the South China Morning Post.