The massively hyped Chinese fantasy epic Asura has been pulled from cinemas after a disastrous opening weekend.

　　被大肆宣传的中国神话电影《阿修罗》因首映周票房惨淡而被撤档。

　　With a production budget reported at 750m yuan (£85m), Asura – with its complex special effects, big-name stars and huge crew – was hailed as China’s most expensive film ever made. However, its opening weekend takings totalled 49m yuan (£5.5m), and it was immediately withdrawn from cinemas.

　　据报道，《阿修罗》这部影片的制作预算为7.5亿元(8500万英镑)，电影特效多样，演员知名度高，制作团队庞大，因此这部影片也被称为中国制作成本最高的电影。然而，其首映周的票房总共只有4900万元(550万英镑)，因此该影片马上就被撤档了。

　　The film's official Weibo account announced the news on Sunday, with producers offering “deepest apologies to viewers who did not get a chance to watch the film, as well as to all the Chinese and international participants who were involved in its production over the past six years”.

　　该影片的官方微博于周日宣布了这一消息，制片方“对还未观看过这部影片的观众以及在过去的六年里参与这部影片制作的所有中方和外方成员致以最深的歉意。”

　　Named after the triple-headed demigods of Buddhist mythology, Asura stars 18-year-old heartthrob Wu Lei as a shepherd who turns out to be the reincarnation of one of the heads of a warrior king – also called Asura – aiming to invade heaven.

　　这部影片是以佛教神话中的三头半神的名字命名的，18岁的偶像明星吴磊饰演了一位牧羊人，他在影片中变成了战神阿修罗的其中一颗头的转世，而且他还打算入侵天堂。

　　Initially the film appeared to have won the publicity battle, with reports saying Asura had generated around 390m mentions on Weibo.

　　最初这部影片似乎在宣传战中取得了胜利，据报道《阿修罗》当时在微博上获得了3.9亿次评论。

　　However, audiences failed to respond, with a low 3.1 out of 10 rating on Chinese review site Douban.

　　然而，观众却未能做出(正面)回应，而且其在中国影评网站豆瓣电影上的评分仅为3.1分(满分10分)。

　　A social media post claimed an aggressive attack by a “water army” – a paid team of ghostwriters, aiming to artificially inflate poor ratings – damaged the film’s chances.

　　社交媒体上的一篇帖子称，“水军”(人为拉低电影评分的有偿代写影评团队)故意打击这部影片，毁掉了其上映的机会。

　　This may not be the last of Asura, however. A representative of the film’s backers said that “this decision was made not only because of the bad box-office. We plan to make some changes to the film and release it again.”

　　不过，这也许并非《阿修罗》的结局。电影投资方的一位代表称，“电影撤档的决定不仅是因为票房惨淡，我们也计划对电影做一些调整，然后再发布这部影片。”