The mainland male star Huang Xuan and Yu Shi starred in the red war film “Operation Dragon”, with an investment of 1 billion RMB. Since its official release on the first day of the Lunar New Year (January 29th), the cumulative box office is only 377 million, estimated to have incurred losses of at least 800 million. On the afternoon of February 14th, the film announced its withdrawal on the official Weibo platform.
In a notice posted on Weibo on February 14th, it stated, “The movie ‘Operation Dragon’ will produce a special edition based on the suggestions of the audience, and will meet with the audience on a selected date. Please stay tuned.” The notice was signed by the film distributor “Shanghai Bona Culture Media Co., Ltd.”
According to a notice released by “Huaxia Film”, co-distributor of the film, the key of “Operation Dragon” will not be extended. Pre-sold screenings before February 17th can proceed as planned, and the box office generated from these screenings will count towards the film’s total box office data. No fifth phase key will be issued. This means that from February 17th onwards, “Operation Dragon” will be officially withdrawn.
According to reports from mainland media, “Operation Dragon” is the first nuclear submarine film directed by Hong Kong director Lin Chaoxian. The film is a sequel to the 2018 military-themed film “Operation Red Sea”. In addition to Huang Xuan, it also stars Yu Shi, Zhang Hanyu, Duan Yihong, and others. The production of the film reportedly took 7 years due to the need to build a 1:1 scale submarine set, with all internal equipment highly detailed and functional.
Public records show that the production cost of the film exceeded 1 billion, making it the most expensive film of the Chinese New Year box office this year. Industry experts had previously estimated that even if the final box office reached 400 million, considering the 37% share for the film distributor, the film would incur losses of at least 800 million, setting a record for the most disastrous loss in Chinese film history.
As of around 3 pm on February 14th, data from the Lighthouse Professional Edition indicated that the film had been showing for 17 days, with a total box office of only 377 million RMB, ranking last among the six major films released during the Chinese New Year period this year. Its latest rating on Douban is only 6.3.
On February 1st, the CEO of Bona Film, Yu Dong, complained in his circle of friends that “Operation Dragon” was maliciously given one star on Douban, and at a promotional event the day before, he stated that “those who rate it one star are malicious trolls”, expressing strong dissatisfaction with the negative reviews and vowing not to withdraw the film, intending to “fight to the end” with the malicious critics.
Yu Dong’s remarks sparked controversy. Some audience feedback described the film as “very poor”, “not worth watching”, and suggested that “giving one star is because zero stars are not possible” and “you should be grateful there are no zero-star ratings on the platform.” Some netizens criticized the film for “excessive exploitation of nationalistic sentiment”, pointing out flaws in the storyline, stating that even if it is re-released, it would be futile.
Analysts pointed out that the poor box office and reputation of “Operation Dragon” are attributed to various factors. Firstly, the film heavily emphasized “secrecy” before its release, attempting to create a sense of mystery to attract audiences. The promotional material claimed that due to the involvement of state secrets, some parts of the plot were communicated verbally by the director to the actors, who then wrote down the details themselves, saying they would get anxious and hide the script when foreign actors appeared.
Such a narrative approach led to a backlash from many netizens, criticizing the film for being too pretentious and joking, “If it’s already a state secret, who would dare to watch it? Isn’t that breaking the law?” “To protect state secrets, I won’t watch this movie anymore,” and “If it’s really that sensitive, then just don’t make the film at all.”