China Entertainment: Been working as a director since 03

Chapter 522 The Big Pie Must Be Painted

The movie "The Mermaid" has been breaking records every day since its release.

After a full week of release, the movie’s box office has exceeded 18 billion.

This is the powerful influence of the word "Star Master".

It's not an exaggeration to be able to market a 60-point movie to a box office score of 95 points by relying on the director's name. Even the national master doesn't have this ability.

Stephen Chow himself was quite surprised by this result.

At the beginning, the bet agreement he signed with the investment capital was 18 billion yuan in box office revenue.

He originally thought that this goal was already very high.

As a result, he underestimated his influence in the mainland and his status in the hearts of many movie fans.

It is no longer a foregone conclusion that the movie’s box office will exceed 20 billion yuan. It is not impossible for it to hit the top of the domestic box office and reach 30 billion yuan.

What Stephen Chow and his team don’t know is that given the mediocre quality of the film, this kind of excessive marketing can only be done in the middle of the day, because sooner or later something bad will happen.

Now a large number of media, film critics and ordinary audiences have criticized this movie for winning at the box office but losing reputation.

Next time, no one will buy into the marketing idea of ​​owing Stephen Chow a movie ticket.

On the other hand, Stephen Chow will suffer backlash in the future.

Unless the quality of every work of Stephen Chow in the future can be maintained above 80 points.

The reality is that he couldn't do it. For many years afterwards, the quality of his works could not even reach the passing level of "The Mermaid", let alone get 100 points out of 80.

Li Yu has used similar marketing tactics such as owing Huang Xiaoming an apology and owing Cheng Long a movie ticket.

If Stephen Chow and his team use this trick again, the effect will inevitably be discounted.

After a full week of release, the daily box office of "The Mermaid" began to decline.

On the day the film was taken off the screen, the total box office was just over 28 billion yuan, more than 33.91 million yuan less than the 5 billion yuan in the original time and space.

The reason is that some people have already seen the marketing of owing a movie ticket.

They did not follow the trend and go to the cinema, nor did they contribute movie tickets to "The Mermaid".

More than 28 billion, just one step away from 30 billion.

Once the box office reaches 30 billion, "The Mermaid" will become the first domestic film to enter the 30 billion club.

Stephen Chow still feels a little regretful for not being able to achieve this achievement which was just one step away.

At the same time, Li Yu was already preparing for "The Pretender".

Li Yu can accept the theme of idol + spy war.

Nowadays, the audience for spy war themes is getting smaller and smaller. In order to attract more viewers, it is understandable to add idol elements.

After all, no matter how high the quality of a film or TV series is, even if it is as high as a three or four-story building, if it is too unpopular and few viewers watch it, what’s the point?

Idol is actually not a derogatory word. Back then, Tang Guoqiang was called a creamy boy by everyone. Did it prevent his acting skills from getting better and better and from becoming a veteran actor?
It’s just that in today’s era of traffic, ‘idols’ can easily get the opportunity to play the leading male role just by relying on their popularity and a face.

Capital is also happy to support these "idols" who have good looks but no talent, and produce a lot of bad dramas, causing people to be a little disgusted with the word idol.

Nowadays, if any TV series is related to idols, nine out of ten of them are definitely bad.

Li Yu understands that idol elements refer to actors who are handsome.

Being handsome and having strength can coexist.

Of course, there are more handsome but lacking talent in the entertainment industry. Li Yu would definitely not look for such people when filming "The Pretender".

He is looking for actors who are talented and handsome.

High-quality spy wars are the core, and the combination of handsome men and beautiful women is just the icing on the cake. In fact, the cast of the original version of "The Disguiser" is quite good.

Hu Ge, Jin Dong, the creator of the Nobel Prize in Mathematics, and Wang Kai are all actors with good acting skills and good images.

I wouldn’t dare to call any of the three of them handsome. Wang Kai, who has the lowest appearance, can be considered handsome after putting on some makeup and dressing up.

If the three of them were to act together, it would be no problem to say that this is the spy drama with the most handsome male lead.

However, Li Yu does not plan to use this combination.

The reason is simple. The original version of "The Pretender" was jointly produced by Shandong Film and Television Media Group and Quanwu Sunshine Film and Television.

Jin Dong and Wang Kai were the brightest people in the room at that time.

Li Yu is not familiar with them, nor with Quanwu Yangguang, and they have not given Li Yu any benefits. Why should Li Yu help others to promote artists for free?
"The Disguiser" is a phenomenally popular spy drama.

Hu Ge became popular again with this drama, and Jin Dong and Wang Kai became top-tier stars with this drama. They started to have more and more resources and were overwhelmed with film offers.

With such a good role, priority should be given to familiar people.

In fact, Li Yu didn’t need to think about it himself. Many artists he knew would contact him and ask for roles as soon as they heard any news.

"Director Li, I heard that you are planning to shoot a spy drama. Is there a role suitable for me? The salary can be negotiated."

Huang Xiaoming was the first person to contact Li Yu, and he received the news the fastest.

Last time he asked Li Yu when he planned to make a movie, Li Yu recommended him to find Chen Kaige.

After Chen Kaige returned to Beijing, he actually had a private meal with Chen Kaige.

Chen Kaige did not say explicitly whether he would be given the role or not, but just asked him to audition when the time comes.

Chen Kaige has said that, so it won't be a problem for him to perform stably then.

But it would take several months to build the city over there, so he couldn't just lie at home and wait, he had to find something to do.

What a coincidence, when he asked his agent if there were any good film contracts, the agent told him that Li Yu was working on a spy drama.

He decisively decided to contact Li Yu personally by phone in order to get the role before anyone else.

After all, he has played in several greasy domineering CEO-type dramas in recent years.

"Splendid Like a Gorgeous Adventure", "Women Who Act Like Coquettishly Have the Best Life", "Youth of Waves", etc.

In these works, Huang Xiaoming lets himself go and does not miss any opportunity to show off.

If the screenwriter dares to give him a singing ability, he can sing "Nao Taitao" at any time.

According to the law, he has indulged himself by starring in several bad dramas, and it is time for him to seriously star in a good drama.

As long as the director's coaching ability is up to par and the actors' average acting skills are above the passing line, there is no need to worry about Huang Xiaoming's acting skills.

Li Yu was clear about this, as it was a rule he and Huang Xiaoming had discovered after working together so many times.

He welcomes Huang Xiaoming's joining.

"Brother Xiao Ming, if you want to act, I will definitely give you a chance. I remind you in advance that this time there are three protagonists, and the three male characters are all very outstanding.

If you perform well on the set, I can give you a little extra credit so you can overshadow the other two actors."

Li Yu thought about it and decided that he had to draw the pie.

It is not in his usual style not to make empty promises.

If actors don't compete internally, how can we squeeze every drop of their potential?

They have to be forced to work hard and not allowed to slack off, so that they can contribute their superb acting skills and the audience can enjoy the show.

(End of this chapter)