Chapter 245: Box office hit! Record breaking!

Zhang Qizhao is still the deputy director and will probably retire in a few years.

In the past few years, he was very motivated to move up. In order to make the jump from the principal of Linshan No. 1 Middle School to the Municipal Education Bureau, he really put in a lot of effort, and even his actions were greatly deformed.

Thinking about it now, he almost wanted to laugh at himself at that time.

So what if I entered the Municipal Education Bureau? So what if I became the deputy director? Isn't it still like that? Moreover, his son has now become the assistant to the chairman of the Lightning Group and will be in charge of the group in a few years.

As his children have achieved success, his desire for power as a father has faded, and he obviously feels quite detached and at ease.

And now, Deputy Director Zhang has become a direct descendant of the Lightning Group. As long as a new work comes out, he will support it.

Before, he had also watched "Crazy Stone" and "Love Is Not Blind".

Seriously…

Not particularly fond of it either.

Especially "Love Is Not Blind", which was totally incomprehensible to me, but his daughter was very touched by it.

This time, as "The Last Days" was such a big movie, he also drove his car and took his wife and daughter to Hangzhou to watch the movie, just like celebrating a holiday.

This time...

He understood.

And I like it very much.

This movie is good.

Even as he watched, he felt waves of doubt.

Is this person my student?

Although he was already very outstanding at that time, he won the first prize of New Concept and ranked first in the city in the college entrance examination.

But when I watched this movie, I still felt a sense of strangeness.

Is this my student's work?

Not only him, but the entire audience was basically fascinated by the performance.

The audiences of this era have seen too little of the world, and were immediately attracted by the grand scenes and the thrilling plot rhythm.

Good, this movie is good.

It’s much better than “House of Flying Daggers” and “A World Without Thieves”.

I couldn't bear to blink for even a minute.

Two hours later, the movie ended, but many viewers were still reluctant to leave.

Of course, there was no applause. The audience of this era has not learned that yet. Even when they walked out, they were still full of praise.

“This movie is so good.”

"Yeah, I kind of want to watch it again."

When Xiao Wanli and Li Fangfang walked out of the cinema, they happened to meet Zhang Qizhao's family.

"Director Zhang?" Li Fangfang asked in surprise, "Are you here to watch a movie too?"

Zhang Qizhao said: "Yes, why are you here too?"

Li Fangfang instinctively wanted to say, this movie was made by our Xiaoxiao, of course I have to watch it.

But, when she was about to say it, she stopped immediately.

Because she remembered that Zhang Qizhao seemed to have some conflicts with Lin Xiao. When Lin Xiao was given a serious warning by the school, Paopao begged Zhang Qizhao several times, and Li Fangfang even called personally, but Zhang Qizhao did not cancel the warning.

Of course, she didn't mean revenge. It is better to have less things to do than more.

If I tell him about Bubble and Xiaoxiao, then I'll need to invite him to the wedding, which would be so embarrassing.

Li Fangfang said: "Yes, I have nothing to do, so I came to Hangzhou to hang out and watch a movie."

When she said this, her heart was filled with a sense of superiority.

I won’t tell you that this movie was made by my son-in-law, and our Bubble has become a famous screenwriter.

Zhang Qizhao smiled and said, "What a coincidence, me too."

He is also full of superiority in his heart. I won’t tell you that my son is now the assistant to the chairman of Lightning Group.

After a brief greeting, the two sides dispersed.

………………………………

The next day, filmmaker Cheng Qingsong published a film review.

"The Last Days" is more than ten years ahead of Chinese films! I have watched the first two films of Master Ergou, but my overall evaluation of them is not very high. Even though the quality of these two films is very good, they did not give much impetus to the film industry.

But "The Last Days" is completely different.

He completely broke away from the constraints of traditional themes and chose the most difficult field.

When he announced this project at the second Facebook Night, I was extremely pessimistic.

I even feel that this is like wanting to run before learning to walk.

Science fiction and doomsday themes are exclusive to Hollywood. No other country can produce them well or even at all.

But when I actually entered the cinema, it brought me not only surprise, but also shock.

At first, I went to watch this movie thinking it was a zombie movie.

Audiences may not be familiar with this type of movie, but I have seen all the zombie movies. It is a very small track and a type of movie with a very low ceiling.

"Dawn of the Dead 2004" is the ceiling of this genre, and it is already Hollywood's top production.

However, I can declare without hesitation that "The Last Days" completely surpasses the Hollywood-produced "Dawn of the Dead 2004", and it surpasses it in all aspects.

Whether it is the plot, special effects, pictures, rhythm, structure, scenes and so on.

This is not a zombie movie, it is a disaster movie, and an A-level big production.

In fact, even in Hollywood, it is no longer the golden age of disaster films. "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow" seem to have exhausted all of Hollywood's luck in this field, and it has become difficult to come up with new ideas.

Moreover, this kind of A-level disaster film often has a problem, that is, the scenes are grand but the plot is weak.

Zombie movies have another problem: they are narrow, gloomy, and have a small scale.

However, "The Last Days" completely avoids these problems. First of all, as a movie, it has a very outstanding plot and first-class acting.

And in the big scenes, it also gives people a huge surprise. In key scenes, a lot of money is invested to create a grand momentum.

So there is no doubt that this is a world-class work.

Leader Ergou handed in a perfect answer, an answer that exceeded my expectations.

If this kind of movie cannot break the box office record, it will undoubtedly be a tragedy for the entire film market.

Finally, let’s compare the two movies “Kung Fu” and “The Walking Dead”.

Both of these films are classics, worthy of being recorded in the history of Chinese-language films.

If I were to give a score, from an artistic perspective, I would give "Kung Fu" a higher score.

But from a commercial perspective, from the perspective of a very ordinary audience, "The Last Days" would be higher.

Many scenes in "Kung Fu" are of artistic level. The acting skills and shots are all pinnacle works. It can be used as a classic teaching material in many film schools.

But if you are an ordinary audience, there is no doubt that "The Last Days" will be better to watch. It will meet all your needs and even exceed them.

And there is no doubt that "The Last Days" has given a huge boost to the film industry, so I say that it is at least ten years ahead of Chinese-language films!

If it were a Hollywood movie, it would be a masterpiece.

But it is a Chinese-language film, so it is a great masterpiece.

Finally, Teacher Cheng gave a very high evaluation to the work of Master Ergou.

………………………………

Almost from that evening, all social networks, QQ groups, and forums exploded.

Countless posts, countless messages, and almost overwhelming applause.

Even Lin Xiao was surprised by this situation.

Although this movie is indeed of high quality and a lot of extra money was spent to add several super big scenes, but does it deserve such great praise? But soon Lin Xiao understood the reason.

Because this is late 2004, not 2016.

When this movie came out in 2016, it caused a widespread sensation, let alone at the end of 2004 when everyone was relatively ignorant of it?

In this era, there is only one blockbuster Chinese-language film.

That's "Hero", so it set a box office record of 250 million a few years ago.

But in fact, for domestic audiences, "Hero" is a blockbuster, but not surprising. Because it is a traditional Chinese martial arts film plus a war film, it is not new.

However, "The Last Days" is unique and refreshing.

What's more, its plot is far more exciting and thrilling.

So to some extent, this movie has already enjoyed the same treatment as "The Wandering Earth".

Domestic audiences are very enthusiastic about breakthroughs in subject matter, genres, and the film industry.

Even though the quality of "Fengshen 1" was not that high, because it was the first truly epic fantasy film in China, the audience showed great enthusiasm and it earned a box office of 2.6 billion yuan.

………………………………

With this explosive reputation, the movie gradually began to gain popularity.

The so-called going out of the circle means that many audiences who originally did not watch movies also went to the cinema.

Almost every upgrade of the film market is achieved by relying on popular works.

The entire creative team also began an extremely busy publicity journey.

I have to rush to different cities every day and appear on various televisions and media every day.

Whether it is director Ning Hao, Wu Jing, or Li Duanduan, they have all become extremely popular.

Especially Wu Jing. By the time he promoted the movie, he had lost weight again and became very strong.

And his role in this movie is so easy to stand out.

So fierce, so strong as an ox, yet so gentle.

In fact, Lin Xiao still felt a little regretful when watching the finished film. Wu Jing's expressiveness is still not as good as Ma Dongseok's after all. There is nothing he can do about it. It's really because of his appearance.

Only Ma Dong-seok can perform such an extreme contrast.

But because there is no comparison, there will be no harm.

In the eyes of all audiences, the role of Wu Jing is already very, very outstanding.

The entire creative team went to Hong Kong and Taiwan to promote the film. In just a few days, they appeared on Phoenix TV, TVB, and several programs in Taiwan.

Ning Hao said: "Making a movie of this level is a kind of happiness, but more of a pain."

"Because after prosperity comes deep loneliness."

“Because you want to reach higher peaks, but works like this are hard to come by.”

"Crazy Racing was already a very high starting point, and The Last Days directly lifted me to such a high level, but in a sense, this height does not belong to me."

“So I have to calm down completely next.”

Wu Jing said: "Yes, I will also completely forget about this movie next time. Only in this way can I enter a new state. Director Ning, the company asked you to direct a comedy next time, right? Can you take me with you in "Lost in Thailand"?"

Ning Hao: "I don't want you. You don't have any comedic talent. You should go to SPL and play your villain well. You have a bright future."

Wu Jing expressed the action of crying.

The host asked: "Lost in Thailand? Is this a pure comedy?"

Ning Hao: "It is a comedy and also a romance, but it has a very good structure. After all, the script was written by the leader and I together. Everyone knows the importance of the leader Ergou."

The host looked at Li Duanduan next to him and asked: "Are you the heroine of "Heart Flower Road"? "

Ning Hao: "She is not, she is too beautiful."

The heroine of "Lost in Thailand" really seems to be tailor-made for Yuan Quan. She is full of literary and artistic atmosphere, somewhat pretty, but not that pretty.

………………………………

The night of the 24th is Christmas Eve.

These days, Christmas is at its most popular time in the country.

The cinema was at its busiest that night.

Then the 25th is Christmas Day and the 26th is Sunday.

Looking at the huge crowds in the cinema, many people couldn't help but look forward to next Tuesday.

Because at that time, Manager Liu of Sichuan Pacific will announce the box office data of the previous week.

Whenever a phenomenal movie comes out, many box office experts emerge.

Even people who don’t usually pay attention to movies will always pay attention to box office data.

It was the same when Wolf Warriors, The Wandering Earth, and Nezha 2 were all released.

Manager Liu also felt that the responsibility on his shoulders was extremely heavy.

Almost since the 27th, she has been in the office, urging the box office data of various cinemas.

“Hurry up, hurry up…”

“Do you know how many people are waiting for box office data?”

"If I can't deliver the data as scheduled, how can I live up to the expectations of so many fans?"

The result was that starting from the evening of the 27th, the official website of Sichuan Pacific Cinemas almost crashed because so many people were desperately refreshing the page.

Normally, box office data will not be released until next Tuesday or even next Wednesday.

This time was so special that it was almost completed at around 10 o'clock on Monday night.

Looking at the form in his hand, Manager Liu couldn't help but say, "Movie theaters across the country are celebrating the New Year."

Then, she released the box office data on the Sichuan Pacific Cinemas official website and Facebook at the same time.

"The Last Days" grossed 139 million in its first week! "Kung Fu" grossed 87 million in its first week! When this data came out, all movie fans were shocked.

It is indeed a feast for the film industry. The previous first-week box office record was 85 million! And now, not only has "The Last Journey" far exceeded this record, even "Kung Fu" has directly broken this record.

When Zhou Xingchi got this data, he breathed a sigh of relief and was even excited.

The first week box office data was much better than he had expected.

In fact, this figure is about 20 to 30 million higher than the first-week box office of "Kung Fu" in history.

It was really because of the mutual promotion between "The Last Days" and "Kung Fu" that caused the moviegoers' carnival, so both movies sold well at the box office.

Because both sides strongly recommend each other's movies.

Therefore, many people couldn't help but buy movie tickets for "Kung Fu" after watching "The Last Days", and vice versa.

…………………………

Inside Huayi Company, Mr. Wang and Mr. Feng Dapao all looked gloomy.

Because after these two movies were released, the box office of "A World Without Thieves" was not just cut in half, but cut by an ankle.

Although "Kung Fu" was distributed by Huayi Taihe and was able to make a lot of money, "A World Without Thieves" is the legitimate film.

Of course, to be honest, the quality of "A World Without Thieves" is actually very good.

Its original historical box office was around 126 million, but now it is stuck at around 100 million. But even so, it still makes money. The investment in this movie is about 30 million, and the domestic box office alone can recover the cost. Moreover, Feng Dapao’s movies can recoup their costs even without being released, as his films have an unusually large number of advertisements.

But there is a saying that watching your enemy succeed is more painful than losing money yourself.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

But "The Last Days" is more than just a success.

If this continues, the Lightning system's position in the entertainment industry will become increasingly powerful.

By then, the Beijing circle, the Northwest circle, and the Hong Kong circle will all be torn apart.

then……

An article appeared on the Internet.

Master Ergou, ask yourself, is "The Last Days" a Chinese-language film?

This movie was shot in South Korea, and most of the actors are Korean, even one of the directors is Korean, and you told me it is a Chinese-language movie?

Many viewers actually cheered for it?

Does the success of "The Last Days" have anything to do with Chinese films?

This is clearly a victory for Korean films, and this is clearly an invasion of Korean culture into China.

Don’t you know how much Koreans look down on Chinese people? Don’t you know how much Chinese culture Koreans have plagiarized? Koreans are America's running dogs. They follow America to blockade China. Don't you know that?

The leader of Ergou betrayed his country for personal gain. Could it be that China couldn’t find a filming location? Is it impossible to find good actors and directors in China? But we have to spend money to promote Korean movies? This person is clearly a traitor, and you are still cheering for him? It's shameful, ridiculous and sad! With the help of someone with ulterior motives, this article quickly spread across the entire Internet, and began to appear in newspapers and on television, immediately triggering a war of public opinion.

And this war of words is getting more and more intense.

One side believes that this movie was written by Ergou, with Chinese capital, a Chinese director, and two of the three leading actors are Chinese.

Moreover, even the male lead, Lee Jung-jae, is a Chinese Korean, and he communicates with his daughter in Chinese. Even most of the dialogue in this movie is in Chinese. Why can't it be called a Chinese-language movie?

Is it because the movie was shot in Korea? Then I would like to ask, Master Ergou wants to shoot in the country, but the key is, is it possible? But neither side could convince the other.

Extremists believe that the film should be completely removed from the shelves.

There were even voices saying that this movie was too bloody, how come it was able to pass review? It's such a huge joke. What kind of psychological trauma will this bloody and cruel scene cause to minors? Faced with this kind of public opinion war, CCTV was once again defeated in the end.

And it was on the news broadcast.

The news showed pictures of packed cinemas, and quoted Pacific box office data, then moved on to the film industry and cultural industry.

Then, the scene changed to the Chinese Theater in the United States, which was also covered with posters of "The Last Days".

And there were interviews with Columbia Global President Amy Pascal and Sony Classics Tom Bernard.

"This is the first time that a Chinese film has been released on a large scale in North America, but I firmly believe it will not be the last."

"Both Columbia and Sony Pictures will actively embrace Chinese films in the future."

"We hope that more and more Chinese films like 'The Last Days' will appear in North America."

“I hope that the cooperation between Chinese and American films will become more in-depth.”

At the end of the news, there was a senior leader from the cultural department.

“Good cultural works should go global.”

"'The Last Days' represents the bold, innovative, pioneering and enterprising spirit of Chinese filmmakers."

This news is only a little over two minutes long, but it sets the tone.

It is a Chinese movie.

Because Hollywood giants and senior leaders of domestic cultural departments have all recognized that it is a Chinese film.

In order to carry out this kind of publicity, the lead actor Lee Jung-jae spoke Chinese from time to time during domestic promotions. When directors Yeon Sang-ho and Ning Hao were communicating, very catchy Chinese expressions often appeared.

Of course, even so, the controversy and public opinion war on the Internet will not stop.

It is difficult to convince someone in real life, let alone on the Internet.

But this does not prevent "The Last Days" from continuing to be a hit at the box office.

Because the New Year's Day holiday comes after Christmas, at least from the perspective of the cinema ticket hall, it is still crowded with people.

The power of out-of-the-box movies has been demonstrated.

………………………………

Lee Mi-kyung of CJ Entertainment doesn't really care about the controversy this movie has caused in China.

She only cares about one thing, and that's the box office.

Although she invested a good amount of money in the production of this film, she also put a lot of effort into its distribution and promotion.

Therefore, she still has great expectations for the box office.

However, she was still surprised when the first week box office data came out.

3.98 million visitors in the first week! The first week box office was approximately 19.5 million US dollars! This data really far exceeded her expectations.

If this trend continues, it is not impossible to surpass "Taegukgi: Flying Taegukgi".

Again, some movies would have been more shocking and more successful when they came out in late 2004 than they are in 2016.

Even the Korean audience was the same. At that time, "The Host" had not yet appeared, and the entire Korean audience had not been exposed to Korean blockbusters.

The rating of "The Host" is much lower than that of "Train to Busan", but its box office is higher than that of "Train to Busan" and "Taegukgi: The Return of the Condor Heroes".

Therefore, the impact and national pride that "The Last Train" brought to Korean audiences was greater than that of the historical "Train to Busan".

But in the eyes of Korean audiences, this is a purely Korean film.

CJ Entertainment will not tell them that this movie is written by a Chinese company and mainly invested by a Chinese company.

Because Korean audiences are more extreme than Chinese audiences.

……………………

Soon after, Japan’s first week box office data came out.

1.8 billion yen, equivalent to 16.36 million US dollars.

This result surpassed the first-week box office record of "Hero" in Japan and set a new record.

When Lin Xiao received this data, he was really surprised.

After all, the total box office of "Train to Busan" in Japan was only 1.8 billion yen.

This time, "The Last Days" blurred out the Korean background, replaced it with Japanese dubbing, and with the production background of Sony and Columbia, it immediately changed its appearance, and the box office reached 1.8 billion yen in the first week.

And then, it was the first week box office in Hong Kong.

"Kung Fu" grossed HK$26 million in its first week.

The first week box office of "The Last Days" was 21 million Hong Kong dollars.

These two films not only created a win-win situation in the domestic market, but also in the Hong Kong market.

Since Hong Kong is Zhou Xingchi's absolute home ground, it is completely normal for him to lose to "Kung Fu". But the box office of 21 million in the first week is also extremely high.

It is not only the second place this year, but also the second place in the first week box office in the past two or three years.

The market in Taiwan is the slowest in producing data.

But the data that came out was equally shocking.

"The Last Days" grossed over NT$100 million in Taiwan in its first week, equivalent to US$3.12 million.

………………

After these box office data were transmitted back to China, they once again caused a sensation.

Of course, most people don’t quite understand it, but someone immediately started popularizing science and telling everyone how awesome these data are.

Except for the Hong Kong market, all the rest are number one at the box office.

Not only is it number one this week, it's also ranked among the top in this market year.

Especially the box office data in South Korea and Japan, which shocked domestic movie fans.

Depend on! Our domestic first week box office of 139 million RMB is already very impressive and has broken the record.

But I didn’t expect that it is not as good as South Korea, and is about the same as Japan? After converting the first week’s box office in South Korea, it’s actually around 1.6 RMB?

China has a population of 1.4 billion, while South Korea has only over 40 million?

Next, the relevant box office data in Southeast Asia and other countries will be delayed.

However, some professionals have made statistics, and found that the global box office of "The Last Days" in its first week reached about 60 million US dollars, just adding up the countries where the first week's box office was released.

The most important thing is that China's box office only accounts for about a quarter.

This is too horrible.

And the most important thing is that it has not yet been released in North America, the world's largest market and the top film market.

At least in this era, the North American box office is also regarded as one of the greatest honors by domestic movie fans.

If a movie is successful in North America, it is truly brilliant.

Unlike a dozen or twenty years later, the box office of "Nezha 2" in China can instantly surpass the North American box office champion.

It’s not enough to be the first in seconds. "Nezha 2" is higher than the first and second place in North American box office history combined.

But, to be honest, the domestic people still long for the day when domestic films conquer the North American market.

……………………

On December 5, "House of Flying Daggers" was released in North America, with only 15 theaters showing it at the beginning. The data for each theater was pretty good, and then the release was expanded to about 1,000 theaters.

The distributor Sony Classics wants to recreate the success of "Hero" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", so there are huge expectations for this movie.

But in the end, the box office disappointed them. Although it has not been taken off the screen yet, it has basically stopped at around 11 million US dollars.

It's not terrible, but it's far behind the more than 50 million dollars that "Hero" earned.

This made Amy Pascal and Tom Bernard worried, because it was the two of them who made the decision to open "The Trip" in 2,300 theaters.

Wouldn't that be too risky?

An Asian film with such a big opening.

Even for foreign-language films, this is an extremely rare premiere scale.

In addition, for this movie, Lightning Entertainment, Columbia, and Sony Classics invested a total of nearly 10 million yuan in publicity expenses.

This amount of publicity expenses is not worth mentioning for a big production. But for a movie that cost only $13 million to make, it was already a big gamble.

December 29th.

"The Last Days" was officially released in North America.

In this era, the North American market is much more mature than the Chinese and Korean markets.

Audiences pay more attention to word of mouth and quality, and the weight of word of mouth on TV and newspapers is not very high. This damn place, as long as you pay, these newspapers can praise you to the sky.

For example, many major newspapers directly boasted that "House of Flying Daggers" was one of the best films in the world in the past 20 years.

North American audiences pay attention to two places: Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB.

There are also those very authoritative film critics.

The next day!

Data has appeared on the Rotten Tomatoes website!

Fresh tomato index 94%!

This is already a very high score, and of course it is similar to the historical "Train to Busan".

The IMDB rating is 8.2.

This is also a very high score, at least among the movies released in 2004, it can be ranked very high.

Immediately afterwards, two heavyweight film reviews appeared.

One is the great director Quentin Tarantino who loves Hong Kong movies.

Before filming "Bruce Lee", this person was quite friendly to Chinese-language films. He is also the American director who is praised as awesome in emoticons every day.

He is not only one of the top directors in North America, but also one of the top directors in the world.

It achieves a perfect balance between art film and commercial film.

I don’t know how many top stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, are flocking to this director.

This director not only likes to watch kung fu movies, but also likes to watch bloody and exciting movies. He even made two "Kill Bill" movies himself.

Lin Xiao likes his "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill" very much.

At the end of the film review, Quentin concluded that this is the best zombie movie and one of the best doomsday movies.

Another heavyweight film review comes from Zack Snyder, the director of "Dawn of the Dead 2004".

He wrote in his film review: Believe me, it's better than Dawn of the Dead! At least it’s better than the one I shot!

In addition to these two heavyweight film critics, there are many other authoritative film critics, almost all of whom gave positive reviews.

"I really didn't expect that this movie came from China."

"I have always thought that China has nothing else except kung fu movies. The Last Days really brought me an incomparable surprise."

"It shows a completely different temperament of zombie movies. It is much more vivid and positive, and I like this temperament more."

"I never imagined that an Asian movie could have this kind of rhythm, and they even made a zombie movie that doesn't look like a B-level movie. My Hollywood colleagues, you should learn from Asians."

January 4, 2005! The North American box office data for the first week of "The Last Days" is released.

23 million US dollars! ………………

Note: I finally finished writing it. I’m so hungry! My benefactors, please remember to give me the monthly tickets in your pockets! The cakes kowtow and thank you! (End of this chapter)