Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 131 [China's first international director! ]

Chang'an District.

Art Film Company, Yanjing Office.

“2075 million dollars?!”

Li Yishu received the news about the first day's box office at noon on the third day after the premiere.

The main reason was the release time in Europe and the United States. Although it was the same as Yanjing time, there was a time difference between the two sides. In addition, statistics had to be made, so it was delayed for more than a day.

“Yes, that’s about the same number.”

Xu Suo showed a happy expression on his face and said, "The highest box office in Japan is more than 900 million US dollars. It seems that the special edition for Japan that you made before, Director Li, has achieved very good results!"

In the past, Hong Kong did have special editions for Japan. For example, when several of Jackie Chan's films were released in Japan, their character settings and some of their lines were modified. But this so-called special edition was actually to adapt to local viewing habits.

Lee Yi-su, for the first time ever, shot an extra ten minutes of plot that had almost nothing to do with the main storyline just for the sake of the Japanese market, just to add Japanese actors and Japanese elements. The huge results achieved were definitely worth it.

"Sword Rain" is a purely Chinese-language film. Although Toho Co., Ltd. helped in its distribution, its inherent conditions are definitely not comparable to those of Japanese local films and Hollywood films.

The first-day box office exceeded 900 million US dollars, breaking the first-day box office record for Chinese-language films in Japan.

And if it continues at this rate, it might even break the record for Chinese-language films, the 50.6 billion yen box office of "Enter the Dragon" starring Bruce Lee.

You have to know that even the movie "The Mountain, the Man, the Dog", which was released for more than half a year, only had 300 million viewers in the end. Based on the ticket price, the box office was only more than 40 billion yen, which is equivalent to about 3000 million US dollars.

Now the box office on the first day is over 900 million US dollars. Even if it will decrease later, as long as the daily box office decline in the first three days does not exceed %, breaking Bruce Lee's box office record is basically a foregone conclusion.

"Has the notice been issued?"

Li Yishu's face was filled with joy. When Teng Wenji had previously written about him in the newspaper, he had said that making a Japanese-language film and getting $1 million at the box office in Japan was nothing. After all, if you really think about it, there are directors in China who have earned over million at the box office.

No matter how much data there is on the Internet later, it is basically beyond doubt that the box office of "Shaolin Temple" has exceeded 1 million RMB.

There are also "The Garland under the Mountain" and "Furong Town", etc., the box office has basically reached more than 1 million.

The main reason was that movies were too scarce back then. Movies were the main form of mass entertainment. Young couples would watch movies when they were in love, instead of going to KTV to sing.
"I'm already looking for someone to write it. You don't need to worry about Japan. I've already talked to Amy and the person in charge of Toho Co., Ltd. They will be responsible for the promotion in Japan."

Xu Lu paused and continued, "I am also following up on Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. As for the promotion in mainland China, the Beijing Film Studio just called me and told me that the studio attaches great importance to the achievements of "Sword Rain" overseas and may try to contact CCTV..."

"Contact CCTV?" Li Yishu was slightly stunned.

Xu nodded and said, "Yes, Deputy Director Zhang of Beijing Film Studio said that we can contact CCTV to help report the excellent box office of our "Sword Rain" overseas, which can also better stimulate domestic box office revenue."

"Sword Rain" is a co-production, in which Li Yishu holds a 50% stake, Xu Suo holds a 30% stake, and Beijing Film Studio holds a 20% stake.

Originally, Li Yishu held a 60% stake, Xu Suo held 30%, and Beijing Film Studio held 10%.

However, the Beijing Film Studio felt that this investment ratio was a bit too little. Considering that this was the first collaboration between the Beijing Film Studio and Li Yishu as the producer, they reduced their own share and increased the Beijing Film Studio's investment share to 20%.

He has also decided that in the future, his investment share in domestic films must not be less than 50%.

The film industry itself is not an industry where you can eat alone. The distribution of the cake must be reasonable, so that you can ensure your interests while ensuring that you will have more and more friends around you.

Just like this time when Teng Wenji publicly criticized Li Yishu in the newspaper, the Emei Factory was forced to do so because his parents were old employees, and Li Yishu was also half one of their own, so they had to help.

The Beijing Film Studio spoke out to support Li Yishu and said good things about her, and this 20% share also played a huge role.

Li Yishu's eyes lit up and he asked, "Can Beijing Film Studio contact CCTV?"

Xu Suo said, "It's hard to say. Anyway, that's what Deputy Director Zhang told me. But since he said it, it must be somewhat certain. Besides, it's the first time for a mainland movie to be screened in so many countries overseas. The box office performance is also very high. If converted into RMB, it must be 1.4 million."

"If it can be shown on CCTV, it will probably boost the domestic box office. In the next few days, the box office may increase instead of decrease."

Li Yishu's eyes were burning. CCTV's influence was much higher now than it would have been decades ago. In today's underdeveloped information age, anyone with a TV at home would watch the news broadcast almost every day on time.

Once the host mentions the overseas box office performance of "Sword Rain" on the news broadcast, it is estimated that many people who are not interested in the movie will become very interested in it, wondering what kind of domestic movie can achieve such a high box office overseas?
"Shaolin Temple" had such a high box office back then. It was said that each ticket was sold at a dime, and the box office was raised to over 100 million or 200 million.

How many people watched it? And how many people seemed to watch it?

Regardless of whether it is true or not, one thing remains unchanged, that is, the wave of Shaolin Kung Fu in China brought about by "Shaolin Temple". Even the future Wang Baoqiang was inspired by "Shaolin Temple" and went to Songshan to become a monk for several years and practiced Shaolin Kung Fu for several years.

If "Sword Rain" can set off a new wave of kung fu craze, it would be great for Lee Yi-su!

The box office is not the key, what matters is the extremely high national awareness.

Before 2010, it was the era of individual directors.

One Feng Pants can support a Huayi Brothers.
Just one Zhang Yimou is enough to allow Zhang Weiping's New Picture Company to negotiate the box office sharing ratio with representatives of major domestic theater chains.

It can be said that before this, it was the era when the director’s personal charm was at its peak.

From then on, the director's status began to gradually decline.

Although more and more young directors are beginning to emerge, with the intervention of a large amount of capital, there are very few directors who can really stand out.

For many high-grossing movies, no one knows who the director is, such as "Charlotte's Troubles", "Monster Hunt" and so on.

On the contrary, directors who have crossed over from actors have attracted more attention and achieved more amazing box office results, such as "Wolf Warrior 2", "Hi, Mom", "Loss of Weight Loss...Hot and Spicy"...

These are all things that happened later. What Li Yishu has to do now is to increase her popularity in the country as much as possible, and it would be best if she could become a representative figure in the domestic film industry and achieve sufficiently excellent results from art films to commercial films.

During this period, publicity is naturally an indispensable thing, and there is no better publicity than CCTV reports.

Last year, Li Yishu had two opportunities to appear on CCTV. One was when he won the Golden Lion Award, which allowed him to emerge in the domestic film and television industry. The second was when the veterans' movie-watching wave was set off in Taiwan, but that was just a bonus.

But this time it’s different. Compared to what awards the director won, ordinary audiences prefer to hear that domestic films have achieved higher box office overseas.

The box office on the first day achieved nearly 2100 million US dollars, which is worth writing about in this era of foreign exchange shortage.

Of course, with such a high box office on the first day, Li Yishu didn’t get much money. Except for Asia, the European and American copyrights have been sold. They just promised to release it on Christmas Day. As for the number of screenings and screens, it is no longer important.

What’s important is the gimmick of “the first Chinese-language martial arts film to be released simultaneously in 76 countries around the world.”

Nowadays, people in China still attach great importance to gimmicks. Wasn’t it that the later international star Zhang was called international star just because she went to Hollywood and starred in a few supporting films?
Li Yishu has set a new record in mainland China, and possibly in Hong Kong and Taiwan, becoming the first director to have his films screened in so many countries around the world.

He can also be called an "international great director", and in a sense, Li Yishu is definitely China's first international great director!

dong dong——

At this moment, there was a knock on the office door, and Li Yishu subconsciously said, "Come in!"

With a click, the door opened and Gong Li walked in. Seeing the smile on Li Yishu's face, she couldn't help but ask, "What are you so happy about? You're smiling as soon as you come in."

Li Yishu said with a smile: "Of course I am happy to see Gong Li coming."

"Stop talking nonsense." Gong Li rolled her eyes at him. "You run a good company. It looks good, but it's a little small."

"The main purpose is to set up an office so that others can contact me easily."

After Li Yishu replied, she smiled and said, "Sister Gong Li, the first day box office of our "Sword Rain" is out."

"how much?!"

Gong Li hurried over to ask, this was her first time to act in a martial arts film, and it was definitely a movie with a female lead. Her scenes accounted for almost two-thirds of the 120-minute movie.

Xu Suo, who was standing next to him, smiled and said, "2075 million US dollars."

“So high!!”

Gong Li's pupils widened, and then her eyes gradually became excited: "This box office, this is too high, right? 2100 million on the first day, and that's in US dollars!"

Li Yishu smiled cheerfully: "It's mainly because the box office in Japan is high, almost 900 million US dollars. Other places including the mainland, the total is less than 1200 million."

"That's pretty good. I've made so many movies, but this is probably the one with the highest box office."

Gong Li clenched her right hand into a fist, and it was obvious that she was still uneasy inside. Come to think of it, she achieved such excellent results in her first martial arts film and showed her face in front of the whole world. Any actor would be happy and pleased.

(End of this chapter)