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

Chapter 705 A Crushing Victory (24)

The film industry is very closed and places great emphasis on seniority!
Shen Yan... is not from a professional acting background and even rejected an offer from the Beijing Film Academy...

When it comes to box office revenue, the audience has the final say, but when it comes to awards, it's a bunch of industry insiders who make the decisions.

Actually, not only Shen Yan, but Zhang Jiayi was also set up!
He didn't even get a Best Actor nomination for his role in "Lost and Love"...

Even Liao Fan's "Black Coal, Thin Ice" did not receive a nomination.

Best Actor nominees: Shen Yan (Burning), Sun Weimin (Target No. 1), Deng Chao (Brotherhood of Blades), Zhang Hanyu (The Taking of Tiger Mountain), and Chen Jianbing (A Spoon)...

There are connections behind these nominations. Sun Weimin and Deng Chao were designated from the beginning as cannon fodder to accompany the crown prince in his studies.

Deng Chao in "Brotherhood of Blades" was by no means his peak performance; it was just a regular performance.

Sun Weimin... even less likely. The movie "Target No. 1" is not good. The art direction, cinematography and music are too bad, which turned a good story that should have been a blockbuster into a Spring Festival Gala skit.

It seems that Shen Yan has a chance…

He has absolutely no chance.

Giving him a nomination was already the limit—the Hunan Film Group behind him pulled some strings!
After all, Hunan Film Group was also a co-distributor of the domestic release of "Burning"...

Therefore, from the very beginning, it was Zhang Hanyu versus Chen Jianbing.

However, Chen Jianbing is a newcomer to the film industry. Although he has extensive experience in television, his experience in film is not even comparable to that of Deng Chao.

That's how it works: senior members who are based on seniority are nominated, while those who are truly a threat are not!

It's actually quite normal; awards all over the world are like that.

The same goes for the Oscars. Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for Best Actor for "The Revenant." It wasn't because the film he starred in was particularly good; it was because he had accumulated enough experience, and there weren't any outstanding big stars that year, so he was given the award.

Similarly, consider Lau Ching-wan's Hong Kong Film Awards. His first win was for "I Want to Be Famous," after being nominated and losing countless times. It would be unreasonable to deny him this time…

To be honest, although Lau Ching-wan's performance in "I Want to Be Famous" was good, it wasn't anything special.

His previous nominations, "The Big Bullet," "The Eye," and the following year's "Mad Detective," were more outstanding and could be considered his representative works, but the timing was wrong, so he couldn't win the award.

In comparison, Shen Yan is in a much worse situation…

He wasn't even qualified to join this queuing system...

Because he is not a mainstream filmmaker
At least in the eyes of these critics, he is not a mainstream filmmaker!
Of course, Shen Yan didn't care at all.

It's not that he doesn't care; he still felt wronged for "The Martian"...

During the live broadcast, he said directly, "I don't care that 'Burning' didn't win any awards... it already won Venice and the Oscars anyway. But 'The Martian,' a benchmark of domestic industrial science fiction films, didn't even give me a single award. Moreover, with a box office of 38.64 billion yuan and overseas box office of over 60 million US dollars, it squeezed into the top 15 of this year's global box office chart... I'm still quite disappointed that such a film didn't receive recognition from the 'most professional' awards in China!"

"Movies need audience support. What's the point of constantly going against the audience? Does it make you seem more sophisticated? A bunch of judges are still stuck in the morbid mentality that 'how can something that ordinary people like be good?'"

"It's okay, I believe the upcoming Huabiao Awards will vindicate 'The Martian'..."

"...Let's not talk about this anymore, I'm filming 'Detective Chinatown'...yes, the director is Chen Sicheng!"

"Chen Sicheng is quite talented. He understands the market very well and is willing to spend time studying it... Moreover, he is willing to make movies that entertain the masses, which surpasses many filmmakers. Many of our film directors make movies not to entertain the masses, but to showcase themselves."

Therefore, he insists on shooting with a very artistic flair, making the story seem profound and mysterious, and writing the dialogue in a very enigmatic way. The most crucial point is that such directors don't consider the audience's viewing experience at all, yet they still want to make money from them. If they don't make money, they blame the audience for lacking taste or being unworthy. "I despise this kind of director the most!"

"Detective Chinatown will be released during next year's Spring Festival, and its competitor will be The Mermaid... Yes, a Stephen Chow movie." At this point, Shen Yan suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said, "I'm afraid that The Mermaid's publicity team will use 'We all signed a movie ticket with Stephen Chow' as a marketing tactic!"

"After all, he's the king of comedy, and he's been with us for a long time!"

"We'll see when the time comes... Anyway, I think the script for 'Detective Chinatown' is pretty good..."

……

In the original timeline, the huge success of "The Mermaid" owed much to the nationwide marketing campaign, "We owe Stephen Chow a movie ticket!"
By the way, many people say that Stephen Chow never said that, and that it's all marketing hype…

He actually said that!
Mass marketing, plus sentimentality…

It contributed to the box office miracle of "The Mermaid"!

As for the film itself, it's at best a passing grade...

But Stephen Chow's sentimentality is too valuable!
It will be very difficult for "Detective Chinatown" to beat him!
However, "Never Say Die" still managed to surpass "Lost in Hong Kong"...

On September 24th, "Never Say Die" opened with a box office of 170 million yuan. The next day, "Lost in Hong Kong" was released, with a single-day box office of 1.35 million yuan, while "Never Say Die" grossed 120 million yuan.
On the third day, September 26th, "Never Say Die" grossed 1.68 million yuan and "Lost in Hong Kong" grossed 1.72 million yuan.
By September 27th, "Lost in Hong Kong" had grossed 140 million yuan in a single day, and "Never Say Die" had grossed 1.52 million yuan…

The situation has turned around!

On September 28th, a working day, "Lost in Hong Kong" grossed 7257 million HKD, while "The Man with the Iron Fist" grossed 9168 million HKD!
Crucially, "Never Say Die" didn't do much offline promotion; the director and lead actors only retweeted a message about the film's box office success on Weibo...

The lead actor, Allen, even came all the way to Thailand—he plays the biggest idiot in the group of five!
To achieve high box office returns for "Lost in Hong Kong," Xu Zheng went to great lengths, collaborating with Taopiaopiao to generate a large number of 6.6 yuan movie tickets.
During the promotional period, Xu Zheng's Weibo was filled with behind-the-scenes footage and his emotional journey during filming...

Various forms of paid Weibo push advertising...

It's not very useful. Yes, theaters strongly support "Lost in Hong Kong." On September 25th, when "Lost in Hong Kong" was released, "The Man with the Iron Fist" immediately saw its screenings drop to 35%, while "Lost in Hong Kong" reached 49%...

It's not very effective, but the quality speaks for itself.

Moreover, you can give rebates to cinemas, but I can't?

You can use vote-buying subsidies, but I can't?
Most importantly, after its release, the negative reviews for "Lost in Hong Kong" spread very quickly…

In particular, Cai Lala, played by Bao Beier, was criticized relentlessly.

They were really cursing!

To be honest, Bao Beier wasn't the only one who performed poorly in "Lost in Hong Kong"; Zhao Yanzi's performance was also a complete disaster...

But everyone was busy criticizing Bao Beier…

Bao Beier's shortcomings are too obvious.

"Never Say Die" has no weaknesses; even Allen has built up a muscular physique...

—Shen Yan will not allow the project to be approved until he builds up his muscles!
This was a complete stomp!

(End of this chapter)