Chapter 333 Let’s Make a Bet
On the 18th, the fantasy adventure production "Mojin: The Lost Tomb" directed by the great director Wu Ershan and starring Chen Kun, Huang Bo, Shu Qi and others was officially released.
This movie has the IP popularity brought by "Ghost Blows Out the Light" and the fame of big directors and first-line stars. It achieved an extremely high box office of 160 million on the first day of its release on Friday.
In the following two days of the weekend, the film earned 226 million and 203 million yuan respectively, with a first-week box office of 689 million yuan, becoming the first hit movie of this year's Lunar New Year holiday.
What is even more remarkable is that as a film adapted from "Ghost Blows Out the Light", the audience believes that "Mojin: The Lost Tomb" is highly faithful to the original novel, especially in terms of casting. Chen Kun, Huang Bo, and Shu Qi are very similar to the Hu Bayi trio in the book, which is completely different from "Nine-story Demon Tower" which is a wolf in sheep's clothing.
The good reputation has given "The Mojin" even greater box office potential, and everyone is optimistic about its subsequent performance.
However, the comedy film "Never Expected" released on the same day was not so lucky.
The box office on the first day was only 49.95 million, and it only earned 58.41 million and 47.72 million in the two days of the weekend.
The reputation is terrible.
The producer [Wanhe Tianyi] saw that Dapeng made a huge profit by filming [The Pancake Man] with the super high popularity of [Diaosi Nanren].
So they followed suit. It just so happened that their company had a popular online short drama series called "Never Expected That", which led to the internet celebrity director Yi Xiaoxing shooting a movie of the same name, thinking that they would make a lot of money with the same fan base.
Unexpectedly, the poor publicity and promotion, coupled with the poor quality of the film, led to "Never Expected" being a complete failure at the box office.
Three days after its first week of release, the movie was drowned in complaints from netizens, and in the second week the box office dropped to just over 10 million, a complete flop.
Gu Wei, who had just finished a press conference for the movie "Assassin's Blade 2", was looking at his phone in the car.
Yang Mi, who was sitting next to him, leaned over.
"What are you looking at?"
Gu Wei smiled.
"I've seen the box office results for 'Mojin: The Lost Legend' these days. This movie is really popular lately. Brother Lu, are you feeling any pressure?"
Lu Yang on the opposite side was confused.
"No matter how popular it is, it has nothing to do with me. Our movie won't be released until the end of the month, and there are still three weeks left. By then, the box office of 'Mojin: The Lost Legend' will no longer be a concern."
"Brother, you just don't have ambition. I didn't ask you to compete head-on with 'The Lost Tomb'. I meant, can we beat 'The Lost Tomb' for the Lunar New Year box office title this year?"
Lu Yang touched his chin.
“It’s difficult!
Although our movie has the super popularity of you and Mimi, martial arts movies are in decline after all.
The first installment of "Blade of the Assassin" only grossed over 200 million yuan, how much has "Mojin: The Lost Tomb" grossed today?"
Gu Wei glanced down at his phone.
"730 million."
"Right. It's just the beginning of the second week now. According to this trend, it will be no problem for [Mojin: The Lost Tomb] to break 1 billion.
If things go well, it's not impossible to exceed 1.5 billion.
I would be satisfied if our "Blade of Assassins 2" could gross over 500 million. If it could reach 1 billion, I would wake up laughing in my dreams!"
What Lu Yang said was very realistic.
"Miss Mi, what do you think our movie will be able to do at the box office?"
Gu Wei turned around and asked Yang Mi again.
"How would I know? Anyway, no matter how much the box office is, it's a new record for me.
Like the director said, 500 million is already pretty good."
The movie "I Am a Witness" which was released at the end of last month only grossed over 200 million yuan. Many people in and outside the circle still believe that it was Lu Han who attracted the audience to get such a high box office.
Yang Mi has never been confident in his box office appeal.
"You two, a director and a leading actress, are so lacking in confidence in your own work? Anyway, I am very optimistic that "Assassin's Blade 2" will break 1 billion at the box office."
Gu Wei said confidently.
"Where do you get so much confidence?"
Yang Mi asked.
Lu Yang also looked at Gu Wei, listening to his insights and whether he had noticed any big selling points in the movie that even he, the director, was not aware of.
"Because I'm the lead actor. A movie starring me is bound to make over 1 billion, right? After all, 'Monster Hunt' made over 2 billion!"
Gu Wei said as a matter of course.
"Tsk~ fart!"
Yang Mi rolled his eyes, expressing his disdain for Gu Wei's confident and conceited remarks.
Lu Yang also laughed and said:
"I thought you had some brilliant ideas. Gu Wei, your popularity is unmatched in the domestic entertainment industry right now, but our subject matter isn't good enough. Even if your fans continue to support us, I estimate that the top revenue will be around 700 or 800 million.
Moreover, the "Monster Hunt" you filmed before was a big fantasy production, and the cost alone was over 300 million yuan.
We only have less than 100 million, how can we compare with them?"
"Director, this is what we call a well-reasoned box office prediction. Unlike you, who just hit your head and said, 'I'm sure it will break 1 billion,' that's completely nonsense."
Yang Mi also echoed from the side.
Gu Wei turned and looked at her.
"Miss Mi, do you want to make a bet with me?"
"What's the bet?"
"Let's bet on whether our film 'Blade of the Assassin 2' can break 1 billion at the box office!"
Yang Mi thought about it.
"Okay, what's the bet?"
"I haven't decided yet. If you break one billion, you have to agree to one condition of mine."
Gu Wei said.
"What if we can't break one billion?"
"Miss Mi, please make a request~"
Yang Mi's beautiful eyes darted around like a little fox.
"If the box office of 'Assassin's Blade 2' doesn't break 1 billion, you'll have to compensate me with another movie starring the female lead!"
She had a very good idea. If she lost, she would still be the heroine of a movie with a billion box office. If she won, she would have an extra movie resource. It would not be a loss either way.
"no problem!"
Gu Wei agreed readily.
According to the plan of the publicity and distribution team, the crew of "Assassin Spring Blade 2" will conduct roadshows in major cities across the country before the movie is released, meeting with as many fans as possible to increase the exposure of the movie.
Roadshows have now become an important means of film promotion. For this year's hit film "The Pancake Man", director Dapeng took the crew to 31 cities and 188 theaters across the country within a month. Thanks to the continued popularity brought by the roadshow, it eventually achieved a box office record of 1.163 billion yuan, becoming the most classic case of film roadshows.
While Gu Wei and his team were promoting the film, the promotion of two other films had also reached its hottest stage. They were "Old Boys" and "Bad Boys" which will be released this Thursday.
On December 20, "Old Cannon" held its premiere at the Water Cube in Beijing, inviting 4,000 people to watch the movie together, and the tickets were sold out.
That night, scalpers had already sold a grandstand ticket for 600 yuan each, while the venue ticket had exceeded 1,000 yuan, which was enough to show the enthusiasm of the fans.
Thanks to the background of Huayi Brothers and Feng Xiaogang's influence, this premiere was attended by nearly half of the celebrities in the entertainment industry, and the scene was truly star-studded.
When he came on stage, Li Jiaheng stood next to Feng Xiaogang, and he was very proud at this time.
Earlier this month, the filming of "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back" starring him was just finished, and this "Old Cannon" in which he plays a supporting role is about to be released. If you ignore Gu Wei who has always been superior to him, everything seems to be going so smoothly!
Li Jiaheng frowned slightly after taking a look at the other young actor standing next to Feng Xiaogang.
After stepping down.
"Who is that Li Yifeng? He seems to be on a roll lately."
Li Jiaheng asked his agent in a low voice.
Huang Bin looked up.
"He's the top star at Huanrui Films and TV, and they're pushing him hard. He starred in this year's hit web series, The Lost Tomb.
Don't worry, he doesn't have many film resources, and his popularity is far behind yours."
"Why would I worry about him? Apart from Gu Wei, there's no other young star in the domestic entertainment industry that I take seriously."
Li Jiaheng's tone was very arrogant, which matched his somewhat arrogant attire very well.
"Your former teammate Lu Han should not be underestimated. The movie he made last month was a hit at the box office and received good reviews.
It has already proven its ability to single-handedly carry the box office.
There is still some competition between the two of you in terms of film and television resources and endorsements."
His agent Huang Bin gave him a scolding.
"Lu Han and Huang Zitao are so weird. They've gotten involved with Gu Wei. Have they forgotten how they forced someone to apologize online before?"
Li Jiaheng said hatefully.
"It is said that your silly teammate messed up the fashion show and was about to be banned by the brand. Gu Wei used his connections to help him solve the problem."
"Haha, Huang Zitao is always like this. I'm not surprised when he makes a fool of himself."
The premiere of "Old Cannon" was very successful and the movie received unanimous praise from the audience after the screening.
The celebrity guests present also praised Feng Xiaogang's acting skills.
At the same time, Deng Chao and his wife Sun Li, along with all the main creators of "Bad Guys", held a film press conference in Shanghai.
Different from the grand press conference of "Old Boys", the press conference of "Bad Angels" was relatively simple, with no other stars participating, and all the participants were the cast and crew of the movie.
However, due to Deng Chao's high popularity in the past two years, the hit of "Running Man" has made his national popularity soar, and his last film "Breakup Master" which he directed and starred in has won him many fans.
So even though the press conference was not large in scale, the attention attracted by "Bad Guys" was no less than that of "Old Cannon".
Moreover, this is the first film that the husband and wife duo Deng Chao and Sun Li have collaborated on, which makes the audience look forward to it even more.
On Thursday, two movies, "Old Boys" and "Bad Boys", were released at the same time.
If we only look at the screening schedule and box office, "Bad Angels" beats "Old Boys".
Deng Chao's comedy film took up 42% of the national screening share on the first day, while "Old Cannon" only took up 20% on the same day.
Cinemas are the most realistic. In their view, although Feng Xiaogang is a great director, he is just an actor in "Old Cannon", and this is also a feature film. Whether it can win the audience's favor is still unknown.
It’s different for Deng Chao. "Bad Angels" continues his previous comedy style. This time, "Empress" Sun Li joins the cast, and the couple’s collaboration is full of gimmicks.
It's no surprise that the film ranking is so high.
The box office results on the previous day were similar to what the theaters expected.
"Bad Angels" took 150 million yuan at the box office, while "Old Boys" only took one-third of that, a little over 50 million yuan.
In the following week, the screening schedules of the two films did not change much. In the first four days, "Bad Boys" took in a total of 500 million yuan at the box office, while "Old Boys" only took in 240 million yuan.
It seems that Deng Chao won, but in fact, after a week of screening, the reputation of "Bad Angels" completely collapsed.
All I can say is that the harder you promote a movie, the more badly you'll be scolded by the audience.
Countless netizens who have watched the movie gave it bad reviews, and the Internet is full of negative comments about "Bad Angels".
My comment on this movie is: The villain, God! There is poison in it!
[This film has reached a new low for domestic films in 2015! ]
"Deng Chao, why don't you just go and act in a movie like Burning Sun? Why do you have to act in something so embarrassing and not funny? And you even drag the Empress into this?!"
[It's quite vulgar, and I feel like it's ruining her popularity. She could have been a talented actress, but she had to mess around. I don't know what she's filming!]
【.】
Compared with "Bad Angels", "Old Cannon" has a much better reputation. Although some negative reviews are unavoidable, generally speaking, there are still more people who like it.
On Monday of the second week, the single-day box office of "Bad Angels" dropped directly from over 100 million to just over 30 million, and has never recovered since then.
[Lao Paoer] Due to its good reputation, the box office increased instead of decreased in the second week, and the single-day box office results remained stable at more than 50 million.
(End of this chapter)
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