1990My Entertainment System

Chapter 138 Brother Tian'er, when will you become the number one box office star in Hong Kong?
Summer's new work, "Young Justice Bao," began serialization in "Legend of Today and Yesterday."

The magazine started advertising a month in advance, in the previous issue.

The author has accumulated a large number of long-time readers over the summer, representing more than a decade of creative work.

Therefore, this episode of "Legends of the Past and Present" was highly anticipated and sold out as soon as it was released!

Although "Legends of the Past and Present" was well-prepared, its inadequacy was visibly obvious.
An early announcement said that a new novel would be serialized next summer, and it's an ancient detective story...

They printed a total of 80 copies in the first batch and are ready to print more at any time.

But readers have a solution: sales outlets in various locations have been "pre-booked"!

Goodness, a small newsstand bought 500 copies of the magazine, but more than 300 of them were pre-ordered by regular customers.

The remaining hundred-odd books were gone in just two hours this morning!

Call now to place an additional order...

"What? Out of stock? What are you guys doing? You're out of stock by noon!"

No one says that Xia Tian only writes popular novels, that he's not serious at all, and that he doesn't care about literary merit.

After all, Xia Tian has established her persona over the past ten years or so—I'm just ordinary, full of common sense, and I'm happy with it!

Besides, these days, unless it's a few senior figures in the literary world, no one else who's more than ten years older than him dares to criticize him.

After all, those people aren't necessarily as senior as him, and their status is far lower.
You can curse in your dialect, after all, many people curse him.

But if you criticize Xia Tian, ​​you're probably asking for trouble.

You don't even need to say anything; you're probably just going to hide away for a while.
……

On December 18th, "The Kung Fu Cult Master" was released in Hong Kong.

However, the audience's comments were not particularly enthusiastic.

Although it's said to be a good film, it's not that wildly popular!
The difference is very obvious when compared to "Fist of Legend" in the summer.

Although many viewers praised "The Kung Fu Cult Master", neither young nor middle-aged people discussed it enthusiastically.

Some people even offered criticism...

When "Fist of Legend" was released simultaneously in Hong Kong and mainland China on August 6, long queues formed at both cinemas in Hong Kong, with an average attendance rate of over 85% per screening!

Whether it's a morning or midnight showing, there are always large crowds. And the level of discussion surrounding it is extremely high.

There have even been cases of young people getting into fights over discussions about the fighting power rankings in "Fist of Legend"!

Moreover, this explosive popularity lasted for two weeks, and the box office revenue exceeded 3500 million in those two weeks alone!
The film was shown for more than 40 days and finally grossed more than 42 million yuan, even surpassing Stephen Chow's "Flirting Scholar" by more than 1 million yuan!
At the time, everyone in the film industry was certain that "Fist of Legend" was locked in a top-three spot at the annual box office; the only question was whether any dark horses would emerge later.

As a result, Big Nose Dragon's later works include "City Hunter" and "Major Crime Squad" (based on a real kidnapping case. In the movie, a child is trapped in a fire and is rescued by Big Nose Dragon; that child is his son, Fang Mo).

Li Lianjie's "Fong Sai-yuk" and "Once Upon a Time in China II", or Stephen Chow's "Fight Back to School III"...

None of them managed to surpass 40 million in box office revenue!
There are only two weeks left until the new year, which means that "Fist of Legend" won the number one box office in Hong Kong in 93!

Although he might only make one film a year, this one film is worth more than the combined box office of the bottom two films in the top ten!
He officially went to Hong Kong to work in the entertainment industry in 1989, and now, four years later, he has finally won first place for the year.

Congratulations.

Summer had never thought about this, since he didn't make a living from movies.

That was merely a means for him to occupy a niche and to gain fame and recognition. Moreover, starting this year, Hong Kong's box office performance has been declining year after year, like a runner-up in the Chinese New Year.

Caught at the tail end of a peak period~
……

Returning to "The Kung Fu Cult Master," its box office potential became apparent after just a few days.

After all, the box office had the halo of Li Lianjie, Wang Jing, and a group of beautiful women in the first two days, but the box office clearly declined on the third day!

A week later, its box office revenue was already comparable to that of smaller productions.

At this point, Wang Jing was in a very awkward position!
Theaters need to make money. If this film doesn't sell well, they'll reduce its screenings. If it weren't for Yong Sheng having some influence, they might be considering pulling it from theaters altogether.

But even with that prestige, it only lasted for less than three weeks.

To be precise, it was shown for 19 days before being taken off the screens.

The final box office was over HK$1100 million...

With these results, it's not even as good as Li Lizhen's "When Peach Blossoms Bloom".
This film, Yong Sheng, is intended to be comparable to Stephen Chow's previous "Royal Tramp," and there are even plans to make it into two parts.

The investment reached a staggering fifty million!
"Fist of Legend" only cost 18 million – Summer's salary was split and not included.

In other words, Yong Sheng will have to pay over 40 million yuan in damages for "The Cult Leader"—and the theaters will take a cut of that!
Another piece of bad news is that "Tai Chi Master," which was released on the 21st, also did not do well at the box office, with a final box office of 1250 million.

Now we can only see if it sells well overseas, and then we need to consider copyright issues and distribution on videotapes and DVDs.

But they must have lost a lot of money!
Yong Sheng signed Li Lianjie to a two-year, six-film contract, charging only 12 million won per film, with the sole condition of a 36 million won deposit upfront (to pay off debts owed to the goddess)... The result? Two films lost money right off the bat!
Then, the sleazy fat man, Wang Jing, was beaten and hospitalized—he was hit in the eye by an unknown person on the street and needed stitches…

As I said before, working for a boss like this is extremely difficult. Losing so much money, you're bound to get beaten up!

Of course, some people in Hong Kong say that he gave his girlfriend Xiao Zhao too many scenes, which made Zhao Min unhappy, and as a result, he was beaten up.

Anyway, I got a good beating~
However, Wang Jing is truly prolific!
That year, a total of nine of his films were released.

The cast is full of A-list and rising stars, including Stephen Chow, Big Nose Dragon, Aaron Kwok, Michelle Yeoh, Brigitte Lin, and Maggie Cheung...

He also filmed a movie called "Super School Overlord", and invited three of the Four Heavenly Kings to participate, but only Lai Ming did not come.

The lead actor is Zhang Weijian—in an attempt to cultivate a comedic actor who could replace Stephen Chow.

But the result was not very good.

Later, they even tried to promote Ge Minghui, but Stephen Chow is truly unique.

……

That year, a bunch of martial arts films were released in Hong Kong, such as "The Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain" and "The New Legend of the Condor Heroes"...

The plot of "The New Legend of the Condor Heroes" is a bit messy.

But there is a famous scene among them – “Zhang Tie Lin Feitian Da Cao Feng Sao A Zhu”!
Honestly, I really couldn't tell that this actress was the one who played A'Zhu. Her acting skills are amazing!
There's also a famous line: "I will force out what you left in my body with my internal energy."
Absolutely amazing!
There's also "The Bride with White Hair" starring Brigitte Lin and Ah Rong, and "Heroes of the Water Margin" starring Ah Fai, Joey Wong, and Xu Jinjiang...

There are too many, too many martial arts films!

The losses were so severe that many investors lost everything!

A market that's too chaotic and characterized by involutionary competition will eventually end up like this...

This year, Li Lianjie also established a film and television company, Zhengdong Company, which produced five films: "Fong Sai-yuk", "Fong Sai-yuk Sequel", "Tai Chi Master", as well as "Iron Rooster vs. Centipede" and "The Kung Fu Cult Master" in collaboration with Wang Jing.

Although the movies might not be very profitable, he officially got together with her by paying off her debts.
It was very rewarding!
(End of this chapter)