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

Chapter 746 Wanda Night (25)

"However... audiences' aesthetic standards are constantly improving. Take youth films for example. This year's May Day releases, such as 'Who's Youth Isn't Confused' and 'My Roommate Is a Detective,' received... not very good reviews, but compared to last year's 'The Left Ear,' 'Forever Young,' and the 'Tiny Times' series, they are definitely an improvement."

Shen Yan continued, "Unfortunately, the box office... one is 1.06 million, and the other is 9500 million... This shows that the audience's aesthetic taste is improving."

At this point, Shen Yan glanced at Zhang Qiang of Ali Pictures and then said, "Last year, Xu Yuanxiang of Ali Pictures said that 'the future film industry doesn't need screenwriters,' and also about 'the psychology of low-end ticket buying'... I wonder what President Zhang thinks of such a genius!"

Zhang Qiang paused for a moment, then said, "I haven't paid much attention to that..."

“Then let me explain,” Shen Yan said. “The development of film over the past hundred years has not been driven by IP and data statistics, but by human creativity! The content industry cannot be calculated, including Hollywood, which has a lot of big-budget productions that lose money every year! Can you say that they are not supported by big data?”

"Moreover, aside from popcorn flicks, shouldn't we produce one or two good films every year?"

Most commercial films produced by Hollywood each year fall into the category of cultural garbage. This garbage is like junk food – it's filling but offers no nutritional value. Aside from meeting profit targets, don't take pride in it!
Whether it's about not needing professional screenwriters or some kind of psychology about low-end ticket buying, the key issue isn't whether the methodology is correct or not, but rather a strange arrogance and condescending mentality…

For a film to survive as a commodity, it can emphasize the importance of intellectual property and data analysis tools, but it should not be elevated to a pedestal for worship, much less assume that it has gained some kind of life-or-death power and can be used to save all living beings.

Can't we be less narrow-minded about our worldview and values?
If you broaden and increase the variety and quantity of movies you watch, you won't arrive at such extreme viewpoints and methodologies!

Does that mean we can conclude that Ali Pictures' motivation for making movies is not for the sake of the films themselves, nor is it to make money by making good movies, but rather to make money by fooling the audience?

Furthermore, I truly don't understand why Alibaba, with its vast wealth, is content with merely making money from movies. Shouldn't you be aiming to produce films that will go down in cinematic history? If you want to make money, why make movies in the first place? Doesn't big data tell you that less than 5% of movies make money each year?

Zhang Qiang was speechless after being rebuked...

Fortunately, Yu Dong came to his rescue and talked about Bona Film Group's delisting from the United States.

Bona Film Group went public on NASDAQ in 2010, becoming the first Chinese film and television company to be listed on the US stock market.

Six years later, Bona decided to withdraw from the US stock market.

The reason is quite normal: US stocks are not optimistic about Chinese film and television companies!
Based on Bona Film Group's closing price on Nasdaq on June 12, Bona's total market capitalization was $7.82 million, equivalent to RMB 48.55 billion. Huayi Brothers' market capitalization on the same day was RMB 790.01 billion, more than 16 times that of Bona, while Enlight Media's market capitalization on the same day was RMB 562.58 billion, about 12 times that of Bona.

Yu Dong is definitely unhappy!

He felt that Bona Film Group was no weaker than Huayi Brothers or Enlight Media, at least not to this extent…

Unfortunately, even though Bona delisted from the US stock market and relisted in China, it missed out on those most exciting years!

……

Later that evening, Shen Yan was invited to attend Wanda Night…

The main food is crayfish!
It was indeed very lively...

不仅有派拉蒙、传奇影业、IMAX等好莱坞国际巨头助阵，在公布的30部片单中，同样有9部好莱坞背景的电影，《魔兽》《忍者神龟2：破影而出》《金刚狼3》《环太平洋2》《哥斯拉2》《科洛弗道十号》《铁拳》《裴小姐的奇幻城堡》以及《长城》。

Besides several Hollywood blockbusters, the massive list of 30 films also includes three sequels: *Mojin: The Lost Legend 2*, *One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes 2*, and *The Great Hypnotist*…

And there's also... "Battle Through the Heavens"!
This film list is truly amazing…

At this stage, Wanda is still incredibly powerful in every aspect... even its boasts are produced on an international scale!
The key is that they can actually be achieved.

Yang Mi, who was standing nearby, suddenly asked, "Why don't you go to LeShi?"

"You have bad taste!"

The first blockbuster film co-produced by LeTV and Hollywood, "Gods of Egypt," suffered a loss of over 100 million!
Adapted from Egyptian mythology, the story tells of Horus, the Egyptian god who is usurped from his throne and, with the help of mortals, embarks on a path of revenge to save his country and lover, ultimately becoming a wise and benevolent ruler…

A special effects blockbuster with a budget of $140 million and a marketing budget of at least $100 million, it grossed $150 million worldwide, with $3568 million coming from China, surpassing North America to become the highest-grossing market for "Gods of Egypt"!
"...So do you think 'The Great Wall' will be a box office success?"

Shen Yan waved his hand: "How would I know? I'm not a prophet!"

"I heard from them that you were invited to direct 'The Great Wall,' but you turned it down?"

“Yes,” Shen Yan nodded, “The main problem is that I have no say. I don’t have the power to change the script or the editing effects. What’s the point of being a director?”

Yang Mi asked suspiciously, "Hey, then why did Zhang Yi agree?"

Shen Yan thought for a moment, then said, "Maybe he thinks he can handle these things..."

As it turns out… he couldn't handle it!

……

The core of the script for "The Great Wall" is still about white people saving the world. Even if the scene of having sex before the final battle is cut, it cannot change this core!
Only white people can save the world, even if they are thugs or mercenaries.

This movie represents an era!
On the surface, the "white savior" plot is both a consistent ideological strategy of Hollywood screenwriters and a shameless act of flattery by Chinese production companies.

It's not just American celebrities who are being fawned over, but also the values ​​that the West, especially the United States, is promoting. It's like a stray dog ​​wagging its tail and begging for mercy. It can't find the roots of Chinese culture, yet it clings to the West but doesn't gain the favor of Westerners.

Unprincipled flattery will only earn you contempt, disdain, and indifference.

Fortunately, Zhang Yimou retained a last shred of decency, rejecting the "sex scene" between the white male protagonist and the female protagonist of a different race that screenwriters always include in this kind of narrative, thus preserving a fig leaf for cultural compradors.

What's most interesting is that the screenplay for this movie was written by an American. It's about a Western missionary who comes to China to steal gunpowder and unintentionally becomes a hero who saves China.

It's truly astonishing that such a story could find such a capable team in China to collaborate on filming, and that the Chinese team didn't raise any questions.

If it were today, a movie like this would never exist!

Therefore, it is a mark of an era!

From this perspective, "The Great Wall" is indeed quite meaningful.

Oh, Shen Yan attended Wanda Night simply to find a place to eat, and then Zeng Maojun from Wanda stopped him...

(End of this chapter)