"Twinkling Stars" Surpasses 1 Million Refunds, Audience Questions Box Office Authenticity

According to a report by Phoenix Technology, the film "Twinkling Stars" broke records on its first day of presale with a staggering 70 million, surpassing "Detective Chinatown 3" and becoming the highest-grossing Chinese film on the first day of presale.

However, data from Maoyan and Taopiaopiao show that as of December 16th, the refund count for "Twinkling Stars" has exceeded 1 million, with an average refund rate of 18.1% across both platforms. This far exceeds the typical 2% to 8% refund rate for most films.

As a result, many netizens believe that the presale box office figures for the film are inflated, suggesting that the remarkably high presale numbers were intentionally created by the film's producers to boost screening rates. In the official Douban group for "Twinkling Stars," some netizens analyze that the exceptionally high refund rate is fundamentally due to operational errors by both cinemas and the production team.

The TV series of the same name, directed by Chen Xiaoming and Zhang Pan, starring Zhang Jia Ning and Qu Chuxiao, tells the captivating tale of Lin Beixing accidentally traveling back in time after deleting text messages from an old phone. This leads to the rediscovery of a former schoolmate, Zhang Wansen, and embarks on a marvelous journey of space-time salvation. The series premiered on iQiyi on January 26, 2022, and currently boasts a score of 6.8 from over 170,000 ratings on Douban.