China Entertainment special effects started in 1997

As for the box office performance of "Pacific Rim 2", Jiang Heng is still very much looking forward to it exceeding 1 billion US dollars.

After all, the most suitable genres for shooting special effects blockbusters are basically science fiction, mythology, monsters, mechas, and disasters.

It is always a little bit difficult to successfully adapt Hollywood science fiction movies into Chinese backgrounds, and "The Three-Body Problem" will not be published until next year.

Mythology themes are very popular in the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, but they are slightly less popular in Europe and the United States, relying entirely on special effects to attract audiences.

Disaster movies are similar. Not only are they difficult to adapt, but passing the review is also a big problem. Therefore, Jiang Heng has never touched this theme in recent years.

In his opinion, the most popular genre in the global Eastern and Western film markets is "mechas fighting monsters".

And his best global box office work in recent years is "Pacific Rim 1" a few years ago, which reached 939 million US dollars.

Even "Avatar", which earned $2.9 billion in global box office a few years later, can be seen as a broad "mech vs. monster" film. Its core selling point is the confrontation between modern weapons and primitive power, and the main theme is to shock everyone who sees it.

"Pacific Rim" uses heavy mechs and fierce monsters, while "Avatar" is a confrontation between modern weapons and the natives of Pandora, especially at the final decisive moment, with overwhelming planes, human soldiers holding modern weapons, cool heavy exoskeleton mechs, and Na'vi riding flying birds.

Just looking at the power ratio of both sides, the audience wants to know who will win!

The biggest flaw of the original "Pacific Rim 2" is that the original heavy and real mechs are made into a slender appearance.

To be honest, not only does it not feel heavy at all, but sometimes it gives the audience a feeling of thin skin, big fillings, and iron shells, the kind that can be flattened by a monster.

This is easy to understand. Originally, the total investment of Pacific Rim 1 was 190 million US dollars. However, on the eve of the release, the two producers, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros., broke up, and the publicity and promotion were a mess, with a global box office of only 411 million.

Such results, coupled with DVD distribution, TV on demand, and peripheral development, still cannot make back the investment, but the loss is not much.

So by the time of the second part, the investment was reduced to only 150 million US dollars.

It is estimated that the investors also wanted to take advantage of the reputation and fame of the first part to make some money.

As a result, the box office performance was even worse, not as high as the equally poorly-received The Meg, which had a global box office of 530 million US dollars.

It has to be said that monster movies do have generally low ratings, but the market performance is really good.

Jiang Heng's version of Pacific Rim 2, whether it is mecha or monsters, is more shocking and realistic, and the fighting scenes are even more exciting. Even if the performance of the literary drama is worse, the box office impact will not be too great.

After all, the audience is here to see mechas fight monsters. It's like going to the cinema to watch "The Meg", but the big shark in it is made of 50-cent special effects, which is pure money-making.

"The special effects and plot of "Pacific Rim 2" are comprehensively upgraded compared to the previous film, so I believe that the box office performance of this movie will definitely be higher. As for whether its global box office can exceed 1 billion US dollars, it depends on whether the audience supports it.

I believe that one day the movie I directed will get a global box office of more than 1 billion US dollars, but I really hope that it will be "Pacific Rim 2" because the film carries some of my good wishes."

Liu Yan hurriedly said: "I believe that the global box office of this movie will definitely exceed 1 billion, and I will also call on my family and friends to support this movie. And the good wishes you mentioned, is it the wonderful performance of Chinese mechas in the film?"

Jiang Heng nodded "Yes, the real protagonist of the last movie was the American 'Danger Ranger'. This time, it's the turn of our Chinese 'Storm Red'."

When Liu Yan heard this, his eyes instantly became moist, and he said excitedly: "Really, Director Jiang, I'm really looking forward to it. When I watched it last time, I really liked 'Storm Red'. This time I will definitely watch it a few more times."

In the distance, Guo Fan, who was among the reporters, was also a little excited after listening to Jiang Heng's conversation. He thought to himself: "Director Jiang is really good at marketing. If these words are reported, the audience will definitely be excited, and there will definitely be many people going to the theater to support it. The overseas response is another matter, and the mainland may have 100 million or 800 million!"

And the audiences who were farther away were already shouting excitedly.

Some shouted "Go Director Jiang", some shouted "Storm Red", and some shouted "The rise of Chinese-language movies"!

In short, there were all kinds of shouting, which seemed a bit chaotic.

Jiang Heng had already finished the interview and went to the venue.

Because it was jointly produced by iQiyi, Tencent Video, China Film Group and Columbia, Han Sanping, the CEO of China Film Group, Zhou Lixian, the president of Columbia China, and Yu Dong, who was in charge of publicity and distribution, all came.

At the director level, there were also many people who came to "show their support", including Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang, Jiang Wen, Jia Zhangke and others.

The first few said they came to show their support, more to see the blockbuster as soon as possible.

As for Jia Zhangke, it was more of a thank you.

He had insufficient funds for filming before, and found Jiang Heng, and got the investment smoothly. After a few visits, they became familiar with each other.

However, although he and Zhang Yimou both came from the Northwest Circle, they did not have a good relationship.

In addition, the so-called Northwest Circle is neither a group nor a gang, but a nickname.

It is a title imposed on you by others. Maybe you don't recognize it yourself, but you can't do anything about it.

Unlike the atmosphere of the Beijing circle, which is full of warmth and hatred, the Northwest circle is full of various secret struggles.

In detail, the Northwest circle is composed of two groups of people. One group is the "Shaanxi Gang" composed of three directors Zhang Yimou, Gu Changwei and Wang Quanan, and actors such as Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, Jiang Wenli, Ma Sichun and Zhang Jiayi.

The other group is the "Shanxi Gang" composed of Shanxi directors Jia Zhangke, Ning Hao and Cao Baoping, as well as screenwriter Liu Cixin and actor Zhao Tao.

The "Shanxi Gang" lineup is relatively weak, especially at this moment, only Jia Zhangke and Cao Baoping are somewhat famous, Ning Hao, Liu Cixin and others are still famous!

In addition, Ning Hao is currently preparing to shoot "Crazy Stone", which is also invested by iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Pictures.

The script of this film was born as early as 2000, and it was originally called "Big Diamond".

In 2005, Ning Hao gave the script to Liu Dehua and asked for an investment of 6 million.

Liu Dehua was only willing to give 3 million because he had invested in several films in a row.

Ning Hao said that he could get 5 million outside.

Liu Dehua said very impolitely, then you can go back.

In the original history, Ning Hao couldn't find any investment at all, so he went back to get Liu Dehua's investment.

In this life, Ning Hao got Jiang Heng's investment because of Jia Zhangke's introduction.

The amount given was not much, 5 million, so Ning Hao still had to be frugal and lower the price to find actors.

Seeing that the roles played by Huang Bo, Liu Hua, Yue Xiaojun, and Guo Tao did not change, Jiang Heng did not intervene.

He didn't care about the investment income, but he felt that talent was rare!