Chapter 216 I’m the Producer
The next day, Gu Wei returned to the crew to continue filming.
At noon, Gu Wei and Bai Baihe were chatting while eating lunch boxes.
"Gu Wei, did you read the news about Chen He?"
Gu Wei picked up a piece of food and put it in his mouth. He was not surprised by Bai Baihe's gossip.
“Yes.”
"Tsk tsk~ No one expected that Chen He's incident would cause such a big stir!"
Her agent is the famous Wang Jinghua, and her husband Chen Yufan is also from the Beijing circle and has some connection with Huayi.
Otherwise, Feng Xiaogang would not have asked her to play one of the female leads when filming "Private Tailor".
Chen He’s current agency is Huayi, and the two know each other.
Seeing that he is now being blackened by the entire Internet, Bai Baihe feels a little sad.
It seems that yesterday Chen He was a popular star loved by many people because of Running Man, but overnight he was thrown into hell and became a scumbag that everyone hated.
"The main reason is that he and his ex-wife were too affectionate before. They were in love for 13 years and finally got married. Now he has destroyed everything with his own hands. How can he not suffer backlash?"
Gu Wei looked at Bai Baihe's face and said meaningfully:
"So if you're just showing off your affection in front of the camera for profit, it's going to be hard for you to get past the netizens if you get caught."
Bai Baihe nodded, not realizing the hidden meaning in Gu Wei's words, and instead sighed.
"It's Zhuo Wei who broke the news again this time. He truly lives up to his reputation as the entertainment industry's top paparazzi!"
Gu Wei looked at her face without saying anything. He remembered that the person who exposed Bai Baihe's "one-finger Zen" incident seemed to be Zhuo Wei's Fengxing Studio.
"By the way, Gu Wei, do you have a girlfriend?"
After talking about Chen He's cheating, Bai Baihe started gossiping about Gu Wei.
"No."
Gu Wei said as a matter of course.
"Really? I don't believe it."
Bai Baihe looked skeptical.
"You're so handsome, and there were so many rumors about you online, how could you not have a girlfriend?"
"Sister Lily, you already said it was just a rumor, how can you take it seriously?"
Gu Wei looked innocent.
"If you don't have a girlfriend, do you want me to introduce you to one? I know a lot of pretty girls."
Bai Baihe looked at Gu Wei with a smile on her face.
"Haha, don't bother with this. I'm still young and my career is more important.
Sister Lily, why hasn't your husband come to visit you on set in all these days? "
Gu Wei laughed and changed the subject.
When Bai Baihe mentioned her husband, her interest immediately dropped, and she said perfunctorily:
"He has his own things to do. He usually doesn't interfere with my filming."
As time went by, the filming of "Monster Hunt" gradually entered the later stage, and the crew's filming progress was moving forward at a high speed.
On this day, Tang Wei and Yao Chen also joined the crew. Their roles were not in the original script, but due to reshoots, some plot lines could not be connected, so they had to be asked to play two roles that connected the plot.
The role is very simple, and there is not even any shot of Yao Chen and Gu Wei in the same frame.
The entire shoot was completed in one day.
Gu Wei had met Yao Chen several times before when he attended events, but they had no connection with each other and were complete strangers.
This was the first time he met Tang Wei offline. She was very beautiful. Although her facial features were not three-dimensional and her face was a bit round, her manners were elegant and generous, and she had the traditional intellectual charm of an oriental woman.
Her agency is Jiang Zhiqiang's Anle Film Company, so it is not surprising that she was asked to make a guest appearance.
"Hello, it's our first time meeting. I'm Tang Wei."
In the crew, Tang Wei, who had just joined the crew, shook hands with Gu Wei and introduced himself.
"Hello, Sister Tang Wei, I'm Gu Wei. You're even more beautiful in person than in the movies I saw before."
Tang Wei, born in 1979, is 13 years older than Gu Wei. She looks bright and charming, with the charm of a mature woman.
Complimenting a woman on her beauty is always the best way to get closer to her, especially when it comes to a handsome guy like Gu Wei, it makes you seem more sincere when you say it.
"Tang Wei is beautiful, so am I not beautiful?"
Bai Baihe interrupted and said that she and Tang Wei had known each other for a long time, so they were very casual when talking.
"You are also very beautiful, but you are still a little short of goddesses like Sister Tang Wei.
Our crew made you look so dark, it's even more incomparable!"
Gu Wei said jokingly.
"Gu Wei!"
Bai Baihe picked up the crew's prop whip and pretended to hit someone.
Gu Wei quickly went around behind Tang Wei.
"I'm scared of you. You're also a beautiful woman, okay~"
"Hmph~ That's better. I'll let you go."
After saying that, he showed an expression that said, "You're smart, kid."
After filming "Monster Hunt" for more than 20 days, the two of them also brought out some of the ways the male and female protagonists interact with each other in the play, and it was quite interesting to see them playing and joking around.
Tang Wei watched them having fun from the side, smiling without saying a word, acting like a goddess.
Since the beginning of January, when Gu Wei joined the crew to shoot "Monster Hunt", "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" began its pre-release publicity and promotion activities under the auspices of the two distributors, Light Media and Wanda Films.
Although Gu Wei paid 32 million yuan in real money for publicity and promotion, and the two major distributors did contribute, the actual publicity and promotion effect of "The Return of the Great Sage" was not very ideal.
There is no way. During the 15-year period, domestic audiences' impression of domestic animated films was that they were cartoons for children, not something for adults to watch at all.
Especially the animated films released previously, such as "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" and "Boonie Bears" series, have further deepened people's impression.
So no adult would be willing to watch an animated movie alone without children.
For more than ten days, the promotion through various online and offline channels has made "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" somewhat famous. At least it has become familiar to some audiences, and the tens of millions of publicity and promotion costs have not been wasted.
However, if the inherent impression in the minds of the audience cannot be changed, the initial box office of the movie will probably not be too high.
On January 30, "Boonie Bears: Snow Mountain Bear Wind" was released. This movie is the first animated film released during the Lunar New Year holiday this year.
With the deep popularity accumulated by the "Boonie Bears" series of animated films, "Snow Ridge Bears" accounted for 18% of the national screenings on the first day of its release, and the box office on the same day was 27.72 million.
This box office result ranked second in the national box office on that day. The first place was also the new film released on the same day - the variety show movie "Running Man".
Since the beginning of 2014, when the popular variety show "Where Are We Going, Dad?" was adapted into a movie and released, it achieved excellent box office results. The door for such popular variety shows to be adapted into movies in China has been opened.
No matter how passersby curse or how film critics criticize, as long as they make money, this kind of comprehensive reform film will continue to be made.
"Running Man" is worthy of being the most popular variety show this year. The box office reached 79.81 million on the first day of its release, accounting for more than half of the total national box office on that day.
On Saturday, the 31st, "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Pleasant Goat in the Year of the Goat" was released. This cartoon with a somewhat confusing name has a deep audience base, just like "Boonie Bears".
However, the quality is far from that of "Boonie Bears". It is just an animation shown in a movie theater and is not much different from what you see on TV.
The box office on the first day was only 14.75 million, less than half of the first-day box office of "Boonie Bears".
"Running Man" grossed 85.8 million yuan on Saturday, shocking many filmmakers.
On Sunday, February 1, "Running Man" continued its box office miracle, achieving a score of 64.47 million on the same day. In the following three days, the movie's first-week box office reached 230 million, topping the list among all the movies released before the New Year.
Three days after its release, the film's Douban score came out, with a pitiful 3.6 points. Tens of thousands of people rated the film on the platform, and the comment section was full of curses.
[In the future, let's create a separate genre for this type of movie. Don't call it comedy or reality show. It would be more appropriate to call it money-making.
If you want to be happy, there are many ways to do it. How empty would you have to be to rely on this? Is this even worthy of being called a movie?]
[In the past two years, domestic variety shows have been produced without any thought. They just import them as they have money.
The variety show part of Running Man is not done well yet, with awkward coordination, repeated replays in one episode, and the name tag tearing segment can actually be made into an entire episode.
The seven characters don't work well together, and while these can be adjusted over time, it's wrong to just try to cash in. I absolutely won't watch this kind of movie.]
[I have no objection to variety shows being made into movies.
In fact, I think as long as it is shown in a cinema and there are audiences willing to pay for tickets, there is no problem at all whether the content is a variety show or a football match or a concert.
The only requirement is that, since it is to be sold and consumed as a movie, the audience must be allowed to view it from the perspective of a movie.
From this perspective, its technical content is too low, so the low evaluation is reasonable.
[This is a variety show, not a movie, just another way to make money...]
【.】
I don’t know if it was affected by the negative reviews online or because fans had already watched the movie in the first three days, but the box office of "Running Man" was halved on Monday, closing at 29.86 million.
The box office of "Boonie Bears" on Monday was also not ideal, only 14.35 million, and "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" was only 4.53 million.
Judging from the situation, the two animated films released during the Lunar New Year holiday will not go far, especially "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf", which will have a hard time breaking the 100 million mark.
This is the current reality of domestic animated films.
"Okay, I got it. Tell Mr. Zhang from Wanda to try to get more screenings for our film. Boonie Bears already has 18% of the screenings. Our 100 million RMB production can't be any worse than Boonie Bears!
After the filming is completed in these two days, I will promote it online. You can ask the employees in the fan group to be ready and mobilize the fans to watch the movie on the first day of its release.
I'm the producer of the film, and this is my movie. It's normal for fans to support it.
Okay, that's it. I'll talk about the rest when I get back to the company in a couple of days."
During the break in filming for Monster Hunt, Gu Wei received a call from his agent, reporting on the latest promotional status of The Monkey King: Hero is Back.
After explaining some things, Gu Wei hung up the phone.
Just like he said, he is now the producer of "The Monkey King: Hero is Back", and of course he is just credited for publicity.
This was also the idea of Light Media, who wanted to use Gu Wei's fame to attract popularity for this animated film.
If we can trick Gu Wei's fans into coming to the theater to watch the movie, we will make a lot of money.
Gu Wei certainly had no objection to this idea. He now accounted for 60% of the total investment in "The Return of the Great Sage" and was the largest investor. In the end, most of the money earned would go into his own pocket. What was wrong with using his fame to promote the movie?
Besides, this movie is not a bad movie, but a good movie with high quality. It is not a case of cutting leeks from its own fans.
During this year's Lunar New Year holiday, the domestic film market was in a state of mourning. There were no eye-catching films at all, and the overall market was particularly sluggish.
At this time of year in previous years, there would always be one or two movies that would stand out and hold up the banner of domestic film box office, like last year's "Detective Chinatown" and "Private Tailor", and the year before last's "Lost in Thailand" and "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons", all of which achieved excellent results in the Lunar New Year holiday.
This year everyone had pinned their hopes on the blockbuster "The Crossing" which was released last month, but unfortunately the ship sank as soon as it was released. For two consecutive months in December and January, there were no domestic films with outstanding box office results.
Gu Wei felt that this was also an opportunity. The absence of blockbuster films meant there was no competitive pressure. At the very least, "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" would have a great advantage in terms of screening schedule.
The original version of "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" was released during the summer vacation this year. At the same time, there were also Chen's "The Taoist Goes Down the Mountain", Da Peng's "The Pancake Man" and Guo Xiaosi's "Tiny Times 4". How could "The Monkey King: Hero is Back", an unknown animated film, compete with them for screening time?
The current situation is just right for the performance of "The Monkey King: Hero is Back". Gu Wei believes that as long as the publicity is in place, this movie will not only be the pioneering work of high-quality Chinese animated films, but will also take up the banner of the domestic film box office during the Lunar New Year period.
Chapter 2: over 3,000
(End of this chapter)
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