Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 680 The wolf is here!
In Xijing, the premiere of "Face/Off" has ended, and Fang Minghua and his wife drove home.

Song Tangtang looked a little excited sitting in the passenger seat.

"Today's premiere was really great. I didn't expect it to be so successful. The guests, the media and the audience all praised this as a good film. Both the narrative technique and the use of the camera were very good. Wu Tianmin is still as skilled as ever."

Song Tangtang is right.

From the perspective of the film's artistry, this film is solemn and solid, with a strong national character, and contains a sense of compassion for the world and profound ideological connotations.

Very Wu Tianming.

Unfortunately, times have changed.

This is not the 1980s, but the mid-1990s. The audience's tastes have long since changed, and topics such as local memory and traditional cultural inheritance are no longer popular.

Seeing Fang Minghua, who was driving, was somewhat silent, Song Tangtang couldn't help but ask: "Minghua, am I wrong?"

Fang Minghua did not answer directly. He looked at the street in front of him and asked, "Tangtang, did you notice which movie had the most screenings at the Northwest Cinema today?"

"Of course I noticed it. It's The Fugitive, a movie imported from America."

The first American blockbuster introduced in China is finally released!

"The Fugitive" is an American action crime film created and directed by Andrew Davis, starring Harrison Ford and others. It is adapted from the 1963 TV series "The Fugitive". It tells the story of Doctor Kimbell who is pointed by all the evidence to be the killer of his wife and then proves that he is not the murderer.

The film is full of climaxes and is very gripping.

Fang Minghua continued, "According to the magazine 'Film', the film was screened in six cities last month, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Yanjing, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, and Guangzhou, during its first week of screening. The number of viewers reached 6 million, and the box office revenue was 139 million yuan."

Song Tangtang fell silent for a moment.

As a filmmaker, she knows how terrifying this statistic is.

The revenue in just one week reached over 10 million. No other movie in the mainland can compare to it!
Even though Zhang Yimou's "Raise the Red Lantern" is currently in intensive production, Song Tangtang knows that it cannot compare with others in terms of box office alone.

"So, according to what you mean, the release of "Face/Off" will avoid the release cycle of this movie." Song Tangtang said.

"It can play a certain role, but it's not very useful." Fang Minghua said, turning his head to look at Song Tangtang: "Think about it, after watching a movie like The Fugitive with hot scenes and exciting plots, who would want to watch a movie like Face/Off again?"

"I don't believe it! Although "The Fugitive" is good to watch, it is a popcorn movie as Americans say. In terms of the artistic value of the movie, it is not as good as "Face/Off"!" Song Tangtang's tone was a little stubborn.

"You're right, but how many people go to the theaters to watch movies for the sake of artistry? They just want to have fun. Hong Kong's Ashes of Time and A Chinese Odyssey are living examples of this."

After hearing this, Song Tangtang fell silent again.

The scripts for these two movies were written by Fang Minghua. When Fang Minghua was writing the script for "A Chinese Odyssey", Song Tangtang even laughed at him, asking why he wanted to make such a crappy movie?
As a result, I was slapped in the face by reality.

Although "Ashes of Time" won the main competition unit of the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for Best Actor, it also won the Best Cinematography Award at the Venice Film Festival!

This film has not been publicly introduced to the mainland, but after watching the imported DVD, Song Tangtang couldn't help but admire Wong Kar-wai as a talented director.

However, after the film was released in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the box office was said to be only 900 million Hong Kong dollars!
And that "trash movie" "A Chinese Odyssey" grossed over 2000 million after it was released in Hong Kong and Taiwan during the Spring Festival last year!
It is said that it was because of the haste with which Wong Kar-wai filmed "A Chinese Odyssey" that the 2000 million Hong Kong dollars saved Wong Kar-wai's company from bankruptcy.

Through the street lights coming in from the window, Fang Minghua saw that Song Tangtang's face didn't look very good, but he didn't say anything.

The era when critical acclaim equals box office success is over.

As the head of Shengshi Films, she had to adapt to the changing times. A week later, The Fugitive was finally taken off the screen, and Face/Off began to be screened nationwide.

After one week of release, the box office grossed 8.6.

Tonight, the atmosphere in Fang Minghua's home was a little different from usual. The two children ran to their rooms to do their homework and did not come out after finishing. Even the babysitter, who usually hummed songs while doing housework, walked on tiptoe tonight.

She had never seen the hostess in such a bad mood. She sat on the sofa with a frosty face, which was even colder than the ice on the eaves outside.

Fang Minghua sat beside and comforted his wife.

"It doesn't matter. It's a loss. Besides, you are already mentally prepared for the loss."

"But I didn't expect to lose so much money. The box office in the first week was less than 30, and the total box office is estimated to be no more than 300. But the investment in this movie is million! It can't even recover one tenth of the cost."

"It would be good to have 10. I initially estimated that it would only be or ." Fang Minghua said with a smile.

"What did you say?!" Song Tangtang opened her beautiful eyes wide and stared at her husband fiercely.

"I mean the result is still unexpected. Okay, don't be angry. Anger makes you age." Fang Minghua gently stroked Song Tangtang's shoulders and comforted her.

In fact, he was right. Historically, the box office of this movie in mainland China was less than 20,000!

"It doesn't matter if I get old. I'm going to be an old woman soon anyway." Song Tangtang muttered.

"Oh my god, there is such a beautiful young old lady?" Fang Minghua was surprised: "Are you the Tianshan Tonglao?"

"You are the Child-Fairy of Tianshan!" Song Tangtang said angrily.

After her husband said this, she felt better.

"What was Wu Tianmin's reaction when he heard the news?" Fang Minghua asked again.

"He felt very guilty and said that he had just arrived at the company and had already created such a big hole for it," said Song Tangtang.

"I guess there are people inside the company who are talking about him behind his back, so at this time, Tangtang, you have to cheer him up, otherwise many people will be dissatisfied with his position as vice president." Fang Minghua reminded.

"I know, but this movie lost a lot of money."

"Hasn't it been arranged to be released overseas? We can still recover some box office revenue and reduce losses. Besides, this movie may not do well at the box office, but it is artistically good. We can probably win awards if we send it to the Golden Rooster Awards or the Tokyo International Film Festival next year."

After hearing this, Song Tangtang sighed and suddenly asked.

"Minghua, is it true that a movie with good artistic quality will have poor box office?"

"Not necessarily, but it's really hard to make a movie that's both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. This is not the 1980s anymore, when there were very few movies for the audience to watch. If you randomly show one, everyone will enjoy it."

"But it's different now. There are domestic, Hong Kong and Taiwan movies, and now there are more foreign movies. There are also so many video halls and pirated VCDs, which will also pull audiences out of cinemas. So I dare say that the next few years will be the most difficult years for the domestic film market, and domestic films will be in a desperate situation. You have to be mentally prepared."

Fang Minghua said.

"Yeah." Song Tangtang nodded slightly.

(End of this chapter)