Save the Bachelor of Heaven

   Chapter 1967 1969 [The decline of Hong Kong films]

   Time soon came to two thousand years.

  In January, Universal Pictures released the movie "Chocolate" starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

The film is invested and produced by David Brown Studio and is adapted from the novel of the same name by the well-known writer Jonny Harness. It tells the story of a mother who brought her six-year-old daughter to a small town to open a handmade chocolate workshop. .

  Her arrival has added vitality to this closed town, but the conservative mayor thinks that she has destroyed the harmony of the town and plans to drive her out.

  The arrival of a group of gypsy vagrants brought new twists to the whole matter...

   This is a romantic, warm, touching and profound movie. Think of it as a romance movie, and it's not a bad idea to think of it as a drama about resisting power and exchanging freedom.

  In short, the reputation of this movie is very good.

  The "Los Angeles Times" commented, "The film shows a very high level of artistic sense and skillful narrative techniques."

  "Daily Mail" commented, "This is a story about convention and privilege, established rules and self-expression fighting each other."

  "Chicago Sun-Times" commented, "This is a seductive and extraordinary movie. The film melts **** and shows a sense of difference with'delicious' humor."

  Good word-of-mouth has brought good box office. In the end, the film won a box office of 76 million US dollars in North America and 150 million US dollars in the global box office.

  For a medium-budget movie with an investment of only 20 million U.S. dollars, such box office revenue can be said to be quite good.

  …

   In January, it is the awards season of the Golden Globe Awards.

  The biggest hit of this year's awards season is undoubtedly DreamWorks' "Saving Private Ryan".

  However, "American Beauty" produced by Xiang Nan, and "Good Will Hunting" by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were also shortlisted for seven or eight awards, and the voice of winning the award is also very high.

   It's a pity that Xiang Nan chose to go home for the New Year instead of attending the awards ceremony.

   This also seems to have caused dissatisfaction at the Golden Globe Awards, so that although "American Beauty" was shortlisted for multiple awards, in the end it didn't win a single award and returned empty-handed.

   It's really a pity.

  …

  In February, Universal Pictures released the 2D animation "Prince of Egypt" produced by DreamWorks Animation.

  It is adapted from the story of "Exodus" recorded in the "Bible". It tells the story of the Hebrew prophet Moses, under the guidance of God, leading the people to escape from Egypt and return to their homeland.

The reason why the first animated film adapts this story is because the three bosses of DreamWorks, Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg are all Hebrew, so the story is very important They have a very special meaning.

  Even if the box office fails, it is no longer important to them.

   Fortunately, this movie is still very successful. In North America alone, the box office is as high as 105 million US dollars, and the global box office is as high as 216 million US dollars.

  Compared to an investment of 60 million US dollars, it is considered a successful work.

  …

  In February, after spending the Spring Festival with his family, Xiang Nan took a walk in Xiangjiang.

  He originally wanted to meet Shanshan, but Shanshan was busy discussing with the mainland about ATV's landing in the Pearl River Delta, so he couldn't meet him.

  However, Xiang Nan still met Wang Jing.

   "Director Wang, it seems that the box office of Hong Kong movies has dropped a lot in the past two years." After reading the financial report, he asked Wang Jing.

   "Yeah, now the special effects blockbusters in Hollywood are really amazing. Compared with other special effects blockbusters, our Hong Kong films' masterpieces are like digging out of the old soil.

   But when we shoot special effects blockbusters, we can’t compare to others in terms of investment, technology, or even creativity. So in the past two years, we have lost a lot of market share. " Wang Jing sighed.

   Among the many movies in Hong Kong, action movies are the most popular. In the 1980s and 1990s, there were no decent action movies in Hollywood.

  Even in action movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, the fighting scenes are ugly and messy, with no skills at all, far less cool and fierce than Hong Kong-produced action movies.

   Therefore, the popularity of Hong Kong action movies in many regions is not inferior to Hollywood blockbusters. This is why Hong Kong films can compete with Hollywood films.

  However, in recent years, Hollywood movies have used a large number of computer special effects technology, which has completely made up for the shortcomings in action design, and the advantages of Hong Kong movies are no longer obvious.

  With no advantage, it is naturally difficult for Hong Kong films to compete with Hollywood films. Therefore, in recent years, the market has gradually shrunk, which has reached a serious level.

  …

  Xiang Nan also sighed.

  Although these years, he has been trying to delay the decline of Hong Kong films. But in the end, it's just a delay, and it can't make Hong Kong films stay young forever and become popular all the way.

  After all, Hong Kong films have inherent disadvantages compared with Hollywood films, and even compared with Mainland films.

   Firstly, the domestic market for Hong Kong films is too small and they rely heavily on foreign markets. And the power of the Hong Kong government is too small to help Xiangjiang Films at all.

   Unlike Hollywood movies, in addition to the United States itself being the world's largest film market, it can also use the power of the U.S. government to enter markets around the world.

  Therefore, in terms of market size alone, the two sides are far behind;

  The market is small, so naturally it cannot support a large industry. Just like European countries, because of their different languages ​​and cultures, although the economy is developed, there are no large-scale Internet companies in each country.

  Secondly, there are too few talents in Hong Kong films. Hollywood is close to Silicon Valley, and the distance is only 300 miles, which can be reached in half a day. And there are several high-quality universities in Los Angeles itself, such as Caltech, UCLA, University of Southern California and so on.

  The talents in these universities have made outstanding contributions to the development of Hollywood film technology.

  For example, when George Lucas established Industrial Light & Magic, he invited more than a dozen PhDs in mathematics, physics, optics, chemistry, and electricity.

   It is these people who have produced exquisite special effects for "Star Wars" and made outstanding contributions to the development of Hollywood film technology.

  In comparison, although there are several universities in Xiangjiang, it would be foolish to invite doctoral students in mathematics, optics, electricity, and chemistry to make a film.

   Therefore, from the 1980s to the 21st century, we can see that American film technology has undergone earth-shaking changes. However, due to the lack of talents in Hong Kong films, the progress is not obvious.

  Comparing the two, Hong Kong movies are far behind Hollywood movies, and they are like products of two eras.

   This caused it to gradually lose the favor of the audience. Even audiences who were very supportive of Hong Kong films before are gradually being replaced by Hollywood blockbusters with bigger scenes, more exquisite pictures and more unique creativity.

  Before, the box office revenue of Hong Kong films including local and foreign regions was about 3 billion Hong Kong dollars, but now it has shrunk to less than 2 billion Hong Kong dollars, losing one-third of the revenue. Moreover, the losses continue to expand.

  If Hong Kong films do not improve, it is estimated that in a few years, the entire Hong Kong film market will shrink to a tearful level.

  (end of this chapter)