Chapter 471: In the end, one person took it all
On December 16, "The Great Wall" was officially released nationwide.
This film cost 150 million US dollars to produce and is said to be the most expensive film invested in China to date.
This is the largest co-production between Hollywood and a Chinese company, and Matt Damon's first film with an Asian theme.
It is also the first work of Legendary Pictures' Chinese subsidiary Legendary East, and Zhang Yimou's first film to collaborate with a Hollywood creative team.
After heavy publicity, it finally met with all domestic movie fans and audiences.
On Friday, the 16th, "The Great Wall" undoubtedly set off the first movie-watching craze of this year's Lunar New Year holiday. With a 43.5% share of the national screenings on the first day, it won nearly 80% of the national box office that day, with a single-day box office of 171 million yuan, which was a perfect start.
Over the next two days of the weekend, "The Great Wall" still ranked first in the country with a screening rate of nearly 43.48%. On the 17th, it took in 193 million yuan in a single day, accounting for nearly 70% of the national box office, and the cumulative box office has reached 360 million yuan.
On December 18, it earned another 168 million yuan, bringing the cumulative box office to 530 million yuan in the first three days of the weekend.
The 2016 Lunar New Year box office hit a climax, with the market closing at 950 million, an increase of 230 million from the previous week. Although it failed to break 1 billion, this result is already the highest single-week box office figure after the end of the National Day box office.
In addition to "The Great Wall", new films opening on the 16th include "The Wasted Times", "Youth", "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City", etc.
Among them, only "The Wasted Times" made it into the top three of this week's box office rankings with a score of 65.6 million.
Previously, this gangster romance film with a luxurious cast was regarded as the strongest competitor of "The Great Wall". Although it could not match "The Great Wall" at the box office, it achieved quite good reputation and its exquisite literary and artistic style was highly praised.
"Your Name", which has been the weekly box office champion for three consecutive weeks, was finally pulled off the throne this week and dropped to fourth place.
This animated film directed by Makoto Shinkai was a dark horse in the December film market. It had previously broken many records, including the annual 2D movie pre-sale, the annual 2D movie midnight box office, the fastest 2D animated film to break 100 million yuan, and the first 2D animated film to break 100 million yuan in a single day.
As of this week, the cumulative box office of "Your Name" has reached 540 million yuan, breaking the previous box office record of 531 million yuan for Japanese anime films released in China held by "Doraemon: Stand by Me".
Affected by the opening of two domestic blockbusters "The Great Wall" and "The Wasted Times", most of the old films were swept out this week. However, the well-received film "Hacksaw Ridge" directed by Mel Gibson still held the second place. The film exceeded 100 million yuan in the first week, and this week it still earned 120 million yuan at the box office despite the suppression of "The Great Wall", and the cumulative total reached 240 million yuan.
The fantasy magic movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" from the same series as "Harry Potter" closed at 14.5 million this week, a significant drop, and has fallen to ninth place in the box office rankings.
Although the first week performance of "The Great Wall" was amazing, compared with the high box office, the reputation of the movie was not satisfactory. Perhaps the film did not meet the public's expectations of "national master" Zhang Yimou. After its release, the Douban score was only 4.6, far from the passing line of 6 points.
Most of the online reviews of the entire movie are negative, and the audience expressed their disappointment with the movie from various angles.
[This is a sham. Gu Wei only has 5 minutes of screen time in total? I carefully counted, and there are less than 5 shots of him. With all the hype about Gu Wei's special appearance in the early stages, and his position on the poster made me think he was the second male lead, I want my money back!]
The graphics are good, suitable for those who like large-scale evening parties or cultural performances. The special effects are probably at the level of an upgraded version of "Nine-story Demon Tower" or a low-profile version of "Independence Day."
The actors were quite awkward, the English lines were awkward, the rhythmic gymnastics performance was awkward, and the character positioning was even more awkward. The integrity of the imperial master who bent over backwards for a few pieces of silver was truly admirable!
[Ms. Jingtian, a world-famous star, only played for about 90 minutes in this 104-minute film, leaving a full ten minutes for other unknown actors to perform. Her noble character is admirable!
Director Zhang, who has been making films for 30 years but remains relatively unknown internationally, finally has the opportunity to become a major Hollywood director, helming a $150 million A-list production, thanks to Ms. Jing!
To be honest, it's not as bad as people say online. It's a standard Hollywood fantasy (5.5-6.5 points) with a national aesthetic. The theater was full of "Oh Gu Wei! Oh Lu Han! Oh Zheng Kai! Oh TFboys" searching for people, which was very enjoyable.
[This is so disappointing. Let’s not talk about how the film was filmed. You tricked me into going to the cinema under the name of Gu Wei, and then made me watch this?
Before the release, they used the rumor about Gu Wei and Jing Tian to promote the film, but in the end, there was no interaction between the two of them at all in the movie?
[As a popcorn movie, I think it is acceptable. The special effects are very enjoyable to watch, but the weak plot is a major flaw. The parts without special effects are very boring to watch.
It's still worth watching, not as bad as people say. I have to say that this lineup is really expensive! Hahahahaha]
[Let's take a stand. The national director performed very well. This movie is a bit too negative. Personally, I think it captured the feeling of the coming winter in Ice and Fire in advance. The special effects and soundtrack are both plus points.
Jing Tian did lose points. By elevating the character through the setting, he invisibly magnified the flaws in his acting, but there is no need to follow the trend and criticize him! 】
【.】
In addition to netizens, film critics generally hold a negative attitude towards Zhang Yimou's "The Great Wall", and the voices of criticism are endless. The most exaggerated one is that a professional online film critic photoshopped all the actors in a "The Great Wall" poster into the image of the female lead Jing Tian, and then titled it "Zhang Yimou is dead."
Director Zhang did not give any response to this. Instead, Zhang Zhao, CEO of the film's promoter [LeTV Pictures], posted on Weibo to express his strong dissatisfaction, angrily scolded the original blogger, and demanded an apology and a statement.
The controversy over "The Great Wall" has alarmed many big directors in the circle. Several well-known directors, including Wang Jiawei, Lu Chuan, Chen Sicheng and the French director of "Wolf Totem", Jean-Jacques Annaud, have expressed their support for Zhang Yimou through various channels.
On Monday, December 19th, the second week of the release of "The Great Wall", the screening share did not change much, but the box office had dropped from 168 million yuan per day to 53.09 million yuan. The drop was quite large, but it was also in line with the box office trend of normal movies on weekdays.
However, based on the current reputation of "The Great Wall", it is impossible to achieve a long-tail effect by relying on word of mouth like some high-quality movies.
Moreover, this Friday, Zhang Jiajia's first work as a director, "The Ferryman," and Cheng Long's comedy film "Railroad Tigers," will be released. These two blockbuster new films will join the Lunar New Year battle. "The Great Wall" will certainly not maintain its current extremely high film share, and whether it can continue to unleash its potential in the future remains unknown.
On the set of "Ex-Files 3", Gu Wei was typing on his phone and replying to Jing Tian's WeChat message.
Da Tiantian has been criticized badly by netizens and film critics in recent days. Almost 80% of the negative reviews of "The Great Wall" are about her. Some comments that clearly think the movie is well made also add a sentence at the end: "It would have been better if Jing Tian was not there!"
Just like the "Warring States" she filmed before, in the end it was Da Tiantian who took on everything alone.
Although the girl had a good personality, she was in a bad mood after receiving so many criticisms, so she sent a WeChat message to Gu Wei to complain a few words.
In fact, the bad reputation of "The Great Wall" did have some impact on Gu Wei, mainly because the early publicity and promotion parties tried to take advantage of the popularity and over-promoted him, and Gu Wei himself did not come out to explain it clearly.
Because the audience who entered the cinema and his own die-hard fans felt cheated, they couldn't help but complain about Gu Wei while cursing "The Great Wall".
But everyone also knows that Gu Wei is ultimately just a guest appearance. If you watch a bad movie, you can blame the director for his poor directing, the screenwriter for his bad story, and the lead actor for his poor acting skills, but you can't blame a cameo with only three or two shots.
"[Great Wall]'s] bad reputation right now isn't your fault. Netizens are just looking for someone to blame. Don't take it too seriously."
Gu Wei sent some words of persuasion, but he didn't know if they were of any use. However, Jing Tian did reply with some comforting emoticons, and then confirmed with him again that Gu Wei would treat him to a meal when he returned from the United States.
"No problem, I always keep my word!"
Da Tiantian, who was far away in Beijing, saw Gu Wei's last reply and sent another big smiley face. She also had a smile on her face. She felt that the depression caused by the online violence from netizens in recent days had been relieved a lot.
"Tiantian, get ready, we're about to leave~"
The agent pushed the door open and urged.
Jingtian turned off his phone and stood up.
"Sister Chen, when will you be back this time?"
"According to the arrangement of the Pacific Rim 2 crew, this filming will be filmed in New South Wales, Queensland, Australia, and the mountainous provinces of our country. It will take four months and will be wrapped around April next year.
Although you are the heroine, if you do not join the crew in the later stage, you can finish filming all the scenes related to yourself around March.
Of course, the details will depend on the director and producer’s arrangements.”
The agent explained.
Jing Tian lowered his head and thought about it. Although it felt a bit long, he could still accept it.
"Sister Chen, please talk to the company and ask them to find a way for me to work with Gu Wei after we finish filming this movie.
Although [The Great Wall] did well at the box office, its reputation was terrible. It had no impact on me personally, and instead attracted criticism from netizens.
This is no different from when [Warring States] was released before.
"King Kong: Skull Island", which was filmed last year, will also be released early next year.
I’m worried that the performance of the next two Hollywood blockbusters will still be unsatisfactory.”
The agent frowned as she listened to Jingtian's words. She knew all these things.
"It's not easy to work with Gu Wei. He's a hot commodity in the industry right now, and many female stars are trying to get on his bandwagon through various channels. But now it seems that unless he's willing to help you, it's difficult to impress him through other means.
The people he had worked with before were either well-known first-line actresses, artists from his own company, or friends in the circle with whom he had a good relationship.
I heard that people like Liu Yifei and Yang Mi, who had worked with him twice, became friends after their first collaboration, and when there was another opportunity, Gu Wei would think of giving his old friends a hand."
"Is that so?"
Jingtian pursed his lips and thought.
"I have a pretty good relationship with him now, but it's not to the point where he can directly provide me with resources. I'd rather communicate through the company."
"I understand. I'll see if I can convince Gu Wei through Wanda's channels."
Over the years, Jing Tian has figured it out. The popular saying in the circle, "Small success depends on promotion, big success depends on luck" is still very reasonable. The 150 million US dollar investment in "The Great Wall" not only did not make her famous, but made her even worse.
Now, Gu Wei is the "luck" that can be relied on in that sentence. If you can't become famous after working with him, then you have to consider whether you are suitable for the path of an actor.
(End of this chapter)
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