Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 245 Old Han's Worry

Ning Hao is a very smart guy. He knows who the real boss is and who can bring popularity and influence to the movie.

Therefore, when he was promoting his movie, he kept mentioning Cao Yang. Even if the host brought up unrelated topics, he would try his best to lead the conversation to Cao Yang.

It feels like this movie belongs to Cao Yang and he is just a tool.

Why do you say this kid is smart?

He actually knew very well that the producer, supervisor and screenwriter were all Cao Yang's. Even if he deliberately blurred Cao Yang's existence, if the movie was successful, everyone would still think it was Cao Yang's credit.

Why did he deliberately blur Cao Yang's existence? Isn't that stupid!

Vigorously publicize the existence of Cao Yang, there are too many benefits.

First, the popularity of the movie has definitely increased easily.

He saw in the "Cao Yang Bar" that everyone who knew about the movie was looking forward to its release, and everyone was very curious about this movie full of "Cao Yang".

From this we can see that at this stage, the two words "Cao Yang" are the biggest popularity and guarantee in the film and television industry.

If the movie is a big hit, for example, the box office exceeds 100 million, no matter what others say, the name "Ning Hao" will definitely become famous.

In total, including Hong Kong Wanwan, how many directors can have a box office of over 100 million? Cao Yang, Lao Mouzi, Zhou Xingxing and Xiao Gangpao, even Chen Kai has not had a movie with a box office of over 100 million, and he has to wait until "The Promise" is released.

Second, after following Cao Yang for so long, Ning Hao truly admires Cao Yang's abilities, and his vision has also become much higher.

Cheng Jianye can be a producer in Hollywood, Gu Changwei can win the Oscar for Best Cinematography, how am I, Ning Hao, worse than them?
He is now a graduate student under Lao Tian, ​​and his relationship with Cao Yang is no worse than that with Cheng Jianye and Lao Gu. They are all family members, and he believes that "Junior Master Uncle" will never forget him.

Otherwise, how could there be "Crazy Stone"?
Therefore, he really had no grudge at all when "Crazy Stone" was labeled as Cao Yang. Instead, he thought he was getting an advantage.

Otherwise, how could the title of "Crazy Stone", which had an investment of more than 20 million yuan in publicity and promotion, fall on the head of a man who had failed in two movies?

Ning Hao was very sober.

Even though Cao Yang and Zhang Yimou have lowered the upper limit of the box office to 200 to 300 million yuan at this stage, the reality is that any director whose domestic box office can exceed 10 million yuan is considered a "famous director".

Otherwise, why would Lu Chuan's movie "Looking for a Gun" with a box office of 900 million be praised crazily by various media and sought after by private capital that has just emerged in the film and television industry?

It is because at this stage there are very few directors in the country who can sell box office movies. They are simply rare.

To be honest, an investment of more than 20 million yuan is something that no director in China can afford, except for a few big directors.

With an investment of more than 20 million, it would definitely be a loss if the box office revenue did not exceed 60 million, and that’s only considering the box office revenue.

Of course, if you are not a big director, it is not easy to sell foreign copyrights.

If you ask Ning Hao if he feels any pressure, of course he does feel some, but not much.

With Cao Yang's fame and the big stars in "Crazy Stone", to be frank, even if it is a piece of shit, it can still make 20 to 30 million at the domestic box office.

Copyrights can be easily sold for millions of US dollars overseas, and the probability of losing money is very small.

Compared with the original version, this version of "Crazy Stone" has seen significant changes in the actors.

Duan Yihong is the male protagonist, Bao Shihong, the security chief in the movie.

Ning Hao also didn't expect that Duan Yihong, who had only become slightly famous with "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox" at the beginning, would become an international star with the huge hit "District 9" in the blink of an eye.

This is one of the highlights of "Crazy Stone".

Bao Shihong’s wife doesn’t have many scenes, but it was played by Li Xiaoran as a guest star.

The role of Dao Ge’s girlfriend was played by Pang Bing.

Don’t think that Pang Bing’s popularity has dropped because he was “banned” by Huayi. Ning Hao has already received the news from Cao Yang. As soon as this news comes out, Pang Bing is guaranteed to become the most popular.

There is also the role of the thief Mike, who was played by Wu Qihua.

You should know that Wu Qihua has also made a high offer of 300 million US dollars thanks to "District ", surpassing the Four Heavenly Kings and Liang Chaowei.

Ning Hao also knew a piece of news that once it was announced in a few days, Wu Qihua’s popularity would soar.

With Cao Yang's project and the current cast, Ning Hao, as the director, really can't imagine how this movie can lose.

You know, at the film screening held at the Beijing Film Academy a while ago, everyone was smiling from the beginning to the end of the movie, and President Han and the people from the theater all praised him highly.

The people from the theater even promised that the film would never disappoint President Han, Director Cao, and Director Ning.

July 7th is a Friday. An investment of more than 15 million is considered a big production in China. The premiere of the movie will definitely not be shabby and will be held in the Beijing Theater.

This film was also jointly invested by Cao Yang's studio, China Film Group Corporation and Qingdao Film Studio. President Han and some directors and leaders of Beijing Film Academy were all present.

After knowing that Cao Yang would definitely attend the premiere, many stars and media came to show their support.

The premiere was not fancy, it just followed the traditional process and ended with the movie. It was pretty much as expected, the laughter started not long after the movie started, and it lasted until the end, the whole process was pretty enjoyable.

Ning Hao breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the reactions from the audience and media.

After the premiere, President Han found Cao Yang. He was not as calm as he seemed and was still a little worried about "Crazy Stone".

This concern comes from the imported blockbuster "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", which was released last Friday.

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith" is a blockbuster starring Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, both of whom have high popularity and box office appeal around the world.

Especially Pete, he is already a member of the 20 million club and has great influence.

Although Jolie is not yet a member of the 20 million club, she is one of the few Hollywood actresses who can pull in box office revenue.

In addition, the two have been rumored to be having an affair since last year. Although the two denied it at the time, in April this year, Pitt's extramarital affair with Jolie was confirmed, leading to his divorce from American "sweetheart" Aniston.

If this kind of thing happens in China in the future, the movie will be boycotted and the person involved may be included in the list of bad artists.

But unfortunately, they are Americans, and their moral values ​​are different from those in China.

It is precisely because of this kind of news that the popularity of this movie has been boosted, which is better than spending tens of millions on promotion.

After its release in the United States on June 6, it earned more than 10 million US dollars in box office in the first three days of the weekend.

The current box office in North America is more than 1.8 million US dollars. For an action movie to achieve this result, it is considered a big hit.

Not only that, the movie has grossed over 20 million to nearly 30 million yuan in the country in just one week, and it is now a hot hit.

Of course, there is another important reason why Mr. Han is worried. "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" was not introduced by China Film Group Corporation, but by China Film Distribution Co., Ltd., the second Chinese institution with the national distribution rights for imported films.

This is what makes President Han most uneasy.

Before 03, China Film Group was the only company that had the nationwide distribution rights for imported films.

China Film Distribution Co., Ltd. was established on August 2003, 8 with investment from 8 powerful domestic state-owned film companies.

Although China Film Group is one of these 19 companies, China Film Distribution Company is not under the jurisdiction of China Film Group. It has a bigger backer, the Central Propaganda Department.

The establishment of Huaying was to break the monopoly of China Film Group on imported blockbusters. As a result, the distribution of imported films shifted from a single entity to a dual-track system of "China Film Group + Huaying", forming a direct competitive relationship.

Therefore, Mr. Han is both worried and looking forward to "Crazy Stone".

President Han was very happy to deal a blow to Huaying.

"Junior brother, how about we announce the news that Wu Qihua and Pang Bing have joined Inception tomorrow to add some heat to Crazy Stone?"

If this was a movie directed by Cao Yang himself, he would definitely not worry at all, and might even persuade Cao Yang to move the release date forward to coincide with "Mr. and Mrs. Smith".

But the key point is that this is directed by that kid Ning Hao.

"Brother, I remember it was you who suggested that the news of Wu Qihua and Pang Bing joining the cast be announced two weeks later to create hype for Crazy Stone, which might be losing box office momentum."

Cao Yang glanced at Lao Han, a little confused as to why he changed his mind.

"Well, isn't Xu Ke's Seven Swords going to be released in two weeks? That movie is said to have an investment of 1 million Hong Kong dollars and took three years to make. I'm afraid it will have too much of an impact on our movie, so I thought of announcing it in two weeks."

Although the appearance of Cao Yang made President Han less superstitious about the director of Hong Kong Wanwan, Ning Hao was not Cao Yang, and that was Xu Ke, so he had no reason not to worry.

"Is Seven Swords coming out on the 29th?"

Cao Yang had only heard that "Seven Swords" would be released during the summer vacation, but he didn't know the exact date.

“Yes.” President Han nodded. He had only considered “Seven Swords” before, but who knew that he would be stabbed in the back by Huaying. The box office of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” was a bit high.

Cao Yang smiled and said, "Senior Brother, you have underestimated my ability in comedy movies."

"Brother, you can do whatever you want. You can announce it anytime."

Cao Yang counted on his fingers:
"I have some meetings with the Olympic Committee to attend, I have to catch up on the preparations for Inception, and the CG for Black Swan is almost finished, so I have to edit it in. I am about to graduate from graduate school and have to prepare my thesis..."

President Han felt overwhelmed and waved his hand, "Okay, I'll discuss it with Xie Xiaojing and Ning Hao."

"Brother, don't worry too much. Wait and see how Crazy Stone's reputation and attendance rate perform before making a decision."

Cao Yang comforted.

President Han sighed in his heart. He believed Cao Yang, but not Ning Hao. He was really afraid of being crushed to the ground like "Mr. and Mrs. Smith".

He is not afraid that "Crazy Stone" will not perform well at the box office, but he is afraid that it will be overshadowed by Huaying!

For him, this matter is much more important than box office.

(End of this chapter)