Chapter 798: Box Office Hits
Lin Qianxun is just a big-name female hero wandering around the world, but when she returns to her parents’ arms, she is still that soft and cute little bun.
"Mom, am I awesome?"
The little bean bun raised his little face, full of boasting.
Tao Huimin picked her up and kissed her. Lin Weimin asked, "There are so many kids in the class, why did you get to be the protagonist?"
Tao Huimin said, "Isn't it all thanks to your novel? Which child hasn't read Spirited Away? This child has been the envy of everyone since she entered kindergarten. Besides, she is so good at fighting that she is simply a troublemaker in kindergarten."
“Mom, Mom…”
His cute image was exposed by his old mother in front of him, and Xiao Doubao hurriedly stopped her.
Tao Huimin glared at her and said, "If you know how to be shy, you should fight less. How many times have I apologized to other people's parents for you this year?"
Seeing this, Xiao Doubao's mouth pursed, and he stretched out his hands to Lin Weimin, shouting aggrievedly: "Dad!"
Lin Weimin immediately took her over, coaxed his daughter, and said to Tao Huimin: "Be happy, why do you always talk about those things?"
The father and daughter were in cahoots with each other. Tao Huimin was so angry that she snorted and didn't bother to argue with them.
Beihai Kindergarten’s New Year’s Eve party concluded successfully. Lin Qianxun’s outstanding performance at the party left a deep impression on many parents, who told their own children to stay away from her in the future.
New Year’s Day is only a one-day holiday, so there’s not much to celebrate, but after all, it spans a year, so we can still feel the festive atmosphere.
It was also on this day that the long-unseen scene of audiences queuing up to buy tickets appeared in front of movie theaters in Yanjing area.
Traditionally, Chinese movies have not been released in any particular schedule.
But this year is a little different. A movie called "Party A and Party B" was released, which promoted the concepts of "Lunar New Year period" and "Lunar New Year film". News reports, TV programs and promotional posters highlighted these two new terms, attracting the attention of many viewers.
Some audiences had seen the term "New Year's film" at the beginning of this year. Jackie Chan's "Rumble in the Bronx" was released on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and its main concept was "New Year's film".
The movie "Rumble in the Bronx" grossed 98 million at the beginning of the year, almost breaking the 100 million mark. For the domestic film market, where the total box office for the whole year was less than 1 billion, this was a miracle. It also became one of the most unforgettable movies of the year for domestic moviegoers.
These two new terms immediately evoked fond memories of many moviegoers. On New Year's Day, the audience went to the cinema. There were very few movies released at this time, and the publicity for the few movies was also very casual. Some of them were too lazy to even put up posters.
"Party A and Party B", which was labeled as a "New Year's film", suddenly became the most popular one in the crowd. After a week of release, the word-of-mouth effect of "Party A and Party B" has begun to ferment comprehensively, becoming the best choice for the audiences who came to watch the movie with enthusiasm.
"Party A and Party B" was released nationwide on December 24th. In three days, it earned 2 million box office in the Yanjing area. After a full week of release, the number became 5.15 million.
December 31st to January 2nd were the peak periods for movie-watching. "Party A and Party B" once again earned 2.13 million at the box office. In 10 days of its release, it earned 7.28 million at the box office in Yanjing alone, far exceeding Yu Dong's previous expectations.
Not only that, after New Year’s Day, the box office results of theaters across the country were also gradually summarized here at Wenhua Film and Television.
From December 24 to December 30, the box office in Tianjin was 1.83 million, the box office in Fengtian was 1.36 million, the box office in Changchun was 940,000, the box office in Harbin was 1.02 million, the box office in Zhengzhou was 830,000, the box office in Xi'an was 960,000, the box office in Shanghai was 570,000, and the box office in Guangzhou was 490,000...
After one week of release, "Party A and Party B" has grossed 16.5 million nationwide.
With a single-week box office of 16.5 million, "Party A and Party B" has become the biggest dark horse in the domestic film industry this year and has also attracted the attention of the domestic film industry.
The leading actor of "Party A and Party B" is Ge You, who is very famous, but the director Feng Xiaogang is a little-known director, and many people have heard of the production company, Wenhua Film and Television, for the first time.
After a little inquiry, everyone found out that this was a film and television company invested and established by Guowen Society. The name of Yanying Studio was also in the co-production column, which seemed to be of great significance.
As soon as Yu Dong received the box office summary information, he wanted to call Lin Weimin to tell him the good news, but he thought about it and put down the phone, thinking it would be better to congratulate him in person.
He came to the Guowen Press and reported to Lin Weimin the achievements of "Party A and Party B" in the first week of its release. Lin Weimin said with a smile: "You have all worked hard during this period. "Party A and Party B" has achieved such good results in the first week of its release, which is inseparable from your efforts."
“This is all part of our job.”
After praising Yu Dong for a few words, Lin Weimin said, "Based on the current situation, it shouldn't be difficult for Party A and Party B to break 60 million at the box office."
Yu Dong nodded and said, "It should not be a problem in most cases, but I am worried about the impact of piracy..."
"Piracy is a big problem, and it cannot be solved by just one department. It is not only the film industry that is facing this problem, but also our publishing industry."
Since the 1990s, the biggest factor affecting domestic films is naturally the rampant piracy. If you can watch something for a few dollars in a movie theater, you can watch it for a few cents in a video hall. Who would go to the movie theater?
The same goes for books. If there is a book that costs 2 yuan, why should I buy the one that costs 5 yuan?
When the economy is underdeveloped, talking about copyright awareness is just empty talk because consumers will vote with their feet.
"The general environment is like this. As a film and television company, Wenhua cannot change it. What you can do is to work hard on your internal strength. The opportunities in this world are always prepared for those who work hard all the time."
"You are right."
"Before I knew it, Wenhua has been established for almost a year. According to the Gregorian calendar, it is already 1996. You have been in the company for three months and you are familiar with most of the things you should be familiar with.
The success of "Party A and Party B" not only opened up a new situation for Wenhua Films in the film industry, but also brought you sufficient cash flow. What are your prospects for next year's work?"
Hearing this, Yu Dong unconsciously sat up straight. He quickly started thinking and kept organizing his words in his mind.
After a moment, he spoke.
"The success of Party A and Party B is a good start for the development of our Wenhua Films. During this period, we have spent a lot of energy and money on the promotion of the two concepts of 'Lunar New Year' and 'Lunar New Year'. I think we should continue to build on this concept.
Feng Xiaogang has become famous this time. I plan to continue to invest in his new film, still in the "Feng Xiaogang + Wang Shuo + Ge You" model. The new film will still be released at this time next year, and strive to make the concept of the Lunar New Year period and Lunar New Year films deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so that the three words "Feng Xiaogang" will become a signboard of the Chinese film industry as soon as the audience sees them. But he is a dreamer now, this is a problem, I plan to talk to him about it..."
Lin Weimin understood what Yu Dong meant. He wanted to recruit Feng Xiaogang to Wenhua.
"How can we talk about it? Good Dreams was created by him and Wang Shuo together, and his current movies cannot be separated from the support of Wang Shuo's scripts."
He sees things more clearly than Yu Dong. Feng Xiaogang and Wang Shuo are not only friends, but also have a mutually beneficial relationship. After "Party A and Party B" was released, the two became a golden pair.
It is not difficult to recruit Feng Xiaogang to Wenhua, but if this is done, he and Wang Shuo will inevitably fall out. Feng Xiaogang is not yet mature enough to break away from Wang Shuo.
Yu Dong frowned when he heard this. He thought he had not thought enough and thought poaching was too simple.
Seeing him frowning and thinking, Lin Weimin said, "Don't worry about this. We have a good relationship. They have made money from us, so we are not afraid of non-cooperation. We can talk about it when there is a chance in the future."
Yu Dong nodded.
Lin Weimin waved his hand and asked, "Go on."
Yu Dong cleared his throat and continued, "I regard the concept of creating the Lunar New Year period and Lunar New Year films as the cornerstone of our Wenhua Film and Television development. But with the cornerstone, we still have to add bricks and tiles. The previous exchanges with you made me think a lot.
The domestic film market is facing difficulties at present, with rampant piracy at home and strong competitors such as Hollywood looming outside. If we want to forge our own development path, we must have our own characteristics. I think the genre films you mentioned earlier are a good breakthrough.
During this period, I have concentrated on watching a lot of Hong Kong and American movies. We cannot learn from the big investment movies in Hollywood, firstly because we don’t have the funds, and secondly because we don’t have enough technical strength. Hong Kong movies are highly commercialized and have strong market adaptability, so there are many things we can learn from them.
Except for some themes that cannot be approved due to ideological issues, we can reproduce a large part of Hong Kong films, such as police and gangster films, comedies, and action films.
Of course, in my opinion, our mainland film industry practitioners lack commercial thinking, and it is not necessarily possible to learn from others. This may be something that requires a long time of investment. Next year, I plan to contact some Hong Kong film industry practitioners to see if I can recruit a group of people. "
After saying this, Yu Dong stopped.
Lin Weimin said: "The idea is good, but it needs to be enriched in details. Moreover, these ideas are still very new attempts in China, which require certain risks and investments. You can learn more from Ms. Xu when you have time and ask her to help you make connections and build bridges. She is your senior in terms of film investment."
"yes."
"We are trying to get in touch with Hong Kong film professionals in order to pursue commercialization, but we should not forget to train domestic directors and screenwriters. Compared with Hong Kong people, they are more familiar with the domestic market and audiences, but they have not changed their mindset for the time being."
Hearing him say this, Yu Dong responded and said, "Huo Jianqi recently handed me a notebook. It tells the story of a rural postman father who is about to retire and his son who is taking over as a rural postman on his first day. He walks the postal route that has been used for more than 20 years. They travel through mountains and rivers along the way, and the father and son gradually eliminate the estrangement in their hearts."
"That Mountain, That Man, That Dog".
When Lin Weimin listened to Yu Dong's description, this name immediately flashed in his mind.
"That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" is a literary and artistic film with a fresh temperament. After its release, the domestic box office was dismal, but it did win many awards, including the Golden Rooster Award, Montreal International Film Festival, Indian International Film Festival, and the Nihongo Film Academy Award, etc. Although they are not heavyweight awards, the winning results are still quite good.
The most dazzling achievement of this movie was the 800 million yen box office record in Japan, but unfortunately the copyright was bought out to the Japanese film company at that time, and the producer only got a small profit. In addition, the movie also had good reputation and box office when it was screened on a small scale in many other countries.
Just for the overseas copyright, you can invest in it.
Moreover, the movie initially had a dismal box office in China. The biggest reason was that there was no publicity at all when it was released. Xiaoxiang Film Studio, which produced the film, did not invest any money or energy in publicity at all.
"'Winner' was well made. Huo Jianqi still has the ability. We can take charge of the next film."
"Okay, I'll talk to him later."
At the beginning of 1996, Wenhua Films had already confirmed the two films it would be the main producers of: a New Year's film directed by Feng Xiaogang and a film directed by Huo Jianqi called "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog".
(End of this chapter)
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