Chapter 242 Box Office Fraud
Matt Damon and Nicole Kidman are teaming up. After the news spread back to China, as more and more netizens posted comments on Weibo, the Weibo network was successfully crashed again.

"Boss Cao, this is the situation."

Staff reports.

"Contact engineers to speed up the repair."

Now the programmers had something to do again, and after several hours of repairs, the network was finally running normally again.

On the Internet, a large number of knowledgeable people are spreading the resumes of Matt Damon and Nicole Kidman.

Including the movies they starred in, their status in Hollywood, etc.

Thanks to the "Bourne" series, as well as movies such as "Good Will Hunting" and "Saving Private Ryan", Matt Damon has a lot of fans in China, especially female fans.

Nicole Kidman is also one of the goddesses of many domestic movie fans.

In 2002, she played the famous British female writer "Virginia Woolf" in the feature film "The Hours" co-starring with Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep. This role won her the 75th Academy Award for Best Actress, the 60th Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama and the 53rd Berlin International Film Festival Silver Bear Award for Best Actress.

As for other characters, such as Danny Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, etc., they are also well-known Hollywood star artists.

...

On the 18th, Cameron's "Avatar" officially landed in major theaters in North America.

According to reports from several major Hollywood companies, thousands of 3D theaters in North America are almost full.

This 3D movie and the mystery of the planet Pandora attracted countless movie fans to the cinema.

On the day of its release, the North American box office was counted as 2700 million US dollars, and the box office in the first three days of the weekend was 7700 million, ranking second in the history of new films released in December.

In the second week, the box office remained above 7000 million US dollars, breaking the record held by "Interstellar".

At the same time, this speed broke all box office records in the film industry's history. According to relevant agencies' predictions, it is only a matter of time before it surpasses the record set by "Titanic".

When the news from North America spread back to China, not only the audience but also the media reporters were shocked.

This blockbuster, which cost nearly $3 million and took several years to develop with CG technology, shocked everyone in China. Director Tong of the Film Bureau said in an interview with reporters:

“I watched it when it was reviewed, and it’s a very good film.

The biggest feature of Avatar is its technical novelty. I was deeply impressed by the magnificent screen effects of IMAX. In addition, its value orientation meets people's aesthetic expectations."

This also led to movies such as "Three Guns", "October Besieged", "The King's Guards", and "Mulan" accelerating their publicity and promotion efforts, all of which were squeezed into the Lunar New Year period to "fight" together. No one wanted to touch this Hollywood blockbuster.

"It's unbelievable. It's really unbelievable."

After watching "Avatar", Reid kept muttering to himself when he returned to the company.

"Boss, can our movie achieve this effect?"

After saying that, Reid stared at Gu Wei intently, waiting for his answer.

This is a difficult question for Gu Wei to answer. The success of "Avatar" is not only due to technological breakthroughs, but also because Cameron completely created a planet, which has a great advantage in terms of novel subject matter.

"Although I am very confident, I also need to see how the filming turns out."

"As far as I know, Fox spent hundreds of millions of dollars on publicity, plus the cost of film production, the cost reached about 5 million dollars."

...

On the 25th, DreamWorks handed over the completed animated film "Despicable Me 2" to Gu Wei.

After getting the finished film, Reid immediately started large-scale promotion.

The movie is scheduled to be released in March. After the news came out, it barely occupied a space in the media reporters' reports.

After the casting was completed, the pay contracts of each actor were signed one after another.

The film was shot in Europe and the United States and Hollywood in the early stages, and will be shot in the XZ region of China in the later stages.

At the same time, due to the serious decline in word of mouth, "Three Guns" did not complete its one-month release cycle, and this movie also became a stain on Zhang Yimou's film career.

When the film was taken off the screen, the box office reached 2.56 million, which was undoubtedly a huge profit compared to the cost of 2800 million, but it did cost him his reputation.

Although "The Siege of the City in October" released at the same time did not have as abnormal box office as the latter in the early stage, the industry unanimously believed that this movie would go further than "Three Guns".

Unwilling to give up, Zhang Yimou announced the details of the subsequent films.

It is planned to start filming "Under the Hawthorn Tree" at the beginning of next year and "The Flowers of War" at the end of the year.

After seeing the news, Gu Wei smiled inwardly, as expected, it was Zhang Yimou again, he was so famous and energetic.

You know, this year it was reported that Feng Xiaogang, Li Yang, Yilichuan and others had started a director war for "Under the Hawthorn Tree", and its film and television adaptation rights also changed hands several times. Feng Xiaogang and Huayi Company had publicly expressed their love for this story, and Feng Xiaogang became a popular candidate for director at the time.

However, Zhang Yimou directly obtained the film adaptation rights for the movie with just one move.

Directed by Zhang Yimou, it is the most popular choice.

On Weibo, the topic "Which director is most suitable to bring "Under the Hawthorn Tree" to the screen" immediately became a hot topic.

Many book fans take photos of the pictures, which will destroy the feeling created in the book.

As for Feng Xiaogang, he was automatically ignored by netizens. Netizens recognized his Feng-style comedy, but when it came to his love movie of this theme, everyone was afraid that it would be turned into a so-called Feng-style love comedy.

For example, imagine that Ge You suddenly said: Men are not allowed to shed tears for themselves, and men are not allowed to shed tears for others?

That scene was indeed quite strange.

While the casting of Zhang Yimou's movie was still being discussed by netizens, an incident of movie box office fraud broke out in China.

The news that the movie "Astro Boy" released by Guangguang had a box office of over 4000 million in three days was questioned by CCTV, Film News and other media, and was later exposed to be a fraud.

Subsequently, reporters from several media outlets discovered during their investigations that several movies released at the same time as "Astro Boy" also had the problem of falsely reporting box office figures.

Now, Weibo is full of netizens’ comments.

"The entertainment industry is like this, it's all fake."

"There are so few people watching it, where did the box office come from?"

...

Netizens are discussing this and fighting against fake news online.

Subsequently, the imported film "Agent 008" and the domestic film "Stubborn Radish" and other movies were announced.

As a result, several movies during the Lunar New Year holiday were not spared, and the media and the public were almost all scolding the major film companies.

In desperation, the General Administration held a press conference to clarify the matter, and then convened a meeting of major film companies to prepare to revamp the movie box office announcement uniforms.

"You and Wang Chen go there on behalf of the company and bring all the data."

Gu Wei in Hollywood also received a call from Song Ge.

Song Ge was also in a state of panic at the moment. He had not yet helped release a single movie since he came to the company, but this incident had already happened.

The two men arrived at the General Administration and saw Wang Changtian as soon as they got off the car. There was no expression on the other person's face, as if nothing had happened.

The two sides greeted each other and went into the meeting room together.

When the people from all major film companies arrived, they started criticizing, with Wang Changtian being the first to be criticized, and then all major film companies followed.

"The Sound of Wind" is also on the list. According to statistics from the General Administration, more than 80% of domestic films have falsely reported box office figures.

"No wonder Wang Changtian doesn't take it seriously. It seems like everyone has done it. Is our company okay?"

Song Ge muttered quietly.

"It's okay. Director Gu doesn't allow us to do this. According to him, it's not embarrassing enough."

Wang Chen glanced at Song Ge and answered.

After the bureau leader finished speaking, the major film companies realized that Xingchen Film and Television did not engage in fraud.

Suddenly, everyone was looking at Song Ge and others.

“Are those box office sales real?”

When others heard the data from Star Film and Television Company, they were a little bit unbelieving.

You must know that the box office data reported by the film company does not involve profit sharing, theater business tax, or film special funds. That is why major companies are fearless. After all, no one will pursue it if it does not involve interests.

However, high-grossing movies can raise their value, create an image of the film being popular, and attract more audiences to the cinema to watch the films.

On the other hand, high box office is also beneficial to directors and creative staff. Firstly, it can increase the value of the actors, and secondly, it can also enhance the director's status in the circle. In short, there are many benefits.

Especially for listed companies, there are more good news and the stock price rises, which can make more money than making movies.

However, this large-scale fraud has created a false prosperity, and while the industry may appear to be booming at first glance, it ultimately harms the domestic film market.

Meetings are meetings, and criticisms are listened to. This does not involve money and is not illegal, so the leaders of the General Administration are also helpless.

Afterwards, they could only sign their names on the "Industry Standards and Self-Discipline Convention", but as to whether it can be changed, that is unknown.

After returning to the company, Song Ge called Gu Wei and told him about the meeting in detail.

"It's shocking. Except for us, all other companies have done it. The leaders above can't do anything about it. All they can do is sign a binding agreement."

Damn, they are all really good at playing. Gu Wei had heard of this kind of thing before, but he didn’t expect it to become a routine.

"Unless new regulations are issued from above, such as fines for falsely reporting box office revenue, and heavy penalties, the problem can only be solved."

After thinking about it, if Gu Wei was the leader of the General Administration, he would treat these people like a tax, and even bragging would be taxing them.

After all, the box office is not real, which has a great impact on the development of the industry. Production, distribution, and screening involve every link. If it is always done like this, there will be no credibility at all.

"Alas, compared with the European and American film industries, our gap is not only in hardware, but also in software."

Gu Wei understood what Song Ge meant. The software here refers to various industry standards and legal provisions.

...

(End of this chapter)