1942 debut flops, Huayi Brothers plunges (2)

The statement caused some domestic experts to speculate that the film's negative reviews and comparatively poor box office performance disapointed investors.

The company's fairy fantasy Painted Skin: The Resurrection debuted in the summer to 70 million yuan in box office revenues on the first day, according to the NBD.

And its film Aftershock, directed by Back to 1942 director Feng Xiaogang, raked in 36.3 million yuan in ticket sales at its 2010 debut.

According to a new box office revenue sharing agreement signed on November 24 between Huayi Brothers and cinemas such as Wanda Cinemas, Huayi Brothers, which is also the distributor of the film, is likely to get over 44.25 percent of the total box office revenues of Back to 1942, up from 43 percent in a previous agreement, analysts at China Securities Co wrote in a report Thursday, based on an estimation that the film's total ticket sales would surpass 800 million yuan.

"The drop in Huayi's share prices may be mainly caused by domestic cinemas that are not satisfied with the new box office sharing method. Many domestic cinemas are also shareholders in Huayi," Wei Guangju, an industry expert from Adfaith Management Consulting, told the Global Times Sunday.

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