China Entertainment 1997

Mid-August 2006

At the press conference of the "Hello, Time" TV series, the main creators Liu Tianxian, Hu Ge and others were accepting inquiries from the media.

Everything was normal, but suddenly a male reporter stood up and looked at Liu Tianxian provocatively.

"Hello Liu Yifei, there have been many people on the Internet criticizing your nationality issue, which has been quite controversial outside. I would like to ask you how you personally feel about this and if you have anything to say."

As soon as these words came out, the scene was in an uproar.

Liu Tianxian became famous at a young age and is extremely popular, but he also has a lot of negative fans. There have been various outrageous rumors in Tianya, but Fanxing's legal team is no joke and has greatly suppressed many smear rumors.

But even so, the issue of Liu Tianxian's nationality is still a controversy that many people cannot ignore.

After all, there is an essential difference between a Chinese and a foreigner in the minds of many people.

Before this, Liu Tianxian had almost never answered questions about nationality. Under such a premise, for this reporter to ask such a question in public was tantamount to directly ruining the situation.

Hu Ge, who was standing nearby, frowned and tried to smooth things over, but unexpectedly Liu Tianxian spoke calmly.

“I have two points to make regarding this issue. First, because I was born in the United States and lived in the United States for several years as a child, I automatically obtained American citizenship.

Regarding this point, I believe everyone also understands that when I was a child, I had no way to make a choice, so there was no swearing of allegiance as many people on the Internet said.

Secondly, regarding the issue of nationality, I would like to solemnly state that not long ago, in accordance with relevant regulations, I re-selected Chinese nationality when I became an adult. I am currently going through the procedures. If all goes well, I will become a Chinese citizen in the near future. "

As soon as Liu Tianxian's explanation came out, the scene was once again in an uproar.

Big news!

In the past, I only heard about Chinese artists changing their nationality to a certain nationality, but it was rare for an artist of a certain nationality to change their nationality to Chinese. This move by Liu Tianxian is very popular.

This group of entertainment reporters are all seasoned, and they can almost instantly realize what this change of nationality will bring to Liu Tianxian. If nothing else happens, his popularity with the public will soar, and he may even be favored by the official.

Whether it is sincere or deliberate, all reporters have to admit that this move is indeed a good one.

Only the male reporter who asked provocative questions was unexpectedly turned against him. His face was dark and his expression was ugly, and he ran away after a while.

Many reporters who noticed it couldn't help but laugh. A female reporter from Sohu even asked a friend which media the reporter belonged to. If it was not a friendly organization, she could write news later to ridicule it.

The friend squinted his eyes and recalled: "It looks familiar, it seems... from Fengyun Studio."

Female reporter: "..."

Fengyun Studio, isn't that with Fanxing's family?

On the other side, the male reporter who looked like he was just out of his mind hummed a tune and walked out of the hotel. He took out his Fengyun Studio press card and hung it around his neck, happily making a phone call.

"Hey, editor-in-chief, it's done. Don't worry, our acting skills are not bad. If it weren't for my poor face, I would have switched jobs to become an actor in Fanxing..."

Under Fanxing's arrangement, the topic of Liu Tianxian's change of nationality made the front page headlines, and she was wildly gaining popularity among passers-by. Many people who didn't like her in the first place stopped talking about her.

At the same time, Ma Liu was completely put on the stand, and now it was too late for her to regret it.

Otherwise, not only Liu Tianxian would be despised by everyone, but even Cao Xuan, who was fooled, would not be able to swallow this breath.

Of course, this incident also slapped some Chinese artists who changed their nationality in the face, and caused some liberal people to collectively break their guard. Some public intellectuals jumped on the Internet and scolded, saying that Liu Tianxian's move was to make money and to flatter the official. There were even rumors that she was under some threat.

All Cao Xuan can say about this is that the Fanxing legal team he spends heavily on every year has no shortage of work.

Accusing each other one by one will not bring down the other party, and it will disgust them to death...

………

Liu Tianxian's incident was big news and grabbed the headlines for several days, but he soon gave up the C position to "Painted Skin".

The box office in the first week was 125 million!

It almost doubled the 72 million first-week box office of "The New World". Even if the entire film industry had expected it, it still exploded.

Regardless of word-of-mouth ratings, box office is king for commercial films.

Lao Mouzi's "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" have a poor reputation, but they have high box office, so he is a hot director.

Even if director Chen's "The Promise" had a box office of 150 million, if Cao Xuan hadn't stepped in, some people would still criticize him even if it had a bad reputation.

After all, there are only a few directors in the entire film industry who can reach this level of box office, and they are all popular.

Starting with "When Men Fall in Love" in 2003, in the following years, Cao Xuan's movies have never failed to win the summer season championship. Last year, "New World" also won the Lunar New Year film championship and the annual box office championship.

Not to mention that the reputation of Cao Xuan's movies has always been above the standard, even if they are all bad movies, this box office result is enough for various media and industry advocates.

On the Six Princesses movie review program, guests directly and publicly evaluated Cao Xuan as the "King of Summer Movies" and called him the most box-office-charging actor in mainland China.

"When Men Fall in Love" has a domestic box office of 52.4 million, with a total box office of 130 million yuan.

"Spring Knife" has a domestic box office of 150 million yuan and an overseas box office of over 100 million yuan, with a total box office of 250 million yuan.

"Spring Knife 2" has a domestic box office of 184 million yuan and an overseas box office of over 100 million yuan, with a total box office of nearly 300 million yuan.

"New Police Story" has a domestic box office of over RMB 100 million, and the Japanese box office is converted to RMB 150 million, with a total box office of about RMB 300 million.

"New World" has a box office of 230 million yuan in the mainland, and the cumulative total global box office in Japan, Hong Kong and other regions is about 460 to 480 million yuan.

Today's "Painted Skin" has a box office of 125 million in its first week. Not surprisingly, the mainland box office is at least 300 million.

The copyright of "Painted Skin" is still under negotiation and may not be released in some regions. However, considering Cao Xuan's influence in Asia and the accumulated box office popularity of previous films,

The most conservative estimate is more than 50 million yuan, and 100 million yuan is not difficult to achieve.

Based on the total box office of "Painted Skin" of 350 million yuan, the total box office of Cao Xuan's movies starring Cao Xuan is also about 1.8 billion yuan.

This data is not necessarily accurate, because the data in many remote areas cannot be completely unified and clear, and the exchange rate is not easy to calculate, but in any case, the box office of this 1.8 billion yuan is only a lot more.

If you include Cao Xuan's guest appearance in "The Matrix 2" and "The Matrix 3", based on the exchange rate at the time, the global box office of the two movies exceeded 9.5 billion yuan.

Official Cao directly attacks the billionaire actor!

Of course, Cao Xuan wanted to lose face and couldn't make a cameo to gain box office. He only recognized the box office of the movie he starred in.

The total global box office of 1.8 billion yuan can barely compete with Xingye and Liu Tianwang.

The former was Hong Kong's box office king in the 1990s, while "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu" also performed well at the overseas box office.

The latter Liu Tianwang, although the box office of a single movie is average, and some of them are even dismal, but he can't stand the large number of works, and quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes, so his personal cumulative box office data is still quite high.

However, the highest-grossing Chinese movie stars are Cheng Long and Jet Li.

Especially Cheng Long, whose global box office in later generations has exceeded 20 billion yuan, and is now around 10 billion. Jet Li is worse than him, but his personal box office is at least 5 billion.

Cao Xuan's total box office of 1.8 billion is still far behind these two.

However, most of these people have passed their peak period, and Cao Xuan is still in the stage of rapid rise, and may not be able to catch up in the future.

Since the new century, Cao Xuan has been one of the movie stars with the largest box office growth.

Especially in the mainland market, the cumulative box office of movies starring Cao Xuan is expected to exceed 1 billion yuan, ranking first in mainland film history since official records began.

I dare not say too much, but in the current mainland film market, Cao Xuan is the real box office king.

Star Master, Cheng Long, Jet Li, Fa Ge and many other big names from Hong Kong and Taiwan are all lined up behind him.

Even though Cao Xuan's achievements in the Chinese music industry are unparalleled, the outside world must admit that in addition to being a singer, Cao Xuan is also a top actor in the Chinese entertainment industry.

Cao Xuan was at the height of his power, and Mr. Zhou was also proud.

Most of the films she made before were literary films. It was rare for her to get a commercial masterpiece, so she went straight for a record-breaking phenomenon.

Mr. Zhou, who was already brilliant in the movie, is now extremely popular.

In late August, the "Night Banquet" also started pre-publicity. Originally, Mr. Zhou was ranked behind the international chapter. Now many media directly rank the two, and even put Mr. Zhou in the front.

The entertainment industry is the most realistic!

International Chapter entered Hollywood, and she was the most popular little girl, but now she has not made any big moves in the past six months. However, Mr. Zhou first won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and then became famous in "Painted Skin". Naturally, the east wind prevails over the west wind.

That is to say, Hu Jing doesn't like to get involved. Otherwise, before "The Night Banquet" is released, there will be a wave of internal turmoil among the four female actors.

Compared to the high-profile Zhou Gongzi, Hu Jing is as low-key as the heroine of "Painted Skin" and did not even participate in the film's follow-up roadshow promotion.

This was a big advantage for Damimi. Hu Jing gave her a lot of resources, which gave Damimi a lot of exposure.

Coupled with the popularity of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "Wulin Gaiden", Damimi has become one of the most outstanding newcomers in the entertainment industry, so she has been compared with Liu Tianxian before.

It's a pity that Liu Tianxian changed his nationality, greatly improved his popularity, and stole all the limelight from Damimi?

While Damimi was depressed, she could only comfort herself secretly.

No matter how good Liu Tianxian is, she is the third female lead in a commercial hit movie with a box office of 300 million in the Mainland. She is in the summer movie with Cao Xuan, Hu Jing, Zhou Gongzi and other big names.

Well, although Cao Xuan and others were responsible for the random killings and she was responsible for Gaga, it didn't matter, she was still one of the main creators of "Painted Skin"...

Then I saw the new news announced by Fanxing——

Cao Xuan's next movie "Hurricane Rescue" will start filming in Hong Kong in September, starring Cao Xuan, Chang Wei, Wu Jing, etc., as well as herself and Liu Tianxian.

Well, Liu Tianxian plays the heroine, and Da Mimi plays a cameo role as the heroine's sworn best friend.

Damimi: (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

Although she had already expected it when she received the role, when she actually saw herself playing the role of Liu Tianxian, Damimi still felt aggrieved.

Why did he act in three movies, all in supporting roles? Liu Tianxian's first movie role was the heroine, and she was the heroine of Cao Xuan's movie.

Damimi really wanted to ask Cao Daguan whether he treated the Donggong Party members differently and agreed that a bowl of water would be equal.

If Empress Xigong suffers a loss in resources, her apprentice should make up for it, right...

But unfortunately, she didn't have the courage, so she could only grind her teeth silently. She played supporting roles for Liu Tianxian twice in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "Operation Hurricane".

Thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi, don’t bully young girls into poverty!

Damimi swore in her heart that one day, she would also let Liu Tianxian play a supporting role for her.

Not just to let out a sigh of relief, but also to tell Liu Tianxian that I, Da Mimi, will never be weaker than others in my life.

However, it is a pity that it is difficult to say whether Damimi will be weak in her life. Liu Tianxian changed her nationality and gave her another major blow.

In mid-August, when "Painted Skin" was in theaters, "Hello, Time" co-starring Hu Ge and Liu Tianxian premiered on Hunan TV.

This youth campus-themed TV series is actually a bit sensitive. If you are not careful, it may lead to puppy love, so many TV stations are afraid to buy it.

Only Xiang Provincial TV Station felt that this TV series was very suitable for its own young audience. In addition, with its deep wealth, it felt that it could sustain it even if it was a failure, so it spent a lot of money to purchase the TV series and broadcast it to the outside world.

As expected, the show sparked a certain amount of discussion about puppy love when it aired. However, since the male and female protagonists in the show were only in an ambiguous relationship, their relationship was never officially established.

It can be said to be puppy love, but it can also be said to be childhood sweethearts. This is not love, it is clearly friendship.

Hunan TV station resisted the pressure, pretended not to hear, and insisted on continuing to broadcast, and "Hello, Time" did not live up to their efforts.

Li Xiaoyao and Zhao Ling'er, the famous pair of fairy swordsmen, got together after a year. They already had a lot of topics and attention. Coupled with Liu Tianxian's change of nationality, the TV series became popular before it was aired.

After the TV series was aired, the relatively localized campus plot made viewers accustomed to watching campus dramas about aristocrats and private middle school idols feel deeply involved.

In just two days, it became the number one TV series in the ratings during the same period.

Yu Zhouzhou, played by Liu Tianxian, wears a classic blue and white school uniform. She is smart, gentle, pure and pretty. With every frown and smile, she has won the hearts of countless young boys. After the "Fairy Sister", she has been nicknamed "The Nation's First Love".

In a sense, this kind of innocent campus character image is the easiest to impress a man's soft heart. After all, which man didn't have such a gentle and beautiful goddess in his heart when he was in school.

It's okay for men who have passed their age, and they can only remember and appreciate them, but it's not good for teenagers who are in their prime of life.

[Kill Hu Ge, steal Zhou Zhou] has become a hot topic on blogs recently. Many of Liu Tianxian's "husbands" went to Hu Ge's blog to warn him that they would kill him if they dared to have a kissing scene.

However, Hu Ge's "wives" are not good at all. The male protagonist he plays is lively, cheerful and positive, nicknamed "Little Sun", and he is also a very lovable character.

After "Hello, Time" was broadcast, Hu Ge gained countless fans. If many boys regard Liu Tianxian as their goddess, then Hu Ge is the male god of many girls.

These fans fought fiercely on the blog for days for their "wives/husbands".

Fortunately, this drama focuses on campus youth. It was not until the last 10 minutes of the last episode that the timeline was skipped and the male and female protagonists who had graduated from college became lovers. In the entire drama, except for one time when the male protagonist secretly kissed the female protagonist on the face, there was no Any make out scene.

This allowed both sides to exercise some restraint and avoid outright war.

However, the male protagonist of "Hello, Time" secretly kissed the female protagonist on the face, and Linger was also kissed on the face by Li Xiaoyao in "Legend of Sword and Fairy".

For Liu Tianxian, who has never done a kissing scene, this is enough for her fans to regard Hu Ge as a "thorn in their flesh".

What they didn't know was that Liu Tianxian in "The Myth" played a guest role as Lu Su. Before he died, he came to say goodbye to his lover and kissed the unconscious Yi Xiaochuan on the lips, giving him his first kiss on screen.

And it is Hu Ge who plays Yi Xiaochuan.

Just like countless fans of Liu Shishi who are bitter about Yuan Hong snatching their first kiss, Hu Ge will probably be hated by many immortal fans in his life.

There is one thing to say, if there was no suitable plot and the Empress of the West Palace had to be taken into consideration, otherwise Cao Daguan and others would have blocked this disaster for Hu Ge.

Put aside the first kiss or not, mainly to protect the employees...

"Hello, Time" is not a hit in the ratings, but its characters are likeable and its fan base is extremely high. Liu Tianxian, who was already very popular, has taken the two to the next level.

Seeing that the gap was getting further and further away, not to mention Damimi's despair, even Empress Donggong was wondering whether she should find another good young talent for Damimi's help.

The last time she accompanied Cao Xuan to watch a commercial for a talent show online, she seemed to have heard Cao Xuan praise a girl with a round face. She could look back and find out.

Witnessing Cao Xuan's turning stones into gold countless times gave Hu Jing absolute trust in her man's vision. Even if the girl didn't impress her at the time, she was still willing to give it a try.

What if it works!

………

Cao Xuan had no idea that his casual words would be remembered by Empress Donggong, and he came up with the idea of ​​helping Damimi form a team.

He didn't have time to indulge in the love-hate relationship between the two employees of Gua. If he had that time, he would rather help "Painted Skin" do more publicity.

It stands to reason that "Painted Skin" is a box office hit this year and has already gained momentum, so Cao Xuan doesn't need to work too hard.

But they both wanted to kill "Titanic" and let "Painted Skin" reach the top spot.

Many forecasting media and institutions now estimate the mainland box office of "Painted Skin" to be around 330-340 million. Facing the mainland box office of "Titanic" as high as 360 million, the challenge is still very difficult.

However, China Film and Fanxing are not unable to deal with it.

The two of them can almost influence the second, third and fourth theater chains in the mainland, and many small and medium-sized theater chains have formed alliances with Fanxing and China Film to share resources and advance and retreat together.

In other words, the two companies can jointly control 50% of the movie theaters in the mainland to a certain extent. For a certain price, the other 50% of the theaters will also give face.

If the two companies are willing to fully support "Painted Skin" at all costs, then the theater scheduling resources they can obtain are very terrifying.

Under normal circumstances, China Film and Fanxing would rather earn less at the box office than do such a thing, which would be too ugly and disrupt the balance of the industry.

Usually, relying on the theater chain, it doesn't matter if they take advantage, as long as the trouble is not too excessive, the superiors will turn a blind eye.

But if the two companies join forces and continue to play like this, it will not give other companies a way to survive, and force them to make a desperate decision and complain to the higher authorities, which will make things difficult to deal with.

Therefore, although China Film and Fanxing have this ability, they will only focus on the two direct theater chains and will not easily unite the entire theater chain to cause trouble.

Only this time, "Painted Skin" is about regaining the top spot at the mainland box office and erasing the shame of foreign films being the box office champions in the past decade. China Film and Fanxing thought they could make an exception.

In order to be on the safe side, a report was sent to the superiors. Although the superiors did not support it, they did not object either. They just said that "Painted Skin" performed extremely well and that they were studying to postpone the release of the film.

Cao Xuan and Han Sanye's understanding is that this is a guarantee for "Painted Skin". If the increase in film schedule is not enough, then the production will be postponed.

No matter what happens, "Titanic" must be killed...

As a result, Cao Xuan and Han Sanye went all out, and the number of films scheduled for "Painted Skin" surged in the second week of its release.

Originally, there were not many movies in August, but "Painted Skin" had an outstanding film schedule. The daily average in the first week was basically stable between 50% and 55%, which is already a relatively high ratio.

However, after China Film and Fanxing teamed up to control theaters, the daily scheduling rate of "Painted Skin" was basically stable at more than 70%, and the highest scheduling rate exceeded 85%.

The market share increased by almost 1/3 in one go, and the box office of "Painted Skin" in its second week was nearly 30 million more than in its first week.

153 million!

278 million in two weeks, 300 million is within easy reach. If the draw is postponed, even if it is grinding, we can reach 360 million.

At this time, "Painted Skin" has surpassed "Hero" with 250 million, becoming the highest-grossing Chinese film in the mainland.

However, Cao Xuan and China Film still did not relax. Although they relaxed their control a little in the third week, the film scheduling rate of "Painted Skin" remained stable at over 60%.

In the third week, despite the obvious decline in box office, it still scored 96 million box office.

"Painted Skin" grossed 374 million in box office, officially surpassing "Titanic" to become the number one movie in the mainland box office.

That night, a number of news media, led by "News Lianbo", reported the matter. Regardless of the reputation, at least at this moment, "Painted Skin" became the pride of Chinese films.

After successfully reaching the top, in September, China Film and Fanxing no longer control the theaters and normal market order has been restored. "Painted Skin" still maintains a film scheduling rate of over 40% to 50%.

According to this trend, if the film is released normally, the box office can easily exceed 400 million, and is even expected to reach 420 to 430 million.

But if it is postponed by one month, it should be able to shoot up. However, considering the impact of new movies such as "The Banquet" and "Baby Project", it is hard to say whether it can reach 500 million box office.

But no matter what, the box office of "Painted Skin" has greatly exceeded the prior expectations of Cao Xuan and others.

So much so that Cao Xuan still felt a little dreamlike one month after the movie was released.

It was only in 2009 that the box office of 400 million+ hit the mainland in batches. It was only in 2010 that the first Chinese-language film exceeded 500 million. I was several years ahead of schedule.

He thought about it for a long time, and could only attribute this result to the strengthening of the domestic film market and the expansion of the domestic film market driven by the Star Cinema chain in the past two years. In addition, this year he became a god because of "Legend", and his influence was unprecedentedly high, attracting a large number of fans and passers-by. support; coupled with a schedule with almost no strong opponents; and Fanxing and China Film Group blatantly "cheating" and have official assists...

A combination of various reasons made "Painted Skin" a phenomenal box office hit.

If it were another movie, the quality would be good and the cast would be acceptable. Even if it wasn't as good as "Painted Skin", it wouldn't be that bad.

If last year's "New World" and "Painted Skin" had reversed their release dates, I'm afraid they would have had a chance to reach 500 million without any delay.

Time, luck, fate!

Cao Xuan doesn’t know whether he’s glad that “Painted Skin” has come across a good opportunity that comes from time to time, or regrets that he didn’t make a better movie, maybe it could reach 1 billion in one go...

————

ps: When I wrote the plot of "Painted Skin" in the last chapter, I actually wanted to simply change it according to the original plot, but after watching the movie, it was full of flaws and I personally didn't like it (in my impression, this movie is quite good) , I don’t know why I can’t watch it now)

So when I was writing the plot, I unconsciously made a magic change, or rather than a magic change, it would be better to say it was a quick copy of the story, and it turned into how to kill the villain if the male protagonist cheats.

In fact, I felt something was wrong after writing it, but I didn’t want to change it. Maybe I’m really not good at film and television magic modification. I’ll just copy it honestly from now on.