Who are you calling "little fresh meat"? I'm the king.

Chapter 552 The Feeling of Fame (34)

In the early 90s, Hong Kong was swept up in a martial arts craze with films like "Once Upon a Time in China" and "Swordsman II." Film companies rushed to acquire martial arts IPs, and martial arts films were all the rage for a time.

At the time, Eric Tsang, who was still with Golden Harvest, left the company because he felt it was too commercially driven. He took Chen Kexin with him, recruited Chung Chun, and invited up-and-coming film stars such as Teddy Chan, Jacob Cheung, and Lee Chi-ngai to join him, and together they formed a film company.

This company is called UFO.
—The alien visitors are meant to offer the audience something different.

The principle is to not follow the crowd!
His debut work was the experimental short film "Yafei and Yaji", but unfortunately, "Curry and Pepper" in the same year completely overshadowed this film!

Then came "The Three Musketeers," starring Tony Leung, Tony Leung Ka-fai, and Lawrence Cheng, which grossed over HK$1700 million in Hong Kong…

This was arguably my first blockbuster movie!

"The New Brothers" is the company's third film...

The film grossed HK$2136 million at the Hong Kong box office, ranking fifteenth for the year!

It's definitely a very successful movie.

However, as the company gradually expanded and attracted more talented filmmakers, it faced commercial pressures and began to pursue high-cost productions, gradually deviating from its original mission.

This is a problem that many film and television companies cannot avoid—commercial pursuit!
Later, UFO was acquired by Golden Harvest, and all the film and television copyrights belonged to Golden Harvest!

Oh, when "Duckweed" was first conceived, to avoid plagiarism risks, they simply bought the adaptation rights to "New Brothers in Distress"...

……

"Duckweed" grossed 1.8 million yuan on its opening day...

The industry was shocked, but... Shen Yan has created too many miracles!
Last year's box office charts all featured him in the top three films: *Goodbye Mr. Loser*, *American Dreams in China*, and *The Rise of a Star*.

Based on calculations, "Duckweed" is definitely a movie with a box office of over one billion yuan.

Normally speaking, a movie with a box office of over 1 billion yuan should definitely gross over 100 million yuan on its opening day!
1.8 million…

It's nothing...

Well, all I can say is that the industry has gotten used to Shen Yan breaking records!

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, February 1st, the box office for "Duckweed" slipped a bit, taking in 160 million yuan—while the overall box office was only 2.84 million yuan…

That's normal, not everyone has to watch a movie!
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, apart from "From Vegas to Macau" which saw its box office rise to 3100 million, the box office of all other films declined!

The first "From Vegas to Macau" movie wasn't a very rigorous story; it was mainly focused on bringing joy and celebrating the Lunar New Year. Even without much logic, it was still understandable, and it still managed to deliver quite a few laughs.

It can be considered a continuation of Hong Kong comedy films from the last century.

It's watchable...

Wang Jing has a close relationship with gambling films, not just the "God of Gamblers" series. His first TV series was "The King of Gamblers," directed by his father Wang Tianlin, with him as the screenwriter, and starring Xie Tingfeng's father Xie Xian...

After "The King of Gamblers" aired, it became a hit in Hong Kong, and Xie Xian's nickname "Fourth Brother" immediately became well-known. The following year, "The King of Gamblers" also achieved considerable success.

Then, the following year, his directorial debut, "The King of Gamblers vs. The King of Gamblers," was released, continuing the classic formula of the "King of Gamblers" series.

The box office reached 508.1 million, ranking sixth for the year!

It directly surpassed Shaw Brothers' star director at the time, Lau Kar-leung's "The Martial Arts School"—the latter's box office was 507.3 million…

Later, he collaborated with Xiang Huasheng on the "Casino Tycoon" series, which also made him a fortune...

The pinnacle of cinema is undoubtedly "God of Gamblers"!

It can be said that Wang Jing almost represents Hong Kong gambling films! The last installment of the "God of Gamblers" series was released in 96, and the following year, the identity of Hong Kong people underwent a dramatic change.

After that, the landscape of Hong Kong gambling films changed drastically, with only small-scale productions remaining. During the era of co-productions, gambling films were barred from the mainland market. The government had repeatedly emphasized the need to eradicate gambling, prostitution, and drugs; this was no trivial matter. To depict large-scale gambling on screen would be blatant disregard for the law. For gambling films to be shown in mainland China was extremely difficult!

Wang Jingshen was well-versed in the rules of co-productions and devised a set of tricks to exploit loopholes, which led to the creation of "From Vegas to Macau"...

In the casino mansion in "From Vegas to Macau", the games played are familiar to the audience, such as Dou Dizhu, Mahjong, and Baccarat with super simple rules.

Chow Yun-fat's demeanor is understated, dressed like a nouveau riche, so his special abilities are naturally nonexistent, and his miraculous gambling skills are gone. In the end, he still manages to deceive everyone through science and technology...

Nine out of ten gambling movies are swindles, and gambling movies are full of tricks. When watching old Hong Kong movies, viewers need to use their brains a bit, as the schemes are intricately linked, giving them a "high-IQ movie" feel.

However, "From Vegas to Macau" has an extremely low intellectual threshold, catering to audiences of all ages and with all numbers of viewers.

Even so, Wang Jing still patiently added a "narration" to explain that watching this gambling film requires no mental preparation and is suitable for all ages.

The climax was also predictable...

This movie... is probably passable!
The original timeline grossed 5.24 million at the box office, and 3300 million in Hong Kong, making it the runner-up for the year!

Of course, many viewers said he was just rehashing old material... and selling nostalgia...

But at least for now, this sentimentality is still selling!

If we wait a few more years, they really won't sell.

I feel that the reason why "From Vegas to Macau" was able to buck the trend and become popular is largely due to Jing Tian, ​​after all, she is Cheon Song-yi!

……

Shen Yan originally planned to join the film crew in Guangzhou on the third day of the Lunar New Year and then do promotional work...

Unexpectedly... Zhao Liying couldn't hold back any longer and kept urging him!

It wasn't that I couldn't hold it in, it was just that I was too excited!

In her previous film, "Our Times," Xiao Zhao played the female lead's best friend with limited screen time. In "The Palace," she also played a supporting role, and even injured her back during filming, which only grossed a little over 50 million yuan…

The movie didn't go viral at all, and it didn't do her any good.

This time, "Duckweed" is different; it has directly become her representative work...

And it was a huge box office success!
The box office reached 3.4 million yuan in two days.

She excitedly posted fifteen Weibo posts in one day, all sharing fun stories and photos from the shoot…

Shen Yan commented on this behavior: "A poor person suddenly becoming rich!"

She didn't care...

Just two days after the release of "Duckweed", her name has already spread throughout the entire film industry!

Her Weibo followers also began to surge...

A bunch of self-media outlets praised her performance, calling it "the biggest surprise of 'Sisters Who Make Waves'!" and "Her eyes hold the stars..."

In addition, her agent also told her that many brands had sent her business cooperation invitations—the kind of short-term cooperation, like two months!
The form of expression is simply forwarding on Weibo.

Seeing how happy she was, Shen Yan didn't want to spoil the mood, so he readily adjusted his itinerary and arrived in Guangzhou on the evening of the second day of the Lunar New Year to meet her...

To be precise, I took a nap!
(End of this chapter)