Chapter 310 The Popular and Controversial "Red Cliff"!

"Hey, Wu Yusen is worthy of it. The box office has exceeded 100 million in four days."

Li Xiaoping sighed and said with some disappointment: "As soon as "Red Cliff" was released, our "Gravity" screening was reduced by nearly half. In the past few days, the number of screenings in the country has dropped to about 42%."

"The daily box office of "Gravity" has also dropped to more than 20 million, which is still affected by the release of "Red Cliff."

Now the total number of seats in theaters across the country is added up, and theoretically, the highest box office performance of more than 200 million per day can be achieved.

Of course, this is a theoretical result, which requires all the screenings in all cinemas across the country to be full in one day.

In fact, the total attendance rate of all the screenings in one day is only about 30%. After all, there are not many people in the cinema in the morning, noon, and afternoon on weekdays. Only the golden sessions in the evening and evening can have a 90% attendance rate.

So, in fact, the current daily box office plate of China is only about 50 to 60 million.

"Red Cliff" eats more, and "Gravity" eats less.

As for the other films released at the same time, they were all art films that followed the policy, and the box office was only a few hundred thousand a day, which was not much in total.

The big battleground was still on the two films "Gravity" and "Red Cliff".

Before "Red Cliff" was released, the daily box office of "Gravity" was about 40 million, otherwise it would not be possible to break 500 million in 12 days.

When "Gravity" was released, this result immediately dropped by half, and the daily box office was only 20 million.

The newly released "Red Cliff" came with great momentum, with a 48% screening rate, and the box office exceeded 100 million in four days.

In Li Xiaoping's opinion, although this result is not as good as "Gravity", it is also eye-catching enough, and it is half a day ahead of "The Warlords" which broke the 100 million box office in four and a half days last year.

Moreover, the box office of "The Warlords" exceeded 100 million, which is the total box office of the mainland and Hong Kong Island, while "Red Cliff" only counts the box office results of the mainland.

Overall, the premiere results of "Red Cliff" are still very gratifying.

However, in the eyes of Wu Yuan, who knew the inside story, the release of "Red Cliff" has been frustrated.

In his dream, the box office of "Red Cliff" in four days was 120 million, 20 million more than now!

Don't underestimate these 20 million, this is 20% of 100 million!

"Don't worry, let the bullets fly for a while." Wu Yuan was not nervous at all, and said calmly: "The recent discussion of "Red Cliff" is not small, and it is hard to say whether the box office can be maintained in the future."

Wu Yuan once saw a joke on the Internet.

It is said that when Wu Baige wanted to make this movie, the screenwriter he wanted to find at first was Lu Wei, the screenwriter of "Farewell My Concubine".

According to Lu Wei's recollection, he asked John Woo at that time, what was the core theme of this Battle of Red Cliff?

Wu Baige said: Peace.

Lu Wei asked again, which character did he want to focus on.

Wu Baige said: Xiao Qiao.

Lu Wei asked again why?

Wu Baige: Lin Chiling is very beautiful.

Then Lu Wei parted ways with him and refused to touch the film "Red Cliff".

Whether this story is true or not is not the point, but Wu Baige's idea of ​​expressing "peace" in "Red Cliff" is indeed true.

Then the question is, what good Red Cliff Battle can be filmed with this kind of thought as a guide?

Wu Yuan sometimes doubts whether these Hong Kong directors have not read history.

In the current film industry, the ability of Hong Kong directors to make commercial films is indeed the best in the Chinese-speaking world.

But the premise is not to touch historical themes.

Wu Baige, the director, had an undoubted weight in the history of Hong Kong action films, but he was good at simple and straightforward love stories between men and women and stories of brotherhood.

He was proud of "A Better Tomorrow", "Across the World" and "A Better Tomorrow", the former two of which actually told stories of brotherhood and love, while the latter promoted his violent aesthetics.

Including "Mission Impossible 2", the whole story line is straight, the fighting scenes are slow motion, flying pigeons, double guns shooting, these are all things Wu Baige is used to playing.

This is Wu Baige's advantage, but "Red Cliff" is where he shows his shortcomings.

He is not good at grand narratives, nor is he good at leaving blanks.

A war film, instead of shooting grand and cruel war scenes, wants to put everything in it.

The feelings between men and men, the feelings between women and women, the feelings between men and women, the history of the country, the emperor and the people must be told.

As a result, nothing is told well.

In a sense, Wu Baige is very powerful.

He managed to turn a thrilling battle with a gathering of heroes into a love story in the rain.

The most impressive thing in the whole film is the sentence "Mengmeng, stand up!"

If there were no other blockbusters to choose from at the same time, then everyone would pinch their noses and go to the cinema to watch it for the 300 million yuan investment.

But there is another movie called Gravity showing at the same time.

If the reputation of Red Cliff is just average, will people still go to the cinema to watch this movie with an indifferent attitude?

Wu Yuan took out his laptop and found the newly opened Red Cliff movie review page on Douban.

"Look."

He motioned Li Xiaoping to take a look at the online reviews.

"It's so bad! It's a joke on everyone's life. It's just a story of Lin Chiling's dog-licking! Cao Cao is written like a prostitute... It also wastes a lot of good actors. It's just a bad movie that relies on their popularity to cheat the box office..." - Douban user: Xiaojinhua

"The hero has become a gangster boss, the counselor has become a chivalrous knight, and the fierce general has become a reckless man. As a result, the power struggle and heroic deeds have disappeared. The director presented his personal understanding of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, not the Romance of the Three Kingdoms understood by the public." - Douban user: Tudou123

"The grand scene is matched with an extremely small pattern. It's easy to imagine a war movie, but it's so petty. I don't see heroism, but only love." - Douban user: Wulikanhua

"I went to the cinema with the intention of seeing an epic masterpiece, but I only saw a group of people in the underworld performing chivalry and enmity." - Douban user: I love Yitiaochai

"The theme is ridiculous, The plot is absurd, the characters are absurd, and Xiao Qiao is a disaster. From the image to the action to the lines, it is extremely artificial. One has to wonder how Lin Chiling got into the group." - Douban user: 18 years old is youth

"Wu Baige basically filmed Red Cliff from a Western perspective, and it was completely filmed for foreigners to watch. The knight-like generals, the Joan of Arc-like duel, the navy completely defeated the villain who relied on the cavalry to resist, and finally the power of justice humiliated the powerful enemy.

This is easy to understand for Westerners, but for Orientals, what is this film?" - Douban user: Tony Jia

"In a word: small families can't grow towering trees. Hong Kong directors should just shoot some police and gangster films. I shouldn't have any expectations for an epic blockbuster shot by a Hong Kong director. I might as well go and watch Gravity again!" - Douban user: A drop in the ocean

Li Xiaoping was a little surprised after quickly scanning the highly praised comments in the comment area of ​​Red Cliff.

Unlike the excellent box office performance of "Red Cliff", the post-viewing reviews and word of mouth of "Red Cliff" are not just bad!

"Is the word of mouth so bad?" She said in surprise: "Then why is the box office so good?"

Wu Yuan spread his hands: "Only young people will use Douban, and even fewer people will post movie reviews on Douban, which is estimated to account for only about 5% of the number of moviegoers."

"Most people who watch movies now don't pay attention to Douban. They see the overwhelming publicity of this movie and the dazzling cast of leading actors, so of course they are tempted to go to the cinema to watch it."

"However, I believe that these negative reviews will soon ferment to the point where everyone knows it."

"At that time, the market will give a correct feedback."

It has to be admitted that mainland movie fans now still pay attention to the movie cast.

Liang Chaowei, Chow Yun-fat, Jin Chengwu, Lin Zhilin, these actors are hung on the posters, which can still attract mainland movie fans to go to the cinema to watch "Red Cliff".

Since "Hero", mainland movies have entered the era of superstar blockbusters. As long as it is a blockbuster, it must have superstars.

Do you think investors are willing to spend half of the total investment to invite these big-name superstar actors?

Isn't it because movie fans nowadays look at the cast first when watching a movie. The more famous the cast is, the more people will watch the movie.

So far, only "Your Name" and "Assembly" have broken this convention.

"Gravity" has Gong Li, the first actress in the mainland, as the mainstay.

It is normal for "Red Cliff" to achieve a dazzling box office in the first weekend with its superstar cast, and no one can stop it.

But whether the subsequent box office trend of this movie can be like the original trajectory, and it can still advance in the midst of criticism, is uncertain.

Just as Wu Yuan and Li Xiaoping were watching the online reviews of "Red Cliff", a few blocks away from them, Wu Baige and his team were also paying attention to the online comments of "Red Cliff".

Unlike Wu Yuan, who was laughing and talking with a few hints of sarcasm, Wu Baige was in a dark and low-pressure mood.

Wu Baige was actually very ambitious. He even looked down on Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, thinking that it was not such a good novel. Luo Guanzhong made Cao Cao too stupid and gave all the glory to Zhuge Liang.

He wanted to make a Three Kingdoms in his mind, which was more reasonable and exciting than the original, and wanted to reshape the public's impression of the heroes of the Three Kingdoms.

Then, the classic "Catch and Release Cao" was changed by him to have nothing to do with Guan Yu, and it was Zhou Yu who caught and released him.

It can only be said that Wu Baige felt that he understood Romance of the Three Kingdoms better than CCTV, and wanted to make the national audience understand him.

The idea was beautiful, but the reality was very skinny.

Looking at the various criticisms and puzzled voices on the computer screen with a gloomy face, Wu Baige snorted coldly, breaking the low atmosphere in the conference room.

"This audience is no good. They don't understand my ideas at all!"

"It's just like playing the lute to a cow. It's a waste of my sincerity!"

"Have you collected the comments from foreign audiences? What do they think?" (End of this chapter)