Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 468: Explosion and Lost

Nearing 6:, everyone who was supposed to come arrived one after another, and the deputy general manager of Taobao's operations department also showed up in person.

Wang Jinghua didn't come, but several of her actors were here. I don't know if she was busy or didn't want to come.

Teng Huatao then brought in Zhu Yawen, Yang Mi and others, and the premiere ceremony officially began, allowing the audience to enter.

November has always been the off-season for the film market, but movies produced by Golden Harvest have always been quite popular, and this screening room with more than 11 people was still full.

And it seems that not all of them are single, half of them are couples.

At the premiere, Teng Huatao talked about the concept of Singles' Day, why he made this movie, etc.

The original author and screenwriter also explained why he chose the number 33 days instead of other numbers.

The movie started at 7:30 in the evening.

Liu Zhou did not interfere with this film, and it is basically no different from the original.

The theme is mentioned at the beginning, with several couples breaking up in different places. Some of the scenes are on construction sites, some on the streets, and some at home.

Some breakups are graceful, while others are not so harmonious, like a small crime scene.

At this time, watching these couples flash by, some viewers were confused and couldn't help asking the people next to them:

"Isn't it Zhu Yawen and Yang Mi who are starring in this? Why are there so many celebrities? Li Chen, Yao Di, Chen Yufan, Ma Yili, who is the lead actor?"

"Oh my god, this is obviously a guest appearance, you can't even tell."

"I think the character played by Li Chen is so smart. How about we separate for a while? We should talk about breaking up first, haha."

"That's right, I dumped you first!"

In the first few minutes, the response was obviously good.

Almost all the audience were caught by this opening and entered the movie-watching state.

Even among the celebrity guests invited, many showed interest and began to focus their attention on the big screen.

Seeing this situation, Liu Zhou realized that the film should be a success, and a good start is half the success.

Although he knew that this movie should be fine, it was somewhat different from the original time and space after all. Liu Zhou was also worried that there might be some accidents, as the power of a butterfly flapping its wings was still very strong.

Now it seems that the butterfly effect will not appear in this movie, and Liu Zhou can't help but calm down and revisit this classic domestic chick flick.

At this time, the plot also comes to the point where Yang Mi appears. She plays the role of Huang Xiaoxian who works in a wedding company. At this time, she is rushing to the company holding a customer's wedding dress.

But what greeted Huang Xiaoxian was a tragedy. The customers who tried on the wedding dress were her boyfriend of seven years and her best friend.

My boyfriend is having an affair with my best friend, which is undoubtedly the biggest blow to the person involved, as she loses two close people at once.

Her best friend and boyfriend were also stunned when they saw Huang Xiaoxian. They obviously didn't expect to see her here.

The best friend took out the perfume and sprayed it on Huang Xiaoxian.

"So my breakup scene smelled good" coupled with the narration sounds sad yet funny.

Then, as a loser, Huang Xiaoxian naturally returned home in despair. Coincidentally, the company boss, Lao Wang, called her and was scolded by Huang Xiaoxian, who was in a bad mood.

Everyone thought that Lao Wang was a black-hearted boss, but later they found out that he was a wise and caring boss who also contributed many classic quotes.

Zhang Jiayi also portrayed this character very well. In the original time and space, he was just a supporting role who appeared for a few minutes, but he was also remembered by most of the audience.

As the days pass in the movie, a corresponding number will appear on the big screen.

The 90-minute movie ended quickly. Huang Xiaoxian and the sharp-tongued Wang Xiaojian experienced warmth and misunderstandings, and spent the 33rd day of her broken heart in laughter and anger.

At the end, it was raining heavily in Beijing and the traffic in the entire city was paralyzed. Wang Xiaojian picked up Huang Xiaoxian on the bus on a bicycle.

At the end of the movie, the audience couldn't help but give their warm applause. It was obvious that they were quite satisfied with the movie, and it even exceeded their expectations.

When leaving, some audience members were still discussing the plot of the movie.

Liu Zhou feels that the combination of Zhu Yawen and Yang Mi is no worse than that of Wen Zhang and Bai Baihe, especially Yang Mi, who hasn't taken any bad films in recent years.

Unlike later generations where her performances became formulaic, her acting skills are still quite good and there is no problem even if she is put on the big screen.

After the premiere, many interested parties including bosses of other film and television companies in the industry were also paying attention to this movie.

Especially the Wang brothers of Huayi, they were not optimistic about Teng Huatao's film, but they did not expect that Golden Harvest would actually invest in this film.

Because of Golden Harvest's good reputation, the Wang brothers couldn't help but feel uncertain, wondering if they had made a mistake.

However, Teng Huatao had already signed an investment agreement with Jiahe at that time, so even if they wanted to get the project back, it was a little late.

The situation is similar for several other companies. Teng Huatao had approached them before, but they were also not optimistic. Now that Golden Harvest has invested and put a lot of effort into publicity and promotion, it can be seen that Golden Harvest attaches great importance to this movie.

They also wanted to see whether Jiahe’s vision was really that good or whether Jiahe had made a mistake this time.

If Golden Harvest has made a mistake, they don't mind adding fuel to the fire. After all, Golden Harvest's brand value makes them jealous.

Naturally, Golden Harvest was unaware of the little tricks of its peers and was still promoting the film step by step according to the publicity plan.

November is a slow season for the box office, so almost no blockbusters are scheduled during this period. The movies released during this period are generally low-budget or art films.

Cinemas are very realistic. Good schedules will definitely not be reserved for art films or low-budget films, unless the director is a big name or the distribution company is very powerful.

Golden Harvest can be said to be one of the most powerful distribution companies in China. In the absence of favorable blockbusters during the same period, theaters allocated 41% of the screening time to the equally low-budget "Love Is Not Blind", ranking first during the same period.

This is the influence of distribution channels. For the same movie, a strong distribution company can obviously operate the movie better and get more box office revenue.

This is also the reason why they can get 10% or even 20% of the box office share.

As the movie began to hit major domestic theaters in the early morning, some reporters with a keen sense of smell suddenly sensed something was wrong.

At the midnight show, cinemas in major cities across the country unexpectedly saw the lively scenes that are usually seen near the evening rush hour, and some cinemas even had long queues.

Before the evening of the next day, the theater chains also found clues in the data feedback from the theaters below, and the attendance rate was ridiculously high. Finally, when the box office of "Love Is Not Blind" on the first day of 41 million was announced, everyone in the industry was speechless.

Although this is not a first-day box office record in mainland China's film history, this result exceeds more than 90% of movies, including Hollywood blockbusters.

Because the film market was smaller in the original time and space, "Love Is Not Blind" grossed 37 million on the first day, but it also set a new first-day box office record in mainland film history.

Although there is no such record now, the box office of more than 40 million on the first day shocked people in the industry even more.

You should know that many media were not optimistic about this movie before. After all, it was a low-budget romance film directed by a TV series, even Golden Harvest was optimistic about it.

They all thought that this romance film would earn at most 5 or 6 million on the first day, and would be considered a success if it could eventually make 50 or 60 million.

But now it has grossed more than 40 million on the first day, nearly ten times the amount.

After the brief loss of voice, there was extreme madness, and all the media went crazy!

The emergence of such a dark horse in the off-season of November has undoubtedly had a huge impact, which is even more shocking than a blockbuster movie achieving this result.

Except for the news related to "Interstellar" which still occupied a little space, the rest were almost dominated by "Love Is Not Blind". Most media were reporting on this low-budget love movie.

With extensive media coverage, "Love Is Not Blind" continued to demonstrate its dark horse nature. After earning 1.58 million yuan on the first day, it grossed a total of million yuan in the first four days of the weekend.

The media always go wherever there is heat, which also attracts more enthusiastic reports from the media
"Crazy box office, crazy Singles' Day, crazy dark horse, low-budget romantic comedy creates another box office myth!"

"The Lunar New Year film season is about to begin, and Love Is Not Blind has ignited the domestic film market ahead of time!"

"The plot is cheerful and the dialogues are solid. The humorous dialogues and plots convey a positive concept to young people: it is not terrible to break up, maybe this is the beginning of your next happiness."

"The whole movie uses a simple "broken love" tutorial to create a relaxed and warm love fantasy for college students and office white-collar workers. It is down-to-earth and close to the lives of modern young people."

"Both the emotional model and the story details can resonate with everyone. The first-day box office revenue of over 40 million is the most direct recognition of the film by the audience.

This result undoubtedly surprised many industry insiders and became the real dark horse of the year."

"Love Is Not Blind" was a box office hit, and the topic of heartbreak quickly became popular on the Internet and spread rapidly throughout society."

……

Apart from the media, all the senior executives of film and television companies were confused at this time.

Is Nima Jiahe’s vision really that good?
A movie that was disliked by major companies in the industry was discovered by Golden Harvest, and then became a box office hit, slapping them in the face.

Why does this plot feel so familiar?
I was originally planning to wait for the movie to do well at the box office before stepping on Golden Harvest, but now the Golden Harvest brand is even more valuable.

And they also couldn't understand why it suddenly became so easy to make money by making movies.

They spend more than half a year carefully producing a movie, inviting big stars and big directors, and the costumes, props, and scripts are all top-notch. In the end, they are lucky enough to make a small profit.

The total investment of "Love Is Not Blind" is only 15 million yuan, and the publicity and promotion cost is also 15 million yuan more, so the total cost is only 30 million yuan. According to the current momentum, the profit will be at least 100 million yuan.

After the box office boom in the first four days, theaters spontaneously increased the screening schedule of "Love Is Not Blind" to 65 percent without any urging from Golden Harvest.

Although the box office was not as strong as in the first four days, it still grossed 1.2 million yuan in the following week. After eleven days of release, the total box office has reached 2.8 million yuan.

It is a foregone conclusion that the final box office of the film will exceed 400 million.

Before the Lunar New Year holiday season even began, Golden Harvest had already become the biggest winner in the film market.

In addition to the box office revenue, the stock price also rose significantly due to the popularity of "Love Is Not Blind" and it became a topic of discussion throughout society.

Given Golden Harvest’s current market size of over 90 billion, it is difficult for its stock price to rise significantly.

And now this dark horse movie has done it, which directly increased the market value of Golden Harvest Group by more than 1 billion RMB, making outsiders envious and jealous.

The impact of "Love Is Not Blind" on Golden Harvest's stock price is no less than that of "Chinese Partner" and "Those Years" combined.

Although the box office may not be as good as these two movies, its popularity and social impact are higher than the two movies combined.

"Love Is Not Blind" has spread through circles to other fields, which is something that the other two movies do not have.

This is also the main reason why this movie can have such a great positive effect on Golden Harvest.

Even Liu Zhou was a little surprised. He knew the movie would be a hit, but he didn't expect it to have such a big impact on Golden Harvest.

It seems that it will have to be a dark horse again. Liu Zhou feels that "Lost in Thailand" can also be put on the agenda.

The senior executives headed by Zhang Zhao were also very happy, especially Zhang Zhao. In the eyes of people in the circle and the company, he was the one who strongly supported the movie "Love Is Not Blind".

Now that the movie has unexpectedly become a hit, he has gained an extra layer of glory, and many people in the circle are looking at him with admiration.

However, only Zhang Zhao knew that all this was thanks to his boss, which made him admire Liu Zhou's vision even more.

In addition to Golden Harvest, director Teng Huatao was also very excited.

The success of "Love Is Not Blind" also greatly surprised him, but after the surprise came ecstasy.

This allowed him to perfectly transition from being a TV drama director to being a film director, and he directly achieved an achievement that most film directors cannot achieve in more than ten or twenty years.

Before the movie was even released, the Wang brothers had already brought Teng Huatao back to Huayi, and slapped a bill in front of him, asking him to fill in any number he wanted, and then start working on the next movie.

The difference between before and after is huge, but he really enjoys the feeling of being valued and praised.

But Teng Huatao was not young anymore after all, and was not completely carried away.

Of course, he also knew that the check number could be filled in randomly, so he did not take the check and said that he would consider his next film after Love Is Not Blind was released.

This is not something Teng Huatao is figuring out, but he really thinks so in his heart.

Now he is full of confidence and feels that he is extremely strong. With this bad start, he wants to make a good movie in the next one and become a great director in China.

The large amount of flattery has unknowingly made him lose his clear understanding of his own abilities.

(End of this chapter)