The Great Wall bombs at the US box office

Matt Damon’s new actioner ‘The Great Wall’ has tanked at the US box office.

After taking a fair old kicking at the hands of the critics too, it’s found that its potential audience isn’t wildly enthusiastic either.

It made $21 million (£16.8 million) from 3,325 screens in the US, way below what would have been hoped from the movie, which cost $150 million (£120 million) to make, the most expensive US-Chinese co-production ever.

The monster movie is also the first English language movie filmed in its entirety in China.

Luckily, the movie has done much better business in China, so far earning $171 million, with a global haul so far of $262.7 million (£210 million).

However, it will still be a way away from breaking into a profit, once hefty marketing and promotion costs are added.

So far, the movie has only managed a disappointing 36% approval rating on reviews aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, meaning the majority of reviews were not favourable.

“Zhang Yimou capably gives… ‘The Great Wall’ the look and feel of a Hollywood blockbuster, but his signature visual dazzle, his gift for depicting delicate relationships and throbbing passions are trampled by dead-serious epic aspirations,” writes Maggie Lee for Variety.

Meanwhile, Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian dubbed it ‘a damp squib’.

It wasn’t all gloom, however, Tom Huddleston in Time Out added: “Damon is good value, his avuncular charm adding intimacy to what could have been an empty spectacle.”

Also starring Jing Tian, Andy Lau, Pedro Pascal and Willem Dafoe, it’s out now across the UK.

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