‘The Great Wall’ has been perhaps the biggest attempt by Hollywood to carry out a blockbuster financed jointly by the United States and China. With Zhang Yimou handling the staging and Matt Damon leading the cast, everything suggested a box office hit, but the reality was different, perhaps in part because of all the controversy surrounding the film.
Already sunk before the premiere?
Even before its premiere, there were accusations of whitewashing by the presence of the protagonist of ‘Mars (The Martian)’ leading the cast, which caused bad press around ‘The Great Wall’ which explains, at least in part, its disappointing commercial run. This was especially noticeable in the United States, where he entered a very poor 45 million dollars. Of course, it was not because Damon did not do everything in his power to silence the criticism.
In fact, the actor acknowledged that he took this issue very seriously, responding to criticism as follows:
I take the idea of whitewashing very seriously. It’s a monster movie, a historical fantasy, and I didn’t steal the role from a Chinese actor. It was not altered by my fault in any way.
The truth is that after its premiere, countless articles focused on the whitewashing of the film were published, some to point out that it was the case and others that it was not. little mattered, the film was already mortally wounded, though not Damon’s image. The real blow to it would not come until the end of the following year.
Released at the end of December 2016 in China, ‘The Great Wall’ managed to raise 170 million dollars there, more than half of its worldwide income -in total it amassed 334 million-, much less than expected, to the point that it was talked about losses that could reach 75 million dollars.
‘The great wall’ is broadcast tonight on Cuatro starting at 22:15.