China Entertainment 1997

The crew of "New World" stayed in Xiangjiang for a few days and then rushed to Japan to promote "New World".

Cao Xuan is very famous in Japan. He was famous as a singer before. Last year's "New Police Story" allowed him to make a small breakthrough in film and television.

You know, the Japanese box office of "New Police Story" is about 1.86 billion yen, which is about 150 million yuan when converted into RMB.

It ranked in the top 20 box office of overseas movies released in Japan last year, second in Asia, second only to Lao Mouzi's "House of Flying Daggers", and slightly better than "Kung Fu" with 1.7 billion yen.

Among the Chinese-language movies released in Japan, Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" currently has the highest box office, with a box office of about 5 billion yen, and some say it is 3 billion yen.

At that time, it was the 1970s, and the exchange rate between RMB and Japanese yen was about 1:30 to 40.

Due to different purchasing power, many things here are difficult to calculate, but even so, this data is very scary.

Let’s put it this way, among the top ten Chinese-language films in Japan’s box office history, except for Jet Li’s “Shaolin Temple,” the others are all films by Bruce Lee and Cheng Long.

In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Bruce Lee and Cheng Lung were known as kung fu superstars and became recognized as big brothers in the film industry because they were supported by Japan, which has the largest box office in Asia.

"New Police Story" is very popular in Japan and has achieved extremely good box office success. Cao Xuan's reputation and the role of Ah Xuan are certainly important, but Cheng Long is still an important factor that cannot be ignored.

Although Cheng Long is old and his box office appeal is not as good as before, he is still the most famous Chinese star in Japan.

The box office performance of "New Police Story" can be ranked in the top 20 of the Chinese box office list in Japan, and the performance of DVD and TV channels may be even better.

This Cao Xuan has laid a very good foundation among Japanese movie fans.

As a result, although "New World" is not a kung fu movie that many Japanese audiences particularly like, it still attracts a large number of audience support.

As of late August, the box office of "New World" in Japan has exceeded 850 million yen, which is nearly 70 million yuan when converted into RMB. Although the results are not outstanding, they are considerable considering the cost.

Moreover, after Cao Xuan and others came to Japan, they helped to a certain extent in publicity. At the same time, "New World" also began to play the sign of being the first Hong Kong film and the second Chinese film, further attracting audiences to watch the film.

Don't underestimate these two signs. After all, it is a historical film in the history of film, and it is still very useful.

The United States and other regions that originally had little interest in this film are now negotiating the copyright and preparing to introduce it, and the price is good, which shows the aura bonus given by this achievement.

"Cao Sang, you are the best."

"The peerless emperor of Asia's music scene!"

"Ah, ah, if you come across a handsome man once in four thousand years, please stay in Japan."

"Onii-chan, auntie washes the railway (brother, I love you)"

"Stand in the world of glitz and sing the music of nature!"

"..."

Outside the hotel where Cao Xuan and others were stationed, nearly two to three thousand Cao Xuan's Japanese fans came. There were even hundreds of people uniformly attired, acted uniformly, and chanted uniformly to support Cao Xuan.

The government sent hundreds of police officers to maintain order, and several television stations came over to cover the incident.

In the high-rise room, looking at the crowd of fans through the window, Fan Xiaopang and Sun Honglei secretly laughed.

In fact, such scenes are not uncommon in China, but they are very calm. Even in Xiangjiang, they think it is normal. After all, Cao Xuan's domestic popularity is here.

But I didn't expect that Cao Xuan could still make such a big splash in Japan.

Although domestic media and various channels say that Cao Xuan is very popular abroad, they have never had an intuitive concept. I still had some doubts in my heart, but I accepted it today.

Thousands of fans crowded the hotel. If they hadn't run so fast just now, they would have been surrounded.

"Boss, we can't evacuate at the moment. The police want to deal with it coldly. If you show up, accidents may easily happen."

"All right."

There is no way to block the crowd with thousands of people, which will delay the normal operation of the hotel. Cao Xuan went down just now to persuade the fans to disperse.

As a result, there were so many excited fans that they went crazy when they saw him. They couldn't listen to what he said and rushed towards him desperately, almost causing a stampede.

There was no other way, Cao Xuan could only go back to the hotel to rest, and then cooperated with the police to disperse the fans when they were tired or calmed down.

"Speaking of which, this is also the reason why the boss comes to Japan so rarely this time. I heard the police officer say that many Japanese fans think that you come here once in a while and really want to see you, so they are so excited. If they come here often, they insist on The thoughts will be smaller.”

"I try my best."

Cao Xuan rubbed his head. He felt a little distressed when he said it, but there was nothing he could do about it. The focus of his career was not in Japan. It would be nice to come here once or twice a year.

Cao Xuan also has many fans in Singapore, Malaysia and other places, but he may not be able to visit there even once in a few years, which is not as good as Japan.

When he came to the window and looked at the slogans below, Cao Xuan curiously asked the Japanese translator, and the translator picked a few important ones and translated them for him.

Cao Xuan is already very calm about "The Peerless Emperor of Asia's Music Circle". When he first came to Japan in the early years, he was the "Emperor of China". Now he has evolved to Asia. I don't know if he will be able to rise to the world level in two years.

It was a new word, "A beautiful man you meet once in four thousand years". Although it was a bit embarrassing, it did speak to Cao Xuan's heart.

The reason why he can get this new title is very simple. In the past two years, relevant media or websites have selected a series of beauty contests such as the top ten most beautiful men in Asia, the top 100 most handsome faces in the world, and women's favorite men.

Cao Xuan is almost unavoidable in Asia, and he is often at the top of the list. In world-wide competitions, Cao Xuan is often ranked as the representative of Asia.

Of course, it is true that Cao Xuan's appearance is very good, but his reputation bonus also accounts for a large part of the reason.

For example, in European and American competitions, they only know a few Asian stars.

Brother Cheng Long's hardware is not good, but Zun Long is good, but he is not as famous as Cao Xuan. To sum up, if Cao Xuan is not on the list, who will be on the list?

Moreover, Cao Xuan is not only handsome, but also rich, talented, and young. These are all plus points. Normal selection is enough. If it is a selection with a relatively large proportion of female votes, there will be almost no disadvantage.

It is precisely because of this that Cao Xuan is famous and even more famous in Asia.

Yan Zu, Ting Feng, Tian Le, Guan Xi, Yu Yan, and Hu Ge are all younger brothers now. Nowadays, netizens boast about themselves online, and the most common adjective is XX district/city/village/community/school + Cao Xuan.

It is precisely because of this that Cao Xuan's reputation spread more and more widely. Even Europe and the United States were shocked by it and gave him the title of "Asia's Most Handsome Guy".

Japan is heavily influenced by Europe and the United States. When Europe and the United States praise him, they also follow suit. The Japanese media, which always exaggerates the second grade, gave Cao Xuan the title of "China's once-in-four-thousand-year-old handsome man."

Cao Xuan was happy but also a little dissatisfied, why was it four thousand years instead of five thousand years.

Are you looking down on him, or are you deliberately distorting our five thousand years of Chinese history?

As for the phrase "Stand in the world of glitz and sing the music of nature", it is actually a slogan of Japanese fans' support for Cao Xuan. The original Japanese version does not mean this. After the translation, it was polished up by domestic big shots.

Cao Xuan knows his slogan, and many domestic fans even use it, but this is the first time he heard the Japanese original version.

Don’t tell me, it feels quite good.

Cao Xuan asked the translator to read this sentence and the word "Four Thousand Years" to him several times, so that he would know what to say hello to when he met a fan later.

Thousands of fans gathered to promote the movie, and the Japanese media reported and watched the excitement. The Chinese people were very happy. They liked the various news about Cao Xuan's popularity abroad and never got tired of it.

Cao Xuan's fans were even more happy, and they didn't forget to give Xiao Zhou a push.

Previously, Xiao Zhou's "Initial D" took in 800 million yen at the box office in Japan, making it the Chinese-language film with the best box office performance in Japan this year.

There is a saying that the reason why "Initial D" has achieved such a high box office in Japan is due to the popularity of Xiao Zhou and others, but the most critical reason is because of the foundation laid by the original animation.

But no matter what, as he plays the male lead for the first time, and the box office is booming in many places in Hong Kong, Mainland, and Japan, Xiao Zhou's fans are inevitably a little embarrassed, and a small number of them even go to Cao Xuan's fans to show off.

Although he was besieged by Cao Xuan fans at that time, he still held back his anger until "New World" was released.

Fans like Cao Xuan are also ruthless. "New World" Hong Kong broke the box office record of Hong Kong movies, but they didn't move. The mainland box office approached 200 million, but they didn't move either.

They waited until "New World" surpassed "Initial D" at the Japanese box office, completely crushing the box office in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Japan, before they went to Xiao Zhou's fans' territory to ridicule them, forcing the opponent to even find no way to counterattack. Rhetoric.

Cao Xuan was too lazy to care about the fans' arguments.

Xiao Zhou's fans are determined to push Xiao Zhou to the top, even if he does not surpass Cao Xuan, it is best to be equal. Cao Xuan's fans think that the other party is wishful thinking and forcefully suppress the relevant topics.

Therefore, the conflict between the two parties cannot be resolved at all, even if Cao Xuan and Xiao Zhou end their lives in person.

Fans will only think that the two of them are just idols who sing and know nothing about it?

As time passed, Cao Xuan and Xiao Zhou simply deliberately avoided this topic. They only talked about other things when they met, ignoring outside voices and trying not to affect their relationship.

Although he sympathizes with Xiao Zhou, Cao Xuan obviously will not delay business for personal reasons.

He took the "New World" crew and creative staff to actively participate in promotional activities and interviews, which contributed to the Japanese box office.

The effect is also very significant, and the box office trend has obviously improved. If this trend continues, it may be difficult to catch up with "New Police Story", but there is still a lot of hope for the box office to exceed 100 million yuan.

For a gangster drama that doesn't have much action and is purely about plot, it's already great to get this box office.

Cao Xuan's fans in Japan have been further consolidated and promoted, and he has also received film contracts from Japanese film and television companies.

The neurotic villain Ah Xuan and the deeply sinister undercover Li Zicheng left a deep impression on Japanese movie fans. Some directors and companies took a fancy to Cao Xuan's acting skills and popularity.

Among the movies in Japan, animation is actually more prominent, and there are not many live-action movies.

Cao Xuan received three movie offers, one for a romantic film with a male protagonist, and one for a social-type literary film with a male protagonist. These two movies made almost no impression.

On the other hand, the third movie was one he had heard about for a long time. It was a movie adapted from a well-known bad comic book in the 1990s - "Hot Blood High School".

The film studio wanted to cast him to play the male protagonist Genji Takitani, and it is said that the manga author personally finalized the decision. He saw Cao Xuan's performance in "New Police Story" and thought it was very good. He would definitely be able to play the Genji Takitani in his mind.

Cao Xuan was not very interested in starring in the Japanese version of Young and Dangerous, and the other party couldn't afford him.

The cost of this film is limited, and the remuneration that can be paid is only a few million yuan converted into RMB. Moreover, due to the plot and subject matter, the audience is limited and it cannot be released in the mainland.

If Cao Xuan acts in a TV series, he can also help his family raise prices, gain popularity and popularity, and make a small amount of money while he is full.

If it were a Japanese national treasure movie, one that would go down in history, Cao Xuan would not care about the pay, but "High School" is far from that level, so it would be impossible for Toho to "have sex for free".

Therefore, Cao Xuan simply refused the invitation, and Dongbao didn't bother him, but the leader still came to visit.

No matter how you say it, Cao Xuan is one of the big names in the Chinese entertainment industry. In the past two years, the mainland's film market has continued to rise. Any fool can see that in the future, he will definitely be a big box office and even an Asian entertainment center.

If given the opportunity, Dongbao would naturally want to share in the pie, so he intended to establish a good relationship with Cao Xuan.

Cao Xuan also intends to make some connections in Japan. After all, Japan is still the second largest box office in the world, and a movie can earn an additional tens of millions or even tens of millions, which is still very good.

Although Cao Xuan had accumulated a lot of contacts before, who could think of having too many contacts? Toho was one of the largest companies in Japan, so there was no harm in making good friends.

It is worth mentioning that Toho head Hideyuki Takai is also an important figure at this year’s Tokyo Film Festival.

Cao Xuan also specially introduced Hu Jing to him. Hu Jing's "The Two of Us" was shortlisted for the main competition unit of this year's Tokyo Film Festival. In principle, Hu Jing has been nominated for the Best Actress at the Tokyo Film Festival.

Although Cao Xuan did not want to win the award through the back door, it is still beneficial for Hu Jing to show off her face in front of important people.

It is worth mentioning that the chairman of this year's Tokyo Film Festival is Lao Mouzi, which is why Cao Xuan is calm. If he really wanted to go through the back door, he would talk to Lao Mouzi.

When we met for the first time, we didn't talk much, but Hideyuki Takai still revealed a little gossip to Cao Xuan.

Chengtian boss Wu, in order to prevent Cao Xuan from suppressing him, is now forced to return to Japan to invest in Japanese movies. Even Chen Hao came to Japan to act in a movie.

However, Boss Wu did not give in. It is said that he is contacting various parties for investment. If he really succeeds in tinkering, he might return to China to start a big project.

Dongjing Hideyuki knew that this person was not at odds with Cao Xuan, so he specifically informed him that he wanted to give Cao Xuan a good deal.

When Cao Xuan heard that Boss Wu was going to work on a big project, the first thing he thought of was the movie "Red Cliff" that broke the investment record in Asia. The cost was said to be 85 million US dollars, nearly 600 million yuan.

This movie is the main investment of China Film and Beijing Film and Television, and is produced by Orange Sky, Wu Baige’s Lion Rock and several other companies. There is a lot of capital from Hong Kong and Japan behind it.

Judging from the box office, it can't be said to be a loss, but the box office share in Japan and South Korea is not high. In terms of profit, I can't really talk about it. It should be a small profit.

Cao Xuan himself doesn't care about Boss Wu and Wu Baige, but this movie really reminded Cao Xuan.

The Three Kingdoms is indeed a good IP development, and not only domestic audiences like it, but Japan and South Korea are also obsessed with it.

Especially in Japan, the two movies "Red Cliff" contributed US$100 million in box office, which is more than the box office in mainland China.

South Korea also contributed US$20 million, which is a rare achievement for South Korea, whose movie box office market is generally weak.

So much so that Cao Xuan himself wondered whether he should bring China Film or Shanghai Film to develop the Three Kingdoms IP together.

The investment of US$85 million in "Red Cliff" is too ridiculous. Even if it is two parts, Cao Xuan strongly suspects that there is water in it.

He estimates that even if it is a large-scale production, an investment of 20 to 30 million US dollars is enough, and even if the box office of the first and second movies is 50 million, it will be about the same.

However, the development of Three Kingdoms IP movies is not easy. The scripted filming is not attractive enough. If you want to innovate the plot, it is easy to make mistakes.

A big plot of the Three Kingdoms, one movie is shorter, but two movies are longer.

Who will be the director is also a big problem in terms of casting. An investment of hundreds of millions cannot be decided by just patting the head.

Personally speaking, Cao Xuan feels that Three Kingdoms is more suitable for making a TV series. The movie is too rushed, and it is difficult to develop it into a complete series of movies.

As the owner of Goldfinger, Cao Xuan is well aware of the influence of Marvel and DC, and it’s not like he has never thought about creating a movie universe.

The Three Kingdoms universe, the Fengshen universe, the Journey to the West universe, the Prehistoric universe, the Classic of Mountains and Seas universe, etc., are easier said than done, and Cao Xuan can only take his time tentatively.

Separating from Hideyuki Takai, Cao Xuan found a notebook in the hotel's study to write and draw. Hu Jing took a curious look.

"What are you doing?"

"Do you think that if we were to film Three Kingdoms, would I be more suitable to play Zhao Yun or Zhuge Liang?"

"Didn't you say you wanted to play Sima Yi?"

Cao Xuan was stunned. He had indeed been muttering about the TV plan for "The Alliance of Military Advisors" at home. Everyone in the East and West Palaces knew that he, a member of the Cao family, wanted to play Sima Yi's bad taste.

"It's a TV series. If we prepare a movie about the Three Kingdoms, who should I play?"

"Why don't you, a member of the Cao family, not want to play Cao Cao? Instead, every day you want to play either Shu Han, the archenemy, or Sima Yi, who overthrew Cao Wei."

Cao Xuan: "..."

This sentence stopped him. For the first time, he asked himself why he didn't play Cao Cao. Was he afraid of being known as Cao Cao's thief...

Of course it was a joke to be afraid of being a thief. Cao Xuan had long been used to it, mainly because his image and age were inappropriate.

Cao Cao was in his thirties when he appeared on the scene. In many people's impressions, he was middle-aged or even old.

If it were a TV series, Cao Xuan could slowly lay the groundwork since he was a young man, but the movie would not give him a chance to lay the groundwork. If Cao Xuan forces the role, it would be more likely to cause drama.

Cao Xuan studied for several days in his spare time in Japan, and finally sorted out two development directions for the Three Kingdoms movie.

Battle event films and biographical films.

Battle events are some important battles in the Three Kingdoms, such as the Eighteen Route Princes against Dong Zhuo, the Battle of Guandu, the Battle of Chibi, the Battle of Hanzhong, the Battle of Hefei, the Flood of the Seven Armies, the Battle of Yiling, etc.

Personal biographies are based on celebrities from the Three Kingdoms and capture their half-life stories. The main line is the highlights or famous scenes of personal life.

For example, Guan Yu can be linked to killing Yan Liang and Wen Chou across five passes and killing six generals; Zhao Yun entered and exited Changbanpo seven times; Ma Chao killed Cao Cao until he cut off his beard and discarded his robe; Gan Ning's hundreds of cavalry robbed Cao's camp; Zhang Babai's grandson ten Ten thousand and so on.

These two types of movies are shot together, and they can communicate with each other to a certain extent, eventually forming a more complete world view.

Of course, considering the popularity and popularity of the campaign and characters, Cao Xuan found it difficult to present the entire Three Kingdoms.

For example, the Eighteen Route Princes Crusade, Guandu, Chibi, and Hanzhong were okay, but plots like the Battle of Yiling were difficult to get a relatively high box office.

Not to mention personal biographies, the popularity of Zhao Yun and Guan Yu and the influence of famous scenes cannot be matched by Zhang Liao and Gan Ning.

But no matter what, Cao Xuan felt that he could still give it a try. He couldn't shoot the whole story, but it would be good to shoot a few important famous scenes. It would not only make money, but also promote history and culture.

At present, he is optimistic that the battle event will be the battle between the eighteen princes against Dong and the battle of Chibi, and his personal biography is even more optimistic about Zhao Yun.

As a series of group films, although Cao Xuan cannot guarantee that all the actors' roles will be completely bound, he will definitely try to maintain the original cast.

In other words, Cao Xuan can only choose one role to play. There are not many suitable roles for the princes to challenge Dong, and he does not want to play Lu Bu. If he had to choose, it would be either Zhou Yu, Zhuge Liang or Zhao Yun.

Cao Xuan personally prefers Zhao Yun, and he is also more inclined to try out a Zhao Yun personal movie. The plot happens to be filmed at the end of Chang Ban Slope. If the effect is good, it can be directly embedded in the Red Cliff Battle.

Cao Xuan wrote a lot of related ideas, including more than 20 pages in his notebook alone.

However, whether to film or not will still need to be discussed internally by Fanxing's senior management. If China Film and Shanghai Film Group are involved, it will also require a lot of discussions and negotiations.

Many things cannot be decided by him at once. He wanted to film "The Legend of the Gods" in 2002, and he also had the idea for "The Alliance of Military Advisors" very early on.

However, due to various reasons, "Feng Shen Bang" has not been considered until now, and it is expected to be launched in 2006-2007.

Not to mention "Strategic Alliance", Cao Xuan is currently busy with movies and has no time to film TV series.

If a Three Kingdoms movie is really to be developed, the TV series may have to be delayed.

Even if "The Alliance of Military Advisors" mainly tells the story of Cao Wei's internal affairs and the later period of the Three Kingdoms, not only has a large number of original plots, but also has little involvement with the Three Kingdoms series of movies, otherwise Cao Xuan would have given up.

………

At the end of August, the Japanese box office of "New World" had exceeded 1.05 billion yen. 1.24 billion yen is 100 million yuan. It is only a matter of time before the target is reached.

The Hong Kong box office has now exceeded 68 million Hong Kong dollars, 70 million Hong Kong dollars can be broken in the blink of an eye, and 80 million Hong Kong dollars depends on luck.

The mainland box office of "New World" also successfully exceeded the 200 million mark. The box office has been postponed for about 20 days. The outside world estimates that the final box office of "New World" will be around 220 million to 230 million.

Currently, the rights in the United States, Australia, and South America are still being negotiated, but it has not been released. In Europe, it is basically using DVD and TV channels. There are not many regions where it has been released, and the box office is very small.

The box office in Asia is quite impressive. The total cumulative revenue in South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand is almost 50 million yuan.

Taiwan Province originally did not introduce some of the plots in "New World", but now its attitude is somewhat relaxed.

However, leaving aside these unreleased films, the total box office in all other regions combined is almost 55 to 60 million US dollars.

This global total box office data is second only to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Hero", "House of Flying Daggers" and "Kung Fu", ranking among the top five Chinese-language movies in box office history.

Normally, the media would have already officially announced that "New World" will be this year's box office champion.

However, since there is also Director Chen's "The Promise" in the Lunar New Year holiday, many people are more optimistic about Director Chen. After all, this is Director Chen's masterpiece that will hit Hollywood.

There is also "Myth" by Cheng Long in the National Day slot. Although they don't think "Myth" can beat "New World", it is Cheng Long after all, and no one can guarantee it.

Except Cao Xuan......

He knows the script of "The Myth", which is almost the same as the original one. The actors on the schedule remain the same. Even with the help of Fanxing Cinema, even if it is higher than the original one, Cao Xuan does not believe that it can break 200 million.

On the other hand, "The Promise" has a summer release of "New World" to stimulate the film market, which is definitely a good boost for the Lunar New Year release.

But don't forget, Cao Xuan also has "Xiu Chun Dao 2" to block "The Promise" during the Lunar New Year period.

The original "The Promise" has a poor reputation, but it still managed to earn 180 million at the box office. The main reason is that there were no strong competitors during the same period, and the relevant theaters were crazy about arranging films.

The most exaggerated theater chains give "The Promise" 60-80% of their daily schedule. As long as the marketing and exposure can keep up, even if it is a piece of shit, it can still get 100 million at the box office.

But now with "Xiu Chun Knife 2" it's different. Fanxing definitely won't be able to let "The Promise" get so many film schedules, and everyone will compete normally.

If any theater chain dared to schedule "The Promise" at 80%, it would be open favoritism. Cao Xuan dared to let Fanxing Cinema Line block "The Promise".

This is the advantage of having theater chains in hand. If anyone dares to hinder him in scheduling films, don't blame him for counterattack.

Yes, Director Chen and "The Promise" are Mr. Han's favorites, but Boss Cao is not a vegetarian either.

Not to mention that Mr. Han will not offend him for this matter, Cao Xuan is not afraid even if he challenges China Film Group. Boss Zhang dares to call Mr. Han a mountain eagle, and Cao Xuan dares to call him a living bandit.

It's not like he has no one behind him. When he gets angry, he goes to cooperate with Shanghai Film Industry...

Of course, this is just an extreme statement. As long as Mr. Han is not stupid, he will not break up with Cao Xuan.

Besides, China Film and Television also participated in part of the distribution of "Xiu Chun Dao 2", so it can be considered as one of its own. It will definitely not be too partial.

As long as the film schedule is relatively fair, let alone "The Promise" catch up with "The New World", Cao Xuan is confident that "Xiu Chun Dao 2" will defeat "The Promise" head-on.

After all, that movie was really not that bad!

In the early years, many major productions were criticized as bad films, but later people gradually reversed the verdict. Movies such as "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" all received relatively objective evaluations.

Only this "The Promise" doesn't know how to praise it even if it wants to overturn the verdict.

Even though Douban's group of talents have turned over and over again, apart from those in-depth analyzes of the clouds and mountains, the only thing that can make passers-by nod is really one [color].

Zhang Yunu's passionate scene was originally the only highlight, but due to the XX scandal, the gimmick was greatly reduced.

Looking at the reports boasting about Director Chen and "The Promise", Cao Xuan secretly disdained them.

During the Lunar New Year, I will let you know what cruelty is...