Chapter 179 Investment and Box Office

After leaving Shanhaiguan, I met Zhao Benshan.

Upon hearing that Jiang Heng had arrived in Shenyang, Uncle Benshan and his disciples gave him a warm welcome.

In 04, Uncle Benshan was at the peak of his artistic career.

This year, the forerunner of the Northeast Renaissance, "Marshal Ma", was staged on stage, and "Biaoxue" gradually became a shining cultural symbol.

It was also during this period that "Liu Laogen Grand Stage" opened, and Uncle Benshan's business empire gradually took shape.

During this period, Uncle Benshan was very influential and had ambitions to enter the film industry.

Originally, Benshan Media collaborated with the great director Zhang Yimou to produce "Three Shots Surprise" and also produced "Big Laugh in the Rivers and Lakes".

In this life, it is not uncommon to set eyes on Jiang Heng.

Of course, Jiang Heng would not make a film like "Three Shots", but he still had some respect for Uncle Benshan.

Especially after he withdrew from the Spring Festival Gala, I realized how much we anticipated the Spring Festival Gala with Uncle Benshan.

Another thing is that in the second season of "The Night Watchmen of Dafeng", Jiang Heng was planning to invite him to guest star as Kou Yangzhou!
With Uncle Benshan’s acting skills, I believe he will give a good performance.

In a private room of a luxury hotel in Shenyang, people were toasting each other and drinking to their heart's content, and the atmosphere was very lively.

It was mainly because Uncle Benshan and his disciples talked in an interesting way, and bursts of laughter could be heard from time to time in the house.

"Director Jiang, I'd like to offer you a toast. In this world, the person I admire most is my master. Without my master, I would be nothing. It was he who taught me the skills. The second person I admire most is you, Director Jiang. You are so amazing that you can earn money from foreigners!"

There are so many businessmen who are very successful in their own country but are nothing when they go abroad!

Your film can earn dollars, yen, pounds, marks, francs, rubles...!"

“The ruble is worthless!”

The person who toasted was Tang Jianjun, who later played "Xie Guangkun" in "Country Love", and the person who interrupted was Tang Xiaohu, who played "Li Daguo".

The two of them sang in harmony, causing the whole room to burst into laughter.

Tang Jianjun said: "Whether it is worth money or not is not a big deal. What does it mean? It means that Director Jiang's movies are well made. If poor places like Zimbabwe where people can't even get enough food watch Inception, it means that our spiritual food is good!"

Jiang Heng couldn't help laughing and waved his hand, "It's not that exaggerated. Zimbabwe is really not that good!"

Zhao Benshan said, "You can sell them the disc. Your film has been released in so many countries. Can you sell the disc to all those that don't go to theaters?"

Jiang Heng said: "There are only about 120 countries. Apart from the ones that everyone is familiar with, the rest are basically small countries."

Everyone in the box was amazed. More than 120 countries, it was really amazing.

What’s even more amazing is that the global box office is so high. If it can break through 900 million US dollars, that would be more than 8 billion yuan when converted into RMB. How much money would that be?
For a moment, even Zhao Benshan felt dizzy and became more determined to enter the film industry.

I couldn't help but ask: "What do you think would be a good idea if we were to make a movie?"

Jiang Heng smiled. He was leading a group of disciples to a banquet and was praising them, so it was difficult to pour cold water on them.

But if you ask these people what kind of movies to make, Jiang Heng doesn't know, because they have never made any very successful movies.

Although "The Laughing Man" achieved a box office revenue of 1.56 million, its reputation was so bad that it did not actually make that much money.

Fortunately, Zhao Benshan was very smart. When he saw Jiang Heng hesitating, he realized that things were going to be difficult for him.

He laughed at himself, "Ah, actually, it's not interesting for us to make low-budget movies. It's hard to find themes and genres for blockbusters, so let's just make comedies!" Jiang Heng quickly echoed his words, "Actually, making comedy movies is a good choice. There is still a lot of room for development in this field. If there is any movie in China that can catch up with my blockbusters in terms of box office, it will be a comedy!"

After thinking about it, he added, "Military action!"

Zhao Benshan and the others automatically ignored the words "military action" and asked with surprise, "Is it really that promising?"

Jiang Heng smiled, "Feng Xiaogang's Beijing-style comedy is very successful. Although the box office is only tens of millions, it is low-cost and each one makes a lot of money!"

Everyone's face twitched unconsciously when they heard this. It was only tens of millions. Only Jiang Heng could say this. After all, the single-day box office of "Inception" was more than 60 million.

Zhao Benshan nodded slightly. "Now that you put it that way, it does make sense!"

Jiang Heng smiled when he heard this and didn't say anything else.

In fact, Uncle Benshan and his disciples are good at making people laugh, but in terms of comedy movies, it seems that due to the lack of excellent directors, no excellent movies have been released.

In this regard, she is far behind Chen Peisi.

After the meal, Jiang Heng returned to the hotel accompanied by his assistant, driver and bodyguard.

In the following days, I first strolled around Shenyang and then went to Harbin.

Harbin in 04 was still quite fashionable, but its economy lacked vitality. Jiang Heng looked around but didn't see any good investment projects, so he bought a luxury house on Youyi Road as a place to stay when he came here to escape the summer heat.

Since his rebirth, Jiang Heng has made a lot of money thanks to special effects blockbusters.

Foreign funds are mainly used to purchase real estate and stocks, such as luxury homes in the United States, Britain, and Australia, stocks of Apple, Coca-Cola, American Express, McDonald's, and those technology companies that will develop.

Domestic funds are basically invested in commercial real estate, buildings, luxury homes and land.

I will buy stocks, but I will invest in Hong Kong stocks, and I have to wait a little longer for the bull market of A-shares!
When Jiang Heng returned to Beijing, it was already late August and Inception had been completed.

The box office performance in the mainland market was fixed at 7.81 million yuan, and it did not even break the million mark.

I guess the media always say that this movie is a bit "brain-burning" and difficult to understand, which still affects the viewing choices of some viewers.

However, in Hong Kong, it achieved an excellent result of HK$7210 million (US$921 million), which was a big surprise.

In the North American market, "Inception" took in $3.2 million at the box office, ranking fourth for the year.

According to the data in Jiang Heng's memory, he should be ranked fourth in the year without a doubt.

Including the box office performance in Taiwan, "Inception" has grossed a total of US$4.3 million in the Chinese and American film markets.

Compared with Jiang Heng's other works, the advantages are not very obvious.

Fortunately, the film was very popular in Europe and Australia, and performed well in Japan and South Korea. Combined with the box office in Southeast Asia and other countries, the film's global box office exceeded the $9 million mark, reaching $9.12 million.

What is even more exciting is the positive reviews of the film from media in many countries, all of which believe that "Inception" is a rare masterpiece and worthy of awards.

Especially in Hollywood, some "agents" have called and claimed that "Inception" has a great chance of winning an Oscar, but it just requires some public relations fees to ensure it goes smoothly.

After experiencing the "information bombardment" of later generations, the so-called award selection is not mysterious at all to Jiang Heng, so he naturally will not be reluctant to spend money.

He immediately flew to Hollywood to campaign for the award.

(End of this chapter)