Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 485 Influence and "Focus Interview", the pressure brought by Jiahe

On the evening of Wednesday, December 19, CCTV had just finished broadcasting the weather forecast.

At 7:40, "Focus Interview" will be broadcast next.

Let the facts speak for themselves, focus interview!

These words are very familiar to ordinary people. In the past, almost everyone would pay attention to the weather forecast, and the TV series would not start so soon at this time, and they would also watch the Focus Interview.

Moreover, "Focus" reports news that is closely related to the people every day, so the ratings have always been very good.

The previous issues reported a series of news such as primary care reform, fake eggs, fake wine, etc., but what appeared on TV today was a director and a movie.

The host first reviewed the development of Chinese-language films and the changes in the domestic film market after market-oriented reforms.

Then he talked about the status of the domestic film market in recent years and how it compares with other global markets, especially the North American market.

Then the topic turned to the movie "Interstellar", which set a series of records, was a global hit, and its box office officially broke the billion mark yesterday.

"Interstellar" grossed 9.48 million yuan in China on December , and its billion yuan box office is just around the corner.

It just so happened that "The Orphan of Zhao", which was originally highly anticipated by the outside world, was somewhat disappointing. There was no need for media calls for this, and many movie fans turned to watch the movie "Interstellar".

It's not just because "The Orphan of Zhao" is not good, but also because they want to help "Interstellar" break through the 1 billion box office. Among them, the most enthusiastic fans are Liu Zhou, Liu Ye and Fan Xiaopang.

Many people have watched it twice or even three times.

Not only that, the theater chain has a very sensitive sense of the market and decisively increased the screening schedule of "Interstellar" to six floors.

So on Monday, the 17th, although it was a weekday, the box office of "Interstellar" increased instead of decreasing, reaching 31 million.

On the 2th, "If You Are the One " was released on a large scale, but "Interstellar" was still scheduled for more than three floors, so the box office did not decrease too much and earned million.

The total revenue in these two days was 10.01 million, which together with the previous box office revenue was exactly billion.

Even though it was only over one million, it was over.

"Interstellar" also became the first Chinese-language film to gross over 1 billion yuan in the country.

This is of great significance, as it marks that the domestic film market has officially entered the billion-dollar box office era.

This is exciting news for the entire industry, indicating that the domestic film industry is developing better and better and can attract more capital inflows.

This is good news for everyone, from the leaders of the General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, to the major domestic film and television companies, and to the practitioners in the film and television industry.

The good development of the film industry is an achievement for the higher-ups, it means more money for film and television companies, and it provides more opportunities for practitioners.

Just think about how much shock people were when "Hero" earned more than 200 million yuan at the box office, and you will understand. At that time, many media outlets slandered and even attacked Zhang Yimou and "Hero".

But there is no doubt that Zhang Yimou and "Hero" opened up a new era for domestic films and have received all-round recognition.

Now that the box office of "Interstellar" has exceeded 1 billion, the impact is similar, or even greater. After all, a billion is not a small amount of money in any industry, not to mention that this is just the box office of a movie.

This shows that the domestic film industry has made great progress, and this will also be a landmark event.

So when Wang Zhongjun learned the news, he still couldn't be happy even though "If You Are the One 2" earned million at the box office and ended "Interstellar"'s -day streak as the single-day box office champion.

Therefore, CCTV's "Focus Interview" program will produce a special program about Chinese-language films and "Interstellar".

This time, the "Focus Interview" program was not the result of Liu Zhou's operation, but the program team came to him on their own.

What he was working on was to get "Interstellar" on the "News Broadcast" program, and this program was a powerful publicity weapon.

He wanted to wait until the end of the month when the movie box office was sluggish, and he had already communicated with CCTV.

This will better stimulate the box office. In his opinion, the movie's early box office will not be bad, and it would be a waste of resources to promote it on the "News Broadcast" at this time.

Now it seems to be true. The box office exceeded 1 billion in 19 days. To be honest, this result was somewhat beyond Liu Zhou's expectations. He thought it would be very good if it could exceed 1 billion before Christmas.

But this is undoubtedly a good thing, and there will be greater hope of breaking the box office record of "Avatar".

When the box office of "Interstellar" had not yet broken 1 billion, many media and film critics said that "Interstellar" had a great chance of surpassing "Avatar".

Not many people were optimistic about the movie before it was released, but they were somewhat confident that the box office would exceed 1 billion.

Liu Zhou was of course happy to see this unexpected surprise, "Focus Interview", so even though the schedule for recording the program was tight, he was happy to cooperate.

Before breaking the record of "Avatar", he will not miss any way to increase box office revenue.

After the host introduced the significance of "Interstellar" breaking the billion box office, the scene changed again, showing a modern office. Liu Zhou was sitting upright in a chair, facing the camera and being interviewed.

"The domestic film market is still developing rapidly. Since the new century, it has undergone tremendous changes in the past decade. Now, going to the cinema to watch movies has become an entertainment project that has penetrated into people's lives."

“In fact, our domestic filmmakers and audiences should not underestimate themselves. In just a decade or so since the commercialization of film, we have become the world’s fourth largest film market.

In 2010, the total domestic box office revenue has exceeded 120 billion. I believe that next year my country will surpass India, and the year after that it will be no problem for China to surpass Japan and become the world's second largest film market."

Liu Zhou's voice on TV was steady and firm, and his eyes revealed a strong confidence.

Some viewers outside the TV who were not paying attention to the movie also put down their remote controls and did not change the channel.

Those who still watch the "Focus Interview" program in front of the TV are generally older people, and they didn't know Liu Zhou very well before.

He doesn't even care about the film industry and probably knows very little about Interstellar.

Now it is obvious that through this program, "Interstellar" has undoubtedly been given targeted publicity.

Even though they may be old, most of them still had a lot of sentimentality about watching movies when they were young.

Even if it can attract a small number of people into the cinema, it can still earn a good box office.

At this time, the host on TV was still interviewing.

"Director Liu, what types of movies do you think are more suitable for screening overseas?"

"It shouldn't be about the genre. The most important point is that overseas audiences will not feel alienated when watching our domestic films." "Can you give me a specific example?"

“Just like when we watch some overseas movies, we may not understand some of them either, but we have no problem watching movies with strong visual impact like Hollywood blockbusters.

Similarly, if we want our films to be watched by overseas audiences, we should also focus on visual effects that are common to audiences around the world.

For example, action movies and costume movies are genres that sold well overseas in the past.

Of course there are differences. The two international superstars, Jackie Chan and Jet Li, have different styles. One is a kung fu comedy with many life-threatening stunts.

The latter best interprets the spirit of traditional martial arts, with precise and swift movements, smooth and moving movements, which are more entertaining to watch.

So their action movies are almost all popular overseas.

For example, the "Ip Man" series is very popular in China and Southeast Asia because Southeast Asian audiences are more receptive to Chinese culture.

Most of the audiences in Europe and America cannot understand the movie, do not understand Ip Man's approach and the background of the times, and just want to see "good-looking" actions, so the "Ip Man" series hardly gets much box office in Europe and America. "

Liu Zhou was not modest either, and then analyzed all major genres including costume, comedy, horror and suspense.

If an ordinary director spoke like this, as if he was giving orders, he would definitely be criticized.

But even as a director, Liu Zhou has the qualifications to brag like this, just like Jack Ma and Lao Wang in later generations.

He knew that some people would be unhappy with him, but he didn't care and wouldn't pay any attention.

There are many people who are unhappy with him. If he were to waste time on verbal attacks against someone who disagrees with him, that would be too embarrassing.

Nowadays, there are more and more silly film critics and self-media bloggers who are paid to do things or do things for fame. What they want is to be paid attention to.

……

The next day, the news that Liu Zhou and "Interstellar" appeared on CCTV's "Focus Interview" was widely reported by many media outlets.

However, the hottest news is that the box office of the movie "Interstellar" has exceeded 1 billion, which has suppressed all the voices in the entertainment industry.

Although it has long been known that breaking 10 billion is inevitable, when this moment really came, many film and television companies, media, and audiences still felt it was a little unbelievable.

Billion-dollar scale. Except for a few giants in the industry, the market value of most film and television companies is less than ten billion.

Moreover, the box office records of Chinese-language films have changed too quickly, from 500 million for "Red Cliff" to 700 million for "The Martian", and now to 1 billion for "Interstellar".

It took two years to increase from 500 million to 700 million, and it also took two years to increase from 700 million to 1 billion, and all these records are related to Liu Zhou.

This made many film and television company bosses sigh.

The pressure brought by Jiahe is too great.

According to statistics from authoritative organizations, the total domestic movie box office has once again seen a sharp increase this year, directly breaking through the 10 billion scale to reach 12 billion, of which domestic films contributed more than 9 billion.

But movies produced by Golden Harvest alone may account for half of the box office, which is simply terrifying.

Last year, Golden Harvest had hit movies in all schedules. I thought it was already impressive that Golden Harvest accounted for more than 20% of the annual total box office, but I didn’t expect it to be even more unbelievable this year.

Fifty percent of the box office share means that only all the domestic state-owned film studios and private film and television companies combined can be compared with Golden Harvest Group.

Of course this is only in the field of film production, but it is also incredible enough.

Even China Film Corporation did not have such a strong dominance in the past.

From the Spring Festival to the Lunar New Year period, the box office champions of almost every period are movies produced by Golden Harvest, and the box office results are almost always far ahead.

Among the top ten movies at the box office this year, except for "If You Are the One 2" and "Let the Bullets Fly", which may make it into the list, the others are all produced by Golden Harvest.

In addition to the pressure brought by Golden Harvest, competition within the industry will become increasingly fierce.

Not to mention the ambitious Wanda, their ambition to enter the film production field after they acquired MGM was almost obvious.

There is also the Penguin Group, which has acquired New Classics Media and is preparing to make a big foray into the entertainment industry. I heard that another Internet giant, the Ali Group, has also begun to take a keen interest in the entertainment industry. I wonder when it will come in to grab a piece of the pie.

Not to mention Xiaoma Pentium, a well-known company in the industry, which recently raised a large sum of money and recruited Wu Baige and Chen Kexin.

In the original time and space, Pony.com also signed Ning Hao, making it even more popular.

Although the scale of the domestic film market has grown, more and more people are trying to make a living in the film industry, and the competition is becoming increasingly fierce.

……

Early in the morning of December 2010th, Liu Zhou rushed to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to attend the last GEM listing ceremony in .

Light Media is one of the companies listed on the Growth Enterprise Market today, and it is also the fourth film and television media company to be listed in the mainland.

Although Jiahe was a listed company before, it was later delisted by Liu Zhou and turned into a mainland company.

Therefore, when it was re-listed in 2009, it became the first listed film and television company in mainland China.

The second company to go public was not Huayi, but Zhejiang Huace Film & TV. They acted very quickly and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange at the end of 2009, becoming the first TV drama stock in China.

The listing of this film and television company, which mainly engages in TV drama production, was also very smooth. The closing price reached 107 yuan, up 68% from the opening price of 58 yuan, and the total market value reached 46 billion yuan.

Huace did not create a large number of wealthy artists like Golden Harvest and Huayi. Instead, the beneficiaries were its two gold medal screenwriters, Liu Heng and Zhou Jingzhi, who both became the top ten shareholders of Huace.

The most important thing for a TV series is the script, and a top-notch screenwriter is the most important thing for a TV series production company.

After that came Huayi, which went public in the middle of this year. In the original time and space, Chengtian had planned to acquire Jiahe and go public through a backdoor listing, but now Jiahe was taken over by Liu Zhou early on.

So now I am looking for other shells all day long, which have not yet been listed.

When Jiahe went public, Wang Changtian also graciously came to attend the listing ceremony.

Now that Light Media is listed, he has also invited Liu Zhou, so of course Liu Zhou has to give him face and come to participate.

(End of this chapter)