Chinese Dramas with Huge Budgets But Total Failures, Some Even Never Aired

The drama LEGEND OF BA QING cost between 565-795 million yuan (over 1 trillion rupiah), starring Fan Bingbing and Gao Yunxiang, and was completed in 2017. Fan Bingbing's tax scandal and Gao's legal issues in Australia led to the cancellation of this drama. Attempts to replace faces using AI also failed, making it the most expensive project that never aired until 2025.  

THE GOLDEN HAIRPIN is one of Tencent's most ambitious projects with a budget of around 300-500 million yuan. This drama stars Yang Zi and Kris Wu. When Kris Wu got caught in a serious criminal case, Tencent lost its prestigious project. The producers tried to reshoot with a new actor, but costs skyrocketed and the schedule became chaotic. As of now, the fate of its airing remains unclear.

The collaboration between Lee Jong-suk and Zheng Shuang cost 40 million USD (around 600 billion rupiah). Completed in 2016, it failed to air due to the Hallyu Ban involving Korean actors. When the ban began to ease, Zheng Shuang became embroiled in a tax scandal and surrogacy issues. This drama was officially canceled and became a symbol of failure due to two major scandals.

This espionage drama, with a budget of 130-170 million yuan, features Tong Dawei and Zheng Shuang. In the early planning stages, the drama was touted to become one of the most influential dramas in its genre. After Zheng's scandal broke, all promotions were completely halted. The version that had a limited release was also removed from the platform. As a result, this expensive project lost momentum and failed commercially.

Completed filming in 2015, starring Hans Zhang and Park Min Young. With a budget of hundreds of billions of rupiah, this drama was supposed to be a historical blockbuster that would gain worldwide recognition. The Hallyu Ban policy prevented it from airing in China. It will only be released abroad in 2024, but the CGI quality is considered outdated. Ironically, this expensive historical drama is blocked in its own country.

The cases above show a recurring pattern where when the main actor is involved in a scandal, the entire project suffers. Fan Bingbing, Kris Wu, and Zheng Shuang are big names whose downfalls have shaken the reputation of many major production companies. In some cases, streaming platforms even incurred losses of up to hundreds of millions of yuan because completed dramas could not be published.

In addition to scandals, policies such as the Hallyu Ban have become a major factor in determining the fate of cross-country projects. Since its implementation, dramas involving Korean artists have automatically been restricted or banned from airing in China. The impact is significant, especially for productions that have already spent large amounts of money and collaborated with international actors. Come on, read articles about other Chinese drama recommendations on Kapanlagi.com. If not now, when, KapanLagi?