Jack Ma's trillion-dollar blockbuster stops showing after 3 days in theaters

"Asura" (English title "Asura") is inspired by the story of the three-headed, six-armed Atula God in Buddhist legend. Defeated in a battle, Atula's body was split into three, waiting a hundred years later for an opportunity to reunite as one.

In the film, veteran actor Tony Leung Ka-fai, Hong Kong beauty Carina Lau, and young actress Ng Lei share the roles of three parts of the Asura god's body, respectively the lustful, scheming, and original versions.

Along with these three main actors, the film also has the participation of one-time Taiwanese idol drama god Minh Dao.

Investing 113.5 million USD (more than 2.6 trillion VND) to produce "A Tu La", paying special attention to the film's special effects technology, billionaire Jack Ma hopes his brainchild will set a new record in Chinese cinema.

Many days before the film's release, the cast continuously shared images of the film, predicting a new phenomenon for Chinese fantasy films.

Unfortunately, the film's effect was completely opposite. After three days of its big release, "A Tu La" only earned less than 7.1 million USD (163.4 billion VND).

On the American movie site IMDb, the film received a score of 4.7/10. On Chinese movie review sites, the situation is not much better, with 4.9/10 from Maoyan and 3.2/10 from Douban.

The film's nonsense, illogical content and unconvincing special effects also received much criticism from the Chinese public and press.

On July 15, the distributor decided to withdraw the film. According to Kwong Wah, the producer denied editing the film and re-released it in theaters.

Instead, they say, the harsh market and cold audience attitudes killed 'A Tu La'.