In the 2016 Spring Festival, in addition to Jiang Heng's "The Legend of Wei", there is also "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny", jointly produced by Weinstein International Film Company and China Film Group and directed by Yuan Heping.
The publicity for this movie was particularly huge, after all, the previous film won an Oscar, which indirectly led to the birth of the movie "Hero".
By the way, Jiang Heng also participated in the investment of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", but the copyright was not in his hands, so the sequels naturally had nothing to do with him.
In fact, even if there is a relationship, he will not get involved.
How should I put it, martial arts themes are really out of date in the era of modern industrial civilization!
The character that the audience can empathize with is Shen Gongbao in "Nezha 2: The Devil Child Conquers the Dragon King", the little pride of the family, a leftover from the fairy world, who did a lot of dirty work and in the end only accumulated a few elixirs.
It's so much like those workers who work hard for a year and then go home to honor their parents with gifts given by their company.
Even in the classic martial arts film "Tai Chi Master", young audiences gradually understand Tianbao, who still helps his brothers after he gets ashore and holds power.
However, the brother who grew up with him and shared life and death with him was determined to kill his brother for a few "anti-government armed elements" whom he had just met for a short time.
The question is, even if he killed Tianbao, would it change anything?
Nothing could be changed. He did not inherit the will of those "dead" and continue to oppose the court. Instead, he retired from worldly affairs and became a monk!
Of course, when the film was released in 93, there was no problem at all.
But if such movies are still made in the 21st century, the audience will inevitably question it.
The worst thing is that the ideas and story of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" are not as good as those of classic martial arts films such as "Tai Chi Master". As for the fighting scenes, they are not so dazzling against the backdrop of so many special effects blockbusters.
As a result, as soon as the film was released, it received equal amounts of negative and positive reviews, with those who criticized the film belittling it severely, while those who praised it praised it to the sky.
Of course, battle reports may lie, but battle lines will not.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny" grossed 5700 million on its first day of release in mainland China, which was obviously a flop.
In addition to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2", there is another film that is highly anticipated by the audience, that is "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back", jointly produced by Huayi and China Film Group, produced by Zhou Xingxing and directed by Xu Ke.
Zhou Xingxing's name is still very famous, and his relationship with Jiang Heng has always been very good.
But he has always been a person who puts friendship first and business second.
When Huayi Company came to him and expressed its desire to work together on a Journey to the West-style special effects blockbuster, Zhou Xingxing agreed without much thought.
Anyway, he is just the producer, and the real work is done by Xu.
Speaking of Xu Ke, he is a person that the film industry's investors both love and hate.
You may say he is not good enough, but he always manages to make classic movies that are both critically acclaimed and commercially successful.
But if you trust him too much, he might make a movie that fails both in terms of reputation and box office.
In view of this, China Film Group asked Stephen Chow to join as a double insurance.
With themes of Journey to the West, special effects blockbusters, and popular traffic stars, you can’t lose out no matter how you calculate it!
As for releasing it on the same day as Jiang Heng's film, they thought it wouldn't be a big problem.
The Chinese-language film market is becoming more and more prosperous at the moment, and it can accommodate several blockbusters to be released on the same day.
The box office performance of "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back" was also quite good, breaking the 3 million mark on the first day of its release, closing at million yuan. This outstanding result really shocked the entire film market. After all, in previous years, only Jiang Heng's special effects blockbusters could achieve such results.
Not only that, "The Monkey King 2" achieved such results while competing head-on with "The Legend of Wei: Reclamation of the Sea", which is really inspiring.
As for "The Legend of Wei", which won the single-day box office champion on the first day of the Lunar New Year, it took in million, once again breaking the single-day box office record in mainland film history.
In terms of word of mouth, it has received unanimous praise and has a Douban score of .
In fact, if we talk about the film's story and ideology, the score of "The Jingwei Filling the Sea" is definitely not that high.
The main reason is that Jiang Heng has starred in too few films, and it is rare to see a special effects blockbuster starring him, so the audience can't help but give it high scores.
With such a strong reputation, there will be no shortage of subsequent screenings. "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" has grossed over 400 million yuan per day for five consecutive days, breaking the 2 billion mark early on.
This is not the case with "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back", as its Douban score is only and its single-day box office continues to decline, with less than billion in five days.
As for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny", it has fallen to the bottom of the list, even worse than "Boonie Bears" and "Journey to India"!
However, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2" did not perform well in mainland China, and its performance in North America was even worse, with the box office on the first day less than US dollars.
It’s not that any media has announced its specific results.
However, this new Chinese martial arts film could not be found on the North American box office charts on Friday.
There are a total of 28 films on the list, and the film at the bottom of the list was released in 92 theaters and earned about $5000 at the box office.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2" is not on the list, which means that its box office on the first day was less than US dollars, or it only held a premiere in North America and was not released in theaters.
As for "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", because the first day of the Chinese New Year, February 2, is a Monday, there are relatively few audiences going to theaters here, so the film's release time is scheduled for Friday, the 8th.
"The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was released in 3358 theaters in North America and grossed $3910 million, which is lower than "Deadpool's" $4570, ranking second on Friday's list, but it is also normal.
After all, "Jingwei Filling the Sea" belongs to a traditional Chinese myth, and there is still some cultural barriers for North American audiences.
If it weren't for Jiang Heng's golden signboard over the years, it would be difficult to make over 20 million US dollars in a single day, not to mention compared with popular IPs like "Deadpool".
Even so, Jiang Heng was very satisfied. Filmmaking was not like the Olympic Games where he had to win a gold medal. As long as he could make a lot of money every time and not damage his reputation, it would be a victory for Jiang Heng.
Rankings and such are not very important.
However, with the continued popularity of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", Yang Mi's fame and status soared, press releases were flying all over the place, and she was even given the title of the number one female star in mainland China, even more popular than Zhang Ruolan's previous title of "10 billion box office queen".
After all, she is the queen of TV dramas and her popularity has always been extremely high. No other domestic actress dares to say that she is more popular than her in the field of TV dramas.
It’s just that the investment scale of the movies is limited, and it seems not to be big enough in the film industry.
As soon as "Jingwei Filling the Sea" was launched, this shortcoming was made up.
There have been amazing achievements in the fields of film and television dramas, and fashion resources have been instantly upgraded.
Even Estee Lauder, which had been in talks for a long time, immediately decided to invite Yang Mi to be its spokesperson. (End of this chapter)
The publicity for this movie was particularly huge, after all, the previous film won an Oscar, which indirectly led to the birth of the movie "Hero".
By the way, Jiang Heng also participated in the investment of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", but the copyright was not in his hands, so the sequels naturally had nothing to do with him.
In fact, even if there is a relationship, he will not get involved.
How should I put it, martial arts themes are really out of date in the era of modern industrial civilization!
The character that the audience can empathize with is Shen Gongbao in "Nezha 2: The Devil Child Conquers the Dragon King", the little pride of the family, a leftover from the fairy world, who did a lot of dirty work and in the end only accumulated a few elixirs.
It's so much like those workers who work hard for a year and then go home to honor their parents with gifts given by their company.
Even in the classic martial arts film "Tai Chi Master", young audiences gradually understand Tianbao, who still helps his brothers after he gets ashore and holds power.
However, the brother who grew up with him and shared life and death with him was determined to kill his brother for a few "anti-government armed elements" whom he had just met for a short time.
The question is, even if he killed Tianbao, would it change anything?
Nothing could be changed. He did not inherit the will of those "dead" and continue to oppose the court. Instead, he retired from worldly affairs and became a monk!
Of course, when the film was released in 93, there was no problem at all.
But if such movies are still made in the 21st century, the audience will inevitably question it.
The worst thing is that the ideas and story of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" are not as good as those of classic martial arts films such as "Tai Chi Master". As for the fighting scenes, they are not so dazzling against the backdrop of so many special effects blockbusters.
As a result, as soon as the film was released, it received equal amounts of negative and positive reviews, with those who criticized the film belittling it severely, while those who praised it praised it to the sky.
Of course, battle reports may lie, but battle lines will not.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny" grossed 5700 million on its first day of release in mainland China, which was obviously a flop.
In addition to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2", there is another film that is highly anticipated by the audience, that is "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back", jointly produced by Huayi and China Film Group, produced by Zhou Xingxing and directed by Xu Ke.
Zhou Xingxing's name is still very famous, and his relationship with Jiang Heng has always been very good.
But he has always been a person who puts friendship first and business second.
When Huayi Company came to him and expressed its desire to work together on a Journey to the West-style special effects blockbuster, Zhou Xingxing agreed without much thought.
Anyway, he is just the producer, and the real work is done by Xu.
Speaking of Xu Ke, he is a person that the film industry's investors both love and hate.
You may say he is not good enough, but he always manages to make classic movies that are both critically acclaimed and commercially successful.
But if you trust him too much, he might make a movie that fails both in terms of reputation and box office.
In view of this, China Film Group asked Stephen Chow to join as a double insurance.
With themes of Journey to the West, special effects blockbusters, and popular traffic stars, you can’t lose out no matter how you calculate it!
As for releasing it on the same day as Jiang Heng's film, they thought it wouldn't be a big problem.
The Chinese-language film market is becoming more and more prosperous at the moment, and it can accommodate several blockbusters to be released on the same day.
The box office performance of "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back" was also quite good, breaking the 3 million mark on the first day of its release, closing at million yuan. This outstanding result really shocked the entire film market. After all, in previous years, only Jiang Heng's special effects blockbusters could achieve such results.
Not only that, "The Monkey King 2" achieved such results while competing head-on with "The Legend of Wei: Reclamation of the Sea", which is really inspiring.
As for "The Legend of Wei", which won the single-day box office champion on the first day of the Lunar New Year, it took in million, once again breaking the single-day box office record in mainland film history.
In terms of word of mouth, it has received unanimous praise and has a Douban score of .
In fact, if we talk about the film's story and ideology, the score of "The Jingwei Filling the Sea" is definitely not that high.
The main reason is that Jiang Heng has starred in too few films, and it is rare to see a special effects blockbuster starring him, so the audience can't help but give it high scores.
With such a strong reputation, there will be no shortage of subsequent screenings. "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" has grossed over 400 million yuan per day for five consecutive days, breaking the 2 billion mark early on.
This is not the case with "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back", as its Douban score is only and its single-day box office continues to decline, with less than billion in five days.
As for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny", it has fallen to the bottom of the list, even worse than "Boonie Bears" and "Journey to India"!
However, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2" did not perform well in mainland China, and its performance in North America was even worse, with the box office on the first day less than US dollars.
It’s not that any media has announced its specific results.
However, this new Chinese martial arts film could not be found on the North American box office charts on Friday.
There are a total of 28 films on the list, and the film at the bottom of the list was released in 92 theaters and earned about $5000 at the box office.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2" is not on the list, which means that its box office on the first day was less than US dollars, or it only held a premiere in North America and was not released in theaters.
As for "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", because the first day of the Chinese New Year, February 2, is a Monday, there are relatively few audiences going to theaters here, so the film's release time is scheduled for Friday, the 8th.
"The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was released in 3358 theaters in North America and grossed $3910 million, which is lower than "Deadpool's" $4570, ranking second on Friday's list, but it is also normal.
After all, "Jingwei Filling the Sea" belongs to a traditional Chinese myth, and there is still some cultural barriers for North American audiences.
If it weren't for Jiang Heng's golden signboard over the years, it would be difficult to make over 20 million US dollars in a single day, not to mention compared with popular IPs like "Deadpool".
Even so, Jiang Heng was very satisfied. Filmmaking was not like the Olympic Games where he had to win a gold medal. As long as he could make a lot of money every time and not damage his reputation, it would be a victory for Jiang Heng.
Rankings and such are not very important.
However, with the continued popularity of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", Yang Mi's fame and status soared, press releases were flying all over the place, and she was even given the title of the number one female star in mainland China, even more popular than Zhang Ruolan's previous title of "10 billion box office queen".
After all, she is the queen of TV dramas and her popularity has always been extremely high. No other domestic actress dares to say that she is more popular than her in the field of TV dramas.
It’s just that the investment scale of the movies is limited, and it seems not to be big enough in the film industry.
As soon as "Jingwei Filling the Sea" was launched, this shortcoming was made up.
There have been amazing achievements in the fields of film and television dramas, and fashion resources have been instantly upgraded.
Even Estee Lauder, which had been in talks for a long time, immediately decided to invite Yang Mi to be its spokesperson. (End of this chapter)
