China Entertainment started in 2004

Chapter 379 The First Day
"People Mountain People Sea" was released, and Mei Ting, who was currently filming "How Far Is Happiness", squeezed out time to participate in various promotional activities.

Since the filming location of "How Far Is Happiness" is in the suburbs of Beijing, Mei Ting's schedule is very tight.

Sometimes I am on the crew in the morning, rush to participate in publicity activities in the afternoon, and go back to the crew to work in the evening.

In addition to Mei Ting, actors such as Zhang Hanyu have also been actively participating in promotional activities.

"Brother Zhang, 'Ren Shan Ren Hai' is riding on your popularity this time!"

Although the premiere was relatively small in scale, the crew of "People Mountain People Sea" still held a banquet after the premiere.

Wang Shu glanced at Zhang Hanyu who was eating and teased him with a smile.

It's a joke, but it's actually true.

"Assembly" was released on December 2007, 12, and has grossed over 20 million yuan to date.

As the male lead, Zhang Hanyu became an actor with a single-film box office of 200 million yuan.

Just at its peak.

"Director Wang, this is really an insult to me." Zhang Hanyu smiled helplessly when he heard this.

If it was another less famous director, it could be said that he was able to take advantage of some of his popularity by starring in "Assembly".

But "People Mountain People Sea" is a movie directed by Wang Shu, and Zhang Hanyu is not arrogant enough to think that Wang Shu is riding on his popularity.

After saying that, he quickly changed the subject and said, "After returning from Venice, I thought Director Wang would submit "People Mountain People Sea" to the Golden Horse Awards, but I didn't expect Director Wang didn't even submit his name."

"It would be great if I could win the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor."

The two of them had a good personal relationship, so Zhang Hanyu did not hide his extravagant hopes and just said it directly.

Wang Shu did not comment when he heard this.

In this era, the Golden Horse Awards is the most prestigious film award in the Chinese-language film industry.

Whether it is the Hong Kong Film Awards or the mainland's Huabiao and Golden Rooster Awards, they are not in the same league.

When it comes to best actresses and best actors, in the Chinese film industry's award selection, the Golden Horse Awards are the most prestigious ones.

The best actress and actor winners of other awards all stood aside.

Zhang Hanyu is now an actor in a single movie with a box office of 200 million yuan. If he wins another Golden Horse Award for Best Actor, he will become a top actor in mainland China.

Although "Assembly" is currently at its peak, these are all empty words.

As time goes by, if there are no new works, it will slowly return to its original state.

It was just a flash in the pan.

Only awards are genuine.

With awards to his credit, he can maintain his status in the industry even if he doesn't produce any new works for a long time.

Wang Shu looked at Zhang Hanyu's resentful expression and said with a smile, "There are Li An and Liang Chaowei at the Golden Horse Awards. Are you sure you can win an award if you go?"

As the Golden Horse Awards came to a close, Zhang Hanyu had actually almost guessed why Wang Shu did not submit "People Mountain People Sea" for the award.

Facts have proved that Wang Shu’s choice was indeed correct.

I really shouldn't have gone to this year's Golden Horse Awards.

But even so, he still said unwillingly: "Even if I can't win the award, it's not bad to be nominated."

This is true.

For big-name actors who have won awards, they naturally look down on the Golden Horse Award nomination.

After all, there are only a few actors who have won major awards.

Therefore, for many actors who have never won an award, even just a nomination is part of the achievement and something to brag about.

For example, many actors proudly say in interviews or interpersonal interactions that they have been nominated for the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor, which is full of showing off.

The fact is, even just a nomination is something very valuable for many actors.

Of course, for directors like Zhang Yimou and Wang Shu who won awards at the three major European film festivals, this is not worth mentioning.

Wang Shu knew that Zhang Hanyu was eager to win an award, and one’s status in the film industry has always been determined by awards.

Otherwise, Stephen Chow would not have changed his style, and Feng Xiaogang would not have switched to the field of art films.

After Feng Xiaogang won the Huabiao, Golden Rooster and Golden Horse Best Director Awards for "Assembly", he began to turn to the field of art films in order to catch up with Zhang Yimou and become an international director.

It's just that he doesn't have the skills, but insists on taking on this job.

A lot of art films have been made, but none of them made it to the top three in Europe.

So he smiled and said, "This movie 'Assembly' is good. This kind of movie is also suitable for awards. Maybe you will win the Best Actor Award at the next Golden Horse Awards."

Although Wang Shu said it half-jokingly, the actual best actor at the next Golden Horse Awards is Zhang Hanyu.

Thanks to the movie "Assembly", Zhang Hanyu won the Best Actor award at the Huabiao, Hundred Flowers and Golden Horse Awards.

Of course, if he had won the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival for "People Mountain", then the honor of this award would be far greater than these awards.

But, I am not strong enough.

"Haha." Zhang Hanyu also knew that this kind of film was easier to win awards in China, but he smiled and continued, "It's good to be nominated, but it's not that easy to win an award."

Wang Shuxin said that since Feng Xiaogang made this film, Huayi will definitely help Feng Xiaogang win an award, and you are an artist of Huayi, plus Huayi will go public next year, and Huayi’s composition is complex.

As long as Huayi takes action, the cake will be directly divided into bowls. How can there be any surprises?
This is what I thought in my heart, but I would never say it out loud.

Then he smiled and said, "I think you should be able to win the award, so just relax."

"Assembly" was adapted from Yang Jinyuan's novel "The Lawsuit", which originally had "hidden dangers". Under the control of screenwriter Liu Heng, it became a main theme script and was then filmed by Feng Xiaogang.

I have to admit that Feng Kuzi is able to call himself the most powerful commercial film director in the mainland, so he is quite capable.

Ten years ago, when Feng Xiaogang filmed "Party A and Party B", almost no one watched Chinese films.

The national box office revenue of Zhang and Chen's works was less than 10,000 yuan.

Han Sanping, who was the director of Beijing Film Studio at the time, said that if the Beijing Film Studio had paid its employees' salaries in full, there would not be more than a hundred yuan left in the account of the huge film studio.

Unexpectedly, Feng Xiaogang's films would create a new period for Chinese film screenings: the Lunar New Year period.

Ten years later, Feng Xiaogang returned to the Lunar New Year box office and brought "Assembly".

At this time, Chinese films had entered an era of rapid development. The official statistics of the domestic box office of the imported Hollywood movie "Transformers" reached 2.8 million yuan that year.

In this era, it’s not that no one watches movies, but who is watching the movies.

The appeal of domestic films is obviously not as great as that of Hollywood films, so domestic films still face the embarrassment of leaving the stage after cultivating the market for Hollywood. Therefore, the face of Chinese films is still the same as it was ten years ago, urgent and vague.

The national teacher once made a bold statement together with another real estate developer named Zhang, that the national teacher would make a movie to save the market.

Compared with his bold statements about personal salvation, Hong Kong director Wang Jin is more self-aware.

He said that directors can never save the market, they just follow the needs of the market.

Zhang Yimou's film "A One Man's Journey" grossed 35 million yuan, which fully illustrates this problem.

Just because a commercial costume martial arts film is a hit doesn’t mean that an art film will be a hit.

What the Chinese film market needs are commercial films, and commercial films are the only way to save the market.

This is what Zhang Yiwu said at a seminar for young film directors. If Zhang Yimou had not made "Curse of the Golden Flower", the money would not have gone to you sixth-generation directors like Chief Jia.

This statement does not mean that Director Jia’s movies are not worth watching, but that movies are first and foremost a business, and making money is the essence.

If this argument is extended to Chinese films, it means that in the future, it will be Chinese commercial films, rather than niche films or art films, that will save Chinese films.

In the 1990s, Taiwan's film industry declined. Later, many people summarized the reasons and believed that it was Taiwan's new film movement that killed Taiwan's film industry.

In fact, this conclusion is putting the cart before the horse.

After summarizing a large amount of screening data of Taiwan films, Taiwan scholar Lu Feiyi believes that the Taiwan New Film Movement has never occupied a major position in the Taiwan film box office.

In other words, it has always been on the edge of the market, waiting for a film movement that can only walk on the edge to save the entire Formosa film market. This is either a pipe dream or a high fever. The fact is that the death of commercial films has led to the death of Formosa films. This is the truth.

If Wang Shu had not appeared, mainland domestic films would have faced these problems.

What should mainland China’s mainstream commercial films look like?
Is this the direction guided by the national teacher?
If so, then Chinese films are doomed.

In fact, the experience of the national teacher is closely related to the historical era at that time and is completely impossible to replicate.

Therefore, the rapid changes in China over the past two decades cannot leave room for the emergence of a second Zhang Yimou.

Therefore, what the national master can do is difficult for domestic directors to replicate, including investment, connections, fame, actors, editing, distribution, screening, etc.

On the contrary, Feng Xiaogang's "Assembly" is a new direction that is eye-opening.

This direction, first of all, is commercial film.

Second, the main theme.

Domestic mainstream films have always been criticized for not speaking human language and not doing human things. Therefore, even a film like "Zhang Side" that has a box office revenue of 2 million yuan (estimated to be 90% water) cannot be called a commercial film, because it cannot give the audience the desire to buy tickets to watch the film.

The fact that "Assembly" allows audiences to buy tickets (not private screenings) is the reason for its success as a commercial film.

Besides...there is no need to hide it, "Assembly" is a mainstream movie.

On the contrary, it was the cleverness of director Feng Xiaogang and screenwriter Liu Heng to make "Assembly" the main theme.

The story of "Assembly" is adapted from "The Lawsuit", which is a story that cannot be called a main theme in any way.

When Feng Xiaogang first contacted the August 1st Film Studio to shoot "Assembly", the leaders of the August 1st Studio were "far-sighted" enough to see through the hidden concerns behind the novel "The Lawsuit", so they considered it over and over again and rejected Feng Xiaogang's request.

What the leaders of the August 1st Film Studio did not expect was that this novel could be turned into a mainstream movie, thus giving the audience the opportunity to avoid being tortured by the August 1st Film Studio's war films.

As for "Assembly", it may not be the best war movie in China, just as "Party A and Party B" is not the best comedy movie in China. However, if "Assembly" can point out the future path for Chinese films like "Party A and Party B", it will be a great achievement.

So, Feng Kuazi is still quite capable.

It’s not that "Assembly" has become a mainstream movie, but the emergence of "Assembly" has changed the appearance of previous war films and successfully pointed out a new direction.

Wang Shu chatted with Zhang Hanyu for a while, and then chatted with Mei Ting and others for a while.

As time went by, the banquet came to an end.

1 month 31 day.

The box office of "People Mountain People Sea" is released, with 765W on the first day.

For an art film, the box office revenue on the first day was over 7 million, which is an extremely outstanding result.

However, Wang Shu knew clearly that this momentum would not last long.

The opening box office was only 765W, so the subsequent box office is unlikely to be high.

Compared to the millions of box office of "People Mountain People Sea", "CJ7" is different.

The first-day box office was 1800 million, breaking the first-day box office record set by "Assembly".

Although the heavy snow in recent days has hindered the scheduled release of "CJ7" in some southern cities, China Film Group has actively taken various emergency measures and tried every means to transport copies. Copies of "CJ7" have arrived in many cities in the south.

In recent days, most audiences have been busy returning home for the Spring Festival, shopping and socializing, so it is not yet the "boom time" for the box office of "CJ7". With the arrival of the New Year holiday, the huge potential of the Spring Festival period will be reflected.

At the same time, the box office of "People Mountain People Sea" will also usher in a small boom.

Because during the Spring Festival holiday, only the commercial Chinese blockbuster "CJ7" was released.

After watching "CJ7", the audience does not have many choices. In addition, "CJ7" has sparked a wave of movie-watching craze, so many people will go to the cinema to contribute to the box office of "Crowd Mountain, Crowd Sea".

"Director Wang, how much was the box office of 'Crowds and Seas' on the first day?"

From the crew of "Travel to Taipei", Li Binbin came over curiously and asked.

"More than 7 million." Li Binbin could find out this kind of thing with just a little inquiry. Wang Shu did not hide it.

"So many?" Li Binbin asked in surprise with his eyes wide open.

Liu Dehua, who was standing by, also praised him, "As expected of Director Wang, he is really amazing."

It’s not that Liu Dehua and Li Binbin specifically praised Wang Shu, but they were genuinely shocked.

"People Mountain People Sea" is an art film, and the box office of art films has never been very good.

There are a lot of art films that earn tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars on the first day, but there are only a handful of art films like this one that earns over seven million dollars on the first day.

With a first-day box office revenue of over 7 million, Wang Shu's box office appeal has been proven.

Of course, this box office appeal will only be shown in the first few days at most, and once the potential is exhausted, it will return to normal.

But the same thing goes, during the Spring Festival holiday, with "CJ7" driving the market, "Raging Fire" can also make a profit.

Wang Shu estimates that the box office of "People Mountain People Sea" will be around 40 to 50 million.

This movie is different from The Tuner.

The box office results achieved by "The Tuner" are difficult to replicate with "Crowds of People".

(End of this chapter)