China Entertainment special effects started in 1997

On the Douban website, the rating of "Feng Shen Bang" is 6.9.

This score is not high, but it does not fall into the ranks of bad movies. Compared with Liu Weiqiang's previous special effects blockbuster "The Storm", it only dropped 0.2 points.

There are also many fans who praised this film from various angles, saying that Liu Weiqiang's skills are still as good as before.

Unfortunately, as the film continues to be popular, there are more and more negative reviews, and the score continues to decline, almost reaching the same level as "Heroes of China".

But what Wang Zhonglei cares about is not the film's ratings, but its box office performance.

It should be noted that the total investment in this film is claimed to be US$100 million.

Naturally, they dare not really invest so much, but they still have 50 to 60 million US dollars.

If the box office performance is too poor, it will be miserable.

Fortunately, the box office results on the first day were still strong, with more than 41 million. If the subsequent trend does not fall too far, there will still be a box office of 500 to 600 million in the mainland market.

Thinking of this, all the executives of Huayi were excited.

In the current mainland market, in terms of the box office performance of a single film, except for Jiang Heng's films, there is no film that can exceed 500 million!

If the "Feng Shen Bang" can be achieved, it will be of great significance.

Huayi Company, conference room.

We heard that the cumulative box office had exceeded 200 million, and everyone was happy.

A senior executive said: "It's a pity that Jiang Heng came out with "The Kingdom of Women". If "The Legend of the Gods" was to dominate the summer, it might be able to make a box office of 700-800 million yuan."

Everyone listened and thought deeply.

Because until November last year, they all thought that there would be only one special effects blockbuster in the summer of 2007, "Feng Shen Bang".

I never expected that Jiang Heng's improvised movie "Land of Women" would not only be released in time for the summer season, but the box office in the mainland market would also exceed 900 million, reaching an astonishing 915 million.

Although it has not yet been released, the box office growth has been very slow, and it is not expected to exceed one billion.

The problem is that in everyone's opinion, the quality of "Land of Women" is far inferior to Jiang Heng's previous works, but the mainland box office is the highest ever.

It can only be said that "bad movies" can also have high box office, which is ridiculous.

Wang Zhonglei is very envious of this, but it is a pity that "Feng Shen Bang" cannot achieve such an achievement.

He currently hopes that there will be more box office in the mainland and more in Japan and South Korea.

Considering that this film is more popular in the Asian market, for the overseas distribution of "The Legend of the Gods", the copyrights in North America, South America, Europe, and Australia are directly sold in local countries.

In order to recover costs as much as possible, Huayi is willing to sell to anyone, no matter how small the country is and how low the copyright fee is, even if it is tens of thousands of dollars.

However, in the two important box office markets of Japan and South Korea, they have signed an account sharing agreement.

Judging from the current box office performance, it's passable.

Coupled with the copyright fees from other Southeast Asian countries, "Feng Shen Bang" can still make its money back.

The subsequent re-release of discs and the sale of film and television on-demand rights can also bring a steady stream of continuous income to the company.

Unfortunately, film investment is dominated by three companies: Huayi, Shanghai Film and Television, and Ningxia Film and Television, and there are also several small investors.

If it is divided into the hands of each family, there will not be much money left.

It is completely incomparable to Jiang Heng, who can earn hundreds of millions of dollars from one movie.

But it is not in vain. As long as the first one does not lose money, the second one can be developed, and the next one may make a lot of money.

Unfortunately, things went against expectations. As the score of the film on Douban continued to decline, coupled with criticism from various film critics, the box office trend of "Feng Shen Bang" obviously lacked stamina, and the single-day box office dropped even more sharply.

In just a few days, the film's estimated box office in the Mainland dropped from the original 500 to 600 million to over 400 million.

The Wang brothers were so angry that if they continued to fall like this, they would have no hope of saving their capital and would have to make a profit at a loss!

Shanghai Film and Television and Ningxia Film and Television are also quite sorry for this. They are preparing to hold a celebration party. How could they have imagined that this would be the result.

"It's all Jiang Heng's fault. If he hadn't come up with "The Kingdom of Women," our "Fengshen Bang" would have made an extra 100 million yuan!" an executive from Shanghai Film Studio said angrily.

"Hey, as I said, the summer schedule is not owned by anyone, everyone depends on their own ability!" said the leader of Ningxia Film and Television.

"What do you mean?"

"It's not interesting, I just think there are so many themes, there's no need to film Fengshen and Journey to the West!"

Wang Zhonglei said: "Chairman Yang, what do you have in mind?"

Yang Hongtao laughed, he did have some ideas.

Recently, he has been thinking about why "The Legend of the Gods" could not be as big a hit at the box office as Jiang Heng's film.

First of all, the quality is certainly unmatched.

Especially in terms of special effects, they are not bad at all.

Furthermore, Yang Hongtao believes that the themes are too similar and the audience will subconsciously make comparisons. I will compare "Fengshenbang" with the works of "Splitting the Mountain to Save My Mother", "Shituoling" and "Pingdingshan".

It's just like the golden age of Hong Kong movies. When Xu Ke and Jet Li's "Once Upon a Time" series have been very successful, if you find someone else to make a Jet Li series of movies, who will do it if you don't?

If you want to succeed, you have to find another way.

His idea is to change the subject, such as "Painted Skin" and "Nie Xiaoqian" from "Liao Zhai". Furthermore, it’s okay to create some myths that combine Eastern and Western cultures!

He had just reached an agreement with Hong Kong-based director Chen Jiashang not long ago to prepare for the filming of "Painted Skin", and the script was almost written.

I just can't stand the "losing money to gain publicity" of "Investiture of the Gods"!

"Nothing, I'm just preparing to invest in "Painted Skin" from "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". The script is almost ready, and I've filed it with the Film Bureau. If you want to invest, I'm very welcome!"

The rest of the people present were stunned.

Painted Skin?

The original work is quite scary. According to the current domestic policy, can it pass the review?

However, in terms of the story content, if it can be presented with excellent special effects, it is still worth watching.

"Chairman Yang, how much is the total investment in your film, and how much is still missing?" an investor asked.

Yang Hongtao laughed, "This play doesn't need too much investment, and it is currently set at 100 million...!"

Wang Zhonglei's face was very unhappy when he heard this. This gathering was to discuss the preparations for the second part of "Investiture of the Gods".

Yang Hongtao talked about the preparations for "Painted Skin", which was obviously a sabotage!

However, Ningxia Film and Television is a state-owned enterprise. Even if he was angry, he couldn't vent it. He could only end the meeting angrily.

Then, he called Chen Guofu to his office and asked him what he thought.

"Well, Chairman Yang's words also make sense. In the field of special effects blockbusters, Jiang Heng is unique. If the subject matter is too similar, the audience will naturally have a comparative idea. But in terms of special effects, he is indeed better than him.

Apart from other things, Jiang Heng has a special effects company under his name, with low prices and good quality. We spent a lot more money on the Japanese and Korean special effects companies we found!"

Wang Zhonglei frowned slightly when he heard this. What Chen Guofu said was indeed true.

The problem is that after choosing the "Fengshen" subject matter, he dared not give the special effects shots to Jiang Heng's company.

"Then what do you think is better?"

"Let's change the subject matter!"