At the age of seventy, Jackie Chan is still working hard on his acting career.

However, recently, the actor’s name is often associated with the phrase “box office poison” – an unpleasant nickname that audiences give to actors whose films fail and have poor revenue.

Many of Jackie Chan’s projects have not performed well. For example, in August, The Myth 2 , with a budget of 360 million yuan (about 50 million USD ), ended up being a “flop” when it only brought in 71 million yuan (nearly 10 million USD ) in its opening weekend. The film ended its run in theaters with low results, continuing the action movie star’s string of failures.

The series of failures is not over yet.

In contrast to the praise for the prequel, what audiences discussed about The Myth 2 mainly revolved around Jackie Chan’s stiff face with lifeless eyes due to AI, and the “comedic” scenes that were commented to be outdated.

Regarding the film’s poor box office performance, observers say that in addition to the controversy over the use of AI that was not smooth, Jackie Chan himself has also “cooled down”. His filmmaking ideas in recent years have been criticized as uncreative, somewhat old-fashioned, and difficult to please modern audiences.

Despite trying to apply his experience in making martial arts films, the Drunken Master star still failed to win over the masses.

Jackie Chan’s movies have been losing money lately.

Not only Myth 2, Jackie Chan has had a series of films with bad revenue before.

A series of works such as The Foreigner, Detective Pu Songling, The Secret Seal of the Dragon … all suffered a miserable fate at the box office, being ignored by the audience. Jackie Chan himself admitted that in the past 6 years, he had lost nearly 2 billion NDT due to failed film projects.

After many consecutive “falls”, many people think that Jackie Chan has lost his halo.

For that reason, when the first information about Panda Plan – the martial arts star’s latest movie was revealed, a part of the audience was indifferent and had little expectation.

In fact, Jackie Chan’s film received good reviews about its quality after its release. However, the film’s performance was still not as expected.

According to statistics from Entgroup , Panda Plan ranked 4th on the box office chart during National Day. In the following days, the film even rose to 2nd place, just behind the blockbuster The Volunteers: To the War 2. Up to now, the total revenue of the work has reached nearly 250 million NDT – a quite impressive number if not compared to the film’s huge budget.

Accordingly, the production cost of Panda Plan is said to be around 250 million yuan. Based on the 37-40% box office share that the film studio receives, it means that the work must earn 675 million yuan to start making a profit.

At its current rate of earning, Panda Plan is unlikely to reach this revenue milestone. The film will end its box office journey with a revenue of no more than 350 million yuan, expected to cause a loss for the producer.

Panda Plan extends Jackie Chan’s losing streak.

However, Panda Plan is still continuing its journey at the box office in some countries around the world, so the loss will be more or less reduced.

Jackie Chan’s box office performance was not beyond the initial predictions of observers. Because, premiering on China’s National Day holiday, Panda Plan had to compete with dozens of strong domestic and international rivals, the possibility of an “explosion” was considered unlikely.

Positive signals on the first day of release raised expectations that the film would help the action star escape the label of “box office poison”. However, the strong appeal of The Volunteers: To the War 2 and a series of domestic films made Panda Plan gradually become overshadowed.

After the National Day holiday, the number of moviegoers dropped significantly. As a result, Panda Plan ‘s revenue growth also plummeted. Currently, Jackie Chan’s brainchild has dropped to 5th place on the overall chart.

With a duration of nearly 100 minutes, the film revolves around the star Jackie Chan himself. He adopts a panda named Hu Hu. However, the animal becomes the target of an international criminal group. They offer a reward of 100 million USD for mercenaries to capture Hu Hu. Jackie Chan and his close agents must cooperate to protect the panda and fight against the villains.

Panda Plan’s failure is regrettable, because the film is generally rated quite positively in terms of quality.

With the comedy/action genre, and placing the panda at the center of the film, it is not difficult to see that Panda Plan wants to target families – a large audience that went to the cinema during the National Day holiday. Most of the good reviews of the film revolve around the funny plot, bringing moments of entertainment and relaxation to the viewers.

Panda Plan ‘s action material is also handled differently than most of Chan’s projects in recent years. “He’s very good at finding joy in action scenes, escapes, and even incredibly witty dialogue,” commented Movie Nation . Accordingly, the work is said to remind audiences of Chan’s “weird but fun” action comedies in his heyday.

Meanwhile, writer Avi Offer of NYC Movie Guru rated Panda Plan will easily conquer children when bringing a sense of fun, with charming interspersed silliness and humor.

However, it is also the “pink” and cute story of Panda Plan that makes the work difficult to approach more mature viewers. Voices From The Balcony points out that the biggest problem with the film’s script is that the villains do not appear to be a real threat.

Although they are described as an elite fighting force, they often appear silly and naive. Childish details such as the mercenaries getting stuck in a ventilation duct, or having their weapons taken away because they are too busy playing games to pay attention to the hostages, make the film lack cohesion.

For that reason, Jackie Chan’s brainchild may delight young audiences, but is unlikely to please adult viewers.