In reality, it often happens that a song that is recognized as a classic is good, but when it is released, the record sales are not as good as a popular saliva song; A good movie that can score 9 points is often crushed by a commercial film that can only score 6 points.

In fact, the reason is very simple, aside from factors such as luck, the most important thing is the issue of popularity. Pop culture doesn't require too much thought, and sometimes being too thoughtful can affect the popularity of a work.

Kang Jianfei has traveled over several years, counting the increase in movie ticket prices, and the lowest box office in the movie he made is "Dao Ma Dan", but "Dao Ma Dan" is the most awarded movie he has.

Then let's talk about the movie "Shushan", after Kang Jianfei's strict control, as well as the collective efforts of Xu Ke and the screenwriters of DreamWorks, it is impeccable in terms of plot. Especially the 120-minute theatrical version of "Shushan", the literary style of the 3-hour director's version has been removed, and the rhythm of the whole movie is so smooth that there is nothing to say.

In the two-hour movie screening time, either the wonderful special effects skills, or the beautiful landscapes of the motherland like a fairyland, or the hearty fighting tricks, and then in the middle of the love, friendship, inspiration and punishment and evil to connect, there is no time for the audience to slack off, or even have no time to think, you just sit in the cinema and watch the movie obediently, from time to time to exclaim and cheer, two hours passed in a blink of an eye.

Although the laugh-in-the-minute plot of "Rich Train" is also very attractive, and comedy has a natural advantage in Hong Kong, it is still too much worse than "Shushan".

The early stage was overwhelmingly publicized. So that as long as Hong Kong people watch TV, they can see the trailer of "Shushan" endlessly, plus the halo on the Venice Film Festival and Tokyo Film Festival awards. and the good reputation of "Shushan" after its release, all of which created the box office myth of "Shushan" in the Christmas stall - to put it bluntly, many Hong Kong people have been "brainwashed" by the information about "Shushan" around them, and when it comes to watching movies during this time, the first choice must be DreamWorks' "Shushan".

Comedies exist every year in Hong Kong, but god-level special effects blockbusters are very rare, and the momentum and box office of "Shushan" are like snowballing.

In order to continue to build momentum for "Shushan". not only gave the specific box office data to "Oriental Daily", but even the news program of Phoenix Channel was also broadcasting: "According to the data provided by Oriental Cinema, the box office of "Shushan" on the first day was 3.32 million. The weekly box office is 17.36 million, which is the best opening record for Hong Kong films so far. Due to the fact that "Shushan" was full from 6 to 10 o'clock in the evening, Oriental Entertainment Distribution Company rented 4 theaters of Yindu Cinema Line again, and the number of theaters for "Shushan" reached 32......"

"Rich Train" failed. The defeat was very complete. Golden Harvest and Xinbao were co-screened by 27 theaters in the two theater chains, although the box office on the first day also reached 2.74 million, but the box office in the first week was only 12.91 million, and the box office was thrown out by "Shushan" in the first week of release.

As for other Hong Kong films released on Christmas, as well as the Hollywood film "Slaughter of the City" introduced by Anle Cinemas, its attendance rate can no longer be described as "miserable", it is simply miserable.

In another time and space, "Slaughter of the City" can get close to 13 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office in Hong Kong. But because "Shushan" and "Rich Train" snatched away the audience, the box office was less than 3 million in the first week of release. It is difficult to say whether the final box office can break 10 million.

""Shushan" is undoubtedly a landmark film, I dare not say that it will open the era of special effects blockbusters for Hong Kong films, but "Shushan" will definitely inject a new vitality into the Hong Kong film market where comedy films and kung fu films are flooded." - Cinema Fortnightly.

"It turns out that Chinese-language films can also be made at the level of Star Wars." - Wen Wei Po.

"Xu Ke is undoubtedly the best Chinese director, he can perfectly combine the commercial and artistic elements of the film, and he has won a double harvest of box office trophies in the world." - "Daily Express".

"The model of "Shushan" cannot be replicated, because Hong Kong films are too dependent on overseas markets, high-investment blockbusters have great investment risks, almost no different from stock speculation." ——Hong Kong Commercial Daily.

From Christmas to New Year's holidays, news about "Shushan" can be seen everywhere in Hong Kong, spreading the "Shushan" craze like a plague.

What makes Kang Jianfei laugh and cry is that "Shushan" did not open the so-called blockbuster era of Hong Kong films, and the most direct impact of its hot sales is that in the next few years, countless "swordsman" movies were born. Some of them also use special effects production gimmicks, but the content in them is the level of Shaw Brothers sets, and a few fireworks are considered fighting methods, anyway, it is enough to trick the audience into the cinema.

……

Good Friends Film Company, Zeng Zhiwei is receiving Hong Jinbao and Mecca in his office.

The copyright of the film "Rich Train" belongs to Zeng Zhiwei's good friend film company, but the investors behind it are quite mixed, Taiwan Scholars Company and Zeng Zhiwei, Hong Jinbao and Mecca each have a copy, and then Golden Harvest has an additional part of the investment through Baohe Company.

"The box office of "Shushan" is 30 million, right?" Hong Jinbao peeled the peanut shell and said.

"It was 30 million yesterday, and it has only been released for 20 days, and fans are like crazy." Mecca sighed, in fact, he himself contributed more than ten yuan to the box office of "Shushan", and he has to admit that other people's movies are really good.

"It's almost time to come to an end, there are so many people in Hong Kong, everyone who should enter the theater has gone in to watch it, and "Shushan" has been continuously reducing the number of shows in the past few days." Zeng Zhiwei can see that the purpose of finding Hong Jinbao and Mecca to shoot "Rich Train" is actually to make money. Now that this goal has been achieved, it is no problem for "Rich Train" to break 20 million at the box office in Hong Kong, and the Nanyang, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Macao markets can still bring back a lot of money, even if it is a few people, they can make a lot of money.

Zeng Zhiwei saw it very openly, but Chen Rongmei and Zou Wenhuai were quite disappointed, what they fought with Kang Jianfei was not only the box office, but a kind of prestige and momentum.

"Can you invite Xu Ke to make a movie?" Cai Songlin, who came to Hong Kong to buy films again, asked.

Feng Bingzhong said hesitantly: "Xu Ke's current director's salary has risen so high, and the investment of ordinary scale is definitely not worth it, so I am afraid that it is not a small risk to ask him to make a movie." ”

Cai Songlin said: "I don't really want Xu Ke to direct it himself, just pay some money for him to have the title of producer." ”

If Zou Wenhuai really treats movies as a career, then people like Chen Rongmei and Cai Songlin just use movies as a tool to make money. Cai Songlin is even better, after all, he started by distributing movies, and if he wants to mix well in the future, he has to continue to make movies, and Chen Rongmei and Feng Bingzhong, the two sons, even have a kind of thinking about making a penny, the future of Hong Kong movies has little to do with them, anyway, if you can make money, try to make money, and if you can't make it, you can withdraw.

Because of this, Chen Rongmei and Feng Bingzhong agreed with Cai Songlin's proposal, and the three of them partnered to discuss investing in the production of a "special effects swordsman blockbuster", and then spent two or three hundred thousand yuan to ask Xu Ke to hang the name of a producer for publicity.

……

"200,000 as a producer?" In the tea restaurant, Xu Kewei looked at Feng Bingzhong with a smile, then shook his head and declined, "I'm sorry, I have a tight schedule next year, so I don't have time to cooperate with Mr. Feng." ”

Feng Bingzhong pushed Xu Ke's direction check and said, "There is no need to delay Director Xu's time, as long as you agree with us to sign your name in the producer column, the 200,000 yuan is yours." ”

"Forget it, it's useless." Xu Ke refused without the slightest hesitation.

If Feng Bingzhong found Xu Ke with a check for 2 million, he would probably think about it seriously, but 200,000 was too cheap. Those inferior followers are really cheating, and they will damage their hard-earned reputation for 200,000 yuan, unless Xu Ke's brain is broken.

"How about 300,000?" Feng Bingzhong saw that Xu Ke was too little money.

Xu Ke stood up directly and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Feng, I'll leave first if I have something." ”

300,000 is really nothing for Xu Ke today, judging from the current global box office trend of "Shushan", he can at least get more than 5 million Hong Kong dollars, after all, he is the nominal owner of the licensed studio.

For Hong Kong directors, the income of 5 million yuan from a movie is considered against the sky at this time. In the original time and space, in 1992, Wang Jing was so popular that he could only get 4 million for directing a movie, and now there are almost no pure directors who can get more than 1 million.

Like Kang Jianfei, Xu Guanwen, Mecca, Hong Jinbao, Cheng Long and others, directing a movie will definitely cost more than 1 million, but their identity is not only the director, they are also the bosses of the film company.

After New Year's Day, there is a half-month New Year's holiday, and "Shushan" will be screened from December 20 to January 25, with a screen time of 36 days.

However, since January 5th, as fans' enthusiasm for watching movies has decreased, "Shushan" has gradually reduced the number of shows. From 32 theaters at its peak, five shows a day has been reduced to eight theaters showing two shows a day, freeing up theater resources to screen another DreamWorks movie.

Until "Shushan" was completely released, the local box office in Hong Kong swept 38.84 million, breaking the local box office record of Hong Kong films again.

As for "Rich Train", it also got a good box office of 26.79 million, which is enough for investors to make a lot of money.

However, the situation in overseas markets is somewhat different, and when "Shushan" was released in Europe, America and Asia, audiences everywhere also showed different attitudes.

In general, it is the cold reception in North America, the pursuit in Europe, and the fanaticism in Asia. (To be continued......)