Disney's live-action remake of the 1994 animation classic "The Lion King" falls to second place in China's weekly box office chart on its opening weekend, not as good as expected, given it built such a large fan base and wide acclaims back in the 1990s.

The film grossed 373 million yuan (54.3 million U.S. dollars) as of Sunday, right behind the Hong Kong crime film "The White Storm 2: Drug Lords," earning 519 million yuan (75.5 million U.S. dollars) during the second week.

The latter's general box office has reached 960 million yuan (139.6 million U.S. dollars) since its debut.

A controversial remake

The performance of "The Lion King" is not disappointing, though. As of Monday, it made more than 400 million yuan (58.2 million U.S. dollars), with a 7.5-point rating on China's rating website Douban.com.

According to film ticketing website Maoyan.com, more than 70 percent of the audience are aged between 20 and 34. A large portion of the moviegoers are the so-called post-1980s and 1990s, who watched the 1994 animation film during their childhood.

Now, they are bringing their children to watch the classic they have treasured for years.

"The cinemas are filled with 30-year-old or above 'children'," reads a comment on Douban.com that got 3,599 "likes."

However, besides nostalgia, the super realistic "Lion King" has also drawn more criticism than expected.

Most of the Western critics express their disappointment with the film. The remake will be released in North America on July 19, and as of now, its Rotten Tomatoes score is only 59 percent, much lower than the 93-percent original animated version.

Most of the Chinese critics argue by creating a computer-generated imagery (CGI) miracle, the story has lost its mystic beauty.

A comment giving the film only two stars out of five said that Disney's live-action remake is "a vain attempt to revive the classic movie by summoning the past 'soul of art'," calling the production "performance art."

"Big data will replace the producers and CGI the cameraman, and we have now arrived at the ultimate surreal stage (in this process)," the comment reads. It stands for a point of view that is becoming more mainstream, that technology will finally destroy the art of filmmaking.

An even more common view is that the movie is almost a BBC nature documentary, though stunning in terms of visual effects, it has become too realistic, destroying the innocence of animated cartoons – or did you worry about what type of mammals are part of the lion's diet while watching the animated version of "The Lion King"?

On the third spot is "Spider-Man: Far from Home", which grossed another 174 million yuan (25.3 million U.S. dollars) last week, with its general box office standing at 1.32 billion yuan (190 million U.S. dollars). It has already made into the Top 15 imported foreign films in China.

"The Secret Life of Pets 2" is on the fourth with 56 million yuan (8.14 million U.S. dollars) last week, and following behind is "Looking Up" which is set to be released on Thursday, with an advance ticket sale of 39.4 million yuan (5.73 million U.S. dollars). 

The movie, starring some of the aspiring talents of the industry, is about a father-son relationship. One of the film's joint directors is Deng Chao, most widely known as an actor, whose maiden work "Devil and Angel" scored only 4.1 out of 10 on Douban.com. It is therefore hard to say whether this film could surprise the audience.

The following will be unusually quiet for the summer season, typically one of the highly-competitive times for new movies.

"Wangdrak's Rain Boots" directed by Lhapal Gyal, one of China's so-called post-1980 generation directors, might be a surprise for arthouse film fans. The movie is his maiden work and was nominated at several film festivals, including for the Crystal Bear Award of Generation at the 68th Berlinale.

(Cover image by Liu Shaozhen)