China has the second-largest film market in the world but Episode 8 of the Star Wars saga has failed to find an audience there.
The movie bowed to $28.7 million earlier this month, but dunked to $2.4 million in its second week.
It now seems very likely to finish its run in China with less than $50 million – a considerable downturn on the $124 million made by The Force Awakens, and even the $69 million achieved by Rogue One.
“The Last Jedi has already been completely pulled from cinemas here,” Jimmy Wu, chairman of nationwide Chinese cinema chain Lumiere Pavilions, told The Hollywood Reporter.
“It’s performed much worse than we could have expected.”
Analysts have seemingly blamed the fact that the saga has not caught on with young Chinese moviegoers because of the complex nature of the themes, and the universe in which it is set.
The Last Jedi has performed strongly everywhere else, and is the 10th highest-grossing movie of all time.
It has generated almost $1.3 billion globally thus far, but is not expected to come close to The Force Awakens’ $2 billion.
Rian Johnson now steps aside for the return of JJ Abrams, who will helm Episode 9.
Before that, next spin-off Solo: A Star Wars Story is out in May – a trailer for which is expected any day now.
The synopsis was recently released, teasing the origins of the character made famous by Harrison Ford in the original trilogy.