Chapter 845: The Savior of Hong Kong Movies (Part 1)
…
Whether in the previous life or in this life, 1992 was the pinnacle of Hong Kong films.
Needless to say, in the last life, in 1992 in the last life, there were three Hong Kong films with a domestic box office of over 40 million (two Hong Kong films with a local box office of nearly 50 million), and twelve Hong Kong films with a local box office of over 30 million. Ten million, moreover, Xiangjiang has newly established "Tianmu" by Andy Lau, "Zhengdong" by Li Lianjie and Cui Baozhu, "Zedong" by Wang Jiawei and Liu Zhenwei, "Infinity Films" by Er Dongsheng and Chen Wanghua, Chen Kexin, Zeng Zhiwei , Zhong Zhen's "UFO", Zhou Xingchi's "Star Color" and a large number of film companies.
In this world, in 1992, Hong Kong films were even more popular - not only "Spiderman 2", "Blade Warrior 2", "Double Dragon" and the disaster relief movie, these four hard films had a box office of over 50 million in Hong Kong's local area ( The domestic box office of "Spiderman 2" and disaster relief movies is even close to 60 million), driven by such a general trend, even Shao Yifu and Zhou Xingchi's "Death Judge" and New Art City's "Happy Family" have also surpassed The box office of six Hong Kong films exceeded 50 million, and the overseas box office of these six Hong Kong films was all hundreds of millions. The box office of "Spiderman 2" and "Blade Warrior 2" was even higher. It is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, making Hong Kong films reach unprecedented glory!
However--
Just when everyone was looking forward to what kind of heights Hong Kong films will reach, a scene that stunned all filmmakers appeared.
The Lunar New Year stalls in early 1993.
"Happy Events in the Flower Field", which gathered big names such as Zhang Guorong, Xu Guanjie, Guan Zhilin, Wu Mengda, Huang Baiming, etc., only won a local box office of 35 million Hong Kong dollars.
Infinity Pictures' "New Love", Cheng Long's "City Hunter", and Li Lianjie's "Fang Shiyu" barely passed the 30 million mark.
After that, it was bleak, even Li Lianjie's "Huang Feihong 3 Lion King Fights Hegemony" and Zhou Xingchi's "Fight Back to School: Dragon's Year of the Rooster" and the collection of Zhang Guorong, Lin Qingxia, Liang Chaowei, Liu Jialing, Zhong Zhentao, Zhang Xueyou , Wang Zuxian, Liang Jiahui, Zhang Manyu and other big names "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: East and West" can only pass 20 million.
The most pitiful thing is that "New Meteor Butterfly Sword", which cost 30 million yuan with Liang Chaowei, Yang Ziqiong, Zhen Zidan, and Wang Zuxian, only won more than 9 million local box office, which is different from "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: Dong Cheng". "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: East Evil and West Poison" by the original crew of "Xijiu" took more than half a year to shoot, costing more than 30 million yuan, but only the beginning was filmed, and the release is nowhere in sight!
In addition, in 1992, more than 200 Hong Kong films were distributed in Taiwan, setting a historical record. What makes Taiwanese businessmen even more angry is that the remuneration of Hong Kong stars has risen again and again, almost to the limit, and there are more than 250 Taiwanese-funded Hong Kong films in Hong Kong's film companies that have not been delivered as scheduled.
Based on this, Taiwan said with reassurance that if the remuneration of Xiangjiang stars is not curbed, and the unfinished Taiwan-funded Hong Kong films are not delivered as soon as possible, Taiwan will no longer introduce Hong Kong films.
Furthermore, the British Hong Kong government has set a policy of "completely abolishing entertainment tax" and it will be implemented soon—in other words, the British Hong Kong government has paved the way for Hollywood blockbusters to enter Hong Kong.
In the last life, that is, from this time, Hollywood blockbusters began to invade on a large scale.
Relying on the large-scale advertisements and special effects that cost millions at every turn, Hollywood movies have successfully reversed the dislike of Hong Kong people towards Hollywood movies in a very short period of time.
Wait until a series of Hollywood blockbusters such as "Jurassic Park" and "Titanic" achieved sensational success in Hong Kong, which completely defeated the last stubborn resistance of local films in Hong Kong, and made the audience fully aware of Hong Kong films and Hollywood blockbusters. In the end, Hollywood blockbusters successfully kicked Hong Kong films, their rivals in Asia for half a century, into the dustbin of history, and there was no room for turning around.
To paraphrase the famous screenwriter Wenxiu (Shu Qi's godfather) once said a sentence summarizing the decline of Xiangjiang films:
"...In the past few years, in time for the reunification, the immigrants left a group of real people, leaving behind a lot of short-sighted and popular movies. Later, the capital chain was suddenly broken, and the We have to face the competition from foreign films and the joint price reduction of Taiwanese people. After the tossing is over, others are tossing. It was also attracted by Hollywood movies. In the end, even the local theaters were reluctant to show Hong Kong movies and rushed to show Hollywood movies. Making movies is getting harder and harder to make money. Everyone thinks it is a fool to continue this money-losing business. So the rest of them all flocked to retire for the elderly, and the few who entered the mainland were considered good. When Hong Kong films were allowed to go northward, those who had been cool for a few years and had no money wanted to come back and continue to make movies to make money. However, at this time, they not only have to face the threshold, but also face the competition from mainland counterparts and foreign films, and then everyone finds out that they can’t make movies after a few years of shortage, and Xiangjiang movies are over..."
In this life, Xu Cun also used his own way to shoot "Jurassic Park" and the Marvel Universe series of movies, and opened the 3D era before Hollywood, Hollywood movies want to enter Xiangjiang and occupy Xiangjiang movies market, it is impossible.
However--
These cannot conceal some serious problems currently facing the Xiangjiang film market.
At present, the remuneration of the stars in Xiangjiang is indeed extremely high, and it is still rising-the remuneration of Zhou Runfa, Zhou Xingchi, Cheng Long and other top male stars in Xiangjiang have all exceeded tens of millions, Li Lianjie, Xu Guanwen, Andy Lau and other prospective The salary of the top male star is about 8 million, and the salary of Zhang Guorong, Hong Jinbao, Liang Jiahui and other male stars is about 5 million...
Just invite one or two of these stars, and the production cost of the movie will be frighteningly high.
In order to reduce some production costs, the producers can only choose rough production.
In this way, a subsexual cycle is formed.
If things go on like this, those non-DreamWorks Hong Kong films will, in all likelihood, be kicked out of the Taiwanese film market by Hollywood films just like in the previous life, and then lose the passion for making films because they don’t make money, and then quit for retirement. Even if it does not go into decline like the previous life, it will be difficult to develop-after all, talent is the foundation of film development.
Therefore, if Hong Kong does not want to lose a large number of film talents, someone must stand up and become the savior of Hong Kong films at this time.
...