"Guardians of the Galaxy" tops China box office

20 Oct – Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" opens up strong in China with USD30.07 million in only three days since its screening making the film the third highest grossing Marvel film of all time.

With a worldwide gross of over USD732.6 million, "Guardians of the Galaxy" is now the third highest grossing film from Marvel Studios, passing "Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier" and behind "The Avengers" and "Iron Man 3", all thanks to its recent collections from China.

However despite performing well at China box office, the film is highly criticised for its bad Chinese subtitles.

Re-titled as "Interplanetary Unusual Attacking Team" (星際異攻隊), the film has been frowned upon by film critics and Marvel fans for its poor Chinese subtitles that spoils the humour and jokes in the film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a famous Chinese social media user, Gudabaihua found at least 80 translation mistakes in the Chinese subtitles of the film.

"Aside from a lot of mistranslations, the subtitles failed to show the original feel of the movie, such as jokes, puns and homophones. We cannot help but doubt the professionalism of the translator."

However, "Guardians of the Galaxy" is not the first film that had come across with this 'subtitling' issue in China. Previously, "Men in Black 3", "Pacific Rim", "The Hunger Games" and "Skyfall" also faced the same problem with much scrutiny.