It wouldn't even qualify as a mid-range production in Hollywood; it's considered a lower-middle-range production. However, its publicity budget was top-tier.

PS: Here's a brief explanation: there are two models for distributing films overseas. The first is buyout distribution, which means that every year during the three major film festivals, film distributors from all over the world come to the festivals to select good films. This is a one-time sale; the distributor pays a price, and after the buyout, all the profits from distributing the film have nothing to do with the people who made the film.

Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" was a loss for him; it was sold outright for around $400,000. Meanwhile, "Farewell My Concubine" was a huge hit overseas. It grossed $5.21 million in the US alone, and its final box office was around $30 million, which, at the exchange rate at the time, was roughly 170 million RMB.

Afterwards, Director Chen was furious. He was ripped off! He sold it too cheaply, and the person who bought it was Harvey Weinstein, a notorious American conman, the one accused by dozens of actresses.

Harvey often deals with Chinese filmmakers, and one of his usual tricks is to announce that he has bought the North American rights to a film for eight million US dollars. After spreading the news of his purchase, he waits until everyone else who wants to buy the film gives up because they all know that Harvey has bought it.

Harvey only pays you a $200,000 deposit, and then after all the other buyers are gone, he says he doesn't want it anymore and is willing to sacrifice the $200,000.

By this time, time has passed, and the other film distributors have either returned to their home countries or already bought the films they need. What do you do now? You tell them that everyone else has left, and ask if they can buy the films at a lower price.

Then he reluctantly said, "How about this, I'll take one million dollars."

Then they could only swallow their pride and be grateful.

Many people think foreigners are simple-minded, but that just shows you're overestimating how smart Chinese people are. There are many scammers in the industry, so why were directors like Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang fooled? Were they all brainless? Actually, no.