Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 581 Opening and Premiere

As time enters December, the atmosphere of the Lunar New Year box office becomes stronger.

However, compared with last year's grand occasion when four major directors, Liu Zhou, Jiang Wen, Chen Shishi and Feng Kuzi, competed for the Lunar New Year box office, this year's Lunar New Year box office is relatively quiet.

Only Zhang Yimou and Xu Ke competed on the same stage.

But no one dares to underestimate these two people.

Needless to say, Zhang Yimou would have been ahead of Liu Zhou if Liu Zhou's "Aftershock" had not broken the 1 billion box office this year and had a huge influence.

Although "Interstellar" broke the box office record of "Avatar", in everyone's mind, Zhang Yimou, as the chief director of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games since the 1980s, is more qualified to be called the number one director in China.

Even now, Zhang Yimou is still a strong contender for the title of China's top director, and Liu Zhou is at most evenly matched with him.

So it goes without saying that his box office appeal and influence are unmatched except for Liu Zhou.

With the addition of international superstar Christian Bale and the film telling the difficult story of Nanjing, "The Flowers of War" can be said to be the hottest movie in the second half of this year.

Xu Ke's "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate" is equally impressive.

Xu Ke's influence and appeal may be slightly inferior, but "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate" features a number of well-known domestic celebrities such as Jet Li, Zhou Gongzi, Li Yuchun, and Chen Kun.

These people combined can compete with Zhang Yimou and Beier.

Not to mention, the story of "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate" is derived from the classic martial arts film "New Dragon Inn", and it is also the first 3D martial arts blockbuster in China.

So both "The Flowers of War" and "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" are not easy to deal with.

I don’t know if it’s luck or other directors intentionally avoided it, but apart from these two movies, there are no other blockbusters competing in this year’s Lunar New Year holiday.

There won’t even be any movies to watch before the Spring Festival in January or February.

In other words, "The Flowers of War" and "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" can enjoy the entire Lunar New Year period, or even the entire January period, exclusively.

This is also the main reason why Golden Harvest dared to release these two films in the same period.

If there were other blockbusters as competitors, Golden Harvest would definitely not take such a risk. If something unexpected happened, it would affect both films.

Now that there is no rival during the Lunar New Year period, Golden Harvest certainly dares to release both blockbusters during the period.

The Lunar New Year holiday period at this time is fully capable of accommodating two blockbusters.

Moreover, in the absence of external forces, it is also convenient for Golden Harvest to arrange the two films to be bundled together for hype and marketing, which may stimulate each other's box office.

How can a dry movie being released compare to the gimmick of two big directors competing on the same stage?

Moreover, this is the second battle between these two great directors.

At the same time, the two films also began their final large-scale promotion.

This is the first time that Golden Harvest has been in charge of the promotion and marketing of two blockbusters at the same time, and they also have to have certain linkages and controversies between them, which is a great test for Golden Harvest's publicity and marketing department.

These two films also shoulder important responsibilities. When Golden Harvest is just one step away from breaking through the 100 billion market value mark, they are needed to help Golden Harvest open the door to the 100 billion market value.

Therefore, not only the publicity and promotion department attached great importance to it, but Zhang Zhao also took it very seriously. He personally took charge and mobilized resources to operate the publicity and promotion of the two films.

Although Liu Zhou did not participate specifically, he also paid close attention.

This time, Golden Harvest also mobilized all its strength and displayed its complete publicity and promotion capabilities to the outside world for the first time.

Almost all channels of promotion were used, both online and offline.

Television stations, cinemas, bus stations, indoor and outdoor displays, and even on trains and airplanes.
QQ pop-up window, Sogou input method pop-up window, Sina Weibo homepage, major portals, major forums, major app splash screens
No matter when and where, whether in real life or on the Internet, you can see promotional advertisements for these two movies everywhere.

At the same time, the main creators of the two crews also began to travel around the country and the world, participating in influential programs on various local satellite TV stations to promote the movie.

"'Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate' is being promoted in Shanghai, and Li Yuchun has become the new generation of female knight!"

"'Dragon Gate Flying Daggers' releases final forecast, revealing a tornado battle!"

"Christian Bale came to China today to promote his new film, The Flowers of War. Bale admitted that this was the most touching film he had ever made!"

"With a budget of 6 million yuan, The Flowers of War will be nominated for 13 Oscars and is targeting the international film market!"

"Mou Girl Ni Ni interacted closely with Christian Bale at the event, and the relationship between the two seems to be unusual!"

"'The Flowers of War' premiered overseas, old men and women in the US wept like crazy!"

"The yellow sand is rolling like a tornado, the fight is wonderful! The sound of the bamboo flute is heartbreaking, but the love is not over yet... "Dragon Gate Flying Daggers" takes you to experience a different world of martial arts!"

"Sina Entertainment News: The character relationship poster of the country's first 3D martial arts epic "Dragon Gate Flying Daggers" has surfaced, and Tornado Storm has a glimpse of its true face."

……

Promotional press releases for the two films are all over the Internet.

Because Zhang Weiping did not participate in this version of "The Flowers of War", there was no redundant boat scene between Bale and Ni Ni, otherwise the movie promotion would have been even more explosive.

At this moment, both blockbusters exude a chilling atmosphere, giving off a feeling of "no entry for strangers".

Some other movies are also fortunate that they did not get involved in the Lunar New Year box office, otherwise they would definitely have been swallowed up by these two movies.

At the end of the year, although there are only these two blockbusters this year, there are also other movies.

In the past November, the biggest winner was "Ex-Files 2", which was released during the Double Eleven period.

The film grossed 1.6 million yuan in 1.86 days after its release. As of the end of November, the box office had reached million yuan, and it is just around the corner to break million yuan.

As for "Ex-Files 2", its contemporary competitor "Waiting for the Wind", it was hastily taken off the screen after its box office revenue exceeded 80 million on the last day of November.

I thought the two movies would be evenly matched, and even "Waiting for the Wind" was more popular, but I didn't expect the final result to be like this.

The box office of "Ex-Files" has exceeded that of "Waiting for the Wind" by 100 million, and this number will continue to increase.

In fact, a box office of 80 million is already a very good result for a romance movie.

But the cost of "Waiting for the Wind" was as high as 50 million yuan, and 20 million yuan was invested in publicity and promotion, which directly caused Huayi to remain silent for a while.

Apart from this, there are other movies released in November as well.

The first was "A Chinese Odyssey 2011" directed by Liu Zhengwei, which hit theaters on November 4500th. Thanks to the four words "A Chinese Odyssey" it earned a high box office of million in the first four days.

Although this movie has such a name, it has nothing to do with "A Chinese Odyssey" and is completely a money-making movie.

It's just a crappy movie that is made by patching together some internet slang, jokes and routines.

There is no plot, no acting. Chen Yixun sells his face, Mo Wenwei sells his legs, Huang Yi sells his breasts, Fang Zuming sells his father, Zhong Zhentao, Li Zongsheng, and Su Yongkang sell their idiocy.

The above are also the conclusions of netizens after watching the movie. They criticized the movie and Liu Zhengwei, and at the same time, they felt it was a pity and did not understand why the godfather of pop music, Li Zongsheng, would make such a bad movie.

Among them, Liu Zhengwei was criticized the most.

Since entering the new century, Liu Zhengwei has looked nothing like a director, but rather a thorough businessman.

He is still a businessman who makes money by selling feelings.

Previously there was "A Chinese Odyssey", which was said to be the third part of "A Chinese Odyssey", but in the end it was discovered that it had nothing to do with the first two parts.

The current "A Chinese Odyssey 2011" is relying on the sentiments of "A Chinese Odyssey" to make a bad movie to make money.

"A Chinese Odyssey" is also a very good comedy film, and because it has a rather bizarre and profound story with Wong Kar-wai's "Ashes of Time", the movie "A Chinese Odyssey" is even more legendary.

Previously, audiences of "A Chinese Odyssey" went to the cinema because of their sentimental feelings, and the movie earned more than 100 million yuan at the box office.

This time, "A Chinese Odyssey 2011" relied on sentimentality to still mesmerize the audience in the first week.

This also proves how easy it is to make money from the audience. Just by calling a movie a classic, you can make a lot of money.

Liu Zhengwei seems to no longer care about his reputation and just wants to make some money and leave.

However, the audience is not as easily fooled as before. The movie only took in 2 million at the box office on Monday of the second week, and only 7 million during the five working days.

I think after this movie, Liu Zhengwei has become a bad guy among the audience, and no one will buy his works anymore.

But for film and television companies, they saw something different.

They don't care whether "A Chinese Odyssey: Part One 2011" is a bad movie that wastes sentiments. What they care about is the producer of the movie, Dadi Cinemas.

It can be seen that Dadi Cinemas is not content with being just a cinema chain, and also wants to get a piece of the pie in film production, so it brings in Shi Nansheng, Liu Zhengwei and a number of Hong Kong stars to try to make a fortune.

The owner of Dadi Cinemas is a wealthy man in Hong Kong. In the early 1990s, he persuaded Jin Yong to sell the Ming Pao Group to him, so he has a certain influence in the Hong Kong film and television circles.

In the future, another big boss will come to the film and television industry to grab jobs.

In addition to "A Chinese Odyssey 2011", there is also a costume blockbuster "The Legend of the Hongmen Banquet" invested by Starlight International and directed by Li Rengang.

The movie performed very well at the box office. It was released on November 23 and took in nearly 80 million in the first six days.

However, the film also suffers from the common problem of Hong Kong directors, and just like Li Rengang's previous film "Resurrection of the Dragon", it arbitrarily changes history.

In fact, whether it is "Resurrection of the Dragon" or "The Legend of the Hongmen Banquet", if you just look at the quality of the movie, it is actually quite good.

The soundtrack and actors are quite good, and the fighting scenes are above the standard.

But if you film historical figures that are familiar to everyone and distort history, the audience and the media will definitely criticize you.

This is also the biggest black spot of the movie, a good movie has become a mixed bag of praise and criticism.

On December 8th, "The Flowers of War" will be released, and a week later, "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate" will also be released in theaters on a large scale.

Therefore, the time for "The Legend of Hongmen Banquet" to continue to reap box office revenue is only ten days at most.

But in fact, this time should be enough. Although "The Legend of the Hongmen Banquet" is known as a blockbuster, it is obviously different from those highly anticipated blockbusters and does not have the ability to be shown for a long time.

"Legend of the Hongmen Feast" is similar to most domestic movies, and the box office revenue mainly comes from the first two weeks.

So the release time chosen for this movie is actually quite good. The momentum of the two movies released on Double Eleven has passed, and the next two blockbusters will be released half a month apart.

"Legend of the Hongmen Feast" had two weeks to rest assured of taking in the box office, especially since "A Chinese Odyssey 2011" quickly flopped, and the situation was even better.

However, the film's box office performance was still affected due to word-of-mouth issues.

It was December 1.25th, the day before The Flowers of War was released, and the fifteenth day after The Banquet was released, and its box office was only million yuan.

Apart from the 80 million earned in the first six days, the box office revenue in the next nine days was only 45 million.

It is foreseeable that the subsequent box office revenue will not be much, and it is uncertain whether the final box office can break 1.5 million, and even 1.4 million is still in the air.

With an investment of nearly 1.5 million yuan for this film, it would be difficult to make a profit even if the overseas market is included.

The only thing to be thankful for is that the movie was criticized, but the actors were not.

Li Mingbi performed much better than in "The Kingdom and the Beauty". Feng Shaofeng portrayed Xiang Yu's nobility and domineering character to a level of 50 or 60, which is almost passing.

The rivalry between Zhang Hanyu and Huang Qiusheng is also good.

Zhang Hanyu's fame has greatly decreased without "Assembly", but this talented actor still got the support of Huayi thanks to his relationship with Feng Kuzi, and was able to play an important role in this costume blockbuster.

At the same time, on the 7th, "The Flowers of War" held its grand world premiere in the Great Hall of the CPPCC in Beijing.

The film will be officially released in China at midnight tomorrow. Meanwhile, on December 20th, "The Flowers of War" will also be released in the North American market.

The premiere of Zhang Yimou's movie was held in a place like the CPPCC Auditorium. Due to the relationship with Golden Harvest, most of the famous people in the entertainment industry came.

In the original time and space, "The Flowers of War" and "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" were really at loggerheads with each other. They premiered on the same day and were released nationwide on the same day.

At that time, the main controller and distribution company of "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate" was Yu Dong of Bona, and he and Zhang Weiping had always been at odds.

At the beginning, the global distribution rights of Zhang Yimou's "If You Are the One" were acquired by Dong Ping, who had just entered the film industry and didn't know much about it.

Fortunately, the film earned 4000 million at the mainland box office, but Dong Ping's Huayi had no overseas channels at all.

It took four or five months to sell the copyrights to two or three small countries, and then it took several years to sell the film copyrights to only five or six countries.

Zhang Weiping was furious that a film directed by Zhang Yimou and nominated for the Golden Lion could not be distributed overseas.

In addition, the domestic box office share was delayed for a long time before the new picture was given, which made him curse even more.

The two have been enemies since then.

Although Dong Ping failed to distribute the film overseas, the domestic distribution of "If You Are the One" helped his Huayi gain a firm foothold in the domestic film industry.

The three giants of private film at the beginning of the new century were Huayi owned by the Wang brothers, New Picture owned by Zhang Weiping and Huayi owned by Dong Ping.

The three companies stood in a three-way competition, with Huayi falling behind, and the new three giants became Huayi, Guangxian and Bona.

In this era, Huayi, Guangguang and Bona are still the three giants, but above them there is a super giant Golden Harvest.

(End of this chapter)