On November 19, QQ reported that the film The Wig starring Huang Xiaoming is facing difficulties at the box office. The film, which premiered on November 16, has not achieved high earnings, with a lackluster reputation. Currently, the film has grossed approximately 3 million RMB, while the production costs amounted to 100 million RMB. As a result, the project could cause the producers to lose all of their invested capital, or even incur heavy losses.
On the first day of release, the film earned over 2 million RMB, but by the second day, sales had dropped by half. The film also had a high ticket refund rate of 10%. According to ticketing platform Maoyan, about 98,000 people watched the film, and when factoring in pre-booked tickets, 10,000 viewers returned their tickets.
The high ticket return rate, poor word-of-mouth, and low theater occupancy clearly show that The Wig failed to attract the public. The film’s failure has also severely damaged Huang Xiaoming’s reputation.
According to 163, The Wig has been criticized for its boring plot, revolving around a failed lawyer trying to hide secrets from his past, which failed to intrigue the audience. The pacing was too slow, and the film did not make it into the top 10 highest-grossing films at the box office. Previously, Huang Xiaoming shared that he lost 15 kg and sacrificed his looks for the role, but it still didn’t impress the public.
The failure of this film has also contributed to a crisis in Huang Xiaoming’s reputation, which has been further hurt by scandals involving his girlfriend, Ye Ke. Ye Ke has increasingly lost public favor due to controversial statements, and her conflicts with other artists have negatively affected Huang Xiaoming. In addition to Ye Ke’s name trending on search engines, Huang Xiaoming has also been criticized for not managing his girlfriend properly.
Meanwhile, the TV series The Silicon Waves, which Huang Xiaoming starred in alongside Wang Ou, ended in July with decent ratings but is now being discussed again. A scene where Huang Xiaoming portrayed his character as a university student has been mocked. Although this scene was accepted by the audience at the time of airing, it is now being criticized due to Huang Xiaoming’s damaged reputation.
In the end, Ye Ke announced she was leaving social media, and Huang Xiaoming had to apologize to the public for the controversies. However, this did not lead to an increase in viewers for his film. The scandal also negatively affected his upcoming project with Zhao Liying, The Builder (造城者) (tentative title), where fans expressed that they did not want Huang Xiaoming to be part of the project.