Over the weekend, the number of showtimes for "War Wolf 2" significantly increased from 28% to 32.7%.
In a zero-sum game, the showtimes for "Iron Fist" dropped to 37.5%.
Lu Liang and Little Wang's promotion efforts on Weibo only played a small part in amplifying the buzz; the real surge in attention came from a boycott by influential film critics and Wu Jing's spectacular counterattack.
"War Wolf 2 awkwardly kidnaps the sentiment of patriotism, attempting to mimic Hollywood-style individual heroism, but ends up looking more like a dog trying to imitate a tiger."
"Director Wu, what do you think about such comments?"
"Director Wu, the movie's plot seems to be too far-fetched. The characters in the film seem to be invincible against any amount of beating. Isn't that a bit fake?"
At the Beijing press conference, the reporters and influential critics were aggressively confrontational, seemingly anticipating Wu Jing to bow his head and apologize.