Smaller Chinese movies see a boom online during pandemic

Low-cost films released online like Qimen Dunjia are getting poor reviews while racking up millions of views

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Qimen Dunjia was the highest grossing internet movie in China for the first quarter this year. (Picture: Qimen Dunjia/Weibo)

Xinmei Shen

Published: 5:00am, 23 Apr 2020Updated: 5:15am, 23 Apr 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

When a man from a small town in ancient China witnessed his father being captured by a band of hooligans, he decided it was finally time to live out a life-long dream: Join a secret society that practices a form of mythical martial arts known as Qimen Dunjia. Once in the society, the man avenged his father and destroyed a monster seeking to end the secret organisation.

Sound like a movie you would watch? It certainly is for millions of Chinese viewers.

Although the plot might sound cliche, Qimen Dunjia is currently one of the most popular online films on Chinese video streaming platforms as cinemas across the country remain closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s part of a larger trend of releasing cheap movies online for quick bucks, something that’s become more popular during the pandemic.

The 84-minute-long fantasy film was released exclusively on Tencent Video and Baidu’s iQiyi, two of the country’s biggest video streaming sites. Over the first 13 days of its release, the film earned more than 38 million yuan (US$5.4 million) -- and it only cost 20 million yuan (US$2.82 million) to make.

By comparison, a film with the same name and a similar story was released in cinemas back in 2017. That one cost 200 million yuan (US$28.3 million) to produce and grossed 299 million yuan (US$42.2 million). The profit was considered slim for a theatrical release. And even though both versions are rated poorly on the popular movie review site Douban, the cheaper one comes out ahead with a 5.4 rating compared with the 2017 film’s 4.4.

Qimen Dunjia is what used to be known as an “online big movie”. These types of direct-to-streaming films started gaining traction in 2015, attracting inexperienced film crews looking for fast money and easy fame by focusing on themes considered unsuitable for mainstream audiences. These include genre films featuring zombies or ghosts, and sexually graphic films. China’s strict censorship rules keep these films out of cinemas, but the B-movie quality also doesn’t help.