Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 567: Hot Discussion and Waiting

Although Liu Zhou is now preparing to compete for an Oscar, "Aftershock" is clearly not suitable and it is unlikely to succeed.

Don't even think about winning the Oscar for Best Picture, and it's almost impossible to win the Best Foreign Language Film. Over the years, the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film has never been awarded to a commercial special effects blockbuster, but almost always to art films.

So the fact that "Hero" failed to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar was not a conspiracy theory. It was just not selected. As for "The Promise", it was not even nominated.

Although thanks to Liu and Zhou's relationship, there will be no problem for Aftershock to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at next year's Oscars, but it is equally unlikely to win the award.

Instead of wasting time on this, it would be better to think about letting more people see the movie overseas.

The Joker, which was just filmed in Hollywood, is his attempt to win an Oscar. As long as he makes a few more attempts in the future and then brings Chinese-language films to participate in the Oscar selection, he will have a better chance of success.

So now Liu Zhou is not in a hurry at all, and has never thought about letting "Aftershock" participate in the Oscar selection.

"Aftershock will not participate in the Oscar selection. Maybe many people don't know the Oscar award. It is not a global award, but an award in the United States. The films selected are mainly Hollywood films.

The Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film is actually a small award, mainly given to films that are very different from Hollywood's own temperament, techniques, and culture.

So even if Aftershock was included in the selection, it would not win. My hope for this film now is to attract more attention from overseas and let them see it. The most important thing is that the audience likes it.”

After answering two more questions from reporters, Liu Zhou ended the press conference.

As the premiere officially ended, excited film critics and many well-known media outlets posted their reviews online overnight, singing praises for the film.

Liu Kai, chief writer of Movie World, believes:
"Aftershock is undoubtedly a very good film. It would be a lie to say that I was not moved after watching it, especially the climax at the end of the film. My heart, which had been hanging in the air for a long time, finally settled down slowly, and I felt like I was relieved.

The special effects of the movie are excellent, making it feel very real, and the story is also very real, without deliberately avoiding cruel scenes.

This movie should not be considered a disaster film, because no one would watch such a realistic movie for entertainment purposes.

The greatest significance of this film is to bring back family affection in this flashy world. Director Liu Zhou has undoubtedly brought another good movie. I highly recommend watching it! "

Long Bin, host of "The Tenth Screening Room", commented:
"The special effects are outstanding, the story is real, and the actors also act very well. Liu Yifei's performance in the film is undoubtedly a very big breakthrough. She is no longer ethereal and otherworldly, but completely down to earth.

Moreover, after landing, she also gave people a down-to-earth feeling. It can be said that Liu Yifei not only stepped out of her comfort zone, but also did so very successfully.

But I personally think that the best is Miss Zhou, a thin and weak girl, but with amazing explosive power!

Her character is so lovable, but Zhou Gongzi has a very good grasp of the details, with layers and tension, and once again contributed a performance at the level of an actress. "

Zhang Guo, editor-in-chief of China Film Report:
"Aftershock is a tearjerker. A grown man's eyes were swollen after watching it. The last movie that gave people this feeling was Mom, Love Me Again.

So my sincere advice is that if you want to watch "Aftershock", it's best to bring tissues in advance.

I personally think this movie is director Liu Zhou’s best film, even better than Interstellar, which set a new domestic box office record six months ago.”

Apart from the reviews from film critics and industry professionals, the online media are much simpler and more crude.

They know what netizens like to watch the most and what kind of headlines and content can attract them the most, so the news reports are also very simple and crude.

Sina:
"This tear-jerking blockbuster, Aftershock, made the audience cry!"

Online Art News:

"Liu Zhou's new special effects disaster movie "Tangshan Earthquake" truly reproduces the complete picture and true story of the earthquake at that time."

Sohu News:

"Half a year later, Liu Zhou once again brings the special effects blockbuster "Aftershock", which is star-studded and well-made. It is not to be missed."

……

With the popularization of the Internet, some news can now be quickly fed back to the audience. As soon as the movie premiere ended, reports about "Aftershock" flooded the Internet.

Of course, many of the promotions launched by Golden Harvest are boring, but there are also many that are promoted spontaneously by some media or self-media.

For a while, even the news related to "Transformers 3" was completely suppressed.

This is the influence of the local tyrant Golden Harvest Group in the mainland. Chinese-language films will be treated unfairly in Hollywood, but this is not the case for Hollywood films in the mainland.

There is no way around it. Hollywood movies do have a huge influence among the audience at this time.

It won’t be until a few years later, after cultural confidence is built, that the filter of Hollywood movies will gradually break.

But nothing is absolute. It also depends on who the opponent he meets is. When facing Jiahe, they also have many ways to deal with you.

It may be difficult to reduce the number of screenings, after all, theater chains are known to be loyal to whoever feeds them, but Golden Harvest can significantly reduce the media resources for "Transformers 3".

Nowadays, movie promotion is becoming more and more important. Even a big hit movie can hardly do without promotion, otherwise the box office will definitely drop.

This can also be considered an advantage of fighting on home soil.

As time went by, news about "Aftershock" began to ferment on the Internet, and more and more netizens participated in the discussion, making the popularity of this movie higher and higher.

Everyone's expectations for this movie are getting higher and higher. This is reflected in reality, as long queues have already formed in movie theaters in major cities across the country before 11 o'clock.

"Aftershock" will officially hit major domestic theaters at midnight on July 28th. With Golden Harvest's distribution, the first-day sales rate is as high as 60%.

After nearly two weeks of screening, the box office explosiveness of "Transformers 3" is obviously not as strong as before, but compared with other movies, its ability to attract box office is still far ahead of other movies.

Therefore, despite the competition from "Aftershock", "Transformers 3" still accounts for nearly % of the screenings.

These two films occupy almost 85 percent of the screenings, and the remaining seven or eight films only share the remaining 15 percent.

At this time, the managers of major cinemas are undoubtedly the happiest, as they like this kind of grand occasion the most.

However, it is rare for audiences to line up in advance to buy tickets, and this only happens when there are big hits. In China, only the films of Liu Zhou and Zhang Yimou have such a strong appeal, and occasionally Xu Ke, Ning Hao and Feng Kuzi also have such a strong appeal.

Not every Hollywood movie can cause a sensation either. Currently, only the "Transformers" series has this appeal.

This July was undoubtedly a very lucky month, as two movies, Transformers 3 and Liu Zhou's Aftershock, were released in July.

They certainly know about the box office competition between the two films, especially when other domestic films collectively performed poorly. Faced with such a fierce "Transformers 3", many people have high hopes for "Aftershock".

They don’t really care which movie has a higher box office. They just hope that the two movies will compete more fiercely so that they can make more money.

However, they also knew that this was impossible. After all, the two films were released two weeks apart, and the box office potential of the film released first had already been largely consumed.

Especially for a movie like "Transformers 3", the box office explosiveness in the early stage was very strong, but it became a bit weak later on.

The theaters are well aware of this, which is why they have drastically reduced the screening schedule for Transformers 3, from nearly % last week to % now.

As the time approached midnight, the cinema became more and more crowded, almost all of whom came to watch "Aftershock".

This movie has attracted much attention since the beginning of the project, and it has been almost two years since it was released.

In addition to the "patriotism" aroused by "Transformers 3" and the large-scale promotion by Golden Harvest during this period, Liu Zhou's box office appeal is of course indispensable.

After "Interstellar" broke the box office record of "Avatar", Liu Zhou's influence reached its peak.

The first movie after that, even if it was a terrible flop, as long as Liu Zhou's name was on it, the box office was guaranteed to be 300 million.

Not to mention that this box office buff is added to "Aftershock", a movie that obviously has a good reputation.

So it is no wonder that even in the early morning, it still aroused a craze for movie-watching.

Time slowly approached midnight, and a large number of audiences flocked into the cinema. "Aftershock" officially met with domestic audiences.

Two and a half hours later, most people came out of the cinema with red eyes. Such scenes happened all over the country.

As the second day came, with the large-scale release of the film, the discussion about the film became more and more lively.

"Liu Zhou is still Liu Zhou. Aftershock is really great. I watched the earthquake special effects in the IMAX theater and it felt like the real thing. The special effects of this movie are not the biggest point. The story of the movie is what moved me the most."

"I feel the same way. When I saw the media promoting a tear-jerking movie, I thought it was exaggerated. I didn't expect it to be true. My eyes were swollen when I watched it."

"I almost didn't recognize Liu Yifei. I didn't expect her to play such a down-to-earth role, and she acted well, especially the scene where she hugged Dou Xiao and cried. It was really amazing. I felt even more in love with her."

"This is the second time Liu Yifei and Dou Xiao have worked together. They missed each other in Those Years, but unexpectedly made up for it in Aftershock and even got married directly."

"Aftershock is really good, and they were very considerate to note on the poster that it is not suitable for children to watch. Some of the scenes in it are really tragic, and I almost took my children to watch it."

"That's right. Other movies don't care about these things. They just want to get more box office."

"It turns out that the Tangshan earthquake was so devastating. This is the first time I know about it."

"Otherwise, it was a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. Just think about the big earthquake three years ago. At that time, our rescue forces and methods were not as perfect as they are now."

"This natural disaster is too cruel. I searched and found that earthquakes cannot be predicted and are simply impossible to prevent. I think the country should popularize earthquake escape knowledge more."

"Yes, especially schools. The earthquake three years ago has proven that earthquake escape knowledge can really save lives."

"The movie 'Aftershock' is so great, can its box office surpass 'Transformers 3'?"

"It's hard to say. Transformers 3 has already grossed nearly million yuan, and it will definitely exceed billion yuan. Based on the popularity of Aftershock, it should also be able to exceed billion yuan.

Who gets more or less depends on fate, but Aftershock will be released later, so it should have an advantage.”

"I hope it can surpass it. After all, it is a domestic film directed by Liu Zhou. He just set a new box office record not long ago. It will be very demoralizing if his new film loses to a Hollywood blockbuster not long after."

"Let's go for the second swipe!"

……

Although most of the online reviews of "Aftershock" are positive, as the number of viewers has increased significantly, there are also some negative reviews, some of which many people agree with.

"The movie story is good, but it lacks any depth or criticism. It is just a heartwarming reunion drama of a family in trouble."

"Some people will say that if you don't cry, it doesn't mean anything. I can find hundreds or thousands of people crying, all in unison, like a memorial service. But is that exciting?
If tears are useful, there's no harm in producing a ton of them, but this movie fails to look beyond the surface and give the audience more to think about."

"Haha, Liu Zhou has also started to move closer to the mainstream theme. Maybe the director Liu who made "The Blade of the Swordsman", "The Martian" and "Interstellar" will never come back."

……

Of course Liu Zhou noticed these negative reviews, but he didn't take them seriously.

If there are people who like a movie, there will definitely be people who don’t like it. If there are people who give it good reviews, there will definitely be people who give it bad reviews. What’s more, competitors definitely don’t want to win.

Giving bad reviews to local films is very common in the entertainment industry.

"Liu Zhou, aren't you afraid that these negative reviews of the tea will affect the box office? It's obvious that someone deliberately created these negative reviews."

"What is there to be afraid of? Since these negative reviews have appeared, Golden Harvest does not need to take any action for the time being. Fans who approve of Aftershock will spontaneously go back and attack these negative reviews."

On the first day of the release, Liu Zhou also participated in the crew's roadshow in Beijing, but he only participated in Beijing, and the main actors would go to other cities.

Seeing that Liu Zhou was still in Beijing, Han Shanping called him over directly, wanting to wait with him to see how much the movie would make on the first day, and whether it could break the record of 3 million set by "Transformers 1.05".

In fact, not only Liu Zhou and Han Shanping, many people were waiting for the first day box office of "Aftershock".

(End of this chapter)