Lam Chi Chung lost money with "Funny Soccer"
13 Jan – Hong Kong actor-turned-director Lam Chi Chung recently admitted that his big directorial effort "Funny Score" was a disaster at the box office and a disaster for him and his investor, financially.
As reported on Oriental Daily, the actor, known to many as Stephen Chow's sidekick in "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu Hustle", shared that a lot of bad things happened throughout the movie's production - from poor promotions to the getting conned by a supposed intermediary for international distribution.
"The movie was poorly promoted in mainland China and didn't get a lot of shows when it was released. After only a few days, its run was abruptly ended and was regarded as a box office bomb," he said.
He also stated that the movie was supposed to get an international release, but that the intermediary turned out to be a conman who disappeared with the money.
Lam said that he and his investor ended up losing over HKD 20 million.
The actor said that it disappointed him vehemently as it was a pet project that started ten years ago.
"I really liked the script and spent a year preparing it for production. The actors also gave the project their all. Benny Chan didn't take a cent in order to support the project," he said.
Lam said that he previously thought about sharing some of the movie's profit with Benny, but ended up losing his own money instead.
"I am very sorry for that," he added.
