Hong Kong 1990: From stuntman to King of Kung Fu

Chapter 99 The Booming Hong Kong Cinema, Doubling Movie Revenue

Li Lianjie returned to the mainland for less than two months, but the Hong Kong film market felt somewhat unfamiliar to him.

One blockbuster movie after another.

This summer's movie season, in particular, has been incredibly hot.

First, Tang Long's "Swordsman II" was released in theaters on June 30th. After 28 days in theaters, the film grossed HK$34.5 million.

He was quite interested in the film at the time, and he could sense that director Tsui Hark favored him.

However, due to his contract dispute with Golden Harvest, Tsui Hark ultimately chose Tang Long, which he found quite regrettable.

Seeing the outstanding success of "Swordsman II" now only makes him feel more regretful.

Tang Long emerged around the same time as him, and because of the overseas box office success of "Once Upon a Time in China," he even had a slight edge over Tang Long.

As fellow action actors, Jet Li naturally wanted to compete with his opponent.

He could sense that Tang Long shared the same thought.

But more than a year has passed, and he still only has one film, "Once Upon a Time in China," to rely on, while Tang Long has starred in three box office hits: "Reign of Assassins," "Twin Dragons," and "Swordsman II."

In particular, "Twin Dragons" has accumulated more than $500 million in box office revenue overseas thanks to Jackie Chan's name.

Tang Long, as a co-lead, also gained exposure to overseas audiences.

In addition, he already had a certain level of popularity overseas.

After "Twin Dragons", his fame overseas is now no less than his own.

In Hong Kong, Tang Long has completely surpassed him.

Thinking about all this, Li Lianjie felt a pang of sadness.

At the same time, there was some self-doubt: why was his film career so bumpy?

If Tang Long made him sigh, then Stephen Chow shocked him.

At the beginning of the year, "All's Well, Ends Well" was released, followed by "Fight Back to School 2" and "Royal Tramp" in March and April. Each of these films achieved box office successes that left me far behind.

Now that he has just returned to Hong Kong, another movie of his is raking in box office revenue.

This slapstick comedy film, invested by Shao Daheng's Metropolitan Film Company and directed by Du Qifeng, has surpassed "Swordsman II" at the box office in just two weeks since its release on July 15, raking in a whopping HK$36 million.

Its momentum is in no way inferior to that of "All's Well, Ends Well," which was released during the Spring Festival.

It was initially thought that the box office record of HK$48.8 million for "All's Well, Ends Well" would be difficult to break.

But I never expected there would be such a master.

The outside world is now closely watching "Justice, My Foot!" to see if it can break box office records.

Besides these two top-grossing films, there are several other movies that grossed tens of millions of yuan at the box office.

One of his films, "The Legend of Wong Fei-hung," grossed over HK$19 million at the box office, making him quite eager to try it.

Unexpectedly, works that follow the trend of their own have achieved such high box office returns.

Don't think that 10 or 20 million is not a high amount. Two years ago, this achievement would have even ranked among the top ten of the year.

Such a booming market rekindled his initial timidity.

Seeing Tang Long, who was full of vigor and had completely surpassed him, Li Lianjie's competitive spirit was stirred up.

He wanted to have another showdown with Tang Long.

"Director Xu, tell me about the overseas revenue of 'Swordsman II'."

With the increasing popularity of Hong Kong films and the rampant piracy, overseas theater owners no longer wait until a film is out of theaters to discuss copyright sales.

With popular stars like Chow Yun-fat, Tang Lung, and Andy Lau, people came to buy the film rights as soon as the project was approved.

Next year, as long as they know you exist, even if you have nothing else, they are willing to spend money to buy out the copyright.

As is widely known, Li Lianjie established Zhengdong Films at the end of this year and received support from Taiwanese tycoon Yang Dengkui.

His support was not a direct investment in East Asia Films, but rather the purchase of the Taiwanese rights to Li Lianjie's next three films for HK$10 million each.

That's right, it's just Taiwanese copyright.

It was this HK$30 million that supported the operation of Eastern Films, which went on to produce three blockbuster films: "Fong Sai-yuk," "Fong Sai-yuk II," and "Tai Chi Master," achieving a win-win situation.

Before filming began, some film companies came to discuss the copyright for "Swordsman II". However, the prices they offered were not high.

Due to the box office failure of its predecessor and the rejection from the gold shop, this film was not viewed favorably by the outside world.

If it weren't for Tang Lung, Brigitte Lin, and Rosamund Kwan, no one would have come to ask about the price.

Therefore, Tsui Hark, Tang Lung, and Ng See-yuen decided without hesitation to stop negotiating and wait until the movie was released before discussing it further.

"Swordsman II" became an instant hit upon its release, attracting theaters and businesses from Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and South Korea.

In order to beat piracy to the punch, they all offered considerable prices.

Since the film was primarily controlled by the film studio, it was Nansun Shi who was in charge of negotiating with the theaters.

Before the film's theatrical run ended, agreements had been signed one after another, and funds had been received in full.

Tang Long's favorite thing about the Hong Kong film industry is that you don't have to wait for the money to be distributed.

Once a film leaves theaters, the box office revenue will be credited to the producer's account within two or three days, unlike in mainland China where producers have to wait at least six months to receive their money.

For markets outside the local area, the copyright is sold out directly; once the contract is signed, the money arrives immediately.

Those business owners are eager to give you money, and they won't delay.

Just like with "Swordsman II", the majority of the profits from the early stages have already been quietly sitting in the dedicated account only two days after the movie was released.

"I'm too lazy to explain, just see for yourself."

After speaking, Xu Ke tossed Tang Long a document, which detailed the film's income and expenditure.

Tang Longxing eagerly flipped through the book, too lazy to look at some of the specific data; Cui Baozhu would look at it later.

He just wanted to see the final result.

"Twelve million Hong Kong dollars for Scholar Films? That's so high?" Tang Long exclaimed in surprise.

Wu Siyuan explained with a smile: "The copyright of Hong Kong films in Taiwan has increased in price since the beginning of this year, almost doubling."

Previously, the copyrights for films like "New Dragon Gate Inn" and "Reign of Assassins" could only sell for four or five million, but now they start at least at eight or nine million.

With you and Brigitte Lin in "Swordsman II" and such a good reputation, the price is naturally even higher.

Scholar Pictures tasted success with our collaboration and immediately invested twelve million, scaring away other competitors.

"The film industry will be even more booming from now on," Tang Long exclaimed.

He then continued to browse and found that in addition to the twelve million dollars in Taiwan, the total amount in various regions of Southeast Asia reached three million dollars, and South Korea had eight hundred thousand dollars.

This time, even the copyright of Nippon Benzoin was sold. Toho Co., Ltd. spent one million US dollars to buy the distribution rights of Nippon Benzoin.

The popularity of Hong Kong films has also attracted considerable attention from the Japanese film industry.

In recent years, an increasing number of Hong Kong films have been released in Japan.

Although Jackie Chan is still the highest earner, martial arts films and supernatural zombie films also perform well at the box office in Japan.

The combined revenue from outside the region amounted to 12 million plus 4.8 million US dollars.

Based on the exchange rate, the total is HKD 49.4 million.

This is nearly double the revenue of "New Dragon Gate Inn" and "Reign of Assassins".

If we include the box office revenue share from Hong Kong, it's 34.5 million. Since they handled the distribution themselves, they get 40%, which is 13.8 million.

The total revenue of "Swordsman II" reached HK$63.2 million.

After deducting the production cost of 12 million and the publicity cost of 3 million, the profit reached 48 million.

Li Lianjie was speechless when he heard the number.

He worked so hard to make a movie, but his salary was only HK$1.5 million.

Investing in movies, on the other hand, can earn tens of millions.

No one could remain calm in this situation.

While he was in shock, certain thoughts were taking root and quietly changing in his mind.

He seems to have found a direction to strive for after returning to Hong Kong.

Xu Ke was pleased to see Tang Long's surprised expression and said with a hint of smugness, "The total profit is 48.2 million, and your Tangde Film Company will have a 30% share, which will be a dividend of 1446 million Hong Kong dollars."

"Have Cui Baozhu come over in the next couple of days. After we finalize the details, the money should be in your company account within three days."

"No problem, I'll have Sister Baozhu come over when I get back."

"Although the profits from 'Invincible East' outside the region have reached a new high this time, I still feel that we sold it at a loss."

The movie was even more popular in Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and South Korea than it was in Hong Kong.

Those businesses that catered to the hospital made a fortune.

Sensing the sourness in his tone, Tang Long couldn't help but laugh and say, "Director Xu, greed knows no bounds. We'll just earn what we deserve."

In 1992, Stephen Chow dominated the Hong Kong film industry, occupying the top five spots on the annual box office chart and seven of the top fifteen.

"Swordsman II" ranked eighth in Hong Kong, but it topped the list overseas.

In Taiwan, "Swordsman II" grossed NT$1.9 million, second only to Jackie Chan's "Police Story 3: Super Cop".

This is a phenomenal box office figure, demonstrating Brigitte Lin and Tang Lung's powerful box office appeal in Taiwan.

In South Korea, "Swordsman II" attracted approximately 108 million viewers, becoming the highest-grossing Chinese-language film in South Korea that year.

Brigitte Lin's portrayal of Dongfang Bubai is extremely popular in South Korea.

The film also grossed S$183 million in Singapore, making it the highest-grossing film in Singapore in 1992.

Including Japan, South Asia, and other regions, the total global box office of "Swordsman II" is approximately US$2200 million.

This achievement surpassed Jackie Chan's "Police Story 3" which grossed 21 million, making it the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong in 1992.

Stephen Chow has never lost in Hong Kong, but overseas, he is far from being comparable to Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

Whether in Europe and America or in the Greater China region, kung fu movies have always been the highest-grossing Hong Kong films.

Kung Fu films are a distinctive feature of Hong Kong cinema and even the entire Chinese-language film industry overseas.

Therefore, Jackie Chan and Jet Li are the only two Chinese actors who have successfully broken into Hollywood.

The fact that "Swordsman II" managed to outshine Jackie Chan this time also signifies that the martial arts film market is beginning to decline.

This is the pinnacle of Hong Kong martial arts films.

"That's true, but seeing how popular 'Swordsman II' is overseas, I always feel a little resentful."

If we had Golden Harvest's distribution channels, we could just go with box office revenue sharing.

Wu Siyuan scoffed at Xu Ke's exclamation, saying, "Are you crazy, saying such childish things?"

I think you're just too greedy; you've earned nearly 20 million and you're still not satisfied.

Xu Ke blushed a little after what Wu Siyuan said; he was indeed a bit greedy.

To avoid embarrassing him, Tang Long changed the subject: "Director Xu, are there any new projects?"

"Recently, Zhao Yazhi and Cecilia Yip's 'The Legend of the White Snake' has been quite popular, right? I want to make a movie about the Green Snake and the White Snake."

"Fine, then this isn't for me."

"Why is it not suitable for you? There are two male characters in it, Xu Xian and Fahai."

"The core of your movie will definitely be those two snakes; Xu Xian and Fahai won't have much screen time."

"You've become picky now?"

"It's not about being picky, even if I were willing to act, Sister Baozhu definitely wouldn't allow it."

The entertainment industry is so realistic, I definitely won't play a supporting role again, not even for Jackie Chan.

With the huge success of "Swordsman II", Tang Lung's popularity has been catching up with Chow Yun-fat.

Although Brigitte Lin reaped the greatest benefits, it further solidified her position in the martial arts film genre.

Just as Jackie Chan comes to mind when people think of kung fu comedies, Chow Yun-fat comes to mind when they think of heroic films.

Nowadays, when people mention martial arts films, they think of Tang Long more often.

He rose to fame too quickly, becoming a top-tier celebrity in Hong Kong in just two years.

Compared to Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-fat, he has less experience, lacks depth, and his popularity is somewhat superficial.

With two or three more blockbuster movies, he will be able to become a top superstar on par with the two.

The group chatted for a while longer before parting ways.

Tang Long went straight back to Tangde Film Studio and arranged for Cui Baozhu to go to the film studio to reconcile accounts.

Get those ten million Hong Kong dollars back as soon as possible.

When Li Lianjie returned to his hotel, he saw Li Zhi practicing yoga in the living room as soon as he entered his room.

Her explosive figure was on full display under the yoga clothes.

If he had seen this scene before, he would have been very tempted.

But right now, he was preoccupied with other things and not moved by emotions.

Li Zhi noticed Li Lianjie's expression, got up and sat down next to him, and asked, "Did the talk not go well?"

"No, everything is settled. 'Once Upon a Time in China II' will be released in mid-August, and I need to participate in the entire promotion."

Then he went straight to the set of "Once Upon a Time in China II", and his salary was two million, which was agreed upon.

After filming this movie, I'll be completely free.

"Isn't this fine? Why do you look so preoccupied?"

Li Lianjie didn't answer directly. He turned around, took Li Zhi's hand, and asked earnestly, "Zhi, after filming 'Once Upon a Time in China III,' what do you think about me starting my own film company?"

Li Zhi's eyes lit up upon hearing this: "Why did you suddenly have this idea?"

"I'm a bit shaken up today. You should know Tang Long, right?"

"Of course I know."

"He started his own company and then invested in his own films."

He also invested in "Swordsman II", and he earned more than 10 million yuan directly from this movie.

The gap between them is too large.

If he can do it, why can't I?

"I support you. Since you're going to start a company, I'm prepared to leave the entertainment industry."

I happen to be quite interested in doing business, so I can help you manage the company.

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