Chapter 408: Who is better, Zhou Zhiruo or Zhao Min?
For a long time, for traditional Hollywood blockbusters, many netizens have summarized a set of standard plot and character formulas:
the white male protagonist who is decadent because of his past experiences lives in seclusion in a small town where no one lives. Suddenly one day, a villain appeared on the earth, and all the official personnel failed, so they could only choose to use the male protagonist.
The male protagonist always refused at first, until the people around him were also hurt by the villain, and then he agreed to come out. Then after a series of gunfights, fights, and car racing scenes, the villain was eliminated at the last second and the world was saved.
During this period, there will be an official female protagonist with a thin waist and long legs, a black younger brother who is responsible for funny and complaining scenes, a taciturn Asian hacker wearing glasses, and a middle-aged leader who looks righteous but will turn black from time to time in the later period...
Almost six or seven out of ten of those popcorn blockbusters in Hollywood follow this routine. Even many times, as soon as the plot begins, the audience has already imagined the plot of more than 100 minutes later.
For a long time, the audience felt a little tired of this fixed routine, but they could still watch it. After all, there are handsome men and beautiful women, thrilling scenes, and special effects that cost a lot of money. What else can you not be satisfied with?
Audiences around the world have become accustomed to the style of "American heroism" exported by Hollywood, and many even think that action or science fiction blockbusters should be shot in this way.
Until this year's Spring Festival, "The Wandering Earth", which is full of a strong "Chinese science fiction" style, was released. The audience suddenly found that the speculations about the development trend of the movie plot accumulated in the past seemed to be useless.
Just like the movie review posted by some viewers on the Internet after watching the movie -
[Rescue team member Gangzi sacrificed his life to save "grandfather" Han Ziang. Everyone thought he would play a key role later, but he died after just a few steps.
The magma of the Hangzhou engine was backflowing. It was thought that the protagonist group would show their power and appear at the last moment to turn the tide. From then on, they were looked at with admiration by the rescue team. As a result, it was announced that all the members of the Hangzhou underground city were wiped out in less than two minutes.
The ultimate goal of the movie is to "restart the Sulawesi steering engine". I thought it would finally be accomplished this time, but the protagonist group had not arrived yet and they had already been rescued, leaving only the captain Wang Lei's words "saturation rescue".
There is also the final dilemma. The male protagonist Liu Qi proposed a plan to ignite Jupiter. "Little Moss" Moss said that he had already made a proposal seven hours ago.
The protagonist group risked their lives to ignite, broadcast globally to seek support, and made a great unity of the people of the world. They were so excited that they finally ignited the engine. As a result, orange flames lit up in two other places on the earth at the same time.
Even Liu Peiqiang, the "Space Wolf" who looks most like an American personal hero in the whole film, was trying to enter the control room when other astronauts were doing the same thing.
After watching the whole movie, do you think the protagonist group is useful? It seems to be a little useful.
Then do you think it will work without the protagonist? It seems to be completely fine.
After two hours of desperate work, a lot of people died, but in the end, nothing was actually accomplished. It's not much more, and it's not much less.
For an audience like me who is used to watching heroes saving the world alone, this is a very unconventional movie-watching experience. But after watching it, I think about it again and feel that it should be like this...】
This comment received tens of thousands of likes, and many people left messages below saying "It really hits the nail on the head".
There is no doubt that "national mobilization", "solidarity and cooperation", "saturation rescue"... These concepts are scenes that can only be seen in "Chinese science fiction movies". And once accepted, you can obviously feel the discomfort of the previous Hollywood blockbusters of individual heroes.
It is precisely for this reason, coupled with the weakness of the plot itself, that Cameron's highly anticipated new work "Alita: Battle Angel" is not highly evaluated in China, and the box office performance is greatly reduced.
The film company itself expects the performance of this movie to be around 2 billion. However, looking at the current trend, I am afraid that it is still a question whether it can break through 1 billion.
On the contrary, the box office growth rate of "The Wandering Earth" has returned to stability after experiencing fluctuations in the first two days. So far, the cumulative total box office of the movie has exceeded 4.5 billion, and the single-day box office has remained at around 60 to 70 million, but it is declining slightly every day.
At the same time, the authorities also officially issued a document, approving the application for a secret key extension. It was even more straightforward than the previous "Wolf Warrior 2", approving a two-month extension at one time.
...
"Wow, a two-month extension?"
In the living room, Zhu Xudan looked up at the ceiling and calculated for a long time: "That means it will not be released until May Day."
"Yes, it premiered on February 5th, and it will be released on May 5th, which completely covers the May Day period."
The authorities approved a two-month extension for "The Wandering Earth". The first goal was to see if it could exceed the 5.6 billion of "Wolf Warrior 2". Of course, everyone knows that this goal is difficult, so it is more about the 5 billion threshold.
"It's already 4.5 billion now, and it's less than 500 million. In more than two months, it can be saved up without 10 million a day." Zhu Xudan said.
"That's not how it's calculated." Meng Bai smiled and shook his head. "Before, "Wolf Warrior 2" was also postponed for two months, but in fact, starting from the second month, the box office growth has been negligible. After a month and a half, the daily box office was almost only one or two million, and it didn't increase by 100 million in a month."
The box office potential of a movie has an upper limit, especially for those movies that break the circle. Audiences who can persist in not watching it for a month amid the discussions of people around them will not go no matter how long it is extended.
What's more, in more than a month, there will be a real "king" to be released-"Avengers 4: Endgame", the "final work" created by Marvel in ten years and 22 movies.
As long as it is not really filmed into a mess, the audience will never miss it.
This is the real value that a top IP can derive. In comparison, the traffic gameplay in China in recent years can only be said to be buying a casket and returning the pearl.
"Well, that's it." Zhu Xudan said with a smile: "There is still half a month of growth time, I believe it will definitely exceed 5 billion!"
"Okay, I'll borrow your good words." Meng Bai said with a smile: "If it can really exceed, I will agree to one of your requests."
"Really?" Zhu Xudan's eyes suddenly lit up, and she put her arms around Meng Bai's arms, rubbing her small chest left and right: "Then I want you, senior brother, to move in with me."
Feeling the warm touch on his arm, Meng Bai raised his eyebrows: "Why, now that we have changed to this small house, are you still afraid?"
The two of them are now in the small house he gave to the girl before.
Of course, it is called a "small" house, but in fact it is about 170 to 180 square meters, which is more than enough for a family of three. Moreover, this community is close to the airport, which is just right for artists to travel around.
Hearing Meng Bai's ridicule, Zhu Xudan puffed up her lips. Was the key to her words at that time the size of the house? It was obviously about letting her senior come to accompany her "every day".
Although she got the body of her senior brother and knew that there were other girls around this "scumbag senior brother", she always felt that she got too little attention, so she always wanted to stick to Meng Bai.
And last year's "scandal incident", she was obviously also the girlfriend of her senior brother, why was her name not in the revelation, but those two people who had nothing to do with her were put on it.
During that time, she secretly read the comments under the comment area of the women who were exposed every day. Every time she saw a fan say something like "Sister, hurry up and catch Meng Bai's brother-in-law", she couldn't help but get angry.
Later, she even thought about exposing herself and letting those people know about her relationship with her senior brother.
Of course, this idea was suppressed by the agent without hesitation, and it was also reported to Meng Bai. Afterwards, after the senior brother "educated" her, the girl finally realized her mistake and rolled her eyes and promised that she would not think so.
"Just now you said you agreed to my request, but now it doesn't count..." Zhu Xudan pouted and muttered softly.
"What are you mumbling about?"
"Hehe, nothing." She smiled sweetly, "If you can't move in, I'll change my request... I also want to make a movie."
"Movie?" Meng Bai was a little surprised, "Why did you suddenly think of this?"
"It's just... I think making movies is pretty cool." Zhu Xudan said, "I saw the little girl who played 'Han Duoduo', she's very popular online recently."
This is true. With the popularity of "The Wandering Earth", in addition to the director Guo Fan, the leading actors of the movie have also become popular.
Wu Jing, needless to say, has always been one of the most charismatic actors in recent years, and this has completely consolidated his position. "Wolf Warrior 2" and "The Wandering Earth" have directly made his leading actor's box office record break through 10 billion.
Of course, he is not the only one. Shen Teng and Huang Bo also broke through with him, but their numbers are slightly lower.
These three people are now the three actors with the highest box office in the entire Chinese-language film industry. Next are Wang Baoqiang with 9.8 billion and Deng Chao with 9.7 billion.
Unconsciously, this group of middle-aged actors who have grown up in the past decade have all reached the "10 billion mark".
As the real core of the leading actors in "The Wandering Earth", Wu Jing is naturally the most popular. However, his popularity was not low, so the change is not big.
After Wu Jing, there are the two young leading actors of the movie, Qu Chuxiao and Zhao Jinmai.
Qu Chuxiao just graduated and had only played soy sauce in a few small web dramas before. When Guo Fan asked him to play "Liu Qi", the salary was only 100,000 yuan. Unexpectedly, after this movie, he turned over and became a male actor with a box office of nearly 5 billion, which can be said to be a step to heaven.
Compared with Qu Chuxiao, Zhao Jinmai's popularity was higher before. After all, she had several popular dramas and movies, so her performance was also higher. Together with the previous "Psychological Group City Lights" and "Take My Brother Away", the cumulative box office has reached nearly 6 billion.
Many people were shocked when they saw this number at first. This data can be ranked at the top in the entire film industry. If only the actresses are counted, she can even break into the top five.
Ahead of her, there are only Bai Baihe, Zhang Ziyi and Shu Qi, all of whom are senior actors who have been famous for many years. And Zhang Zifeng, who belongs to the same "00 flower" as her, has made more movies, but the box office is much worse.
Of course, Zhao Jinmai's box office performance is still a bit fake. No matter which movie, the audience does not go to see it for her.
But it is precisely because of this that she is more enviable, and by the way, it also makes many people understand the importance of personal connections in the film and television industry.
Many people think that if it weren't for the fact that she had cooperated with Huguang in a web drama before and was favored by Mr. Meng, how could such a big production be her turn as a little girl with no background.
Obviously, many people have automatically forgotten what Guo Fan said in the interview, that the girl was only paid 50,000 yuan for the filming of this movie.
"Mai Mai is really popular recently." Meng Bai responded, and then looked at Zhu Xudan, "But this is not appropriate for you, the new 'Zhou Zhiruo'. The girl is popular only in China, but you are popular in the kimchi area."
When Zhu Xudan heard Meng Bai mention this, she couldn't help but cover her face and laughed.
During the Spring Festival, due to the popularity of "The Wandering Earth" and the subsequent controversy, many viewers' attention was attracted to the movie, but it does not mean that everyone only pays attention to this work.
With the end of the holiday, everyone went to work and school, and the popularity of the movie gradually stabilized. TV series, web series, etc. in the new year also re-entered the audience's sight.
To say the two most popular dramas in recent times, one is the new spy war work "Secret and Great" that Arc Light Film and Television has just started broadcasting, and the other is the new version of "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" starring Zhu Xudan.
As Arc Light's second TV series, the former has the blessing of its previous work "Peace Hotel", so it has received a lot of attention. The ratings of the first episode of CCTV reached 0.9, and then the second episode broke 1.
The deepest impression of the audience on this drama is that it is not like a spy war, but more like a workplace drama. The male protagonist Gu Yaodong has just graduated from college and started working for the first time. The character he cultivated in school has a great conflict with the old people in the workplace, which has also become the biggest highlight of this drama.
Many viewers even remembered the spy war masterpiece "The Hidden" of the year, except that Yu Zecheng is the "survival story of a veteran in the workplace", while Gu Yaodong is the "growth story of a rookie in the workplace".
The score of "Secret and Great" on Douban is as high as 8.3 points, which is considered to be another spy war drama with both popularity and reputation.
The reason why it was chosen to be broadcast on CCTV this time is mainly to repay the favor of "Peace Hotel" before. After all, it was thanks to CCTV's willingness to take over that it was successfully broadcast.
Anyway, there is only this one. Arc Light will transfer the TV series part to Tianqi Entertainment in the future. If there are new projects, they will follow the normal standards and sell it to whichever satellite TV station offers the highest conditions.
If "Secret and Great" became popular because of its excellent plot, then the new version of "The Heaven
Sword and Dragon Saber" that was transferred to the Internet was completely supported by several leading actors. In particular, Zhu Xudan, who played "Zhou Zhiruo" and Chen Yuqi, who played "Zhao Min", are two equally popular female protagonists in Jin Yong's works. Like "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" two years ago, they have also become the new "90s flowers" that have exploded.
In comparison, Zhu Xudan's popularity is higher. One reason is that this version of "Zhou Zhiruo" is better than "Zhao Min" in terms of plot, and the other reason is that the strength of the brokerage companies behind the two is different.
(End of this chapter)
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