Mahua's third comedy film 'Never Say Die' becomes a hit during holiday

Poster for the film Never Say Die. [Photo/Mtime]

As the National Day holiday ended on Sunday, the total box office collection for the holiday in Chinese mainland rose to 2.6 billion yuan ($400 million). The top three winners were Never Say Die, The Foreigner, and Chasing the Dragon.

Never Say Die, Mahua Fun Age's third film production, took 1.5 billion yuan ($200 million) at the box office, becoming the biggest winner during the holiday.

Mahua's first comedy Goodbye Mr. Loser was a hit during the 2015 National Day holiday. The movie was one of the third highest-grossing domestic titles in 2015.

Both films were Mahua's adaptations of plays. The two plays had won much applause before being put on big screen, thus many people still went to the cinema after seeing the theatre version.

Never Say Die scored 7.4 points out of 10 on Douban, a popular movie rating platform in China.

"Mahua's comedy never lets me down. I kept on laughing from the beginning of the film to the end," user Moyunshou said on Douban.

However, not everyone thought highly of the movie.

As the storyline is about a man and woman who exchange their bodies and eventually become lovers from foes, the film was compared to many similar foreign productions, such as The Hot Chick (2003) and It's a Boy Girl Thing (2006).

"It (Never Say Die) looks like a mix of storylines from many films. Since there are too many similar productions, the film leaves no space for audiences to imagine," a Douban user Shijingwei said.

Among the films released during the National Day holiday, Sky Hunter is a maiden work from actor Li Chen who is the director this time. Only rated 4.8 points of 10 on Douban, the film was criticized by many audiences as a "brainless work".

Another film, Smart Chase, was not as popular as expected. Though one of the casts, Orlando Bloom has many Chinese fans, his popularity did not win film a satisfying box office during the holiday.