During my years at China Entertainment

Chapter 821 Hong Kong Cinemas Are Not Dead: Ni Ni Needs to Be a Little Wilder

The premiere of "Project Gutenberg" has concluded successfully, and the film is just waiting for its public release on the 29th. However, at this time, Boss Wei suddenly found himself trending on social media along with Gao Yuanyuan.

This morning, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced the nominees for this year's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

As expected, no one in the industry questioned whether "Gone Girl," which won both the Berlin Film Festival's Best Picture Awards, would represent mainland Chinese films in the Oscar race.

After all, compared to "The Assassin" recommended by Taiwan and "The Golden Era" recommended by Hong Kong, this drama is far superior!

However, many female celebrities in the industry couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy upon seeing the news.

Given Mr. Wei's past track record, it shouldn't be a problem for "Gone Girl" to be nominated.

This means that Gao Yuanyuan, this "old woman," is going to have another glorious moment at the Oscars after winning the Berlin Film Festival Best Actress award earlier this year.

But no matter how heartbroken or upset you are, there are no fools in the entertainment industry; everyone reacts very quickly!

Since the news broke, Wei Jin and Gao Yuanyuan's Weibo accounts have been buzzing with activity, filled with blessings, support, and anticipation.

However, by noon, the industry's attention was suddenly diverted!
"At 10:00 a.m. today, the Le Vision Pictures Financing Conference and Celebrity Shareholder Signing Ceremony was held in Beijing."

"It is reported that at the signing ceremony, Deng Chao, Sun Li's studio, Sun Honglei, Li Xiaolu, Feng Shaofeng, Huang Xiaoming and his wife, Bai Baihe, Huang Lei, Su Mang, Liu Tao, Qin Lan, Chen He, Huo Siyan, Li Chen, and others all directly or indirectly subscribed to Le Vision Pictures shares at different prices."

"Following directors Wu Ershan and Guo Jingming, Le Vision Pictures has once again welcomed dozens of celebrity shareholders!"

"Zhang Zhao, president of LeEco Pictures, said in a media interview: This financing conference is an important milestone in the development of LeEco Group and is of great historical significance!"
In the near future, LeEco will become the most promising and powerful listed company and leader in the film and television industry, leading the new trend and direction of industry development.
Many celebrity shareholders will also sail with Le Vision Pictures, this giant ship, to conquer the seas, ride the waves, and multiply their wealth.

"."

Without a doubt, by acquiring dozens of first- and second-tier film and television stars and industry celebrities in one fell swoop, Le Vision Pictures is absolutely the focus of attention in the film and television industry, media industry, and even the financial industry today!
Many industry insiders believe that Le Vision Pictures, with its numerous celebrity shareholders, is in no way inferior to the financially powerful Ali Pictures in terms of influence.

After all, such a lineup of celebrity shareholders has an unparalleled appeal to netizens, the general public, and stock market investors!

Seeing the celebratory Weibo posts forwarded by Huang Xiaoming, Deng Chao, Sun Honglei, and others, looking like they'd gotten a great deal, Wei Jin didn't know what to say.

Admittedly, LeEco's listing plan sounds very tempting, after all, even after the stock market crash, LeEco's current market value is already twice that of Huayi!

Once LeEco Pictures and LeEco.com successfully list after their share swap, the shares held by these signed shareholders will increase by tens or even hundreds of times.

But where in the world are there so many good things?

LeEco's indiscriminate acceptance of all comers, even prioritizing quantity over quality, actually reveals a lot of problems!

"Ha, a giant ship? Giant ships never end up well. First the Titanic, then the Taiping. Good luck to them."

The following day, after two days of anticipation, "Project Gutenberg" finally premiered.

Thanks to the film's quality, numerous acclaimed reports at the premiere, and the influence of the renowned screenwriter from the Wei and Jin dynasties, the film's screening schedule was quite strong, averaging no less than 33%.

There's no way around it; it's not that we don't want to screen more films, but rather that "Lost in Hong Kong" is performing too exceptionally well, practically dominating the film market!
In just four days, the third installment of the "Lost in..." series has raked in a staggering 7.83 million yuan at the box office!
Under its strong suppression, even two Hollywood blockbusters, Mission: Impossible 5 and Minions, had to be eliminated early.

The former ultimately grossed 8.6 million yuan, while the latter grossed 4.33 million yuan, failing to qualify for the National Day holiday box office!
Even films like "Black Coal, Thin Ice," starring Yang Mi, Liao Fan, and Zhang Yi, which won two Silver Lions at the Venice Film Festival, are struggling to stay afloat.

After only two weeks in theaters, daily revenue has already fallen below five million, and the total box office is only 2.48 million. It looks like it will be taken off the screens soon.

It would be no exaggeration to describe the current film market as being dominated by a single player.

You could even say that the domestic film "Lost in Hong Kong" is ruthless to its own people than imported films, twice as ruthless!
Therefore, under these circumstances, it's already quite good that "Project Gutenberg" was able to get one-third of the screenings.

Although its screening rate was not as high as that of "Lost in Hong Kong", "Project Gutenberg" had an exceptionally high attendance rate.

According to data from theaters, the average rating for the three consecutive screenings reached a staggering 84.7%, leaving industry peers stunned!
Keep in mind that this is the occupancy rate during non-peak hours; it will definitely surge even more during the evening peak hours.

Many industry peers had a premonition that "Dynasty Warriors" would perform well on its first day.

Sure enough, when the media reports came out the next day, they completely confirmed the industry's guess!
"Produced by Golden Harvest Pictures and Yinghuang, written by Wei Jin and directed by Felix Chong, and starring Chow Yun-fat, Aaron Kwok, Liu Shishi, Zhang Songwen, and Janice Man, the action-suspense crime film 'Project Gutenberg' grossed 1.13 million yuan on its opening day, successfully taking the top spot at the daily box office!"

"Lost in Hong Kong, the third installment in the Lost series, co-produced by Ali Pictures, Fiber Optic Media, and Zhenledao, and directed by Xu Zheng, saw its box office plummet yesterday, dropping to 8842 million yuan and ranking second!"

According to official data, the combined box office of the two films, "Project Gutenberg" and "Lost in Hong Kong," accounted for over 91% of the total daily box office yesterday!

"Major cinema chains have issued announcements stating that, effective immediately, they will increase the screening rate and number of screenings for 'Project Gutenberg' to meet the viewing needs of a wider audience."

"."

Without a doubt, the fact that "Project Gutenberg" managed to outperform "Lost in Hong Kong" despite unfavorable screening schedules proves its strength!
Moreover, not only did the film achieve outstanding box office results on its opening day, but it also received rave reviews, scoring as high as 8.3 on Impression.com, making it arguably the pinnacle of Hong Kong films in recent years!
The comments section was filled with almost unanimous positive feedback!

"As expected of Mr. Wei's script, the story and characters are polished to the same high quality as always. This is what a commercial film should be like."

"It's absolutely amazing! It's one of the best Hong Kong films in recent years, especially the gunfight scene in the Golden Triangle with Chow Yun-fat, it brings back so many memories!"

"The more you underestimate 'Project Gutenberg,' the more you'll be captivated by it. I initially thought it was a terrible movie after watching the trailer, but I was proven wrong after watching it. I highly recommend it!"

"The actors' performances were all excellent. Chow Yun-fat is still very handsome, and Liu Shishi was a pleasant surprise, but the best was Aaron Kwok. He played the coward really well!"

"The film is very good, and it teaches us a lesson: telling a woman the truth never ends well. See, if you had held back at the last second, wouldn't everything have been fine?"

"Actually, if I were Li Wen, Xiuqing wouldn't need a face transplant, hehe."

"."

In his headquarters office in Hong Kong, Mr. Yang beamed with joy as he looked at the online comments and the first day's box office results.

Based on its ratings and word-of-mouth, "Project Gutenberg" is guaranteed to gross at least 10 billion yuan at the box office.

It is even very likely that, as Wei Jin predicted, it will break the 15 billion yuan box office mark in one go.

Leaving aside how much Yinghuang can earn in terms of box office revenue sharing, just producing a movie that grosses over 15 billion will cause the stock price to rise by 20% to 30%!

This can be seen from the stock price trends of Ali Pictures and Fiber Optics in the days since the release of "Lost in Hong Kong"!
Thinking of this, Boss Yang was filled with excitement. Finally managing to suppress his emotions, he looked up and gave the order:
"Mani, tell them to cooperate fully with Golden Harvest's promotional roadshow plan. Especially with Chow Yun-fat, don't let him cause any trouble!" A while ago, Chow Yun-fat didn't participate in any promotion for Johnnie To's "Office," which drew a lot of ridicule from the industry.

Many Hong Kong actors were also dragged into the controversy, criticized by mainland media for being unprofessional and arrogant.

Although Chow Yun-fat did not miss any of the pre-release promotions and premiere of "Project Gutenberg," Mr. Yeung felt it was still necessary to give him a heads-up.

"Okay, Chairman Yang, I will pass the message on."

Huo Wenxi, dressed in a business suit, smiled and agreed, but he didn't think for a second that Chow Yun-fat would abandon the project led by Yinghuang and Golden Harvest.

Especially after the Donnie Yen incident during "Ip Man 3," no one dared to do that anymore!

"In addition, we must not neglect our publicity press releases, to generate buzz and strive to achieve 10 billion yuan in box office revenue during the holiday!"

"Understood, Chairman Yang."

As it turned out, Huo Wenxi's judgment was accurate.

Even with the holiday approaching, Chow Yun-fat followed the film crew throughout the promotional tour, not daring to slack off in the slightest.

After all, although he has been in the industry for decades, apart from his classic Hong Kong films, he hasn't had many box office hits in recent years, and most of them have received terrible reviews.

Having finally released a movie that's both a box office hit and a critical success, and having returned to the peak of his career, he naturally wouldn't miss it.

As for Guo Tianwang, Liu Shishi, Zhang Songwen and others in the same group, needless to say, they were all like they had been injected with chicken blood, and did not feel tired at all.

Of course, Golden Harvest and Yinghuang did not miss the opportunity either, and the number of press releases related to "Project Gutenberg" surged instantly, generating extremely high popularity.

Some Hong Kong media outlets even spontaneously shouted the slogan "Hong Kong films are not dead," which attracted a lot of attention!
With its aggressive roadshow, increased theatrical screenings, media hype, and overwhelmingly positive reviews, "Project Gutenberg" achieved another record-breaking box office on its second day of release!
With a box office of 1.48 million, it once again surpassed "Lost in Hong Kong" with 8460 million, retaining its title as the daily champion!

Before the holiday even started, "Project Gutenberg" had already grossed 2.61 million yuan in just two days.

Although "Lost in Hong Kong" suffered setbacks for two consecutive days, it is getting closer and closer to the threshold of 10 billion yuan in box office revenue.

Everyone in the industry knows that the entire National Day holiday film season was dominated by "Project Gutenberg" and "Lost in Hong Kong".

As for the outcome, perhaps it will become clear after the holiday ends.

The producers of both films understood this principle, so they immediately intensified their promotional efforts, determined to seize the holiday box office.

As a result, the entire internet was filled with information about "Lost in Hong Kong" and "Project Gutenberg".

However, by the afternoon, the news of the Golden Horse Awards nominations still broke through the ranks, topped the trending searches, and attracted the attention of the entire industry!

After all, this is the Golden Horse Awards, the top of the three major Chinese-language film awards. The overall strength and number of films submitted far surpass those of the Golden Rooster Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards.

As for the newly established Golden Film Award, it goes without saying that it's not even in the same league yet.

The announced nomination list truly opened the eyes of the industry and instantly aroused ridicule online and skepticism from the media!

Because that film, "The Assassin," which is widely considered a terrible movie by mainland audiences, film fans, and media, actually received 11 award nominations?!

Good grief, they've even given up on pretending? Are they blatantly telling the Chinese-language film industry that the Golden Horse Awards are only meant to favor local films?
Wei Jin paid little attention to either the Golden Horse Awards' questionable tactics or the two companies' publicity war.

He was destined not to participate in the former; the latter were both his own flesh and blood, and he couldn't interfere.

Right now, Boss Wei is enjoying Ni Ni's tenderness in his loyal golden house.

On the snow-white bed, Ni Ni held the trophy in both hands, looking as devout as if on a pilgrimage.

Several months had passed since her last pleasure. Born in 88, she was already over 27 years old, and her body's maturing instincts could no longer be suppressed.

Moreover, she will be joining the cast of "Wu Kong" next, with a filming period of at least two or three months.

Ni Ni was afraid that if she didn't feed herself well, she would miss the film crew terribly.

With this in mind, Ni Ni kissed him even more deeply, determined to fully enjoy the wonderful time tonight.

……

At the same time, he also said to Ni Ni, "I heard you have a lot of scenes where you're suspended by wires this time, so please be careful, okay?"

To be honest, I read this version of "The Legend of Wukong" in my previous life during the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Although it achieved good results, its reputation was terrible.

Even achieving relatively good results largely relies on that melodramatic line from the original work—"I want this sky to no longer be able to block my view."

"I want this land to never bury my heart again; I want all living beings to understand my will; I want all Buddhas to vanish like smoke!"

However, for a near-top-tier actress like Ni Ni, a period drama with an investment of nearly 200 million yuan is considered a decent resource.

This was especially true when Wei Jin was temporarily unable to take care of her.

"Yes, I know, Mr. Wei. I will take good care of myself."

Ni Ni clearly appreciated Wei Jin's words of advice and concern, and nodded gently as she left.

Then, her alluring fox-like eyes blinked at Wei Jin, and she bit her red lips to send a signal.

"But Mr. Wei, instead of worrying about my life on set, why don't you think about how to take care of him tonight?"

Upon hearing this, Wei Jin's lips curled into a mocking smile. "Oh? What do you want?"

"They need to be fierce, preferably leaving a deep impression on me, something I can't forget."

"That's easy, give me your hand."

(End of this chapter)