Hong Kong director Ann Hui's film, 'The Golden Era', which features a star-studded cast including actress Tang Wei, isproving to be a flop and is performing poorly at Mainland China's box office.

The film, which features the story of a legendary female writer named Xiao Hong, is a biopic that revolves around the turbulent life of the character set in the 1930s.

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The three-hour long film which also features 30 major actors and actresses and has taken an avant-garde approach to filming is said to have been performing poorly at the box office after it opened on October 1. It took seven days before it earned 36 million yuan.

According to sources, the investors and sponsors of the film expected the movie to gross at least 200 million yuan during its screen time, more than twice its production value which is at 70 million yuan. They had based their predictions on Ann Hui's previous film, 'A Simple Life' which has garnered more than 70 million yuan in China alone. The new film did not live up to their expectations.

An insider later claimed that the people who have worked behind 'The Golden Era' did not expect the movie to do well in the box office at all. According to this source, they were not even expecting it to earn more than 50 million yuan.

According to media reports, the reason behind the flop is that the plot of the film was boring. Other than that, it is speculated that its lack of commercial appeal also affected its performance in the box office.

Also, not many people in China know about who was Xiao Hong, which may have made the movie quite unacceptable to the audience.

Others have also cited that the promotions for the film in China have been lacking, although it had been promoted elaborately for the Venice Film Festival and will also be featured at the Busan International Film Festival.

Moviegoers prefer watching light-hearted comedies and action movies over heavily dramatic films such as 'The Golden Era.'

Tags'The Golden Era', Tang Wei, Ann Hui