Critics and some young Hongkongers said they were put off by the movie’s nationalistic tone, as well as the central government’s efforts to praise and promote it.

Directed by Frant Gwo and adapted from the 2000 novel by award-winning science fiction writer Liu Cixin, the film stars Wu Jing and veteran Hong Kong actor Ng Man-tat.

It portrays efforts to propel the Earth out of the solar system to avoid it being engulfed by the sun, and shows how people from different countries collaborate to save the day, with Chinese characters taking the lead and Americans left out.

Aside from the rich box office takings in China, it scored an impressive 9.3 out of 10 on Chinese movie review platform Maoyan and strong approval in both the official and public sector.

“Even the word ‘perfect’ cannot illustrate how I feel,” gushed one reviewer. “It is not about an individual hero like American movies, and the special effects are comparable to Hollywood blockbusters!”

The film has been described as part of Beijing’s soft power push, with China’s film authority praising it for “not only showing the collectivism, patriotism and family love rooted in traditional Chinese culture”, but also the “Chinese people’s non-utilitarian, cosmopolitan and cooperative spirit”, state media Xinhua reported.

Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily said the movie conveyed the theme of “a community of a shared future for mankind” – a concept strongly advocated by President Xi Jinping.

Seven weeks after its release on February 5, The Wandering Earth is still showing in Beijing cinemas, although there are fewer screenings each day and not so many movie-goers.

On a recent Saturday night, the Post spoke to 25 Beijing movie-goers at a cinema, and asked them what they thought of the film. Reviews were middling to positive.

A man in his 30s, who works in movie post-production, was impressed. He said: “Not only were the visual effects good, the plot was good too. It shows the Chinese world view. Unlike Western movies in which people would abandon the Earth and explore a new planet, we would go along with the Earth. That shows our love for the land and the country.”

Another Beijinger, who watched it with his girlfriend, said: “I didn’t share a great sense of pride. But it is time for China to develop sci-fi movies.”

He found the sense of nationalism more natural than in the action-packed 2015 movie Wolf Warrior. In that film – which Wu starred in and directed – a Chinese war hero, saves the world from calamity.

“The nationalism in that one was too heavy-handed, so I didn’t watch the sequel. A good plot is more important,” he said.

Despite the strong nationalism, Wolf Warrior 2, the 2017 sequel, turned out to be the mainland’s highest-grossing film, with box office takings of more than 5.6 billion yuan.

Made-in-China movies have a better chance of doing well on the mainland, given restrictions on foreign films.

Under a law which took effect in 2017, at least two-thirds of the total screening time at cinemas must go to national films.

The mainland media regulator declared that year that China wanted to be a great movie nation and intended to use films to “promote core socialist values and tell good China stories”.

In Hong Kong, the box office takings of The Wandering Earth ranked only third among movies which opened at the same time, with the top spots going to foreign movies, the American horror sci-fi film Happy Death Day 2U and Japanese anime movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly, which took HK$5.5 million and HK$4.5 million respectively, according to Hong Kong Box Office Limited.

A few pro-Beijing district councillors and groups, including the New Territories School Heads Association, booked halls in cinemas and distributed tickets for The Wandering Earth to residents or their members, but the general movie-going masses were not drawn to it.

A 32-year-old movie-goer said he was not keen to watch the mainland blockbuster. “Does it have something to do with patriotism? I am not interested at all,” he said. “In general, I believe Hongkongers, especially the youth, do not like mainland movies, not even co-productions.”

But a retired civil servant who watched the movie said: “It is quite good, though there is still a way to go to catch up with Hollywood.”

He found the movie’s streak of nationalism reasonable, and said: “It’s just like how Hollywood movies present Americans as heroes, not Chinese people as heroes. It is just very natural.”

Bruce Lui Ping-kuen, a veteran China journalist and senior lecturer at Baptist University’s school of communication, said Beijing had put much effort into its film industry in recent years.

From the timing of the release over the Lunar New Year to the praise heaped on it by state media, and the theme of building “a community of shared future for mankind”, he said, the movie was propaganda to a certain extent, especially as Beijing is marking 70 years since the founding of the people’s republic this year.

All these factors turned Hongkongers away from the movie, he said. He pointed out that mainland comedies with less government backing were more popular in the city.

Film and TV drama producer Johnny Ng Kit-chong, a Hong Kong delegate to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the national advisory body, played down the negative response to The Wandering Earth.

“Hong Kong audiences have been used to Hollywood movies for so many years and they enjoy a variety of choices, but mainland TV dramas are getting popular here too,” he said. “If the productions are of good quality, Hongkongers will watch them, regardless their origins.”