China Entertainment Mythology 2004

Chapter 35 Box Office
On the evening of June 2005, 6, Huayi Brothers Group hosted a banquet for many film and television stars and directors at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Beijing.

On the mainland side, Feng Xiaogang, Ge You, Fan Binbin and others attended the banquet, while on the Xiangjiang Baodao side, Luo Jiaying, He Rundong, Chen Baixiang and others attended the banquet.

Tomorrow night will be the opening ceremony of the first "Beijing International Sports Film Week". At that time, 200 sports and film stars will walk through the "Golden Avenue" hand in hand. 20 excellent sports-themed films will be screened in turn during the film week. The new work "Challenger Yao Ming" will be launched in Xindong'an Film City.

It is reported that Yao Ming will not be able to attend the meeting due to injury, but he will rely on Internet media in the United States to conduct cross-border dialogues with emcees, Olympic champions, and movie stars at the opening ceremony through large screens.

Starting from June 6th, many stars from all over the country will gather in Beijing. Huayi Brothers has always attached great importance to the cooperation with Hong Kong Baodao filmmakers, so they just took this opportunity to invite many stars to connect with each other.

During the meeting, Star Master's movie "Kung Fu", which was released at the end of last year, and Cheng Long's movie "Taken", which was released today, naturally became the focus of everyone's discussion.

2004年是香江电影最为惨烈的一年，从年产电影150部跌落至04年的全年不足60部，从全年票房十几亿元跌落到全年票房不足3亿元。

On December 2004, 12, some Hong Kong media began to use the title "The Ice Age of Hong Kong Movies".Xiangjiang Films suddenly appeared in the major media as a "sudden death", while director Chen Jiashang publicly stated that Xiangjiang Films has reached the most dangerous time.

Under such circumstances, the national hit of "Kung Fu" has undoubtedly injected a boost to the bleak Xiangjiang movies, so it is not surprising that everyone praises "Kung Fu" so much.

"If it weren't for the "Kung Fu" by Star Master at the end of last year, I really thought Xiangjiang people wouldn't watch Xiangjiang movies." Luo Jiaying said with emotion.

"The box office of HK$499 million on the first day plus zero points is more than double the HK$2001 million of "Shaolin Soccer" in 195! Thank you, Mr. Xing, for letting us filmmakers in Hong Kong still feel the film in today's market environment. A trace of the former glory of Hong Kong films." Chen Baixiang said.

Next, various Xiangjiang filmmakers spoke one after another.

"Hong Kong films cannot be supported by Mr. Xing alone. A single tree cannot make a forest."

"The next time I want to see the grand occasion of the release of "Kung Fu", I don't know what year and month I will have to wait."

"The plate of Xiangjiang movies is still too small. "Kung Fu" sold 6127 million Hong Kong dollars in Xiangjiang, and the highest single-day record in mainland China was 2200 million yuan in one day. The weather on the first day of release was so bad, and it was a working day. 1100 million RMB, let me tell you, the outlet for Xiangjiang Films is still in the mainland.”

Wang Zhonglei laughed and said, "That's right, the future of Xiangjiang Films lies in mainland China!"

"Backed on the super big market in the mainland, coupled with Xiangjiang's stars and Xiangjiang's mature filming team, it is a good time for China's film industry to have a bright future."

Seeing that everyone listened carefully to his speech, Wang Zhonglei continued: "The "Kung Fu" co-produced by Hua Yi and Xing Yeh can become a model of this kind of cooperation. Hua Yi is also willing to carry out more related cooperation with Xiangjiang filmmakers. There are not many companies with such strength and willingness, among which Huayi has the strongest strength and the highest will.”

Chen Baixiang said: "The "Kung Fu" at the end of last year swept away the decadence of Xiangjiang movies. I don't know if "Taken" released today can reproduce this glory."

Feng Xiaogang said at this time: "I have seen these two movies. "Kung Fu" is a good movie. I laugh every time I watch it, and I can watch it anytime. It can be said that I will never get tired of watching it; "Taken" is very well done. It’s very enjoyable to watch an action movie, but I personally don’t want to watch it a second time, and I personally judge that the performance of “Taken” is unlikely to surpass that of “Kung Fu.”

Wang Zhonglei interjected: "Taken has no chance of surpassing "Kung Fu" in total, but the first-day box office is likely to surpass "Kung Fu."

"Cheng Long made the premiere so beautiful this time. Tens of thousands of people watched the movie together in the Workers' Stadium, customized a 22-meter-long, 12-meter-wide, 4-story high screen, and hyped Columbia's US$2500 million acquisition of overseas copyrights. Overwhelming praise from film critics-this combination is a punch, coupled with the quality of the film itself, it is still very possible to get a good box office on the first day of release."

""Kung Fu" took 1100 million box office on the first day. I estimate that "Taken" is about this number. It may be slightly higher, and it will not be much higher, but in the end the total box office will still be far behind "Kung Fu". pull away."

"Just like "House of Flying Daggers" directed by Zhang Yimou, the first-day box office reached an astonishing 1600 million yuan, breaking the first-day record of 1350 million held by "Hero" and far surpassing the 1100 million yuan record of "Kung Fu" on the first day. , but the total box office is only 1.56 million, which is neither as good as "Kung Fu"'s 1.73 million, nor as "Hero"'s 2.5 million."

Wang Zhonglei's judgment has been unanimously approved by everyone. In the past two years, Cheng Long's movies have indeed become less and less popular, and even Cheng Long was publicly rated as box office poison by the media. , "Shaolin Soccer" and "Infernal Affairs" can be regarded as the last glory of Xiangjiang movies.

"It is true that Columbia Corporation intends to buy all European and American copyrights for US$2500 million. Cheng Long refuses this deal, and he will regret it within a year."

"According to the accounting ratio, if the overseas box office does not get 8000 to [-] million US dollars, it is a loss. There are no more than three Chinese-language movies that can sell this amount overseas."

"I heard that Cheng Long intended to accept a one-time sellout at the beginning, but he changed his mind after hearing what the screenwriter named Li Mu said. Cheng Long has been in the entertainment industry for decades, and there is no Thinking of falling on a doll this time."

Wang Zhonglei heard everyone's complaints about Cheng Long and Li Mu, and couldn't help laughing: "I've met Li Mu, a young man, and his investment vision is indeed a bit poor, but he still has a good way of writing scripts. This time "Hurricane Rescue" This script was something he thought of temporarily after he heard that Cheng Long would go to Xijing to film, but Cheng Long caught his eye unexpectedly, which is enough to show that he is good at writing scripts."

"But to be honest, there is no shortage of people who can write scripts in the entertainment industry. What is lacking is vision and fame. Judging from his persuasion of Cheng Long to give up the one-time sale of 2500 million US dollars, this person's vision is indeed not good enough, and he may stumble in the future. "

Speaking of this, Wang Zhonglei laughed, and continued, "If this kid really dies in the future, he can come to Huayi at that time, and Huayi will accept him, but what I value is not his ability to write scripts, but his appearance .”

"This time he played a small role in "Taken", not to mention that he really has the potential to be a star. When he can't write the script that day and loses money on the investment, then he will come to Huayi Well, Huayi can sign him, and then arrange a few roles for him, not to mention big hits, at least he will have something to eat."

After speaking, I couldn't help laughing.

Fan Binbin couldn't help being happy when he heard this, and said with a smile: "So Li Mu should go bankrupt as soon as possible, and sign a contract as an actor sooner. He is already old, and if he delays for another two years, he will really have to play tricks." It's up to you."

The entire private room was amused by her.

In the end, Fan Binbin still had a hard time telling Li Mu that she was old.

bell bell bell...

At this moment, Wang Zhonglei's cell phone rang suddenly. He checked the time first, and it turned out that it was already one o'clock in the morning on June 6 before he knew it.

"Well, you said."

"How many?"

"Say it again, you can't read it wrong, right?"

"Okay, I get it."

Hanging up the phone, seeing that everyone's eyes were on him, Wang Zhonglei said with a normal expression: "I just got the news that "Taken" had a box office of 1680 million yuan on its first day, breaking the record maintained by "House of Flying Daggers". The box office record of 1600 million on the first day."

After Wang Zhonglei finished speaking, the entire private room fell into a long silence, and everyone was silently digesting this amazing news.

In the end, it was Wang Zhonglei who broke the silence with a smile: "I knew that the box office of "Taken" on the first day would not be bad, but I still didn't expect it to be so good. It depends on whether it can break the 2200 million maintained by "Kung Fu" tomorrow." single-day box office record.

……

On the evening of June 2005, 6, Feng Xiaogang went to the Beijing Hotel to participate in the first "Beijing International Sports Film Week". During the period, a reporter asked Feng Xiaogang his opinion on Cheng Long's new movie "Taken".

Feng Xiaogang said with a smile: "The hit screening of "Taken" told me that making a movie is not as good as doing any business. The audience who bought tickets on weekdays lined up from the fifth floor to the fourth floor. This is the case on weekdays, but how about Sunday?"

After Director Feng finished answering, the audience roared with laughter. Anyone who has watched "Kung Fu" knows that Director Feng's words were adapted from his lines in "Kung Fu".

(End of this chapter)