Millennium director

Wu Yuan's vacation is good news for most mainland directors.

This year and last year, Wu Yuan was so productive. In 2015, he released "Ride the Wind", and in 2016, he released "Ready Player One" and "Doctor Strange". Three movies in two years, together, they made 5 billion RMB in the mainland box office!

This is not a small amount of money!

The market is so big, and it is currently maintained at around 40 to 50 billion RMB a year. Wu Yuan alone can occupy nearly one-tenth of it!

Once Wu Yuan takes a break, there will be an extra 5 billion RMB in the market for other directors to share, which is a good thing!

Perhaps for the top directors in the mainland film market, the impact is not great, but for small and medium-sized directors, it is almost like a long drought and a sweet rain.

After all, the competition in the mainland film market has become more and more fierce in recent years. During the popular period, small films may not even get 5% of the screenings. The situation of kneeling down to beg for screenings when "A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix" was released is not an isolated case!

I don't know how many movies, when they were released, the main creative team begged the theaters to give them more screenings and to open a few screenings during prime time, even if it was only one.

These bitterness, big directors like Wu Yuan and Zhang Yimou can't understand, after all, their movies are actively begged by theaters to be released, and once released, they can get more than 30%, or even more than 50% of the exaggerated screening volume.

Things that big directors don't care about are life and death for small directors.

Although Wu Yuan is really successful and is the most famous director in China internationally, he is not money after all, and it is impossible for everyone to like him. In fact, no matter how much he contributes to Chinese-language films, I don't know how many people curse him every day behind his back. After all, he occupies the top of the pyramid of the Chinese film industry and blocks the financial path of many people.

Now Wu Yuan has publicly stated that he is on vacation, which is really great. Some people are even secretly thinking in their hearts that it would be best for Wu Yuan to retire and come out again after ten or twenty years!

Anyway, he is young, only in his thirties now, and he will not be considered old in the directing industry in twenty or thirty years.

Well, thinking of this, some people in the industry who hate Wu Yuan feel even more uncomfortable. Wu Yuan is really too young in the directing industry!

"Do you really need to rest?"

"You are at an age where you can rest. You should take advantage of your youth and make more movies that you want to make. Don't wait until you are my age to regret it, it will be too late."

"Hmm" Listening to the serious advice of Director Zhang Yimou on the phone, Wu Yuan shook his head in distress and said: "Director Zhang, I have been too busy in recent years. I have been shooting one movie after another. I have been exhausted both mentally and physically. I must take a good rest for a while."

"You and I can't compare. You are gifted!"

Yes, Wu Yuan's workload in recent years may be very high in his eyes, but in Zhang Yimou's eyes, it is just the normal workload of a director.

Director Zhang Yimou has not rested since Hero, and has been shooting, preparing, and writing movies for more than ten years.

Even when preparing for the Olympics, he was working on the opening ceremony with the opening ceremony team while shooting Curse of the Golden Flower.

Oh, and he also took care of his family, and had one child after another.

In Zhang Yimou's eyes, Wu Yuan's sequential filming of movies one after another was not tiring at all, and could be said to be keeping healthy.

Even so, Wu Yuan actually felt too tired and wanted to put down his work and rest for a while, which was a very incomprehensible behavior for Zhang Yimou.

But Wu Yuan didn't intend to argue with Zhang Yimou on this topic. In the entire Chinese film industry, how many directors can compare with Zhang Yimou in "hard work"?

"Director Zhang, don't talk about me. I'm only taking a break for about a year or so."

"Let's talk about you. The Great Wall is about to be released, right?"

Wu Yuan smiled and changed the subject: "Sister Xiaoping told me that The Great Wall is the company's opening drama in 2017, and the box office is heading for 3 billion!"

"It seems that it's time to revive our status as the number one director in China."

There is no doubt that before Wu Yuan's Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy was released worldwide, Zhang Yimou was the real number one director in China, regardless of art or business.

Zhang Yimou is a truly epoch-making director in China who "cultivates both literature and martial arts". He can win the best film award in the three major European cinemas and the box office champion in China.

When the Hero came out, his status was pushed to the peak. Even though Wu Yuan's Pirates of the Caribbean series was very successful abroad, he could only rank below Zhang Yimou for a long time and compete with Chen Kaige for the second place.

It was not until Wu Yuan won the Golden Lion in Venice that he could be considered to be on par with Zhang Yimou. Later, due to the impact of the bad movie "Three Shots Surprise", Wu Yuan officially took over the title of the first director in the mainland until now.

But this does not mean that Zhang Yimou is a director eliminated by the times, nor does it mean that Zhang Yimou is out of date with the new era.

On the contrary, Zhang Yimou has not been abandoned by the big ship of the new era. On the contrary, he is still an important director in the new era, and he can still flourish in both art and business!

The Return in 2013 once again broke the box office record of domestic art films, and no one has surpassed it to this day!

And the Great Wall, which he has been busy shooting and producing since 2015, is his ambitious work in the field of commercial films. Just like Chen Kaige's The Promise, they are all aiming to break through themselves and create new records!

"The competition during the Spring Festival this year is not small."

"Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back, co-produced by Xu Ke and Zhou Xingchi, Kung Fu Yoga by Cheng Long, Riding the Wind and Waves by Han Han, and Journey to India by Wang Baoqiang are all hot hits that are coming in strong."

"Add The Great Wall, and five blockbusters will be released on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Even if the screenings are evenly distributed, one movie will only have a screening volume of more than 10% on the premiere day at most."

"Nowadays, theaters are very cunning. According to the performance of the first day, they will immediately adjust the screening volume of the next day. The capable ones will be promoted and the mediocre ones will be demoted. It is bloody and cruel."

"But I am still full of confidence in you, Director Zhang. I believe that The Great Wall can make it through this bloody Spring Festival and become a box office winner!"

Wu Yuan's encouraging voice reached Zhang Yimou's ears through the phone.

The main reason why Zhang Yimou called Wu Yuan today was that he was a little nervous about the release of The Great Wall, and he came to seek confidence. The talk about Wu Yuan's vacation was just a topic of conversation.

Wu Yuan was naturally very clear about this, so he encouraged him on the phone. No matter what the situation would be after the release of "The Great Wall", at least before the release, director Zhang Yimou must be full of confidence, otherwise how can he lead the team to overcome difficulties!

"Director Zhang, you can put your heart back in your stomach. You and our Light and Shadow Era, this powerful combination will not lose!" (End of this chapter)