Tony Leung’s new film “Fox Hunt” flops at the box office on its first day after being shelved for 4 years.

Recently released in China, the much-anticipated film “Operation Fox Hunt,” seen as a major propaganda film by the Chinese Communist Party, features a star-studded cast including Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, mainland Chinese actor Duan Yihong, and Hollywood Bond girl Olga Kurylenko. With a budget exceeding 200 million Chinese yuan, the film unexpectedly premiered on April 4 after being shelved for at least 4 years. However, the opening day saw disappointing box office results, even tarnishing the reputation of the usually stellar Tony Leung.

According to reports from mainland media, among the 10 films released during the Qingming Festival in China this year, only 4 had garnered significant attention and anticipation due to their cast lineup, namely “My World Big Movie,” “Sunflower,” “Silent Love,” and “Operation Fox Hunt.”

Data from the Chinese film platform “Maoyan” revealed that as of March 29th, before the official release, the pre-sale box office for “Operation Fox Hunt” was only 34,000 yuan, ranking at the bottom among the Qingming Festival releases. On April 4, amid a total box office of 158 million yuan in the Chinese film market, the box office numbers for the aforementioned four films were 47.39 million, 32 million, 29 million, and 9.65 million respectively. This means that “Operation Fox Hunt” had the lowest box office among these films.

Further statistics on “Operation Fox Hunt” showed that on its opening day, it had 38,256 screenings, attracting 236,000 viewers, with an average of 6.2 viewers per screening and a 6.0% occupancy rate, with an average ticket price of 40.5 yuan. Based on the opening day box office of 9.65 million, “Maoyan” platform predicted that the total box office for the film might not exceed 45 million yuan. This dismal performance might not even be enough to cover Tony Leung’s salary alone, potentially resulting in losses exceeding 180 million yuan for the production company.

Billed as an official propaganda film by the Chinese government, “Operation Fox Hunt” is inspired by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s efforts to capture economic crime suspects fleeing abroad. The film began shooting in Beijing in May 2019, with director Zhang Lijia stating that they aimed to showcase the heroic deeds of economic crime investigators and the “Fox Hunt” team to present the real operation to the public. The film features scenes shot in Paris, Normandy, Beijing, Shanghai, and Southeast Asia.

In reality, the “Operation Fox Hunt” extends beyond targeting corrupt officials and recovering illicit funds, venturing into Hong Kong, Taiwan, and over 120 countries and regions worldwide to apprehend political dissidents, people with differing opinions, and critics who expose widespread human rights abuses by the Chinese Communist Party. This has drawn significant attention from Western governments.

Previous reports indicated that “Operation Fox Hunt” had wrapped filming in 2020 and was scheduled for a mainland China release on January 8, 2021. However, on January 5, 2021, the film was suddenly pulled from the lineup. The production company cited delayed post-production work being conducted overseas as the reason for the abrupt postponement, promising a new release date within the year. Speculations arose among netizens questioning why such post-production issues were not anticipated earlier and why the film was pulled just three days before its release, with some reports suggesting financial troubles within one of the film’s investors.

Notably, during the filming kickoff in Beijing in May 2019, Olga Kurylenko had dinner with Tony Leung and his wife Carina Lau in mainland China. A photo shared by Lau on social media showed Tony Leung being affectionately sandwiched between Lau and Kurylenko, all smiles. When netizens joked that “Mr. Leung was kidnapped,” Lau humorously replied, “Yes.” While it was likely a light-hearted moment back then, some now feel that Tony Leung might have indeed been “kidnapped” by this disappointing film.

In the film’s latest poster, Tony Leung appears in various sharp suits, portraying both a cunning fraudster and the lover of Olga Kurylenko’s character. Viewers who have seen the film provided feedback criticizing the background music, excessive close-up shots, abundant slow-motion sequences, lack of plot development, and clichéd melodrama.

Moreover, some netizens pointed out that despite the film’s emphasis on the two male leads, Tony Leung’s role was overshadowed by Duan Yihong, who emerged as the prominent male lead, while Tony Leung seemed more like a tool used to highlight the other lead’s performance. Netizens expressed disappointment, remarking that “Tony Leung is straying further down the path of bad films.”