Chapter 364 Word of mouth
"On the Beach at Night Alone" grossed over 100 million yuan in just five days after its release.

The news spread in the circle and attracted the attention of a large number of people in the industry, especially film companies.

After all, previous domestic art films have never been associated with words like box office or hits, but this time, Gu Wei and Liu Yifei's film has completely broken this phenomenon.

This has also led to many art film directors in the industry wondering whether they can replicate the formula of "On the Beach at Night Alone" and make a high-grossing art film.

However, after watching for a long time, everyone finally came to a helpless conclusion. The plot is okay, but it is difficult to find a director and actor combination with box office appeal that can rival Gu Wei and Liu Yifei.

"Facts have proved that a well-made art film is no worse than a commercial film," Jiang Wen said with a smile during an interview.

"This is good news. It is good news for the entire art film market. It gives everyone hope for the rise of art films."

When Zhang Yimou was interviewed, he directly said that he started out by making art films, so he naturally thought this was a good thing.

"After seeing the box office of 'On the Beach at Night Alone', I am more confident about the box office of '1942'." Feng Xiaogang is worthy of being the one who never forgets the word "publicity".

"How to strike a balance between art films and high box office is a question that other art film directors in the industry need to think about," Jia Zhangke shared his views.

"Perhaps, this movie will become a model for domestic art films. I believe many directors will be inspired after watching the movie."

A large number of art film directors, including Wang Xiaoshuai and Lou Ye, have expressed their views.

"'On the Beach at Night Alone' broke the record for the fastest box office of a domestic art film to break 100 million yuan."

"'On the Beach at Night Alone' has become the most popular art film in recent years."

"Liu Yifei's acting skills have been well received and recognized by a large number of audiences."

"If nothing unexpected happens, 'On the Beach Alone at Night' will set a new box office record for domestic art films."

There is constant news about "Alone on the Beach at Night" on the Internet.

Not only the box office, but also the word-of-mouth reviews from the audience were very good.

It can be said that with this movie, Liu Yifei has completely refreshed everyone's inherent impression of "Sister Fairy".

"Support Yifei, make more art films like this in the future, and strive to win the top three European film queens." A fan posted directly.

"Oh, now that Yifei has won over all the big directors, it's only a matter of time before she becomes one of the top three European directors."

"By the way, is Yifei the heroine in Director Gu's first domestic special effects blockbuster?"

"That's right. Director Gu didn't give it to Yifei for the first time. Isn't he afraid of domestic violence?"

Netizens first commented on the movie, and then the topic turned to the movie, and even went off track.

...

This year's Shanghai International Film Festival will be held from June 6 to 11, with the opening ceremony on the 19th, the Asian Newcomer Awards on the 11th, the Film Channel Media Awards on the 17th, and the Golden Goblet Awards and Closing Ceremony on the 18th.

Although Gu Wei did not attend the film festival, Wuershan of Xingchen Film and Television took the crew of "Painted Skin 2" to participate in the competition. It can be seen that Wuershan is quite eager for the award.

After all, he is the only one under Star Film and Television Company who has received few awards and honors.

The Shanghai International Film Festival is an international Category A film festival, but there are also extreme critics who call it Category B.

Especially this year's 14th session, the quality of the participating films is not high, the market transactions are average, % of the stars on the red carpet of the opening ceremony are Chinese-language filmmakers, and the biggest international superstar is actually the businessman Mo Keduo and his wife, which is quite embarrassing.

As for the celebrities attending the closing ceremony, they were not as famous as those at the opening ceremony.

The stars who walked the red carpet that night included Zhang Jingchu, Xu Ruoxuan, Hui Yinghong, Miriam Yeung, Eddie Peng, Yang Tianbao, Wu Xiubo, Huang Bo, Jiang Yiyan, Wang Baoqiang and others.

Many of these people are not well-known at the moment, and there were only a handful of big-name celebrities in the entire closing ceremony.

Therefore, when Wu Ershan, Zhou Xun and Huang Xiaoming attended the closing ceremony, they immediately attracted the attention of countless media. After all, with a box office of 6 million yuan, Wu Ershan can be said to be the second highest-grossing director of domestic commercial films.

After walking the red carpet, Wuershan and everyone else entered the venue.

The official arrangements of the film festival were also very interesting. Wu Ershan's seat was next to Jia Zhangke, and next to Director Jia was Wang Baoqiang.

After a few people greeted and shook hands, Jia Zhangke couldn't help but look at Wu Ershan and said, "Director Wu, have you considered making a new movie recently?"

Hearing this, Wu Ershan chuckled and said, "Director Jia, I've been busy recently and have no plans to start a new movie for the time being."

In fact, there are many good scripts in Xingchen Film and Television Company, but Wuershan always wants to write his own script like Lu Yang and Ning Hao. He already has some ideas in his mind, but they are still a little far from being completed.

After thinking for a moment, Wu Ershan continued, "Director Jia, when will your movie be released?"

“It’s scheduled to be released in November. Fortunately, it wasn’t banned this time, but I don’t expect much from the box office since it’s an art film after all.

Compared with the box office of your "Painted Skin 2", I can't even imagine it." Jia Zhangke said with a smile.

Hearing this, Wu Ershan waved his hand and said, "Director Jia, you are too kind."

The art film director and the commercial film director had nothing to talk about when they sat together. After exchanging a few pleasantries, they each started to communicate in a low voice with the people next to them.

After waiting for a while, most of the guests came in and sat down, and the Golden Goblet Awards ceremony began.

Film festival award ceremonies usually have opening performances, and the Shanghai Film Festival imitates this very well.

After a song and dance performance, the host came on stage and played the results of this film festival on the big screen. Then he threw the "trump card" and announced the winner of the Golden Goblet Award.

According to official statistics, this film festival has more than 1519 countries and regions, with a total of feature films participating, including films shortlisted for the Golden Goblet Awards.

There are four Chinese films in total, namely:

"Butterfly on Shoulder";
"The man next door sings folk songs"
Mr. Tree;
"Painted Skin 2".

As a result, the two foreign award presenters announced that the winner of the "Special Jury Award" was the Thai film "Friday the Detective", a consolation award.

After the Thai director came up to receive the award and went down, the next award for Best Music was presented. The presenters were Zhang Jingchu and Xu Ruoxuan.

The two of them started speaking English to each other when they were presenting an award, which made Wu Ershan feel a little embarrassed.

Afterwards, the Best Music award went to the Chinese film "The Man Next Door Sings a Mountain Song", and the Best Cinematography award went to "Friday the 3rd".

Afterwards, the jury continued to present the screenwriter awards.

Huang Xiaoming couldn't sit still after seeing this, and whispered to Wu Ershan: "Director Wu, have we come to the wrong place?"

At this moment, Wu Ershan also had a bad feeling. After hearing Huang Xiaoming's words, he whispered to him, "It seems so. It seems that we have nothing to do with it."

At this moment, Wu Ershan admitted that he felt a little regretful. No wonder John Woo, Feng Xiaogang, Zhang Guoli, Chen Kun and others who were supposed to attend the premiere did not come. This was simply an award for a bunch of literary and artistic people to entertain themselves.

Of course, the main reason is that they were not shortlisted, so it is natural to support the Golden Goblet Awards.

The fact that Painted Skin 2 was shortlisted, I guess the film festival officials couldn't invite any big names, so they invited Wu Ershan to help out. Wu Ershan is a big director in the million box office club, so he has some fame. In addition, if Wu Ershan is invited, Zhou Xun and Huang Xiaoming will also come, so it can be said that they are killing two birds with one stone.

The awards ceremony continued afterwards, and "Mr. Tree" won the "Grand Jury Award". Wang Baoqiang went on stage with director Han Jie and the female lead Tan Zhuo, who is also the female lead Liu Sihui in "Dying to Survive".

The awards were presented one after another, and when only the Best Film award was left, a "Jury Award" was suddenly given to the winning film "Painted Skin 2".

After learning about the awards at the Shanghai Film Festival, Wuershan knew that this was just a consolation award. At this moment, he was too lazy to go on stage.

In the end, he went up and casually said a few words of thanks, then hurried off the stage and returned to his seat. Wu Ershan thought to himself, "I will never participate in domestic film festivals again, especially the Shanghai Film Festival. Will I be called here to be made a fool of myself?"

Immediately afterwards, the last grand prize, Best Film, was presented to the Turkish film "The Woman Who Can't Be Hurt".

At this point, all the Golden Goblet awards have been presented. Painted Skin 2 is still relatively good, after all, the box office is there, and the film festival officials did not dare to go too far and gave a consolation prize.

As for the nominated Chinese-language film "Butterfly on the Shoulder", it won nothing and didn't even get a consolation prize.

The film festival, which lasted about an hour, ended quickly and many guests began to leave.

When Wu Ershan, Huang Xiaoming and Zhou Xun left the venue, they said apologetically: "If I had known this would be the result, I would not have come. This time it's my fault and you two made a wasted trip."

"Director Wu, you're too polite. The audience knows exactly whether the movie is good or not. The high box office is the best proof." The leader is worthy of being the leader, and his words are flawless.

"That's right, the film festival jury has no vision. If Director Wu has a new movie in the future, we can always reserve a schedule for it, haha." Zhou Xun also said from the side.

What the two said made Wu Ershan feel a little better. At this moment, he finally understood why Gu Wei did not participate in domestic film festivals. It seemed that they all wanted to be "independent".

On that day, after attending the Shanghai Film Festival, Wuershan did not accept any interviews from reporters on the scene. He flew back to the capital with a gloomy face.

At the same time, news about the Shanghai Film Festival awards ceremony also sparked heated discussions among netizens.

"I'm really sick of it. If the grand prize is not given to foreign films, it would seem that the Shanghai Film Festival is not connected to the international community, right?"

"Why is Director Wu Ershan still so depressed? Why don't you learn from Director Gu and participate in these things? Just to be a stepping stone for others?"

"Damn, I haven't heard of any of the winning works. What the hell are they?"

...

In addition to netizens, the director also said a few words.

"Let the Shanghai Film Festival run on its own in the future. Good domestic films are not shortlisted, but bad foreign films are able to win big prizes. But they don't appreciate it and are being ignored."

Feng Xiaogang started to attack again on Weibo.

"Director Feng, stop talking. You praise those who give you awards, and curse those who don't. You are too realistic."

Afterwards, some netizens started to make fun of Feng Xiaogang.

...

"It's okay, you'll get used to it, haha." In the office of Xingchen Film and Television, looking at the depressed Wuershan, Gu Wei asked, and as he spoke, he couldn't help laughing.

He had reminded Wuershan a long time ago, but unfortunately the other party didn't listen to his advice for the sake of the award, and he ended up suffering a setback.

"Alas, I thought that with the high box office, I could get a different result, but who would have thought it would be the same, haha."

After hearing Gu Wei's words, Wuershan didn't feel so bad at the moment and even made a few self-deprecating remarks.

"What are your plans next? The company has a script, why not choose one and shoot it?" The two chatted for a while, and then got down to business.

"Well, let's wait a little longer. I recently had an idea and I plan to write it down..."

When Gu Wei suddenly asked Wuershan a question, he didn't know how to answer. His expression was hesitant and his words were hesitant.

Seeing this, Gu Wei was stunned. My goodness, they would not shoot a "Painted Skin" series, causing Wuershan's starting point to be too high.

In the original time and space, Wuershan should be filming his original movie "Blades of Smiles" at this moment, but the early release of "Painted Skin 2" caused this movie to disappear. It is not known whether it is a good thing or a bad thing.

No matter whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, Gu Wei did not ask any more questions. Ning Hao was busy with the post-production of the film, Lu Yang was filming in the crew, and even Xu Zheng was thinking about the new movie. The one who should be anxious should be Wuershan himself, but Gu Wei was not in a hurry anyway.

The box office wave of "On the Beach at Night Alone" continues, and the media publishes the latest box office data online every day.

However, no matter how good the box office of "On the Beach Alone at Night" is, it cannot be compared with the 50 million daily box office of "Harry Potter". Gu Wei is self-aware of this. Ultimately, it is because this movie is an art film and its audience is limited.

According to statistics from major cinema chains, most of the ticket buyers are young people, many of whom are fans of Liu Yifei. In addition, there are also quite a few who have booked the entire theater, such as Su Chang, Huang Xiaoming, Zhou Xun, Fan Binbin, Li Binbin and others, who have booked the entire theater and invited everyone to watch the movie.

However, these two films together directly account for about 80% of the market.

However, other domestic films released in June performed bleakly.

After all, they don't have the strength to compete with "Transformers 3" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part ".

This also resulted in the situation in the mainland film market throughout early June, where Hollywood blockbusters were eating the meat, "On the Beach at Night Alone" was gnawing on the bones, and other film and television companies couldn't even get a sip of the soup.

At the same time, Han Sanping personally called Gu Wei and invited him to participate in the premiere of "The Founding of a Party", and the invitation letter had already been sent to Xingchen Film and Television early.

Naturally, Gu Wei couldn't refuse the premiere of this movie.

Online, the General Administration has even shouted out slogans, and "The Founding of a Party" will naturally be the first to bear the brunt of the responsibility.

This year is the year of the explosion of tribute films. A total of 28 tribute films have been released by major domestic film and television companies, which is a bit dazzling.

"'The Founding of a Party' is expected to take 10 billion yuan at the box office, which should be a conservative goal. We are very confident."

The slogans used by China Film Group for external publicity are louder and louder. Those who don’t know would think that the box office of "The Founding of a Party" has exceeded 1 billion.

In the office of the chairman of China Film Group Corporation.

Han Sanping is full of confidence at the moment. "First, we will rely on the box office success of this movie. We will also have 2012 released during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition, we will have The Wandering Earth which will be approved at the end of the year. We will have an explanation for the meeting at the end of this year."

“Boss Han, isn’t it a bit exaggerated to directly publicize the box office of 10 billion? It would be a slap in the face if it fails to happen.” Sitting on the sofa in the office, Huang Jianxin, the director of “The Founding of a Party”, smiled bitterly, thinking in his heart that this was too much exaggeration.

"Well, when it comes to publicity, the higher the better. The box office of Let the Bullets Fly has exceeded 700 million. We can't just claim 400 or 500 million.

Don't worry, I know this movie will be good."

Han Sanping waved his hand in a domineering manner, signaling Huang Jianxin not to worry, and he looked full of confidence.

Upon hearing this, Huang Jianxin remained silent. He had already boasted and could not take it back. At this point, he could only wait and see how the film would perform after it was released.

...

(End of this chapter)