Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 470 Changes
"Painted Skin" is probably the first time that Zhang Chen showed his power after taking over Golden Harvest.

There wasn't any during the filming of "Racing".

Yu Dong and Zhang Weiping shouted unwillingly, but it was of no use.

The cinema chain is owned by Golden Harvest, and Golden Harvest can schedule films however it wants.

What's more, it's the boss's own movie being released, so he has to support it with all his strength.

The most depressed one was Yu Dong.

"Curse of the Golden Flower" can still maintain around 30% of its screening due to its residual popularity, but "City of Pain" is completely finished, with a maximum of 10%.

Zhang Weiping was always busy, cursing and trying to get attention in various ways, but that was only enough to get some attention for "Curse of the Golden Flower", nothing more.

It was also from this moment that everyone realized the importance of having their own cinema chain.

Huayi Brothers, the Wang brothers sit on the mountain and watch the fight between tigers.

"Zhang Chen was amazing this time. His Jiahe made a good appearance. From now on, those smaller film and television companies will have to call him "big boss" when they see him~"

Of course it’s the boss.

Golden Harvest Cinemas is now the eighth-ranked cinema chain in China, but it has an advantage that other cinema chains do not have, which is independent production capabilities.

Take the simplest example
If Zhang Weiping brings Zhang Yimou's films to negotiate profit sharing with the theaters again, other theaters will have to give in, but Golden Harvest will ignore him.

For other theaters, Zhang Yimou's films are profitable film and television projects, and not showing them means losing money~
Therefore, even if the share ratio is increased, they have to accept it reluctantly.

If you accept his proposal, you will earn less at most; if you don't accept it, you will earn nothing.

But Jiahe is not afraid.

You can't fall in love with it.

No, the films produced by Star Entertainment and Golden Harvest alone are enough to cover all the screenings.

This is the confidence~!

In the second week of its release, "Painted Skin" box office exceeded 2.1 million again, and the total box office reached million.

It was like a replay of the scene in the National Day movie "Racing".

The same thing happened to "Racing", which grossed over 100 million yuan in its first week and over 200 million yuan in its second week.

The industry was shocked!

Movie fans rejoice!

Another movie that broke 200 million was born, and it also took two weeks.

Everyone was staring with wide eyes, wanting to see whether "Painted Skin" could break 300 million as advertised.

At the same time, the box office of "Curse of the Golden Flower" also reached 2.5 million.

This is already the third week since it was released. Experienced people know that it may be difficult for "Curse of the Golden Flower" to break 300 million.

Some people on the Internet joked, why is it only 2.5 million?
But this was immediately refuted: 2.5 million is not enough. There are only three films in China that have broken 3 million, and including "Curse of the Golden Flower", there are four.

In the darkness, countless eyes were staring at "Painted Skin", wanting to see if it could break 300 million.

The Wang brothers were depressed, because they were all top four directors, and they all made costume blockbusters, but why were the ones made by Zhang Chen and Zhang Yimou so popular while those made by Xiao Gangpao and Brother Chen Kai failed?

Among them, the small steel cannon is the most unsuccessful.

"The Banquet" only grossed 1.3 million in China.

"The Promise" at least made 1.8 million.

Comparing people with others will lead to death, and comparing goods with goods will lead to throwing away.

"How are their overseas box office sales?"

"I've inquired about it, but none of them have been sold. After The Banquet, overseas film producers stopped buying Chinese costume blockbusters. Poet Chen really closed the door for Chinese costume blockbusters to go overseas by himself..."

This is probably the only comfort for the two of them.

"The Promise" was returned, "The Banquet" was cheated, and "Curse of the Golden Flower" and "Painted Skin" were not sold~
Everyone is about the same!

This aspect is really seriously affected.

In the past, overseas film producers would buy Chinese costume kung fu films with their eyes closed.

I don’t dare anymore.

No one dares to take action until they see the finished film.

For a movie like "Curse of the Golden Flower", we not only have to see the finished film, but also the domestic box office.

Some time ago, Dong Jianqiang took "Crocodile Storm" and "Painted Skin" to participate in the film festival. "Crocodile Storm" was sold, but no one bought "Painted Skin", which had a larger investment and better production.
Even if there are bids, they are very low.
This will force these blockbusters to prove themselves only in the domestic market. With high box office, they will naturally be sought after by film producers.

……

A cinema in Beijing
The show at 10pm was about to start, and a woman wearing sunglasses, a hat and a scarf appeared.

It is a cold December now, so a hat and scarf are normal, but wearing sunglasses at night is a bit abnormal.

Under the surprised gaze of the staff, the woman checked her ticket and entered, then sat in the last row.

After observing for a long time and finding that no one around was paying attention to her, he took off his sunglasses, and it turned out to be the once-popular Zhao Yanzi.

Zhao Yanzi came here specially to watch "Painted Skin" today. In order to avoid being seen by the media, she chose an evening when there were fewer people.

At the beginning of the movie, horse thieves kidnap Xiao Wei, played by Fan Binbin, and bring her back to the mountain village. The leader of the horse thieves looks covetous.

Fan Binbin's charm is revealed for the first time.

Zhang Chen took a very beautiful picture of her here.

Of course she is beautiful. Zhang Chen wants to use this movie to establish Fan Xiaopang’s status as the most beautiful woman in ancient costume.

Fan Xiaopang can indeed be called that.

Seeing this, Zhao Yanzi curled her lips unconsciously.

She couldn't understand why Zhang Chen looked down on her!

After several attempts to show his goodwill, Zhang Chen acted as if he saw nothing. Instead, he was more favorable towards Fan Xiaopang, who played the maid.

The story continues, the divine soldiers descend from the sky

The general played by Huang Xiaoming led his men into the mountain village and rescued Xiao Wei.

Afterwards, Diao returned home and met Peirong, played by Zhou Gongzi.

Then the daily life of the two women, testing ~
Xiao Wei was so beautiful that she quickly won everyone's love.

In this section, professionals can see the difference in acting skills between the two.

Zhao Yanzi admitted that Fan Xiaopang's acting skills in "Painted Skin" have indeed improved greatly compared to "Return of the Condor Heroes", but there is still a gap compared to Zhou Gongzi.

It’s just because she has more scenes than Zhou Gongzi, she doesn’t appear to be overshadowed.

If the two switched roles, Fan Xiaopang would be crushed into dust in seconds.

Thinking of this, Zhao Yanzi curled her lips again. If she were to play Xiao Wei, she would definitely not be suppressed so much.

In fact, this is completely Zhao Yanzi's conjecture.

As a director, Zhang Chen would never allow anyone to steal the show.

It is true that Zhou Gongzi’s acting skills are better than Fan Xiaopang’s, but Fan Xiaopang is the number one female lead, and the second one can never suppress the first one in any way.

Zhang Chen would never allow this situation to happen.

It's time for the erotic scene again, Xiao Wei seduces Wang Sheng. Her graceful curves are so charming~
A smile or a frown can attract people's attention~
Zhang Chen applied all of his aesthetic taste, which was twenty years ahead of its time, to Fan Xiaopang.

Whether it is clothing design or shooting techniques~
Even when Fan Xiaopang showed his side profile, people nearby could hear a lot of people swallowing their saliva~
Zhao Yanzi had to admit that Fan Xiaopang in "Painted Skin" was not only popular among men, but also among women.

Zhang Chen is indeed known as the director who is best at photographing women~
His lens can always capture the various kinds of beauty in men.

In the previous "The Shallows", Fan Xiaopang has already shown his cool beauty, and this time in "Painted Skin", he is charming~
Zhao Yanzi suddenly felt a deep sense of crisis~
After "Painted Skin", there is "Pacific Rim". She seems to have a premonition that Fan Xiaopang will become someone they look up to in the future.
……

In the second week after the box office exceeded 200 million, director Zhang Chen and the main creators of Painted Skin went on a crazy roadshow.

The performance of "Painted Skin" made everyone feel relieved.

Now they are the male and female protagonists of a movie with a box office of 200 million, so can they become the male and female protagonists of a movie with a box office of 300 million?
This is a completely different concept in the circle.

For Zhang Chen, it is another kind of motivation.

The record he set with "Taken" was broken by "Crazy Racing".

On the day of breaking the record, he specially made a poster, in which the male lead of "Hurricane" handed a crown to the male lead of "Racing" Geng Hao.

It symbolizes the transfer of the domestic box office crown.

He is not a stingy person. It doesn't matter if the record is broken by others. He can just break it again.

What he really wanted to break was the record of Titanic.

That is the shame of the Chinese nation.

But the box office of 3.6 million is daunting.

That’s why Pacific Rim came into being.

Only magic can defeat magic.

What does "Titanic" have? It's just amazing special effects and world-class marketing.

And marketing is the most important thing here.

The special effects of the big ship in "Titanic" are just so-so. It was the marketing that packaged the big ship into a phenomenon and a trend, which made it a classic of the era.

But Zhang Chen doesn’t dare to think about it now. "Painted Skin" has only exceeded 3.6 million, not million, and it is still far from the record of million.

Exclusive interviews about "Painted Skin" can often be seen on TV these days.

"Painted Skin is derived from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. In China, it is a well-known ghost story with a broad audience base.

At the same time, the ratings of several domestic versions of "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" TV series are very good, and "Painted Skin" is one of the most popular units..."

“We also spent a lot of time thinking about it during the production. The original story of Painted Skin is a very scary story.

But this is a movie, and if it wants to pass the review, it can't be too scary.

But if it’s not scary, some people will definitely be disappointed, so we have to have something else to offset this disappointment, so we added the role of a monster catcher in this play, and added a lot of martial arts scenes…”

"You can rest assured about the special effects. Nearly 60% of the production cost was spent on special effects. One of the Painted Skin masks cost more than 400 million to be customized from Hollywood..."

Mr. Yuan said: "For the martial arts design, we borrowed from Hong Kong's "Green Snake" and "Swordsman", and all of them are fast-paced fights - hearty and exciting~"

When Mr. Yuan Ba ​​said this, Zhang Chen immediately said, "Green Snake is a movie I like very much. It is very similar to Painted Skin, and it also talks about the relationship between humans and demons.

My favorite highlights of this movie are the fighting scenes and the portrayal of the banshee.

To some extent, Painted Skin was influenced by Green Snake in both aspects, and you can also regard it as a tribute to Green Snake~"

"In another movie, The Swordsman, I think the fight between the Five Immortals and the Japanese Ninja is the best martial arts design I have ever seen, bar none..."

Zhang Chenzhe's unreserved praise quickly aroused the curiosity of netizens.

Someone dug out "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer", found the part that Zhang Chen mentioned, and watched it again.

Then I was shocked.

In the 1990s, could martial arts films be made like this?
So what’s going on with the martial arts films of the past two years?

Why is it going backwards?
In fact, "Swordsman" is indeed a milestone.

It's not as good as "New Dragon Inn", but its status is not low either.

"Swordsman" is so awesome. Before it, Japan didn't promote ninja culture at all.

Because in their traditional culture, ninjas are not considered respectable.

A despicable sneak attacker.
It was not until the appearance of "Swordsman" which caused a craze that they suddenly realized that ninja culture could be promoted in this way.

This is completely helping Japan open up a new track.

"It is said on the Internet that the story of Painted Skin is too simple~" a reporter asked during an interview.

Zhang Chen nodded and admitted: "Yes, the story is very simple, it's about a mistress who wants to get promoted.

In fact, the stories of blockbusters are simple, because the story is just a carrier. What really attracts people is the performance, the emotions, the costumes and props~"

"But 'Crazy Racing'?"

"Crazy Racing is not a blockbuster~"

Although there are many action scenes in "Painted Skin", the positioning of this drama is that it is an oriental magical romance film.

Yes, you read it right, the main theme is 'love'~
It's not a battle between humans and demons or a monster hunt.
The purpose is to kill both men and women.

It can be said that the audience of "Painted Skin" includes almost everyone except children.

The reason why the children cannot be covered is because he has erotic scenes.

And the filming was pretty good.

The scale is not particularly large, but it has all the temptations it should have.

But this is only the case in recent years, when the supervision has been lax and there are still opportunities for exploitation.

After the "Lust, Caution" incident two years later, it is impossible to have such scenes anymore.

Shots like the nude stand-in in “The Banquet” had to be cut out.

……

"Painted Skin" and "Curse of the Golden Flower" are both heading towards the 300 million mark.

The promotional focus of "Curse of the Golden Flower" has shifted from Emperor Gong and Chow Yun-fat to Brother Lun.

Brother Lunzi has been at the peak of his career in the past two years.

Their status is similar to that of the top stars in later generations, and they are all among the first batch.

Around 2003, if you walked down the city streets and asked anyone, regardless of gender, age or status, everyone would know Jay Chou.

He is really the top star of that era.

A large part of the early box office revenue of "Curse of the Golden Flower" was contributed by Zhou's fans.

Even though Jay Chou’s acting skills aren’t that great, he has worked with well-known directors.

Initial D is Andrew Lau + Alan Mak;
"Curse of the Golden Flower" is directed by Zhang Yimou;
The director of "Slam Dunk" is Zhu Yanping, one of the most awesome directors in Taiwan;

Zhang Chen publicly called out: "Brother Lunzi, I have tailored a script for you. In this play, you are not a prince, nor a racing driver, nor an athlete. You are just a musician~"

That’s right, Zhang Chen was talking about Whiplash~
It's tailor-made for Jay Chou.

Who would believe that he is a prince?
Can you play in one second?
But he is a drummer who plays music. He doesn't even use his eyes. He just stands there in the most natural state.
Because he really can~
Zhang Chen's actions can be considered as taking advantage of the popularity.

"Curse of the Golden Flower" takes advantage of the popularity of Brother Wheels~
"Painted Skin" also rubs ~
……

I'm out of ideas. I want to finish early and start writing Pacific Rim, but I'm out of ideas.
(End of this chapter)