Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 480: Hong Kong and North America

Liu Zhou is not worried about the broadcast of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", nor does he have to worry too much about the 40th anniversary celebration of Golden Harvest. Preparations for this matter began half a year ago and have been completed by now.

The celebration process, venue, guest invitations and other aspects have all been arranged, and the only things left are some final details, which will be handled by a dedicated person.

Therefore, what Liu Zhou is most concerned about is the release of "Interstellar".

The film's performance in mainland China was unexpectedly good, raking in 5.3 million yuan in box office revenue in its first week, breaking a series of records.

Although the number of screenings will be reduced in the future, there will be no strong competitors in the next week. Chen Shiren's "The Orphan of Zhao" will not be released until December 15th.

As for Feng Kuazi's "If You Are the One 2" and Jiang Wen's "Let the Bullets Fly", they will not be released until after the th.

Therefore, "Interstellar" almost monopolized the half-month Lunar New Year period. According to the excellent reputation of this movie now, it should be able to earn around 300 million at the box office in the next week.

Moreover, "The Orphan of Zhao" is not a box office hit. The original version only took in over 100 million yuan at the box office. The latter two films were the ones that had a greater impact on "Interstellar".

But now that "Interstellar" has such a good start, even if "If You Are the One 2" and "Let the Bullets Fly" are box office hits, Liu Zhou feels that the movie will be able to get around billion yuan at the box office in December.

The one-month delay in the release of the film is the key to whether "Interstellar" can break the box office record of "Avatar".

Although it may not seem difficult to earn 200 million yuan at the box office in one month, you have to remember that this is only the second month of the movie's screening.

Many blockbusters may not be able to earn 200 million yuan at the box office in the first month after their release, let alone the second month, so this is actually quite difficult.

So far, there are only two films that have earned over 100 million yuan at the box office in the second month of their release, one is "Avatar" and the other is "The Martian", of which the former has earned more than 200 million yuan at the box office.

But the situation of "Avatar" is a bit special. At that time, this movie shocked the mainland audience so much.

In fact, if you really count it, even after two months of screening, the single-day box office performance of "Avatar" is not bad at all, it is also several million.

However, "Avatar" is already an exception. Originally, Hollywood movies could not get the key to postponement. The reason why they were able to be released for an extra month was more due to concerns about the impact of public opinion.

If "Avatar" could be screened indefinitely in mainland China like it is in North America, it should be able to earn another 100 million or 200 million at the box office.

A few years later, "Avatar" was re-screened, but at that time mainland audiences were not so novel about 3D, but it still made hundreds of millions at the box office.

All I can say is that mainland audiences are easily sentimental.

"Avatar" is still relatively good, but the re-release of "Titanic" was able to actually take in over 1 billion yuan at the box office in the mainland, which shocked the entire industry.

"Interstellar" does not have a very attractive gimmick like 3D, and there are relatively few film IMAX and digital IMAX screens. If it wants to get high box office in the second month, it can only rely on the movie's reputation and subsequent publicity.

In addition to being released in mainland China, this film was also released simultaneously in Hong Kong and Taiwan. It was released one day later in North America and one week later in Asia.

As for Europe, it will be even later, because the distribution of "Interstellar" in Europe and South America and other regions depends on Lionsgate.

Hong Kong audiences may not be particularly fond of this type of space science fiction movie, and even similar Hollywood movies do not have very high box office in Hong Kong.

However, Liu Zhou still has considerable influence in Hong Kong, and Golden Harvest is also a local player in the Hong Kong film industry. The quality of "Interstellar" is also not bad.

So even though this movie didn’t have as big a box office hit in Hong Kong as it did in mainland China, its box office performance is still very good.

The box office revenue on the first day was HK$6 million, on the second day it was HK$8 million, on the third day it was HK$9 million, and in the first three days it grossed HK$23 million.

This result was considered very outstanding even when put in the early 1990s, when Hong Kong films were at their peak. Up to now, no other film has achieved such a result except those starring Stephen Chow.

In the following four working days, "Interstellar" once again took in 15 million at the box office, bringing its total box office revenue to 38 million in seven days.

It is a foregone conclusion that the total box office of the film in Hong Kong will exceed 50 million, and it is also very likely to exceed 60 million.

Currently, there are only three Chinese-language films whose box office in Hong Kong has exceeded 60 million. One is "New World" by Liu Zhou, and the other two are "Kung Fu" and "Shaolin Soccer" by Stephen Chow.

These three are all Hong Kong films. The mainland film with the highest box office in Hong Kong is Liu Zhou's "The Martian", which grossed more than 50 million Hong Kong dollars.

Such a high box office is also due to Liu Zhou's accumulation in Hong Kong over the past few years. His early love movies and martial arts movies such as "The Blade of the Embroidered Spring" all had good box office in Hong Kong.

Then the movie "New World" once again set the Hong Kong film industry on fire, and also allowed him to accumulate a large number of fans in Hong Kong. His appeal should not be underestimated.

Therefore, when "The Martian" was released, it was able to achieve such good results thanks to Liu Zhou's appeal and Golden Harvest's strong publicity and promotion, as well as the excellent quality of the film.

It now seems that "Interstellar" should be able to break the record of "The Martian" and become the mainland film with the highest box office in Hong Kong.

And there are no Hollywood blockbusters this year. If nothing unexpected happens, "Interstellar" will also win the Hong Kong box office champion in 2010.

Compared to the Hong Kong film market, "Interstellar" performed better at the box office in Taiwan.

It was also released for one week, but it grossed NT$1.7 million in Taiwan, equivalent to more than million RMB.

Although Taiwan's film market is almost completely occupied by Hollywood films, Taiwan is more tolerant of mainland films. The only problem is that it is often affected by some messy factors.

Therefore, science fiction movies like "The Martian", costume historical movies like "Red Cliff", and martial arts movies like "Hero" and "The Swords of Immortal" have all achieved good box office results in Taiwan.

Of course, Taiwan's film market has actually been sluggish compared to the 1980s and 1990s. If mainland films want to achieve outstanding box office results in Taiwan, they must be high-quality blockbusters.

Obviously, a sci-fi blockbuster like "Interstellar" that is not inferior to Hollywood blockbusters is more in line with the tastes of Taiwanese audiences, and it should have no problem taking in NT$300 to NT$400 million at the box office.

But overall, the Hong Kong and Taiwan film markets are already small, and the two regions combined can only contribute more than 100 million yuan in box office revenue to "Interstellar".

Converted to US dollars, it is more than 10 million, which is not a small amount. In Asia, except for Yiben and South Korea, it is difficult for other single regions to get such a high box office. However, the Asian film market is generally calculated as a whole, and Southeast Asia is comparable to Yiben and South Korea.

In the past, we had to add Hong Kong and Taiwan, but now the film markets in these two regions have declined a lot and can no longer be compared with these two regions.

Although "Interstellar" performed well at the box office in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Liu Zhou was more concerned about its release in North America.

The North American distribution is jointly handled by Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate.

Ever since Summit Entertainment was acquired by Golden Harvest, the two companies have been working closely together.

Lionsgate, backed by a banking consortium, has been expanding its distribution channels in North America and overseas.

Although Summit Entertainment also has distribution capabilities in North America, the gap is quite large compared to the Big Seven Hollywood studios, and it is even inferior to Lionsgate.

However, under Liu Zhou's operation, Summit Entertainment has produced many blockbuster movies in recent years.

Not only does it have independent films like "Lucy" and "The Hurt Locker" that have both achieved box office success and critical acclaim, it also has two major series, "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games".

Coupled with the previous "Step Up" series and the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" series developed in cooperation with 20th Century Fox, Summit Entertainment has become an increasingly dazzling presence in Hollywood in recent years.

Therefore, it is inevitable that Summit Entertainment will once again become the target of the Hollywood Big Seven, and their interest is much greater than before, and it has even begun to be suppressed.

There is no problem in cooperating with them, but it is impossible to sell them. Summit Entertainment is the best springboard for Golden Harvest Group to enter Hollywood.

However, although Summit Entertainment began to suffer suppression from the Big Seven in Hollywood, it was not greatly affected. The policy of close cooperation with Lionsgate that Liu Zhou had previously formulated played a role.

Lionsgate has been subjected to more severe suppression than Summit Entertainment because it has been expanding its distribution channels. After all, distribution channels are a taboo for the seven major Hollywood companies.

The two original series, "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games", were both owned by Lionsgate, so Lionsgate was not afraid of suppression at the time.

It even managed to do well under their suppression, with its performance once surpassing 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Columbia Pictures, ranking fourth.

But now these two series have been snatched up by Summit Entertainment, which has left Lionsgate stretched in the field of film production, and it is not having a good time under the pressure of the seven major Hollywood studios.

This just happens to complement Summit Entertainment, which currently has excellent production capabilities but insufficient distribution capabilities, so the cooperation between the two parties is very pleasant.

The close cooperation between the two companies has also achieved the effect of one plus one being greater than two, and their combined strength is not much inferior to that of any single one of the seven major Hollywood companies.

Moreover, the two companies not only cooperate in North America, but also in overseas distribution.

For films produced by the two companies, Golden Harvest is generally responsible for distribution in Asia, Lionsgate is responsible for distribution in Europe, South America, Africa, and Australia, and Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment are jointly responsible for distribution in North America.

This model has been running for two or three years and can be said to be very good.

The shareholders behind Lionsgate even said that the two companies could merge to form a large film and television company that is no less than the seven major Hollywood companies.

Liu Zhou thought this was a promising idea, but after all, this was a big matter and Jiahe was still discussing it internally.

There would certainly be many benefits if the two companies merged, but Liu Zhou was a little worried that the merged company would be slowly eroded by the Lionsgate group.

Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment are both Hollywood companies, and white-collar workers naturally have more advantages when they are in control. If the merged company is finally controlled by them and Golden Harvest is kicked out, then everything will be ruined.

This is also Liu Zhou's biggest concern. After all, Liu Zhou's main purpose in acquiring Summit Entertainment is to serve as a channel for Chinese-language films to enter North America.

However, the cooperation between the two parties is quite pleasant now, and the merger is just an intention and there is no rush for the time being.

The release of "Interstellar" in North America was also jointly distributed by Lionsgate Entertainment and Summit Entertainment.

The other party also understood how much importance Liu Zhou attached to this film, so both sides tried their best to secure 1,800 cinemas and nearly 4,000 screens for the release of "Interstellar".

With 1800 cinemas open, 400 screens is not a small number. At that time, there were only about 40000 screens in the United States, which accounted for % of the screenings. This data ranked th among all new and old films in the same period.

The United States is different from China. In China, blockbusters account for more than half of the screenings, while the North American market is quite mature and blockbusters are only shown in 4000 theaters.

As a pure Chinese-language film, "Interstellar" has already opened in the most theaters in North America. If the box office is good in the future, the number of theaters will increase.

同期还有迪士尼博伟发行的《魔发奇缘》3600家开画影院、《哈利波特7》4100家影院、《舞娘俱乐部》3000家影院、《危情时速》3000家影院、《爱情与灵药》2400家影院.
These are all movies from the Big Seven in Hollywood. It can be seen from the opening of the theaters that even if Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment join forces, there is still some gap between them.

However, these movies were all released in November. "Harry Potter and the Dark Knight" was released for half a month, and "Speed" only grossed 7 million US dollars in 20 days.

"Hustlers" only earned 10 million in 2000 days after its release, while "Love & Other Drugs" earned 10 million in 1600 days after its release.

The biggest rival is still Disney's "Tangled", which took in 10 million in box office revenue in 7500 days and was also the champion last weekend.

Another competitor is "Knight of the Yellow Sands", produced by Relativity Pictures and released on the same day as "Interstellar".

The film's director Lee Sang-moo and lead actor Jang Dong-gun are both South Koreans, but the film's producer is Barry Osborne, a Hollywood gold medal producer who has participated in the production of "The Matrix", "The Lord of the Rings" and "Face/Off".

So even though "Warrior of the Yellow Sand" is directed by a South Korean director and stars a South Korean actor, it is still considered a Hollywood movie, and its cost of $45 million is considered a medium investment in Hollywood.

Therefore, with the backing of Columbia, this movie opened in 200 more theaters than "Interstellar", reaching as many as 2,000 theaters.

Columbia's film performance was good in the past few years, releasing more than ten films a year, but it has been so bad in the past two years. This year, it only has "The Karate Kid" and "Butterfield 8", and next year there will be only one "The Green Hornet" starring Jay Chou.

Columbia also accepts movies starring South Koreans, such as "Warrior of the Yellow Sand".

(End of this chapter)