The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 525 The incident happened
"what!"

Liu Shishi was very surprised: "The box office of "The Feast at Hongmen" was stolen?"

"According to the blog post published by Li Guoxin, this is roughly what it means." Lu Yuan replied.

"real or fake?"

"Do you believe it?"

"Uh" Liu Shishi was not sure.

"Time Traveler" was just released four days ago, and she was busy with promotion, magazine shoots and interviews, and had no free time to watch other movies.

Although there is no shortage of criticism of "The Banquet" on the Internet, such as the director and screenwriter's lack of historical understanding, the one-dimensional and distorted characters, the film's style is too petty, and it has a strong gangster atmosphere.

But no matter how you look at it, this is also a big production with an investment of hundreds of millions and a luxurious cast, but the box office for the premiere was only over 10 million, which is really unbelievable.

She still remembers the huge fanfare before the film was released, claiming to be the savior of the costume film market. Such dismal box office results were obviously far from expectations.

According to the current trend, the final box office of "The Banquet" may only exceed 100 million yuan, and the road to recovery is nowhere in sight.

She glanced at her boyfriend's phone again. The screen showed the comment section under Li Guoxin's Weibo. Several messages caught her attention.

"I bought a ticket for The Feast at Hongmen, but the machine couldn't print it out, so the staff replaced it with a handwritten one."

"Me too. I clearly bought a ticket for The Feast at Hongmen, but I was given a ticket for another movie. However, I still watched The Feast at Hongmen."

These comments made her even more hesitant. She leaned into her boyfriend's arms and asked softly, "I don't know. What do you think?"

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment: "Fan Bingbing called to congratulate me this morning. She mentioned that the script of The Feast at Hongmen was indeed terrible, and that Hong Kong directors have failed many times in making costume films in recent years. This result is reasonable. Perhaps it is a hype to win the audience's sympathy."

After he finished his analysis, he was almost pushed off the sofa by his girlfriend. He tapped her head with his chin and urged, "Move over there."

"No, there's no room." Miss Liu was unwilling to move.

The sofa was actually quite large, but Lu Yuan was 1.80 meters tall and took up most of the space. Liu Shishi lay on the inside, feeling very squeezed and uncomfortable.

Lu Yuan was helpless: "Then go down."

"Why don't you go down."

"Because I lay down first."

"Hmph, I don't care." She acted like a scoundrel, hugged his arms, put her legs on him, and whined.

Lu Yuan had no choice but to raise his hand and threaten: "Are you going to get off?"

"No. Haha, it's itchy."

After the two of them had played around, Liu Shishi's cheeks flushed, and she leaned against his chest, panting, with curiosity flashing in her eyes: "Do you mean that Li Guoxin plans to hype up "The Feast of Hongmen" again by stealing the box office?"

"Otherwise, I can't think of why this news suddenly appeared at this time."

Lu Yuan felt suffocated by her pressure, rolled his eyes, and added: "Actually, this kind of thing is not the first time in the circle."

Liu Shishi pricked up her ears and listened carefully.

He continued, "At the end of 2010, Laughing Man and The Orphan of Zhao were released at the same time to compete with each other.

A netizen broke the news, saying that he had purchased tickets for "The Laughing Man" but accidentally got tickets for "The Orphan of Zhao". The theater also claimed that the ticket machine was broken and it would not affect the actual viewing. Therefore, the news that "The Orphan of Zhao" was suspected of stealing the box office of "The Laughing Man" became a hot topic on the Internet.

"And what was the final result?"

"No result. The manager of the cinema involved denied the incident and both parties came out to refute the rumors. The matter was left unresolved."

Lu Yuan added: "However, during the period of public opinion, the box office of "The Laughing Man" increased significantly, and the final box office was 1.56 million, while "The Orphan of Zhao" was 1.9 million. Judging from the box office alone, the latter is slightly better. In terms of cost, the winner is naturally the former."

"Is that so?" Liu Shishi blinked and said thoughtfully, "So you think that 'The Laughing Man' was just hype."

"No." Lu Yuan rubbed her head and said, "I was wondering if "The Feast at Hongmen" was going to take advantage of the situation to cause trouble, who would Li Guoxin drag into it later?"

Liu Shishi also reacted: "You mean he will drag us along?"

"Ah."

Lu Yuan nodded. If he were Li Guoxin, his target would undoubtedly be "Time Raiders".

As for marketing, we need to find the hottest bundling hype in the market to attract public attention.

Thinking of this, he felt that he must remind Zhang Wenbo to prepare countermeasures in advance, and at the same time contact the distributor China Film Han Sanping, just in case.

The Yin Xiaotian incident has once again confirmed that the truth on the Internet is sometimes not important at all.

That year, reports that the box office revenue of "The Laughing Man" was stolen spread on the Internet.

Before the truth came out, some people concluded that this was definitely a "conspiracy" between "The Orphan of Zhao" and the cinema, attempting to transfer the box office revenue of "The Laughing Man" to themselves.

He doesn't want "Time Raiders" to fall into such a vortex, and he doesn't want to wait until something happens without any means of countermeasure.

In fact, the phenomenon of stealing box office revenue has long been an open secret in the film industry, the only difference is the degree.

Faced with the box office pie that easily amounts to hundreds of millions, there are always some people who want to "fish in troubled waters" to make more money.

Whenever Christmas, Spring Festival, summer vacation, National Day and other periods come, when popular movies are released, or when bad movies flop, there are always reports of "box office stealing" scandals.

This behavior is either the result of the cinema being blinded by greed and wanting to keep more for itself, or it is a compromise between the cinema and the film company.

On February 2, the weather was light and the sky was clear.

The day before, the box office figures for February 2 (Saturday) were released.

"Time Raiders" topped the single-day box office chart for four consecutive days with a single-day success of 4680 million.

After five days of release, the cumulative box office in four days has soared to 1.8 million, advancing by leaps and bounds, continuing to lead the movie-watching craze with an unstoppable momentum, and showing no signs of decline.

The media continues to hype the situation as usual, and other colleagues in the industry have become numb as they watch the news flooding their phone screens.

According to film market practice, the first week's box office can roughly estimate the overall box office potential, accounting for about 30% to 40% of the total box office.

In view of the current strong momentum and widespread acclaim of "Time Travel Cohabitation", the industry initially predicts that its final box office will be an astonishing number that will shock the industry.

It is even very likely to rewrite the box office record in mainland China's film history and become a new milestone.

This series of outstanding achievements quickly attracted the close attention of major commercial companies, film and television companies, and countless peers.

Various invitations to endorse luxury goods and to cooperate with them came in like a tide.

The names of Lu Yuan and Liu Shishi undoubtedly dominated the entertainment news pages of that day.

Poetry and distant places are unmatched.

At the same time, this strong "super-time and space" storm also boosted the popularity of several other projects. Wen Muye, as a contracted director of Yuanfang Media, announced that Yuanfang Media's new project "New World" had been launched, and revealed that Lu Yuan would be the lead actor.

Because he served as the executive director of "Time Raiders", the new director Wen Muye also received a lot of attention. Once the news was announced, it immediately attracted heated discussions among netizens, who rushed to Weibo to leave messages.

"Director Wen, what is the subject of New World?"

"Lu Yuan has a new movie again. He's been very hardworking this year. Great."

"When will you come back to film the TV series? The TV series is not interesting when you are not around."

Coincidentally, the crew of "Chinese Partners" quietly went online on Weibo.

The first piece of news released was: "The project of "Chinese Partners" has been approved, directed by Chen Kexin, and starring Lu Yuan, Huang Xiaoming, and Deng Chao."

After the lineup was announced, netizens' expectations were ignited again.

Chen Kexin is currently the most successful director from Hong Kong who has made films such as The Warlords and The Siege of the City.

But they haven't had time to recover yet.

Zhou Xinchi, who is far away in Hong Kong, accepted an interview and announced for the first time: "The casting of Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons has been completed and filming will start soon. Lu Yuan will officially join and play the male lead Xuanzang!"

Lu Yuan, Lu Yuan, and still Lu Yuan.

This series of news was like a bombshell, instantly setting off the Internet.

Last year, it was reported that the filming of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" would start in the middle of the year, but fans waited anxiously, but there has been no follow-up.

The crew seemed to have lost contact. The only thing we heard from the grapevine was that the filming was postponed because the male lead had not been decided.

The result is that he is holding back on a big move.

"What the fuck is this called a fucking dream team!!!"

"Oh my god, what a great combination, my favorite actor and my favorite director. I can't believe how outrageous the box office will be after this movie is released."

"That's not right. I remember Huayi invested in this film when it was launched. Since Lu Yuan left Huayi, the two sides have hardly cooperated again. Could it be that Huayi gave in first?"

"The above person is too simplistic. Capital is for profit, so what does a little face mean? Lu Yuan is unstoppable at the moment, and Time Travel Cohabitation is aiming to break the box office record. Who can resist money?"

Well, Huayi expressed confusion and was caught off guard by the sudden news.

Wang Zhonglei is visiting the crew of "1942" right now.

In the Longxing area of ​​Chongqing, the crew carefully built a high-replica neighborhood that resembles the old Chongqing during the period when it was the temporary capital.

Wang Zhonglei stared at the dusty young man who had just come out of the detention center and gave him a serious warning.

The young man looked at his father's slightly hunched figure not far away, not knowing what he was thinking, and nodded heavily.

Then, Wang Zhonglei patted him on the shoulder and walked into the studio to look for Feng Xiaogang.

Just as he was about to speak, his cell phone suddenly rang. It was Wang Zhongjun calling.

After answering the call and listening to the news brought by the other party, his face became gloomy and he was stunned for a full half minute.

"What's going on?" Feng Xiaogang was wearing a black baseball cap, holding a Zhongnanhai between his fingers, and had a mouthful of rotten teeth with yellow and black spots.

Wang Zhonglei flipped through the media reports on his phone without even looking up: "Zhou Xinchi just announced that Lu Yuan has officially joined Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons."

"You agree?" Although Feng Xiaogang was surprised, he did not completely reject it.

After all, Lu Yuan has now established a firm foothold on the big screen, and the current momentum of "Out of Time" is obvious to all. Cooperation is not a bad idea. In the adult world, there is no right or wrong, only interests.

"No, I just learned the news too." Wang Zhonglei frowned.

Last year, the company discussed the candidate for the male lead with Zhou Xinchi and hoped to sign a contract first, but the other party kept making excuses, saying that there were problems with the script and it needed to be revised. Wang Zhonglei respected the other party.

Who knew it was a feint.

"So he didn't discuss it with the company and just skipped us and acted without consulting us later?" Feng Xiaogang's tone revealed obvious dissatisfaction.

Wang Zhonglei's expression became increasingly grim. "Not only that, his assistant called the company and said that we can work together again next time if there is a chance."

"What!!" Feng Xiaogang instantly understood what he meant.

This is to get rid of Huayi and find a new partner.

Feng Xiaogang has a bad temper and is very concerned about his reputation. He gets angry when he thinks about something in the past. Now that the project has failed, he no longer tries to cover it up.

He said with disgust, "I've told you before that Zhou Xinchi is unreliable and has bad character. Signing the contract early is the most important thing. When he asked me to make a cameo appearance in Kung Fu, I agreed without hesitation. When CJ7 held its premiere, I got a call and left the crew to run to support him.

He was so good. When I was filming If You Are the One, I invited him to make a guest appearance, but he refused so straightforwardly. He knew how to be polite when he was invited, but he was always busy when others invited him. What a jerk.

Feng Xiaogang became more and more excited as he spoke, and he was so angry that spit flew everywhere.

After a while, he saw Wang Zhonglei looking at him, holding up his phone, and asked leisurely: "Do you think this matter has anything to do with Lu Yuan, or what role did he play in it?"

Feng Xiaogang looked at the phone screen.

However, a piece of news on Weibo suddenly topped the list and its ranking kept rising.

#"Time Travel Cohabitation" is suspected of stealing the box office of "The Feast"#
Feng Xiaogang still remembers that yesterday Li Guoxin complained on Weibo that the box office of "The Banquet" was stolen, which prompted a number of theater chains to issue statements saying that this did not happen.

As a result, just one day later, trouble broke out again.

He didn't have time to think about anything else. He grabbed the phone and opened it. It was a video.

In the video, a middle-aged male audience member walked into a cinema with the intention of buying a ticket for the movie "The Legend of the Hongmen Feast".

However, surprisingly, the ticket seller did not take out the ticket from the regular ticket machine, but instead took out a movie ticket marked "Time Travel" from the cabinet bucket.

The male audience expressed their clear opposition to this, insisting that what they needed was "The Legend of the Hongmen Banquet". The ticket seller seemed quite relaxed, waved his hand and said it was okay, it was the same.

After watching the video, Feng Xiaogang couldn't tell whether it was true or false for a moment, but he instinctively felt that something was wrong.

Although the box office of "The Banquet" was a bit low, it was understandable, after all, the film was really bad.

He took a puff of cigarette and asked, "What role do you think Lu Yuan plays in this?"

Wang Zhonglei shook his head and stared at the video.

"He seems to have an investment in the play, but whatever his role is, I feel much more comfortable now."

Feng Xiaogang glanced at him. Based on his understanding of Wang Zhonglei, this matter would not be so easy to resolve.

(End of this chapter)