Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 660 Car Crash
This year's National Day holiday saw two veteran filmmakers make a comeback!

"Chasing the Dragon" became Wong Jing's best film in nearly 10 years, grossing 4000 million on its opening day.

"The Foreigner" is Jackie Chan's best film since "CZ12", grossing 72 million on its opening day.

Especially in "The Foreigner," the selling point of the film is of course Jackie Chan's action scenes and his historic collaboration with Pierce Brosnan, but Li Qiutang saw Jackie Chan's talent in dramatic scenes in this movie.

To be fair, some people do get better with age. Jackie Chan, at this age, has reached a level of consummate skill in dramatic roles.

Therefore, Li Qiutang spontaneously promoted "The Foreigner" on Weibo and even tagged Jackie Chan:

"The last time Jackie Chan truly amazed me was in 'Shinjuku Incident,' but in 'The Foreigner,' I saw a completely different Jackie Chan. I even feel that at 63, there's still untapped potential within him. The movie was great, and I look forward to collaborating with him in the future. Also, Pierce Brosnan is so handsome! Could you please get me an autographed photo? @JackieChan"

Li Qiutang never expected that her slightly playful, spontaneous Weibo post would be seen by Jackie Chan, but Jackie Chan himself actually retweeted it. However, the comments were very official and superficial:

“I give my all to every film. If every film can bring an amazing feeling to the audience, it is my honor as an actor. I am also a fan of Director Li. I hope we can have tea together and work together in the future.”

However, that afternoon, Li Qiutang received a call from Jackie Chan: "I have autographed photos of Pierce here, do you want them? How many?"

Li Qiutang never expected that one of her insignificant Weibo posts would prompt Jackie Chan to call her personally and even offer to send her an autographed photo of Pierce Brosnan.

Li Qiutang politely told Jackie Chan that she was just joking, but Jackie Chan said, "It's okay. Pierce Brosnan is a handsome old idol. Many people like him and it's normal to ask for his autograph. I'll have someone send it to your company."

Finally, he jokingly asked, "Why don't you want my autograph?"

“I already have quite a few of your autographed photos,” Li Qiutang said.

That same evening, the hashtag #LiQiutangLikesJackieChanButIsAFanOfPierce# trended on social media.

"Hahaha! I'm dying of laughter. Director Li Qiutang posted on Weibo that he likes 'The Foreigner' and Jackie Chan, but in the end he asked for Pierce Brosnan's autographed photo."

Jackie Chan: Are you being polite?

Li Qiutang: I need to praise him properly first, then he won't refuse my request.

This trending topic was obviously bought by the production team, but Li Qiutang didn't seem to mind. Instead, she retweeted a comment from a netizen, feigning innocence, and said, "But Pierce Brosnan is really handsome."

Netizens chimed in, "That's true."

"He's really handsome."

It contributed a tiny bit of buzz to "The Foreigner".

In contrast, "Never Say Die" didn't need Li Qiutang to contribute to its popularity; it grossed 1.3 million yuan on its opening day, topping the charts among films released during the same period.

After the holiday began, "Never Say Die" took the lead by a wide margin, earning 1.77 million and 1.86 million yuan respectively in the first two days.

The performance of "Sewing Machine Band" was not so good. It earned 1360 million yuan on its second day, rebounded to 2300 million yuan on the first day of the holiday, and then 2240 million yuan on the second day. This was certainly partly due to scheduling issues within the production company!
And it's a serious problem!

Even Da Peng was dissatisfied with the company's film scheduling strategy. Without "Never Say Die" crashing in, "City of Rock" would have been the only comedy in the National Day holiday period, and it could have earned an extra 10 to 20 million yuan every day.

Although, from the current perspective, the performance of "Sewing Machine Band" is still relatively stable and will not result in losses.

However, the fact that the films were released at the same time is undeniable, and it is also undeniable that it affected the box office of "City of Rock". We cannot say that the matter is over just because "Never Say Die" was a big hit.

Zhang Zhao personally called Da Peng to reassure him, acknowledging the company's mistake in scheduling the film, but explaining that "Sewing Machine Band" would still be profitable, so he hoped Da Peng wouldn't take it too seriously.

Da Peng had his own feelings but didn't dare to express them to Zhang Zhao, only saying that he understood the company's difficulties.

In the post-National Day holiday summary, the champion was undoubtedly "Never Say Die". During the eight-day holiday combining National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival, "Never Say Die" earned 13.46 billion yuan.

"City of Rock" earned 2.04 million yuan in 8 days, with a total box office of 2.4 million yuan.

They're definitely making a fortune. Countless companies envy Autumn Pictures' profitability. How the hell did they manage to poach this group of people?

While others worry about not having enough films and being overlooked, Autumn Pictures is actually facing a clash of release dates because it has too many films.

It's a situation where some are dying of drought while others are flooded.

This film season has come to a perfect end to autumn, and the only thing that can be ridiculed by the industry is the fact that two films were released at the same time.

Some articles have even analyzed that: "Autumn Pictures has held the top spot in the domestic film and television industry for many years, and its enormous success over the years has masked the company's shortcomings. Now that the hot money has receded and the industry is beginning to deflate the bubble, Autumn Pictures' corporate problems are gradually being exposed. The most prominent issue is the mutual obstruction between project teams, as can be seen from the film scheduling during this year's National Day holiday. Never before in Chinese film history have two films invested in by the same company been released in the same period, clearly demonstrating Autumn Pictures' inability to coordinate the scheduling conflicts between the two films, 'Sewing Machine Band' and 'Never Say Die.' Although both films have achieved box office success so far, the internal problems exposed by this should be taken seriously by Autumn Pictures' senior management. Autumn Pictures' development to this point has been hard-won; it must not allow internal strife and internal conflicts to occur."

While the claim that they ultimately turned against each other and became sworn brothers is somewhat exaggerated, it's not entirely wrong.

Unfortunately, Mr. Li saw this short analysis.

Seeing the potential in the small details, Mr. Li forwarded the article to the company's senior management group. Li Qiutang didn't ask them to address any major corporate problems, but simply wanted them to analyze the reasons for the scheduling conflict and how to prevent similar incidents from happening again in the future.

"Everyone here has been in the film and television industry for over ten or twenty years. No matter what, scheduling conflicts should never happen. I hope everyone will analyze the reasons carefully, especially the production management and distribution departments."

In fact, the issue of scheduling conflicts has already been taken seriously within the company, and Zhang Zhao has repeatedly emphasized that such mistakes must not be allowed to happen again.

Just as the company was having heated discussions internally about resolving the conflicting release dates in the fall, Universal Pictures announced that the domestic release date for "Pacific Rim 2" would be the same as in North America, on November 17.

Universal Music released a special edition trailer in China, highlighting the cool mechs and intense battle scenes, which received unanimous praise from domestic audiences.

Liu Yifei reposted the release date announcement and said she was "looking forward to it very much." On the same day, she bid farewell to her husband and mother and flew to the United States to begin the film's global promotional tour.

DC Films reluctantly abandoned its plan to release "Justice League" simultaneously in China and the US on November 17, and instead planned to use "Justice League" to give Universal a good slap in the face in North America!
They dared to release it on the same day as mine!
(End of this chapter)