Chapter 568
It is not new for Huang Bo to direct movies.
In recent years, there are too many actors who have become directors, and most of them have done a good job. Not to mention the quality of the movies, just looking at the box office, they win more than they lose.
First, Xu Zheng shot the box office hit "Lost in Thailand", then Deng Chao brought "The Breakup Guru", Dapeng shot "The Pancake Man", and Gu Wei also had his own "Detective Chinatown 3".
In fact, Wang Baoqiang had planned a comedy film "Journey to India" which he would direct and star in last year, but it just so happened that Gu Wei invited him to shoot "Detective Chinatown 2" at that time, so he didn't have enough time.
As a result, after returning from the United States after filming "Detective Chinatown 2", a divorce incident broke out. He even had to borrow money from Gu Wei for the lawsuit and tax payment, so of course he had no time to make movies.
It was not until the beginning of this year that the divorce lawsuit was completely concluded and Baoqiang got back part of his property.
Things have come to an end, but life has to go on and work has to be done, so the previous movie was put back on the agenda.
According to Gu Wei, Baoqiang's film is also currently being filmed.
In the original time and space, "Detective Chinatown 2" started filming after Wang Baoqiang's divorce, and "Journey to India" was also completed in 2016. Now, because of the butterfly Gu Wei, Baoqiang's directorial debut has been postponed for one year. I wonder if the film will be as bad as the original time and space.
By the way, although Baoqiang’s divorce lawsuit has ended, he is currently suing his former agent Song for suspected embezzlement. It is said that the evidence is conclusive. If nothing unexpected happens, Song’s sewing machine will definitely be broken.
Of course, this news was not reported by the media. Gu Wei and Baoqiang have always been in contact. They have been friends for several years. In addition, Gu Wei lent money to Wang Baoqiang at a critical moment. Wang Baoqiang has already regarded him as a close friend.
Now these things are no longer a secret. Baoqiang told Gu Wei everything when they were talking on the phone.
The three main actors of "Lost in Thailand" back then, even Wang Baoqiang wanted to be a director and make a movie, so Huang Bo certainly couldn't fall behind.
In fact, in recent years, actors have flocked to become directors, and the most fundamental reason is profit-driven.
The first few, such as Xu Zheng and Wu Jing, had a desire to create and hoped to express what they wanted to express in their works.
Of course, Wu Jing had no choice at the time. He was in middle age and gradually out of fashion. The crews that looked for him either cast him in supporting roles or as villains.
Since he can't get good resources, he might as well promote himself.
Later, everyone found that the threshold for becoming a director was so low, and actors crossing over to become directors was a hot topic and the audience liked it, so everyone started to get into this industry.
With the support of [Light Media], Bao Bei'er filmed the comedy [Happy Detective], and Wen Zhang, who has transformed into a behind-the-scenes person, also directed [Lu Yao Zhi Mali].
Even Xiao Shenyang, who filmed "The Love Master" with Xiao Yang last year, is preparing a comedy film "The Insect Crossing the River" which he will direct and star in.
The entertainment industry today is different from the past. Most artists and celebrities do not attach importance to their so-called identities.
Everything is about money.
If you can make money by filming, then film; if variety shows pay more, then appear on them.
Since being a director can make money, there is naturally capital to support these actors with ideas to transform into directors.
Including Li Chen, the big black bull, also tinkered with a "Sky Hunter" with the support of his girlfriend.
If it succeeds at the box office, he will be the second Wu Jing.
According to data, from August 7 to August 13, a total of 8 new films of various genres were released, including "The Mentalist" and "The Adventurers", with a total box office of 2.19 billion yuan in one week and a cumulative number of moviegoers reaching 62.43 million.
Among them, "Wolf Warrior 2", which is in its third week of release, is still showing strong upward momentum, and continues to top the weekly box office chart with a box office of 1.61 billion.
The suspense film "Psychological Crime" starring Li Yifeng, Liao Fan and Wan Qian ranked second with a box office of 116 million yuan; the action film "The Adventurers" starring Liu Dehua and Shu Qi and joined by French actor Jean Reno ranked third with a box office of 102 million yuan.
As for other movies currently in theaters, their weekly box office revenue is basically only tens of millions or even lower.
This year's summer season, the domestic film market is undoubtedly a big hit.
July was a little quiet at first, but until the release of "Wolf Warrior 2", the domestic film market entered an unprecedented boom.
However, unlike the Spring Festival period where several blockbusters shared the box office, the summer period was basically dominated by "Wolf Warrior 2".
As for other movies released at the same time, they can only become cannon fodder.
The wheel that crushed the ant does not mean that the wheel has any grudge against the ant, it just means that the ant was unlucky to be under the wheel.
After three weeks of release, the box office of "Wolf Warrior 2" has reached 4.856 billion yuan, far exceeding the original domestic box office champion "Detective Chinatown 2".
The movie "Wolf Warrior 2" raised the box office of domestic films from a peak of 3 billion to 4 billion or even 5 billion.
As of the 13th, Wolf Warrior 2 has accumulated a global box office of 674 million US dollars, becoming the world's top single-market single-film box office in 2017, and successfully entered the list of the top 100 global box office, becoming the only Chinese-language film among the Hollywood blockbusters.
At the same time, the number of domestic moviegoers for "Wolf Warrior 2" also exceeded the 125 million of the Indian film "Baahubali 2", ranking second in the world in terms of single-market moviegoers.
Currently, the world's number one moviegoer in a single market is Cameron's "Titanic," which has a total of 138 million viewers in North America.
"Wolf Warrior 2" has only been released for three weeks. With the long-term box office momentum, it should not be a problem for it to surpass "Titanic" in the future.
"I know you've all worked hard along the way. Together, we've made history and set records. Your names are in the annals of Chinese cinema! Thank you, thank you!"
After the excited words fell, Wu Jing drank three glasses of wine in a row.
"The director has a good alcohol tolerance!"
“The director is awesome!”
“.”
After drinking three cups, Wu Jing turned the glass over without changing his expression, which drew cheers from everyone.
On August 14, the crew of "Wolf Warrior 2" held a celebration banquet in Beijing. Wu Jing opened the banquet first and was extremely excited.
Although the movie has not been released yet, its outstanding box office performance continues to stimulate everyone in the creative team.
As early as the end of the second week, Wu Jing led the publicity team back to Beijing and planned to hold a banquet to celebrate the success. However, Gu Wei had just returned to the crew for a few days of filming, so it was not convenient for him to leave immediately, so the banquet was postponed for a week.
According to Wu Jing's request, no media were invited to the celebration banquet, and there was no formality. It was simply a meal and drinks to celebrate the huge sales of "Wolf Warrior 2".
The protagonists Wu Jing and Gu Wei were both humble and drank one glass of wine after another, creating a very lively atmosphere.
"Director, when will the third part be filmed?
"Wolf Warrior 2" was so popular, everyone is looking forward to your third installment!" a crew member asked after toasting with a glass of wine.
"Yes, Director. What kind of villains are you and Teacher Gu going to fight in the third part? In the second part, we fought international mercenaries. Shouldn't we upgrade our tactics in the third part?"
Others also asked curiously after hearing this.
"Haha. You guys are too impatient. You're already thinking about the third part before Wolf Warrior 2 even ends its run?"
Wu Jing was obviously very happy and asked everyone with a smile.
"The third part has been planned. Brother Jing and I are going to do something big this time and save the earth!" Gu Wei sat next to Wu Jing and joked.
Wu Jing was stunned when he heard what Gu Wei said, but then he immediately understood what he meant and said with a smile: "Gu Wei is right. In the third part, we are going to be superheroes and save the earth!"
The crew members at the dinner table burst into exclamations when they heard this explosive news.
"Really? I didn't expect that we Chinese could save the Earth!"
"It used to be foreigners who did this job, but now it's our turn."
"Not only do they want to save the Chinese people, they want to save the whole world. The director and Mr. Gu are awesome!"
“.”
Gu Wei and Wu Jing listened to everyone's discussion, looked at each other, and burst into laughter.
"Director, when will our crew start filming? We are all looking forward to making history with you again!"
"The filming has already started, and Gu Wei has been in the crew for a month." Wu Jing raised the corners of his mouth high and continued to talk nonsense.
"Ah? How come we didn't know?"
"Is there another crew?"
“.”
Lu Jianmin, who was sitting next to Wu Jing, looked at everyone who was confused, smiled and shook his head.
"Gu Wei and Wu Jing are just teasing you. There's no such thing as Wolf Warrior 3.
They are collaborating on another science fiction film, which is currently being filmed.
"Wolf Warrior 2" has ended, and the next time we see them working together will probably be in that movie."
"Oh, so that's how it is!"
"I remember there was a news report about Mr. Gu starring in a science fiction film called The Wandering Earth. I didn't expect Director Wu to also be in it."
“That being said, I’m really looking forward to it.”
“.”
After Mr. Lu finished speaking, everyone finally understood what the two of them had just said.
Gu Wei, who first proposed this statement, was smiling. He felt that he was not kidding everyone. In the future, many netizens will call "The Wandering Earth" "Space Wolf Warriors", and there is nothing wrong with saying it is the third part.
"We have already communicated with the cinema chains and will release a batch of IMAX versions of Wolf Warrior 2 nationwide starting this week.
Aren’t there a lot of viewers who watch the film twice or thrice these days? The IMAX version is even more stunning, and I believe it will help our film go even further.” After dealing with a wave of staff members who came up to toast, Gu Wei got down to business with Wu Jing.
"Brother, what do you think the final box office of our movie will be?" Wu Jing did not talk about this, but instead asked about the box office issue.
Gu Wei thought about it.
"Now in its fourth week, the daily box office is less than 100 million yuan, but it's still around 80 to 90 million yuan a day. Even if it continues to decline, it should be no problem to break 5.3 billion yuan after this week.
We have obtained the extension key, and [Wolf Warrior 2] will be showing until the 27th of next month.
It depends on whether it can reach 6 billion in the next month or so.
There is hope, but it’s hard to say. After all, our movie has attracted so many viewers that almost everyone who has the conditions to watch a movie has seen it.
We have tapped the domestic market's viewing potential to its fullest!"
There is nothing wrong with Gu Wei's analysis.
The current national population is 1.4 billion. Excluding those who are too old or too young to watch movies, those who simply have no habit of watching movies, and the largest part of people who cannot afford to go to the cinema to watch movies, the real target group has basically seen "Wolf Warrior 2", and some have even watched it multiple times.
Although China is now strong and prosperous, the income of most people is still limited.
According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics in 2016, the average monthly disposable income of about 840 million people in the country was less than 2,500 yuan, of which about 560 million people had an average monthly disposable income of less than 1,400 yuan.
Currently, a movie ticket costs 30 or 40 yuan at the cheapest and 70 or 80 yuan at the most. People whose average monthly income is less than 1,400 yuan certainly cannot afford to spend money to go to the cinema.
Therefore, what is currently limiting "Wolf Warrior 2" is not the movie itself, but the market and the overall environment.
If the domestic box office of single films wants to break through in the future, it is not enough to focus on the films, but we need to wait until more people become rich.
"Whether it's 5 billion or 6 billion, it makes no difference to me.
In fact, after the movie broke 3 billion, I felt like every day was a dream."
Wu Jing was not as excited as Gu Wei had imagined, but rather a little confused.
When [Wolf Warrior 1] sold 500 million, he was in high spirits. At that time, Wu Jing felt that what he shot was popular after all and had a promising future.
Later, when he was filming "Wolf Warrior 2", he thought that this film would be a big hit and would surpass "Wolf Warrior 1", but he never expected it to achieve such exaggerated results as it has now.
Now, he doesn't understand why "Wolf Warrior 2" has become so popular.
Relying on sensational scenes? Patriotic sentiment?
These are not unique to him; other directors' films can also feature these elements.
"Don't think too much, because we did a good job, that's why we achieved this result. Don't worry about what the haters say, there is no such thing as being unworthy of one's moral character.
Our efforts are worthy of this achievement.”
Gu Wei understood what Wu Jing was thinking at the moment.
[Wolf Warrior 2] is not RMB, it is impossible for everyone to like it. Now that the results are so exaggerated, it is natural that some negative voices have appeared on the Internet.
Wu Jing himself was not that confident. Just like a high school student whose test scores could only reach the first-tier line, after the college entrance examination, he was told that he had become the national top scorer. He would also feel that something went wrong and that he did not have that much ability.
In fact, this is still a matter of trend. The movies directed by Wu Jing do have their own unique charm, and they also caught up with the trend of the popular main theme, so they soared to fame.
Just as Gu Wei had thought before, with the right time, right place and right people, the huge sales of "Wolf Warrior 2" seemed like a matter of fate.
"When we were on the set a few days ago, I was worried that you, Brother Jing, were too popular and would forget yourself. Who would have thought that you would become melancholy instead." Gu Wei joked.
"What do you mean by too popular? No matter how popular I am, I can never compare to you. I have never seen you lose yourself." After listening to Gu Wei's words of comfort, Wu Jing adjusted his mentality.
"Besides, my senior brother just called me a few days ago, congratulating me on the movie's success and then telling me to keep a low profile at this time."
"Your senior brother?"
"Li Lianjie"
Gu Wei suddenly realized.
"Seriously, Brother Jing, what are your plans for the third part?" There was an easter egg at the end of [Wolf Warrior 2], so the third part is definitely going to be filmed.
After hearing Gu Wei's question, Wu Jing naturally would not respond perfunctorily like he did to others.
He smiled helplessly.
"To be honest, my original intention of becoming a director and making movies was actually to promote myself. You should know what kind of brother I was during those years. I am almost gone in the entertainment industry.
Now that "Wolf Warrior 2" is so successful, I have received several movie scripts in the past few days, inviting me to play the leading actor.
Besides, the performance of "Wolf Warrior 2" is so exaggerated that I have no confidence in making a more popular "Wolf Warrior 3".
So the third part has to be put on hold for now."
Gu Wei nodded. He understood what Wu Jing meant. If he had no choice, he would not have become a director.
Now that he's become popular again, there's no need to rush into filming the third installment.
It seems that Wu Jing did not start filming the third part until 2024, seven years later in the original time and space. Instead, he participated in many films directed by other directors in the past few years.
"I'll slowly plan the third part, but by then we will definitely still be fighting side by side as brothers.
Just like I joked just now, it's not impossible for us to save the earth together in the third part!" Wu Jing patted Gu Wei's shoulder and said with a smile.
"Can't it be that the two of us go to fight aliens?" Gu Wei also joked.
“It’s not impossible.”
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
