Hollywood starts with an agent

Chapter 246 The End of Hong Kong Movies

After staying in Tokyo for two days, Aaron flew to his destination, Hong Kong. Norika Fujiwara stayed in Tokyo first and would go to Hong Kong to meet Aaron in a few days!
This year's Hong Kong films have truly felt the dominance of Hollywood. "Jurassic Park" took in HK$6200 million in Hong Kong, breaking the HK$5000 million and HK$6000 million records and ranking first in Hong Kong's box office this year.

"Speed" ranked second in the year with HK$4600 million, and the third place was Stephen Chow's comedy "Flirting Scholar" with HK$4000 million. This is the first time in history that a foreign film has won the annual box office championship in Hong Kong!

At the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Wang Zhuxian and Aaron sat on the sofa together. "That's all. I bought six single-family villas for you, ranging from 6 feet to 4000 feet."

"They're located in wealthy areas like Deep Water Bay, Mid-Levels, Shek O, and Mount Kellett. There's one for sale near your previous villa in Repulse Bay, so I bought it for you."

Wang Zhuxian said this with an envious expression on her face, "It cost more than 3 million Hong Kong dollars, which is 4000 million US dollars!"

Aaron smiled, lifted the other's chin, and kissed him, "Do you like it? Feel free to stay here!"

"I really like the house in Vancouver. I'm mainly filming in Hong Kong. When I have time, I'll live there for a long time."

"There are too many dog teams in Hong Kong," Wang Zhuxian leaned on Aaron's shoulder, and her tone clearly showed that she didn't like staying in Hong Kong for a long time.

"You are a big star here," Aaron could definitely understand, just like actors like Nicole Kidman, who had to face all kinds of media reporters after becoming famous!
"You're right. The top two films in Hong Kong's annual box office rankings this year are both foreign language films."

"This has never happened before. The previous film, 'Ghost', only ranked third in the year," Wang Zhuxian said with a helpless smile.

"Hong Kong films are now really following trends, and they are becoming increasingly shoddy."

"What's even more serious is that some time ago, some film producers in Taipei, Hong Kong's largest overseas market, united to put pressure on Hong Kong Film Company!"

Aaron smiled, lowered his head and kissed the girl on the cheek, "I know this. Anyway, the final result is that Taipei has opened up the import of Hollywood movies."

For some reasons, Taipei has very strict quotas on imported Western films, and coupled with its own weak film capabilities, this has led to Hong Kong films dominating the market!

This year, Long Xiang Film Company, one of the major Taipei film distributors, spent NT$3000 million to purchase Stephen Chow's film "Journey to the West," but the results were unsatisfactory.

Long Xiang and others joined forces with seven other major film producers in Taipei to put pressure on Hong Kong Film Company, demanding that they reduce their pay and production costs, that is, reduce the copyright fees for the films and set a maximum threshold.

Obviously, the Hong Kong film companies, which had benefited from it for many years, would not allow this. During the dispute between the two sides, the Taipei film companies made an effort to directly ask the government to relax the import quota of Hollywood films.
So, Hollywood is reaping the benefits of this incident!

"Journey to the West" was just the trigger. The main reason was that in recent years, Hong Kong has been producing so many films every year, which are too shoddy and lack innovation.
Although Hong Kong filmmakers have made a lot of money in recent years, any second- or third-tier actor may have to shoot several movies at the same time, not to mention the first-tier big names, who are even busier!

There are also some films with a large number of stars. Of course, it is impossible to gather all the actors at the same time, so the director can only rely on doubles to make do with the filming. For example, the "Legend of the God of War" that made Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau lose a lot of money. There is only one scene in the whole movie where the four main actors appear at the same time;

As for the rest of the scenes, not only were all the fighting scenes performed by body doubles, but even a lot of the drama scenes were shot with body doubles, using reverse shots! In addition to the actors, even the behind-the-scenes staff, such as lighting and props, also had their parts.

The busy schedule of Hong Kong filmmakers has indirectly created a third hidden danger, which is the skyrocketing salaries of actors and others.
All of these are the fundamental reasons why Hong Kong films have fallen from grace.

Wang Zhuxian nodded and said, "I almost forgot. You will definitely pay attention to this kind of news."

"By the way, when will Golden Harvest release 'Rumble in the Bronx'?"

"Oh, it's the Lunar New Year film. It will be released during China's Spring Festival holiday, at the end of next month, which is late January next year!"

Wang Zhuxian looked at the man and asked, "When is Hollywood planning to release the film?"

Wang Zhuxian and Jack Ben had previously collaborated on a film called "City Hunter," which grossed HK$3087 million and ranked fifth in Hong Kong's annual box office this year.
Now, of course, I am even more looking forward to this action movie "Rumble in the Bronx" co-produced with Hollywood.

"Well, in August next year," Shuguang must be waiting for "Rumble in the Bronx" to become a hit in Asia before arranging its release in North America!
"By the way, Hong Kong's other action star, Jet Lee, did well in his movies this year, right?"

Aaron suddenly asked, after all, Shuguang had previously purchased Jack Cheng's "Project Condor" and "Super Cop", as well as the two "Once Upon a Time in China" series starring Jet Lee!
"Yes, Jet Lee left Golden Harvest this year and formed his own Zhengdong Film Company, which produced the kung fu film 'Fong Sai-yuk,' which also grossed 3000 million Hong Kong dollars, ranking sixth that year. The sequel, 'Fong Sai-yuk 2: The Last Stand,' also grossed 2300 million Hong Kong dollars."

"Also, I recently heard that Taipei film company Long Xiang Film Company has purchased the Taipei rights to three future films by Jet Lee for a total of HK$3600 million!"

In addition to his two Zhengdong films "Fang Shiyu" and "Tai Chi Master" this year, Jet Lee also has other films released such as "Once Upon a Time in China II" and "The Demon Cult Leader"

"Zhengdong Film Company," Aaron hugged the girl in his arms. He actually knew about Jet Lee's film company.
Next up are "Bodyguard from Beijing" and "Fist of Fury"!
Wang Zhuxian hugged Aaron and kissed him on the lips. "Jack Cheng won the Best Actor Award at the Taipei Golden Horse Awards for the movie 'Crime Squad' that was released this summer.

"It's a crime action movie. Are you not interested in buying it?"

Aaron smiled and nodded, "Hollywood is only interested in some kung fu movies now, or action comedies are also fine;"

"The most important thing is that the action is exciting and the scenes are thrilling and exciting!"

As for Jack Cheng winning the Best Actor award?

Aaron, it's hard to be interested.

(End of this chapter)