For movie enthusiasts, 1994 was definitely a memorable year, a year in which a large number of classic films were born.

In the West, this year there are films such as "Forrest Gump", "Pulp Fiction", "This Killer Is Not Too Cold", "Speed of Life and Death", "The Lion King", "The Redemption of Shaw Sugar", "Edwood", "The Burning Years", "Strange Heroes in Disguise", "True Lies", "Joan of Arc", "Red" and so on. Chinese movies are also very good, "Alive", "Sunny Days", "Eating Men and Women", "Journey to the West", "Chongqing Forest", "Liang Zhu", "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves", "New Love", "Domestic Lingling Paint" and other movies are the memories of a generation.

Due to the butterfly effect brought by Kang Jianfei, some movies in this time and space will not appear again. For example, in "True Lies", Cameron originally wanted to make "Titanic", but because the special effects technology and funds were not fully prepared, he retreated to make this movie first. Because Kang Jianfei captured Cameron to film "Jurassic Park", Cameron has been making preparations for "Titanic" since then, and "True Lies" will naturally not be filmed. Even if you want to shoot, it's definitely not Cameron as a director.

But more movies have not been affected much, only some small changes. For example, in "Strange Masterpiece in Disguise", this movie was arranged by Kang Jianfei to be the heroine of Aishwarya, and the second female lead in "Sunny Day" was also replaced by Li Bingbing.

In Hong Kong, 1994 was kicked off by Zhang Aijia's "New Cohabitation Era", and the box office of more than 20 million indicates the recovery of the Hong Kong film market.

What followed was the Spring Festival file, although it was the same as the Christmas file two months ago, only five Hong Kong films were released, but the gold content of these five films was very high.

The film released by Yonggao Cinema Line is "The Banner of the Dragon Gambling Saint" jointly invested by Yonggao, Zedong and Taiwanese scholars. Although the name of this film is vulgar, the cast is not bad, starring Leung Ka-fai, Leung Chaowei, Ekin Cheng, Wu Junru, Zeng Zhiwei, Zheng Yuling and Mak Jiaqi, etc., it can definitely be regarded as a big cast.

This drama should be the closure of Yonggao Film Company. Luo Jiecheng only stepped into the film industry after watching the popularity of Hong Kong films, but now after the film market has shrunk, he is not good at film production, and it is inevitable that the company will stop production.

In addition, Huang Baiming's Xincheng Pictures also came back. "The House of the Rich" continues the Chinese New Year comedy style of "Happy Events in the Flower Field" and "Happy Events in the Family", not only with Gao Zhisen as the director, but also brings together many stars such as Zhang Guorong, Leung Jiahui, Mao Shunyun, Liu Qingyun, Huang Baiming and so on.

It is worth mentioning that the production company of this drama in another time and space is Meiya Laser. However, because Kang Jianfei established the Oriental Entertainment Distribution Company early and grabbed a large share of the film video market share, the development of Meiya Entertainment Company was very unsmooth, and now it is only an ordinary-scale video tape distribution company, and has not set foot in the field of film production.

In addition to these two movies, it is "Drunken Fist 2" and "Kung Fu". As for the rest of "Bodhidharma Patriarch", we can ignore it, Yuan Jiaban's street kung fu film.

At this time, the number of cinemas in Hong Kong has dropped from 190 at the peak last year to only 142, and those who are alive are all tenacious predators.

The five Chinese New Year movies represent the five major cinemas, namely: "Drunken Fist 2" - Golden Harvest Cinema, "Kung Fu" - Oriental Cinema, "Shenlong Gambling Saint" - Yonggao Cinema, "Dafu Home" - Xincheng Cinema, "Dharma Patriarch" - Xinbao Cinema.

……

Seeing that the New Year was about to be celebrated, Chen Rongmei didn't feel any festive atmosphere.

Yuan Jiaban's "Dharma Patriarch" was cut to only three theaters on the second day of its release because the attendance rate was too low, and the cumulative box office in five days did not break 1 million.

This kind of broken film, the three theaters are too many screenings, and the number of screenings is directly eliminated to two shows a day in the three theaters.

"The movie is not good!" Chen Rongmei looked at the empty theater, which can no longer be described as an attendance rate, and there were only seven or eight audiences on average in each screening hall during the Spring Festival. Just a year ago, his movie theater was still making money every day, how could he have predicted that he would be so embarrassed that there was no film to play.

Xinbao Cinema Line is the cinema company that relies most on Taiwanese Hong Kong films to supply film sources among several major cinema chains in Hong Kong. Now Taiwanese film companies have reduced their investment, so that Xinbao can't get a good movie during the Spring Festival, which is quite a bit of a sunset.

Chen Rongmei smoked a cigar dullly, called the general manager of the theater chain, and instructed: "Go and contact Golden Harvest, Xincheng, Yonggao and DreamWorks to see if they have any intention of renting a theater." ”

The theater manager can also be helpless, the theater attendance rate is so low, it can only be regarded as a non-war fault for him. In the past, most of the movies released in Xinbao Cinemas were the works of independent film companies such as Hong Jinbao and Mai Dangxiong, and they were all invested by those financiers in Taiwan. Now that Taiwan's financiers are not investing money, Hong Jinbao and others have no films to film, and Xinbao Cinema can only choose bad films to make up the number when scheduling films.

In the 1994 Spring Festival New Year, Xinbao could only watch others make money, and the theaters with good locations were rented to other companies to screen blockbusters, and the theaters with poor locations were used to show old movies.

……

Golden Harvest Film Company.

Zou Wenhuai and He Guanchang drank tea, quietly waiting for the box office of "Drunken Fist" in the first week.

Not long after, a middle-aged man in a suit knocked on the door and came in, put a form on the desk, and reported: "Mr. Zou, Manager He, 13.64 million in the first week of "Drunken Fist 2"!" ”

"Whew!" Zou Wenhuai breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's not low." ”

He Guanchang asked: "Is there a number of "Kung Fu"? ”

Zou Wenhuai shook his head and sighed: "There is no need to know. Our current enemy is not DreamWorks, but the shrinking box office market in Hong Kong and overseas. ”

……

Tseung Kwan O Film and Television City, Chairman's Office.

"Boss, the first-week box office statistics of "Kung Fu" are out." Li Meifeng handed over the form and said, "16.28 million." ”

Kang Jian Feiyun said lightly: "Got it, go make a cup of tea for Manager Jiang." ”

Jiang Zhiqiang smiled: "This time it is our big victory again. ”

"It's not interesting to be in the nest," Kang Jianfei said, throwing the other two forms to Jiang Zhiqiang, "Look at the Christmas schedules in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, the top one is from 1992 and the next one is from 1993." ”

Jiang Zhiqiang took the form and read it carefully, and frowned after looking at it for a while.

Kang Jianfei continued: "In 1992, the Christmas films in these three places, both at the box office and the number of films, were all occupied by Hong Kong films. But in just one year, Hollywood movies have caught up, and if this continues, the box office of Hong Kong films in these three places will be surpassed by Hollywood films this year. ”

Jiang Zhiqiang asked, "What does Mr. Kang mean?" ”

Kang Jianfei said: "I still bothered Brother Jiang during the Chinese New Year, just because of this incident. Now the overall quality of Hong Kong films is declining rapidly, and there are many bad films that follow the trend, and overseas audiences have aesthetic fatigue. The Nanyang generation, Cathay Pacific and Shaw Brothers are the two largest cinema chains, and they are only responsible for filming but not production. Now Hong Kong films are not pleased, and in order to make money, they release a large number of Hollywood films. In the long run, the film markets of Nanyang countries will be attacked by Hollywood, and even if there are good films in Hong Kong, they will not be able to compete with Hollywood blockbusters in the film schedule. I want to invest in the construction of Nanyang Cinema Line! ”

"It's long overdue!" Jiang Zhiqiang patted his thigh and said that he advocated the rapid expansion of the Oriental Cinema Line.

Kang Jianfei asked undoubtedly: "Before this summer, I want to see a total of 15 modern multiplex theaters in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, is there a problem?" ”

"As long as you have enough money, it's all right." Jiang Zhiqiang said confidently.

"Then it's troublesome Brother Jiang." Kang Jianfei said with a smile.

Investing in Nanyang Cinemas cannot fundamentally save the decline of Hong Kong films, and striking iron still needs its own hardness, only if the quality of Hong Kong films improves, those markets will not be occupied by Hong Kong films.

Hong Kong films in 1993 and 1994 were still in decline, and Hong Kong films were really on the verge of death after 1995. In 1995, the Taiwan authorities lifted the copy restrictions on European and American films, which directly led to the loss of the most important Taiwan market for Hong Kong films.

Can Kang Jianfei stop this from happening?

Maybe, at least the Taiwanese filmmakers did not tear their faces with Hong Kong producers like the original time and space, which is all due to Kang Jianfei's mediation last year. If there were no Taiwanese studios clamoring to remove copy restrictions on Hollywood films, at least Hong Kong films would not have died so quickly.

Hollywood has conquered the world by relying on high-tech computer special effects, and DreamWorks has already produced a lot of special effects blockbusters, which has made a reputation in this regard, and it is not lost to its Hollywood counterparts.

After Jiang Zhiqiang left, Kang Jianfei called Li Meifeng: "Call Mr. Zhang of Dark Horse Animation Company and ask him to come to my office." ”

Kang Jianfei really has a lot of things, and he doesn't need to worry about the daily operation and management of various companies, but he must be at the helm of the company's development direction.

At least, if Kang Jianfei didn't take the initiative, Dark Horse Animation would not think about developing digital 3D animation. Disney's digital 3D animation has been on the air for a few months, but the animation talent in Hong Kong has little idea about the technology.

Kang Jianfei's request is very simple, that is, to throw money at Dark Horse Animation Company, let them steal teachers, poach people, copycats, and spend a few years to make "Kung Fu Panda". At least after 2000, Dark Horse Animation must have the ability to produce 3D animated films independently.

There is still a long way to go, at least in the next few years, a large number of Hong Kong film companies will die, and the rest will either struggle to support or flourish. As long as DreamWorks survives beyond 2003, the huge mainland market will gradually open up in an all-round way, and at that time it will encounter another opportunity to take off.

Far from it, let's talk about the release of "Kung Fu". R1152