Chapter 301 Box Office King?
"Monster Hunt" has been released for three weeks and its momentum remains unabated. Although it no longer has exaggerated results such as breaking 100 million in a single day, it can still get more than 60 million at the box office on weekdays.
However, it also set a record, with the box office exceeding 100 million yuan for 11 consecutive days.
The longer a movie is released, the greater the impact of its quality reputation on the box office.
Generally speaking, although the box office release cycle of an ordinary movie is one month, 80% of the box office revenue is generated in the first two weeks.
By the third week, the results will have dropped a lot, and the results of the next ten days combined may not be as good as those of the first two days.
The box office performance of "The Pancake Man" is quite typical.
In the first two weeks, it broke 800 million and almost reached 900 million, but it took a big dive in the third week, with less than 30 million in a single day, and it is still declining. It would be good if it can get another 200 million in box office revenue in the next 20 days.
The main reason for the decline was the poor reputation. Among the early moviegoers, there were many fans of "Diaosi Nanren", and coupled with the highly targeted publicity and promotion, the popularity of "Jianbing Man" was very high.
Later, ordinary audiences went into the cinema and felt that their expectations were far from what they expected after watching the movie, which naturally lowered the reputation and ratings of the movie.
But it doesn’t matter. The box office has already been pocketed by the producers, and breaking 1 billion is a natural thing for this movie.
Another member has been added to the domestic film billion-yuan box office club.
While Director Dapeng enjoys the honor of being the director of a blockbuster film, he also has to endure the backlash from the audience who were tricked into watching the film in the cinema but were dissatisfied with the quality of the film.
At this moment, he was completely immersed in the overwhelming praise and may not have realized how much impact this backlash of word-of-mouth would have on him personally.
In fact, Gu Wei felt that the success of "The Pancake Man" was more due to another person than the director and starring actor Da Peng.
That is producer Chen Zhixi.
Objectively speaking, the quality of "The Pancake Man" is really average. The reason why it achieved such a high box office is that the right time, place and people are all indispensable.
Chen Zhixi is the one who skillfully uses all available conditions to enhance the film, and single-handedly helps push "The Pancake Man" to become a hit.
I have to say that Chen Zhixi’s ability to capture and promote hit products is really strong.
"Lost in Thailand", "Detective Chinatown" and "The Pancake Man", three of the top ten domestic box office films were produced by her.
Moreover, these movies have one thing in common: the actors have crossed over to become directors.
Chen Zhixi is good at discovering the advantages of cross-border directors shooting movies, and giving targeted promotions, achieving the best results with the least money, and the cost-effectiveness of publicity and promotion is extremely high.
Comparatively speaking, the box office performance of "Monster Hunt" is relatively strong. Two weeks later, it can still achieve good results thanks to its good reputation.
The last movie to achieve this kind of box office performance was "The Monkey King: Hero is Back".
Therefore, the later a movie is in its screening, the more important its reputation becomes.
Since the beginning of the year, two movies starring Gu Wei have been huge hits. This achievement is not only unprecedented, but also unprecedented in this period of time.
Some gossipy media on the Internet have counted the movies he has made since he started his career, including "Monster Hunt" which has not yet been released, "The Sword Identity", "Detective Chinatown 3" and "The Left Ear", which have a total box office of more than 3.5 billion.
This kind of achievement was completely unique in 2015.
Excluding international superstars like Jackie Chan and Li Lianjie who have made their way into Hollywood, he is already the male star with the highest box office performance in mainland China.
Of course, this calculation is a bit unfair.
Because with the development of the domestic film market, the box office of all movies is getting higher and higher.
Especially the achievements of some popular products are even more amazing.
It is possible that the box office revenue of a movie is higher than the total box office revenue of all the movies made by others in their entire lives.
In 2002, Zhang Yimou's "Hero" only achieved a box office of 250 million in China, which is not as good as the two-day data of "The Pancake Man" now. Can you say that "Hero" is not as good as "The Pancake Man" and Li Lianjie is not as good as Dapeng?
However, the media and netizens don’t care about this. Since Gu Wei’s data is there, they think that Gu Wei is now the number one male star in the domestic box office.
He is in the first tier, while Xu Zheng, Huang Bo, Wang Baoqiang, Ge You, Huang Xiaoming, Deng Chao and others are in the second tier.
What's more, some people took advantage of the huge sales of "Monster Hunt" to give him the title of box office king.
This is no longer praising him, it is naked flattery.
It is definitely not something that happened spontaneously by the media or netizens. There must be other companies and individuals behind it.
In the entertainment industry, a world of fame and fortune, no matter how harmless and kind you appear to be, it is impossible to be without enemies.
This is where the conversion of fame and fortune is most intuitive, and where the competition for resources is most intense.
Unless you don't want to be famous or make money, as long as you are famous and your works are good, all kinds of people who are your enemies will automatically appear without you having to look for them.
Essentially, it’s because the cake is so small, and the more famous you are, the more you get to eat, which naturally squeezes out other people’s share.
Blocking someone's financial path is like killing their parents. It would be strange if they don't become hostile towards you.
Of course, the enemies here are not absolute. Everyone is eating from the same pot. Today they are enemies competing for box office, but tomorrow they may become partners working together on another hit movie.
Just like when Gu Wei's "Detective Chinatown" was released, it competed with Huayi's "Private Tailor" for screening schedules and box office, and was a tit-for-tat confrontation.
However, when "Ex-Files 2" was being prepared for filming, Huayi still approached Gu Wei to star in it, hoping to work with him.
As Gu Wei became more and more successful, many resources in the circle would automatically flow to him even if he did not take the initiative to acquire them, so there were quite a few companies and celebrities whose interests were damaged.
These people will naturally become hostile to him.
Even though Gu Wei has tried his best to win over allies and tie some large companies to himself to align their interests, he still cannot prevent more people from suffering losses.
He knew in his heart that there were many people in the entertainment industry who hoped he would fall.
As the saying goes, when a whale falls, all things come to life. If Gu Wei were to suffer a setback like Wen Zhang, the resources he left behind would be enough to support several popular young actors.
Just like now, even though he has achieved good results, there are still people who want to discredit him by praising him too much.
Although it is not fatal, it will cause him to lose some popularity among the public and even make some middle-aged male actors in the circle dislike him.
Of course, there are also many netizens who are just here to join in the fun, and there are also Gu Wei’s fanatical fans who are eager to praise Gu Wei as much as possible.
In the hearts of fans, idols are perfect, such as the box office number one, the box office king, and their brothers deserve the best.
He didn't pay much attention to the box office of "Monster Hunt". Now, regardless of whether he pays attention to it or not, the movie has already gained momentum. Judging from its current status, it should have no problem breaking 2 billion.
As to whether it can finally break the box office record of 2.426 billion set by "Fast and Furious 7", it is hard to say now.
After all, it has only been released for more than 10 days. [Eden Films] will definitely apply for an extension key, and the General Administration will definitely approve it.
Break the shadow cast by Hollywood on domestic films and allow domestic films to truly win the championship in the domestic box office.
On this point, the interests of the government and these film companies are consistent.
It all depends on whether it depends on real ability or some unsophisticated tricks.
In recent days, Gu Wei has been busy in the company.
[Detective Chinatown 2] is scheduled to start filming in early August, and the film script and storyboard have been completed long ago.
The entire film is expected to be shot in 47 days, 40 of which will be spent shooting in New York, USA, and 7 days to be shot in the studio back in China.
The entire film is expected to cost 350 million yuan, including 250 million yuan in production costs and 100 million yuan in publicity and promotion costs.
The first part of "Detective Chinatown" was filmed in Thailand in early 2013 with a cost of only 70 million. Now the production cost of the second part has skyrocketed.
On the one hand, this is due to the increase in actors' salaries. The salaries of Gu Wei, Wang Baoqiang and Liu Yifei are quite a large sum.
Among them, Gu Wei held three positions: director, screenwriter, and leading actor, and took home a total of 60 million in remuneration.
As the absolute core of the film, Wang Baoqiang's offer of 20 million is also reasonable.
Liu Yifei's current market price is 8 million, so Gu Wei will naturally not give less.
The combined pay of these three people is 88 million, which exceeds the total cost of the first film.
On the other hand, filming in New York cannot be compared with filming in Thailand, as the various costs are very different.
According to the regulations of the American Film Guild, for a film like "Detective Chinatown 2" shot in New York, after applying for a special shooting permit, all employees must be registered workers of the union.
The selection is limited and the prices are not cheap.
Moreover, local staff are paid on an hourly basis.
For example, the union’s requirement is that working hours should be within 8 hours. If someone’s salary is $100/hour, for more than 8 hours and within 12 hours, it is $150/hour.
If you work more than 12 hours, the salary will be doubled to $200 per hour. If you work more than 13 hours, the salary will be doubled again.
If the meal time is taken up, the salaries of all staff members will need to be calculated separately, so once the time exceeds the limit, it is a very, very scary thing.
And each staff member must have 12 hours of rest time after completing this period of work.
In addition, work in the United States is from Monday to Friday. If you work overtime on Saturday, your salary is 1.5 times, and on Sunday it is 2 times.
With this calculation, the cost of various supporting actors, extras and other staff hired locally in New York is very high.
In addition, the film's plot needed to be shot at real landmarks such as Kennedy International Airport, Times Square, Madison Avenue, the New York City Library, and the Brooklyn Bridge. The money spent was by no means comparable to the previous filming in Thailand.
As early as two months ago, Gu Wei contacted a Chinese American named Sophie, whose Chinese name was Lei Meijuan, who had worked in Hollywood, through various channels and hired her as the assistant director of the crew.
Director Sophie grew up in Chinatown, New York, and later entered Hollywood to work hard.
I started out as a handyman on the crew, then worked as a housekeeper and a script supervisor. During my best time, I was an assistant casting director on a small crew.
Although he has never achieved great fame, he has accumulated a lot of connections in all aspects.
She knows the process of filming in New York, the things that need to be paid attention to, the rental of various filming equipment, the hiring of actors, the rental of venues, etc.
Therefore, in order to ensure smooth filming, someone like Director Sophie who is familiar with the local conditions and can communicate smoothly with the crew is indispensable.
Several people from the domestic film director team worked out a detailed 40-day shooting plan based on the script and storyboard, and after communicating with Assistant Director Sophie about the situation in the United States.
In the office, Gu Wei was concentrating on looking at some materials for the preparation of "Detective Chinatown 2".
Yang Liwen knocked on the door and came in.
"Mr. Gu, we've been contacted by Huayi and they want to buy the film adaptation rights for Love O2O.
"What do you think?"
Gu Wei frowned.
There is a habit in the current film and television industry. If a TV series becomes a hit, in order to maximize the utilization of traffic, a movie with the same name will often be filmed to attract TV series viewers to come in and reap the benefits for the second time.
In the past few years, popular TV series such as "Scarlet Heart", "Love Me If You Dare", and "Let's Get Married" were adapted into movies.
But there is a problem, this kind of movie adapted from a TV series is actually very difficult to make.
If the plot is exactly the same as the TV series, the audience will say that the producers are making money and their behavior is ugly. If there are too many changes, they will be criticized for making random changes and disrespecting the original work, and they will be unpopular both internally and externally.
Therefore, they only have traffic, but their reputation is often bad, and the probability of failure is very high.
Gu Wei had previously considered whether to let "Wei Ming Tian Xia" shoot a movie version of "Love O2O".
However, without him and Nazha starring in the film, it would be difficult to make a film that is both a box office success and a critical success.
There is a high probability that the audience will say that it is the same old stuff in a new bottle, a rehash of old ideas, and a way to make money.
So this project has not been finalized yet.
Gu Wei’s company has many high-quality film projects, and the movie version of "Love O2O" is a bit useless to him.
"How much did they offer?"
Gu Wei tapped the table with one finger, thought for a while, and then asked.
"Huayi's offer is 20 million, but I think there's still room for them to go up."
"good!
Continue to negotiate with them, slowly test Huayi's bottom line, and try to sell the film adaptation rights of "Love O2O" at a higher price."
"Understood, Mr. Gu!"
(End of this chapter)
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