John Woo (left) with Lo Ta-yu, the Taiwan singer behind the movie's theme song. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

He has uploaded clips, images and news about the film to a fan forum every day, he says.

"We really hope more viewers hear about it and see it in theaters," he says.

Big-budget films without such marketing hooks and Internet fan bases are increasingly stranded in the market. Some are even pushed into low-profile territory.

John Woo's upcoming romance epic, The Crossing Part 2, had to reschedule its media event to morning last Wednesday to avoid overlapping with that of Fan Bingbing's Lady of the Dynasty in the afternoon. Both the historically themed movies staged news conferences on the same day and will premiere on July 30.

Even with its pan-Asian, A-list cast of Zhang Ziyi and Takeshi Kaneshiro, a source close to the producers of The Crossing Part 2 says there's concern the 200 million yuan production hasn't created much online hype, especially among youth－an increasingly crucial demographic among theatergoers.

Fan's horseback sex scene with the protagonist emperor in Lady, on the other hand, went viral online last week. She has 36 million Weibo followers.

China's average moviegoer is 21 years old and is among the country's 650 million Web users, media report.

Audience members born in the 1990s have grown up with the Internet, Loongs United Investment Co Ltd's new-media department head Zhang Zhiyuan says.

"All their communications and interests come from and are spread via the Internet," Zhang says.

"Win them, and win the market."