Huayu started by giving the system to female stars

Chapter 127 126. When will "Silver Driver" be released?

After returning to Weiguo Films, Yang Mi went to prepare for the interview for "My Lucky Star". Huang Bo had nothing to do, so he stayed in the company first.

When Wei Wu was doing post-production, he helped out and did some simple work within his ability.

When they were having lunch together that day, Huang Bo finally couldn't help asking about the release date of "Silver Driver":

"Hey, when are you going to release this movie?"

Wei Wu had already thought about it: "September 30th, this year's National Day!"

There is no reform in the holidays yet, so there are currently seven days off for Labor Day on May 1st, and seven days off for National Day on October 1st.

So now the May 1st and National Day are both popular movie schedules. Together with the Lunar New Year and summer vacation schedules, they are known as the four golden schedules for mainland movies.

In fact, there are quite a few movies that have exploded in the National Day box office, such as "Lost in Thailand" in 2014, "Charlotte's Troubles" in 2015, "Operation Mekong" in 2016, "The Shameful Iron Fist" in 2017, etc. Of course, the highest-grossing movie is "Changjin Lake" with 5.775 billion in 2021.

Huang Bo breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this: "The National Day is OK, I was really afraid that you were going to the Lunar New Year."

Wei Wu deliberately pretended to be confused: "What's wrong with the Lunar New Year? There are not many good movies in the Lunar New Year this year?"

Huang Bo rolled his eyes and said: "Yes, there are indeed not many good movies! Then why don't you say why so many blockbusters rushed to the Lunar New Year last year, why don't people go this year?"

Wei Wu started to support the joke: "Why?"

Huang Bo said excitedly: "Of course it's because Zhang Yimou came with his "Curse of the Golden Flower"!

"Everyone remembered the fear of being slaughtered by "Hero". Who is not afraid of it like a tiger?

"Even Feng Xiaogang had to temporarily avoid the limelight and take the initiative to retreat, and directly moved "Night Banquet" to the summer season!

"Even Feng Xiaogang is afraid, let alone others, who dares to die?"

In fact, Huang Bo's words are really correct. As we all know, Feng Xiaogang has always been the pioneer and iconic figure of the mainland's Lunar New Year's Day, and the audience has long been accustomed to watching Feng's comedies during the Lunar New Year's Day.

And his previous movie, "A World Without Thieves", was released during the 2005 Lunar New Year's Day, and finally won 120 million box office and ranked third in the year. It can be said that it was both popular and well-received.

The film "Night Banquet" was completed on January 20 this year. Normally, for a large-scale production like this, it takes more than half a year to produce post-production, and then it is released during the Lunar New Year's Day. It is a very logical thing.

But in the previous life, this movie was released on September 15. Generally speaking, if it is to be released during the summer vacation, it should be released in July, and no later than early August.

Schools are open in September, so why Why did they choose this time period to release the film?

The reason is not difficult to guess. It is likely that the post-production was just completed at this time. Normally, since the summer season has been missed, it should be postponed to the Lunar New Year season.

After all, for blockbusters, the box office pressure is still quite large. Generally speaking, they can only choose between the Lunar New Year season and the summer season.

But the movie "Night Banquet" did not hit the Lunar New Year season in the end. It was probably because Feng Xiaogang was scared! He probably felt that he would definitely not have any chance of winning against "Curse of the Golden Flower".

At that time, he would lose the box office and reputation, which would be even more miserable!

Although Feng Xiaogang said that he was worried that the audience was tired of his movies always being on the Lunar New Year season, so he was ready to switch to other seasons to test the waters.

If it is true as he said, then why Why did the next movie after "The Banquet", "Assembly", choose the Lunar New Year holiday again?

In fact, even if Director Feng gave in to "The Curse of the Golden Flower", there is really nothing to be ashamed of!

In the previous life, "The Curse of the Golden Flower" was announced to be released on December 14, and two other movies immediately announced emergency adjustments:

Liu Weiqiang's "The City of Pain" was postponed from December 8 to December 23, and Li Shaohong's "The Door" was directly postponed from December 1 to January 18.

Another blockbuster "The Warring States" was more foresighted. In order to avoid it, it was directly adjusted forward and was scheduled for November 23.

As we all know, the Lunar New Year holiday in the conventional sense usually starts in mid-December.

"The Warring States" directly took a month ahead of schedule. This is Zhang Yimou + "The Curse of the Golden Flower" 》's deterrent power.

In addition to the above mentioned, the only other film that made a splash during this period was "The Legend of Yun Shui" (36 million, No. 17).

For the Lunar New Year period, which is a must-win for all, it seems a bit shabby to have only a few films that are neither high nor low!

And the fact proves that it is very correct for so many films to choose to avoid the battle.

Because apart from "The Curse of the Golden Flower", there was no second film that broke the box office of 100 million during the Lunar New Year period this year, including Hollywood films.

And apart from "The Curse of the Golden Flower", there were only two films that entered the top 10 of the year: "The City of Sadness" 7430 (No. 7), "The Battle of Wrath" 6700 (No. 9).

What was the grand occasion of the Lunar New Year period last year? It has been introduced before. There were three films that broke the box office of 100 million.

The reason for this situation is, of course, because Zhang Yimou's "The Golden Jacket" grossed 290 million at the box office, once again setting a new box office record for domestic movies.

How exaggerated is this box office? Let's put it this way, the box office runner-up "The Night Banquet" in the previous year was 130 million, which is equivalent to saying that "The Golden Armor" more than doubled the second place. This shows that Feng Xiaogang is indeed cowardly.

But even Feng Xiaogang is timid, but Huang Bo is still worried about Wei Wutou Tie. Because everyone knows that he is a very stubborn person who will do anything if he doesn't accept it.

Not to mention that he tasted the benefits of his last tough challenge in "Ride Alone for Thousands of Miles", so now he will only be more courageous!

If there is only one director in the country who is not afraid of "The Golden Armor" and even wants to have a try with him, then this person must be Wei Wu!

Fortunately, the situation that Huang Bo was most worried about did not happen.

If Wei Wu wants to challenge Zhang Yimou, of course he supports it with both hands and feet!

But the problem is that you must not compare "Silver Driver" starring him with "Golden Jacket"!

What is the lineup of "Golden Armor"? Chow Yun-fat + Gong Li + Jay Chou + Liu Ye.

On the other hand, looking at the lineup on our side, it is a group of crooked melons and jujubes that almost no one knows, and the most famous Xu Zheng is still a guest star.

Moreover, the production cost of "Golden Armor" is as high as 360 million, which is 30 times as much as their movie. How can we fight this?

After the stone in his heart fell to the ground, Huang Bo asked again:

"So who is our biggest competitor during this year's National Day holiday?"

Wei Wu also did his homework in advance, so he answered directly:

"Basically there is only one movie that deserves our attention, and the rest are not of concern."

Huang Bo immediately sat upright, raised his ears and asked, "Oh, which one is it?"

""Baby Project" is directed by Chen Musheng and stars Jackie Chan and Louis Koo. If nothing else happens, it should be released on the same day as us!"

Huang Bo couldn't help but start to frown: "The person here is evil, Brother Jackie Chan...can we be opponents?"

Wei Wu did not answer this question, but asked instead:

“Those Years is already on the summer schedule, so if it can’t be released on the National Day schedule, it will have to be released on the Lunar New Year schedule.

"So you think we have a better chance of winning with "The Golden Jacket", right? Or should we wait until next year to release it?"

Huang Bo shook his head repeatedly and said: "Forget it next year, it's better to do it this year! Then it's National Day. How can we play "Golden Armor" with it!"

Wei Wu smiled brightly and said, "Actually, we have nothing to be afraid of. Although the National Day schedule is not particularly big, it is still one of the four major schedules and can at least accommodate two high-grossing movies.

“The cost of our movie is 12 million, and we only need more than 30 million at the box office to make it back.

"The production cost of "Baby Project" is 10 times that of ours. If we are afraid, they are also afraid. What do we have to be afraid of?"

In the previous life, "Baby Project" achieved a box office of 94 million in the Mainland, ranking fifth in the year. The box office on Hong Kong Island was 23.45 million, ranking second in the year.

However, although the film achieved good box office results in both mainland China and Hong Kong Island, the film's overseas box office was not very good. The global box office was only US$22.52 million, equivalent to about 160 million yuan.

Compared with its production cost of 130 million Hong Kong dollars, it should be a loss (at this time, the exchange ratio of RMB and Hong Kong dollars is close to 1:1).

Even if Jackie Chan's influence is used to sell movies overseas, the cost will probably be recovered at most. Anyway, he will definitely not make much money.

The most fatal point is, of course, that this movie failed to land in North American theaters.

These days, Jackie Chan's movies generally require a lot of investment. If they can't be released in North American theaters later, it will basically be difficult to recover the cost.