Even a $176 Million Budget Couldn’t Save This Franchise-Ending Sci-Fi Bomb Heading to Hulu

Heaps of movies were caught unawares when China began imposing restrictions on the number of foreign titles it would allow to be screened in its expansive network of theaters. Hollywood had begun to rely on Chinese audiences to push big-budget, visual effects-heavy tentpoles to success. Movies like Transformers: Age of Extinction and Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyopenly pandered to Chinese audiences by filming sequences set in or around the mainland, and featuring Chinese stars. Both those films were able to pass the coveted $1 billion milestone at the worldwide box office. But another in their ranks failed to deliver the same kind of impact. The movie in question served as a sequel to a sci-fi epic that was virtually saved by Chinese audiences after underperforming in domestic theaters.