According to 163, the film Legend of the Dragon, produced by Donnie Yen and starring the lead role, has grossed approximately 80 million CNY in its first month of release. Although it had a production budget of up to 350 million CNY, the projected revenue needed to break even, according to Maoyan, is around 1 billion CNY. Therefore, the film would need to earn at least 270 million CNY, not including advertising costs and other expenses.
In Chinese tradition, a work must not only earn revenue from ticket sales but also account for advertising costs, taxes, profit-sharing with cinemas, and other miscellaneous expenses. Thus, a film aims to recover its production costs by achieving revenue three times higher than its initial budget.
In recent years, the works of Donnie Yen have struggled, even failing to break even when considering other costs. However, his projects are known to be high-budget action films that require significant investment. As a result, any film featuring the martial arts star carries high expectations.
According to statistics from Sohu, since starting his career in 2015, Donnie Yen’s films have faced criticism for their low quality. Over the past nine years, the actor has starred in 13 films that have been criticized for their quality. Yen’s comedy style has become monotonous. The actor, who is now over 70 years old, still attempts to perform action scenes, but audiences are less interested in the film’s plot and only desire to see a good production. Donnie Yen focuses more on martial arts elements but often overlooks the need for an engaging storyline.
For many years, no work by Donnie Yen has received a rating above 5/10 on Douban. This indicates that audiences have lost interest in his films, and the declining popularity of the martial arts star is becoming apparent.
In the past six years, Donnie Yen has reportedly lost 1.9 billion CNY (over 260 million USD) from his films. Among them, Special Forces grossed 300 million CNY. Detective Chinatown earned only 160 million CNY, while its production cost was 350 million CNY. Long and Unseen also featured collaborations with Hollywood stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Charles Dance, grossing only 9.19 million USD worldwide, with a production cost of 50 million USD, resulting in a loss of over 45 million USD.
At the end of 2022, Donnie Yen starred in Long Ma Spirit, which only grossed 210 million CNY, a loss of over 230 million CNY. Most recently, the film Hidden Strike was a significant failure. The film did not release in China, only showing overseas, and earned 5 million USD, leading to Donnie Yen’s loss of over 500 million CNY (nearly 70 million USD). Currently, Legend of the Dragon is also causing the actor to incur losses.
Donnie Yen was once a symbol of pride for Chinese cinema. He is the only Chinese-speaking actor to be nominated for an Oscar. In the peak of his career, many of his films topped box office charts. His films are not only popular in China but also globally. However, due to his unchanging filmmaking style for many years, the repetitive script themes, and his choice of poorly performing co-stars, Donnie Yen’s films have suffered in quality.
“The films of Donnie Yen are here but no one cares, which is a worrying reality,” commented QQ.
