Chapter 616 Refreshing the Record

In the 2016 Spring Festival, in addition to Jiang Heng's "Jingwei Filling the Sea", there is also "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny" co-produced by Weinstein International Film Company and China Film and directed by Yuan Heping.

It was very popular when the film was promoted, after all, the previous film won an Oscar, which indirectly led to the birth of the movie "Hero".

Speaking of which, Jiang Heng also participated in the investment of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", but the copyright was not in his hands, so the sequel had nothing to do with him.

In fact, even if it was related, he would not participate in it.

How to say it, martial arts themes are really outdated in the era of modern industrial civilization!

The audience can empathize with Shen Gongbao in "Nezha 2: The Devil Boy Conquers the Dragon King", the little pride of the family, the scraps of the fairy world, did a lot of dirty work, and finally saved a few elixirs.

It's too much like those workers who work hard for a year and take the gifts issued by the company back home to honor their parents.

Even in the classic martial arts film "Tai Chi Master", young audiences gradually understand Tianbao. After landing, he still wants to help his brother even though he is in power.

But the brother who grew up with him must kill his brother for a few "anti-government armed elements" who have just met for a short time.

The problem is, even if he kills Tianbao, can it change anything?

Nothing can be changed. He did not inherit the will of those "dead" and continue to oppose the court, but became a monk without caring about worldly affairs!

Of course, when the film was released in 1993, there was no problem at all.

But in the 21st century, if such a movie is still made, the audience will inevitably question it.

The worst thing is that the ideas and story of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny" are not as good as those of classic martial arts such as "Tai Chi Master". The fighting scenes are not so dazzling under the background of so many special effects blockbusters.

As a result, once the film was released, negative and positive reviews were evenly matched. Those who criticized the film belittled it, while those who praised it praised it to the sky.

Of course, battle reports can lie, but battle lines cannot.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny" closed at 57 million yuan 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: Conquering the Demons 2", jointly produced by Huayi and China Film, supervised by Zhou Xingxing, and directed by Xu Ke.

Zhou Xingxing's name is still very loud, and his relationship with Jiang Heng has always been very good.

However, he has always been a person who puts friendship first and business first.

When Huayi Company came to him and expressed its desire to make a special effects blockbuster of the Journey to the West together, Zhou Xingxing agreed without much thought.

Anyway, he is just a producer, and the real work is done by Xu Ke.

Speaking of Xu Ke, this person really makes the capital in the film industry love and hate him.

You can say he is not good, but he can always make classic movies that are both well-received and popular.

But if you trust him too much, he might make a movie that is both popular and bad at the box office.

In view of this, China Film asked Zhou Xingxing to join, which is a double insurance.

The theme of Journey to the West, special effects blockbuster, plus the popular traffic star, no matter how you calculate it, it will not be a loss!

As for the release on the same day as Jiang Heng's film, they think it is not a big problem.

At this moment, the Chinese-language film market is becoming more and more prosperous, and it can accommodate several blockbusters to be released on the same day.

The box office performance of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is also not bad. The box office on the first day of release exceeded 300 million yuan and closed at 316 million yuan.

This excellent 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, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" achieved such results in a head-on confrontation with "Jingwei Filling the Sea", which is really inspiring.

As for "Jingwei Reclamation", which won the single-day box office champion on the first day of the Lunar New Year, it won 479 million, once again breaking the single-day box office record in the history of mainland movies.

In terms of word of mouth, it also received unanimous praise, with a Douban score of 8.9.

In fact, if we talk about the story and ideology of the film, the score of "Jingwei Reclamation" is definitely not so 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 will involuntarily give high scores.

With a burst of word of mouth, there will be no shortage of subsequent screenings. "Jingwei Reclamation" has a single-day box office of more than 400 million for five consecutive days, breaking the 2 billion mark early.

"Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is not the case, because Douban's score is only 5.7, and the single-day box office continues to decline. After five days, it is less than 1 billion.

As for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Azure Destiny", it has fallen to the bottom, even "Boonie Bears" and "Journey to India" are not as good as it!

However, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2 is not good in China, and its performance in North America is even worse, with a box office of less than 5,000 US dollars on the first day.

Not to mention that the media has announced its specific results.

However, this new Chinese martial arts film cannot be found in the North American box office list on Friday.

The list includes a total of 28 films, and the film at the bottom of the list was released in 92 theaters and received a box office of about 5,000 US dollars.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2" is not on the list, which means that its box office on the first day was less than 5,000 US dollars, or it only held a premiere in North America and was not released in theaters.

As for "Jingwei Filling the Sea", because the first day of the Chinese New Year, February 8, is a Monday, there are relatively few audiences here going to theaters, and the film's release time was scheduled on Friday, the 12th.

"Jingwei Filling the Sea" was released in 3,358 theaters in North America, earning $39.1 million at the box office, which is lower than the $4,570 of "Deadpool". It ranks second on Friday's list, but it is also normal.

After all, "Jingwei Filling the Sea" belongs to traditional Chinese mythology, and North American audiences still have some cultural barriers.

If it weren't for Jiang Heng's golden signboard for many years, it would be difficult to make more than 20 million US dollars in a single day, not to mention compared with popular IPs like "Deadpool".

Even so, Jiang Heng is very satisfied. Filming is not an Olympic competition. You must win a gold medal. As long as you can make a lot of money every time and don't damage your reputation, it is a victory for Jiang Heng.

Rankings are not very important.

However, with the continued popularity of "Jingwei Filling the Sea", Yang Mi's fame and status have soared, and press releases are flying everywhere. She has the title of the first female star in the mainland, which is more popular than Zhang Ruolan's previous "10 billion box office queen".

After all, she is the queen of TV dramas, and her popularity has always been extremely high. No other female stars in China dare to say that they are more popular than her in the field of TV dramas.

It’s just that the investment scale of the movies she made is limited, and she is not a big enough star in the film field.

As soon as "Jingwei Filling the Sea" was launched, it made up for this shortcoming.

She has achieved amazing results in the fields of movies and TV dramas, and her fashion resources have been upgraded instantly.

Even Estee Lauder, which had been in talks for a long time before, instantly decided to invite Yang Mi to be the spokesperson. (End of this chapter)