New Age Artists

Chapter 672 Anyway, No One Dare
Huayi.

Wang Zhonglei looked at the Spring Festival data at hand, feeling both pain and joy.

"Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" produced by Huayi ranked second in the Spring Festival box office.

This year's Spring Festival, "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" dominated the box office and its market share is still expanding.

"The Monkey King: Hero is Back" was ahead of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" by a long way, and "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" grossed over 101 million yuan in three days after its release, crushing other films such as " Marriage Proposals" with an absolute advantage.

It’s just that the reputation of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" began to deteriorate. After all, this movie is not a Stephen Chow movie.

Since "CJ7", Zhou Xingchi not only wants to make money like crazy, but also wants to pay the least investment and labor to get the biggest return.

Most of the actual directing work of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" was done by Guo Zijian. Originally, Zhou Xingchi was just the producer, but for the sake of box office, he was put in the title role, which created endless hype.

Therefore, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" has two directors, not one main and one deputy. If Stephen Chow had more work, there wouldn't be two directors.

"Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" designed the "Exorcists Group" to perform striptease, the absurd plot of confusing the pig demon, the Peking Opera facial design of the pig demon, etc., which are just Guo Zijian's imitation of Stephen Chow's nonsensical comedy.

Imitation is just imitation, it is not real.

Huayi did not mention this at all during its publicity and promotion.

Looking back now, this was the right move.

If it weren’t for Zhou Xingchi’s fame, the reputation of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" would have collapsed long ago.

The main plot of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is that the protagonist Chen Xuanzang, as an exorcist, aims to subdue three monsters, the fish monster, the pig monster and the monkey monster.

These three monsters correspond to Sha Seng, Zhu Bajie and Sun Wukong.

The fish monster was originally a kind-hearted villager. He was mistakenly killed by the villagers and his body was thrown into the river because he was trying to save someone. His resentment turned into a man-piranha monster.

The pig demon was a love-struck handsome man in his previous life. He killed his wife because she betrayed him, and his resentment turned into a brutal pig demon.

The monkey demon was suppressed by the Buddha under the Five Finger Mountain. He appeared weak on the surface but was actually cunning and brutal.

Xuanzang insisted on using "good thoughts" to influence monsters, but he was repeatedly frustrated in the early days due to his lack of strength.

There is also a love line between Tang Xuanzang and Miss Duan.

Miss Duan is a martial arts expert with a generous personality. She falls in love with Xuanzang at first sight and risks her life to help him many times.

The two had conflicts due to their different ideas. Miss Duan advocated the use of force to subdue the demon, while Xuanzang insisted on persuasion, but their feelings gradually heated up.

In the end, Miss Duan was killed by Sun Wukong in order to save Xuanzang. Miss Duan's death made Xuanzang understand that the great love of saving all living beings requires the cost of letting go of personal obsessions.

Xuanzang painfully realized the true meaning of "small love" and "big love", and finally put on the golden hoop and took on the mission of obtaining Buddhist scriptures.

"Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is a completely subversive Journey to the West story.

It breaks the romantic narrative of "Journey to the West" and uses a dark style to show the evil of the team's previous lives, implying the cruelty of the path of cultivation.

Sun Wukong subverts the traditional image.

He was short and ugly, violent and bloodthirsty, and even deceived Xuanzang into unlocking the seal and then slaughtered innocent people.

Every monster has two sides and is misunderstood.

They all fell into the evil path because of the injustice they suffered in their lives, which can only be explained by the "complexity of human nature."

But the problem is that after the great debate after "1937", many viewers began to no longer buy into the "theory of human nature".

The audience has become more savvy and their aesthetic taste has improved, so the "human nature" trick is no longer effective.

In the past, it could be said that the film explored the ambiguity of good and evil, but now what audiences see is that the film blurs the lines between good and evil.

What's more, the so-called "great love" and empty talk of salvation are even more untenable without the support of force.

There were also dark interpretations of "The Monkey King: Hero is Back", but they were all dispelled in the end.

Going beyond deconstructing narrative, it constructs.

In comparison, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" seems even more crude.

The reason why the reputation of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" has not collapsed is entirely due to Zhou Xingchi's personal aura.

Wang Zhonglei called in the publicity and marketing staff to discuss: "The reputation of Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons has fluctuated drastically. I think it will not be able to hold up. The dark style adaptation has aroused criticism. What can we do to save it?"

The publicity and promotion director said: "Keep playing the Stephen Chow card. With Stephen Chow, everything can be nonsensical. To raise objections is to not understand Stephen Chow's greatness."

"We can do further interpretation. Many of Stephen Chow's fans believe that Stephen Chow never filmed Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons as a comedy."

The publicity and promotion personnel are well aware that the key to the success of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is entirely due to the halo of Stephen Chow, which made the audience accept this narrative.

The inside is bullshit.

The love line is once again hyping up the old story of "A Chinese Odyssey".

However, the love story in "A Chinese Odyssey" is about Sun Wukong and Zixia, and this one is about Tang Xuanzang and Miss Duan.

Putting aside the love story between Sun Wukong and Tang Seng, just talking about the connection between the two, it is completely unrelated.

However, Huayi still guides the character towards Miss Duan as Zixia in terms of publicity and promotion.

Since "A Chinese Odyssey" cannot fill the logical gaps, it uses the off-screen story of Stephen Chow and Athena Chu.

Movie fans will find reasons for Stephen Chow's movies.

Miss Duan doesn’t even have a name, it’s all Zhou Xingchi thinking about Zixia and Zhu Yin.

And if the plot is bad, fans will say don't be fooled by one or two jokes that are low-key and rehashed.

That's just catering to commercial needs and cheating the box office.

Then he brought up the dialogue show between Ma Yun and Zhou Xingchi some time ago.

Zhou Xingchi said: Every time I make a movie, I want to make it a little bit better than the previous one. It really is just a little bit. This little bit may be the picture or something else. Just a little bit will do.

Then the fans convinced themselves that the movie "Exorcist" only meant a little to Stephen Chow.

It's just an attempt at newer and more advanced 3D special effects technology.

So they spared no effort in the appearance of the water monster pig monster and the scene of the suckling pig wrapping a person, even the little girl was eaten, but as for the rest, they didn't pay much attention. This is the advantage of having filters, fans will use their imagination to complete the plot.

Zhou Xingchi has a lot of fans because he really brought happiness to a generation.

In other words, the audience still has a filter for Zhou Xingchi, which barely keeps it from collapsing.

If there were no filters, the box office would have been cut in half long ago.

“This is more authentic audience feedback.”

The publicity and promotion staff provided a document: "People outside the fan community are not optimistic."

[This level of 3D special effects in this film is a complete waste of everyone's money. ]

[The process from the trailer to the movie is like the performance of a mighty fish monster after being exposed out of water. ]

[If it wasn’t a movie by Stephen Chow, “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” would basically be criticized as a super hodgepodge of bad movies. ]

【Nonsense refers to the performance style, not the story structure of the movie.】

[No matter how much you love Stephen Chow, don’t blindly interpret the plot for him. The most faithful plot I’ve ever seen is that Tang Seng didn’t use great love to solve the problem, but for the sake of filming in the next movie.]

[I said it was a bad movie, and then a bunch of people came to teach me that you don't understand Stephen Chow. I don't need to understand Stephen Chow, I just need to know why it is a good movie? A good movie is not about who has the loudest fans. ]

[There are too many different kinds of agents. Some are genuine agents, some are too trusting, and some are obviously just over-skilled.]

【I think the way to discredit someone is to give him credit that he clearly doesn’t deserve.】

[I don't mind the plot being unstructured or illogical, it's not Stephen Chow's strong point. But next time can you not do this kind of spoof cycle of transformation from human to monkey, from monkey to gorilla, and then from gorilla to human?]

[I can’t accept trying all the special effects styles in one movie. The scene where the tiger fights the pig monster made me think I had traveled to Street Fighter.]

[If you think this movie is bad, just say it is bad. If you think it is good, just say it is good. Don’t offend anyone’s fans or your own true feelings.]

"Not optimistic."

Wang Zhonglei was quite troubled: "It's all thanks to Zhou Xingchi that we are able to keep him alive."

The publicity staff warned: "The words of Shen Santong's fans are even more intense."

"Damn it Shen Santong!" Wang Zhonglei realized the seriousness of the problem.

In the past, productions like "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" were considered high-quality domestic films, but this is no longer the case.

Wang Zhonglei found Guo Zijian.

As for Stephen Chow, he needs to make an appointment, as he cannot summon the other party at will.

"Director Guo, the reputation has collapsed. What suggestions do you have?"

"I think it's okay." Guo Zijian had no other ideas.

Wang Zhonglei probably hopes that he will come out and speak out, Guo Zijian is not stupid.

This play is enough for him, there is no need to risk his life.

Now Shen Santong didn't use any dirty tricks to attack them. If he was shameless enough to give them the chance, it would be hard to say what would happen to him.

Wang Zhonglei explained: "Look at The Monkey King: Hero is Back, the box office is still growing, while our Conquering the Demons has started to decline."

Guo Zijian said helplessly: "This is the normal box office trend. Shen Santong's movies are unconventional."

Seeing that Guo Zijian still refused to respond, Wang Zhonglei was so disappointed that he asked him to get out.

After calling Zhou Xingchi and exchanging a few pleasantries, Wang Zhonglei got down to business: "Master Xing, I think that in terms of art, "Conquering the Demons" is superior to "The Monkey King: Hero is Back"."

“Haha.” Zhou Xingchi had been reminded by Guo Zijian earlier: “Boss Wang, I think it’s OK. It’s broken 400 million in three days. Even if the reputation collapses, we are not in a two-way confrontation with “The Monkey King: Hero is Back”. Instead, we can benefit from the market expansion of “The Monkey King: Hero is Back” and the popularity of the Journey to the West theme.”

"It should break 600 million or even 700 million in the first week, and the box office will not be less than 1 billion."

Zhou Xingchi also refused.

Just kidding, he's just trying to make money.

After "The Return of the Great Sage", Shen Santong only has "Zhu Xian" left, and it is unknown how long it will take for the other party's project with Hollywood to be released.

Even though Shen Santong is easy to talk to, his fans are not easy to talk to either.

Zhou Xingchi doesn't want to test who has stronger fighting power between his fans and Shen Santong's fans.

In his heart, Shen Santong is at the same level as Han Sanping, or even higher than Han Sanping.

Hua Yi's level deserves his respect, but it's just respect.

It is obviously one or even more levels lower than Santong Entertainment.

Zhou Xingchi thought for a moment and said, "Boss Wang, should we finalize my share of the profits with a contract?"

He had a "bet" with the Huayi brothers, and the agreement was a verbal agreement.

The two parties agreed that if the box office in mainland China exceeded 7 million yuan, Huayi would have to pay him an additional share of the box office.

In the previous life, it was 5 million, but because of market expansion, it became 7 million.

Don’t think it’s not high. Only Santong Entertainment can easily break 10 billion. For other domestic film and television companies, 5 million is a threshold.

Now it is obvious that the company will definitely break 7 million. Zhou Xingchi cares more about his own interests and wants to confirm the emails and verbal communications as separate terms.

"Master Xing, let's wait until the box office is good before we talk about it." Wang Zhonglei laughed.

After hanging up the phone, Stephen Chow's heart sank and he had a bad feeling.

The sixth day of the lunar month.

Shen Santong had to leave home reluctantly.

"Ah, how can I not enjoy the blessing of having two wives?"

(End of this chapter)