There are speculations that Star Wars: The Force Awakens might not top the box office in China. The movie franchise will premier in the mainland on Saturday, but according to data shared by Jonathan Papish, an movie analyst for China Film Insider, Star Wars has only presold 2.2 million yuan ($330,000) for the midnight premier and 8.7 million yuan ($1.3 million) for the Saturday opening.

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"I'm skeptical it'll hit with many new fans, given the film's nostalgic tone and the comparatively muted reaction elsewhere in much of Asia," Jonathan Papish said.

Without a big performance in the second biggest movie market in the world, the Walt Disney Co. production will have a hard-time overtaking Avatar as the highest-grossing movie in history.

The figures are pretty surprisingly given that last year's Gone With the Bullets earned 4 million yuan for its midnight premiere (roughly $650,000 at that time) and another 120 million yuan ($19.6 million) for its accumulated internet presales a month before its premiere.

The seemingly lukewarm reception is definitely upsetting despite ceaseless efforts of Disney to introduce the "Star Wars" to a country where millions of moviegoers did not grow up watching Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. In fact, Disney commissioned Chinese superstar Lu Han to be China's Star Wars ambassador.  

Industry insiders believe that the movie is affected by a full-packed slate of films scheduled for showing this January, including "Kung Fu Panda 3," which many assume would become one of the biggest films in China.

But it China isn't the only problem. In Hong Kong, Star Wars also failed to land the top spot, making way for the local-language movie Ip Man 3 as the city's top-grosser. In South Korea and Vietnam The Force Awakens also failed to land the No. 1 in the box-office. In North America and Europe, though,however, Star Wars is slated to shatter Avatar's records.

TagsStar Wars, The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Force Awakens China Box Office