Huayu’s ex-husband

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

After returning to Wei Guo Pictures, Yang Mi went to prepare for the interview for "Sheep Star". Huang Bo had nothing to do, so he stayed in the company for now.

During the post-production period of Wei Wu's production, he helped Wei Wu do some simple tasks within his power.

When we had lunch together that day, Huang Bo finally couldn't help but ask about the schedule of "Silver Driver":

"Hey, when are you planning to release our movie?"

This Wei Wu has already thought about it: "It will be released on September 30th this year during the National Day!"

The holidays have not yet been reformed, so we currently have a seven-day holiday on Labor Day, and then a seven-day holiday on National Day.

Therefore, the May Day and National Day schedules are now popular movie schedules. Together with the Lunar New Year season and the summer season, it is known as the four prime time periods for mainland movies.

In fact, there are quite a few movies that have exploded at the box office during the National Day period, such as "The Love of the Heart" in 2014, "Charlotte" in 2015, "Operation Mekong" in 2016, and "Shy" in 2017. "Iron Fist" and so on. Of course, the one with the highest box office is "Changjin Lake" with 5.775 billion in 21.

Huang Bo breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this: "The National Day stall is fine, but I'm really afraid that you are planning to do the Lunar New Year stall."

Wei Wu deliberately tried to pretend to be confused: "What's wrong with the Lunar New Year festival? There aren't many movies that can be played in the Lunar New Year festival this year?"

Huang Bo rolled his eyes and said, "Yes, there are indeed not many good movies! Then why don't you tell me why so many blockbusters were vying to be released in the Lunar New Year movie last year, and why everyone is not going this year?"

Wei Wu started to praise: "Why?"

Huang Bo said with some excitement: "Of course it's because Zhang Yimou came with his "City Full of Golden Armor"!

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

"Even Feng Xiaogang had to avoid the spotlight for a while, took the initiative to retreat, and directly put "The Night Banquet" on the summer schedule!

"If even Feng Xiaogang is afraid, let alone others, who would dare to die?"

In fact, there is nothing wrong with what Huang Bo said. As we all know, Feng Xiaogang has always been the founder and iconic figure of the Lunar New Year show in the Mainland, and the audience has long been accustomed to watching Feng's comedies in the Lunar New Year show.

His last movie, "A World Without Thieves", was released in the 2005 Lunar New Year movie. It finally took in 120 million at the box office and ranked third in the year. It can be said that it was well-received and a box office hit.

The film "The Banquet" was completed on January 20 this year. Normally for a large-scale production like this, it would take more than half a year for post-production and then be released during the Lunar New Year.

But the movie "Previous Life" was released on September 15th. Generally speaking, if it is going to be released in the summer, it should be released in July, and no later than early August.

School has started in September, so why choose this time to release it?

The reason is not difficult to guess. It is most likely that it was not completed until this time. Normally speaking, since the summer release has been missed, the release should be postponed to the Lunar New Year release.

After all, for blockbusters, the pressure on the box office is still quite high. Generally speaking, you can only choose between the Lunar New Year movie and the summer movie.

But the movie "The Banquet" didn't end up on the Lunar New Year schedule, probably because Feng Xiaogang was timid! He probably felt that there was no chance of winning against "Golden Armor".

When the time comes to lose the box office and lose reputation, it will be even worse!

Although Feng Xiaogang made up for it by saying that he was worried that the audience would be tired if his movies were always released in the Lunar New Year slot, so he said he was ready to try other movies in other schedules.

So if it is true as he said, then why did the next movie after "The Banquet", that is, "Assembly Number", choose to be released during the Lunar New Year again?

In fact, even if Director Feng gives up on "Golden Armor", there is really nothing to be ashamed of!

Immediately after "The Golden Jacket" was announced to be scheduled for December 14th, two movies immediately announced emergency rescheduling:

Liu Weiqiang's "Hurt City" was postponed from December 8 to December 23, and Li Shaohong's "Gate" was directly postponed from December 1 to January 18.

Another blockbuster, "Ink Attack", was even more prescient. In order to avoid it, it was directly moved forward and was directly scheduled for November 23 early.

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

And "Mo Gong" directly jumped a month ahead of schedule. This is the deterrent power of Zhang Yimou + "Golden Armor".

In addition to the above mentioned, the remaining two movies in this schedule that are slightly splashy are "The Ballad of Clouds and Waters" (36 million, No. 17) and "Love Call Transfer" (32.87 million, No. 14).

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

And it turns out that so many movies are right to avoid war.

Because except for "The Golden Jacket", there was no second Lunar New Year movie this year with a box office of over 100 million, including Hollywood movies.

And apart from "Golden Armor", there are only two movies that entered the top 10 of the year: "Shangcheng" with 7430 (7th) and "Ink Attack" with 6700 (9th).

What was the grand occasion of the Lunar New Year last year? As mentioned before, there are three movies that have exceeded 100 million yuan, not to mention others.

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?"

This 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 up straight, 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"? 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.