Chapter 496 The popular "囧" series

At this time, Li An's "Life of Pi" had only taken its first week to earn over 200 million yuan at the national box office.

It features magnificent visual spectacles, immersive 3D effects, and a theme story with great spiritual power.

The film received rave reviews from the audience, with netizens on Douban and Shiguang giving it a high score of 9.1.

Two days after its release, the number of keyword entries on Weibo increased from 80 before the release to 110 million, making it known as a "zero negative review" movie.

It also triggered a subsequent wave of movie-watching.

This is not good news for "The Feast of Kings" and "1942".

Because "Pi" seems to be taking a path with great stamina.

Huayi and Star Media are trying their best at this time, constantly adding more publicity and promotion expenses to promote their own films.

……

As for Xingchen Film and Television Company, Gu scheduled the premiere of Lost in Thailand for Saturday, December 12st.

Because of the film market at that time, "1942" failed and "The Banquet" had an even worse start, with only 8 million box office on the first day, which was not as good as "Life of Pi", which had been released for more than a week.

Looking at the current film market, apart from "Lost in Thailand", only "Chinese Zodiac", "The Guillotines" scheduled for the 20th and "The Great Shanghai" scheduled for the 21st have some appeal.

Since the schedule is rare, Xingchen Films will naturally promote it vigorously. The premiere will be held at the National Stadium in Beijing.

Although it was distributed independently by Xingchen Films, there were quite a few people who came to support it.

Han Sanping, Wang Changtian, Yu Dong, Qin Hong...

However, not many people from Xingchen Film and Television Company showed up.

Zhang Yimou, Liu Yifei, Qin Hao, Chen Minghao and Zhao Liying are all in the "Parasite" crew.

Wu Ershan, Wu Jing, Yu Bo, Yang Junyi and others are on the "Special Identity" side.

Ning Hao led a team to prepare for "Chinese Partners", and Wan Qian was also with them. She was spotted by Ning Hao and played the second female lead in this movie.

After careful calculation, only Han Dongjun and others were free, so they came running over to join in the fun.

In addition, the main creative "star friends group" including Guan Hu and Zhang Jingchu also came to support.

Quite a few directors from the industry came, including Jiang Wen, Feng Xiaogang, Chen Kaige and others. Everyone wanted to see what was so unique about this movie that Gu Wei had high hopes for.

After the red carpet segment, Gu Wei, the nominal producer, was invited by the host to take the stage first.

“I would like to thank all the industry colleagues, media friends and enthusiastic audience friends who took time out of their busy schedules to come and support us. Thank you!”

"Some people might wonder, Director Gu, haven't you always claimed to be making a special effects blockbuster? Why would you make a small- to medium-budget comedy movie?"

“What I want to say is that although Xingchen Films has always been on the route of special effects blockbusters, our aim is to persist in making interesting and fun movies.

Although there are many films released in the film market every year, there are not many films that can be called "interesting"..."

Yu Dong in the audience couldn't help but say to Song Ge: "Director Gu is so bold!"

Song Ge laughed, "With his current status and influence, what does it matter if he says a few words? Even if he scolds other directors, what's the harm?"

Yu Dong was stunned when he heard this, then he laughed and said secretly: "It's true. After all, there are not many directors in the world who can rank ahead of this one!"

Because they wanted to use Gu Wei's name as a selling point, they waited until Gu Wei had spoken alone for more than ten minutes before inviting the main creators such as Xu Zheng, Wang Baoqiang, and Huang Bo to come on stage.

These three are all “human talents” who have climbed up from the bottom. They made jokes and exposed each other’s secrets, which made the audience and guests burst into laughter.

In terms of atmosphere, it is much more lively than when Gu Wei is on stage.

After the interview questions were over, the main film segment began.

The lights went out and the screen lit up. After the dragon logo and the logo of Xingchen Film and Television Company, Xu Guangtou, wearing a white coat, appeared on the screen.

Soon Gao Bo, played by Huang Bo, appeared and had a very confusing and funny conversation with Xu Lang, played by Xu Zheng.

The audience and guests, who had never seen a pure comedy, burst into laughter and felt it was quite a pleasant surprise.

Whether it’s a person or a career, many times it’s the comparison with your peers that makes your rarity apparent.

"Lost in Thailand" was designed with fifty or sixty densely packed jokes, but you may not feel anything when you watch it a few years later.

But in 2012, when audiences had been "ravaged" by bad domestic films for nearly a year and when they were feeling suffocated by the depressing atmosphere of several blockbusters released during the Lunar New Year period, "Lost in Thailand", which was released just to make the audience laugh, suddenly appeared!
.........

Lu Chuan and his works have always been an anomalous existence in the film industry, and the reviews they have received are polarized.

But his image in the world of online literature is generally uniform, and he is the male supporting role who is 100% slapped in the face.

Gu Wei wanted to continue to slap Lu Chuan in the face, but before he could do anything, the other party beat himself down. After the release of "The Banquet", the box office on the first day was less than 10 million, and the reputation was extremely bad. A film review titled "Psychopath Telling Ghost Stories" was forwarded more than 10,000 times, and Lu Chuan firmly believed that someone hired a group of netizens to discredit him.

A few days later, a film critic questioned on Weibo that the "Feast of Kings" team hired a "troll army" to give good reviews, and questioned whether this practice was self-deception. Then, Lu Chuan Studio openly admitted it.

To quote a line from the TV series "Love Apartment": This is fucking possible!

The reputation of The Banquet of Kings was extremely polarized, and the troll army incident also caused it to be cannon fodder in the Lunar New Year period. And 1942 was not doing well either.

First of all, there is the issue of exclusive IMAX theaters. When Life of Pi was first released, the distributor reminded that the film could only be shown in IMAX theaters for seven days because it would be given to Nineteen Forty-Two starting November 11.

This made many netizens feel unfair for "Life of Pi", thinking that Huayi was too much of a screw-up. "1942" didn't focus on special effects, so why did it occupy an IMAX theater? It was a waste of time.

In terms of word of mouth, "1942" and "The Banquet" both announced that they had suffered large-scale "troll attacks".

In Douban's ratings, "60" has as many as % "one-star" reviews. As for where these "water army" came from, it is unknown.

Lu Chuan’s reaction was to hire “Internet troops” to maintain good reviews, and he was discovered carelessly, and he admitted it openly.

Feng Xiaogang has a different attitude. Some netizens said that "'Nineteen Forty-Two' exaggerates the evil of Chinese people's nature" and called on everyone to refuse to watch it.

Feng Xiaogang, who was not doing well at the box office and had a bad reputation, was so angry that he responded to netizens on Weibo: If you think I offend you, don't watch this movie. If you watch it, you are 'dirtying my movie'.

Feng Xiaogang fired at will and felt very happy with his words.

However, it aroused more and more disgust among netizens, and the box office performance of "1942" became increasingly sluggish.

On the other hand, Life of Pi, which has been released for more than ten days, has a very good reputation and its attendance rate has risen in the second week instead of falling. With a box office of 1.7 million, it has surpassed 4, which had a box office of 1.38 million in four days, and won the weekly box office championship. As for The Banquet, it had less than million in the first week and has already fallen out of the first tier.

As soon as the Lunar New Year box office battle began, the air was filled with smoke.

But the disastrous failure of "1942" was unexpected by many people.

Just as everyone turned their attention to "Chinese Zodiac" which was released on December 12, thinking that it was the king of the Lunar New Year box office, the dark horse "Lost in Thailand" has been quietly warming up.

Although this film was directed by Xu Zheng, he can only fool the audience but not the industry insiders.

It sounds unreliable that Xu Zheng switched to being a director before he had established himself in the film industry, and he even directed and acted in the film himself.

Everyone agreed that even if the movie achieved high box office, it was still Gu Wei's credit. After all, he provided the script and was nominally the producer, which had a huge impact on the popularity of "Lost in Thailand".

Therefore, even though news of Gu Wei praising Xu Zheng came out at the premiere, people in the industry did not take it too seriously and just thought it was hype by Xingchen Films for the movie.

The closer it gets to the release date, the greater the pressure on Xu Zheng.

Although he only received director's salary, the success or failure of the film affected his future. He was exhausted during the road show and couldn't sleep well at night. He looked haggard.

In the office, Gu Wei saw this situation and advised: "Old Xu, you can't do this. The pressure can't be too great."

Xu Zheng wiped his face with both hands and smiled bitterly, "I don't know what's going on. I just can't calm down. Although the premiere and previews have good reviews and reactions, I'm always afraid that when it's fully released, it will be the opposite."

Gu Wei laughed and said, "You just take this movie too seriously and you're worried about the outcome."

Xu Zheng sighed softly: "I can't help but take it seriously."

Gu Wei smiled and said, "There is a saying that goes, do your best and leave the rest to fate. We should do what we should and can do, and the rest is up to fate."

"That's the truth. Do your best and leave the rest to fate. Whether it succeeds or not, I have tried my best anyway."

"That's right, don't think too much, just do what you can do well, and sometimes you will find that success is just a matter of a moment." Gu Wei said meaningfully.

Xu Zheng quickly understood what Gu Wei meant.

On December 12, "Lost in Thailand" was officially released without the gimmick of a midnight show.

However, the box office results came out early in the morning on the 7th, and it was a surprising result, 3970 million on the first day.

Due to the extremely high attendance rate, by the early morning of the 7th, "Lost in Thailand" had accounted for 40% of the screenings and closed at 3800 million.

The 8th was a Saturday, and the screening rate was close to 50%. With its strong reputation, it actually grossed 9100 million.

By Sunday, the 9th, it had earned a whopping 9380 million.

When the media saw such box office results, they all felt like they were given a shot of adrenaline.

Crazy, crazy, it must be the end of the world, so everyone is crazy.

It is ridiculous that a low-budget comedy movie with an investment cost of 30 million yuan, less than 80 million yuan in publicity and promotion costs, and no strong star lineup, had a single-day box office revenue of nearly 100 million yuan.

What’s even crazier is the audience, who give constant rave reviews and recommend each other, and suddenly everyone is a cyber army.

.........

(End of this chapter)