Bona's AI-de-aged Jackie Chan epic cost ¥350M and grossed ¥80M

Legend (传说), Bona Film Group's sequel to the 2005 Jackie Chan adventure hit The Myth, was built around a technical first: Bona called it the first theatrical film 'starring a digital human,' using deepfake technology to put a 27-year-old Chan on screen for long stretches. Directed by Stanley Tong, shot on grassland locations with 6,000 horses, it cost a reported ¥350–360M and opened July 10, 2024.

The hook became the liability. Audiences said the AI face looked stiff and uncanny — in one grief scene the young face appeared to smile — and word of mouth collapsed within days. Opening day brought ¥6M. The film finished its domestic run at ¥79.9M, which Sina Entertainment said made it the biggest box-office loss of 2024 in China: an estimated hole of more than ¥300M for the producers.

For Bona it was the second of three consecutive loss-making years. The company's 2024 annual report described Legend as a pioneering fusion of film and tourism, without disclosing what the experiment cost.

The ¥350M film grossed ¥79.9M, a ¥300M+ loss, because the de-aged face was the hook and it backfired.

The film was sold on a technical gimmick — a de-aged star — that audiences found uncanny rather than novel; the effect was the marketing, and the marketing backfired.

A sequel nineteen years after the original leaned on nostalgia for The Myth but gave returning viewers no story reason to come back — only a face.

At ¥350M the film needed roughly ¥1B at the Chinese box office to break even, a result no Jackie Chan film has come near in years; the budget ignored the star's fading draw.

Technology is not a hook. A de-aged face sold as the main attraction read as uncanny, not wondrous — the film needed ¥1B to break even and earned ¥80M.