1942 debut flops, Huayi Brothers plunges

Shenzhen-listed entertainment company Huayi Brothers Media Corp closed down by 10 percent Friday, the maximum daily decline allowed on the Chinese stock market, because the debut of its 200 million yuan ($32.1 million) feature Back to 1942 disappointed both the audience and investors, the Shanghai-based National Business Daily (NBD) reported over the weekend.

The famine-themed blockbuster scored less than 6 points out of 10 on movie.douban.com, a popular domestic film rating website, with 59 percent of users giving it a score of only 1 point, Beijing-based entertainment industry consultancy Entgroup International Consulting said on its website Friday.

Data from mtime.com, another domestic online film information provider, showed Sunday that the Huayi Brothers movie scored 6.9 out of 10 points, compared with 9 points for the 3-D Hollywood adventure Life of Pi.

Huayi Brothers issued an impromptu statement late Friday, saying that Back to 1942 made 26 million yuan on its premiere.

Huayi Brothers could not be reached for comment by press time.

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