Sad song for a nightingale

China's candidate for a foreign-language film Oscar is not making much music at the box office, Liu Zhihua reports.

China's official entry to the 2015 Oscars for best foreign-language film, The Nightingale, is not performing too well at the box office. In the first three days of screening after its Oct 31 release, the movie earned only 1.2 million yuan ($195,900). Some 10 days into its run, box-office takings were about 4.96 million yuan, according to Cbooo.cn, a website on Chinese box-office statistics that is widely quoted by Chinese media. Movies that were picked as Oscar entries in the past were also huge box-office hits.

Film producers submit their entry applications to China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, and the authorities then pick one to submit to the Academy Awards.