On September 17, "The Sun Also Rises", which returned from Venice, premiered. Probably stimulated by being snubbed in Venice, Jiang Wen tried to win back the city in the domestic market.

The material publicity that paved the ground plus the non-stop roadshow around the country, but unfortunately once it premiered, the audience's general response was a word - I don't understand!

Although Jiang Wen claimed during the promotion in Guangzhou: "In fact, there are many things in life, including life, that you can't understand, and if the movie can cause people to think, that's what I hope." It's great that the audience can have their own point of view of the film, and it's interesting to discuss between what they understand and what they don't. If a movie can be debated and discussed by people after watching it, it is the greatest success, and in my opinion, it has penetrated people's hearts. ”

At the same time, he also domineeringly declared: He has a lot of humorous ideas, like the kind of Chinese New Year comedy he can make ten a year. But he personally does not want to make purely funny films to entertain the public, but to pursue his own artistic quality pursuit.

Well, the dead duck is still hard-mouthed.

In the first three days of the weekend, although the media publicly reported that the box office of "The Sun" reached 6.8 million, only Yu Dong knew best in his heart that the actual box office was not even 4 million. For example, Shanghai, which is known as the big box office warehouse in China, has a box office of less than 500,000 in the first weekend of United Cinemas, which has not exceeded the overseas imported film "Lion's Mouth", which has been released for two weeks.

At the same time, "The Sun" has also caused a lot of controversy among the audience and critics, and there has almost been a discussion around understanding and not understanding.

Don't look at Yu Dong's repeated statements in an interview: The current controversy in the outside world, we think this will be of great help to the box office of "The Sun", because the film has gradually transformed from a simple movie release to a fashion topic, so more and more people will pay attention to it.

In fact, he knew very well in his heart, especially when he found out that the pirated copies had flowed out, and this time "The Sun" had issued a total of more than 600 copies, and the publicity funds invested were as high as tens of millions, and the loss was a foregone conclusion.

There is no way to do this, in the era of piracy, the release of movies pays special attention to the box office in the first week, in a sense, it is to compete with piracy. This is a very helpless and irreversible thing for the producer and distributor of the film, and the national situation is like this.

For example, the original time and space "Stone" only had a box office of more than 20 million, and Ning Hao was praised as a "ghost director" in the circle, and the third master supported it. The reason is that "Stone" is spread by word of mouth, and by the time the audience knows about this movie, piracy is already all over the streets. But even so, "Stone" can still win more than 20 million box office, which is not easy.

And in this time and space, because of He Xin's protagonist's aura and the large investment in early publicity, the audio-visual effect of the movie was strengthened by the original version, which made "Stone" win more than 90 million box office in one fell swoop.

"Brother Dong, why is your face so bad?"

He Xinyi couldn't help but be startled when he saw Yu Dong, compared with the radiant Yu Zong who was in Venice ten days ago, his chubby face was obviously thinner at this moment, his hair was messy, his eyes were sunken and bloodshot, and he looked like he was sleepless.

Yu Dong waved his hand and said expectantly: "Ah Xin, this time my brother is all up to you, and I expect your "Tale of Two Donkeys" to be an instant hit." ”

"Brother Dong, look at what you said, "The Tale of Two Donkeys" is our company movie, of course I hope it will be a hit at the box office!" He Xin said with a smile.

Yu Dong glanced at Xiao Douding and Brother Song who were sitting next to him and said, "So, we decided to fine-tune the previous publicity plan. ”

As he spoke, he took out two pieces of A4 paper and handed them over.

He Xin took it and glanced at it, first of all, Bona added two million publicity funds, which is a great thing for "The Story of Two Donkeys", but the next publicity roadshow arrangement, He Xin is not calm at first glance.

He suddenly shook his head like a rattle, and said in a loud voice: "Running twelve cities in half a month? No, no, I'm filming here, how can I have so much time? Besides, "The Story of Two Donkeys" is fundamentally a literary film, not a commercial film, and it is impossible to have a miracle like "Stone"!"

There is nothing wrong with He Xin's words, there is a natural gap between literary films and commercial films at the box office. Just like Jiang Wen's "The Sun Also Rises" two days ago, the box office performance was not good, a vice president of Shanghai United Cinema Line said in an interview with reporters: The ticket price is about the same, whether the audience chooses to watch the esoteric and difficult "Sun", or choose to watch simple, thrilling, and purely sensory overseas films, the result is obvious.

Although "The Tale of Two Donkeys" won the Grand Jury Prize in Venice, what about that? Last year, Chief Jia also won the Golden Lion Award, and his "The Good Man of the Three Gorges" was taken off the shelves after three days of its release in China, and the box office was almost negligible.

Of course, "The Good Man of the Three Gorges" has no luxurious scenes, no big-name stars, no gorgeous inscriptions, and some are just ruins, ordinary life and bland dialogue, and there is no publicity, so the result seems to be expected.

Even though "The Tale of Two Donkeys" is very hot now, Bona has to continuously invest in promotional resources, and the storyline in the film looks more interesting than ordinary dull literary films.

But literary films are literary films after all, and they can't change the reality of being relatively niche, and this is the case all over the world. Not to mention far away, let's just say Lou Ye's "Purple Butterfly" a few years ago, even if it was blessed by the popular Zhang Ziyi, Feng Yuanzheng and himself at the same time, the final box office was only 3 million.

Therefore, He Xin does not have high expectations for the box office of "The Story of Two Donkeys" in China, and it is already thankful that there can be a box office of more than 10 million, recover costs, and make net profits from overseas.

And now this plan is obviously to promote this literary film as a commercial film. Compared with the box office of "The Story of Two Donkeys", he is more worried about his schedule. He had been delayed for a week because of Cheng Hao's accidental injury before, and now he had to take another week because of the publicity, which completely disrupted his schedule.

"We didn't expect 'Two Donkeys' to replicate the miracle of 'Stone', but at least the box office numbers should look good, which is important for our company. Yu Dong spread his hand.

Yu Dong's meaning, He Xin somewhat understood. Since Bona completed the first round of financing, backed by a big boss like Poly, even if "Sun" loses money, it will not hurt much. However, Yu Dong attaches more importance to the outstanding performance, because this is related to whether Poly Bona can successfully land on the NASDAQ in the United States in the future.

It's no secret that PropNex is bent on seeking an overseas listing.

"And we have done market research, it is precisely because of the poor reviews of "The Sun" that the audience has high expectations for "The Tale of Two Donkeys", and we are still optimistic about the box office forecast of "The Tale of Two Donkeys", and it is necessary to strengthen the publicity offensive. So, brother, only hard work for you. ”

Yu Dong said that the outside world's evaluation of "The Sun" was not good, and he was inevitably depressed. As a former literary and artistic youth, he has a good look at Jiang Wen's new work from the beginning, although he had an ominous premonition in Venice before, but he still hopes to be able to make a comeback in China, after all, Jiang Wen has had successful examples before. But with the current dismal box office, he even thinks that the aesthetics of domestic audiences have suffered a serious decline. Swift Reading.com

Including the previous argument that he said that it was a good thing to talk about, and it could increase attention. But now it seems that the so-called praise comes from the self-congratulatory of the critics, and the audience is one-sided and incomprehensible and not good-looking.

Mr. Yu is right, "The Tale of Two Donkeys" still has a lot of potential to be tapped in the domestic market. Even if it is a literary film, "If Love" and "Riding Alone for a Thousand Miles" both got a box office of 30 million the year before last, and I think "The Story of Two Donkeys" is better than these two films. Xiao Douding also followed to help.

"That's what you think, what I want is what the audience thinks. ”

He Xin scolded her quietly, and at the same time glanced at Yu Dong. After all, Yu Dong also felt that Jiang Wen's "Sun" was too much better than "The Story of Two Donkeys".

He had always wondered that there were still people willing to invest in this film when a highly experimental literary film like "The Sun" cost as much as 60 million. Even if the director is Jiang Wen, this risk is too great.

Later, after listening to Yu Dong's disclosure, I learned the cause and effect, it turned out that the initial investment of "The Sun" was only 30 million, but after the investor Taihe invested 18 million, he found that the film was not filmed by one-third. In this case, of course, Taihe will not do it, and the remaining 12 million will not be invested. For this reason, "The Sun" also stopped filming for a while.

From "Sunny Days" to "The Devil is Coming", this is Jiang Wen's consistent urine as a director. Just like the classic rhetorical question when facing reporters' questions in the later "Let the Bullets Fly" stood after making money: "What is a budget?"

Of course, the reason why Jiang Wen is so awesome is that even if the first two works were overspent, he still earned money in the end.

But this time is different, this time the gap is too big, so big that I don't dare to bet. So in the end, it was Han Sanye who came forward and helped bring Yinghuang, who wanted to come to the mainland to develop.

Yinghuang is very on the road and invested 22 million generously. also added the dragon prince Fang Zuming, who is currently being praised by Yinghuang, in the film. But even so, there is still not enough money. In the end, Jiang Wen and Zhou Yun took out 11 million by themselves, plus 10 million equivalent to the salary of the two of them, and pasted it in, which completed the movie.

This is not counting the more than 10 million publicity expenses and 600 copies invested by Poly Bona. If you want to rely on the domestic box office alone to recover the investment, at least it will cost nearly 200 million at the box office.

Now don't talk about 200 million, even 20 million is hanging.

At this time, in the face of Donghe Xiaodouding's eager gaze, He Xin could only nod and say: "Okay, I agree with this publicity plan, but I said ugly things ahead, in case the box office of "The Story of Two Donkeys" is not good in the first week, there is no need for us to continue, or follow the original path." ”

"You kid, the movie hasn't been released yet, so you're so unconfident!" Yu Dong finally breathed a sigh of relief, slapped him hard, and said with a smile.

To be honest, the domestic film market is too impermanent. He was full of confidence in "Stone" before, that is, "Stone" was a success in the original plane.

He had never even heard of "The Story of Two Donkeys" in his previous life, and he simply liked this story before investing in filming. Although he has won the Grand Jury Prize in Venice, he really doesn't have much confidence in the domestic box office.

is like the main theme blockbusters of "Wolf Warrior 2" and "Operation Red Sea" in later generations, with a box office of 3 billion or 5 billion at every turn. It's the turn of Big Black Bull's "Sky Hunting", with the help of Fan Xiaopang and Wu Xiubo, as well as the blessing of Wang Qianyuan of the acting school, plus the theme of air combat attracts the audience's attention even more.

The results are ......

So, the uncertainty is too great. Let He Xin really dare not have too high expectations for his unknown situation.

And don't look at the fact that he is now filming "Ten Thousand Arrows Through the Heart" and "Love Has an Afterlife", the former is simply to praise his girlfriend;

After all, everyone has a love for beauty, and throughout the ages, there is a legend that the beauty of the beacon fire drama is indispensable, and the king is not early in the dynasty.

In fact, what he is most concerned about now is "The Wind", which Uncle Gao Qun is currently tinkering with. This is the real blockbuster in his mind.

So, after talking about business, he said to Yu Dong: "By the way, Brother Dong, I made an appointment with Lao Gao in the evening." The first draft of his script has come out, let's get together!"

"Well, I can't spare time tonight. But there is one thing you can rest assured, your Dong Ge's words are spittled one by one, and they are guaranteed to count! Hey, do you roughly estimate what the future investment of this film will be?"

"How do I know this now, I can't measure it until the final script is decided. However, I don't think the investment will be smaller than that of "The Ballad of Yunshui". ”

He Xin's memory in his last life only knows that the final box office of "The Wind" reached more than 200 million, but he has no impression of the specific investment at all, and he can only have a preliminary judgment through the memories of the original scenes, including the cast, combined with the current understanding of the movie he has.

You must know that "The Ballad of Yunshui" really cost nearly 35 million investment.

"Hey, you kid is making it so big this time?"

Sure enough, Yu Dong couldn't help but be taken aback when he heard this, and at the same time subconsciously said: "Is it reliable for you to hand over such a big project to Lao Gao?"

Don't look at Lao Gao winning the Huabiao Award for Outstanding Director, the box office of "Tokyo Trial" of nearly 30 million looks good. But in the eyes of insiders, in fact, even though Lao Gao has thrown off the label of "the one who shoots documentaries", he is still just a TV series director. Yu Dong was a little worried in his heart.

"It's okay with Lao Gao. ”

He Xin didn't have any lack of confidence in "The Story of Two Donkeys" at this time, and he was extremely confident, just like when he supported Lao Gao's "Conquest" and Ning Hao's "Stone".