Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 121 Who else?
The first day box office exceeded 10 million, what does that mean?
Let me put it this way, in the domestic market, so far, only Zhang Yimou has done it, and more than once.

"Hero" grossed 1350 million on its first day, and "House of Flying Daggers" grossed 1580 million on its first day.

Just like the box office exceeding 100 million, many records were created by Zhang Yimou.

Although "House of Flying Daggers" was criticized as a terrible movie, the audience still relished it because of the reputation of its predecessor "Hero".

But how did “The Shallows” manage to make over 10 million on its first day?
It is neither a blockbuster nor has an ordinary cast. Fan Jiuyi is not really a great actress; she just has some fame.

Because of the special effects?

Well, "The Shallows" can at most be considered a special type. If we count the special effects alone, it is actually not outstanding. After all, the total cost was only 10 million.

Real special effects blockbusters cost billions.

Many film companies can’t figure it out. They want to summarize the rules of success and replicate the success of “The Shallows”.

The next day, not many media reported on the first day's box office. At that time, everyone was still accustomed to reporting the box office of the first weekend. Unless they were people in the industry, most people didn't pay much attention to the first day's box office.

But Zhang Chen’s roadshow journey has already begun.

Di'anmen, Wukesong, Wudaokou, Xin'an Shopping Mall, Wangjing Xingmei...

The two of them visited several cinemas in Beijing with relatively large traffic one by one. The roadshow is actually very simple. They just went to the cinema, met with fans, chatted with them, answered a few questions, thanked everyone for their support, took photos, and then went to the next one.

The first day is Beijing, the second day is Shanghai, and the third day is Guangzhou. In short, none of the seven cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu and Hangzhou, will be left out.

In the early 2000s, the three largest cities with the largest voting bases were Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

The box office revenue of these three cities combined accounts for 60% of the total box office revenue.

Urban residents are the main consumer group, but there is no way around it. The infrastructure is not good enough, and some cities and counties down the county may not even have movie theaters.

However, in the past two years, the country has been vigorously promoting the construction of cinema chains.

In the film industry development plan, the country does not make any requirements on the number of hard drives produced or the box office. It only has rigid requirements on the number of cinemas, and a certain number of new ones must be added each year.

This is exactly the same as the development of other industries. You have to lay the foundation first before doing anything.

It is precisely because the foundation has been laid that the miracle of box office revenue of tens of billions or even hundreds of billions was born starting in the past few years.

Zhang Chen has no money now, but if he had money, he would definitely invest in cinemas. Although it is a heavy asset, he knows that the film industry will boom in a few years, and then there will be a rising period lasting more than ten years.

All industries related to movies are booming.

Therefore, running a cinema chain will definitely not make losses in the next few decades.

Roadshows are very tiring. I have to go to six or seven cinemas a day and accept media interviews. Forget about appearing on TV shows because I simply don't have time.

The publicity will definitely be centered around Fan Jiuyi.

In this era, people's attention to the director has just begun, and he is not yet known to everyone.

Unlike later generations, even people who don’t watch movies very often are familiar with Zhang Yimou, Chen Shishi, Feng Xiaogang, Xu Ke, Wu Baige and so on.

At that time, the director was no longer a behind-the-scenes position. Like an actor, he was a profession under the spotlight.

If you do well, a group of people will praise you to the sky. If you do not do well, the same group of people who praise you may scold you to the point that you doubt your life.

The two accepted an interview with Southern Weekend: "The theme of The Shallows was an attempt of mine. When I started the project, I didn't think too much about it. I just wanted to make something that had never appeared in China.

The script is a very orthodox commercial film script, compiled according to the Hollywood three-part model. Of course, it draws on some foreign films of the same type, but the ending is my own idea..."

"I met Director Zhang for the first time at a dinner party organized by someone else, and then we talked about movies, and happened to talk about The Shallows. He originally planned to make The Shallows a spin-off of the Darkness series, and when he saw that I liked it, he gave it to me..." "Of course it was a pleasure to work with him. Director Zhang Chen is very talented. The scripts are all stories he came up with himself. He can write and direct. This should be called a great talent in ancient times."

"At first we didn't understand why he decided to release the film in the unpopular month of November, but after listening to his reasons, we were suddenly convinced."

"The bikinis and surfing suits in the movie are all sponsored brands, but the styles were designed by Director Zhang Chen himself. It is said that at the beginning the sponsors provided several of their more popular styles, but Director Zhang was not satisfied with any of them, so he designed one himself, which was then chosen by an underwear company and is the one I wore in the movie..."

Of course you have to reveal information when you are interviewed. What Fan Jiuyi said was all discussed with Zhang Chen in advance. I am not afraid of you reporting it, I am just afraid that you will not report it.

After the interview, the group went straight to the airport and took a flight to the next city.

It has become a habit for them to do roadshows during the day and fly to the next city at night. They basically spend their sleeping time on the plane.

The schedule that Dong Jianqiang arranged for them was so dense, so dense that it was outrageous.

After getting off the plane, the two of them immediately felt like they were revived and rushed to the next roadshow.

Smile, say hello, take friendly photos, and answer questions~
Fortunately, it's basically physical work, not much brainpower is needed, basically just repeating the same thing over and over again, like 'this is what I thought when I was shooting this movie...', 'I remember when I was shooting that scene' and so on...

Because the questions asked by the media, reporters and audiences are basically the same.

Then I received a call from Dong Jianqiang:

The box office on Sunday was 1100 million, 1600 million on the second day, and 1860 million on the third day. The box office of "The Shallows" in its first weekend was 4560 million.

A movie made 4560 million in its first weekend. According to the box office distribution pattern of commercial films, the first weekend box office is about one-third of the total box office. Therefore, there is no problem for "The Shallows" to have a total box office of over million.

Stable~
This is really stable~
Zhang Chen and Fan Jiuyi hugged each other excitedly, and all the fatigue from the past few days was swept away.

Zhang Chen said confidently: "Whatever arrangements you have next, don't worry about us, just go ahead and make them."

Damn it, if I don’t go to hell, who will?

In order to achieve a box office of over 100 million, all the hard work and effort is worth it.

Fan Jiuyi was even more excited than him. She was about to become the second female lead in a movie with a box office of over 100 million yuan, and the only female lead.

Who can still say that her box office is not good by then? In terms of commercial performance, perhaps only Zhang Ziyi can surpass her.

Besides Zhang Ziyi, who else?
The film and television companies that studied "The Shallows" studied it over and over again, and finally found two reasons that were not really reasons.

The first thing is the film scheduling and release date.

Some people say that there are reasons for making mistakes, while others say that success and failure are both due to Xiao He.

The release date of "The Shallows" is too cold. It is November, sandwiched between the National Day and the Lunar New Year period. There is not a single famous movie, not even a movie with famous actors.

In previous years, theaters would lose money during unpopular periods like yours.

But now it’s different. “The Shallows” is released and it stands out.

Cinemas are responsible for their own profits and losses, so if there is an opportunity like this, of course they are willing to take a chance.

They gave unprecedented support to "The Shallows". BJ New Film Association and Shanghai United Film Group actually gave more than 90% of the screenings, a ratio that even exceeded "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers".

Even for other cinema chains, the lowest rate is over 50%.

It can be said that the audience who walk into the cinema has no choice at all. If they want to watch a movie, they can only watch "The Shallows".

(End of this chapter)