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

Chapter 762 Making outrageous remarks?

In recent years, Hong Kong directors have not only abandoned "Eastern traditional aesthetics," but the film industry has also adopted a policy of complete imitation, plagiarism, and copying of European and American fantasy films.

The most typical example is Xu Ke!
"The New Legend of Shushan Swordsman," the "A Chinese Ghost Story" trilogy, and the later "Green Snake" all embody traditional Eastern aesthetics...

In "The Legend of Shushan," Dan Chenzi and Youquan Old Monster are both typical Western monsters...

Maybe... this style is cheaper?

Then there's Yuen Woo-ping's superhero battle against aliens, "The Thousand Faces of Dunjia," produced by Tsui Hark;
The visual design of "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back" still mainly draws inspiration from Western fantasy films.

Including the Japanese style in the "Detective Dee" series...

(You're saying this thing is from the Tang Dynasty?)

Is this a step backward or a step forward?

It’s hard to say!
Including Peter Pau… the cinematographer for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," who later directed films, including "Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal"…

The movie's set design was a blatant copy of Hollywood fantasy blockbusters, and the transformed Zhong Kui clearly bore the hallmarks of a Hollywood superhero…

Why is this happening?

Because films like "Painted Skin," "Painted Wall," "The Legend of the White Snake," and "Havoc in Heaven" sold relatively well, many people believe that mainland audiences like this kind of mixed style!

It's really not...

In the past, people mainly watched movies because of the stars. If you had a star-studded cast, you would have a strong marketing campaign, and then you could make a big hit!

Now...

With the improvement of audiences' film-viewing literacy, if your movie doesn't score 7 or higher, there's no way you'll get me to buy a ticket!
"League of Gods" is exactly this kind of film, and it belongs to the very top of the category—it invited a bunch of big names.

China Star's approach to making movies is still the same as it was in the 1990s: ruin the stars!
"League of Gods" is a typical example, bringing together a large number of stars: Li Lianjie, Fan Xiaopang, Huang Xiaoming, Yang Tianbao, Louis Koo, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Wen Zhang, and Xiang Zuo.

I heard the overseas rights sold quite well…

Oh, and they also found a bunch of self-media outlets to whitewash the film, releasing all sorts of press releases like "League of Gods: A Visual Feast of East-West Fusion," "Review of the Movie 'League of Gods': A Fantastic Journey of East-West Fusion," and "League of Gods: Star-Studded Performances Dazzle the Eyes, Special Effects a Stunning Fusion of East and West!"

Besides mentioning that the box office exceeded 25 billion yuan, Yu Dong also said, "In that era of rampant piracy, China Star didn't make much money; everyone owes them a movie ticket."

Unfortunately, the marketing tactic of owing movie tickets is outdated!
……

On July 26th, the crew of "Zhou Chu Eliminates the Three Evils" arrived in Beijing…

The publicity in the past few days has mainly focused on southern cities.

Over the next two days, Kara Hui, Wu Zhenyu, and Leung Ka-fai also came…

After all, "Zhou Chu Eliminates the Three Evils" was very popular...

It can be considered the savior of this year's summer movie season - its box office reached 8.74 million yuan in its first three days.

Box office revenue on Sunday, July 24, actually increased, reaching 3.14 million yuan.

Yesterday was a workday, and the company still managed to close a 1.82 million yuan deal!
In just four days, the box office surpassed one billion yuan—reaching 10.56 billion yuan…

It set a new box office record for films starring Kara Hui, Wu Zhenyu, and Liang Jiahui.

They have no reason to refuse publicity…

Upon arrival in Beijing, Maoyan arranged a promotional event for China Film International Cinema (Party History Museum Cinema).

This cinema is a must-see for movie roadshows...

Shen Yan remained calm and answered questions from the audience and media as usual.

By the way, some media outlets asked, "What's your opinion on 'A Man Called Ouwei Decided to Die' only grossing 2.4 million yuan at the Chinese box office?"

Oh, "A Man Called Ouwei Decides to Die," released on July 1st, has grossed 240 million yuan... This result... is really good in Shen Yan's opinion!

"I'm quite surprised. You know, *Ove* is a drama film, and American drama films generally don't do very well at the domestic market... The last successful one was *The Revenant*, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio..."

"Ove is not a co-production...it's just an American drama...the difference is, I'm the producer..."

Let's talk about "Zhou Chu" instead!

On the surface, "Ove" is about interpersonal relationships, but in reality, it caters to the values ​​of the liberal left. Upon closer analysis, it is a film about relationships with immigrants that leans towards the liberal left and the ideal of a saint.

This film, which deals with immigrants, undoubtedly caters to the political correctness of the liberal left.

Therefore, Hollywood gave it high praise…

You need to know that this is an election year!

However, for mainland audiences, they are simply watching for the story…

The story of "Ove" is alright; it's basically a story about a stubborn old man helping a newcomer...

So, it sold for 2.4 million!

This also helped push "Ove" to over $4 million in global box office revenue...

It surpassed "Independence Day 2" to enter the top 20 of the 2016 global box office rankings.

As an aside, "Detective Chinatown" grossed $6.25 million worldwide, with $5.7 million coming from mainland China and $5300 million from overseas…

It's currently ranked 6th globally, but films like *Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice*, *Sing*, *Suicide Squad*, *Moana*, *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*, and *Rogue One: A Star Wars Story* haven't been released yet...

I reckon I won't even make the top ten by the end of the year...

It will most likely rank similarly to last year's "The Martian," around twelfth or thirteenth...

Let's talk about circuit performance.

One audience member asked, "How much do you think 'Zhou Chu' will ultimately gross?"

“I think we also need to see how well ‘League of Gods’ performs at the box office…” After a pause, Shen Yan added, “However, I estimate that ‘Zhou Chu’ should be able to reach 25 billion at the box office! Those people in Hong Kong who make special effects, especially for so-called fantasy blockbusters, like to do some so-called Sino-Western fusion… You can roughly tell the quality of these kinds of movies just by watching the trailer!”

"So, you think 'League of Gods' is a bad movie?"

"The movie hasn't even been released yet, so my opinion doesn't count... Let's change the subject!"

Have you seen "Skiptrace"?

"No... I'll definitely watch Jackie Chan's movies when I have time!"

"Skiptrace" grossed over 2.5 million yuan in five days, with a final box office prediction of 4.2 million yuan...

It's already pretty good—the guarantor did their best, but unfortunately, the support wasn't strong enough. What if you had directly bought 3 million yuan worth of box office revenue?
The effect will definitely be different...

Compared to films like "So Young 2," "Big Fish & Begonia," "When Larry Met Mary," and "Rock Dog," "Skiptrace" fared relatively well, while the later films were simply abandoned by theaters!

"So Young 2" stopped at 2.7 million yuan;
Big Fish & Begonia ultimately grossed 4.87 million yuan.
"When Larry Met Mary" grossed 1.32 million yuan in 11 days...

The worst performer was "Rock Dog," which ultimately grossed less than 2600 million yuan...

"So what's your opinion of Jackie Chan? His recent films have been quite mediocre..."

Shen Yan smiled and said, "...As for movies, there are investors and money involved. If Jackie Chan wants to act in one, then let's do it. You have to understand that Jackie Chan's name is already a brand name. Many actors can enhance their image by starring in Jackie Chan's movies!"

"But not many viewers are buying tickets..."

"Who says no one's buying tickets? Skip the Ducks were a huge box office success!"

(End of this chapter)