Chapter 321 The Future Comedy King
In the last few days of September, in addition to taking care of his own company's affairs in Beijing, Gu Wei attended two movie premieres.
The first one is "Lost in Hong Kong", which was released on the 25th and directed and starred by Xu Zheng.
Originally, Gu Wei and Xu Zheng had no friendship, had never worked together before, and did not know each other at all.
It was just that Mr. Wang from [Guangguang Media] strongly invited him to participate, and Gu Wei didn't want to offend Wang Changtian, so he had to go and help.
However, he was relatively low-key throughout the premiere, went there quietly, sat in the audience and watched the movie. After the premiere, he said hello to Lao Wang and left.
Of course, he was caught by the media and asked about his experience watching the movie. Gu Wei was very polite and praised the movie.
But in fact, in Gu Wei's opinion, the quality of "Lost in Hong Kong" is average and not as amazing as "Lost in Thailand".
As the third part of "Lost on Journey", to be honest, it has damaged the reputation of this series.
First of all, Xu Zheng was no longer satisfied with simply being funny in "Lost in Hong Kong", he wanted to express some of his own ideas through the movie.
It is a middle-aged man's nostalgia for youth and reflection on life.
All the jokes revolve around this central idea.
It’s not that what he did was bad. Movies should indeed express something and allow the audience to gain something after watching them.
But the key is that he is a little too focused on this kind of expression and ignores the fact that what really attracts the audience to a comedy is that it must be funny.
The success of Lost in Thailand has nothing to do with the content of the film, but rather the clever gag design and dense laughs from beginning to end.
The audience entered the cinema and laughed non-stop from the beginning to the end of the movie.
This is the main reason that attracts people to watch the movie, not because they want to see something in the movie that can convince and educate them.
Compared to the second part, the jokes in "Lost in Hong Kong" are a bit perfunctory, and feel forced, not as natural as "Lost in Thailand".
Another thing is that Bao Bei'er's popularity with the audience is far worse than Wang Baoqiang's.
If the same plot is played by Wang Baoqiang, everyone will be able to accept it, but if it is played by Bao Beier, the audience may feel bored. This is entirely due to the different images of the actors in the audience's minds.
However, despite its many shortcomings, "Lost in Hong Kong", as the highly anticipated third film in the "Lost" series, performed very well after its release.
The box office exceeded 200 million on the premiere day, and then on Saturday and Sunday the box office reached 240 million and 220 million respectively.
The box office for the first three days was 660 million yuan.
This fierce momentum is even stronger than when the current box office champion "Monster Hunt" was released.
After all, the highest single-day box office of "Monster Hunt" did not exceed 200 million.
Just when everyone was expecting "Lost in Hong Kong" to create a new box office record, the box office performance of the movie on Monday of the second week dropped directly from 220 million to 91.24 million, more than halving.
Moreover, its reputation on the Internet is not very good. Among them, the most common questions raised by netizens are why Wang Baoqiang is not used and why it is not as funny as "Lost in Thailand".
By this time, everyone knew that this movie would do well at the box office, but it was definitely not going to break the record.
The second premiere that Gu Wei attended was much more thoughtful.
He was invited by Chen Teng to attend the premiere of "Charlotte's Troubles" which was released on the 30th.
Although he has no connection with "Happy Twist", he has a good relationship with Chen Teng, and the post-production of "The Richest Tomato" directed by Yan Fei and Peng Damo has not been completed yet.
Gu Wei was still waiting for the two directors to finish their work on "Charlotte's Troubles" so that they could return to his place and work honestly.
On the day of the premiere, Gu Wei's appearance was indeed a bit unexpected for the news media present.
It was also reported that he attended the premiere of "Lost in Hong Kong" two days ago, but that movie is the sequel to the former box office champion "Lost in Thailand" after all, and director Xu Zheng is also a big name in the circle.
No one was surprised that Gu Wei showed up to show his support.
But "Charlotte's Troubles" is different.
From the production company [Happy Twist] to directors Yan Fei and Peng Damo, to the male and female protagonists Chen Teng and Mary.
It’s not true to say that he is not famous.
[Happy Twist] includes two directors who are very famous in the field of stage plays.
Chen Teng and Mary are famous comedians who have appeared on the Spring Festival Gala many times.
It’s just that before "Charlotte's Troubles", they had nothing to do with movies and were all newcomers in the film industry.
Chen Teng has acted in several movies before, always in small supporting roles or guest appearances. This is the first time he has truly played the leading role.
So, not only the media and the audience, but even they themselves have little confidence in what kind of results "Charlotte's Troubles" can achieve.
"Brother Teng, congratulations! The movie is finally going to be released. The future king of comedy is rising!"
Gu Wei teased Chen Teng with a smile.
"You can't say that. That's flattering me. I don't deserve it. I don't deserve it!"
Chen Teng shook his head repeatedly.
"It's okay. I'm telling you no one else can listen."
"Is that so? Then I, the future comedy king, am indeed rising!"
Chen Teng said in a cocky way.
"Don't you two treat me as a human being when you're chatting with me?"
Mary interjected.
"Alas~ Gu Wei doesn't treat you as an outsider, does he, brother?"
"That's right, Sister Ma Li is also the future comedy queen!"
Gu Wei said with a smile on his face.
"No, Brother Ni Teng has a girlfriend over there and they're getting married soon.
I don't want to have any scandals with him, so let him be the king of comedy."
Mary shook her head repeatedly.
"Why do I feel like you look down on me?"
Chen Teng was not convinced.
"You're mistaken. I don't just look down on you a little bit. I look down on you a lot!"
Gu Wei found the two people's daily bickering very interesting.
"Mr. Gu, you are here too?"
Yan Fei and Peng Damo also saw Gu Wei appear at the premiere and hurried over to say hello. After all, they were paid by Gu Wei to film the movie, but they ran away before the post-production was done well.
It felt like an actor was halfway through filming when he suddenly interrupted the filming to go shoot another one, and seeing Gu Wei he felt a little guilty.
"Congratulations to both directors on the release of their new film, it's sure to be a box office hit!"
Gu Wei said with a smile on his face.
"Thanks for your kind words, Mr. Gu. We are all newcomers in the film and television industry. We don't care about the box office for our first film. We just hope it will have a good reputation and be liked by the audience."
The two directors looked at each other, and Yan Fei, who was more extroverted, said.
But what he said was indeed the true feelings of the crew of "Charlotte's Troubles".
Everyone wants their movie to be a big hit, but they also know that they are newbies in the film industry and the chances of their first movie being a big hit are very small.
Gu Wei smiled and didn't take it seriously. Who could have known at that time that the movie "Charlotte's Troubles" would become a huge success and sell over 1 billion yuan.
Neither the director nor the actors dared to even think about it.
After chatting with a few more people for a while, the premiere started soon.
After the traditional interactive interview session, the movie started.
Of course, this was not the first time Gu Wei watched this movie.
To be honest, considering his situation, this kind of movie going back to the past is quite comedic. I just don't know who will be the character who concludes the story and says, "I feel like I've always lived in his shadow."
The movie ended quickly, and in the last segment, the host invited all the guests present today to come on stage to send their blessings to the movie.
Thanks to the connections of Happy Twist, some celebrities came to support the event today.
For example, the famous director Ning Hao praised "Charlotte's Troubles" after he came on stage, and used two words "especially good-looking" to describe the movie.
There is also He Jiong who came to the scene today. He stated that he would post a Weibo every day to support "Charlotte's Troubles" before the film is released on September 30.
After Xiao Yueyue came on stage, he sang the "Five Rings Song" at the request of the audience.
Finally, Gu Wei also walked onto the stage.
“I met Chen Teng, Mary and the two directors during last year’s Spring Festival Gala, and I have always admired their comedy abilities.
As expected, "Charlotte's Troubles" is a very good comedy film. I wish this film a big box office hit and hope that more people can see this very good movie!"
September 30th, the last day of the month.
In addition to "Charlotte's Troubles", Liu Dehua's "Saving Mr. Wu" and Lu Chuan's "Nine-story Demon Tower" were also released.
Everyone chooses to release the film on this day because of the seven-day National Day holiday on October 1st.
I want to achieve good box office results during this National Day holiday.
These three movies, plus "Lost in Hong Kong" which was released a week earlier, are basically the main force of domestic films in this year's National Day holiday.
Not surprisingly, "Nine-story Demon Tower", as an adaptation of the popular IP "Ghost Blows Out the Light" and a 3D disaster adventure film directed by the famous director Lu Chuan, has been highly anticipated by movie fans and book fans.
On the first day of its release, it received the highest national screening share of 31%, while "Charlotte's Troubles" and "Saving Mr. Wu" were not favored due to their fame and subject matter, and their screening share was only about 10%.
Although [Lost in Hong Kong] has shown signs of decline, it still maintains a stable share of over 20% of the screenings.
However, after the National Day Golden Week, after a few days of release, the performance of various movies showed unexpected changes.
The most normal one is "Saving Mr. Wu", which is similar to what everyone predicted at the beginning. Even with the participation of powerful stars such as Andy Lau, Liu Ye, and Wang Qianyuan, this movie still failed to become a big hit at the box office.
It only grossed 13.26 million on the first day of its premiere, and has subsequently fluctuated between 10 and 20 million. The film's reputation is quite good, and it should have no problem breaking the 100 million box office in the end, but that's where it stopped.
Although the box office of "Lost in Hong Kong" has dropped significantly compared to the first week, it still earns 70 to 80 million yuan every day.
"Nine-story Demon Tower", which everyone thought would be a big hit, took in 92.13 million on its first day of release and 102 million on the second day, October 1st. However, the box office started to fall from the 2nd, at a rate of almost 10 million a day, until the last day of the long holiday on October 7th, when the single-day box office was only 32.48 million.
The main reason for this situation is the collapse of the reputation of [Nine-story Demon Tower].
A large number of book fans who went to the cinema because of "Ghost Blows Out the Light" cried out that they were cheated after coming out. The movie borrowed the name of "Ghost Blows Out the Light" and changed the content to a mess, and there was no trace of the original work at all.
Regarding this situation, Lu Chuan spoke freely in an interview. He felt that the movies he made were his own works and hoped that the audience would not be influenced by the original works. The quality of the movie was the key.
After the report came out, netizens were full of criticism.
If you want to film your own work, don't label it as an adaptation of "Ghost Blows Out the Light." You want the traffic of "Ghost Blows Out the Light," but don't want people to say you're relying on the novel to sell well. You're a whore trying to be a saint!
[What the hell is this? It completely ruins the original. Money back! ! ]
[From now on, if I watch Lu Chuan's movies again, I will be a dog. I'm writing this as proof!]
【.】
Affected by this bad reputation, the box office of "Nine-story Demon Tower" naturally continued to decline.
In the end, even the original author of "Ghost Blows Out the Light", "Tianxia Bachang", could not help it. He believed that the movie "Nine-story Demon Tower" had made an "excessive" adaptation of "Ghost Blows Out the Light" and infringed his copyright. He sued China Film Co., Ltd. and the director of "Nine-story Demon Tower" Lu Chuan in the Xicheng District Court of Beijing.
After the court heard the case, "Tianxia Bachang" won the case and was ordered to pay the author 50,000 yuan in compensation.
It doesn’t matter that [Nine-story Demon Tower] flopped, because during the National Day holiday, a dark horse emerged that no one expected - [Charlotte’s Troubles].
Although this movie had only a little over 10% of the screenings on the premiere day, it still achieved a good result of 34.51 million thanks to its extremely high attendance rate.
The subsequent box office trend was completely opposite to that of "Nine-story Demon Tower". Thanks to its extremely high reputation, the box office continued to rise.
Seeing this situation, the theaters repeatedly increased the screening schedule of "Charlotte's Troubles". Finally, in the last two days of National Day, the box office reached a good result of 112 million yuan in a single day.
"Charlotte's Troubles" became a huge hit and was called by the audience the only surprising comedy movie in the second half of the year.
Chen Teng, a sketch actor, has also transformed himself into a popular movie actor and comedy star.
Gu Wei's office.
He made tea and sat opposite a fair-skinned and pretty woman.
"Senior Sister, this tea tastes pretty good, right?"
Gu Wei asked with a smile.
"It's okay. I didn't know you liked this. My dad has a lot of good tea, all given by others. He can't drink it all himself. I'll bring you some later."
"Isn't this bad?"
Gu Wei hesitated.
"It's okay, it's okay. It would be a waste to leave it there. I might as well give it to you to drink. It will also help him share some of the burden."
Han Jianu waved her hands, looking like a child who had no regrets about selling her father's land.
"Then I'll be honored to refuse. Thank you in advance, Senior Sister!"
Gu Wei had a smile on his face, as if he could see Han Sanping's heartache when he discovered that his beloved tea was missing.
"By the way, I came to see you today for something serious.
I finally finished the script I told you about before after several revisions."
Han Jianu looked at it and took out a thick white bound book from the bag beside her.
Gu Wei took it and saw four big words written on the cover: [Road of Life].
He flipped through it casually, and the content inside was exactly the later movie "Dying to Survive".
After a while, Gu Wei closed the notebook.
"Senior Sister, your script is very well done and written."
Hearing Gu Wei's praise, Han Jianu couldn't help but smile.
"When can we start preparing for the film?"
"Actually, I've been interested in your script since the last time we had dinner together.
Just a few days ago I found a very suitable director.
I think with his ability, he can definitely make this movie well."
Gu Wei said.
"Oh? Which famous director? Do I know him?"
Han Jianu looked curious.
"He's not a big director, but you definitely know this person."
Gu Wei picked up the teacup with a smile, blew on the tea leaves floating on it, and slowly took a sip.
"Gu Wei, I've noticed that even though you're still young, you always talk like old men. You're just like my dad and his gang, always wanting to keep people in suspense."
Han Jianu complained.
"Hehe, blame me. Wen Muye, you must know him, Senior Sister. He is the same as you. He graduated with a master's degree in directing from the Beijing Film Academy in 2011."
“Xiao Wen?
My classmate, of course I know him.
But, can he do it?"
Han Jianu expressed doubts about what Gu Wei said.
She and Wen Mu had been classmates for two years, so she knew that he was indeed a very talented director.
But she also knew that this classmate had just graduated and had no experience in directing feature films.
"You can't trust others, but you can trust me. After all, I'm the one who's spending real money to make this movie!
I have already signed Wen Mu to my company.
I know you were worried that he had too little filming experience and was too young, so I arranged a simpler romantic comedy for him to practice.
At the same time, the company asked an assistant director with rich shooting experience to assist him.
As soon as that movie is finished, we will start preparing for this one!"
Gu Wei also spoke well of Wen Mu.
Others don’t believe in his ability, but Gu Wei knows it, after all, "Dying to Survive" was originally the work of Wen Muye.
Moreover, he went on to make other hit movies afterwards, so his ability and talent are beyond doubt.
"Uh~Okay, I'll listen to you."
Han Jianu hesitated for a moment and then agreed.
Just like Gu Wei said, apart from anything else, they are the investors of this movie, and they definitely care most about whether the movie will be a good hit in the future.
Since he already has a complete plan, there is no reason for me to object.
"Oh, there's one more thing, the name of this movie needs to be changed.
"[Life Road] is obviously a drama, and if you want the movie to be a hit, this name won't do."
Gu Wei said.
"So what good suggestions do you have?"
"Based on the performance of the male lead Cheng Yong in the movie, it's not an exaggeration to call him a god. He could be called the 'God of Medicine', and the movie could be called 'I Am Not the God of Medicine'!"
"[I'm not the God of Medicine]?"
Han Jianu muttered twice.
“It’s a great name indeed!”
(End of this chapter)
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