Huayu started as a substitute director

Chapter 749 Hollywood's Domineering Power
During the Spring Festival, Beijing is like a sea of ​​red and celebration, with red couplets pasted on every door, red lanterns hanging everywhere, and trees covered in them.

Although setting off firecrackers is prohibited, some people in every household still secretly set them off, just not on the main streets.

The officials will not investigate this matter unless the people report it.

On the first day of the Spring Festival film season, "The Demons Strike Back" topped the box office charts with 3.54 million yuan, and its total box office over seven days reached 11.5 billion yuan.

The combination of Stephen Chow and Tsui Hark is still awesome.

However, the movie was heavily criticized by audiences, who said it had unclear logic, a chaotic plot, awkward humor, and no idea what it was about.

Aside from the special effects, there's really nothing else to say about it.

Incidentally, Stephen Chow and Tsui Hark were also constantly criticized by the audience, who said that the two of them were just exploiting nostalgia and were extremely disappointing.

"Stephen Chow has run out of ideas!"

"Tsui Hark's previous film, 'Lucy 2,' was so good. It was produced by Principal Tam. How come it's not as good as it is now with a different collaborator?"

“The principal can keep him in check, he can’t let him change the script, and the style has to be in accordance with the plan.”

This movie was produced by Stephen Chow and directed by Tsui Hark.

This can be seen as yet another instance of audiences' trust in top directors collapsing, from Wong Kar-wai to Zhang Yimou, and then to Tsui Hark and Stephen Chow.

The argument that veteran directors do not equate to quality has suddenly gained traction, prompting people not to blindly trust these directors.

Anyway, it seems that starting from this year, the credibility of the entire entertainment industry began to collapse. From then on, men really stopped watching movies and TV shows, but women could watch them.

Treating the audience like monkeys is simply an insult.

Other films followed a similar pattern. "Buddies in India" grossed 1.87 million yuan on its opening day and 5.7 million yuan in total over seven days, showing a strong start followed by a decline, and its reputation collapsed most thoroughly after its release.

The main problem is that the plot is even worse than "The Demons Strike Back," and it received almost unanimous negative reviews. There was no attempt to defend it, which only shows that Wang Baoqiang still has room for improvement.

However, investors had too high expectations for him, after all, he surpassed Hendrik Willem Van Loon's "Kung Fu Yoga" with a box office of 1.37 million yuan on its opening day.

But it later caught up, with a total box office of 11.7 billion yuan in seven days, even surpassing "The Demons Strike Back"!
It's like trying to make the taller person look shorter, because "Kung Fu Yoga" was also met with a lot of criticism, with its tired jokes and clichéd plots.

The plot is also nonsensical, but it takes a comedic approach, somewhat similar to the didactic tone of the Spring Festival Gala.

It's a family-friendly movie, so it's no surprise that many people watch it.

"Duckweed" had the worst box office performance on its opening day, with only 6773 million yuan. Its total box office over seven days was 4.1 million yuan. It can be said to be the best quality film among them, but its reputation is also highly polarized.

The promised message was: "The plot structure is complete, and Han Han's directing ability has shown significant improvement."

The negative aspects are: "male-centric perspective, instrumentalization of women, and traces of imitation."

Even so, compared to other movies, it's quite good; at least some viewers thought it was pretty good.

Zhao Xiaodao is also one of the main actors in this movie.

She is now trying her best to move to the big screen. That's how the film and television industry works; if you can move to the big screen, you should do so. The big screen is more prestigious than the small screen.

But very few of them actually make it to the big screen.

Just as the country was still in the midst of the Spring Festival celebrations, and the box office market was fiercely competitive, the internet sector was also constantly in competition.

After visiting relatives for seven days during the Spring Festival, Fang Hong and Liu Tianxian went to Los Angeles, USA.

Los Angeles is truly a beautiful city; you can see people of all races and skin colors on the streets, probably because of the large number of immigrants.

The two of them arrived more than half a month early this time, with a lot of preparations to make.

In the airport terminal, Fang Hong, speaking in a strange English accent, said, "Hi! Mr. Yu."

"Hello, Principal, your English is very fluent!" Yu Xian stepped forward and gave him a warm hug.

"So-so, you learned this foreign language from your sister-in-law." Fang Hong patted him on the back.

Liu Tianxian, wearing sunglasses, rolled her eyes behind them.

"In the Name of the People" hasn't been released yet; it won't be until March, so this meme hasn't taken off yet. But Liu Yifei knows about it because this man imitates it when he gets aroused in bed, but he doesn't really imitate it.

"Then you must study hard. Your sister-in-law is very knowledgeable and has a profound level of thought!" Yu Xian patted him on the back, and the two were very warm and friendly.

Guo Biting stood gracefully to the side, and seemed a little reserved when she saw the principal. However, seeing how well her boyfriend got along with the principal, she felt that her boyfriend was very impressive.

"This must be your girlfriend, right? She's quite pretty. Say hello." Fang Hong said, then opened his arms to hug Guo Biting.

"Sister-in-law, it's been a long time! You've really gotten more and more beautiful." Yu Xian also instinctively hugged Liu Tianxian.

The two men's sudden change of interest surprised both women.

Liu Tianxian was fine; she calmly extended a finger and pressed it against Yu Xian's chest, saying, "My Fang Hong can get jealous, you know."

"How stingy!" Yu Xian said listlessly.

Guo Biting seemed at a loss, feeling that she had only been hugged lightly before being let go, without any excessive actions.

"That's due to good family upbringing, you don't know anything," Fang Hong boasted.

"I see, it seems my parenting skills aren't quite up to par!" Yu Xian exclaimed, feigning surprise. This made Guo Biting feel embarrassed; she should have refused like Liu Yifei, but she didn't dare.

The group then walked towards the airport terminal exit. On the way, Liu Tianxian casually put one hand on Fang Hong's shoulder and said, "You're quite proud of yourself, aren't you? You've even learned to be well-mannered."

"This is just empty boasting," Fang Hong said softly.

"mock up."

Liu Tianxian smiled, casually flicked his chin with her finger, and then said to Yu Xian in front of her, "You two have been together all this time."

“Yes, she’s spending the New Year with me here.” Yu Xian slowed his pace a bit and walked alongside them.

"That's great! I used to always say I was lonely, but now I'm not lonely anymore," Liu Tianxian said with a smile.

I used to hear him say how lonely he was in the US, especially during the Lunar New Year, when he missed home terribly. Now that he has someone to keep him company, he should feel better.

"I still miss home to some extent," Yu said.

Guo Biting listened to their conversation secretly, remaining silent like a demure young wife, her face slightly flushed.

Stepping out of the airport terminal, it felt as warm as springtime. I can only say that Los Angeles has a great climate; even in winter, the daytime temperature is still in the teens, which is very pleasant.

Since they arrived more than half a month early, they temporarily stayed at Mr. Yu's house. His villa was very large and luxurious, with enough rooms.

They had been here before, on Beverly Hills, where you can see the Pacific Ocean, so it was still quite familiar.

After settling in, the two went to see Donna at Universal the next day. They had been there before, so they knew the way well.

As for Yu Xian, he was busy filming "Aquaman," and he only managed to pick them up when he had time. Guo Biting naturally went with her boyfriend, each busy with their own things.

In a meeting room, Donna still had that kind of afro, similar to the curly afro of black people, very abstract.

"The Martian had already been playing in a commercial theater for seven days before December, and the reviews were pretty good, with generally positive feedback, saying that the plot was captivating."

However, since it hasn't been officially released yet, and it's only being screened on a small scale, word-of-mouth hasn't spread yet; it's been kept within a very limited scope. Donna sat in a chair, legs crossed, recounting the film's release status.

She has the confidence of someone in a position of power.

It's reasonable to keep "The Martian" within a reasonable range, after all, we need to consider its future box office performance.

"Then let's start preparing the publicity plan. The release date is set for March internationally. Are there any other big films that will be released in March?" Fang Hong asked.

“有《金刚狼3》3月3日上映，《美女与野兽》是3月17日。”唐娜道。

"It's really like we're being chased from the front and ferocious tigers from behind!" Fang Hong exclaimed, marveling at how these two films were both blockbusters.

“Haha, there’s also ‘Kong: Skull Island’ on March 10th. If you’re not in a rush, we can put it in late March. If you are in a rush, I would like to put it in late February, but late February is the Oscars, and there is no suitable date,” Donna said.

The Oscars are on Sunday, February 26th. If you want to show them, you can only do so on February 24th, so that you can have them over the weekend.

In North America, there is no particular emphasis on specific dates; they usually calculate dates based on weekends.

As you can see, all three films were released seven days apart, and all on Fridays. They had more rest time, so they could have a surge in popularity as long as it was the weekend.

In China, the summer movie season targets students, while the Lunar New Year movie season targets couples, such as those born during Christmas and New Year's.

Needless to say, the Spring Festival film season is basically a national holiday.

It's truly tragic that working-class people don't have much time to watch movies, and even film and television companies don't really consider working-class people as their audience.

"I said the competition in the domestic film industry is fierce, but I didn't expect it to be just as fierce in yours, even without any major festivals," Fang Hong sighed, glancing at Liu Tianxian beside him.

Liu Yifei smiled with pursed lips, maintaining her elegant posture.

"It's the same all over the world. You're still doing well because you have strong local protectionism. Other countries don't have any local protectionism; they've all been destroyed by Hollywood."

Donna also spoke candidly with him about the global film landscape, adding, "Look at Canada, does it have a production system? People mention it and immediately categorize it as North America. We have a complete monopoly."

In countries like Mexico and Argentina in the Americas, we hold approximately 90% of their market share.

Apart from France, where we can maintain a 40% market share through quotas, we hold a major share of around 80% in other European countries such as the UK and Germany.

Needless to say, in Eastern Europe, the film system has completely collapsed, and in South Africa, we control 85% of their cinemas.

South Korea also stabilized its market through quotas and transformation, but only about 50% of it remained stable; the other half belonged to us.

South Korean films are indeed very explicit, to the point that even the United States doesn't make them, which is how they've maintained their core audience.

"Japan relies on animation, which is indeed their advantage, but they have basically lost out in live-action films as well. After Akira Kurosawa and Takeshi Kitano, they also face the risk of a talent gap, meaning they can no longer produce good movies."

So I say, your country's filmmakers are the luckiest. With your government protecting them, no matter what they make, this market is always reserved for them, preventing us from overstepping our bounds.

Donna adjusted her posture; they were just chatting casually, so there was nothing to hide.

The two were already friends and had been working together for six or seven years. They knew each other very well. Of course, she only said this in front of Fang Hong and wouldn't say it outside.

Some of the things said may be true, but they are not pleasant to hear.

(End of this chapter)