Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 551 May Day File and Press Conference

As time came to the end of April, the domestic film market finally began to become lively.

Although the May Day period at this time is not as good as the summer vacation, New Year's Day, Spring Festival and National Day periods, it is also considered a period in China.

Since it is called the May Day period, its box office potential is not small, especially in the past two years. With the increasing prosperity of the domestic film market, some domestic blockbusters produced by film and television companies have been released in this period.

This year is no exception. Among them, the more popular ones are "Guan Yunchang" starring Donnie Yen and "A Chinese Ghost Story" starring Koo Tim-lok.

Both films were shot by Hong Kong directors. The latter is okay, as it can be considered a remake of a Hong Kong film classic, while the former is roughly what it is about just by looking at its title.

However, since Hong Kong directors moved north, whether they are big names or newcomers with little fame, they have all proved that they are not good at making historical films at all.

Historical movies are always shot in a petty way, with wars being like two gangs fighting each other, and they are often modified in a very imaginative way.

However, Hong Kong directors have something that mainland directors are not as good as, and that is that they are particularly good at shooting action scenes.

The movie "Guan Yunchang" can also be considered a historical movie, but it is a biography of a historical figure. If it were someone else, the audience might be skeptical.

But if it is Guan Yu, they still have certain expectations. After all, the impression Guan Yu left on the country is not only loyalty but also great martial arts skills.

If it were made into a movie, the latter would definitely be highlighted, which is exactly what Hong Kong directors are good at.

What's more, they invited Zhen Zidan to play the leading role. After "Ip Man", Zhen Zidan became extremely popular.

As Jackie Chan and Jet Li are getting older, he is considered the flagship figure of domestic kung fu movies.

The character of Ip Man is indeed quite popular, not only in China but also in Southeast Asia.

Before "Ip Man", his salary was only three or four million. After "Ip Man", his salary soared to 2 million. After "Ip Man ", his salary has exceeded million.

This also makes him one of the Hong Kong stars with the highest pay in Hong Kong, except for Jackie Chan and Jet Li. His salary is almost the same as Chow Yun-fat and higher than Andy Lau.

However, although Chow Yun-fat is more famous and has much more experience than Zhen Zidan, his box office appeal is not as good as Zhen Zidan at this stage.

After entering the new century, Chow Yun-fat has not had many notable films, only "Curse of the Golden Flower" and "Let the Bullets Fly".

But the one who carried the box office for the former was Zhang Yimou, while for the latter it was Jiang Wen, and even Ge You was better than him.

So there is a reason why his production has dropped sharply after the new century. Not only is he expensive, but his box office appeal is also average.

Because he has been in Hollywood and was known as the same as Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow in the 1980s and 1990s, he is unable to let go of his pride and has been refusing to reduce his pay.

Capital is profit-seeking. People may have had a filter for his fame before, but after he has failed several times, they won’t be so stupid anymore.

On the contrary, Zhen Zidan is different. There is a reason why he is so expensive.

After "Ip Man", any movie starring him would have a guaranteed box office of 100 million yuan, and if the quality was slightly better it could exceed 200 million yuan.

Therefore, he already has considerable box office appeal. The only Hong Kong stars who can guarantee a box office of 100 million are Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Stephen Chow.

Even including mainland artists, there are only a handful of them who have such appeal.

Therefore, the drama "Guan Yunchang" starring him is still highly anticipated by the audience.

Perhaps the only thing that caused some discussion was his height. Guan Yu gave everyone the impression of being tall and mighty, but Zhen Zidan was not much worse.

In addition to "Guan Yunchang", "A Chinese Ghost Story" is also quite famous.

The 1980s Xu Ke's version of "A Chinese Ghost Story" is undoubtedly a very classic movie and is also very famous in mainland China.

Now, as a remake, the afterglow of the original version is enough to make this movie highly anticipated.

In the original time and space, Nie Xiaoqian was played by Liu Yifei. Due to the suppression of Huayi during this period, she filmed many Hong Kong movies, and this one is considered the most famous.

But it was a helpless choice for her at that time. She couldn't make it in the mainland, and couldn't get into Hollywood, so she could only turn to the declining Hong Kong circle.

She doesn't have this kind of trouble in this life. After joining Golden Harvest, her schedule was arranged clearly and her resources were amazing. She doesn't have to worry about not having any movies to shoot.

Therefore, Golden Harvest will not and cannot let her act in "A Chinese Ghost Story". Although it is a remake of the classic, the plot is very different. Damn, Nie Xiaoqian even has an ambiguous relationship with Yan Chixia.

Starring in such a movie is definitely a thankless task. Even if you act well, you will be criticized by fans of the original version.

Since Liu Yifei could not be invited, the film producer invited Da Tiantian.

I don’t know whether it was because of her money that she got the role or whether the director chose her because of her fresh and refined appearance and temperament.

At this time, Da Tiantian had not yet been criticized by netizens like she was later, but her fame was definitely not as great as Liu Yifei in the original time and space.

But in any case, this movie is considered to be a popular movie second only to "Guan Yunchang".

In addition to these two movies, there is also a little-known, low-budget martial arts movie called "Blades of Sinners".

Director Wuershan is a newcomer and this is his debut film, but the film is produced and distributed by Golden Harvest, and Wuershan has now been selected by Golden Harvest to be the director of "Painted Skin 2".

It is conceivable that Golden Harvest attaches great importance to him. As they are a newcomer to Golden Harvest, the outside world is also quite enthusiastic about "Blades of Sinners".

However, compared with "Guan Yunchang" and "A Chinese Ghost Story", this low-budget movie without stars is still not well received.

This is indeed the case. "Guan Yunchang" grossed over 100 million yuan in six days, which was a good start, but Mai Zhaohui still could not escape the shackles of Hong Kong directors, and the reputation of this movie was not good.

The box office was halved the next week, to only 5000 million, but the final box office of the film should be able to exceed million.

I don’t know whether the movie is successful or not, but at least Zhen Zidan was successful, which once again proved his box office appeal.

"A Chinese Ghost Story" had a slightly worse start, with 7500 million in the first week and 4000 million in the second week, and its reputation was also not good.

Generally, the box office of a movie with good reputation in the second week will not be much lower than the first week, and may even be much higher than the first week, so the box office of these two movies is almost the same.

However, although these two films have poor reputations and their casts are not very luxurious, their box office revenues have both exceeded 100 million yuan, which undoubtedly proves that the domestic film market has become increasingly prosperous.

Although it is no longer news that domestic movie box office has exceeded 100 million yuan, the fact that the two Hong Kong films were able to achieve this result did surprise some people in the industry.

Compared to these two movies which were big hits at the box office, "Blades of Blade" was somewhat of a cold reception.

As a pioneering martial arts comedy film, it obviously failed to attract the audience's interest, and without the appeal of stars, the box office performance was not very good. It only took in 15 million in the first week and more than 8 million in the second week. The outside world expected that the final box office of this film would be more than 30 million, not even 40 million.

We are used to seeing Golden Harvest's box office revenues of hundreds of millions, but suddenly there was a movie with a revenue of 30 or 40 million, which surprised the outside world.

Moreover, there is nothing eye-catching about "Blades of Legends". Perhaps the only memorable point is the rather abstract eunuch.

So everyone doesn’t understand what Golden Harvest saw in Wuershan that they actually let such a newcomer be the director of Painted Skin 2.

The failure of "Blood Dagger" was not really a failure. The investment in this movie was less than 8 million, and the box office of more than 30 million was still a profit.

However, this result is not good enough for Golden Harvest, and is naturally considered a failure by the outside world. Therefore, this also caused some impact on Wuershan, who is currently preparing for "Painted Skin 2".

These three movies are not very popular or out-of-the-box movies. After the box office stabilized, the popularity faded quickly.

At this time, Golden Harvest also started promoting the launch of "Ex-Files", and scheduled it for Double Eleven this year.

As soon as this news was announced, it immediately attracted a lot of attention.

The grand occasion of last year’s Double Eleven movie “Love Is Not Blind” is still vivid in our memory.

The exposure of several leading actors has also increased a lot.

"Golden Harvest takes another shot. Can "Ex-Files" replicate the box office myth of Double Eleven?"

"It was revealed that Tian Yusheng, the director of "Ex-Files", was the screenwriter of "Lost on Journey"."

"Can Han Geng's third film debut successfully transition to the big screen?"

"Singles' Day battle, Jiahe vs Huayi, Tian Yusheng vs Teng Huatao, who will be the final winner?"

……

After the launch conference of "Ex-Files", many media outlets reported specifically on this movie.

After all, Golden Harvest has its own traffic. Although this is a small- and medium-cost love movie, the fact that Golden Harvest specially held a launch conference for it has already shown that it attaches certain importance to this movie.

Moreover, the leading actor Han Geng is very popular at the time and even appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage this year, so his fans also contributed a lot of popularity to this movie.

You should know that Han Geng is the first generation of traffic star in China. In the first two or three years after he returned to China, his popularity was no less than that of the four returning stars in the traffic era.

In addition, Huayi also has a love movie that has been scheduled to be released on Double Eleven, which is "Waiting for the Wind" directed by Teng Huatao.

Last year on Double Eleven, Teng Huatao's "Love Is Not Blind" created a box office miracle, but it was a miracle belonging to Golden Harvest.

Finally, the successful Teng Huatao returned to Huayi, and the Wang brothers also gave him considerable support, giving him 40 million yuan to go to Nepal to shoot the movie "Waiting for the Wind".

One is produced by Golden Harvest, a new work by a new star, and the other is the second film by Teng Huatao, who has achieved success in Golden Harvest. Both were released on Double Eleven.

The confrontation between the two movies is still quite interesting.

Especially since the media portrayed the two films as a showdown between Golden Harvest and Huayi, you created a grudge situation, which indeed aroused much more heat.

Needless to say, Teng Huatao's previous work "Love Is Not Blind" not only had high box office, but was also one of the few films that broke the circle. The outside world is quite looking forward to his second film, which is a love movie.

No one underestimates "Ex-Files" produced by Golden Harvest. The fact that it is produced by Golden Harvest alone is enough to attract attention, not to mention that it is scheduled to be released on Double Eleven.

Although this is a new work by a newcomer, no one dares to underestimate the new work produced by Golden Harvest.

After all, Golden Harvest has discovered many new directors.

The earliest Ning Hao, although he was not considered a new director at that time, the two films he made did not make any waves at all, and he was still unknown in the circle.

It was not until he collaborated with Golden Harvest on "Crazy Stone" that he became famous. It can be said that Golden Harvest discovered Ning Hao.

Ning Hao has now become one of the most famous directors in the country, and is also one of the few directors that Golden Harvest has opened a studio for him.

In addition to this is Xu Zheng, who was a well-known actor before and was given the opportunity to be a director by Golden Harvest. He also surprised the outside world, and his debut film "Lost on Journey" grossed over 100 million yuan at the box office.

Xu Zheng instantly became a hot commodity in the circle. Although he suffered some backlash during this year's Spring Festival due to "Modern Times", his success in "Lost on Journey" cannot be denied.

At the same time, Teng Huatao, who will compete with Golden Harvest on Double Eleven this year, was also discovered by Golden Harvest.

Although he was a famous TV drama director before, he encountered many setbacks when he wanted to make movies. Even his contract company Huayi did not support him.

In the end, it was Golden Harvest that invested in his film, which made him successful.

Of course, there is also a not very successful example that has just emerged, Wuershan. His debut film "Blades of Smiley" may not have a high box office, but he is a complete newcomer.

There are already four people here. Other film and television companies will never give newcomers a chance and naturally distrust them.

However, Golden Harvest's approach of supporting new directors has also reaped considerable rewards. Except for Wuershan, they have all brought considerable benefits to the company.

Even though Wuershan currently does not have a good reputation in the outside world, within Jiahe, he has the support of Xu Ke and Zhang Zhao, so he is not affected.

Of course, everything can only be concluded after the release of "Painted Skin 2". If the movie fails, it can only be said that Golden Harvest made a mistake. If it succeeds, it will once again prove Golden Harvest's vision.

However, perhaps because this is a sequel to a popular movie, it may not be able to give people too much shock in terms of influence. Of course, as long as the box office of "Painted Skin 2" is high enough, it will still give the industry a big shock.

To be honest, although Golden Harvest is the leading domestic film and television company, it is also the film and television company that provides the greatest support to newcomers.

Golden Harvest invests a sum of money every year to support new talents. No matter whether they are directors or screenwriters, as long as they pass Golden Harvest’s review, they will be given financial support.

Although the funds may not be much, only about three or four million or four or five million, but for newcomers, this is also a huge sum of money, enough for them to shoot a movie.

What's more, there are extremely dazzling role models such as Ning Hao and Xu Zheng, which make Golden Harvest the most favorite company for newcomers in the industry.

Although this is a thankless task, Jiahe has persisted in this plan for five or six years and has invested more than 100 million yuan, but this has won it a good image and left a very good impression on the higher-ups.

Currently, the only company willing to support newcomers is Golden Harvest. China Film Group used to do this, but after market-oriented reforms, they gradually gave up on it.

(End of this chapter)