Luxury brands wobble as ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ tanks
BEIJING: Luxury brands with a heavy presence in China are wobbling in the wake of a dismal cinematic run by Crazy Rich Asians. By the first week of December, the film had made a paltry US$ 8.6 million ( RM36 million) in China.
By comparison, movies that had debuted at about the same season had done much better.
The 2016 Mel Gibson movie Blood Father had raked in US$11.8 million, and Bollywood flick 102 Not Out amassed over US$ 23 million. That’s a slap in the face for Asian talent. Top brands are red-faced as they deal with sagging sales in what is usually a peak period for luxury shopping.
Just weeks ago, it looked like the release of Crazy would be very good news for luxury brands in China.
The characters live an exceptionally privileged lifestyle in Singapore, from first- class f lights to shopping sprees to parties on private islands, and don a slew of ultra- expensive outfits while doing so, many from luxury brands including Elie Saab, Alexander McQueen, Valentino, Richard Mille, Giambattista Valli, and Missoni.
But hopes that the rom- com, which has so far generated about US$ 250 million ( RM1.05 billion) at the global box office, would spur the massive conspicuous consumption in China that its characters engage in proved unfounded.
The movie, whose Chinese title translates to ‘An Unexpected Tale of Picking Gold’, had premiered on Nov 30 to dismal ticket sales.
Then, this past weekend, moviegoers in China enthusiastically embraced Aquaman.
But hopes that the rom-com, which has so far generated about US$250 million (RM1.05 billion) at the global box office, would spur the massive conspicuous consumption in China that its characters engage in proved unfounded.
While attendance certainly may have been dented by the earlier availability of pirated copies of Crazy Rich Asians, the film also has not been widely loved by Chinese film- goers. On moviereview site Douban, it earned a middling score of 6.2 out of 10. The namesake adaption from the best-selling novel by SingaporeanAmerican writer Kevin Kwan was released months after it opened in other countries. The long wait for approval for the first major Hollywood film to ever feature an all-Asian cast made many industry analysts believe Beijing was not comfortable with the film.
Swanky displays of wealth are generally frowned upon by the Chinese government, as evidenced by an earlier nationwide anticorruption campaign and a recent crackdown on celebrity ultra-pay.