China Entertainment Mythology 2004

Chapter 122 Box Office Champion
In the last three days of the previous year, "How to Steal the Key" earned 1200 million, 1100 million and 1150 million box office respectively. Although the single-day box office was still the bottom of the three movies, the gap between this time and the other two movies, It has shrunk from a single lagging behind 500 million to only lagging behind 200 million.

Then came the first day of the Lunar New Year.

On this day, "The King of Kung Fu" was finally defeated by Xingye's "Yangtze River No. [-]" after winning the single-day box office champion for seven consecutive days.

New Year's Day.

"Yangtze River No. 1400" 1300 million, "Kung Fu King" 1200 million, "The Way to Steal the Key" [-] million.

The second day of the new year.

"Yangtze River No. 1300" 1000 million, "Kung Fu King" 1200 million, "The Way to Steal the Key" [-] million.

Big Year.

"Yangtze River No. 1200" 900 million, "Kung Fu King" 1300 million, "The Way to Steal the Key" [-] million.

After the tenth day of the film's release, "How to Steal the Key" finally topped the single-day box office champion.

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, the spokesperson of China Film Group disclosed the latest box office data of the three films to reporters in response to questions from reporters.

Then the entire Chinese Internet went completely crazy.

"I feel sorry for Master Xing. I finally kicked "The King of Kung Fu" from the box office champion on the first day of the Lunar New Year. In the end, I was overtaken by "The Way to Steal the Key" before my butt was hot."

"Anyway, I don't feel bad at all, I only feel bad for my own ticket money. Everyone buys tickets to go to the theater to watch nonsensical comedies, but Master Xing only shows us this?!"

"To be honest, I hope more than anyone else that "How to Steal the Key" can get a decent box office, but how the hell did I never expect that this movie would be the single-day box office champion? After Cheng Long Li Lianhe and Under the attack of Master Xing, he won the box office championship?! What kind of manipulation is against the sky! Now that someone tells me that the total box office of this movie can surpass "Yangtze River No. [-]" and "King of Kung Fu", I have begun to believe it!"

"It's really unexpected, the difference in investment between the three films is really too big! The success of "How to Steal the Key" is simply a myth!"

“我刚查了一下，《长江七号》投资1.5亿，《功夫之王》投资4亿以上，《盗钥匙的方法》投资只有1000万！就算再加上500万的宣发费用，这部电影的总成本也才1500万！1500万暴打1.5亿甚至是4亿！”

"Damn it, Li Mu is really a fool! Filmed a sci-fi blockbuster, sold globally, made a low-budget comedy, beat domestic blockbusters; wrote novels, sold 5000 million copies worldwide; wrote songs—someone has heard of Li Mu's premiere Is it the road to the "Ordinary Road" sung at the ceremony? I cried!"

"If "How to Steal the Key" wins the Spring Festival championship, where will you put the face of the other two movies?"

"Where to put love! Why don't they think about where to put their face today when they fool the audience? Don't think that you are smart, you fool this and that, and eventually one day you will find that you are being fooled."

"I also hope that a sincere work like "The Way to Steal the Key" can get a high box office, but at the same time I don't want the other two films to lose money. If everyone goes to make small-budget films, who will make big movies? The film market is really broken."

"I don't worry about it. Whether other people like to shoot or not, Li Mu can do it. Some people can only shoot "The Promise" and "King of Kung Fu" with a lot of investment. Li Mu's shot is "Hurricane Rescue" " "Assassin" and "Super Body", are other people also called blockbuster movies? Others also deserve to make blockbuster movies?"

""Inception" seems to be launching, right? 1.2 million dollars in investment! It's a masterpiece against the sky, look forward to it!"

……

On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, China Film released the latest box office data.

《功夫之王》总票房1.68亿，单日票房跌至500万；《长江七号》总票房1.62亿，单日票房800万；《盗钥匙的方法》总票房1.61亿，单日票房900万。

So far, anyone can see that "The Way to Steal the Key" is the box office champion of the "Spring Festival stalls"!
According to the forecast of China Film Group, the final box office of "The Way to Steal the Key" should be around 2.2 million, "Yangtze River No. 2" around 1.8 million, and "The King of Kung Fu" around [-] million.

The film with a total cost of 1500 million defeated "Yangtze River No. 1.5" with a total cost of 4 million and "The King of Kung Fu" with a total cost of over [-] million, and the entire Chinese film industry was in an uproar.

Let alone the box office hit of the movie directed by Li Mu himself, he is a genius, he is awesome, he is amazing, we all recognize this!

But Li Mu just wrote a script and then asked other people to direct it, and it turned out to be so awesome?If he writes ten or eight scripts next year and finds ten or eight directors to shoot them, will there be room for others in the Chinese film industry?
Suddenly, he felt that Li Mu was a little scary.

In the future, if someone's movie will collide with Li Mu, it's better to change the schedule quickly!
At the same time, with the box office explosion of "The Way to Steal the Key", the three leading actors, Shen Teng, Huang Bo and Gao Yuanyuan, have clearly felt that their popularity is improving rapidly.

This is what Gao Yuanyuan feels the most.

Before the film was released, she was negotiating the endorsement fee with a company. At that time, the company offered 90 yuan every two years. Gao Yuanyuan wanted to talk about 100 million yuan, but Gao Yuanyuan's agent persuaded her to accept the endorsement. According to the agent, the price offered by the other party is quite generous.

As a result, just one month later, Gao Yuanyuan's endorsement fee has soared to 300 million yuan every two years!

Of course, the company that offered this price was not the same company that offered 90 every two years, but the presence of a more famous company showed that Gao Yuanyuan's commercial value had increased dramatically.

Overnight, the endorsement fee soared three times!
To be honest, it's not that Gao Yuanyuan hasn't been popular before, but she really hasn't encountered such a thing that suddenly triples her value after a work.

But the manager's subsequent words made her worry about gains and losses immediately.

"This movie should make you popular, Yuanyuan, for a year or two. We should take advantage of the high popularity to get more endorsements, more announcements, more film appointments, and try to maximize the popularity during this period into income. An actor can't meet such an opportunity several times in his life, and it would be a pity if he missed it."

Gao Yuanyuan's manager's words were passed on, and the only thing left in Gao Yuanyuan's ears was the phrase "An actor will never have such an opportunity a few times in a lifetime", and she was thrown a basin of cold water by her manager.

Why is it difficult to have such an opportunity in the future?

Li Mu's movie half of Hollywood has to come to China to audition, why should he use himself again and again?

I heard that even Zhang Ziyi was crazy about acting in Li Mu's movie, but Li Mu didn't give it a chance.

Even Zhang Ziyi couldn't get what she wanted, so how could she, Gao Yuanyuan, always be favored by Li Mu?
……

To be honest, the overseas performance of "The King of Kung Fu" is not bad.

The film opened in 3200 theaters in North America, with a box office of US$900 million on the first day and US$2300 million in the first three days of the weekend.

But everything is afraid of comparison.

"Assassin", also starring Cheng Long and Li Lian, had a box office of 1500 million US dollars on the first day in North America, a total box office of 1.3 million US dollars in North America, and a total global box office of over 3 million US dollars.

The gap is really too big.

Even Li Lianhua, who has no international influence, is the leading role alone. The box office of "Super Body" in North America on the first day was 1400 million U.S. dollars, and the global box office also exceeded 3 million U.S. dollars.

The overseas box office of "The King of Kung Fu" is still unknown, but even the most optimistic estimates do not exceed 6000 million US dollars.

US$6000 million vs. US$3 million, the huge gap made the already pretty good results look less fragrant.

Not to mention the negative news that is readily available in the media and the Internet.

"The King of Kung Fu? The King of Bad Movies!—Comment on the King of Kung Fu."

""King of Kung Fu" - a very unreliable martial arts film (King of Kung Fu) film review."

"The King of Kung Fu is a bad movie? 'Comparable' to The Promise!"

"Kung Fu King is so bad, it's unimaginable!"

"The King of Kung Fu - A Fighter Among the Garbage!"

"The box office was overtaken by "The Way to Steal the Key" and "Yangtze River No. [-]", and the fig leaf of "The King of Kung Fu" was completely torn off."

"The King of Kung Fu: Nine Flaws That Prove Hollywood's Mistakes."

In the face of overwhelming negative comments, fans of Cheng Long and Li Lian could not hold back anymore, and everyone appealed to Cheng Long and Li Lian on various platforms to be cautious when accepting scripts in the future.

"I have been a fan of Chenglong for more than 20 years, and this time I really broke my defenses. To be fair, "The King of Kung Fu" is not as bad as the media scolded, at least the action design is very good, but this time everyone is rushing for something. The theater? I went to the theater because of Cheng Long and Li Lian’s rematch! I went to the theater because I was looking forward to watching "Assassin" again! As a result, you guys showed this to fans? A Chinese culture and Chinese culture that American teenagers are obsessed with Kung fu trip?"

"I beg you, Uncle Long, can we be more cautious when making films in the future? I really can't afford to be hurt, and suddenly I don't look forward to Uncle Long's next movie."

"Let's take as many Li Mu's movies as possible in the future. I found that almost all of Uncle Long's best movies in recent years have Li Mu's shadow behind them."

"In other words, Li Mu's script can really be accepted with eyes closed. If you just read the introduction, "Super Body" is undoubtedly a bad movie, but look at the final effect? ​​It's so beautiful! Just watch "Super Body" The name and introduction of "The King of Kung Fu", I think it should be good, but the result..."

"Why didn't Li Mu invite Uncle Long to act in "Inception"? Don't say that the protagonist in the original novel is white. It’s not as good as the outside world says!”

"No matter how good the relationship is, you can't invite Uncle Long for every movie, right? Besides, I think Tom Hanks is definitely the best choice to play "Inception". Li Mu is still very good at casting roles. "

"Actually, I understand the truth. I really want to see the collaboration between Li Mu and Uncle Long."

"I look forward to it, and there are also works by Li Mu and Li Lianhe."

"Why is no one mentioning me, Brother Hua? I look forward to seeing Li Mu find Brother Hua to make a movie."

"Don't I want to lose face, Brother Fa? What's wrong with Brother Fa? Can Li Mu also ask Brother Fa to make an international blockbuster?"

Faced with a lot of doubts from the media, Cheng Long said in an interview with reporters:

"In fact, "The King of Kung Fu" is a movie made for Americans. It is normal for Chinese people not to like it very much. Chinese people and Americans have very different tastes in movies. I want to make a movie that audiences in both countries like. It’s very difficult. Li Mu is the only person I’ve seen who can balance the differences between the two sides over the years. No one else can do it. Only Li Mu’s works. Wow, Americans love him so much, and we Chinese people love him too. gone."

"Indeed, Li Mu's works are very popular in the world." The reporter took the opportunity to ask, "Brother Cheng Long, can you tell us when the next collaboration with Li Mu will be?"

Cheng Long said with a smile: "It should be very soon. In fact, the preparation of the film has already begun. Some time ago, Li Mu said on TV that his company will make two blockbuster films next. "Dream Space", another investment of 1.2 million US dollars, this is the new movie we cooperated with."

……

On February 2, Li Mu called Shen Junsheng to his office.

"The Way to Steal the Key" was a huge hit at the box office, and Li Mu was very happy, so he ordered to go down and wrap a red envelope for the relevant heroes.

Among them, the biggest red envelope was naturally distributed to the toolman director Shen Junsheng. Although the success of the film is inseparable from a solid script, but as the director, Shen Junsheng's film can survive the attack of two blockbusters. Li Mu couldn't turn a blind eye to his credit and ability.

In addition to directors, cast members and actors also have red envelopes, red envelopes vary in size, but everyone has them.

Li Mu is still very kind in terms of sharing benefits.

Small victory depends on wisdom, great victory depends on virtue.

If you care about money, you will definitely not become a very rich person.

Occasionally, a few people who care about become extremely rich, that is a trick, and in terms of regularity, you can only get it if you give it up.

If you have a big heart and know how to share, the more friends you make, the more ways to do business, and the more opportunities you get, and people who have opportunities to make money are willing to ask you to participate, because they know that you will not treat others badly, and the possibility of success is greater .

All of the above are what Jianlin said, but Li Mu thinks there is some truth to it.

"I came to you today to talk about the new movie." Li Mu said, looking at Shen Junsheng who had gained weight.

"New movie? Mr. Li, do you have a new script? I have no problem, the project can be started at any time." Shen Junsheng said with bright eyes.

The great success of "The Way to Steal the Key" doubled Shen Junsheng's confidence. Now he is not the Shen Junsheng who shrinks when he sees the script is too good, for fear that his lack of ability will ruin the good script.

Li Mu smiled and handed over a notebook and said:

"Strive for the Spring Festival next year to be released."

"Definitely, Mr. Li, don't worry." Shen Junsheng accepted the script with a smile.

When I first started, I felt that the script was very thin, not so thin, as if there were only a few pages in total.

Shen Junsheng turned to the first page in some surprise, his eyes swept over the paper, and the four big characters in the title of the book immediately came into view——I am on an embarrassing journey.

Below the title is the outline of the story, Shen Junsheng quickly scanned it, and then turned to the next page with full expectation.

Then he froze.

I saw that the second page of the script was empty, not even a single word.

On the third page, the fourth page, and the fifth page, there is also no word.

Page Six—There's no more page six, the script is only five pages long.

"President Li?" Shen Junsheng asked in surprise.

Li Mu smiled and said: "The outline of the story has been handed over to you, and at the same time, I have also given you the task of perfecting the script. I want to continue to find Shen Teng and Wang Baoqiang to act in this script, and you can do it yourself according to the characteristics of these two people." Write the script."

"I'll write it?" Shen Junsheng felt guilty.

Li Mu smiled and said: "Yes, you write it, I will check it out, and send it to me after the script is finished."

　Big chapter.

　
(End of this chapter)