Chapter 148 148 Sanctuary Continues

Chapter 148: The Saga of *Sanctuary* Continues

Regarding *Sanctuary*, film forums are ablaze with debates.

Forum users, steeped in showbiz gossip and insider leaks, smelled trouble with *Sanctuary* shortly after filming began. Some even compared its trajectory to *The Swordsman*.

One user started a detailed thread outlining the many "‘red flags’" surrounding *Sanctuary*. However, with countless posts flooding the forum, this one quickly sank—especially since *Sanctuary* featured a slew of A-listers, making it too hot to handle for regular users.

Yet, after *Sanctuary*'s release, this old thread got dredged back up.

The first half of the thread discussed issues spotted in leaked set photos, while the latter half was overrun by celebrity fans. The post was revived with a reply declaring, "OP called it!"

"How many other poor suckers like me are out there? I bought IMAX 3D tickets—$50 a pop! Oh, and to show ‘filial piety,’ I got two more for my parents. $150 total! What couldn’t I have done with that money?"

"I’ve watched both *The Swordsman* and *Sanctuary*. Let’s just say the crew could’ve just robbed us outright, but instead, they screened a ‘beautiful, romantic PowerPoint’ for us. How kind."

"The whole time in the theater, I kept thinking—what the hell is this??? What even is the ‘special effects’? Dollar-store skeletons and a dollar-store *River Styx*. What was the first half even about?"

"Refund!!!!! Compensate me for emotional damages!!!"

"Why didn’t I see this thread sooner? Now I just regret wasting my money!"

"HATE!!!!!!!!"

Audiences who specifically went to see *Sanctuary* largely described it as "a total mess"—lengthy narration, excessive artistic shots that felt more like pretentious fluff than storytelling.

Then, viewers spotted Zhang Zhizhen’s name in *Sanctuary*'s credits.

"Ohhh, now I get it. Fantasy version of *The Swordsman*, huh?"

"LOL, spending hundreds of millions to make audiences sit through a fancy slideshow? Who’s the clown now?"

"Even the crew knew Zhang Zhizhen was a liability, huh? Too scared to promote his involvement upfront, so they tried to hide his name in the credits, thinking we wouldn’t notice?"

Truthfully, audiences didn’t expect *Sanctuary* to deliver profound storytelling. For an FX-driven movie, as long as the spectacle dazzled, weaker plotting could be forgiven.

"These effects look like they cost a nickel!!"

"Seriously, where did the budget even go?"

"...Paying $50 for this is highway robbery. Maybe $5 would’ve been fair."

"Pfft, even $5 feels like they owe *me* compensation."

Under the #Refund hashtag, many netizens joked, "Did a dog make these effects?" Given Lu Xu’s meme-worthy "dog-like" persona, fans quickly jumped to his defense—

"What did dogs ever do wrong?"

"Doggo says: Absolutely not taking the blame for this."

"??? LOL, stop treating Lu Xu like an actual dog."

"Wait—being accused of making these effects? That’s defamation! Honestly, it’s been ages since I’ve seen a film this bad in every aspect. Feels like I’m raising a Tamagotchi."

Amid the defense, fans also expressed relief: "Bless Lu Xu for dodging this bullet."

"Bei Hong finally landed a ‘blockbuster,’ and the hype was unreal—acting like he’d surpassed Lu Xu and dethroned award-winning actors. The crew rigged the game for him, so what happened? Did the ‘next big thing’ suddenly flop hard?"

"Hilarious, I feel like Lu Xu's reactions are even quicker than a pup's. Given the lineup of *Sanctuary*, there really aren’t many celebrities in the industry who wouldn’t be tempted."

"…*Sanctuary* trashed Lu Xu so hard, only to end up producing a total flop. Who gave the crew the guts to drag him like that? Zhang Zhizhen?"

Just one day after its release, *Sanctuary*'s reputation took a nosedive. Some particularly awful CGI scenes—like the dragon’s tail flick and the underworld skeletons—had netizens making GIFs of them and comparing them to a certain game company’s "Dude, Stab Me" effects made for an Arab tycoon.

"Even that was better!"

"This is nuts. The moment I saw this CGI, I lost it laughing in the theater. Everyone around me thought I was crazy!"

"Now I can’t help but suspect Zhang Zhizhen did this on purpose. Knowing *The Swordsman* had terrible reviews, he deliberately used *Sanctuary* as a scapegoat. Think about it—*Sanctuary* had way bigger investments and a way better lineup than *The Swordsman*. Will anyone even remember *The Swordsman* when talking about bad movies now?"

Faced with netizens’ criticism of the "atrocious CGI," the *Sanctuary* crew ignored it completely. As for the question of "where the money went," they offered no direct response. But when it came to netizens’ relief that "Lu Xu lucked out by not joining," the crew came out swinging.

The official blog dramatically claimed that a certain celebrity’s fans had engaged in "organized" and "large-scale" dragging campaigns against *Sanctuary*, calling it despicable behavior. "Karma's a bitch," they warned, insisting the celebrity would pay the price.

"Is the crew out of their minds?"

"Please, just name names already."

"Hilarious, 'Karma's a bitch'? Whether it’s karma or people, at least no one’s watching *Sanctuary*."

Right after the official blog’s statement, Lu Xu responded unprompted.

Lu Xu: "Crew, are you overthinking this? I have zero connection to *Sanctuary* now—why would I bash it?"

Netizens: "..."

Vaguely recalling, these were the exact words the *Sanctuary* crew once used to mock Lu Xu.

Lu Xu had more to say.

"To me, a 50-yuan ticket is kind of steep. Spending 500k to drag someone would hurt worse than cutting my own flesh."

"Exactly!"

"SERIOUSLY Lu Xu spoke my mind! Do they think 50 yuan isn’t damn money?!"

"What’s wrong with bashing *Sanctuary*? What’s wrong? It wasted a whole 50 yuan of my hard-earned cash—I’d bash it for free, gladly!"

"Gladly +1!"

"Honestly, the only thing I’m confused about is why *Sanctuary* would even need to pay for dragging campaigns??? The movie itself is already garbage. Any star who acted in it is cancelled as far as I'm concerned."

After the Twitter storm, Lu Xu seemed to realize something and posted: "Since… everyone thinks I’m bashing it, wouldn’t I be doing myself dirty if I didn’t actually do it after all this slander?"

"Do it!"

"And don’t forget the crew used you for marketing and dragging—without paying!"

"Already did the math for you, little bro. On top of your '500k,' the *Sanctuary* crew owes you another 3 million."

Without Lu Xu needing to say more, netizens mass-tagged the official blog, demanding his cut too.

"Including damages for Bei Hong’s ugly mug traumatizing me!"

"LOL I was gonna say that. When Bei Hong threw shade at Lu Xu before, I just thought he was average—you know, that pretentious vibe. But his flaws were HD humiliating on the big screen. How dare he throw shade at Lu Xu?"

"Now that you mention it, I want my cut too…"

*Sanctuary* was a poorly made film, and moviegoers had a clear understanding of this on its opening day.

The problem was, there was another film in the same release window for comparison.

The special effects and plot of *Leviathan's Frenzy* were far more polished than those of *Sanctuary*.

Moviegoers weren’t blindly biased toward foreign blockbusters. On the contrary, on that day, *Sanctuary* outperformed *Leviathan's Frenzy* in both screenings and box office revenue. After all, it was a rare domestic special-effects blockbuster, and audiences were willing to support *Sanctuary* with their wallets.

Even if *Sanctuary* had been a bit worse than *Leviathan's Frenzy*, moviegoers might have forgiven it—given that domestic special effects films were still in their early stages, even with overseas teams involved, the final product couldn’t match the maturity of foreign films.

But no one expected the audience’s goodwill to be completely wasted. *Sanctuary* wasn’t just bad—it was practically devoid of substance. If one word summed it up, “scam” was the only option.

“The embarrassment is even worse compared to *Leviathan's Frenzy*. *Sanctuary* utterly betrayed my expectations.”

*Sanctuary*’s box office performance on the first day was undeniably impressive. With star power and celebrities organizing private screenings, along with fans’ overwhelming enthusiasm, the film raked in a staggering 360 million yuan in just one day.

If the film had been decent, such an opening would have been promising—normally, *Sanctuary* could have easily reached a total of 4 billion yuan.

After all, aside from fan support, there was also nostalgia for homegrown special-effects blockbusters.

*Sanctuary* being bad on its own was one thing, but having *Leviathan's Frenzy* as a direct comparison made it worse—no one wanted to admit a local film was worse than a foreign one unless they had no choice.

Since *Sanctuary* fell so short of expectations, the backlash was especially severe.

Due to strong pre-sales and opening-day performance, ticketing platforms initially projected *Sanctuary*’s total box office at 4 billion yuan.

But on day two, *Sanctuary*’s earnings dropped by half, failing to even reach 100 million yuan.

This was still a bit better than *The Swordsman*, of course, given *Sanctuary*’s star-studded cast and the unwavering support of their fans.

That day, platforms revised *Sanctuary*’s total box office forecast down to 2 billion yuan.

“Halved, just like that!”

By the third day, as ticket sales continued to drop, the projection fell to 1 billion yuan.

Online bystanders: “…”

“Losing 3 billion in three days—faster than my in-game currency vanishing.”

“Even 1 billion is still way below breaking even, right?”

Even on a Sunday, *Sanctuary*’s box office drop was bizarre. By the fourth weekday, the numbers were downright dismal.

Netizens gradually realized that even the 1 billion yuan target might be out of *Sanctuary*’s reach.

Bad press about *Sanctuary* kept mounting—rumors that the crew had led on big names just to hype Bei Hong, that an A-lister’s scenes were cut, that an A-lister actress was injured on set with twelve stunt doubles.

When *Sanctuary* first premiered, dozens of celebrities in the industry had reposted the official blog’s promotional posts. Yet before the first week was over, half of them had quietly deleted their endorsements.

One star even scrubbed *Sanctuary* from their Weibo bio.

Fans of the cut actor complained at first but went quiet after release.

No scenes = no screen time = no blame.

Makes perfect sense.

In fact, fans wound up thanking the *Sanctuary* crew.

Five days after the release of *Sanctuary*, the production team officially announced that the film would be pulled from theaters.

"...We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the audience who have accompanied us on this journey. See you next time!"

"Stop coming!"

"Seriously, just stop showing up..."

*Sanctuary* getting pulled wasn't even the real story—what really blew up online was that, just 54 freaking seconds before *Sanctuary* announced its withdrawal—

Yes, a difference of only 54 seconds.

Lu Xu posted a clip of himself just biking around.

It wasn’t intentional—his new movie just happened to have a scene where the protagonist rides a bike.

Previously, Zheng Xiao had mocked his cycling skills, so he wanted to show off that he'd finally mastered the perfect way to ride.

And yeah, to show off his sweet new ride too.

"?"

"Legit traffic menace."

"I checked—it really was just 54 seconds apart. Terrifying. Lu Xu, are you sure you don’t have an insider in the *Sanctuary* crew?"

"Bike-jinx from afar."

"The magic of love on wheels—adding more souls to its tire treads."

Lu Xu: "..."

No amount of explaining could clear him now.

"LMAO HAHAHA I’m certain Lu Xu didn’t mean it—he was just vibing on his bike. And isn’t he playing a great scientist? That's totally on-brand for a scientist."

In any case, Scoreboard: Lu Xu 1, *Sanctuary* 0.

Yet again.

Bei Hong’s big break...crashed and burned.

After further analysis, netizens concluded—Lu Xu's kryptonite for everyone from Liu Rennong’s studio.

"Arch-Curser Lu Xu, supernatural ability—Liu Destroyer."