Chapter 882: Wenhua, who has good things coming one after another
The two of them were almost done chatting, and Zhang Yimou, who had just finished an interview with the reporter, came over. Lin Weimin asked, "When are you planning to go to the United States?"
Zhang Yimou smiled and said, "Don't worry, there's still more than a month left. I'll focus on the Tang Dynasty first."
"Good, you keep your composure." Lin Weimin praised.
At today's press conference, Wenhua Film and Television did not use the name of Guowen Publishing House, but used the name of its own company.
This form also illustrates the influence of Wenhua Film and Television today. As Wenhua Film and Television’s film list this year was made public, with five films a year and a total investment of more than 130 million yuan, including epic masterpieces such as "The Last Tang Dynasty", this press conference immediately attracted the attention of the domestic film industry. Many media reported on it, and many viewers were also looking forward to this film list.
A few days after the press conference, the Rongshuxia website was officially moved to Yanjing. With the help of Guowen Publishing House, Rongshuxia established an editorial team of four people in less than half a month, which greatly relieved Zhu William's work pressure and allowed him to focus more on the operation of the website.
During this period, "Shuke and Beta: The Power of Tigers" has officially been withdrawn from theaters and the final box office fell to 31.1 million yuan.
For a domestic animated film with an investment of only 6 million yuan, this result is very outstanding. The success of this film also made a good start for Wenhua Film and Television to enter the animation field.
Two days before "Shuke and Beta: The Power of the Tigers" was released, "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" was officially released.
The focus of publicity before the movie was released was the success of the movie in the US.
Last October, "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" participated in the Tokyo Film Festival and won the Best Picture and Best Actor awards.
At the end of that month, the film was introduced by Toei and officially released in Japan.
"That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" was released on a small scale in Nihong, which is also the usual routine of Nihong art films.
In the early days of the film's release, its box office performance in Japan was mediocre, and it only earned 18 million yen in two weeks, which is less than 3 million yuan.
But in the second half of the month after the film was released, the box office curve began to rise slowly.
In the third week, the film earned 14.1 million yen at the box office, and in the fourth week it earned 18.5 million... By the second month after its release, "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" had grossed 42.5 million yen in a single week, and its cumulative box office had reached 255 million yen, which is equivalent to 40 million yuan in RMB.
Toei was pleasantly surprised by the strong box office performance of "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog". Although they were very optimistic about this movie when they first decided to introduce it, and felt that it was in line with the aesthetic tastes of the Japanese audience, the box office has not fallen but increased after two months of release, and the trend is strong. They really felt that they had struck gold.
For Toei, no matter how high the box office of an art film is, it will not have much impact on their performance, but it is a good thing for those who make the decision to introduce it.
Two months after its release, the scale of the release of "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" in Nihong was expanded again.
The third month's box office reached 267 million yen, which was more than the cumulative box office of the previous two months. In late February of this year, it was the fourth month of the release of "The Mountain, the Man, the Dog". This month, the film achieved a box office of 209 million yen, and the total box office reached 731 million yen.
This result has exceeded the 100 million yuan mark when converted into RMB, which is as much as 116 million yuan. Apart from Hollywood movies and movies from Hong Kong, foreign movies that can achieve such a box office in Japan are rare. This result can be considered excellent even among local Japanese movies.
Moreover, "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" is still in theaters, and no one knows how its box office performance will end up.
When the box office of "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" started to rise in China, before the Chinese New Year, Wenhua Film and Television publicized the success of the film's release in China in domestic newspapers.
After nearly two months of promotion, the box office results of "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" appeared in newspapers twice every ten days or half a month. The constantly refreshing box office results made many domestic readers who saw the news feel proud.
Gradually, the popularity of "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" in China has gradually expanded unnoticed.
In late February, the film was released in China. Wenhua Films did not even bother to promote it. Just a few newspapers and TV stations reported on the release of the film, and then a large number of fans went to the cinema to watch this domestic film that brought glory to the country abroad.
In its first week, "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" grossed 11.2 million yuan at the box office, and 7.4 million yuan in the second week, with a cumulative box office of 18.6 million yuan in two weeks.
The box office performance after the film was released fully demonstrated the success of Mandarin Films' publicity strategy, but it also illustrates something more important, that is, no matter how powerful the publicity methods are, they are only auxiliary, and what is really important is the appeal of the film to the audience.
"That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" is certainly a good movie, but its audience is destined to be smaller than that of popular movies. In the first week, many viewers were attracted by the reputation of the movie, but they soon discovered that the movie did not actually suit their own popular tastes.
As a result, the box office in the second week unexpectedly fell.
Following this trend, the box office sales of "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" will probably continue to decline until it is withdrawn from theaters.
But no matter what, the final box office revenue was definitely 20 million. For a movie like this that was almost unable to be released in the first place, it is already a gratifying thing to achieve such excellent box office results.
The initial investment of "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" was only 2 million RMB, but now the domestic box office alone has exceeded 20 million, and the overseas copyright sales have also reached 350,000 US dollars. Together with the box office share from the release of the film, this movie will at least bring more than 60 million in revenue to Wenhua Film and Television.
It may look like an inconspicuous art film, but it has become the film with the highest return on investment since the establishment of Wenhua.
Just over a month into the new year, Wenhua Films has had two consecutive hot-selling films, becoming the talk of the town in the domestic film industry.
From early to mid-March, the first session of the Ninth National People's Congress was held in Yanjing. The meeting produced a series of resolutions and personnel changes, and Vice Prime Minister Zhu was promoted to a state-level leader.
A few days later, the 70th Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, and the entire ceremony was broadcast live on television by ABC, the American Broadcasting Company.
That night, "Titanic", which swept the world, was undoubtedly the biggest winner.
This rampaging ship led the nomination list for this year's Academy Awards with 14 nominations, and ultimately won 10 major awards at the awards ceremony, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Later, "Titanic" won 11 awards at this year's Academy Awards, tying with "Ben-Hur" to become the most awarded film in Oscar history.
In this time and space, "Titanic" won 10 awards, and the award it missed was Best Cinematography, which was won by "Hero".
In addition to the Best Cinematography, "Hero" also won the Best Foreign Language Film Award at this year's Academy Awards, becoming the second Chinese film to win this award after "Farewell My Concubine".
The success of "Hero" at the Academy Awards once again added a highlight to Zhang Yimou's brilliant resume.
However, the company that was most happy about "Hero" winning the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography was Wenhua Films. In the first two months of the year, Wenhua Films has received good news continuously. This time, "Hero" winning the award not only boosted Wenhua Films' fame, but will also expand the film's subsequent copyright income.
March came to an end in a hurry. On the last day of the month, Lin Weimin went out for a meeting. As soon as he returned to the Guowen Press, he was told that Tian Congming from the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television had called him.
He leisurely called back, and as soon as the call was connected, he said sarcastically: "Hey, Minister Tian finally remembered me?"
Tian Congming was speechless when he heard his tone, "Can't you be more generous?"
"You can be generous to different people, but you can't be too generous to those who want to destroy your bridges after crossing them."
Two years ago, Tian Congming asked Lin Weimin to make a domestic blockbuster, and promised him two conditions: one was that the government would book the theater, and the other was that Wenhua Film and Television would be given a film distribution license.
Last year, "Hero" was released and grossed nearly 300 million US dollars worldwide, which greatly boosted the morale of domestic films and gave a shot in the arm to the domestic film market. It also earned enough face for Tian Congming and other leaders.
As a result, when it came time to fulfill his promise, Tian Congming started to procrastinate. He finally promised to give Lin Weimin news after the New Year, but it has been two months since the New Year and there has been no news from him.
If Lin Weimin hadn't been busy with work recently, he would have called long ago.
At this moment, Tian Congming called, and Lin Weimin knew that there must be news about the issuance of the license, but he had been waiting for such a long time, and he was holding a grudge, so naturally his attitude could not be good.
Tian Congming knew his bad temper and didn't take it seriously. He talked to him for a few words and then took the initiative to change the topic to the film distribution license.
"Tell Xiaoyu from Wenhua to prepare all the materials and apply next week. The license will be issued by the middle of the month."
After hearing this, Lin Weimin's tone finally returned to normal.
"Thank you very much, thanks to your help, brother!"
Tian Congming snorted, "Come on, it's good enough that you don't scold me. I don't dare to accept your thanks!"
"Look at what you said, how polite!"
After hanging up the phone, Lin Weimin immediately told Yu Dong the good news about the film distribution license.
In less than twenty minutes, Yu Dong ran to the Chinese Literature Society.
With a look of surprise, he asked Lin Weimin: "President, is the license really issued?"
Lin Weimin said seriously: "Minister Ming just called me, it's not bad."
Yu Dong rubbed his hands excitedly, "Oh! That's great, that's great, I've been looking forward to it for two years, and it's finally happening."
As he spoke, he couldn't help but feel a little regretful. "It would have been great if this had come down earlier. How much distribution fees could have been saved in a year?"
"Okay, it's good that we can get it. This is the first distribution license for a non-state-owned film studio and distribution company in the country. It is a favor to us that it goes to Wenhua." Lin Weimin said.
Yu Dong smiled with wrinkles all over his face, "Yes, yes, I understand, I understand."
Lin Weimin said: "Prepare the materials quickly in the next few days and send them to the Film Bureau as soon as possible. Go through the process so that they can issue the license."
Yu Dong stood up solemnly, "Yes! I will implement it right now."
After saying that, he left the office happily.
(End of this chapter)
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