Huayu: Starting from Fahrenheit

Chapter 334 The Propaganda Bombardment of Red Cliffs

At the end of June, "Connected" was officially released in mainland China and Taiwan.

Thanks to Wu Zhuo's involvement, the film achieved excellent results after its release.

In its opening week, it grossed 13 million RMB in mainland China and topped the box office in Taiwan with 30 million NTD.

The impressive results made Emperor Entertainment realize the immense appeal of top idols like Wu Zhuo, and they immediately announced that the remake of "Sword Disc," produced by Emperor Entertainment and starring Wu Chun of Fahrenheit and Hu Ge, the top male star of Tangren Media, would be released on September 10.

Emperor Entertainment believes that if Wu Zhuo has such strong appeal, then Wu Zun, who is second only to him in Fahrenheit, must be just as good.

So they announced the release date of the film in a high-profile manner and invested a lot of promotional resources.

Meanwhile, Ningxia Film Studio is also keeping track of the release of Wu Zhuo's debut film.

I was immediately excited when I saw that "Keep Talking" had achieved great success in the market.

Following Emperor Entertainment's announcement of the release date for "The Sword and the Disc," they also announced with great fanfare that "Painted Skin," another big-budget film starring Wu Zhuo and featuring Zhou Xun, Zhao Wei, Wu Jing, and Sun Li, will also be released in September.

The date was set for September 26th.

It is said that the Ningxia Film Bureau originally planned to release the film on September 10th, the same day as "The Butterfly Lovers".

It was only after Emperor Entertainment communicated with them that the delay was extended by a few days.

However, the Painted Skin team has already begun promotional activities.

This film is a big-budget production, and its promotional scale is unmatched by any other movie.

Hmm, it's a bit inferior to "Red Cliff".

Which movie has generated the most discussion lately?

It's not "Connected," nor is it "Painted Skin and the Butterfly Sword," but "Red Cliff."

This film, spearheaded by China Film Group with an investment of up to 7 million RMB, is scheduled for release on July 10.

Multiple investors have stepped in, launching a massive publicity campaign for the film.

The main actors, including Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung, Hu Jun, Lin Chi-ling, and Zhao Wei, were all called upon by the production team and divided into several groups to promote the film across the country.

The level of popularity they generated was the envy of their peers.

Now, even online, many netizens have been bombarded with the movie's promotional blitz, discussing Red Cliff and planning to go to the cinema.

Some professional organizations and experts have predicted the box office performance of "Red Cliff".

It combines special effects, cast, scale, and the reputation of director John Woo.

It has been widely reported that the film's global box office will be no less than $300 million.

Yes, that's about two billion RMB.

Besides the experts' predictions that the box office would be frighteningly high.

Some even stated that this film will herald the rise of Chinese cinema.

The box office prediction for "Red Cliff" is expected to reach 20 billion yuan.

Takeshi Kaneshiro says Red Cliff is his favorite film.

Lin Chi-ling and John Woo leaving a hotel together: Is it a sign of moral decay, or...?

There's a lot of news about Red Cliff.

Every time I turn on my computer, all I see is related information.

Either the filming was difficult, or the actors didn't sleep for days and nights to film a certain scene.

Even the fire that killed people during the filming of Red Cliff last November is frequently in the news.

At this moment, all of Wu Zhuo's colleagues chose to remain silent.

I didn't go looking for trouble, nor did I try to curry favor.

Everyone knows why this show has received so much attention.

High investment and a large team are one thing.

Ultimately, it's still China Film Group backing them up.

With China Film Group's involvement, once public opinion was stirred up, the level of attention naturally increased.

However, Wu Zhuo knew that this kind of forced creation of public opinion also had many disadvantages.

This is evident from the complaints that occasionally appear online.

"I don't like any of the actors in this cast, I don't understand why so many people are talking about it."

"I heard the scenes were huge, and people even died in the fire during filming." "This film crew is trash. They almost got into a fight with us back in our hometown. Don't watch this movie, it's absolutely awful."

On July 6, the box office figures for "Connected" in mainland China for its second week were released.

The movie "Keep Calling" remained strong this week, grossing 10.5 million at the box office.

However, this achievement may be the last moment of glory.

After Red Cliff is released on the 10th, it will inevitably squeeze the screenings and audience numbers of other movies.

Therefore, Emperor Entertainment approached Wu Zhuo, hoping he could cooperate with the film's promotional efforts to create a major wave of publicity to rival Red Cliff.

In the end, Wu Zhuo rejected him.

What a joke! Red Cliff is China Film Group's most important project this year.

If you're tired of this life, you can try sniping.

If you succeed, you'll be resented; if you fail, you'll weep in your own eyes.

Neither outcome is a good one.

Therefore, Wu Zhuocai wouldn't get involved.

On the same afternoon, Wu Zhuo received an invitation from the "Red Cliff" film crew to the premiere.

If it were an invitation from the production crew, Wu Zhuo would probably have declined.

However, the inviter was China Film Group.

There was no other way but to give him face and agree to attend the premiere.

How much box office do you think "Red Cliff" will get?

On the afternoon of the 8th, Calvin Chen arrived in Beijing to meet up with Wu Zhuo.

He's doing quite well on Hunan TV's "Tian Tian Brothers" lately.

Because she and Wu Zhuo were both members of the Fahrenheit sub-unit, they were also invited by the Red Cliff production team.

"I heard it was split into two parts, and the total cost must be no less than four or five hundred million RMB!"

Wu Zhuo remembered that in his previous life, this movie was divided into two parts, and the combined domestic box office was 5.8 million yuan.

"Wow, isn't this going to be a huge profit?"

When Calvin Chen heard this number, he couldn't help but widen his eyes.

5 million yuan is something that domestic films never dared to dream of before.

"It seems that the domestic market is really going to explode after this movie."

Calvin Chen was still marveling at it.

"Haven't you heard about the investment in this movie? It's 80 million US dollars, which is equivalent to 560 million RMB."

Recovering 500 million yuan in box office revenue is just enough to break even.

The majority of the money spent on the movie Red Cliff went to the actors' salaries.

Lin Chi-ling, Tony Leung, and Zhao Wei all command exorbitant salaries.

Before 2015, this film was the most expensive Chinese-language film ever made.

The film was cleverly divided into two parts, released in 2008 and 2009 respectively, and even with the international market, it barely made a profit.

If they were combined into one film and released together, they would lose at least 2 million yuan.

All I can say is that the Red Cliff production team knows how to play the game, making money twice from one film.

However, to be fair, the movie Red Cliff has many flaws.

But it has indeed expanded the mainland market to a certain extent again.

It seems that starting this year, domestic box office revenue has seen another surge.

Next year, for the first time, all ten of the top ten box office hits in China will have grossed over 100 million yuan.

"By the way, how's your songwriting for our team coming along?"

After chatting about movies for a while, Calvin Chen asked the question he was most concerned about.

The song of the small team.

(End of this chapter)