Huayu started as a lecturer at Beijing Film Academy

As time comes to 2015, the first wave of competition for Lunar New Year movies is finally over.

One of the most interesting aspects of this Lunar New Year show is that it determines whether the domestic box office in 2014 will set a record of 30 billion yuan estimated by the industry.

If Xu Laoguai's "Taking Tiger Mountain by Wisdom" and Wu Baige's "The Taiping Wheel" are big directors paired with big-name stars, and they are aiming at box office records during the Lunar New Year period, they belong to the first echelon. Then they rely on their respective styles to win. Guo Jingming's "Tiny Times 4" and Zhang Yibai's "That Year in a Hurry" both follow the youth route and belong to the second echelon.

The third echelon is imported blockbusters. "The Battle of Myeongliang" set the highest box office for a Hanguo movie. "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" and "The Hunger Games 3" are both big productions with many loyal fans, and they have the strength of imported blockbusters. Very strong.

But it is a pity that "The Year in a Hurry" failed to hit the box office, Wu Baige's "The Tai Ping Wheel" completely bombed the market, and imported films such as "The Battle of Ming Liang" were not adapted to the local environment, which affected the overall market trend in December, leading to the final The total box office in 2014 was fixed at 29.6 billion

Just 400 million short!

However, this is still a year of great development for domestic films. Among the newly released films in 2014, a total of 66 films exceeded 100 million in box office, of which 36 were domestic films.

Looking back on 2010, there were only 17 domestic films with a box office of over 100 million yuan. This year, it was twice as many as four years ago. However, there were 30 imported films with a box office of over 100 million yuan this year, slightly lower than domestic films.

After experiencing a strong attack by split blockbusters in 2012, the box office of domestic films was lower than that of imported films for the first time in ten years. However, in 2013, domestic films made a full counterattack, and finally with a full-year score of 12.767 billion, beating imported films by about 3.7 billion.

This year, the competition between domestic films and imported films has continued one after another, and the two films are equally divided.

In the first quarter, domestic films had a box office of 4.242 billion, beating imported films of 2.544 billion. In the first six months, domestic films were defeated, with a box office 500 million less than imported films. In the third quarter, domestic films overtook imported films. The advantage is less than 600 million. In the last three months of this year, although Hollywood blockbusters continued to meet the audience, they could not offset the schedule advantage of domestic films. In the end, this Sino-foreign war ended with the victory of domestic films, with a final box office of approximately 16 billion.

"Heart Blossoms", which was released during the Spring Festival last year, took away the box office championship of this year's Chinese films with a score of 2.1 billion, and far left other films behind. This number doubled the pressure on countless peers. If the Spring Festival of 2015 If there is no film in the pipeline that can break this record, then there should be no hope for the first half of this year.

As the time comes to January, the movies for the Spring Festival have also been scheduled.

It is worth noting that this year’s “Spring Festival holiday” refers to the seven days from New Year’s Eve to the sixth day of the Lunar New Year instead of the “first day to the seventh day of the Lunar New Year” in previous years.

There are eight new films released on February 19, the first day of the Lunar New Year alone. They are "The Mermaid", "The Lion", "Zhong Kui Conquers the Demon: Snow Demon Spirit", "Wolf Totem", "Where Are We Going, Dad 2", "Dad's Holiday", "Up to the Sky" and the animated film "New Year" "New Year's Eve", the release of these films together makes theaters feel that it is not easy to schedule films.

The eight movies are of different genres, including variety movies, star-studded New Year comedy movies, fantasy movies, cartoons, epic movies, etc.

According to Dadi Cinema Marketing Director Zou Xiaowu, the reason why eight films competed for the New Year's Day slot was the success of last year's "Blooming Heart" and "Journey to the West: Havoc in Heaven". After all, these two films were released within the seven days of the Spring Festival. It has achieved a box office of more than 1.5 billion!

"So many movies have chosen the Spring Festival schedule, and the most unlucky ones are the theaters." Zou Xiaowu told reporters that as a theater operator, he hopes to put every movie well and maximize the box office.

Zou Xiaowu has watched these eight movies in advance. He thinks that overall the quality of the movies is good and has improved compared to last year. ""The Heroes" is an international blockbuster; "The Mermaid" is a comedy and is in line with the Spring Festival atmosphere. "Up to the Sky" is a derivative of the TVB drama and has a large consumer base. "Where Are We Going, Dad 2" and "Daddy's Holiday" also have a certain space to exist, but who will win in the end will have to pay for it. The audience will judge.”

As a theater manager, Zou Xiaowu can't obviously favor which movie, but in fact, netizens have already tacitly decided that it is a must-see movie!

That is "Mermaid" by Zhou Xingxing!

Even before it was released, Zhou Xingxing, like other directors, began to run non-stop road shows across the country, and held a grand premiere conference in Yanjing with the main creators.

However, this highly anticipated film has not held any screenings so far, insisting on keeping the veil of mystery until the last moment before its release on New Year's Day. This is really rare in today's highly competitive film market. .

Fortunately, when the appetite of movie fans has been whetted, Zhou Xingxing finally unveiled the final trailer of "Mermaid" at the press conference, and some clues can be seen about the main characters and plot. Moreover, events with Mr. Star present will naturally not be dull. Shen Teng, Da Tiantian, Luo Zhixiang, Zhang Yuqi, and Baike are all possessed by Mr. Funny quotes.

The film is about to be released, but fans are completely unable to guess the story and style of the film through the only two trailers with very different styles. This kind of treatment that is both intriguing and not annoying is probably only available to Star Master.

…

On February 19, the premiere of "The Mermaid" was held at Wanda Cinema in Yanjing.

Now Gu Zhongyu is also a shareholder of Wanda Cinema. Naturally, he will give preferential treatment to his own films in the scheduling. Other colleagues can only hold back if they are dissatisfied!

Wanda Cinema has already vaguely shown signs of becoming the largest cinema in China. Gu Zhongyu sometimes thinks that if Lao Wang has problems in the future, can he just take over the entire Wanda Pictures!

Of course, the premise is that there are enough Dao Le in hand, and Douyin must be launched in the market quickly!

At this time, the red carpet has been laid in front of the cinema, and a large number of media reporters and many fans have gathered on both sides of the red carpet.

Among them, Da Tiantian, the heroine, has the most fans. They hold signs with various slogans, waiting for their idols to appear.

Shen Teng is not that good. After all, he is best known for his skits on the Spring Festival Gala. In the eyes of the public, he is just an unknown comedian. Many people don't understand why Stephen Chow would choose a skit actor as the leading actor!

There are also many stars coming to support tonight.

There are artists who have a good relationship with Zongheng, such as Huang Bo, Deng Chao, Huang Lei, and He Jiong, as well as stars under Zongheng Entertainment, such as Nazha, Zhang Ruoyun, and Zhu Yilong, as well as some Hong Kong and Taiwan artists, all of whom came to participate for Zhou Xingxing.

There are also many new generation actors who came to help in order to join in the fun.

The powerful star lineup made fans and fans shout excitedly.

Shen Teng looked at the cheering crowd and said with emotion: "It seems that everyone is here for Master Xing. If I can have this appeal, my life will be worth it!"

Gu Zhongyu smiled and said: "Don't worry! There will be a day. Sooner or later, you will become the strongest comedy star in the mainland!"

"I dare not! I dare not! Teacher Huang Bo is still here!"

He really didn't expect Gu Zhongyu to be so optimistic about him. In fact, Shen Teng is now thinking that "The Mermaid" must not be a failure. Otherwise, if the reputation of ruining Master Xing's movie spreads, I am afraid that no one will ask him to play the male lead in the future.

Although Da Tiantian is the female lead, there are too many bad movies before. In fact, many film critics are not optimistic about her cooperation with Zhou Xingxing this time, and even think that Zhou Xingxing must be bought by money or forced to choose her.

Sure enough, when the interview session started, many people couldn't wait to ask Zhou Xingxing and Gu Zhongyu questions.

"Master Xing, many people questioned your choice of actors this time, thinking that the male and female protagonists are not very attractive at the box office, and may even bring some negative comments. What do you think about this issue?"

High EQ: Not very attractive at the box office.

Low EQ: A bad movie queen, a sketch comedian!

Zhou Xingxing answered this question frankly: "I choose actors based on the role, and I don't consider what he has played before or what achievements he has made. I am very satisfied with the choice of male and female protagonists this time, and I don't care about these rumors!"

"Then can you predict how much box office you will get this time?"

"I think this question may be...you are more suitable to ask Mr. Gu, he is better at predicting box office."

Indeed, Gu Zhongyu predicted that "The Crossing" would fail in both box office and word of mouth, and the box office could barely get 300 or 400 million, all of which came true.

Gu Zhongyu took over the conversation and said: "I am not a half-god, it is hard to say how much I can get, but this does not prevent us from setting a small goal first!"

"One billion?"

The reporter made a bold guess. After all, according to the current market and Zhou Xingxing's reputation, one billion should not be a problem.

"Let's get 3 billion first and lock in the Spring Festival box office champion in advance!"

"Wow..."

The reporters in the audience exclaimed, and even Zhou Xingxing and others looked at him sideways.

Boss, are you bragging too much?

The current Chinese box office record is only 2.1 billion!

3 billion box office, in previous years, would have required seven or eight hit movies to achieve the result.

The reporters looked at each other and thought Gu Zhongyu was joking. After all, a movie ticket is only 20 or 30 yuan now, and a box office of 3 billion requires at least hundreds of millions of people to go to the cinema!

But this did not prevent them from recording these words and making a fuss!

...

After interacting with the media for a while, Zhou Xingxing led the crew to the cinema.

"Tiantian, what's wrong with you? You don't look very interested?"

After walking a few steps, Gu Zhongyu suddenly realized that something was wrong with Tiantian. She didn't say much during the interview just now, so he pulled her to the side hall and asked her.

"No! I just saw that you are full of confidence in our movie. If the box office performance fails, I am used to being scolded, but you may also be ridiculed by the media!" Jing Tian sighed and looked at Gu Zhongyu who was confident, "You shouldn't have said so confidently just now!"

"Do you not believe in the script I wrote, or do you not believe in Stephen Chow?"

"I don't believe in myself. The taste of the audience is too picky now! Many movies feel good when they are filmed, but when the feature film comes out, it is not that taste. Even if we are optimistic about it, it does not mean that the audience will like it, otherwise there will not be so many movies that fail every year!"

"I am afraid this is not just a problem of the audience, right?"

Gu Zhongyu thought of something and asked with a smile: "How did I hear that when we were filming "Warring States", the first version of the script was not like that, but was changed by an actress who brought money to join the team? "

"That, that's all nonsense spread by the media and marketing accounts!"

Da Tiantian, who was exposed to the dark history, immediately became hesitant.

The screenwriter of "Warring States" is Shen Jie, who has written a series of excellent scripts including "Serious Case Group Six", "Women Don't Cry", "Live with a Laugh", "I am a Grass", "Tiger Mom and Cat Dad", etc. Why did the talented man turn over in "Warring States"?

Because the first version of the script was strictly adapted from the historical deeds of Sun Bin, it was a movie with a male protagonist, but there was actually no love between children.

But after a certain female lead watched it, she felt that it didn't work at all. It was all the male lead's business, so what's the point of her role?

You have to change it!

So the script of "Warring States" was changed over and over again. Originally, the production of a male protagonist that Sun Honglei was quite satisfied with became a production of "A Female Protagonist", completely serving Da Tiantian.

"Then he bluntly said that he can't act in front of Sun Honglei and asked you to do whatever he wanted. Is this also a false rumor in the media?"

"Hey! Are you finished?"

Da Tiantian is angry. You were originally asked to comfort me, but why did you suddenly start recounting my dark history?

"I was too young at that time and didn't know the rigor of artistic creation. My mind was filled with the idea of ​​becoming famous, so I subconsciously wanted to add something to the plot...that I thought the audience would like..."

Jing Tian spoke softer and quieter, but in the end he said confidently: "But I have changed my ways now and will no longer interfere with the work of the director and screenwriter. You see, I will be honest when filming Mermaid this time. I didn’t make any demands on Master Xing!”

You do!

If you still criticize the paranoid Zhou Xingxing for making a movie, no matter how good your background is, you will inevitably be scolded!

"No...don't you also like to criticize the director when you are making a movie? Why do you accuse me? Huh! Double standards!"

Da Tiantian put her hands on her hips and looked at him with an unyielding expression. It seems that you are not qualified to accuse me in this regard, right?

"Not to mention that I am originally a screenwriter and producer, so it is reasonable to interfere... The most important thing is that I have never made a bad movie! And I have never lost money?"

She really couldn't refute this. Gu Zhongyu was indeed talented and he never failed in the movies he invested in.

"There's always a time when you overturn! If The Mermaid doesn't get 3 billion at the box office this time, how about you bring me tea and water and wait on me for three days?"

"If you want me to sleep with you for three days, just say so. Why go around so much!"