Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 582: Million on the First Day

Although Dong Ping established a firm foothold in the film industry through "If You Are the One", his subsequent development was not smooth sailing.

Otherwise, Huayi should have become a film and television giant now.

In fact, not long after that, Huayi paid a large sum of money to buy out the poem "Assassination of Qin" by poet Chen.

Not only did the overseas copyright fail to sell, but the domestic box office also flopped, causing him to lose a lot of money.

Later, Huayi and Poly cooperated to form Poly Huayi.

Later, Yu Dong's Bona introduced investment from Poly Huayi and merged with Oriental Dragon under Poly Huayi to form Poly Bona, which became a member of Poly Huayi.

So in Zhang Weiping's view, Yu Dong is Dong Ping's henchman, so naturally he dislikes Yu Dong.

"The Flowers of War" and "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" met during the Lunar New Year holiday, and the two films also erupted into the most intense confrontation in the history of Chinese-language films.

Perhaps the box office of the two movies would be just average in the future, but the two companies were really doing it.

It is normal for Zhang Weiping and Yu Dong to attack each other online. Slandering and even personal attacks on each other are nothing.

The most intense situation took place behind the scenes. Perhaps because he was used to being arrogant, Zhang Weiping clearly told the theater chain that if they wanted to get a copy of The Flowers of War, they could not show Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate.

Of course Yu Dong was so angry that he cursed, but the Yu Dong in 2011 was not the same Yu Dong as before. Bona’s listing greatly increased his influence in the industry.

He also prevented Bona and Poly cinemas from showing "The Flowers of War", and the competition between the two sides became extremely fierce.

In fact, this is not the first time that Zhang Weiping has been so domineering. When Guangxian first got involved in film distribution, the first film it released was "City of Pain".

However, Guangguang did not obtain the distribution qualifications that year, so Bona took the lead in distribution and Guangguang co-distributed it.

That year, Zhang Weiping was quite powerful because Zhang Yimou had invested 300 million yuan in the costume blockbuster "Curse of the Golden Flower" which starred many superstars and was about to be released.

So he directly shouted, "'City of Sadness' will lose miserably, let 'Still Life' fend for itself, the Venice Golden Lion Award is what we left!"

Not only that, it also monopolized all digital cinemas across the country and signed exclusive screening contracts. For a whole week, not a single digital screen was showing "City of Pain".

A week later, after coordination between China Film Group, Huanya Film Group, Huaying Film Group and New Picture, 300 digital copies of "City of Pain" were released.

Zhang Weiping felt good and slapped Yu Dong hard in the face, but he also severely offended Wang Changtian.

Even theater chains have complaints about him.

In fact, this is not the first time that he has displeased theater chains. Before the release of "Hero", he forced producers and distributors to increase their share of the box office.

But this is a good thing for film and television companies.

But Zhang Weiping was so outspoken and relied on Zhang Yimou's arrogance and domineering attitude that he offended a large number of people in the circle.

In any industry, it is difficult to get by without friends. Now even a strong company like Golden Harvest has to win over China Film and Shanghai Film. Otherwise, if he fights alone, no matter how strong he is, he will eventually be finished.

Zhang Weiping obviously did not realize this, or he realized it but did not care, thinking that he could do anything with Zhang Yimou as his powerful weapon.

But his vision is obviously short-sighted and he is not in line with the times.

In the past, there were only two or three blockbuster films in the country every year. If New Picture could occupy one of them, it would certainly become a giant.

But in the second decade of the new century, there are seven, eight or even ten blockbusters every year, and there is only one new picture. Even if it is directed by Zhang Yimou, it will fall behind.

Huayi Brothers, which was once as famous as New Picture, can release three or four blockbusters every year. This is what a giant is.

So at this point, the model of one big director supporting a giant company is completely unworkable.

In addition, the conflict between Zhang Weiping and Zhang Yimou was deepening, and other companies outside took advantage of the situation to suppress the film. In fact, even if "The Flowers of War" did not suffer losses, New Picture would soon be finished.

"The Flowers of War" was produced with an investment of 200 million yuan, and nearly 100 million yuan was spent on publicity and promotion, with a total cost of 300 million yuan. It is a real 300 million yuan, not just a claim.

Zhang Weiping had suffered losses from his previous investments and wanted to make a good profit through the movie "The Flowers of War", so he left Jiang Zhiqiang's Emperor Entertainment Group and invested the full amount with New Picture.

However, New Picture did not have that much money and had to borrow 1.7 million yuan from Minsheng Bank.

Later, when the movie was released, it grossed over 600 million yuan in China, which was considered very good.

But this is far from enough to make back the investment. Zhang Weiping had been targeting the overseas market from the beginning, otherwise he would not have hired Christian Bale at a high price.

Since there was no operation of Emperor Entertainment Group in the overseas market, he found a British distribution company and very courageously signed a profit-sharing agreement with the other party.

In the end, he never expected that because of the subject matter, "The Flowers of War" would be comprehensively suppressed by Sony Pictures in the overseas market.

It was directly banned in the first-run market. Although it was opened in 1,200 theaters in North America, it only grossed $250,000 on the first day.

The film opened in 1200 theaters and grossed $25 on its first day.

This number has basically sentenced this movie to death.

This was Zhang Yimou's worst start in North America, even lower than his several art films that landed in North America in the 1980s and 1990s.

This data will inevitably lead to a sharp reduction in the number of screenings in the future, and the final box office revenue of 500,000 will be uncertain.

Under the targeting of Columbia Pictures, a Chinese-language film has little ability to struggle, not to mention that the film was distributed by a British distribution company.
In fact, when "The Flowers of War" was being screened, the cinema was packed with people and the film received rave reviews everywhere.

Subsequently, many U.S. media outlets promoted "The Flowers of War" as a patriotic theme movie invested by the government.

Sony's promotion is not without basis. First of all, the movie premiere was held in the CPPCC Auditorium.

Chinese people know that it is normal to have a movie premiere in this place, but Americans don’t know, so the audience was successfully misled by the media.

Then the film also borrowed 1.7 million yuan from Minsheng Bank. In the eyes of North Americans, all banks in China are state-owned banks, so naturally the film was also invested and filmed by the authorities.

The media in the United States can completely influence the distribution of a movie. When the media in the United States portrays the movie from a political perspective, the box office will be directly affected.

Therefore, "The Flowers of War" suffered a disastrous failure at the overseas box office, causing New Picture to suffer huge losses.

This is also Zhang Yimou's first movie that lost money.

This time also made Zhang Yimou see clearly the ability of New Picture to distribute films overseas. After "The Flowers of War", the friendship between the two was almost exhausted.

So Zhang Yimou and Zhang Weiping parted ways.

Without Zhang Yimou, New Picture fell directly into obscurity. In fact, relying on the remaining values ​​such as distribution channels and artist contracts, it can still struggle to make a comeback.

After all, the film and television industry market was growing rapidly every year at that time.

But he really offended too many people. For example, Yu Dong wished he was dead, and other companies also took advantage of his misfortune.

So after The Flowers of War, New Picture completely disappeared. Now Zhang Yimou was poached by Liu Zhou two years in advance, and Zhang Weiping has already left the studio.

"The Flowers of War" and "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" are also films produced by Golden Harvest.

This year's Lunar New Year holiday will certainly not see two films competing against each other.

Golden Harvest asked them to bundle the marketing for hype just to stimulate each other's box office. What they need to guard against more is other companies smearing the two films.

This year, Golden Harvest has dominated the Lunar New Year box office, which will definitely make others jealous. It will be very normal to use some conventional means at that time.

But if only one company makes a little contribution, the accumulated public opinion will become huge, so Golden Harvest’s publicity and promotion department has been taking it very seriously.

Now that "The Flowers of War" and "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" have no other competitors in the Lunar New Year period, the release schedules will definitely not be scheduled on the same day as in the original time and space.

However, the time interval cannot be too long, otherwise there will be no hype effect.

So there is a week between the release of the two movies.

"The Flowers of War" was released first on December 8th, and "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate" was released nationwide on December 15th.

This version of "The Flowers of War" has fewer poisonous elements because Zhang Weiping did not intervene.

There was no inexplicable boat scene between the priest and Mo Yu. The two of them just had a good impression of each other.

There is also a priest who went out to look for two prostitutes and met a fellow villager. He had the opportunity to escape from Jinling but chose to give up. This turn of events seemed very abrupt compared to when he first appeared and was flirting with women.

It is undeniable that men who behave badly in times of peace, when called upon to perform great and selfless acts, reveal higher sentiments and morals which they had previously concealed.

But the priest's transformation was somewhat abrupt. He suddenly changed from a "second-rate guy" who coveted beauty and an outsider to a noble and righteous man who was willing to risk his life for a few prostitutes and students.

Therefore, the character of the priest was slightly modified, changing it into an image of a passionate young man with a firm belief in the new year and some compassion for the world.

And there are also several scenes in the beginning where he risks his life to save people as a prelude.

This may miss the process of the priest's mental transformation, but the story background of this movie itself does not need to depict his transformation.

The focus is still on the change in mentality of the heroine Mo Yu, who is willing to sacrifice herself to save her students.

The sacrifice of those prostitutes headed by Mo Yu not only shows the glory of humanitarianism, but also indirectly reflects the tragedy of the city of Jinling at that time.

After the revision, there are fewer points of criticism for "The Flowers of War".

The overall quality of the movie is much better than "Jinling Jinling".

Perhaps some people will still feel that in the context of this nation’s deep suffering, there is suspicion of consuming prostitutes and pornography, and that the film is selling and consuming suffering.

Perhaps "The Flowers of War" is not a classic movie like "The Pianist" or "Schindler's List", but for Chinese people, it is still a movie worth watching over and over again.

There are very few movies that reflect the suffering of Nanjing City. Only "The Flowers of War" is known to more people because of Zhang Yimou's fame.

From the fact that Sony has completely suppressed this movie overseas, we can see that this movie can really reflect the brutality of people at that time.

But sometimes reality is so confusing that people in other countries are trying their best to cover up something, but we Chinese are nitpicking and enjoying criticizing it.

The 120-minute movie ended quickly and warm applause broke out in the cinema.

"This movie is very good. We should make more movies like this." Han Shanping said to Liu Zhou beside him.

“But it’s easy for a movie like this to get criticized.”

"There's nothing we can do about it. The current environment is like this, but we can't stop filming just because we're afraid of being scolded. The public opinion environment will eventually change."

The public opinion environment will indeed improve one day, but it has gone to the other extreme, where even traveling abroad can be linked to patriotism.

"Mr. Han, since you are so optimistic about this movie, please schedule more screenings for it in China Film Theaters." Liu Zhou said with a smile.

"This year, the entire Lunar New Year period belongs to Golden Harvest. Do you still want to take over the entire market?"

“I can’t imagine eating it all, but I hope the more the better.”

"The screening schedule has already been arranged. We can't eliminate all the small and medium-budget movies just because The Flowers of War is a blockbuster."

"Well, it's not bad for The Flowers of War to have 65% of the screenings."

After the premiere, Golden Harvest released the last wave of promotional materials before the release.

At midnight, "The Flowers of War" will be released in major cinemas across the country.

Nearly half a year after "Aftershock", long queues appeared again in movie theaters in major cities across China.

The next day, Zhang Yimou started a roadshow with the film's main creators.

Liu Zhou also posted a movie ticket for "The Flowers of War" on Weibo, and Golden Harvest's promotion was in full swing.

The public relations team is also on high alert, guarding against deliberate slander and smear campaigns.

This time, Liu Zhou was also willful and specifically told Sina President Cao Guowei that all accounts on Weibo that made malicious comments about "The Flowers of War", exploited suffering, and incited confrontation would be banned.

Liu Zhou is not against others giving negative reviews of the movie. "The Flowers of War" is not a perfect movie without any flaws.

But don't make it seem unnecessary. It's easy to tell whether the butt is crooked or not, and Liu Zhou also wants to be more subjective this time.

Liu Zhou had gone to great lengths to acquire Sina Group and used every means to develop Weibo, wasn't it just to gain a certain degree of voice in public opinion?

Now is the time for him to use his voice.

As a highly anticipated film, most people in the industry are paying attention to the daily box office of this film.

At midnight the next day, Golden Harvest was the first to receive the first-day box office data of "The Flowers of War".

Eighty-six million!
A number that is somewhat shocking to most people.

Although the first-day box office of "Transformers 3" and "Aftershock" were higher than this not long ago, the former even exceeded million on the first day.

But you have to know that "The Flowers of War" is just an ordinary 2D movie, without any ticket price surcharge for 3D or IMAX movies.

This result undoubtedly proves once again Zhang Yimou's strong box office appeal.

At the same time, the first-day box office results of 86 million also began to spread.

(End of this chapter)