Chapter 696: Incompatibility
The popularity of "The Story of Minglan" did not actually bring much benefit to Gu Wei.
His popularity is already high enough, and no matter how it is ranked during promotion, "The Story of Minglan" is ultimately a TV series with a strong female lead, and the main content is not a political drama, but rather a family feud, with the life of the heroine Sheng Minglan as the main line.
For Gu Wei, the success of "The Story of Minglan" is just the icing on the cake, adding another excellent TV series with both high ratings and good reputation to his impressive resume.
But for Zhao Liying, "The Story of Minglan" brought her so much.
Since the popularity of "Legend of Lu Zhen", Zhao Liying has starred in a hit drama almost every year, including "Come On, My Love from the Palace", "The Journey of Flower", "The Mystic Nine", and "Princess Agents". With the accumulation of one hit TV series after another, her fame and popularity reached a peak in 2017.
At that time, her traffic almost exceeded that of other 85 flowers, and only Da Mimi could be compared with her because of the popularity of "Eternal Love".
So at that time, Zhao Liying and her team made a decision to enter the film industry, hoping to achieve new breakthroughs and development.
I started filming "The Mermaid", which received very good response and was a great success in both box office and reputation.
It’s just that "Sisters Who Make Waves" is a movie starring Han Han, and the main characters are Deng Chao and Peng Yuyan. Although Zhao Liying plays the heroine, she doesn’t have many scenes and no chance to perform. She is just a supporting heroine and a vase.
Audiences will not attribute the film's success to her.
Then, she starred in "Secret War" and "Journey to the West: The Women Kingdom" one after another.
Speaking of which, both of these movies were co-produced with superstar Aaron Kwok, and when the films were released and promoted, Aaron Kwok was also the male lead.
However, the production team is aware of Zhao Liying's current popularity and fame, and the film promotion is centered around her.
[Journey to the West: The Women Kingdom] even raised the banner of "Gong Huang Ying Hou" and praised Zhao Liying to the sky.
But the higher you are praised, the harder you will fall.
"Secret War" was released in November 2017, with a total box office of less than 80 million. The box office revenue received by the producers was not enough to pay the salaries of several leading actors in the film.
Not only did the film flop at the box office, but it also had a bad reputation, with a Douban score of only 4.3. As a bad movie, it was not as good as Yang Mi's "Reverse Time Rescue" from the same year.
There is no doubt that Zhao Liying was blamed for the failure of "Secret War", and the audience's criticism was also directed at her.
Three months later, "Journey to the West: The Women Kingdom" was released during the Spring Festival.
This movie had a bigger investment, higher expectations, and was promoted extensively.
However, the final result dealt a heavy blow to the producers.
The production cost of the film was as high as 500 million yuan, and the total box office was only 719 million yuan. Based on the distribution ratio, the film company can get about 260 million yuan in revenue.
Taking into account the production and promotion costs, the film company ultimately lost about 300 million yuan.
Of course someone had to be found to take the blame for such a huge loss, and Zhao Liying, as the most popular star who plagiarized during the promotion, once again took the blame.
Two consecutive disastrous failures had a certain impact on Zhao Liying's popularity, and directors and producers in the film industry also began to doubt her appeal.
So she abruptly pulled back the foot that had just stepped into the film industry, and in order to consolidate her base, she took on filming TV series again.
After a series of failures in her movies, her first TV series "You and My Glamorous Time" aired in 2018 also failed to meet expectations.
The ratings were only ranked 3rd or 4th among TV dramas in the same time slot, and the response was mediocre.
Just when Zhao Liying herself was very anxious, "The Story of Minglan" was broadcast at the end of the year.
The popularity of this drama finally allowed her to return to the throne of "TV drama queen" and won back a lot of popularity.
"Actually, I'm quite grateful to you. As you know, I've been having some career problems over the past year or so.
If it weren’t for the popularity of “The Story of Minglan”, I might have really fallen into a career slump.”
"Why are you being so polite to me? We are just friends.
Besides, “The Story of Minglan” is indeed a good drama, and your acting is also good, I didn’t contribute much to it.”
At night, in the crew's hotel room, Gu Wei washed up and video-called Zhao Liying on his phone.
After the video call that day, the two communicated more frequently, mainly talking about things related to the promotion of the TV series.
According to the arrangement of the video platform, before the finale of "The Story of Minglan", Gu Wei and Zhao Liying will have an online connection and offline interview promotional activities respectively.
"You don't have to say that. I know how difficult it was last year. It was mainly because I was too impatient and took too big a step.
It’s also the success I’ve had over the years that has made me a little arrogant.” Across the video, Zhao Liying was wearing a black and white floral silk pajamas and a shower cap on her head, and it looked like she had just washed up.
Gu Wei smiled.
"I think you should be more careful when making movies next time. There's a high probability that Aaron Kwok and you are not compatible. Look at how badly the two movies you two starred in lost money.
Moreover, he is clearly the male lead, but it seems that the movie's losses have nothing to do with him, and all the negative impact is borne by you, the female lead.
It would be fine if the film's number one actor took the blame, but they're the second in command, yet they're blaming you for the failure."
As a good friend, Gu Wei naturally looked at the problem from Zhao Liying's perspective and spoke for her.
"Mr. Guo is a huge star in the film industry, and he's also a Golden Horse Award winner and a Hong Kong Film Award winner. With him around, I definitely wouldn't be the top actor.
I do have some responsibility for the film's failure, as I didn't choose the right script beforehand and overhyped it during the promotion."
More than a year has passed, and now Zhao Liying looks back at the past and is very calm and indifferent.
"But like you said, he and I may really be incompatible, and there is a high probability that there will be no chance of cooperation in the future."
Gu Wei nodded and didn't dwell on the topic anymore.
"Are you filming on the set now, in a hotel?"
"No, I'm at home." Zhao Liying said as she picked up her phone and turned it around so that Gu Wei could see the furnishings in the room clearly.
"At the beginning of the year, we have been in discussions with Hesong Media about joining the company. Now the dust has settled and the announcement will be made next month.
By the way, a few days ago I teamed up with Bingbing Jie to shoot a set of cover photos for [Fashion COSMOPOLITAN], which you can see next month.
“I know. I heard Li Bingbing talk about it at the Weibo Night party a few days ago.
It seems that you haven't given up your pursuit of movies." Gu Wei said after thinking for a while.
Zhao Liying smiled.
"This is one of my dreams, how can I give up? Although I have encountered difficulties now, I have to find a way to solve it.
And even if I joined [Hesong], I wouldn’t start filming right away.”
"So what are your plans?"
"With the good performance of "The Story of Minglan", I plan to film more serious dramas next. Most of my previous roles were idol dramas, so this can be considered as an attempt to transform.
Of course, I may have to guide some new people from [Hesong]. This is also one of the conditions for joining, which is to exchange resources.
As for movies, if there are good scripts and good opportunities, I will try them, but I will be more cautious."
"That's good. After all, no one can make idol dramas for a lifetime. If you transform early, your artistic life can be maintained longer." Gu Wei still admires Zhao Liying very much.
Given the other party's current popularity and popularity, it is not an easy task to try to transform.
If you are willing to do it and do it with your heart, you will surpass most celebrities and artists.
"Don't forget me if you have a suitable script," Zhao Liying said with a smile.
"rest assured."
The filming of "Life Events" went by day by day. Apart from the online promotion of "The Story of Minglan", Gu Wei devoted himself wholeheartedly to this drama.
The time is getting closer to the Spring Festival.
The promotion of several movies in this year's Spring Festival period has intensified.
"According to the feedback from the cinema chain, The Wandering Earth accounted for approximately 18% of the national screening schedule on its first day of release on the 5th, second only to Crazy Alien at 20%.
Following us are "Speeding Life" with 16% and "The New King of Comedy" with 15%.
Cheng Long's new drama "Detective Pu Songling" only has 7.2% of the screenings, while the rest are films like "Integrity," "Boonie Bears: The Wild Bunch," and "Peppa Pig."
On January 27, on the plane that took Gu Wei back to Beijing, Yang Dan reported to him the screening schedules of major movies during the Spring Festival.
This time he returned to Beijing to attend the premiere of "The Wandering Earth".
"Only 18%. Wu Jing and I are not as good as Chen Teng and Huang Bo?" Gu Wei frowned slightly.
Although he has a good relationship with Chen Teng and Huang Bo, and was even neighbors with the crew of "Crazy Alien" during the filming, he still keeps things one way and never gives in when it comes to box office.
Yang Dan smiled bitterly and said:
"Boss, the competition during this year's Spring Festival is too fierce.
The movie you made with Wu Jing, the movie directed by Ning Hao starring Huang Bo and Chen Teng, Stephen Chow's comedy, the movie co-starring Han Han and Chen Teng, the movie by Brother Jackie Chan, etc.
With so many highly anticipated films being released at the same time, the fact that it can get 18% of the national screening schedule is already a favor from the theater chain for you and Wu Jing.
I have communicated with the cinema chain. If "The Wandering Earth" was a military film or an action film like "Wolf Warrior 2", the screening time would be at least 25%.
But "The Wandering Earth" is a science fiction film, and you also know the current situation of science fiction films in China. No one believes that Chinese people can make good science fiction films.
Moreover, director Guo Fan’s fame is far behind that of Ning Hao, Han Han, and Stephen Chow.
The reason we can have the current screening rate is because this is the first collaboration between you and Wu Jing after "Wolf Warrior 2".
The movie that is really favored in this year's Spring Festival is "Crazy Alien". Director Ning Hao's comedies have never disappointed people, and it is starred by Huang Bo and Shen Teng.
The theater chain believes that "Alien" has a minimum box office of 4 billion."
Yang Dan explained it very clearly, and Gu Wei nodded to show that he understood.
"Haha. Because science fiction films are underestimated, it's not surprising. Let's wait and see."
On the surface, the competition in this year's Spring Festival seems very cruel, but Gu Wei never put other movies in his eyes, because he is confident in his box office appeal and the quality of "The Wandering Earth".
(End of this chapter)
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