Photo: IC

Like any business, there are always winners and losers in the movie market. It is true in everywhere, and China is no exception. Some Bollywood films, like Dangal and Secret Superstar, have done extremely well in China, but many others failed very badly. A newcomer on the list is the Bollywood hit Kaabil, starring Hirthik Roshan and Yami Gautam, which only earned 14.1 million yuan ($ 2.04 million), as of Saturday morning. 

With a respectable opening on Wednesday night of nearly 3 million yuan, the movie didn't live up to expectations, with Thursday and Friday grabbing only 4 million yuan each day. Its poor performance in the Chinese market has been widely reported by Indian media like Hindustan Times and Bollywood Hungama. 

Our Indian friends found that "the complete rejection of the film is surprising, considering the film's leading man Hrithik Roshan flew to China along with his leading lady Yami Gautam to promote the film."

The two actors have been well received in China and interacted so well in many cities with Chinese fans. Hrithik even met Chinese kung fu star Jackie Chan and shared pictures with Chan on his Instagram. 

Indians must be confused as to what Chinese people really want. Was our Bollywood movie Kaabil not good enough? 

Of course, no. That movie holds a score of 7.1 out of 10 on Chinese movie site douban, higher than this period's boxoffice winner, Godzilla: King of the Monsters' score of 6.4 and Dark Phoenix with 6.0. 

On Chinese ticketing and rating platform Maoyan, it holds a much higher score of 9.3 out of 10 and over 16,000 people hope to watch it. Most of its audiences have left positive comments for storytelling and plot.

Then why did it perform poorly in the box office?

Timing, bad timing. Due to some "unknown" reasons, Hollywood movies are changing their release dates to enter the Chinese market earlier. 

Aladdin, Godzilla and Dark Phoenix are still being screened and Men in Black International is coming next Friday and Spider-Man: Far From Home in June 28. 

Unfortunately, the 2017 Kaabil has to compete with these Hollywood blockbusters. It is mission impossible for Kaabil. 

What's worse, June, especially with the Dragon Boat Festival in China, is a relatively slow  month in terms of market volume. In 2018, film revenue for the three-day festival was only 900 million yuan. 

In May, the global hit Avengers: End Game squeezed the Chinese market to its limit, grossing 1.6 billion, over 44 percent of the total revenue. The market still needs time to recover. 

To be honest, I really feel pity for Kaabil didn't make it in China. Many of my friends strongly recommended it on their Twitter-like Weibo based on positive word-of-mouth reviews.

The Chinese market is a very complicated one. Choosing a proper screening period is key to success, sometimes even more important than the movie's quality itself. Taking many factors into consideration—political, economic, customs—is a headache not only for Indian movies but for domestic ones as well. 

Bollywood movies can always find a place and a large number of followers here. As long as your movie is good enough, plus a little luck, a new Bollywood record will emerge.