Actor: My Entertainment Era

During the May Day period this year, a total of four domestic films competed at the same time. If "Fast and Furious 8" which was released half a month ago is also included, the May Day period seems to be quite interesting.

But in fact, the box office performance of the four domestic films was not very good.

"Shock Wave" earned 4700 million on its first day.

"The Great Hypnotist" was marketed as a sister film to "The Great Hypnotist", but it only earned 4500 million on the first day, far below Wanda's expectations for the film.

"Like You" brought together Zhou Dongyu and Jin Chengwu, and grossed 1700 million on the first day.

"Love in the Buff" earned 3000 million on the first day.

but!

If the box office numbers are not good, you can brag about other things.

"The 'May Day' period' is praised as the best domestic film in history and its quality is steadily improving."

Actually, it's not an exaggeration. The average quality of these four domestic films is indeed good, and they are not bad movies. If you buy a ticket to the cinema during the May Day holiday, you won't leave cursing.

The most noteworthy one is naturally "The Memory Master".

This film attracted a lot of attention when it was launched.

As a sister film of "Hypnotist", the lineup of Huang Bo, Xu Jinglei and Duan Yihong will definitely not disappoint the audience with their acting skills.

With the success of "Hypnotist", theater managers were generally optimistic that "Battle of Memory" would sell for a good price.

The film also tried to leverage on the popularity of Zhang Yuanjun and Liu Yifei in its marketing, but the couple had no objection to that. The previous work was there, so wasn't it okay for them to leverage on the popularity of the film?

But the actual results were disappointing.

Therefore, some film critics commented on "The Memory Master" as follows:
"We can't be too harsh on the creators. The success of The Memory Master can only be attributed to the return of this type of brain-burning suspense film to its market position. It is still an excellent suspense film, but it is not suitable for today's market. The success of The Hypnotist three years ago cannot be replicated, and the position of Zhang Yuanjun and Liu Yifei in the market cannot be replaced."

This may be to save face for the crew and to make it a compromise, but it does make sense.

Seeing that the performance of "The Great Hypnotist" was not very good, Zhang Yuanjun and Liu Yifei even volunteered to say a few words to promote it on Weibo.

But the results are minimal. It doesn’t mean that the audience will pay you just by talking online.

During the May Day holiday, Zhang Yuanjun was still filming intensively but slowly.

Liu Yifei has already started preparing for "The Birth of a Witch". Penguin has revised the script and shortened the early world view of the film, but after all, the project was intended to be made into a series, and some necessary explanations were still squeezed into the first part. The whole film is expected to be about 117 minutes long.

The heroine's name was also changed to Yang Jiaxin.

Before May Day, people from New Classics Media came to Jinling and rented a house in the same community. Three people were specifically in charge of Liu Yifei.

Although "The Birth of a Witch" is a superpower action film, the people at Penguin and New Classics are not stupid and will not spend too much money on such a film with an uncertain future.

In order to save money, no special effects were used in the first half of the film, and most of the action and special effects scenes were concentrated in the second half hour.

The total production budget of the film does not exceed 5000 million.

Liu Yifei gradually became busy.

As the absolute protagonist and biggest selling point of the entire play, even if Liu Yifei did not participate in the film investment, she still has the right to cast.

At least, Penguin probably won’t use the main actor unless Liu Yifei agrees - and Liu Yifei won’t abuse this power.

However, there is a conflict between the producers and Liu Yifei. Penguin, or Xinli, also has its own artists to promote. Now that Liu Yifei is such a big WiFi in the domestic entertainment industry, there is no reason for Penguin not to let her bring in newcomers.

Liu Yifei and her team also expressed their understanding of this behavior. As long as the demands are not excessive, Liu Yifei will generally cooperate.

For example, Penguin stuffed an actress named Zhao Ruth into the crew, who played her classmate and best friend Zhao Ningning in the play.

There is a seven-year age difference between the two!
But Liu Yifei still agreed to let Zhao Lusi join the group.

The role of Zhao Ningning is mainly in the first half hour, and she has quite a lot of scenes, which is a good choice to promote newcomers. In Liu Yifei's opinion, the role of Zhao Ningning is not difficult to play, and she just needs to play the role of an ordinary student girl.

This little girl born in the 90s is just the right age for her to play herself.

However, Liu Yifei's agent rejected the second person for Xin Li Se, a young actor named Xiao Zhan.

New Classics wanted him to play the role of Peng Yang in the play. Peng Yang can be said to be the male protagonist of "The Birth of a Witch". He appeared in the first part and followed the film until the end. The most exciting fighting scene in the film was also performed by Yang Jiaxin and him.

Liu Yifei's team did not want to give such an important role to a newcomer. Liu Yifei hoped that Xinli would find a slightly more mature actor to cooperate with her.

The two actors who interacted the most with Liu Yifei are both newcomers to Penguin. Are they really treating Liu Yifei like a cash cow?
Liu Yifei suggested that Xinli ask his old classmate Zhu Yawen to play this role.

Xinli doesn’t want to!
Zhu Yawen is too expensive!

Zhu Yawen focuses on TV dramas. He can get 500,000 or 600,000 yuan per episode in the TV drama circle. As for movies, Zhu Yawen is very open-minded and is working on both TV and movies. Yi Xin Entertainment's positioning of him is almost the same. There is no need for him to be a movie star and delay making money.

But Liu Yifei still asked New Classics to contact Zhu Yawen, and her team made it clear that they would not bring newcomers to Penguin like this.

As for other characters, Dr. Bai, Xinli found Hui Yinghong, and Dr. Bai's thug, Mr. Cui, who only has one surname in the script, was played by Zu Feng.

Liu Yifei had no objection to the choice of these two actors.

"We will start shooting in Shanghai in July and go to Thailand to finish shooting in August." The producer checked the schedule with Liu Yifei and finally asked her, "Will you bring your child with you?"

Liu Yifei smiled and said, "My child is still breastfeeding, so I have to take care of him."

"Teacher Zhang Yuanjun will come too?"

Liu Yifei said: "He was most reluctant to leave his two children. If they were not allowed to come with him, he would not be willing to do so."

"Then you need to apply for a passport for the child now."

"You want this for such a young child too?" Liu Yifei really didn't know much about this.

"Yes." The producer was obviously experienced. "The photo on the passport is also of the baby, so make it look better."

"Okay, okay." Liu Yifei agreed with a smile.

"It's not convenient for you to stay in a hotel during the filming. The crew can use your hotel funds to rent a house for you." This money will be spent on Liu Yifei anyway.

Liu Yifei said: "It's OK to rent a house in Thailand. We have our own house in Shanghai."

The producer laughed and said, "Why don't you buy a house in Thailand? It will save the crew some money."

“There has to be a limit to being stingy. I would rather not live in a house in Thailand than live there. I’d rather stay with the crew.” Liu Yifei said with a smile. In fact, she didn’t know that the eldest son of the Zhang family had a holiday apartment in Thailand.

After discussing some details, the two sides dispersed. (End of this chapter)