Huayu is free to do as you like

Since 2000, the Lunar New Year period has always been the most popular period in the Chinese film market. At that time, many high-grossing blockbusters chose to be released during this period, including "Thailand", which once ranked first at the Chinese-language film box office. Its super high box office results are Born during this period.

Gu Wei's first film "Detective Chinatown 1" and Feng Xiaogang's film "Private Custom" also competed in the Lunar New Year festival.

In the end, they all achieved good box office results.

However, in recent years, with the gradual expansion of the domestic movie market, especially as online ticket purchasing has become more convenient, young people have become more and more enthusiastic about watching movies.

The rise of summer and Spring Festival stalls has forced the Lunar New Year stalls to relinquish their once most popular spot and gradually take a back seat.

However, it cannot be denied that there is still a large group of moviegoers during this period, and it is relatively easy to have a box office hit.

Gu Wei, who returned to the company from Zeng Li early in the morning, was sitting in the office drinking coffee and looking at the list of movies to be released this month handed over by his assistant.

After filming the movie in Thailand for more than two months, although the filming and training were very hard, Gu Wei still accumulated a lot of energy.

Now after a night of cultivation, I have reached a state of physical and mental comfort.

The temperament that had become a bit sharp due to the long period of filming has also returned to being as gentle as jade.

It was just a bit hard for Sister Li. She was still sleeping soundly in bed when Gu Wei left.

After all, Gu Wei's physique is different from that of ordinary people, and he held it in for too long. Even though he tried his best to be gentle, Sister Li was still exhausted and fell into a coma.

But in the morning, Gu Wei saw her sleeping soundly, with a rosy complexion, smooth skin, and an expression like a baby. He thought that if she had fun once in a while, Sister Li would also like it.

The Hollywood science fiction blockbuster "The Martian", which was released in mainland China at the end of November, has exhausted its box office potential after three weeks of screening.

Although this movie has a Douban score of 8.5 and a very high online reputation, its box office did not reach the level of [Fast 7] and [Avengers 2] in the first half of the year, only a little over 500 million.

Domestic filmmakers were already prepared for this science fiction masterpiece to sweep the market. From the end of November to the beginning of December, no big-budget domestic films were released in order to avoid it.

I didn’t expect [The Martian] to be a hit but not a hit.

Although more than 500 million ticket sales are considered a big hit for most movies, the investment cost of this science fiction masterpiece alone is more than 100 million US dollars, making it a true Hollywood A-level production.

This achievement is really disappointing for the illustrious reputation it has achieved.

[The Martian] was released in North America two months earlier than in China. At that time, it topped the North American box office for three consecutive weeks and sold US$290 million in the North American market.

Before it was released in mainland China, the film's global box office had already reached nearly 600 million U.S. dollars, and it was also nominated for the American TV Movie Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award.

That's why domestic filmmakers are so wary of it, thinking it is a blockbuster movie on the same level as [Fast and Furious 7] in the first half of the year.

Unexpectedly, [The Martian] was a bit acclimated after entering the domestic market and did not really become popular.

The lack of Hollywood blockbusters has also made the overall domestic box office performance in the early Lunar New Year period unsatisfactory. However, starting next week, large-scale domestic movies will be released one after another.

"Looking for the Dragon" and "Unexpectedly" will be released on December 18th, "Lao Pao'er" and "Villain Angel" will be released on the 24th, and Gu Wei's "Xiu Chun Dao 2" will be released on the 31st on the last day of the month. ], in just half a month, several big-budget movies by famous directors have been released one after another. It can be said that starting from mid-December, the real battle for the Lunar New Year period will begin.

However, Gu Wei is not worried about this situation at all. In his opinion, the only threatening film "Searching for the Dragon" was released too early. By the time "Embroidered Spring Knife 2" is released, the other film's box office potential will be almost exhausted.

As for the other movies, "Villain Angel" and "Unexpectedly" have poor reputations. "Old Paoer" has a good box office but the themes are too different, and it has no impact on "Xiu Chun Dao 2".

Therefore, what kind of results the movie can ultimately achieve depends on its own performance.

I took a sip of coffee, put down my movie schedule, picked up a white script from beside my desk and continued to read.

[Anle Pictures] just sent over the script of [Monster Hunt 2] in the past two days.

Gu Wei has read it from beginning to end.

It was different from the plot of the second part in his memory. The version of the sequel given by [Anle] still has "Song Tianyin" played by Gu Wei and "Huo Xiaolan" played by Bai Baihe as the male and female protagonists.

The entire story line is not much different from the first one. The little demon king "Huba" was hunted down again, and then Gu and Wei got the news and went to the rescue. After a difficult adventure, they defeated the evil villain and won the final victory.

"Where is Liang Chaowei?"

Gu Wei rubbed his chin and thought, if this script is followed, then there will be no problem for "Monster Hunt 2" to continue the reputation of the first film, and it will have a higher box office breakthrough.

In fact, the reason why the original version of "Monster Hunt 2" changed the protagonist is very complicated.

First of all, in the first film, the protagonist of the movie was Bai Baihe instead of Jing Boran. After the success of "Monster Hunt 1", it was the female protagonist who gained more fame and other aspects.

Because Jing Bairan had no impressive achievements before and his popularity among the public was not high, everyone just thought that he was lucky enough to happen upon a hit movie. No one thought that he was responsible for the high box office of "Monster Hunt".

Before the filming of the second part started, Bai Baihe was exposed to the "One Finger Zen" incident. [Anle] was worried that her image would be damaged and would have an impact on the box office, so they hired Liang Chaowei to be the male lead. The two actors in the first part He has a leading role as his co-star, hoping that actor Liang can carry the box office of "Monster Hunt 2".

But now this version is completely different. Gu Wei is a real protagonist in both the content and promotion of the movie.

For the movie to achieve such high results, people inside and outside the circle believe that Gu Wei played a very important role in it.

So in the second part, unless [An Le] is stupid, it is impossible to leave Gu Wei, a popular top figure, and find a completely unrelated person to play the male lead.

Gu Wei looked at the script and thought for a while.

Yang Liwen knocked on the door and came in.

"Boss, are you looking for me?"

"Sister Yang, [Monster Hunt 2], what are the conditions offered by Anle?"

Gu Wei asked without raising his head.

Yang Liwen thought for a moment.

"[Anle] has offered you a salary of 50 million, which is already the highest among domestic actors. It is very sincere."

When Gu Wei took over the filming of "Operation Mekong", his salary was still 30 million. However, after "Monster Hunt" became a hit and hit the number one spot in film history, his external quotation increased.

Nowadays, among the domestic movie stars, Cheng Long and Zhou Runfa are quoted the highest salary of RMB 80 million, while Gu Wei’s salary is RMB 40 to RMB 50 million, followed by Mesozoic first-line stars such as Xu Zheng, Huang Bo, Deng Chao, Chen Kun, etc. Basically, Between 20 and 30 million.

If Gu Wei takes over "Monster Hunt 2", then his salary can be stabilized at 50 million, which is of great benefit to him.

Gu Wei held the script in one hand and tapped the table gently with the other.

In fact, for the movie "Monster Hunt 2", he was a little dissatisfied with the salary alone. It was not that Gu Wei was too greedy, but that there would be no harm without comparison.

Similarly, he held shares in the movies that outside companies approached him about, including "Operation Mekong" and "Wolf Warrior 2". When the movies were released, Gu Wei's income was in the hundreds of millions.

Moreover, although the box office of the "Monster Hunt" series is high, he now has more choices. If he has this time to make a movie invested by his own company, the income will far exceed that of participating in "Monster Hunt 2".

So if the salary is only 50 million, it would be a bit useless for him.

"Sister Yang, if so, you can reply to [Anle] soon and tell me that I want to use my remuneration to invest in shares and then make additional investments. I want to get 30% of the investment share in [Monster Hunt 2]."

Gu Wei remembered that after Wu Jinghong became famous, he starred in some of the main theme movies, and his company [Dengfeng International Pictures] all invested 30% of the shares. With his current fame and box office appeal, it shouldn't be too much to ask for the same share. Bar.

Yang Liwen was stunned for a moment, hesitated to speak, and finally agreed.

"I'll do it right now!"

Then he left the office.

After Yang Liwen left, Gu Wei thought about it for a while. The reason why he had paid for the movie before and brought money into the group was because the movie was not well received, and the producer hoped to use Gu Wei's fame to drive the box office.

Just like the earliest [Embroidered Spring Knife], the [Left Ear] shot last year, and even the just-concluded [Operation Mekong].

The producers were not sure whether the movie would be profitable in the end, and "Xiu Chun Knife" couldn't even be made without Gu Wei's money, so the crew readily accepted Gu Wei's investment.

But the "Monster Hunt" series is different. When the first part ranked first in film history, the second part can achieve higher results even if the quality is average, and it is 100% profitable.

This situation can be referred to the "囧囧" series. Even if the reputation of the subsequent "囧囧" was not satisfactory, it still received a box office of 1.6 billion, surpassing the second "Thailand" which had a better reputation.

Gu Wei could imagine that for Jiang Zhiqiang of [Anle Pictures], his request was no different than cutting off his flesh.

"Forget it, don't think too much, we've done everything. Let's see what Jiang Zhiqiang decides!"

Gu Wei muttered, stopped thinking about it, threw aside the script of "Monster Hunt 2" and started busying himself with other things.

He went out to film for more than two months. There were a lot of things that he needed to deal with in the company. Gu Wei also had to go on a road show with the crew of "Xiu Chun Dao 2" in a few days, so there wasn't much time left for him.

After being busy in the office all morning, I simply took a bite of my work meal and asked my assistant to clean up the leftovers. Just as I was about to pick up the unapproved documents in the morning and continue reading, the phone beside me rang.

Looking at the caller number, Gu Wei curled his lips. He could already imagine what the call would be about.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang?

No worries, I just had lunch.

What I know is that there is no way it’s all a decision made by the company after research, and I can’t say anything to refute it.

This is not something I can change casually. I really hope to continue to cooperate with Mr. Jiang and Director Xu, but I can't help it because of the requirements set by the company.

Well, okay, then I'll ask the agent to wait for your reply!

Happy cooperation! "

After hanging up the phone, Gu Wei shrugged. He had said everything he needed to say. It was impossible to change the conditions. It was entirely up to Jiang Zhiqiang whether he could continue to cooperate in the future.

Putting the phone aside, Gu Wei didn't think about it again and continued his morning work.

At the same time, the president's office of [Anle Pictures].

Jiang Zhiqiang, who put down the phone, had a smile on his face one second, and a gloomy look on his face the next. The rapid change of his face was the essence of face-changing in Sichuan Opera.

He frowned and said nothing.

"How about it? What did Gu Wei say?"

Xu Chengyi, who was sitting on the sofa at the side of the office, leaned up and asked eagerly.

"Bang~"

The iPhone in Jiang Zhiqiang's hand hit the desk in front of him heavily.

"Gu Wei is so greedy!"

"You won't give in at all?"

Xu Chengyi asked again.

"They keep talking to me in officialdom about the company's decisions. [Wei Mingxia] Gu Wei is the only boss, and he alone has the final say.

He just saw that the first one was a hit, and he was so excited when he was asked to star in the second one!

I also thought about bargaining with him to get him a shareholding as a salary, but I couldn't give him that much in terms of share, but I didn't expect him to take 30%. "

After hearing Jiang Zhiqiang's words, Xu Chengyi also frowned.

As the director and the soul of the "Monster Hunt" series, Jiang Zhiqiang promised him 10% of the proceeds from the second film as director's remuneration.

In his opinion, Gu Wei was a little too greedy, asking for 30% all at once, three times as much as he, the director.

"Lao Xu, do you think we can rewrite the script and change the protagonist in the second one?"

Jiang Zhiqiang suddenly raised his head and asked.

Director Xu lowered his head and thought for a while.

"It's not impossible. Originally, I expected that the real soul character of the "Monster Hunt" series would be the little demon king 'Huba', and other actors, including the male and female protagonists, are all replaceable.

As long as the background of the story remains unchanged, it would be no problem for a different group of people to continue the adventure with "Huba". "

"Okay, if you find someone to rewrite the script now, I won't believe it. Without Butcher Zhang, you can't eat pigs with hair on them.

Without him, our movie would still be a hit, but he takes himself too seriously! "

Gu Wei's request was absolutely unacceptable to Jiang Zhiqiang.

In his expectation, the box office of "Monster Hunt 2" will definitely exceed that of the first one, and a 30% share would be hundreds of millions in profit, which is far different from the 50 million he gave for the film.

Moreover, he also believes that the main reason for the success of "Monster Hunt" lies in its novel format and realistic special effects, in which Gu Wei played a limited role.

It can also be seen from this aspect that interests are really the most fundamental reason for partners to part ways.

As early as when filming the first film, Gu Wei came to the rescue and used his fame to help the movie become a hit.

At that time, Jiang Zhiqiang believed that Gu Wei's participation in bringing the movie back to life was an absolute credit.

After he succeeded now, he thought that the other party was just the icing on the cake, and the effect was not as great as imagined.

"I understand. Give me some time to communicate with several screenwriters in the company. I believe there will be no problem."

Xu Chengyi turned around and left the office after accepting the task.