Earlier this year Chinese director Frank Gwo brought his sci-fi epic, The Wandering Earth, to cinemas and it’s currently the second highest-grossing film in the history of China, while at the same time it has earned over $700 million worldwide. As IndieWire reports, it is the third highest grossing film of 2019 after Marvel Studios and Disney’s Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel.
Yet, it seems that Netflix wasn’t that impressed. The network started streaming the film, first on its Netflix Asia regional service on April 30, and later on, it became available on its other services, but, nobody seems to know, because Netflix spent virtually no time on advertising the film.
All Netflix came up with was this brief announcement: “The film is the story of a distant future in which the sun is about to expand into a red giant and devour the Earth, prompting mankind to make an audacious attempt to save the planet. The multi-generational heroes build ten-thousand stellar engines in an effort to propel Planet Earth out of the solar system, in the hope of finding a new celestial home. During the 2,500 year-long journey, a group of daring heroes emerges to defend human civilization from unexpected dangers and new enemies, and to ensure the survival of humanity in this age of the wandering Earth.”
On the other hand, that did not prevent Variety from giving a lengthy rundown of the film, nor the website of legendary film critic Roger Ebert from rating it a 3.5 out of 4 possible stars.
So it’s strange to see Netflix give this obviously well received film so little fanfare. There may be more to this story yet.
