It's all about making a spectacle

The triumph of the fourth installment of the Transformers series in the booming China market has sent a strong message that quality is not essential to attract a mass audience - but mindless fun sells, writes Raymond Zhou.

The new Transformers movie is breaking records left and right, but not everyone is happy about it.

Transformers: Age of Extinction, which opened in China on June 27, has been making waves at the Chinese box office. Its midnight opening screenings raked in 20.8 million yuan ($3.35 million), trumping the previous high of 13 million yuan set by Iron Man 3 a year ago. Its first-day tally of 196 million yuan nudged aside The Monkey King, which, just six months ago, grossed 122 million yuan on its first day of release. The new Michael Bay movie also set a new record in one-day sales with 214 million yuan.