Chapter 228 Box Office Expectations
As for the box office performance of "Pacific Rim 2", Jiang Heng is still very much looking forward to it exceeding billion US dollars.

After all, the most suitable genres for shooting special effects blockbusters are basically science fiction, mythology, monsters, mechas, and disasters.

There is always something missing if Hollywood science fiction movies are to be successfully adapted into a Chinese setting, and "The Three-Body Problem" will not be published until next year.

Mythological themes are very popular in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, but are slightly less popular in Europe and the United States, relying entirely on special effects to attract audiences.

Disaster movies are similar. Not only are they difficult to adapt, but getting them approved is also a big problem. That’s why Jiang Heng has never touched this subject in recent years.

In his opinion, the genre that is most likely to be popular in both the Eastern and Western film markets around the world is "mechs fighting monsters."

His best-performing work at the global box office in recent years was "Pacific Rim 1" a few years ago, which grossed $9.39 million.

Even "Avatar", which grossed $29 billion at the global box office a few years later, can be seen as a broad "mech fighting monsters" type of film. Its core selling point is the confrontation between modern weapons and primitive power, and its main purpose is to shock everyone who sees it.

"Pacific Rim" uses heavy mechas and ferocious monsters, while "Avatar" is a showdown between modern weapons and the indigenous people of Pandora, especially the final decisive battle, with overwhelming planes, human soldiers holding modern weapons, cool heavy exoskeleton mechas, and Na'vi riding flying birds.

Just looking at the power ratio between the two sides, the audience wants to know who will win!

The biggest flaw of the original "Pacific Rim 2" was that the originally heavy and realistic mecha was made to look slender.

To be honest, not only does it not feel heavy at all, it sometimes gives the audience a feeling of being thin-skinned, big-stuffed, and like a tin shell that could be flattened by a monster's slap.

This is easy to understand. According to original history, the total investment of "Pacific Rim 1" was 1.9 million US dollars. However, on the eve of its release, the two producers, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros., broke up, the publicity and promotion were a mess, and the global box office was only 4.11 million.

Such achievements, coupled with DVD distribution, TV on demand, peripheral development, etc., still cannot make back the investment, but the loss is not much.

So by the time the second part came around, the investment had shrunk to only 1.5 million US dollars.

I guess the investors are just trying to take advantage of the reputation and fame of the first film to make some money.

As a result, the box office performance was even worse, not even as high as "The Meg", which also had a bad reputation, but the latter had a global box office of 5.3 million US dollars.

I have to admit that monster movies generally don’t get high ratings, but their market performance is really good.

Jiang Heng's version of "Pacific Rim 2" is more shocking and realistic, whether it is mechas or monsters, and the fighting scenes are even more exciting. Even if the performance of the literary scenes is not so good, the impact on the box office will not be too great.

After all, the audience comes to see mechas fighting monsters, just like going into the cinema to watch "The Meg", but the giant shark in it turns out to be made with 5-cent special effects, which is pure money-making.

“The special effects and plot of Pacific Rim 2 are all upgraded compared to the previous film, so I believe the box office performance of this film will definitely be higher. As for whether its global box office can exceed billion US dollars, it depends on whether the audience supports it.

I believe that one day a movie I direct will be able to earn more than $10 billion at the global box office, but I really hope it will be Pacific Rim 2, because the movie carries some of my best wishes.”

Liu Yan said hurriedly: "I believe that the global box office of this movie will definitely exceed 1 billion. In addition, I will also call on my family and friends to support this movie. And the good wish you mentioned, is it the wonderful performance of Chinese mecha in the film?"

Jiang Heng nodded, "Yes, the real protagonist of the last movie was the American 'Danger Ranger'. This time, it's the turn of our Chinese 'Storm Red'."

Liu Yan's eyes instantly moistened when she heard this, and she said excitedly, "Really, Director Jiang? I'm really looking forward to it. I really liked 'Red Storm' the last time I watched it, and I will definitely watch it a few more times this time."

In the distance, Guo Fan, who was among the reporters, was also somewhat excited after listening to Jiang Heng's conversation. He thought to himself, "Director Jiang is really good at marketing. If these words are reported, the audience will definitely be excited, and many people will definitely go to the cinema to support it. Let's not talk about the overseas reaction, but the mainland may be able to make tens of millions!"

The audience further away were already shouting excitedly. Some shouted "Go Director Jiang!", some shouted "Red Storm", and some shouted "The rise of Chinese-language films!"
In short, there were all kinds of shouting, and it seemed a bit chaotic.

Jiang Heng had already finished the interview and went to the venue.

Because the film was jointly produced by iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video, China Film Group and Columbia, Han Sanping, CEO of China Film Group, Zhou Lixian, President of Columbia China, and Yu Dong, who was responsible for publicity and promotion, were all present.

At the director level, many came to "show their support", including Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang, Jiang Wen, Jia Zhangke and others.

The first few people said they came to show their support, but more importantly they wanted to be the first to see the blockbuster.

As for Jia Zhangke, it is somewhat grateful.

He had been short of funds for filming before, so he found Jiang Heng and got investment very smoothly. After a while, they became familiar with each other.

However, although he and Zhang Yimou both came from the Northwest circle, they did not have a good relationship.

In addition, the so-called Northwest Circle is neither a group nor a gang, but a nickname.

It is a title imposed on you by others. Maybe you don’t even agree with it, but you can’t do anything about it.

Unlike the Beijing circle, where people stick together for warmth and share a common hatred of the enemy, various secret struggles are prevalent in the Northwest circle.

To be specific, there are two groups in the Northwest circle. One is the "Shaanxi Gang" composed of three directors, Zhang Yimou, Gu Changwei and Wang Quanan, plus actors such as Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, Jiang Wenli, Ma Sichun and Zhang Jiayi.

The other faction is the "Shanxi Gang" composed of Shanxi directors Jia Zhangke, Ning Hao, Cao Baoping, screenwriter Liu Cixin, actor Zhao Tao and others.

The lineup of the "Shanxi Gang" is relatively weak, especially at this moment. Only Jia Zhangke and Cao Baoping have some fame, and Ning Hao, Liu Cixin and others are also well-known!
In addition, Ning Hao is currently preparing to shoot "Crazy Stone", which is also invested by iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Pictures.

The script for this film was created as early as 2000 and was originally called "Big Diamond".

In 05, Ning Hao gave the script to Liu Dehua and asked for an investment of six million.

Because Liu Dehua had already invested in several films in a row, he was only willing to give three million.

Ning Hao said that he could get five million outside.

Liu Dehua said rudely, then you should go back.

In the original history, Ning Hao couldn't find any investment at all, so he went back to get investment from Liu Dehua.

In this life, Ning Hao got Jiang Heng investment because of Jia Zhangke's introduction.

The offer was not much, only five million, so Ning Hao still had to be thrifty and try to lower the price to find actors.

Seeing that the roles played by Huang Bo, Liu Hua, Yue Xiaojun and Guo Tao did not change, Jiang Heng did not intervene.

He doesn't care about the investment returns, he just thinks talents are hard to come by!
(End of this chapter)