Chapter 125: million per day

When Zhang Jizhong bought the copyright for "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils", he naturally mentioned that if the film received good ratings, he would also shoot "The Return of the Condor Heroes", "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" and "The Deer and the Cauldron" in the future, and the mainland copyright must be sold to me!

Seeing Jin Yong smiling but not saying anything, he knew something was wrong.

When asked what happened, Jin Yong said that someone he couldn't refuse called and bought the mainland copyright of these works.

Zhang Jizhong was a little confused. Who would dare to compete with him for the mainland copyright of Jin Yong’s novels?

When Jin Yong said the two words "Jiang Heng", Zhang Jizhong fell silent.

After a while, he said angrily: "He, he is a big director in the film industry, why would he come to film a TV series!"

Jin Yong laughed, "It's definitely not him who shoots it, but he has a film and television company and actors to promote, so the people below him also want to have something to do!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jizhong also felt that this was true.

Ask Jin Yong, "Is there no room for maneuver?"

Jin Yong smiled: "Do you think I can refuse him?"

How is that possible? Of course not!

At this moment, Jiang Heng is no longer the lonely young boy a few years ago. Countless movie artists in the Mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are looking forward to starring in Jiang Heng's new film. The momentum is already there, and Zhang Da Huzi can't compare to it.

In other words, what Jin Yong wrote was not a fantasy novel, otherwise it would have been very likely adapted into a special effects blockbuster by Jiang Heng and put on the big screen!
To be honest, Jin Yong had considered writing a fantasy script for Jiang Heng.

But it was not a loss of face. He entered the film and television industry in 1953. When he wrote his first script, he met his dream lover Xia Meng. He wrote seven scripts before leaving the industry.

It’s just that I haven’t written for many years, and I no longer have the quick thinking I had when I was young. After thinking about it for a while, I finally gave up.

However, Zhang Da Huzi left Hong Kong in a depressed mood, while Jiang Heng was in a good mood.

After agreeing with Jin Yong, he ordered Li Xiaoping to bring people to Hong Kong to pay the money and sign the contract with Jin Yong in person.

He also ordered her to go to Taiwan to buy the film and television rights of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy".

Once we have the three copyrights, we can start the company’s TV series shooting plan.

As for the producer, he will be listed in name only, but the actual work will be done by producer Li Xiaoping. Directors are also easy to find, as there are plenty of excellent directors who don't have many projects, both in the mainland and in Hong Kong.

For example, Wang Jing, even though he made "Atlantic Rim" to spoof his own "Pacific Rim", but lost money due to poor box office, Jiang Heng didn't mind it.

After all, this guy is really good at filming, and "The Best Under Heaven" is really good.

I’m afraid he would make too many changes. They definitely wouldn’t let him act in The Return of the Condor Heroes and The Legend of the Condor Heroes, but they could let him direct The Deer and the Cauldron.

At the China Film Digital Base, Jiang Heng was taking a rest in a temporary office. Although it was called temporary, it was actually fixed.

Because in the original history, China Film did not build a digital shooting base so early.

It was also because of Jiang Heng's appearance and the need to shoot special effects movies that China Film Corporation began to invest in building a digital studio, and gradually expanded it to have this base.

Jiang Heng knew that China Film Corporation was short of funds, yet he still invested a large sum of money and acquired a considerable number of shares.

So although this base is nominally owned by China Film, it is almost the same as Jiang Heng’s own.

The office was quite large and luxuriously decorated. Jiang Heng felt very comfortable sitting there enjoying the air conditioning and drinking tea.

"Director Jiang, the box office information was sent by China Film Group!"

An assistant brought over several documents, mainly box office statistics.

Jiang Heng took it and flipped through it, and was pleasantly surprised to see the box office revenue of 4050 million on the first day.

I didn’t expect that it would exceed 40 million in a single day so quickly.

For other domestic films, a box office of 40 million is already a big hit, but for Jiang Heng's work, it is just one day's result.

Of course, the investments of both parties are not at the same level.

For ordinary domestic films, 20 to 30 million is considered a large investment. Jiang Heng's "Splitting the Mountain to Save Mother" had a total investment of 50 million US dollars, more than 400 million RMB.

With an investment gap of more than ten times, it is reasonable to achieve such results.

The report describes in detail the box office revenue of major ticket-producing cities and the box office performance of each cinema.

At the top of the list are naturally the several cinemas under China Film Group Red that have built IMAX theaters. Due to the high ticket prices, large number of theaters and good decoration, the box office performance of these theaters is far ahead, far exceeding that of theaters without IMAX.

The report mentioned that there are currently many high-income people watching movies in the domestic film market. They have high requirements for theater decoration and screen sound effects and can afford higher ticket prices. It is recommended to continue to increase the number of IMAX screens.

Jiang Heng looked at it and couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Han Sanping had previously mentioned that he wanted to speed up the construction of the IMAX theater, but Jiang Heng opposed this idea.

In the current domestic film market, there are still few blockbusters, except for Jiang Heng's works.

Currently, only "Hero" has been announced to be released during the 2003 Spring Festival and "The Promise" during the 2003 summer vacation.

Except when blockbuster movies are released, there are almost no people buying tickets in the IMAX theater.

After all, the effect of watching ordinary movies in an IMAX theater is not that great, but the tickets are much more expensive, and the audience will also do the math.

Looking further ahead, we can see the feedback from overseas. In Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, the box office performance was generally good. It also achieved good opening results in North America and Western European countries, but the box office was slightly lower than that of "Lion Camel Ridge".

The analysis given by the staff of China Film Group is that there are too many Hollywood films released in the same period. Although the strength of each film is not very strong, they still divert a lot of audiences.

Jiang Heng didn't know what to say about this.

For some people, being famous is a mystery, and for a movie, whether it performs well at the box office is also a mystery.

It is not uncommon for a movie of good quality to be a box office hit, and it is not uncommon for a bad movie to become a big hit.

Although "Splitting the Mountain to Save Mother" is not particularly outstanding, it is a popcorn movie of acceptable quality and will have no problem recovering its costs and making a little extra money.

After reading the report, I signed a few more documents before going to the set to continue filming.

"Good morning, Director Jiang!"

"Good morning, Master. You're here so early!"

"Well, Director Jiang, after this shoot, is there any follow-up?"

Wu Aizu was one of the few people in the entire crew who saw the complete script. After "The Matrix 3", the story of the entire series came to an end.

To be honest, he was very reluctant.

Five years ago, he was just a poor boy who went out traveling right after graduation and spent all his money. He originally just wanted to be a model to earn some money.

Who would have thought that he would become an international superstar after starring in his first movie?

Now that the trilogy has been completed, I feel really sad!
What's more, I'm confused.

Although he is known as an international superstar, his box office hits are all directed by Jiang Heng.

Even if he participated in low-cost films produced by other companies, they would not sell much at the box office.

After finishing filming "The Matrix", he still didn't know the future development direction.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Heng said: "Well, this trilogy is over, and the story is over. There will not be a fourth part!"

"Oh, that's quite a pity!" Wu Qizu sighed.

Jiang Heng smiled, "Don't worry, you can take pictures!"

Although the specific film was not revealed, they have already decided to use him to star in "Inception".

(End of this chapter)