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

Chapter 734 is quite a pity (44)

Guo Fan has indeed lost a lot of weight!

When Shen Yan approached him to film "Our Times," he was still quite chubby...

Now, he's thin and angular!
It's definitely not a superhuman...

Zhang Yi is a special case—she worked on many projects simultaneously, had absolute control over each one, did everything herself, and none of them were easy…

The key point is that she still managed to have three children after the age of 60…

Yu Minhong is the same. Watching Yu Minhong's live stream, this guy is over sixty years old and spends more than ten hours a day live streaming mountain climbing. He also has to explain the culture while live streaming. The young people next to him are exhausted, but this guy doesn't look tired at all. The key is that his mind is still clear.

—When New Oriental was first established, Yu Minhong was kidnapped. The dose of anesthesia he was given was the kind used on elephants, which would have killed an ordinary person, but he was unharmed!
Shen Yan wasn't particularly energetic...

It's only so-so; he needs to sleep at least five hours every day!

Even less than Kim Ji-won—When Kim Ji-won was interviewed and asked about her sleep, she said she needs at least 3-4 hours of sleep, and today she slept for about 6 hours. As a result, the reporter joked, "The beauty is a sleepyhead!"

Uh, six hours of sleep already makes you sleepy?
Shen Yan continued, "You're worrying too much. Let me tell you, our industrial standards are already very high. Just tell the producer what you want, and they'll make it happen for you!"

"...Brother, you make it sound so nice, but it's supposed to be released during next year's Spring Festival. Filming hasn't even started yet, how can I not be anxious?"

"With a cost of 4.5 million, in which time slot can we recoup the investment?"

Lu Yang nodded: "Indeed, these days, big-budget productions with investments exceeding 3 million are basically all scheduled for the Spring Festival season..."

Shen Yan thought for a moment, then said, "The summer season is also an option, after all, it's a combination of shopping mall and cinema... but there are too many blockbusters in the summer season, and from the company's operational perspective, it's not appropriate not to release a blockbuster during the Spring Festival!"

"Are cinemas now operating under a shopping mall + cinema model?"

"Of course! Moreover, the Chinese market is now large enough that its cinema ecosystem can support at least five top-quality films a year..."

"Top-tier production?"

"A box office of over 2 billion...that means the cost can be around 100 million US dollars. If Chinese films can successfully go overseas, the pressure to break even will be reduced...but it seems a bit difficult now!"

In the current market ecosystem, cinema chains and theaters occupy a very important position!
There are now many peripheral effects supporting the film industry – the creation of a modern shopping mall ecosystem has provided the film industry with a large-scale and dignified environment for content production.

However, with the spread of games such as murder mystery games and escape rooms, the status of cinemas in the shopping mall ecosystem has begun to decline.

Once a brand-new model emerges—the duration can vary, generally from 20 minutes to several hours—it can provide social interaction with strangers, offering interactivity and a crowd-gathering effect.

The cinema's position in the shopping mall immediately declined!
However, this wasn't something Shen Yan should be thinking about; he was currently discussing "The Wandering Earth" with Guo Fan...

"Don't put too much pressure on yourself. There are three groups: A, B, and C. Lu Yang will be in charge of group B, and Han Yan will be filming group C... There will definitely be enough time!"

"You're basically only giving me 100 days for filming..."

Shen Yan was speechless: "Big brother, a hundred days isn't enough? Isn't that going too far?"

Lu Yang suddenly asked, "What are your box office expectations for 'The Wandering Earth'?"

"40 billion!"

"to be frank!"

"I'm telling the truth...it really is 40 billion!"

Upon hearing Shen Yan's box office prediction, before Lu Yang could even speak, Guo Fan sighed, "Sigh... I'm under pressure again!"

"Stay calm, as long as we film according to plan, the audience will support us!"

Shen Yan is full of confidence in "The Wandering Earth"...

In the original timeline, thanks to Wu Jing's starring role, China Film Group captured 15% of the screenings on its opening day, and then began its comeback to take first place on the third day...

Keep in mind that there were several other movies released in the same period, including "Crazy Alien," "The New King of Comedy," "Pegasus," "The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang," and "Boonie Bears."
Crazy Alien brings together two comedy heavyweights, Huang Bo and Shen Teng…

Moreover, this marks Ning Hao's return to the "Crazy" series ten years after "Crazy Racer"...

It was completely wiped out by "The Wandering Earth"!
With Shen Yan joining the team this time, director Guo Fan's fame has also increased significantly compared to the original timeline—he has the titles of co-director of "Our Times," "Sheep Without a Shepherd," and "The Martian"...

There's no reason why it shouldn't be better than the original.

As for the same release period…

Honestly, next year's Spring Festival film season is arguably the easiest in recent years, with movies like *Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back*, *Kung Fu Yoga*, *Buddies in India*, and *The Village That Forgot*...

Neither of them are very good!

By the way, "Ip Man 3" has been censored...

The investigation confirmed over 7600 screenings, involving box office revenue of 3200 million yuan. This portion of the box office revenue will be deducted from the original statistics.

Furthermore, several cinemas reduced the number of screenings for "Ip Man 3"—on its tenth day of release, "Gods of Egypt" was released, directly taking away screenings that were originally intended for "Ip Man 3"...

The number of screenings has been cut in half from 31% to only 15%.

By March 18th, with the release of three new films—The Revenant, The Formula of Love, and Los Angeles Mischief—Ip Man 3's screenings had dwindled to less than 6%...

Needless to say, *The Revenant* is a film starring Zhao Liying, and *The Formula of Love* is a movie with Zhao Liying in it…

This is a terrible movie. The director is Guo Dalei, whose father, Guo Liyun, came from a performing arts troupe and was a top-tier stage actor.

Why does Shen Yan know so much?

He was approached for a role in this drama, and they even offered him a 2000 million yuan salary—they just wanted to ride on the coattails of "Boss & Me"...

However, Shen Yan did not agree to the role…

In short, despite grossing 4.42 million yuan in its opening week, "Ip Man 3" ultimately did not reach 8 million yuan!
It's a real shame. "Ip Man 3" was actually quite good. If it had been released normally and without resorting to these underhanded tactics, it would have had a chance to reach 9 million yuan at the box office.

The Ip Man series is considered the last peak of Hong Kong action films!
Although the plots are getting more and more exaggerated, they still adhere to the three essential elements of a good story: ethnic hatred, beating up foreigners, and exciting action scenes.

In terms of action scenes, each film is indeed better than the last.

Especially after the third film—the action director was changed to Yuen Woo-ping!
The quality of the action scenes has improved significantly.

The third action sequence begins with Donnie Yen and Zhang Jin showcasing two distinctly different Wing Chun styles—Donnie Yen's style is more fluid and persistent, while Zhang Jin's is more aggressive. This culminates in an elevator fight against a Muay Thai fighter, highlighting the advantages of close-quarters combat. The fight against Tyson, and finally the Wing Chun confrontation with Zhang Jin, demonstrates Wing Chun's six-and-a-half-point staff, eight-cut broadsword, sticky hands, and the fundamental two-character clamp stance. It also emphasizes that the core and most authentic aspect of martial arts should be the generation of power…

The fourth installment is also good. In fact, in the third installment, Yuen Woo-ping had already shown all aspects of Wing Chun. The fourth installment is likely to fall into clichés—not in terms of the plot, because the plot is already clichés. The clichés in the fight scenes refer to the tendency to fall into the trap of getting beaten up → flashbacks → unleashing one's inner power.

However, Yuen Woo-ping ingeniously approached the story from the perspective of Ip Man's old age and physical decline, and throughout the film, he conveyed the idea that "old age is not about physical strength." In the fight against the Marine Corps instructor, he used the three-piece set of "eye gouging, throat strike, and groin strike" to turn defeat into victory!
Although this scene has been discussed and criticized by many, who believe it lacks the demeanor of a grandmaster, Yuen Woo-ping actually unveiled the veil that traditional martial arts had been embellished by scholars throughout history, telling everyone, "Since your kung fu is no good, if you don't resort to some underhanded tactics, who do you think you can beat?"

During his live stream, Shen Yan explicitly stated, "The era of Hong Kong-style traditional action films with choreographed moves will likely end with the Ip Man series... It's quite a pity, as the Ip Man series is one of the more well-known traditional Chinese action films of the last decade!"

(End of this chapter)