Hundreds of celebrities participated in the disaster relief film "The Night Banquet of the Wealthy", which is undoubtedly a prosperous era in the Hong Kong film industry. At the same time, there were three other major events.

First, the Jiang family's Anle Cinema Line, which has been operating for 30 years, officially joined and merged into Kang Jianfei's Oriental Cinema Line; the second is that Pan Disheng sold Debao Cinema Line to real estate developer Luo Jiecheng and renamed it Yonggao Cinema Line; The third is that Huang Baiming had a falling out with the Golden Princess Cinema, and instead cooperated with Luo Jiecheng, and Vientiane Pictures was renamed Yonggao Film Company.

For Hong Kong filmmakers, Roger is a complete newcomer, just like Pan Dickson at the beginning, who suddenly stepped into the film industry with a big spend. This gentleman used to be in the industry, opened a factory in the mainland, and made a lot of money investing in the real estate industry in recent years. Seeing that the prosperity of Hong Kong films was getting ahead, it happened that Pan Disheng was selling Debao Cinemas again, and Roger, who was not short of money, waved a check and bought Debao Cinemas.

However, it is not possible to have a cinema without a film source, and today's Hong Kong film industry is no longer the era when cinemas were king 10 years ago. Due to the overabundance of cinemas, Hong Kong cinemas are flooded with palm-sized cinemas, and there are only so many movies made every year, so now it is the cinema chain that rushes to buy good movies, and independent film companies and blockbuster directors have in turn become the targets of cinema managers.

So Luo Jiecheng found his friend Huang Baiming, and it happened that Huang Baiming and Princess Jin also cooperated unhappily, so there was Yonggao Film Company and Yonggao Cinemas.

"The Night Banquet of the Wealthy", a disaster relief movie, and several other major theaters have symbolically taken out a few screenings, because the score is too low, only Yonggao Cinema is the most active, and "The Night Banquet of the Wealthy" is screened as the opening film.

Today, Hong Kong's cinema chain is the largest in scale, with 26 cinemas and 82 screening halls; Golden Harvest Cinema Line is second. It has 21 cinemas and 66 screening halls; Xinbao Cinemas is the third with 16 theaters. 52 screening halls; Yonggao Cinema Line is the fourth, with 15 theaters. 50 screening halls; The Golden Princess Cinema chain has been shrinking in size, and now there are only 11 theaters and 32 screening halls.

In addition to these five large cinema chains, neither the leftist Yindu Cinema Line nor the newly restored Shaw Brothers Cinema Line have more than 10 theaters.

Counting those scattered small cinemas in Hong Kong, the number of cinemas has exceeded 160, and the density is almost explosive. used to have a theater in his hand as an uncle, but now they have all become grandsons. The owner of the film company who can make a good movie is the ancestor.

Of course, Kang Jianfei and Zou Wenhuai will always be the masters, because they have their own company to provide rich film sources, and there will be no embarrassing situation where there are no films to play.

The real tragedy is Xinbao, Golden Princess, Yonggao Cinema Line, although they also invest in and support film companies, but the production volume of those film companies is far from meeting the demand.

In this situation, these theater companies have lowered their requirements for the quality of film releases, and when there is a shortage of film sources, all the bullshit movies made by cats and dogs can be screened, and they do not charge any deposit and bottom fee. This has further stimulated many film company owners and directors. Anyway, they don't have to worry that the movie can't be released, they often finish a movie in a week or two, and continue to make bad movies after making money from screening.

There are still many people of insight in the Hong Kong film industry. have called for reducing the number of theaters and improving the overall level of Hong Kong films. But no one wants to listen to this kind of call, but it turns out that more and more people see that it is profitable and join the ranks of building theaters and shooting bad movies.

In another time and place, this trend continued until 1993, when the number of cinemas in Hong Kong peaked at 190.

This situation makes the Hong Kong film market seem more prosperous, and even second-tier actors have continuous film appointments and can't start work, which has caused actors' salaries to rise rocketing. The increase in actors' salaries has led to an increase in the cost of films, and the producers have passed on the costs. First, it is more shoddy; The second is to continuously increase the cost of purchasing films in overseas markets.

This behavior of Hong Kong producers offends two types of people, one is the movie-watching audience. After all, no one wants to spend money to go to the theater to watch bad movies; Second, it offended overseas film companies, and the high cost of purchasing films made it difficult for film manufacturers to make money.

When Taiwanese studios united to boycott Hong Kong films. After asking him to control the cost and reduce the actor's salary to no avail, Hong Kong films began to tragedy.

For a big director like Kang Jianfei, or a big star like Cheng Long and Zhou Runfa, there is no problem at all for movies to be sold to Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. But for most small film companies, Taiwan is the biggest overseas market. When Taiwanese film companies began to boycott Hong Kong films, countless film companies instantly had no way out, and almost lost one film, because the local box office in Hong Kong simply couldn't afford the high production costs, and countless Hong Kong film companies that collapsed in those two years.

The chain reaction was terrifying, and as small and medium-sized film companies closed down one after another, a large number of cinemas in Hong Kong had no films to show and had to close their doors. As a result, in just one year, the number of 190 cinemas in Hong Kong has plummeted to only 106.

Hong Kong films have been in decline since then!

This is another time and space in 1994.

In hindsight, I can't figure out whose fault it is, because at that time, the entire Hong Kong film industry fell into a strange circle: Hong Kong films sold well to make money - so a large amount of hot money poured into the film industry - resulting in a crazy increase in the number of films - so the number of movie theaters also increased - and then led to an increase in the demand for film sources - and then a large number of bad films were born, In addition, actors' salaries have skyrocketed -- the cost of film production for directors has remained high -- the cost of overseas film purchases has increased year by year -- finally overseas film companies have been unable to buy films -- a large number of film companies have lost overseas markets -- the production of Hong Kong films has plummeted -- nearly half of the movie theaters have closed their doors -- funds have withdrawn from the film circle -- film practitioners have dropped sharply -- Hong Kong films are in decline.

In this whole process, investors, producers, directors, actors, local theater dealers, and overseas filmmakers are all just profit-seeking, who doesn't want to make money if they have money? But it is everyone's profit-seeking behavior that adds up to the collapse of the prosperous Hong Kong film market.

The simplest and rude solution is to forcibly suppress the salary of Hong Kong actors from rising, because when Hong Kong films develop to the point of deformity, most of the cost of a movie is actually the actor's salary, and you can imagine how ridiculously high the labor is.

Cheng Long received a salary of 10 million a few years ago, and now his minimum salary for each movie is 8 million; Zhou Xingchi and Liang Jiahui are also about 8 million; Zhou Yanfa, Xu Guanwen, and Li Lianjie are more than 5 million; Zhang Guorong and Hong Jinbao 4 million. Liu Dehua and Liang Chaowei 2 million ......

Just two or three years ago, an investment of 50 million yuan in a movie was a super blockbuster, and now the salary of a single actor is millions. This can't be blamed on the director's shoddy production. can't persuade celebrities to reduce their salaries, so they can only reduce costs by sacrificing the quality of the film.

And the most terrifying thing is. The salaries of Hong Kong actors are still rising, and if this trend continues, the salaries of Chow Xingchi and Leung Ka-fai may exceed the 10 million mark next year.

At The Peninsula Hotel, in a rented conference room, Hong Kong directors are discussing actors' pay.

Wu Siyuan said: "Now many directors are complaining, saying that actors' salaries can't stand the rise. A few years ago, it was possible to make a film with a small cost of 5 million, but now 5 million is not enough to pay all the actors' salaries. ”

Hong Jinbao said: "What can be done about this? Now the Hong Kong film market is getting hotter and hotter. You can't just ask the producers and movie theaters to make money, the actors are just watching, right? ”

Huang Baiming said: "The problem is that the salary has risen too outrageously, in the past, when you made a movie, you could make money by relying on the box office in your own city, but now you have to make money at the overseas box office." ”

At this moment, there is an extraordinary meeting of the Hong Kong Directors Guild, and all the directors present are present.

Cheng Long sat next to him and didn't say a word, his identity is very embarrassing, he is not only a film director, but also the highest-paid actor in Hong Kong, and he is not a person inside and out.

Xu Ke continued: "It is impossible to suppress the actor's salary. Whoever speaks offends people. ”

Wu Yusen said: "There is no point in discussing this matter, the foreign market of Hong Kong films is enough to ensure the profitability of the film, and this is enough." ”

Zhang Tongzu asked: "What if you lose the overseas market one day?" ”

There is a feud between Gao Zhisen and Zhang Tongzu. He scoffed, "How is that possible? ”

Zhang Tongzu didn't bother to talk to Gao Zhisen more, and snorted coldly: "Short-sighted! ”

Zhang Jianting said: "The focus of our discussion today does not seem to be the issue of actors' salaries. ”

Cen Jianxun said with a smile: "Yes, I invite you to come today, mainly to talk about the filming of the film to raise funds for the Directors Guild to build a building." ”

Lin Lingdong said: "The story has been created by Xu Ke, Zhang Tongzu and Huang Bingyao, and it is a script tailored for Cheng Long, and Xu Ke and I are the directors. ”

Teddy Robin said: "The heroine has not yet been decided, but the other actors are all cameos from the directors here. Let's distribute the script to everyone and discuss the selection of their own characters. ”

Zhang Aijia smiled: "Why don't we female directors wrap up the heroine's scene?" ”

Zhang Wanting and Xu Anhua waved their hands one after another. They're not good at acting.

Everyone laughed and finished reading the script, Wu Siyuan asked Kang Jianfei, who had not spoken much: "Mr. Kang." Which role are you interested in? ”

Kang Jianfei flipped through the script and said, "I'll play the hotel manager." ”

Kang Jianfei is now Hong Kong's leading director, and there is nothing to grab for this kind of cameo. Wu Siyuan looked at the audience and no one objected. He said: "That's it, Mr. Kang plays the hotel manager." ”

Chen You raised his hand and joked: "Then I will play Mr. Kang's subordinate, the hotel staff." ”

Liu Jialiang said: "I play a doctor who knows kung fu, which is what I said when I wrote the script. ”

Wang Jing said: "I play a qigong master." ”

Liu Jialiang and Wang Jing both participated in the script creation, and these two roles were tailor-made for themselves.

The directors quickly divided the roles, and Kang Jianfei's role as the hotel manager was no more or less, there were about four or five scenes, and the lines were only a few sentences. Like Xu Ke, Lin Lingdong, and Cen Jianxun, there is only one scene, and the three of them sit together to play poker, as long as they are ruthlessly funny.

Kang Jianfei is very busy at this time, and he is about to go to the small island of Brunei to design the filming base of "Jurassic Park" with Cameron, and then come back to attend the Miss Oriental beauty pageant finals, and then he will be the producer of "Tomb Robbery Notes 2".

And Guan Zhilin and Li Yanshan are about to give birth, and he still has to spend a lot of time with him, and it is not enough for one person to break it in half. (To be continued) R466