Huayu is free to do as you like

Giving the role of the heroine of "Tang Detective 2" to Liu Yifei was not a hot-headed move by Gu Wei, nor was it a deliberate show of favor on his part.

But as a friend, without touching his own interests, he really wanted to help Liu Yifei a little so as to return the favor.

To be honest, the two of them have known each other for almost 3 years.

The two met on the set when Gu Wei was filming "Xiu Chun Knife" in 2012. At that time, Gu Wei was still a little-known film and television college student, a fledgling, with no reputation and nothing but money.

At that time, Liu Yifei was already at the top of domestic female stars. Although she was able to participate in this movie because of China Film's reputation, she also really used her fame to make a great contribution to the movie. .

The box office of the original movie was less than 100 million. With the blessing of Liu Yifei's fame and excellent publicity that is different from the original, "Xiu Chun Dao" can sell more than 200 million.

This movie also gave Gu Wei his initial fame and was also the first money he made in the entertainment industry.

Liu Yifei didn't mind that Gu Weika was a junior, and the two became friends.

Later, Gu Wei insisted on filming "Tang Detective". Before the movie was released, in order to increase his reputation, he released a song to promote it, and asked Liu Yifei for help, and the other party agreed without hesitation.

You know, with Liu Yifei's character, she almost never promotes others except when her own movies are released.

This time Gu Wei was promoting [The Return of the Great Sage] online, but he didn't even open his mouth, and the other party took the initiative to help. He had to accept these favors.

Looking back on the past three years of knowing Liu Yifei, as a friend, it seems that the other party has always been helping him, but Gu Wei has never had the opportunity to return these favors.

It just so happened that he was going to film "Tang Detective 2" this time, and he wanted Liu Yifei to play the heroine, which would not only increase the film's fame, but also return a favor.

In fact, although the heroine of "Tang Detective 2" seems to be a good resource, in fact, for ordinary actresses, her role is not as good as that of a popular TV series.

Because it does not attract fans, it can only provide actresses with a beautiful film performance.

Like the original heroine, she was not famous to begin with. After filming "Tang Detective 2", the movie became a box office hit, but she just wasn't popular.

But it's different for 85-year-olds like Liu Yifei or Yang Mi. The national popularity of these people is already very high. What they lack is film performance that can be used.

This kind of role allows them to maximize their profits.

Just when the online and offline promotions of [The Return of the Great Sage] were in full swing, it was February 10th. [The Hunger Games 3: Mockingjay (Part 1)] was released in China.

[The Hunger Games] is as big an IP as [The Twilight Saga] in Hollywood, and the first two films have achieved excellent box office results in the North American market.

This movie "Mockingjay (Part 1)" even reached a box office of 333.18 million U.S. dollars in North America, becoming the 2014 North American annual box office champion!

It's a pity that this global best-selling movie was a little acclimated after entering the Chinese market. The box office on the first day of release was only 21.62 million, and the Douban score was only 6.2 points, making it the lowest-rated film in this series.

On the 11th, the second day after the release of "The Hunger Games", the national box office revenue was 19.87 million, which is a normal decrease. This situation also indicates that this movie, which can win the North American box office championship in 2014, may eventually be sold in the Chinese market. Just over 200 million box office.

Another Hollywood blockbuster has failed. This year's Lunar New Year season seems to be under a spell. Movies that were expected to achieve high box office have begun to fail, and the movie market continues to be cold.

Because there are no good movies to be screened, the total national movie box office in a single day continues to decline, even less than 100 million yuan on weekdays.

This is the single-day box office performance nationwide, and it comes during the most popular Lunar New Year period in previous years.

You must know that after a year of theater construction in 2015, the total number of theaters in China has exceeded 6,000, and the total number of screens has reached 32,000, which is nearly 10,000 more than in 2014. The number of screens directly catches up with North America, the world's largest movie market.

At present, there is no shortage of hardware facilities such as theaters and screens in China, as well as the enthusiasm of audiences for watching movies. There is just no shortage of good movies.

During last year’s Lunar New Year holiday, movie viewing conditions were not as good as now. However, due to the release of popular movies such as "Detective Chinatown", "Private Order" and later "Journey to the West: Havoc in Heaven" and "Macau", the single-day movie viewing conditions were not as good as now. The national box office is often around 200 million, and sometimes it can even reach 300 million.

In comparison, it better highlights the deserted market during this period of this year.

Just when people in the industry were focusing their attention and expectations on several blockbuster movies released during the Spring Festival on February 19th, the "Journey to the West: The Return of the Monkey King" conference was held at the Wanda Hotel in Beijing on February 12th. The film's premiere conference was held in the living room.

As the last publicity before the film's release, the press conference leveraged the relationship between Wanda Media and Enlight Media to invite nearly 100 media outlets across the country.

Because it was not a premiere, but a movie conference, no celebrities were invited to support the show.

There were only the creative team of [The Return of the Great Sage], organizers from the publisher, and various media in the audience.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the lights in the large conference room dimmed, leaving only the lights on the stage in front.

As the nominal producer of the film, Gu Wei walked on stage together with director Tian Xiaopeng and Wang Changtian, the representative of the film's investor and distributor.

The host of the press conference was Liu Yan from Enlight Media. She wore a blue and white cheongsam today, showing off her good figure to the fullest.

After a beautiful welcome speech, the host announced that the film premiere conference of "Journey to the West: The Return of the Monkey King" has officially begun.

The host briefly introduced the basic information about the film's investors, producers, and distributors, and then handed the microphone to Director Tian Xiaopeng, who was standing in the middle of the stage.

He is the protagonist of today's real life.

“Hello friends from the media, my name is Tian Xiaopeng, and I am the director of the movie [Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage].

Thank you very much for coming today. To be honest, [The Return of the Great Sage] can be successfully produced and released. Today I can stand here and talk to everyone. This is very dreamy for me.

I have loved science fiction and animation since I was a child. After graduating from college, I entered a foreign animation design company.

In 1997, my company received the production of some episodes of the cartoon "Journey to the West". I was responsible for 4 of the episodes. When I was producing the animation according to the requirements, I thought to myself, if I make Journey to the West myself, I will definitely not be able to do it. It would be so childish.

Later, I started my own company. In 2007, I saw my son watching Ultraman and Batman with gusto at home. I suddenly felt that I should do something, so I had the idea to make a three-dimensional animated version of "Journey to the West". idea.

What I was thinking at the time was, if Americans and Japanese can make good-looking animated films, why can’t we Chinese.

Now that I thought of it, I immediately started taking action.

The construction of [The Return of the Great Sage] started at that time.

Unfortunately, I was still too naive at the time and ignored the huge cost to truly produce an animated film comparable to Hollywood Disney.

I spent all my money at home and borrowed money from relatives and friends to make the film. Unfortunately, these were only a drop in the bucket for the production of the entire animated film.

Moreover, the market at that time was not optimistic about domestic animation. Everyone thought that the content of domestic animation was low-quality and shoddy. There was also the precedent of "Magic Ring" which cost 130 million and had a box office of 4 million. No investors were willing to pay for domestic animation.

Fortunately, I later met Mr. Wang from Enlight Media and Mr. Gu from Weimingxia. They donated generously and spared no expense, just to make a high-quality animated film that belongs to the Chinese people. "

As he said that, Tian Xiaopeng looked around at Wang Changtian and Gu Wei.

"I did not disappoint the two investors, and finally completed the production of this animated film that took 8 years at the beginning of this year.

In my heart, "The Return of the Great Sage" is perfect, and I believe it will definitely become a landmark work in Chinese animated films.

thank you all! "

Director Tian looked very excited, said a lot of heartfelt words, and also made some remarks.

Of course, in his opinion, that's not just rhetoric, [The Return of the Great Sage] is indeed that good.

After Director Tian finished speaking, the audience burst into applause. Everyone could see that he has a deep affection for the movie.

The hardship of eight years of creation cannot be explained clearly in one or two sentences.

Neither Gu Wei nor Wang Changtian said anything, and then entered the media interaction session.

The reporters first asked Director Tian some questions about film production, and then the media focused their attention on Gu Wei. After all, compared to the unknown Tian Xiaopeng, Gu Wei is the most famous one related to movies, and interviews about him are also more Easily catch the audience's attention.

"I would like to ask Gu Wei, as an actor, how did you come up with the idea to invest in an animated film and also serve as the film's producer?"

A reporter from Sohu Media asked first.

"I also met Director Tian by chance. I was mainly impressed by his attitude towards doing things. In addition, I watched some of the films that had been produced at that time and they were astonishing. I never thought that domestic animated films could also Do it to this extent.

So it was natural to invest in "The Return of the Great Sage" and later become the film's producer. "

"Have you never thought that since the domestic animation market is in recession, your investment may be in vain?"

Gu Wei smiled after hearing this and said:

“Investment must be risky, and no one can guarantee that every investment will be successful.

But I feel that regardless of whether this investment is a loss or a profit, we are doing the right thing and working hard for the rise of domestic animated films.

That’s enough, the rest is left to the market and the audience. "

After saying this, the reporters didn't have much reaction. Director Tian Xiaopeng looked at Gu Wei eagerly, his eyes full of emotion.

The expression was like Yu Boya meeting Zhong Ziqi in the mountains and rivers, and Gu Wei, the "financier" who was willing to pay regardless of reward, was Tian Xiaopeng's "Zhong Ziqi".

"Can I ask how much money you and Mr. Wang invested in this animated movie?"

Gu Wei and Wang Changtian looked at each other and said.

"It is not convenient to disclose the specific investment share, but I can tell you that the total investment in [The Return of the Great Sage] is 100 million yuan!"

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

The media were whispering among themselves, but no one thought that this "cartoon" could cost so much money.

Then, the reporters asked Gu Wei and Wang Changtian some questions about the movie. Both of them have been tested by the media for a long time and naturally responded fluently.

After the interactive session, Director Tian Xiaopeng shared some of the difficulties during the production of "The Return of the Monkey King" and also brought several key staff members from his team over to give their personal opinions.

The media present also lamented that it was not easy for him to make.

It took more than 2 hours in total, and the press conference finally came to an end.

Looking at the media members packing up their photography equipment and heading out one by one, Gu Wei said to Tian Xiaopeng:

"Director Tian, ​​don't worry too much. We have done the best we can. As I said just now, the rest depends on the audience and the market."

“I also know that actually being able to reach this level is beyond my imagination at first, and I am already very satisfied.

I'm afraid that if the box office is not satisfactory when it is released tomorrow, I'm sorry for Mr. Gu and Mr. Wang's expectations. "

Gu Wei laughed out loud after hearing Tian Xiaopeng's words and patted him on the shoulder.

"Keep it in your stomach, why are you not confident in your own work now?

We will definitely be a hit at the box office!

Right, Mr. Wang? "

Wang Changtian listened to the entire conversation between the two.

He also smiled and said:

“Although I don’t have as much confidence as Mr. Gu, I still think the quality of our film is good.

And I have more confidence in Mr. Gu. After all, Mr. Gu has been successful since I met him. I like to work with successful people. "

"Haha~ Mr. Wang, you are flattering me. Let's benefit from each other and make money together."

Listening to the words of the two investors, Tian Xiaopeng's nervousness was relieved.

On February 13, [Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage] premiered nationwide.

Thanks to the power of two distribution companies, Enlight Media and Wanda Film and Television, as well as the film’s early publicity, the national film schedule accounted for as high as 31% on the first day.

There were almost no famous movies during the same period. The three comedy-romance films released last week, "Surprise", "You Love Me", and "The Detective Is Here", showed signs of fatigue after a week of screenings.

And today, released together with "The Return of the Great Sage" is a love movie "I Just Want Us to Be Together" starring Yang Gongru.

To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that "The Return of the Great Sage" was released in February and Gu Wei paid special attention to all the movies released in February, he would have no impression of this movie at all.

It is a low-budget romance film that probably won both box office and word-of-mouth reviews, otherwise The Time and Space would not be completely famous at all.

It can be said that "The Return of the Great Sage" released at this time is the most handsome guy in the movie market. Looking around, there is no one who can beat him.

Now there is no need to consider the issue of competition at all, and the subsequent box office results will all depend on how many audiences the movie can attract to the theater.

Another chapter today is enough. I will make up for it tomorrow with 3 chapters.