Chapter 312 Superb Ability to Lead a Drama
Entering September also marks the end of the 2015 summer movie season.
If we talk about the hottest movie in this summer, it must be "Monster Hunt".
The most popular actor is definitely Gu Wei.
"Love O2O", which was hailed as a masterpiece of campus youth TV series by the audience, and "Monster Hunt", which won the number one box office in film history, flourished on both the small and big screens, with a double harvest of TV series and movies.
Whether in terms of popularity or actual results, Gu Wei is far ahead.
Bai Baihe, who worked with Gu Wei on "Monster Hunt", also reaped great rewards during the summer season.
In July and August, she had three movies released: "Monster Hunt", "Go Away Tumor", and "Love in the City".
Not to mention Monster Hunt, the next two movies released in August, Go Away Tumor, is a chick flick that I collaborated with the male idol Wu Yanzu.
It has to be said that Bai Baihe is now a very famous figure in the film industry. In the film "Go Away! Tumor King", she overpowered Wu Dan, the male lead in the box office, and the final result was not bad, with a score of 500 million.
Although it is not as exaggerated as "Monster Hunt" in which she collaborated with Gu Wei, it truly proves her status and box office appeal in the field of chick flicks.
As for "Love in the City", it is a compilation movie that tells the love stories of five couples.
Bai Baihe is only one of the female protagonists, the other four are Yang Mi, Jiang Shuying, Jiang Yiyan, and Zhang Rongrong.
Logically speaking, this movie has movie stars like Bai Baihe who can carry the box office, and Da Mimi, a very popular post-85 flower. The other three female stars are also beautiful women. Moreover, it was released on the Chinese Valentine's Day, which gathered all the conditions for a big box office success.
However, as mentioned before, whether a work can become popular in the entertainment industry is often a mystery.
A film or TV work that is not well produced may become a hit for no apparent reason; and a drama that has made all preparations to be a big hit may also flop miserably.
[City in Love] is the latter.
No one expected that this love movie that was favored by everyone would only have a box office of more than 50 million.
It is 2015 now, not 10 years ago. There are domestic films with box office of hundreds of millions, billions or even billions of yuan. A movie with 50 million yuan can only be said to be a huge flop.
The investors lost all their money, and the money they received was not even enough to pay the actors' salaries.
Bai Baihe also suffered some setbacks, which slowed down her rising momentum slightly.
As for Da Mimi, she has already gotten used to her movies failing, so she didn't react too much.
I am just looking forward to the already completed "I Am a Witness" and "The Sword Identity 2".
Especially the collaboration with Gu Wei in "The Sword Identity 2", which she regarded as her comeback work in the film industry.
There is another female star in the summer box office who is very popular and has always been compared with Bai Baihe by the media and the audience.
That is Wang Luodan, who looks and has a very similar temperament to her.
Ever since both of them became famous, Bai Baihe and Wang Luodan have been compared with each other.
It has to be said that in the entertainment industry, if two stars are of similar age and type, they will inevitably become enemies.
Because there are only so many good resources, what suits you must also suit me. Under mutual competition, even if we were friends, we will inevitably part ways in the end because of interests.
Just like the sisters in "Legend of Sword and Fairy", no matter how good their relationship was when they started filming, after they became famous, they were inevitably driven by interests and became antagonistic to each other.
So-called friendship is very fragile in the face of real money and career development.
There were also the three little ones who came later. They were all of similar age and had similar styles. When they were not famous at the beginning, they relied on the team for warmth.
Once they become famous, even if there are no conflicts between them, the teams behind them will continue to have conflicts as they compete for endorsements and film and television resources for the artists. Over time, the teams will naturally break up.
If two people are not only of similar age and style, but also look somewhat similar, then it goes without saying that they are mortal enemies!
This is the case with Bai Baihe and Wang Luodan.
Although both of them have stated in interviews that they will only do their best to be themselves and do not care who the audience compares them with.
But this is just nice talk for the sake of face.
The competition between the two has never stopped.
It wasn't until later when Bai Baihe's one-finger Zen incident happened and a reporter interviewed Wang Luodan that she completely couldn't control her joy.
It felt like a big piece of pie fell from the sky, and her expression seemed to tell the audience:
"I'm so proud of myself. I won't be acting anymore!"
Of course, the two of them are still in a life-and-death battle.
Wang Luo also has three films released in the two months of the summer season, namely "Breaking Wind", "The House Girl Detective Guixiang" and "The Sun Also Rises".
Basically, they are all released around the time when Bai Baihe has three movies released.
But if we compare the box office, she lost miserably. Not to mention compared with "Monster Hunt", the box office of "Go Away Tumor" alone was 500 million, which was more than her three movies combined.
In particular, "The House Girl Detective Guixiang", in which Wang Luo played the leading role alone, suffered a double loss in box office and reputation, with the final box office of less than 50 million, a complete flop.
Only "The Sun Also Rises" helped her make a comeback with its strong reputation, but the most outstanding actors in this drama are still the two male protagonists Deng Chao and Duan Yihong.
Let’s not talk about Wang Luo, the female lead, as her role and proportion in the screen time are indeed not that big.
In general, the summer season saw the two female stars who were teased by everyone in the film and television circles for "sharing the same face" ended with Bai Baihe winning the title of "Box Office Queen", completely overwhelming the other.
"Okay, Mr. Hou, don't worry, I'll finish filming soon and it won't affect the promotion of Nirvana in Fire.
For online promotion, you can send the materials to my agency, and the domestic team will work with the crew on online promotion.
Don't worry, I have confidence in the quality of the TV series and will definitely pay attention to its promotion."
During a break in the filming, Gu Wei received a call from Mr. Hou of Noon Sunshine, who confirmed with him the time to return to China, as Nirvana in Fire was going to be released at the end of September.
Although this drama was very popular in its original time and space, it was among the top few in 2015 in terms of reputation, ratings and playback volume.
But in fact, "Nirvana in Fire" was not very popular when it was first launched.
With the show being broadcast simultaneously on two channels in Beijing and Shanghai, its ratings ranked behind top five in the same time period.
Later, as the TV series was slowly aired, it started low and ended high, and became a rising star due to its extremely high reputation.
By the second half of the broadcast, the ratings for both channels had exceeded 1, and the ratings ranked first and second in the same period.
It is even more popular on the Internet, and the number of online broadcasts has been increasing.
The reason is still the relationship between the actors.
[Noon Sunshine] Although it is very good at producing serious dramas, the most popular TV dramas in the current TV drama market are fantasy themes and idol dramas.
The original male lead, Hu Ge, was at the bottom of his career at that time. He failed to enter the big screen and was still relying on the success of "Chinese Paladin" on the small screen.
After the car accident, he disappeared from the circle for a while to recuperate, causing his popularity to plummet.
After getting married, the heroine Liu Tao has been paying off her husband's debts, taking on many bad dramas, and her reputation and popularity are not as good as before.
Although the other supporting actors have good acting skills, they are not famous.
That’s why not many people paid attention to “Nirvana in Fire” when it was first released, and the ratings were not worthy of its excellent production.
It was not until the later period that it made a comeback thanks to its good reputation and became a hit drama that was widely loved by the audience.
Hu Ge and Liu Tao returned to the top with the help of "Nirvana in Fire", and other supporting actors also reaped some of the benefits.
But now it's different.
Because of the performances of Gu Wei and Tang Yan, the current "Nirvana in Fire" has attracted widespread attention from the audience even before it was aired.
Especially Gu Wei’s fans have been looking forward to this TV series for a long time.
The price of Gu Wei's version of Nirvana in Fire was also quite high. In the first round, it was broadcasted on two channels in Beijing and Shanghai, with each channel receiving 2 million yuan per episode, for a total of 216 million yuan.
The exclusive online broadcasting rights were purchased by Tencent Video at a package price of 150 million yuan.
Excluding the cost, the entire drama brought more than 200 million yuan in profits to Noon Sunshine. Of course, this also includes Gu Wei's 20% investment share in Wei Ming Tian Xia.
This kind of revenue allowed Hou Hongliang to truly witness Gu Wei's ability to direct a drama.
The TV series has not been released yet, but TV stations and video websites have invested huge amounts of money to purchase it just because they are optimistic about Gu Wei's starring role.
This situation is something that [Noon Sunshine] has never encountered before.
Because although everyone knows that the quality of the TV series they produce must be no problem, good quality does not mean that everyone will like to watch it.
How much money a broadcasting platform is willing to spend depends entirely on how much profit the TV series can bring them.
The most important of these is advertising and investment promotion.
The reason why TV series starring Gu Wei are selling so well now is entirely because after the TV station spends a huge amount of money to buy it, advertising investment can be made immediately, and it can also make a lot of money.
Of course the TV station is willing to do such a good thing.
Similarly, video websites focus on the increase in membership and advertising revenue when the number of views is high.
This is a win-win situation. As long as it is a TV series starring Gu Weizhu, everyone feels that they have made a profit, from the producers to the broadcasting platforms to the manufacturers who pay huge advertising fees.
The only ones who may suffer losses are other TV series produced during the same period.
Because the profits he makes from starring in TV dramas are so huge, Gu Wei now rarely takes on external roles.
He has his own production company and is not short of scripts. Why not just organize the filming himself?
At that time, he could win over some playback platforms like Tencent Video, Mango and Litchi, and Gu Wei would eat the meat and give them some soup. Why should he use his fame to make money for others?
Nirvana in Fire was filmed at the beginning of last year. At that time, his company's production capabilities were not good enough and the scale could not keep up. Now there is no need to worry about this problem at all.
In mid-September, the two movies "Monster Hunt" and "The Pancake Man" were taken off the screen after two months of release.
"Monster Hunt" finally achieved a box office revenue of 2.67 billion yuan, pushing the domestic film box office record up by more than 200 million yuan.
[The Pancake Man] also achieved a good result of 1.14 billion, which is almost the same as the original time and space.
[Etone Films], President’s Office.
Jiang Zhiqiang took the movie data sent by his assistant and looked at it carefully with a smile on his face.
"Monster Hunt", which has been released for 59 days, has broken more than 200 box office records, big and small. With a box office of 2.67 billion, it has become the domestic film that has broken the most box office records since the Chinese film market began keeping box office statistics in 1994.
Now that the movie is off the screen, it also marks the final box office results have been settled.
Jiang Zhiqiang was extremely satisfied with the current results and was in a particularly good mood.
After a while, director Xu Chengyi knocked on the door and came in.
"Haha, Lao Xu, come and sit down~"
Jiang Zhiqiang put down the data sheet in his hand, stood up and greeted him with a smile.
Director Xu sat down on the sofa, also smiling.
When I decided to return to China to develop my career, I never thought that I could become the highest-grossing commercial director in the country with just one movie.
The surprise came too quickly and was completely beyond his expectations.
"[Monster Hunt] has been completely taken off the screen now. You know how well it did at the box office, and you deserve all the credit, Old Xu!"
Jiang Zhiqiang happily praised Director Xu. He felt that he had made the right decision by asking Xu Chengyi to return to China.
"I dare not, I dare not, the success of the film is the credit of all the production crew and cast and crew. I just did my duty as a director."
Director Xu said modestly.
"Haha~ You don't have to be so modest, I know everything.
This time the movie is a big hit, and you deserve the most credit for that.
We have been friends for so many years, I will definitely not treat you unfairly!"
Jiang Zhiqiang patted Director Xu on the shoulder and made a promise to him.
Xu Chengyi smiled and said nothing. He was prepared for this kind of thing. The movie sold so well that [Enlightenment] made a fortune. Based on his understanding of Jiang Zhiqiang, he knew that the other party would definitely not be stingy.
"That's right, Lao Xu.
Now that [Monster Hunt] has been taken off the air, no matter how good its performance was, it is all in the past.
Do you have any ideas for a sequel?"
"Monster Hunt" was such a huge hit that it would be absurd not to make a sequel.
Jiang Zhiqiang had long planned to create a big IP for a series of movies.
If possible, we would like to shoot one movie after another, just like the Fast and Furious series.
This way it won't be a one-time deal; "Monster Hunt" will become a gold mine, generating a steady stream of revenue for "Etone Films."
After hearing Jiang Zhiqiang's words, Director Xu lowered his head and thought for a while.
"I have this idea too. I have a rough outline of the story in my mind. I will slowly sort it out and then let the screenwriter department enrich it."
"Okay, hurry up and do this. Although there's no rush right now, we can make other preparations after the script is out."
Jiang Zhiqiang ordered.
"Understood, Mr. Jiang, I will definitely get it done as soon as possible."
After finishing the conversation, Jiang Zhiqiang said with a smile:
"By the way, I've already planned a celebration party for the movie in a few days. You'd better have a few drinks then, Old Xu."
"I remember Gu Wei went to the United States to film a movie, right? Aren't we waiting for him?"
Director Xu asked doubtfully.
"No way, I've already contacted him and he'll be back in a few days.
Besides you, Gu Wei is the biggest contributor to our play.
How can we celebrate without our leading man?!"
The publicity and promotion of "Monster Hunt" was handled by Jiang Zhiqiang, who knew best the profits that Gu Wei's strong box office appeal could bring to the film.
At that time, he will have to discuss with Gu Wei about starring in the second part.
(End of this chapter)
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