Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 532: Hold Back, Don’t Spray
When Warner called, Zhang Chen was at China Film Group discussing the celebration banquet with Han Sanping.

The people below came in to report that Pacific Rim had grossed 2.89 million dollars in North America and 6.7 million dollars worldwide in eight weeks of release.

The North American box office is slightly lower than that of "Transformers", but its global box office performance is better than that of "Transformers".

Warner Bros. means that Pacific Rim will continue to be screened for four weeks in an effort to surpass or catch up with Transformers.

They will continue to add $500 million in publicity expenses.

China Film Group had no objection, and Han Sanping immediately decided to extend the secret key period and also continued to increase the publicity expenses.

"What about the celebration banquet? Will it be held?"

"Yes, of course. It doesn't matter. If it exceeds 500 million, we have to do it at least once..."

The Third Master was in high spirits.

Wealth and honor do not return to their hometown, just like walking in brocade at night.

Such a great political achievement must be publicized.

"Pacific Rim" is the first blockbuster he has handled since he took over the job, and it is also the highest-grossing blockbuster.

It is no exaggeration to say that he gambled his political future.

The huge investment of US$100 million and RMB 800 million made headlines more than once.

For this, some people said that he was wasting public resources.

Now the domestic box office has historically exceeded 500 million~
Five hundred million!
It’s as good as two blockbuster movies.

Now is the time to reap the rewards, how can we not give ourselves a good slap in the face?
Let them see how wise their decision to gamble everything was.

It seems that we still have to make a blockbuster, and a super blockbuster, and then I thought of another blockbuster this year.

"By the way, how's '2012' going?"

"The special effects have been completed and are undergoing final integration. I will go to Hollywood in two days to complete this part of the work."

"What do you think the box office will be like in the end?"

Zhang Chen pondered the wording for a while: "It's hard to say, but the number worldwide should be at least 400 million."

Han Sanping curled his lips and said, "It's not as good as Pacific Rim."

But then he felt relieved. He was just obsessed. Even among those Hollywood blockbusters, how many could gross 6 million?
"Well, do a good job~"

The Third Master patted Zhang Chen on the shoulder.

"CJ7" has been criticized since its release.

[The movie is touching, but not attractive]

[Master Xing, you actually made a cartoon for me? 】

[Master Xing has also run out of ideas~]

[It’s ridiculously popular, but I really don’t know where it’s good to watch~]

[Not Stephen Chow at all, not a comedy at all~]

[I watched the movie, Qizi is very cute, but not what I imagined~]

It’s the same situation as “The Warlords”, the movie and the actors are not on the right track, and the audience’s expectations are too high.

"The Warlords", everyone thought it was a Jet Li kung fu film, but it turned out that there were not many fighting scenes in it;

"CJ7", everyone thought it was a nonsensical comedy, but it turned out to be a warm film;

If not, who would you scold?
But to be honest, the movie is not that bad. It's just that if you had made it clear in advance that it was not a comedy, we wouldn't have watched it.

If you don't tell me, you're fooling the audience.

So "CJ7" was criticized to the sky.

However, Stephen Chow does have box office appeal. The local box office in Hong Kong was 5140 million Hong Kong dollars, ranking 7th in the box office of Chinese-language films in Hong Kong film history. It is also the third highest-grossing film of Stephen Chow himself, second only to "Kung Fu" and "Shaolin Soccer".

"How are you coming back this year?"

"Drive~"

"Hey, aren't you afraid of traffic jams? This is the Spring Festival travel season. Do you dare to drive back?"

Every time I think about going home during the Spring Festival, I feel a headache.

Tickets are hard to buy!
Train ticket sales outlets are a good business in this era. During the Spring Festival travel rush, you have to stay up all night to queue up to buy train tickets, and at least two people will take turns queuing.

Even if you are lucky enough to buy it, it will not be easy along the way.

Before the high-speed trains were built, it took eight hours to travel from Taiyuan to BJ by train. Eight hours in a hard seat would make people go crazy.

Even by car it takes 6 hours and there are often traffic jams.

"What's there to be afraid of? If the highway is blocked, I'll take the national highway. If the national highway is blocked, I'll take the provincial highway. I can always get back..."

Ning Hao was very proud. He had just changed his car and was ready to go back and show off.

"That's great, bring some stuff back for me..."

"What is it?"

"Some New Year's goods. I can't go back this year because I have to go to Hollywood to focus on the special effects of "2012". I bought some New Year's goods for my relatives. Can you help me bring them back?"

"no problem."

"Send it directly to your home?"

"Well, just send it to my house."

"I remember you said last time that the special effects for 2012 were almost done. Why are you still so tight that you don't even have time for the Chinese New Year?"

"The special effects are indeed almost done, but it's not convenient for me to go back this year, you know..."

He donated 1000 million this year. You can tell from your own imagination that this year's New Year will not be a peaceful one, as there will definitely be beggars coming to his door.

It would be better not to go back if it would hurt people's feelings.

"I knew it was because of this. I told you to keep a low profile but you didn't listen. Now you are tasting the bitter fruit..."

"Well, at first I wanted to ask my parents to go to Los Angeles with me for the New Year, but they can't leave their hometown, and there are a lot of relatives at home, so I can only go alone~"

"You sound pathetic, but do you think I'd believe you would leave yourself alone and go there to party every night?"

"Hahaha~"

"Okay, don't just talk about me, let's talk about you. Are you really going to just take a break this year and waste the whole year?"

Ning Hao shrugged: "It's not a waste. There's nothing I want to shoot, so I might as well recharge myself, watch some movies, and improve myself..."

Zhang Chen curled his lips: "You just don't have any pressure. If you have pressure, I don't think you can be really happy. Otherwise, you can buy a house. There is a new row of villas on Xiaoyun Road. If you buy one, you will immediately have the motivation to make a movie..."

"Don't give me that~"

After parting with Ning Hao, Zhang Chen first called his father to talk about New Year's goods, and then called his relatives one by one to tell them that he could not go back this year.

Especially my grandfather who is still alive.

His grandmother died of diabetes when he was in high school, but his grandfather has always been in very good health.

The old man was a little disappointed to learn that Zhang Chen could not go back for the New Year this year. Zhang Chen chatted with him for a long time, and they talked about the Tangshan earthquake.

Whenever the big earthquake is mentioned, my grandfather sighs.

Grandma was the only one left in her family during the earthquake.

Only his grandfather's mother was left in his grandfather's house. According to the Tangshan way of calling her, Zhang Chen should call her old lady.

Zhang Chen had never seen those relatives who died. He had heard about them before and didn't feel anything. But this time, when he heard his grandfather tell it in person, he felt different.

Listening to his grandfather's chatter, Zhang Chen could clearly feel the epochal trauma caused by the earthquake.

This generation of people cannot overcome this hurdle, and it can only be smoothed out over time.

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Chen thought for a long time and finally called Dong Jianqiang.

“Jianqiang, notify the TS Municipal Government that I have accepted the film, but it will definitely not be produced this year. We will prepare first, start filming next year, and release it the year after. If they agree, then we will prepare according to this time node. If they don’t agree, forget it…”

A conversation with his grandfather finally touched him.

Consider it a gift for the old man.

On New Year's Eve, the final version of "2012" edited by Zhang Chen was finally completed. Warner executives were very satisfied after watching the film.

With the previous successful case of "Pacific Rim", Warner has great confidence in Zhang Chen's editing ability, and this time the version edited by Zhang Chen is still used as the final release version.

"Zhang, I hope we can still create a miracle this time..."

It has been three months since Pacific Rim was released and it is a foregone conclusion that its box office will surpass that of Transformers, which has made Warner Bros. very happy.

Although "2012" is of a different genre, Warner is full of confidence.

Zhang Chen returned to China with a copy of "2012".

It is still the first month of the lunar year in China and the New Year atmosphere is still very strong, but the propaganda about the end of the world has not yet begun.

But it’s different in North America and Europe, the relevant atmosphere is already very strong.

Zhang Chen had just come back from there, and he knew very well that the "2012 Doomsday" that people regarded as gossip was actually the work of Warner, but people just didn't know it yet.

Ning Hao came back very early, as this was the agreement among the three brothers.

When they were still in school, Zhang Chen, Ning Hao and Cao Bingkun often returned to school early just to hang out together.

Even though the three of us are in the same company now, we get together less often than when we were in school.

The three of them gathered in a small restaurant in front of Beijing Film Academy.

The small restaurant was the one they used to go to often, but since school hasn't started yet, there isn't much business. Plus, the guest today is a celebrity, so the owner simply closed the restaurant and only served their table.

Even though Zhang Chen is the top director in the country and Ning Hao is a member of the 200 million yuan box office club, in the eyes of the restaurant owner, they may not be as good as Cao Bingkun.

Cao Bingkun is very popular now. He played Liu Xinjie in "Before the Dawn" and Yu Zecheng in "The Disguiser" and is known as the number one actor in spy war dramas.

"Before the Dawn" is already old, but "Insidious" is now on the air, Mango TV's opening drama of the year~
"Hidden" did not disappoint Mango TV either, with the ratings exceeding 6 on its first broadcast and 9 on the second day...

Such good results are because Mango TV started promoting it a month in advance. It is the second part of the spy war trilogy of Xingchen Entertainment, and Cao Bingkun once again forms a CP with Yang Xiaomi... "Before Dawn" has already made a name for itself as a spy war drama, and coupled with the combination of Cao Bingkun and Yang Xiaomi, spy war fans are full of expectations for "The Disguiser".

In "The Disguiser", Zhang Chen basically did not interfere at all and let Jiang Wei perform freely. The only thing he did was change the reason why Yu Zecheng surrendered. It was no longer because of Zuo Lan, to avoid Wang Hailin's complaints in the future.

"You're so popular~"

The two brothers teased Cao Bingkun, saying that the boss had just asked for a photo, but he only asked for a photo with Cao Bingkun and ignored the two big directors.

Cao Bingkun crossed his legs proudly: "Come on, you have been proud for several years, it's my turn to be proud of myself..."

Cao Bingkun was indignant.

He is the least accomplished of the three brothers.

"Okay, stop talking to me and tell me about you guys. Did you have a good year?"

"Don't mention it. I regret driving back. There were all kinds of traffic jams. The expressway was jammed, the national road was jammed, the provincial road was jammed, the county road was jammed..."

"Why don't you make a movie about the Spring Festival travel rush~"

"It's really possible, but it's a pity that there is no good book~"

"Yes, who says there isn't? I can make one up for you in a minute. I've even thought of a name for you. It's called 'Lost on Journey'..."

In order to let Ning Hao continue filming, Zhang Chen had no bottom line at all.

"No, I just said it casually, and you took advantage of it~"

"I don't care. You are such a big director, you can't go back on your word, brother Zecheng, you heard it too..."

Lao Cao's version of Yu Zecheng nodded generously beside him.

"Get out of the way, you spy~"

"It's a deal~"

"No, I still need to film..."

"What's the point of watching movies? Listen to my advice. Watching movies can indeed improve your directing ability, but when you have watched a certain number of movies, you will lose interest in movies..."

"?"

"Think about it, you've watched so many movies, and you know all the moves. In martial arts, this is the realm of a grandmaster. You can guess the ending after watching the beginning, and you even know what moves he's going to use. What's the point of watching a movie?"

"That seems to make sense."

"Why do I sound like Dugu Qiubai? After the age of thirty, grass, wood, bamboo, and stone can all be used as swords..."

"That's the truth."

"Speaking of movies, guys, there's a bad movie coming out recently, I want to go watch it..."

"You still want to watch a bad movie?"

“Haven’t you seen it~”

"Haven't you seen it? You said it's a bad movie?"

"That's what everyone says."

"Which one?"

“Slam Dunk.”

Well, it is indeed a bad movie, everyone says it is bad.

But none of the three people present had seen it.

Including Zhang Chen, he had never seen this movie in his previous life.

"Let's go~"

"Let's go~"

"If I don't see for myself how bad it is, I don't know how to criticize it."

The three brothers rushed to the cinema together, bought tickets and entered.

An hour and a half later, I resisted the urge to leave and persevered to the end.

When he came out, he was stopped by a reporter: "Director Zhang, Director Ning, Agent Cao, did you just watch Slam Dunk? What do you think?"

Agent Cao is the nickname of Cao Bingkun. He was given this nickname because he recently starred in two spy films in succession, both of which he played the leading role.

Ning Hao looked constipated and didn't know how to answer.

He and Jay Chou had just collaborated on "Whiplash", which achieved good box office results, but he didn't expect that something big would happen in the blink of an eye.

The three of them looked at each other, not knowing how to comment, and simply fled.

"Slam Dunk" is a standard fan movie, cutting leeks~
King Zhou has been doing various things in the past two years, and he has really enjoyed himself by relying on the number of his fans.

The fans are also very tolerant. If our idols want to play, we just let them do it.

A movie like "Slam Dunk" actually earned 100 million at the box office.

Speaking of which, since "Huo Yuanjia", it seems that it is not so difficult for a movie to gross over 100 million yuan at the box office.

Every year, there are works that break the 100 million mark. Breaking 200 million is still a little difficult, but breaking 100 million is easy to achieve just by having fans.

Brother Wheel can still spend as much as he wants now, and this situation will continue until next year.

After "刺陵" next year, his and Lao Zhu's reputations completely collapsed and they became box office poison.

"Slam Dunk", there are actually people who commented on Brother Lu's acting skills.

Come on, when did Brother Lunzi learn acting skills?
What? Whiplash?
"Whiplash" is different, it is a natural performance and does not require acting.

There is a natural bonus when musicians play musicians.

If we put aside the fans and look at "Slam Dunk" from a professional perspective, it is really a terrible movie.

Maybe it was because Stephen Chow made "Shaolin Soccer" and Zhu Yanping wanted to follow suit. "Slam Dunk" is actually a low-profile version of "Kung Fu Basketball".

The box office is entirely supported by Brother Lunzi alone.

Asa was a background board, Chen Bolin had gained weight, and Liu Genghong was still a little unknown at that time.

Yan Ni and Huang Bo, who are slowly becoming popular in mainland China, play supporting roles in the film, while Hong Kong actors Zeng Zhiwei and Ng Man-tat are in the cast. It is a complete hodgepodge of the three places across Taiwan Straits.

The key is that the cook doesn’t do his job well.

Hong Kong stars occasionally speak Cantonese, Taiwanese speak with a Taiwanese accent, and mainlanders speak in dialect from time to time. The styles are not consistent, giving people a very strong sense of copycat.

This is entirely Zhu Yanping’s fault.

For a movie, an inconsistent style is the most basic mistake.

Director Zhu actually made this kind of mistake, which shows that he was just playing around.

If the leading actor and the director are just playing around, it would be strange if the movie could be good.

Previously, Zhang Chen said that Liu Zhenwei was the director with the ugliest eating habits in Beijing, and now Zhu Yanping has to be added to the list.

They are totally treating mainland audiences as fools.

The key point is that the fool contributed 100 million!

Makes you speechless!

During the entire Spring Festival period, first there was "CJ7" and then there was "Slam Dunk", which made the audience depressed.

One viewer couldn't help but leave a message: If I had known it would be like this, I might as well watch "Pacific Rim" again.

The publicity and promotion team of "Pacific Rim" immediately followed suit, and a wave of publicity that was as expensive as throwing money around actually brought back the declining box office.

Therefore, whether a movie is good or not depends entirely on the comparison with its peers.

Zhang Chen naturally didn't say much about "CJ7" and "Slam Dunk".

"CJ7" cannot be criticized, "Slam Dunk" was done because of personal relationships, and Jay Chou participated in "Whiplash" after all.

Speaking of which, Jay Chou has to thank Ning Hao. "Whiplash" is now Jay Chou's representative work.

Whenever someone criticizes Jay Chou for his poor acting skills, his fans will bring up Whiplash, saying, "What's so bad about it? It's you, your whole family is bad."
……

After intensive compilation, "A Guide to Avoiding Science Fiction Movie Pitfalls" finally meets the audience.

Zhang Chen wrote a blog post specifically for this purpose:
[The manual is just a reference book, so don't worry about its writing quality.

But it should be of some help to some new directors and directors who have not shot big productions.

Although my name is in the author column, it is actually the result of brainstorming by the entire crew, so people in the crew should be able to find resonance and inspiration in this book. I hope it can be helpful to you.

I wish Chinese films will get better and better~】

The link to the file is attached below, feel free to download it. This selfless act immediately received a lot of praise:

The benefits are in the present and the achievements will last for generations to come!
Those who plant trees will enjoy the shade!
Xu Ke downloaded it as soon as possible. After reading it, he felt like he had found a treasure and liked it more and more.

He has always been interested in these things and even made a special trip to visit the set of Pacific Rim during its filming. However, what he could learn from the visit was far less direct and comprehensive than what he could learn from the manual.

At the same time, Beijing Film Academy also announced that it would list "The Handbook for Avoiding Science Fiction Movie Pitfalls" as a compulsory course in the directing department, and Zhang Chen was inducted into the Beijing Film Academy Hall of Fame.

The manual is really a manual, which lists in categories a series of problems encountered by the movie "Pacific Rim" from preparation to release, and explains in detail how these problems were solved.

Budget, production, shooting, post-production, special effects, actor schedules, coordination of foreign actors...

The records are very detailed, and people outside the circle may find them a bit boring.

But people in the industry all consider it a treasure.

Some smart people on the Internet printed out the manual, and combined it with more than 19.9 concept drawings previously released by Xingchen Entertainment and bound them into a book, making it the "Science Fiction Movie Avoidance Manual" PLUS version, priced at on Taobao with free shipping.

The sales are surprisingly good.

Many people in the film and television industry bought a copy as a souvenir.

E-books don’t feel as good as flipping through physical books.

Moreover, this manual is not just for science fiction movies. Many of the problems in it will also be encountered in ordinary blockbusters. Rather than a "Science Fiction Movie Pitfall Avoidance Manual", it is more like a "Blockbuster Shooting Guide".

(End of this chapter)