Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 403: Making a science fiction film?

"Search" grossed 1600 million yuan in its first weekend, and "Returning Home" grossed 1900 million yuan in its first weekend.

It doesn't sound great, but it's actually very good.

Based on this result, it is conservatively estimated that the final box office will be over 4500 million.

Among domestic films, it can already be ranked in the top three, except for "Huo Yuanjia" which was released at the beginning of the year.

The main reason is that people don’t pay much attention to the schedule in the first half of the year. Blockbusters such as "Curse of the Golden Flower", "War of War", "The Banquet" and "Painted Skin" are generally released during the National Day holiday or the New Year holiday.

With such good results, we must continue to promote the film and strive to get as much box office as possible during the seven-day May Day holiday. After May Day, the box office will definitely drop sharply.

Audiences spend a lot during the May Day holiday, and their pockets are empty, so their desire to watch movies will decrease.

So these seven days are very important.

Both "Search" and "Returning Home" have carried out intensive door-to-door promotions, visiting the four major voting cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen one by one.

"Fallen Leaves Return to Their Roots" has a very good reputation.

In fact, "My Previous Life" is also very good, but it is not very popular and cannot attract many audiences to watch the movie.

This Life is Different. The film is distributed by Xingchen Entertainment and was released on major video websites before the trailer was released, attracting a lot of attention. In addition, various popular science content, in-depth exploration of prototype events, etc., whetted the audience's appetite.

Uncle Benshan personally participated in the promotion. He himself may not have much box office appeal, but his popularity among the people is still good. As long as you go there, you can't help but laugh.

"Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots" has received rave reviews, and the majority of the reviews are definitely from the audience. The occasional negative reviews are not really negative reviews, but rather a gap.

These viewers originally thought that this movie would be a Zhao Benshan-style movie. To put it bluntly, they thought it was a skit-style movie similar to "The Laughing Man".

When I came and took a look, I found that it was not, and I was a little disappointed.

But the movie itself is not bad, and it is not to the point of being criticized.

Zhao Benshan's sketches have always been regarded as "not able to cross the Yangtze River" and do not have as strong a dominance in the south as in the north.

But "Fallen Leaves Return to Their Roots" is an exception.

First of all, the concept of "after death, the fallen leaves return to their roots" does not distinguish between the north and the south, and is a national consensus.

Secondly, the prototype event of "Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots" itself is a story that took place in the South.

The prototype of the protagonist is not one person, but three people. The story takes place in Fujian. Three workers wanted to take their fellow villager who died suddenly back to their hometown in Hunan. They traveled all the way and were discovered by the police when they passed by Guangzhou Railway Station. The incident was then exposed.

The incident caused a great sensation at the time and was widely discussed, which created a good audience base.

Now I heard that someone has put this story on the big screen, and I all want to see it.

During the Guangzhou Roadshow, the media interviewed Fu Donglai, "How did you come up with the idea of ​​filming such a story?"

"I also saw it by chance in the newspaper. I was shocked by the story at the time. I was amazed at the imagination of the three people, but also admired their behavior."

"Weren't you afraid that such a story wouldn't do well at the box office?"

"This brings us to Zhang Chen. For this film, there are two people whom we must thank, one is Zhang Chen and the other is Zhao Benshan.

Before "Fallen Leaves Return to Their Roots", few works of the same type could make money. Even so, when I proposed to make "Fallen Leaves Return to Their Roots", Zhang Chen still invested without hesitation. I know he didn't think about making money at all, and I am very grateful to him.

We are grateful to Mr. Zhao Benshan because he has made great contributions to this play, which have far exceeded the obligations of a leading actor.

He used his connections to attract many celebrities to guest star in this play, and they also contributed wonderful performances. "

Teacher Fu praised everyone.

Roadshows are really useful, and the popularity of the movie continues to rise because of roadshows.

Different from "Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots", the focus of "Search" is mainly on the Internet. It is originally about online violence, and it is also to take advantage of the popularity of hot events. Zhang Guoli bought a lot of hot searches.

The incident of leaked phone number and Zhang Chen being searched by human flesh was mentioned repeatedly and attracted considerable attention.

He had already informed Zhang Chen about this, and if the movie wanted to remain a hot topic, it had to use him.

Zhang Chen didn't care. Just spend money. It was good if his own movie could contribute to the box office.

[It is said that this is based on the real incident of Zhang Chen being searched by human flesh~]

[Cyber ​​violence is everywhere. Even Zhang Chen could be searched by human flesh. What would happen if ordinary people like us encountered it? ]

[The story in this movie could really happen in real life~]

[Can anyone tell me why Gao Yuanyuan is so beautiful in this drama? I declare that I will be her fan from now on~]

[Oh my god, the male lead is actually Zhang Mo~]

The target audience of Search is definitely young people, so the promotion is mainly on the Internet.

Zhang Chen once came up with a bad idea, which was to let Zhang Guoli and his family of three perform together.

Zhang Mo plays the male lead, while Zhang Guoli and his wife play the roles originally played by Wang Xueqi and Chen Hong.

Zhang Guoli considered it again and again, but still did not dare to do so.

According to the logic in the movie, it's equivalent to him and his son fighting over the same woman. This is not publicity, it's a scandal.

Then, although the May Day period is not very popular, it is a rare situation that two movies are performing at the same pace.

The two films are competitors, but they did not blacken each other because the investor and distributor are both Star Entertainment.

The May Day period was very lively, but the scale of publicity was not overwhelming, after all, it was only a low-cost one.

It’s just that there are no other competitors in the same period, so it seems to be very powerful.

In this situation, the happiest person was not Zhang Chen and his Xingchen Entertainment, but Han Sanping.

Although he is obsessed with making blockbusters, he also hopes that each company can find its own area of ​​expertise. The film industry cannot be all about blockbusters; a hundred flowers need to bloom.

He also accepted a special interview: "I am very pleased that such an excellent low-budget movie has emerged in this month when it is not the domestic film protection month. It tells a good story with peace of mind and moves the audience with sincerity..."

The media praised the two films, calling them benchmark low-budget works.

[Two films adapted from real-life themes have achieved high box office at the same time. Does this mean that realist films are on the rise?]

[Domestic films not only need blockbusters, but also need this kind of storytelling movies~]

[Finally it’s not a blockbuster anymore. I’ve been sick of watching so many blockbusters in the past few years. Is it so difficult to tell a story peacefully like this?]

[Xingchen Entertainment has created another miracle. Their sense of the market is always so sharp~]

Various media outlets followed up and praised the two films. This served as a reminder to other film and television companies that they did not need any weird ideas or exaggerated special effects, but only needed to tell a good story to achieve good box office results.

Storytelling really works.

Some companies have already started thinking about this.

They can’t make blockbuster movies, but they can still make this type of movie.

The person who benefited the most from “Search” was Da Meiyu.

This is her first time appearing in a fashionable image, and it is really eye-catching.

It turns out that girls from Beijing can be so beautiful.

Many old perverts were amazed when they saw Da Meiyuan's new look. It's true that clothes make the man. The kissing girl turned into a workplace beauty.
Da Meiyuan became popular simply because of her beauty, and Zhang Mo also gained a lot of popularity due to this.

After all, one is the heroine and the other is the hero.

Zhang Guoli wanted to promote his son, and Zhang Chen was happy to cooperate.

In this life, Zhang Mo, under Zhang Chen's reminder, did not touch that thing. Zhang Chen thought he could give him a chance.

He gave Zhang Guoli an idea, to hire some internet trolls to market the male and female protagonists separately.

With Da Meiyu’s current status, she can become popular with a little marketing.

As for Zhang Mo, her marketing acting skills are good enough.

His acting skills are OK, at least better than many of his peers, and he is not the kind that is hopeless.

If the Tianting Banquet can be marketed well, then Zhang Mo can definitely do it too.

Zhang Guoli fought hard for his son. He bought a lot of internet trolls and started marketing according to the ideas given by Zhang Chen.

The heroine is marketed for her beauty, while the hero is marketed for his acting skills.

It's not really an exaggeration. Zhang Mo's acting skills are not amazing, but at least they are above the passing line, and are not worse than Zhao Youting's in the original version.

Zhang Chen was interviewed again. No one cared about the dispute between Han and Bai Ye anymore, because Bai Ye was taken away after Han Han made a real-name report.

Everyone knows at this time that it is no longer appropriate to make any comments and all we have to do is wait for the results of the investigation.

When asked about "Search" and "Returning Home", Zhang Chen admitted that this is proof that Chinese films are growing in an orderly manner.

"There has always been a strange phenomenon in our country's film industry, that is, movies with an investment of 70 or 80 million, or even hundreds of millions, never lack investment, and movies with a cost of 1 or 2 million are also not lacking investment, but movies of medium scale, with a cost of 3 or 5 million, or even 10 million, rarely receive investment...

This is very abnormal.

A normal film market should be inclusive, with films of all themes and sizes.

Young audiences like movies that stimulate the senses, older audiences like stories that touch the soul, and literary young people like art films. These are all normal demands.

But now, it is polarized.

The reason for this is that it is difficult for mid-sized films to recoup their costs.

Movies that cost hundreds of millions can be made into blockbusters. At this stage, both theaters and audiences in our country recognize blockbusters, so the possibility of movies that cost hundreds of millions to lose money is not high.

A movie that grosses one or two million yuan doesn’t even need box office revenue; as long as it can be sold to movie channels and the copyright can be sold, the cost can be recovered.

Only those in the middle range are extremely dependent on box office. Now "Search" and "Falling Leaves Return to Roots" have set an example for everyone, and have paved a way for Chinese films with medium-sized investments..."

"Recently everyone has been praising Mr. Zhao Benshan's acting skills~"

“Indeed, many people think that skit actors have no acting skills, but that is not the case.

The only reason they don't have box office appeal is that everyone is used to their skit performance style. When it comes to really acting in movies, many sketch actors can beat movie actors.

Teachers Zhao Benshan and Guo Donglin are both such people.

Some time ago, I spoke up for Stephen Chow about the discrimination against comedians at the Academy Awards. In fact, it is very difficult to perform a good comedy.

The movies produced by our Star Entertainment have relatively strict requirements on the actors' acting skills.

Even Zhang Mo had to audition before she could act in "Search".

Many people say that he is a relative of the government. Let me clarify here that he is indeed a relative of the government. His father is the director of this play, so of course he is a relative of the government.

But the connection was only enough to give him an audition opportunity. A movie costs millions or even tens of millions, so it is impossible to give it to anyone for fooling around. If Zhang Mo's acting skills are not up to standard, there is no way he will get the role. "

Zhang Chen gave Zhang Guoli a favor and helped support Zhang Mo. Whether he can make a success depends on his luck.

"Director Zhang, I heard that your "Painted Skin" has been completed~"

"Yes, it is still in the post-production stage and will be released during the Lunar New Year holiday~"

"Before we came, your fans asked us to ask you a question~"

"Oh, what is it?"

“They want to know what your next movie will be. Will it be a period piece?”

"No, definitely not. There are so many costume blockbusters this year, the audience will definitely be tired of it."

“Will that be Taken 2?”

The reporter himself is actually a fan of "Hurricane 2".

Zhang Chen smiled bitterly and touched his nose: "To be honest, I don't know myself, I haven't thought about this question yet.

I know everyone is looking forward to Hurricane 2, but I actually have an idea in my mind, I want to try a science fiction movie~"

Now it was the reporter's turn to exclaim.

"Science fiction? It seems that our domestic directors have never made a science fiction film~"

Zhang Chen nodded: "Indeed, there is no such thing, so I want to give it a try and explore the new path. If it succeeds, it can fill the gap in China."

The reporter was a little excited: "Are there any specific plans?"

This time Zhang Chen shook his head: "Not yet, it's just an idea. I do have a story, but to make it into a movie, there are too many things to prepare, and the investment alone is probably not a small amount..."

"Can you tell us the story?"

Zhang Chen shook his head again: "It's still uncertain. Let's wait until the project is actually launched."

Zhang Chen really just said it casually, but it caused an uproar on the Internet.

Zhang Chen clearly stated that "Hurricane 2" was not allowed to be filmed, which made many "Hurricane" fans very angry.

Damn it, after filming "Hurricane" you went to film "Painted Skin", and everyone just thought you were taking a break.

After filming "Painted Skin", they didn't shoot "Hurricane 2" and are now trying to make a sci-fi movie. What is going on?
Zhang Chen is floating~
A group of "Hurricane" fans rebelled online, but Zhang Chen completely ignored them. The "Hurricane" fans had no choice but to direct their anger at Lu Yang.

It’s fine that Zhang Chen didn’t shoot “Hurricane 2”, but your “The Man from Nowhere” has not started filming yet. Are you trying to challenge the bottom line of movie fans?
This gave Lu Yang a headache.

A group of people on the Internet threaten him every day and threaten to send him razor blades.

The point is, they really knew his home address.

It turns out that cyber violence is unacceptable.

He could only reply online, "Everyone, I can't decide whether Director Zhang will shoot "Hurricane 2" or not. He is my boss."

But I really want to make "The Man from Nowhere".

Director Zhang agreed and the preparations were almost complete, but he still delayed allowing the filming to start.

I don't know the specific reason, just told me to wait~
What are you waiting for? I don't know.

So, everyone, please let me go. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that I really can’t do it.

(End of this chapter)