Chapter 327 Box Office Miracle
Yang Huan didn't hear wrong.
No one expected that Love Is Not Blind would create such a box office miracle.
The box office exceeded 100 million yuan on the first day of its release, becoming the fastest domestic film to do so.
The box office on the first day reached a staggering 115 million, surpassing Transformers 3 and becoming the movie with the highest first-day and single-day box office in history. It can be said that it won a great victory for Chinese-language films.
This report card also surprised the entire Chinese film industry.
You know, this was achieved despite the impact of three Hollywood blockbusters and the fact that the second-largest cinema chain, Qian's Cinemas, announced a ban on Love Is Not Blind. It's amazing and shocking, isn't it?
But just when everyone was worried that the astonishing box office of Love Is Not Blind might be just a flash in the pan, the two prime time slots of Saturday and Sunday arrived.
On Saturday, Love Is Not Blind continued to expand its screening schedule. Except for the Qian's Cinema Chain, almost all cinemas were scrambling to get copies, which directly led to a new box office record of 120 million. By Sunday, it even reached a new high of 123 million.
As a result, in the first three days of the film's release, the box office revenue for Love Is Not Blind reached 360 million.
This box office performance allowed Love Is Not Blind to surpass Avatar and Harry Potter, and only lag behind Titanic and Transformers 3, ranking third in China's first-week box office rankings.
You have to know that it took six days for Titanic to reach 460 million at the box office, and it took four days for Transformers 3 to reach 400 million at the box office, but it only took three days for Love Is Not Blind to reach 360 million at the box office.
It's no exaggeration to say it's crazy.
Who could have thought that a down-to-earth, artistic and fresh film could create such an amazing box office miracle in the mainland film industry?
With an investment of nine million, it created such an astonishing box office record. Love Is Not Blind can be called the most shocking dark horse in the history of Chinese-language films, and director Deng Huatao also jumped into the ranks of the top Chinese-language film directors.
The male lead Zhang Wen in the movie has also become one of the top male stars in China.
As for the leading actress, Yoona, she is already an international superstar, and her popularity has risen even higher now.
The one who regrets the most is Qian’s Cinemas.
It is said that when the first day box office figures of Love Is Not Blind were released, the general manager of Qian's Cinemas was fired on the spot.
The reason is very simple: he took the blame for a certain stupid prince.
At the same time as firing the general manager, Qian's Cinemas also immediately sent people to the headquarters of Miracle Entertainment in Beijing to discuss cooperation matters with Miracle Entertainment. However, Miracle Entertainment no longer had any interest and was putting on a lot of airs.
In the end, only after Qian's Cinemas agreed to sign a series of extremely unequal terms did they reluctantly agree to release the film in their theaters.
There is no way. Although Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Now War, which were released at the same time, are good, not many audiences are interested in them.
Everyone is rushing to see Love Is Not Blind. If you don’t show it, they will go to other cinemas to watch it.
These days, the audience with money in hand is the boss
Besides, after Qian's Cinema Line broke the news that it despised domestic films, it was still boycotted by domestic audiences.
Therefore, they had to step up their efforts to promote Love Is Not Blind
It happened that the movie entered its second week at this time. Thanks to the participation of Qian's Cinemas, the box office of Love Is Not Blind did not decline much. In the seven days of the second week, the box office increased and reached 380 million.
As a result, the total box office has accumulated to 740 million.
This also made Love Is Not Blind, surpassing Aftershock and Let the Bullets Fly, becoming the box office champion among Chinese-language films. It is also the Chinese film that broke the 700 million box office the fastest.
Entering its third week, the box office craze of Love Is Not Blind showed signs of decline, but it still managed to earn 173 million in the end, once again becoming the box office champion of the week, and its total box office accumulated to more than 910 million.
The entire domestic film market is going crazy
Such a low-budget production actually achieved such an amazing box office miracle.
This is unscientific.
As a result, countless filmmakers, reporters, and movie fans have been hyping this movie crazily, trying to analyze what exactly caused this movie to be such a big hit.
Soon, Yoona and Psy were brought up and they said it was fan economy.
But others say that this is because the film producers paid attention to the promotion of social networking platforms during publicity, spending little money to achieve great results.
But some people tried to analyze that this is because the movie is very down-to-earth and can resonate with the domestic losers.
etc. etc.
This kind of discussion creates the box office vitality of the film.
Entering its fourth week, the box office of Love Is Not Blind fell again, earning 80 million, and the total box office accumulated to more than 990 million, just a little bit away from entering the billion box office club.
This immediately made domestic movie fans crazy.
One billion! That's one billion box office.
Once upon a time, when Avatar and Transformers 3 earned 1 billion yuan at the domestic box office, which domestic movie fans were not envious, jealous and hateful? Which of them did not contribute to the box office with conflicting feelings?
Isn’t the reason that domestic films are not up to standard?
Now that domestic films have made some progress and released a low-budget but well-made movie like this one, would it be justified not to support it?
As a result, a group of fanatical fans began to emerge on the Internet, constantly calling on movie lovers to go to the cinema to contribute to the box office. If not to surpass Avatar's 1.38 billion box office, at least try to beat Transformers 3.
As a result, in its fifth week, Love Is Not Blind once again took in 62 million at the box office thanks to its good reputation and enthusiastic support from fans, and the total box office exceeded 1 billion.
In its sixth week, it once again hit a record of 38 million, surpassing Transformers 3 on the box office rankings, winning the annual box office champion and only trailing Avatar in total box office.
Even in the seventh week, the box office still reached 15 million, and the total box office just exceeded 1.1 billion
But afterwards, Love Is Not Blind has not been taken off the screen and continues to be shown in theaters, contributing millions of box office every week.
After entering 2012, the final box office was locked at 1.2 billion
But this is just the box office in mainland China.
In another highly anticipated Korean film market, Love Is Not Blind has set off a viewing craze across Korea thanks to the fame of Im Yoona.
Throughout 2011, Love Is Not Blind attracted a total of 7.83 million viewers to movie theaters in South Korea, becoming the most-watched film of the year and also the most-watched Chinese-language film in South Korea.
This shocked the entire Korean film industry.
Countless Korean filmmakers exclaimed, when did Chinese-language films become able to produce such well-made and wonderful films?
They also began to call for Korean filmmakers to actively learn from Chinese filmmakers and strive to make their own hit films.
However, although the number of moviegoers exceeded that of Transformers 3, due to its pricing, the box office of 33 Days of Broken Love in South Korea was far less than that of Transformers 3, reaching only over 58 billion won, which is equivalent to 50 million US dollars, or about 300 million yuan.
According to the previously signed contract, Miracle Entertainment will get half of the profits.
Even though Xiubao Entertainment only got 10%, it still made them a huge profit.
This prompted Liu Zhenxun to call Miracle Entertainment personally to discuss the cooperation matters of the movie Taegu, which will be released next year.
While Love Is Not Blind swept the entire Chinese mainland and Korean film industry, it was also released in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, India and other countries and regions, and achieved impressive box office results.
The box office in Japan reached more than 60 million US dollars, which means that Miracle Entertainment can get a box office share of 200 million RMB.
In Hong Kong, Love Is Not Blind, which was released simultaneously with the mainland, grossed an astonishing 80 million RMB, only narrowly losing to Transformers 3.
But compared to Hong Kong local films, Love Is Not Blind has undoubtedly saved the reputation of Chinese-language films and greatly dampened the momentum of Hollywood box office giants.
The Taiwanese film market clearly resonates more with this type of literary and fresh genre. Love Is Not Blind surpassed local films such as Seediq O'Balley and Those Years We Chased Together, as well as Transformers 3, and won the title of the annual best box office champion with a revenue of NT$820 million.
Converted to RMB 160 million.
At the end of 2011, all of Asia was going crazy for this low-budget movie with an investment of only 9 million RMB. No one had expected that such a movie could create such an astonishingly high box office.
Miracle Entertainment naturally made a lot of money, with a box office share of 450 million from the mainland market alone. Add to that the box office share from Southeast Asian countries and regions such as South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the revenue from this movie alone exceeded 900 million.
An investment of 9 million yuan earned 900 million yuan, a hundred times the profit, it's amazing
Moreover, this movie will be released in Europe and North America in 2012. Yoona and Psy also have amazing influence in these two regions, so it will definitely generate some box office revenue.
In this way, this movie is simply a huge profit.
But just as 2012 began, when everyone was still shocked by the box office miracle created by Miracle Entertainment, Zhang Ning, the CEO of Miracle Entertainment, announced two major actions in Beijing, China.
First of all, Miracle Entertainment will invest in a war epic "Chinese Expeditionary Force", which will cost up to 100 million US dollars. Directed by Chen Kexin and produced by Huang Jianxin, it will create the first anti-Japanese war epic that belongs to the Chinese people.
Producer Huang Jianxin said in an interview that the film has been approved.
The currently confirmed cast includes first-line stars such as Tony Leung, Huang Bo, Liu Ye, Hu Jun, Zhang Hanyu, Deng Chao, and Zhang Jiayi. The cast is very large and jaw-dropping.
When a reporter asked whether this would be a red tribute film, director Chen Kesin denied it.
"In the past two months, Director Huang and I, as well as many experts and screenwriters, have been studying and discussing the script over and over again."
"When 3,000 British troops were surrounded in Burma, Britain and the United States asked us for help, but our army was forced to hastily go on an expedition without adequate preparation, and experienced a series of bloody battles."
"The purpose of making this film is not to pay tribute, but to tell the story of a group of iron-blooded soldiers who died in a foreign country."
“This is a story about responsibility, friendship, love and sacrifice”
This undoubtedly dropped a bombshell on the global film industry.
One hundred million dollars, this is a big production, even in Hollywood, it is considered a commercial blockbuster.
Almost all filmmakers applauded such a heavyweight investment.
The reason is simple. When Hollywood movies entered the industrial age, it started with Spielberg's "Jaws".
Later, James Cameron's "Titanic" and "River Vampire" twice raised the level of the Hollywood film industry, not only making filmmakers around the world unable to catch up, but also helping Hollywood movies sweep the world.
Now, with the emergence of such commercial blockbusters, it is bound to further promote the improvement of the level of China's film industry.
At the same time, Zhang Ning also announced that after a month of hard negotiations, Miracle Entertainment successfully acquired Digital Domain, the top special effects company in the United States, for US$35 million.
This is a top special effects production team in Hollywood that is not inferior to Industrial Light & Magic in any way. It has produced many special effects commercial blockbusters such as Real Steel, Transformers series, Star Trek and X-Men.
One of the important reasons why Miracle Entertainment was able to acquire this company for US$35 million was that the company had been heavily in debt in the past few years.
Zhang Ning announced that after the acquisition is completed, the Data Domain Special Effects Company will be reorganized.
One very important reason is that many of the company's technical experts are needed by the virtual reality technology R&D team.
How to apply virtual reality technology to movies is undoubtedly a direction that Yang Huan is very interested in.
Therefore, for Yang Huan, this acquisition is a good thing that kills two birds with one stone.
But for those who are not in the know, this is undoubtedly a big deal.
With a $100 million investment in an anti-Japanese war epic and tens of millions more spent on acquiring a Hollywood special effects company, Miracle Entertainment seems to be really going to lead the Chinese-language film industry to a greater level than just one film, or even to overthrow Hollywood, as some people say.
Yang Huan is not very clear about whether Chinese films can make a comeback in Hollywood.
But he was very clear that in the Stamford Bridge stadium in front of him, there were people who wanted to reverse Chelsea.