Who are you calling powerful?.

Chapter 636 Dragon Nemesis and Business

Because this year's National Day falls on Sunday and the holiday was early, the National Day season kicked off on the day before October 10, which was Saturday, September 1.

There was even a movie that was released early on September 9th in order to gain an advantage.

Sky Hunter, directed and acted by Da Hei Niu

In the current environment where cross-border directors are very popular, this old guy couldn't hold back his ambition and put together a project.

What surprised Boss Wei was that this guy finally saved up the money.

You know, in this time and space, Da Hei Niu did not participate in "Running Man" and had no contact with Fan Xiaopang. At best, he was just a second-tier star and could not rank in the circle.

Previously, he had plotted against Liu Tianxian and asked Liu Shishi and Boss Wei to take the blame, but ended up being humiliated and infamous.

Under such circumstances, this project was still able to be completed, and the producer still has a lot of money.

Even though this year is a tribute to the 90th anniversary of the founding of the army, and all parties are interested in supporting military themes, Boss Wei still admits that he is capable and it is no wonder that some people speculate that he has a background.

Da Hei Niu also knew that his fame was not enough, so he brought in Li Bingbing to play the female lead. The cast was much stronger than in his previous life, and he also invited many big-name guest appearances.

But if this is the case, the cost will be unstoppable!

According to the film company's publicity, this movie has an investment of over 2 million yuan. In his previous life, Da Hei Niu could have tricked Fan Xiaopang into doing it for free or giving him a discount on his investment, but Li Bingbing didn't buy it, and the same went for other actors.

Just for the salary of these people, 5000 million is probably not enough, so 30% is thrown away.

It is said that this movie was shot abroad, with quite a large scale and a large number of foreign actors. In addition, there will probably be a lot of air force special effects. Is the remaining money enough?

The most important thing is, can you make your money back?

Wei Yang didn't know that the 2 million package did not include publicity and promotion. Even if it did, the box office would have to be more than 6 million to break even.

In today's film market, this number is not large, but it is definitely not small either.

It can be seen that investors are still very cautious about the movie "Sky Hunter", with a total of less than 20 producers and co-producers.

High emotional intelligence: Dahei Niu has a wide network of contacts and can find so many sponsors

Low EQ: Investors are extremely conservative about the future, so more than a dozen companies work together. Even if they lose money, the loss to each company is not big.

However, Da Hei Niu himself is still very confident and was very active during the promotional period.

The main reason for his confidence here is the summer movie "Wolf Warrior 2", which is a military-themed movie with a main theme, and also has scenes of so-called overseas hostage rescue.

"Wolf Warrior 2" is just a game of rifles and hand-to-hand combat, at most it has a tank and a warship, while "Sky Hunter" is a fighter jet.

The combat effectiveness is not at the same level at all!

The box office of "Wolf Warrior 2" is 58 billion yuan. He also knows that there is too much room for randomness, so he can accept a half-price cut of 29 billion yuan.

It was not easy to put together this project. Da Hei Niu paid a lot of price. He wants to make a comeback with this movie.

So, in order to increase exposure, Da Hei Niu has been trying all kinds of things to make false claims. Domestically, he was trying to make false claims about "Wolf Warrior 2", saying it was the Air Force version of Wolf Warrior, and abroad, he was trying to make false claims about "Top Gun", saying that "Sky Hunter" was the best air combat film in China and that he was the Chinese version of Tom Cruise, etc.

As a result, when the movie was released, the entire crew was dumbfounded.

The box office on the first day was 2208 million!
This is the first day box office, the single-day box office peak for most movies. Moreover, "Sky Hunter" was released in advance, and the solid films released at the same time have not yet been released. They deliberately created a time difference, but ended up with this result. Is there any hope for the rest?

The film flopped at the box office and had extremely bad reputation, with several platforms including Douban, Weibo, and Zhihu criticizing it.

[Worth the money, by the way, the ticket was free]

[A bunch of sissies playing house with chest hair]

[Although I don’t like Wu Jing, compared with “Wolf Warrior”, it is indeed an insult]

[Stars who cross over to become directors should just stop being so quiet. Not everyone has the talent to be a director. Li Chen has no idea what dramatic tension is. The narrative structure is a mess. The female lead appears inexplicably. The thin character setting leaves me speechless.]

[How should I put it? Actually, there are no particularly big thunder points, but it is very mediocre and boring to the point of making people sleepy]

[This movie was released at a very timely moment. It saved countless film projects, put a brake on the military craze after Wolf Warrior 2, and blocked a bunch of movies like Tiger Warrior, Dragon Warrior, and XX Warrior.]

[It's what the disgusting stone man deserves]

【…】

Most of the above reviews are from people who have watched the movie. Although they are not nice, they are meaningful. More negative reviews are from Liu Tianxian's fans who are adding insult to injury.

Da Hei Niu plotted against Liu Tianxian last time, and they still bear a grudge against him.

The fans of the 85 flowers are not easy to deal with. They are numerous and powerful. They don’t seem to gain any advantage when they quarrel with their opponents. That’s because everyone’s strength is about the same.

But attacking someone like Da Hei Niu who has few fans and is unpopular makes people see what "fan circle cyber violence" is.

There is also a group of people who are unhappy that Da Hei Niu had boasted too much in the past in order to get compensation, and now that "Sky Hunter" has failed, the amount of big boasting Da Hei Niu had before has now been ridiculed so badly.

All these factors made the already bad situation of "Sky Hunter" even worse. Even after using many means, it failed to reverse its reputation.

The next day, with the momentum of the National Day holiday, there was an opportunity to increase the box office, but the reputation dropped sharply, and many movies were released at the same time, resulting in the box office of "Sky Hunter" being less than 2000 million.

It can be said that at this point, it can be declared that this movie has been eliminated early during the National Day holiday.

Not to mention half of the box office of "Wolf Warrior 2", looking at this situation, there is almost no hope for "Sky Hunter" to make a profit, and I'm afraid it will be difficult to even make 3 million yuan in box office.

Not only was Da Hei Niu's dream of making a comeback shattered, but he also had to deal with all the investors.

Although film and television investment requires mutual consent, whether you make a profit or a loss, or even the investor's personal vision and luck, cannot be blamed on the person in charge.

But having said that, there are many unreasonable financiers.

Moreover, Da Hei Niu attracted more than a dozen financial backers at once, so it was inevitable that they would make some conditions or sign some kind of gambling contract. Now that he has lost money, he is in big trouble.

...

If it were another time, Boss Wei would be willing to watch the excitement of Big Black Bull.

The fact that they had had some minor conflicts was secondary. The key was because of the previous life. The narrow-minded Boss Wei had no good feelings towards Big Black Bull, including his "rivals" Wu, Liu, Luo, Feng, and Zhang.

It's not that they are being targeted specifically, but if they are not doing well, Boss Wei will definitely be in a better mood.

But Boss Wei really didn't have the leisure time for that at the moment.

Thinking about Zhao Liying's upcoming due date, Wei Yang started the most intensive roadshow of his career with "Dying to Survive".

Wei Yang does not have many main rivals during this National Day holiday.

"The Shameful Iron Fist" was withdrawn from the schedule. This was not what Boss Wei meant. He was confident in the film, but Happy Twist and Blue Whale were not. After careful consideration, they decided to postpone it to the Lunar New Year holiday.

In fact, it would have been best to release it during the Spring Festival, but there is no way because the Spring Festival period is too crowded.

Blue Whale’s investment and production alone include Operation Red Sea and Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back, which was produced by Stephen Chow. Meanwhile, Huayi has also brought out Monster Hunt 2. It would be too crowded for The Shameful Iron Fist to go there.

It can only compete with Li Jiahang's "Ex-Files 3" and Feng Kuzi's "Youth" and director Chen Da's "Legend of the Demon Cat".

"The Shameful Iron Fist" is not here, and the project "Sewing Machine Band" that was supposed to be released in the original time and space was intercepted by Blue Whale and is still in production.

However, it is said that Dapeng has made a new movie that Boss Wei has never heard of. It seems to be a crosstalk theme and is expected to be released during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The gap left by "Shameful Iron Fist" was filled by "Dying to Survive", but no one filled the spot for "Sewing Machine Band".

It’s not that no one was interested, but when they heard that Wei Yang was coming, they didn’t dare to join in the fun.

Just kidding, at the beginning of the year, Boss Wei’s "Detective Chinatown 2" just broke the record in film history. Although it was surpassed by "Wolf Warrior 2" during the summer, this movie also has the shadow of Boss Wei.

Right now, Wei Yang's popularity is on the rise. Although not as high as the heroes on the small screen, it is not far behind.

At least for some crews that are not so confident, they will avoid it if possible.

If the TV series fails, at least the platform will cover it. If the movie fails, the producer will really lose money, so they have to be cautious.

Therefore, the situation of the National Day holiday is particularly clear. There are only two movies left that can compete, and they are both familiar to Boss Wei.

"Chasing the Dragon" starring Fatty Wang, King Liu and Zhen Zidan. This configuration is considered the ceiling in Hong Kong films, but they don't run away when they see Wei Yang.

The other one is Brother Cheng Long!

Coincidentally, Boss Wei and Cheng Long have run into each other many times in the past two years.

"Wushuang" VS "Escape Plan"

"Detective Chinatown 2" VS "Kung Fu Yoga"

Including this time's "Dying to Survive" and Brother Cheng Long's "The Foreigner", this is the third time the two have fought in the past two years.

However, these three times are not the limit. Counting back further, in the 2015 Spring Festival, "Detective Chinatown " also beat "Dragon Blade".

In the previous "Time Raiders" and "New Police Story 2013", Boss Wei still won.

However, in these two movies, Wei Yang’s main opponent was not Jackie Chan. There were other people competing with him at the box office, so Jackie Chan’s presence was not high.

So in fact, the two sides have fought five times.

In the first four times, Boss Wei could almost be said to have won completely. I guess he was used to it. If he won this time, it would be considered a comeback. If he lost, he had already lost four times before, so he wouldn't lose many faces this time.

However, it can be seen that the eldest brother is still very depressed. It’s not that he can’t afford to lose, but you can’t just pick on me.

In recent years, every movie of his released was criticized by Boss Wei, the only exception was "Railroad Tigers" during the Lunar New Year holiday last year.

This movie happens to tell the story of Wei Yang's hometown, so many netizens jokingly said that Cheng Long escaped the disaster by relying on "fellow-hometown ties".

So this time when Cheng Long was promoting the movie, he deliberately made a joke, hoping that Boss Wei would tell him the release date of his next movie in advance so that he could hide away.

This is of course just a joke. In fact, for the movie "The Foreigner", Jackie Chan's ambitions are not just in China.

It can also be seen from the movie that it has an overseas background, and many of the lines and actors are English-speaking foreigners. So when it was released in mainland China, it was released almost simultaneously in North America, the United Arab Emirates, Europe and other regions, preparing to have a great success both inside and outside the country, both at home and abroad.

Some people on the Internet made a joke, saying that Cheng Long was so angry at being beaten by Boss Wei that he couldn't win in China, so he went abroad.

He doesn't believe that Boss Wei in North America can still hold him down and beat him!

Boss Wei really had no way to go to the United States, but in China, he allowed Brother Cheng Long to witness the appeal of the "Mr. Billionaire Box Office."

September 9, first day box office——

"Dying to Survive" 2.1 million

"The Foreigner" 5965 million

Chasing the Dragon: 4317 million

Seeing this data, Cheng Long was completely numb. He knew that he would most likely lose, but he didn't expect the loss to be so outrageous.

Although the previous two films were not as good as Wei Yang, the gap should not be that big.

However, what made Cheng Long even more heartbroken was that this was just the beginning. In the next few days, the gap not only did not narrow, but widened instead.

从10月1号开始，一直到10月4号，《我不是药神》的单日票房就没下过2亿。

The box office broke 10 billion in just five days. Although not as crazy as "Detective Chinatown 2" which broke 10 billion in three days at the beginning of the year, it is also impressive enough.

But "The Foreigner" was in trouble. It had stolen all the limelight. After five days of release, the box office was just over 2 million, and its performance in North America was not ideal either.

Brother Cheng Long was so worried that his hair turned white, and he once suspected that Wei Yang was his nemesis.

However, Cheng Long didn't know whether Wei Yang could defeat him, but on the surface, Wei Yang still respected him very much.

During the roadshow promotion of "Dying to Survive", he also praised "The Foreigner" in front of media reporters, saying that he liked it very much and that he was a fan of Jackie Chan and hoped to film a movie with him one day in the future.

He was very humble and his tone was extremely sincere, which made Brother Cheng Long a little excited.

How should I put it? You were beaten five times by others and had no power to fight back, but others responded by saying sincerely that you are excellent and that you are my fan.

Either you think the worst and feel that the other person is being sarcastic, or you are flattered and feel a sense of sympathy and mutual respect. Cheng Long is the latter.

Wei Yang understands me!

So, in front of the media, Cheng Long also praised Boss Wei, saying that Boss Wei is very talented, that there is a lot of young people to be feared, and that he is obviously the future pillar of the Chinese film industry.

Everyone is carrying the fancy sedan, and it is not just Cheng Long who is bragging about business with Boss Wei, Fatty Wang also soon joins in.

The reason is that after Boss Wei praised "The Foreigner", he also praised "Chasing the Dragon", thinking it was a very exciting movie and the best Hong Kong-style heroic film in the past decade.

He and Fatty Wang have always had a good relationship and they even worked together in "To Be Famous". Because he portrayed the character well in the movie, Fatty Wang regarded him as a close friend.

It's not like they haven't run into each other in the same period over the years, but they've always been friendly and competitive.

As soon as Wei Yang praised him, Fatty Wang immediately took over. This guy was much more sincere than Cheng Long. He even went to the cinema to watch "Dying to Survive".

Perhaps he was really stunned by the movie, and he posted a nearly 3,000-word film review on Weibo that day.

One thousand words of it are praises for "Dying to Survive", and the remaining two thousand words praise Boss Wei's talent and acting skills.

Including but not limited to——

Wei Yang is one of the two most talented filmmakers he has ever seen, the other being Stephen Chow. Wei Yang's acting is extremely gifted and infectious. The last person who gave him this feeling was Liang Chaowei...

(End of this chapter)