HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 194 [194] Eleven million in four days, you little brat, you're going to fly to the sky!
The latest box office results for "The Mission" are in: 1113 million yuan in four days, making it one of the highest-grossing films of the year.

This achievement is enough to make actors, directors, and film companies across the country envious.

Even the two Wangs from Huayi Brothers and Feng Xiaogang couldn't hold back and were a little jealous in private.

Last year during the Lunar New Year holiday season, on December 24th, Feng Xiaogang starred in a movie called "Be There or Be Square," which grossed over 43 million yuan.

This film was a Lunar New Year film in 1999, and many organizations usually include it in their box office rankings for that year.

Feng Xiaogang became a big star with this movie, as the top-grossing films in mainland China for the previous two years, 1997 and 1998, were all imported films.

If Feng Xiaogang can hold on until the end of the year, he can unlock the honor of breaking the monopoly of imported films and becoming the number one film on the annual charts.

"The Mission" is not as popular as comedies like "Be There or Be Square," and its release date is not as favorable as "Be There or Be Square's" Lunar New Year release.

The final box office of "The Mission" will definitely not catch up with "Be There or Be Square", and may even fall short by a significant margin.

The figures predicted by Huayi Brothers internally and externally are roughly the same, around 3000 million, which should be the limit for "The Mission".

3000 million! That number is already outrageous.

If you make 3000 million on your first movie, won't you be soaring to the sky in a couple of years?

Feng Xiaogang was a little indignant! He had made several blockbuster movies and accumulated his box office appeal over several years, only to earn 4300 million yuan for a movie he worked so hard to make.

Qi Yuan shot a 3000 million yuan movie in just 19 days right from the start. How could he accept that?
Feng Xiaogang was really on edge.

"The Mission" was already so amazing, he couldn't even imagine how amazing Chen Kaige and Qi Yuan's new movie would be next year.

Chen Kaige said he wouldn't touch the script, and Feng Xiaogang knows how powerful Chen Kaige is by not touching the script.

As long as the script isn't terrible, Chen Kaige and Qi Yuan, who don't touch the script, will be the decisive factor, and they are very likely to oust Feng Xiaogang's film next year.

Feng Xiaogang couldn't hold back any longer and cursed a few times: "Is Chen Kaige crazy? Why would he make a movie for Qi Yuan? Is he insane?"

……

Hong Kong.

"What? Over 11 million in four days?"

Nicholas Tse suffered another blow.

Why? Where exactly did things go wrong?
He also has many fans in Hong Kong, and young men in Hong Kong really like the rock and roll boy style.

In Hong Kong, his popularity is almost as high as Qi Yuan's; Hong Kong is his base of operations, no matter how you look at it.

However, his two films didn't resonate with fans. In contrast, Qi Yuan's films were box office hits in both Hong Kong and mainland China—a stark contrast.

Is it because his fans are of low quality? But surely they shouldn't be that much worse?

In addition, Chen Kaige announced information about his new movie, which will begin filming early next year.

Chen Kaige is the director, and Qi Yuan is the lead actor, screenwriter, and assistant director.

Chen Kaige will personally teach Qi Yuan how to make movies.

This made Nicholas Tse even more devastated.

Everyone says he's the heir to Yinghuang Entertainment, that he has access to the best resources in Hong Kong's entertainment industry, and that all the newcomers in the national entertainment industry envy him.

Why does he feel that Qi Yuan has better resources than him?
If Qi Yuan received the same treatment, it would be equivalent to Yinghuang hiring Wong Kar-wai to tailor-make a movie for him and personally teaching him how to make a film.

Given his acting skills, even Wong Kar-wai would have to be impressed with him.

Moreover, even if Yinghuang really spent a lot of money to invite Sunglasses King, he would still be a step behind Qi Yuan.

Because Chen Kaige took the initiative to teach Qi Yuan, and Chen Kaige also secured most of the film's investment.

Active and passive – a difference of just one word, yet worlds apart.

...These past few days.

The Chinese entertainment industry is dominated by "The Mission" and Chen Kaige's new movie.

The news went viral in Taiwan.

Chou Chieh Lun was somewhat envious when she heard the news that "The Mission" was a box office hit.

After his debut, he set Qi Yuan as his target to catch up with. He rose to prominence very quickly, but he felt that the gap between him and Qi Yuan was widening.

Qi Yuan has evolved from a king of the music scene into a dual king who excels in both the music and film industries.

The news that Chen Kaige was going to teach Qi Yuan how to be a director caught Zhou Jielun's attention, as he was quite interested in the job.

But right now he's just a newly popular singer, lacking both the ability and the resources to try new challenges.

He could take Qi Yuan's development path as a reference.

He reached the pinnacle of the music industry, ventured into the film industry, and finally tried his hand at directing.

He developed in the same way later on.

In fact, once singers from Hong Kong and Taiwan become popular enough, as long as their image is acceptable, they will enter the film industry, and film companies also like to hire popular singers.

Ren Xianqi is a good example. He has become incredibly popular in the past two years and is currently filming "Wish Upon a Star" with Zhang Baizhi.

Ren Xianqi had a higher starting point in the film industry than Qi Yuan. His film "Wish Upon a Star" had an investment of over ten million yuan, and the female lead was a "Star Girl" who became a sensation in the first half of the year.

This is an advantage for Hong Kong and Taiwanese artists; Hong Kong and Taiwanese films prefer to cast them as lead actors.

However, things changed after the success of "The Mission".

Qi Yuan proved his box office appeal to the market.

Capital is profit-driven. If Qi Yuan can make more money, then his status as a mainland Chinese is no longer a concern.

Later, Li Lianjie himself said that the Hong Kong film market is very pragmatic, but Hollywood is even more pragmatic than Hong Kong.

If the new TV performs well on the charts, a bunch of people will beg him to make a movie, even if they're kneeling on the ground with money in hand.

The previous year, the executives of the eight major companies who looked down on him with their legs crossed, flew to France specifically to invite him to make a movie the following year. They waited for two hours and still smiled and didn't utter a single complaint.

When Li Lianjie asked him if he was angry, he smiled apologetically and said, "Of course, of course."

This is the business world—it's that cruel, that real.

Qi Yuan's current situation is not as exaggerated as Li Lianjie's; it is true that many Hong Kong film companies and directors want to cast him in movies.

Li Xue received dozens of acting offers, most of which were for bad movies.

However... Qi Yuan's dazzling success in the film industry has created some butterfly effects.

……

In 1993, Alan Mak served as assistant director on the film "A Moment of Romance II" directed by Johnnie To.

At that time, Alan Mak learned a lot of directing skills from Johnnie To, and the two could be considered half master and apprentice.

This year, Alan Mak got the opportunity to direct a thriller called "The Murderer 20 Years," which had a mediocre box office performance and failed to recoup its costs.

Recently, seeing the popularity of "The Mission," Alan Mak was reminded of Wu Baige's Hollywood film "Face/Off."

He had a flash of inspiration. He wondered if it was possible to swap the identities and inner thoughts of two characters without surgery on half of their face. Such a story would surely be very interesting.

With this inspiration, Alan Mak wrote furiously, staying up all night to produce a first draft of the script, which he titled "The Infernal Affairs".

The next day, he flew to the mainland without stopping to ask Du Qifeng to help him see if the story was worthwhile.

(End of this chapter)