Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 303 A Grand Artist Screening and the Screening of Mei Lanfang

The Los Angeles Film Critics Circle Awards, the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, and the Broadcast Film Critics Circle Awards are known as the three major indicators of film critics' opinions.

However, since the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards are not announced until early January, the odds of winning are higher, and the former two have a greater influence on the awards season.

The first award announced was the Los Angeles Film Critics Circle Award.
The artists suffered a complete defeat here.

I only managed to get second place in a small prize!
The Best Picture award went to the animated film WALL-E, while Nolan's The Dark Knight came in second.

Commercial films were a huge success at this event.

The idea of ​​The Dark Knight being nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars has been brought up once again.

The Best Director award went to Slumdog Millionaire, and Christopher Nolan once again took second place for The Dark Knight. Artists were left speechless.

He didn't win any of the awards for Best Actor, Best Screenplay, or Best Artist.

In the end, he only won second place in Best Cinematography.
The award recipient is Jia Zhangke, a Good Samaritan of the Three Gorges.

The film *Still Life* also won Best Foreign Language Film.

His achievements are even better than those of artists.

For a time, the artist's momentum was thwarted!
The reason why these indicators are considered indicators, besides their accuracy, is largely because the nomination voting period hasn't ended yet, and they will have a certain influence on the Oscar voters.

Before Gu Bei and Michael could even discuss their strategy,
the next day,
The New York Film Critics Circle Awards were announced.

The artist went from being unwanted and unloved yesterday to being a hot topic again.

The artist swept Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. Since the New York Film Critics Circle Awards does not have a second-place award, the artist undoubtedly became the biggest winner.

WALL-E continues its undefeated record in the animated series.

The Dark Knight, however, gained nothing.

The slum millionaire, however, won a Best Photographer award, continuing to pose a threat to artists.

Awards season is never short of this kind of back-and-forth competition, with all the films vying for the attention of Academy members.

In order to solidify the artist's leading position,
Gu Bei and Michael discussed it.

Rose Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics, according to their original investment ratios, jointly spent a million dollars to host a screening.

The venue was chosen to be the Hollywood Chinese Theatre, a theatre that opened during Hollywood's golden age and has hosted numerous Academy Awards ceremonies. It was also a landmark building of that golden age.

This grand theater also has a handprint ceremony, where filmmakers leave their handprints at the theater's entrance, which predates the star-picking ceremony on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by thirty years.

Anyone who is a member of the academy can attend this screening for free.

To enhance the nostalgic atmosphere of the screening,
Michael, president of Sony Classics, even personally intervened.

Charlie Chaplin's two granddaughters were invited to host the screening.

The point is to let all the academy members who come to participate see and feel the emotions.

Sitting in the old grand theater, watching a black-and-white silent film, listening to the ceremony hosted by the descendants of stars from the golden age of cinema...
Why aren't these white men voting for the artist?
There will be a cocktail party after the screening.

Gu Bei, Leonardo, and Michael...

He approached each and every member of the academy at the party one by one to strike up a conversation.
Before they left, they presented them with a beautifully prepared gift box containing the artist's DVDs, a vintage gramophone, and the artist's original soundtrack.

As the show was ending,
Looking at the messy party scene, Gu Bei wondered, "I wonder if they'll just take the things and not do anything?"

He didn't even attend the Oscar party until the end, but this time he was involved from beginning to end, his face was almost frozen from smiling.

Leonardo DiCaprio, speaking from experience, said: "Bruce, don't overthink it. We've done what we were supposed to do!"

"Strictly speaking, this is a gift from us to them!"

Michael said helplessly, "They never promised us anything, and we never asked them for anything!"

Gu Bei nodded.

That's the theory.
But this also reflects the difference in thinking between North America and China.
In North America, it's a "you give me something, I'll take it" mentality. Since I've accepted the offer according to the rules, I don't need to promise to vote for you.

In China, if you accept something, you'll usually get the job done; if you can't, you're too embarrassed to even ask for the gift back.

Gu Bei glanced at the time: "It's almost time, I'll go home first."

After getting on the car,
Gu Bei dialed Liu Yifei's overseas call.

"Hey?"

A tired voice came from the other end of the phone.

Didn't you sleep well last night?

Gu Bei could tell at a glance that it was already 8 a.m. on the other end of the line, but Liu Yifei still sounded like she hadn't woken up yet, with a hint of laziness in her voice.

"Practicing singing!"

Liu Yifei said bitterly.

It's all Gu Bei's fault for making that rash announcement, which has now caused many fans to worry on her Weibo.

They're either worried that her performance will be cut from the Spring Festival Gala, or they're worried that her singing skills aren't good enough for the Gala. In any case, her fans are much more anxious than she is.

In order not to disappoint her fans, Liu Yifei was also forced to start rolling up her sleeves.

"The screening and reception just ended. This whole trip took six or seven hours. The group of academy members were drowsy while watching the movie, but they started getting excited after drinking."

Gu Bei couldn't help but complain that the alcohol problem in North America was really too serious.

"Hahaha!"

Liu Yifei thought of that scene, and Gu Bei looked helplessly at a group of older white men drinking heavily. "How was the feedback from the screening?"

"Playing the nostalgia card still works in the end; many people cried along the way!"

Gu Bei said lightly,
Nostalgia is indeed effective.
But English-language films from other countries are also a very useful tool.

At this year's New York Film Festival, slum millionaires demonstrated popularity no less than that of artists, and it remains to be seen who will emerge victorious during awards season!

After a pause, Gu Bei realized the purpose of the call: "How's the screening of 'Mei Lanfang' going?"

Liu Yifei shook her head: "It's not clear yet, but judging from the previous preview screenings, the feedback has been only moderately enthusiastic."

"Director Chen, he's lost the ability to tell a story properly!"

Gu Bei said with some regret.

Chen Kaige's directing skills are actually quite good.
He's just too stubborn; he always wants to do something big.

Back when film festivals were all pursuing auteur expression, Farewell My Concubine learned from Hollywood's narrative style and won the Palme d'Or.

Upon his return, the film industry was still criticizing Farewell My Concubine for not being artistic enough, which led Chen Kaige to plunge headlong into his own artistic field.

The film industry is now evolving, and people are gradually recognizing the unique aspects of Farewell My Concubine's adoption of Hollywood storytelling. However, Chen Kaige is still immersed in artistic expression and can no longer break free. After a pause, Gu Bei said, "However, I took some time to read a few film reviews, and people generally approve of your performance."

"really?"

Liu Yifei's tone was somewhat surprised, "I thought everyone wouldn't approve, but during the preview screening, everyone was praising Teacher Li Ming and Teacher Zhang Ziyi."

"The people at the preview screening were all praising each other; everyone was there to support Director Chen, so naturally they had to praise the male and female leads."

Gu Bei said calmly, "Actually, from what I've seen in the film reviews, people don't seem to approve of Li Ming, and Chen Hong doesn't seem to be very good either, but Zhang Ziyi did a pretty good job."

Liu Yifei sat down in front of the computer.

Her latest Weibo post promoting Mei Lanfang is now filled with praise.

"Sisi's performance of Mei Lanfang this time was excellent. It's a pity that it was only in the early part. After Fu Zhifang grew up, Sisi couldn't perform it anymore!"

"Isn't the first segment the most brilliant part of Director Chen's Mei Lanfang performance this time? Both Xixi and the male actor performed very well. It would have been even better if they hadn't changed the actors!"

"Sisi has really made something of herself. Her performances in Director Chen and Director Gu's films are on par with those of seasoned actors. I'm really looking forward to seeing your performance!"

Liu Yifei was very happy to see these comments.

Her goal is to go all the way in the acting field, just like her idol, Audrey Hepburn.

But previously, everyone seemed to focus on her beauty.

People either don't care about her acting skills, or they praise her beauty along with her acting.

This is the first time that my acting skills have been recognized by everyone!
As a key project of China Film Group,
This time, Mei Lanfang's publicity campaign not only spent tens of millions of yuan on advertising on CCTV,
Meanwhile, 600 physical copies were also released in major cinemas across the country, plus more than 700 digital copies, for a total of more than 1300 copies, making it the feature film with the most copies ever.

It was only the first day.
Mei Lanfang's box office revenue exceeded 20 million!
This result cannot be described as very bad, but it cannot be described as very good either; at least it does not match the massive scale of Mei Lanfang's publicity.

In particular, the evaluation of Mei Lanfang was not very good.

Chen Kaige, along with China Film Group and a biographical subject of Mei Lanfang, primarily aimed to recreate the miracle of Farewell My Concubine.

But within Mei Lanfang's massive entourage,
The three most famous lead actors, Li Ming, Zhang Ziyi, and Chen Hong, have all been criticized by the audience.

The most brilliant part of the entire film is actually the first part, which features the young Liu Yifei and Yu Shaoqun.

Especially Liu Yifei,

The previous Whiplash player had too little screen time.
The later Forbidden Kingdom film suffered from significant plot problems.

This time, however, the audience finally changed their opinion of Liu Yifei's acting skills.

Because Liu Yifei had a significant amount of screen time this time, and was even the female lead in the first part, the plot issues that arose later in the series did not affect the positive reception of the first part.

Many people said that after watching this part, they regained their confidence in Chen Kaige, but after watching the later parts, they found that Chen Kaige was still Chen Kaige.

But anyway,

Mei Lanfang's performance on December 12th still kicked off the Lunar New Year film season.
After earning over 2000 million yuan on its opening day, Mei Lanfang continued to hold the top spot at the box office, taking in 6000 million yuan in its first week.

With this box office performance, surpassing 100 million yuan should be no problem.

However, for Mei Lanfang, who invested over 100 million yuan, that was merely a passing grade; it was practically impossible to recoup the investment through domestic box office revenue.

Fortunately, Mei Lanfang was nominated for the Berlin International Film Festival.
It's practically impossible to catch a bear.
However, given the fame of "Farewell My Concubine," Mei Lanfang could still make a profit by selling the copyright.

……

Huayi.

"what's the situation?"

Wang Zhonglei looked at the box office results announced by Mei Lanfang with a somewhat serious expression.

With 6000 million in the first three days, it seems completely unaffected by the fierce competition from the West Winds.

Looking at the box office performance of West Wind, with a first-week gross of 2500 million in three days, it seems that West Wind was actually influenced by Mei Lanfang.

For a film with an investment of 6000 million, this result makes it difficult to break even.

Moreover, Xi Fenglie can't recoup his costs by selling so many copyrights like Mei Lanfang!
"Judging from word of mouth, West Wind is quite well received. Everyone really likes Director Gao's action scenes and car chase scenes!"

Chen Guofu explained to Wang Zhonglei that, after all, he was the one who spearheaded this film.

"But the box office performance was poor!"

Wang Zhonglei said with a displeased expression.

What's the use of word-of-mouth?

If it has the critical acclaim of an art film, then the copyright can be sold.

However, West Wind is a very pure action movie, and it's a Western-style action movie, so it's basically impossible to sell the rights to it in overseas markets!
"It seems that audiences don't like Western-style movies!" Chen Guofu explained helplessly.

"That……"

Wang Zhonglei wanted to say something more.

Wang Zhongjun interrupted him: "Alright, this was just an experiment. It's clear that Chinese audiences don't like this type of film, so let's not invest in this kind of project again!"

After a pause,

Wang Zhongjun glanced at Mei Lanfang's box office numbers and said with a gloomy face, "The only bad thing this time is that Mei Lanfang was not affected by Xifenglie at the same time."

Wang Zhonglei asked in confusion, "What does this mean?"

Wang Zhongjun explained, "The domestic film market is already large enough to accommodate two blockbusters of different genres!"

After a pause, he continued, "I think this year should be a very crucial year; we should increase the publicity budget for 1942."
This movie may be released just before our Huayi Brothers goes public.

We must ensure that 1942 defeats Gu Bei's "The Message" and becomes the champion of the National Day film season.

This is extremely important for Huayi's stock price on its listing day!

……

Gu Bei took a look at China's film market.

It's mainly Liu Yifei's portrayal of Mei Lanfang.
Mei Lanfang still suffers from the same top-heavy problem as in his previous life. This time, the first part was filmed better, making the movie seem of higher quality, but in reality, the top is even heavier.

Mei Lanfang's box office performance was slightly better than in his previous life, but not by much.

On the contrary, Liu Yifei benefited a lot from this.
Chen Kaige's senior status in the film industry drew many people to see this movie.
Everyone naturally noticed Liu Yifei, who gave the best performance in the first part of Mei Lanfang.

After paying attention to Mei Lanfang
Gu Bei's attention returned to La La Land.

Due to the popularity of the film "The Artist," La La Land has also received a lot of attention.

(End of this chapter)