Around two years ago, actress Milla Jovovich saw her popularity reach new heights in China thanks to Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.
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As the sixth and final installment of the zombie game-adapted franchise, Resident Evil, which started in 2002, The Final Chapter earned nearly 1.2 billion yuan ($174.4 million) – the highest of all its films in China and far surpassing its box-office takings for North America.
Yet her most recent return to the world’s second-largest film market has turned out to be something of a disappointment.
The Rookies, which marks the first Chinese film for Jovovich, has received low scores and a number of negative comments on major film review sites.
With a reported budget of more than 300 million yuan, the film grossed merely 21.8 million yuan as of Wednesday, according to box-office tracker Maoyan.
In earlier interviews with domestic reporters, Jovovich says she was a fan of Chinese martial arts films, including Zhang Yimou’s Hero and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Her love of the genre and respect for its director lead the Ukraine-born American actress to join the cast of the Chinese action production led by Alan Yuen, a filmmaker best known for penning the scripts for Monster Hunt 2 and New Police Story.
Also casting rising stars Darren Wang, Sandrine Pinna, Timmy Xu and Liu Meitong, the film is a kind of Chinese homage to such espionage classics like the James Bond and Mission: Impossible franchises, but presented with a more high-spirited tone.