Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 304: Breaking the Billion in Five Days
October 1st is the first day of the National Day holiday, but it’s actually not really a short holiday. The holiday is as long as the Chinese New Year.

Today is the official release day of "Taken", and long queues have formed in front of movie theaters in popular areas.

The marketing for "Hurricane" was so good, and it was also recommended by "Supergirl".

"Super Girl" is really popular, the kind of popularity that leaves no room for others to survive.

Although it ended at the end of August, the popularity of Super Girls has not diminished at all.

No wonder other TV stations are jealous, and no wonder CCTV would crack down on him.

In 08, there was a performance at the Temple of Heaven 100 days before the Olympic Games. All the singers sang "BJ Welcomes You" together. Each singer had a fixed face shot except the Super Girls. As soon as they came, the camera switched to long shots.

If you say it's not special, no one will believe you. If one Super Girl does this and it can be called a mistake, but all Super Girls are treated like this, then it speaks volumes.

……

Wudaokou Cinema is one of the best performing single-hall cinemas in Beijing, because there are several universities around it and young people are the main audience for movies.

Whenever a blockbuster movie is released, there will be a long queue here in Wudaokou. Today is no exception. A long queue meanders in front of the cinema.

Many of the people queuing up are young couples.

Boy: "What are we going to watch today?"

Girl: "Myth."

Boy: "Ah, but I want to watch Taken."

Girl: "No, I want to watch "The Myth". If I don't watch it, you don't love me..."

"Okay," the boy agreed readily, and turned to the waiter and said, "Hello, two recent copies of Taken."

The girl was surprised: "Ah, you really don't love me..."

The boy patted her head and coaxed her: "Be good, I'll love you after watching Taken..."

Of course, there are not many couples who do this. Most couples, even girls, want to watch "Taken".

After all, their Chunchun, Bibi and Yingying had strongly recommended this movie in the fan group, and Zhang Chen is also quite famous among young people, so everyone still recognizes him.

“Two copies of Taken, thank you~”

"A copy of Taken~"

"Two copies of Mythology~"

"I want two copies of the latest "Taken".

There was a constant stream of people buying tickets, and the ticket-printing machines were almost smoking.

After the last two tickets for Taken were sold, the staff member leaned out of the ticket window and shouted to the back of the line, "There are no more tickets for Taken. Those who want to watch it later don't have to queue up..."

There was a commotion at the back of the crowd, and then the most unlucky guy at the window shouted anxiously: "Is there no more for the evening?"

"No, all the shows today are sold out."

The boy looked speechless and looked at his girlfriend next to him: "Then I'll have two copies of Taken tomorrow."

The ticket seller looked impatient: "You can only buy tomorrow's tickets tomorrow. Today we only have "Myth" left. Do you want to see it?"

The boy shook his head. "The Myth" had been released for a week and he had watched it last week.

Then he remembered something and immediately turned around and chased after the man who bought the ticket earlier: "Dude, can you give me the ticket for "Hurricane"? I'll pay more~"

"No, I still want to see it."

"Can I double it? Help me, bro~"

"Even if you pay more, it's not possible." The boy was rejected again.

But someone came up to me and said, "Hey, buddy, do you want tickets for Taken? I have them. I'll charge you 100 more each."

Don’t think that scalpers don’t target movie tickets. There are plenty of them in Wudaokou.

This problem gradually disappeared only after the emergence of online ticketing platforms, and Grade 3A hospitals were the hardest hit.

……

The same scene is being played out across the country, and tickets for Taken are hard to come by.

Especially since today is the first day of the holiday, people have been bombarded with propaganda for many days and their curiosity has been aroused. Now that they finally have a holiday, they all want to take a look.

At this time, "The Myth" had already been released for two weeks and the popularity had long passed, so a lot of people bought "Taken".

The box office statistics for the second day came out and the results were very good.

"Taken" grossed 1900 million on its first day.

1900 million! The total box office of many movies may not be 1900 million.

Zhang Chen and others made persistent efforts and started the roadshow. During the National Day holiday, they visited an average of three cinemas a day, and at most five.

Director Chen symbolically followed them to two stores and then stopped. He was a supporting role and was also old.

The remaining four had no reason to quit.

Jing Tian was quite excited at first. Every time she went to a cinema, she was warmly welcomed by movie fans, and her self-esteem was greatly satisfied.

But I regretted it after running for a day.

But the roadshow cannot stop because the effect is really good.

On October 7100, the first weekend box office of Taken was released, which was million. This was not only the best result of all Zhang Chen's works so far, but also broke the record in film history.

Before this, the record holder for the domestic first weekend box office was "House of Flying Daggers" with 5500 million, and the previous record was also Zhang Yimou's "Hero" with 5240 million.

Now "Taken" has finally broken Zhang Yimou's monopoly.

The media reported it crazily, and everyone knew that this was not the end yet. I'm afraid that "Taken" will set another record, the fastest record to break 100 million.

The main creators of "Hurricane" also gathered their energy at this time, and everyone knew that they were making history.

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou...

Every day they are either on roadshows or on their way to roadshows.

In the cinema, they looked very energetic when interacting with fans, but as soon as they got back to the car, they all tilted their necks back to catch up on their sleep.

Finally, a new record for the fastest box office breaking 100 million yuan in film history was set—it successfully broke 100 million yuan in just five days of release.

As of the early morning of October 1.1, "Taken" had grossed million yuan.

Everyone was surprised at this incredible result.

Five days! So far no one has achieved over 100 million in five days, not even Zhang Yimou.

In comparison, "Myth" is much inferior.

Originally, the box office of "The Myth" in its first weekend was 2600 million, and the box office in two weeks was 5800 million, which was not a bad result. Even brother Jackie Chan thought it was pretty good.

If this trend continues, it is possible that it will exceed 100 million.

But who knew that "Taken" which was released in the same period as it was a monster and had a huge box office.

All the traffic has been snatched away by it, and it’s useless no matter how hard Cheng Long promotes it.

On the phone, Dong Jianqiang was complacent: "'The Myth' has been left far behind us. It had already grossed 2600 million before 'Hurricane' was released. 'Hurricane' grossed 7100 million in three days, while 'The Myth' only grossed 5800 million. It is no match for us at all..."

It is no wonder that Dong Jianqiang is so proud. The box office of "Hurricane" in three days is higher than that of "The Myth" in ten days. "The Myth" is also a blockbuster movie with an investment of 1.4 million Hong Kong dollars.

Cheng Long was very depressed.

"The Myth" is his transitional work. His works in Hollywood in recent years have been a series of flops. After returning to Hong Kong, "New Police Story" was still a good box office hit among Hong Kong films, but it was nothing in mainland China.

This time, he tried a costume theme, thinking that the change would help him regain popularity, but he didn't expect to encounter the incredible "Taken".

When he was in Venice, he knew that "The Hurricane" would be a strong rival, but it was impossible to withdraw the film because he was Jackie Chan.

Even if the film is not withdrawn, the face cannot be saved.

To be sure, I was annoyed, but not angry. Instead, I was happy for my good friend Liang Jiahui.

The last time Liang Jiahui took the lead in an action movie seemed to be in "New Dragon Inn".

He didn't expect that the second film he took on the leading role, "Taken", would be so successful. To be honest, he himself didn't expect it.

"Handsome boy, you are going to be rich~"

Liang Jiahui was also very happy when he received Cheng Long's call, "I thought you would be petty and not call me~"

The two have been friends for many years, so naturally they can talk about anything.

"Hey, how come, am I such a stingy person?"

"Of course not, you are Brother Cheng Long~"

The two of them were joking around casually, and no one took the movie box office seriously.

"I really envy you. You can break records with just any movie you make. Now you have all the awards and box office success you want. You can show off your talent~"

"Haha, thank you for the compliment~"

"I should have changed the schedule earlier. I wouldn't have performed with a monster like you. Maybe the box office would have been higher..."

The box office of "The Myth" has been growing slowly these days, at only a few million a day. Jackie Chan himself estimates that it is unlikely to break 100 million.

After saying this he sighed, lamenting his bad luck.

Among the Hong Kong actors of the same batch as him, Tony Leung has broken the 100 million yuan mark, Andy Lau has broken the 100 million yuan mark, Stephen Chow has broken the 100 million yuan mark, and now even Leung Ka Fai has broken the 100 million yuan mark. Only he is stuck at the 100 million yuan threshold and cannot cross it.

"Speaking of this, I spoke with Director Zhang Chen on the phone a few days ago and analyzed the problems of The Myth. Do you want to listen?"

Cheng Long was shocked when he heard this. He knew that Liang Jiahui was definitely not mocking him when he said this, which meant that he had really talked with Zhang Chen about the reason why "The Myth" could not break 100 million. He couldn't help but become curious.

"What did you say?"

Liang Jiahui did not keep the secret: "Zhang Chen said that he thought that in addition to the competition from Taken, The Myth had two problems of its own."

"Which two places?"

"First of all, the story of The Myth switches between ancient and modern times, which can easily cause emotional discontinuity for the audience. If it were to travel directly to the Qin Dynasty, it might be better, and the transition would be more successful..."

After listening to this, Cheng Long felt that there was some truth in it, and couldn't help but look forward to the second point Liang Jiahui mentioned.

Liang Jiahui continued: "Another point is that the theme song is too popular. There are versions of "Eternal Myth" sung by Sun Nan and Han Hong in mainland China, and you and Kim Hee Sun in Hong Kong. People's expectations are too high. The song is a good song, and the movie is also a good movie, but in the end, the movie feels not as good as the song, so the audience will inevitably be disappointed..."

Cheng Long thought about it and thought that this might be the reason.

"It seems that next time I will need to take the script of my new movie to Star Entertainment and ask them to check it for me..." Cheng Long said.

(End of this chapter)