Chapter 55 Another Lunar New Year
At the end of 99, the box office of the Hong Kong film industry was still very sluggish.

Among the films released during the Lunar New Year holiday, the best performing one was "Chariots of Fire 2", which only grossed over 1500 million.

However, during the Spring Festival of the following year, Liu Dehua won a box office revenue of over 3500 million with "Love alone".

It was also in this year that the former Hong Kong film box office champions, Chow Yun-fat, and Yi Cheng, all withdrew from Hong Kong's Spring Festival box office, seemingly heralding the end of an era.

Jiang Heng naturally chose to release the film during the Spring Festival.

This version of "True Men" has good action scenes, and it stars popular star Wu Weizu. Jiang Heng is also listed as the producer, so it is expected that the film will definitely make 10 or 20 million at the box office.

In mainland China, it will be released during the Lunar New Year holiday and will still be distributed by Bonanza Films.

The original film grossed 07 million in mainland China in 3400. This time, with the popular star Wu Aizu and the commercial film director Jiang Heng as the producer, and taking into account factors such as ticket prices and inflation, Jiang Heng feels that the box office result will be at least million.

It would not be difficult to make a small profit by selling the copyrights to Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

At Bonna Company, after watching the sample film, Yu Dong looked at Jiang Heng in surprise.

"This movie is good, the fighting scenes are great, especially Wu Jing. I never knew that with his baby face, he could play a villain so well!"

Jiang Heng smiled, "It's not bad to begin with. What did that look you had just now mean?"

"I heard that you left behind a storyboard when you went abroad, and Sammo Hung almost followed it to shoot the film. I thought the result would be average, but I didn't expect it to be so good. You're almost as good as Zhuge Liang's trick!"

Jiang Heng was speechless after hearing this. After a while he said, "What the hell are you talking about?"

Then he added: "No, you are well-informed. You know everything about what is happening in Hong Kong!"

Yu Dong smiled, "I have been distributing Hong Kong films for such a long time, how can I not have a few friends in Hong Kong! Let me tell you, I have already talked to Xiang Huaqiong and are preparing to distribute their "The Legend of Zu"!"

Jiang Heng was startled and asked hurriedly: "Is it settled?"

Yu Dong said proudly: "It's a must!"

"Share or buyout?"

Yu Dong lamented, "I would like to buy it out, but they won't sell it and insist on splitting the revenue."

Jiang Heng breathed a sigh of relief, "That's good, that's good!"

Although he is a major shareholder, he hardly cares about the affairs of Bonna Pictures on weekdays and almost neglects it.

It would cost a huge amount of money to buy the mainland distribution rights of "The Legend of Zu", but we would be a big loser!
Yu Dong was puzzled when he saw this, "Why, is there something wrong with "The Legend of Shushan"?"

Jiang Heng said: "That old monster Xu likes to bring his own ideas into his films. His "Legend of Shushan" has a grand concept, many characters, and he is obsessed with special effects...!"

Yu Dong murmured, "It has a grand concept, many characters, and it's obsessed with special effects...!"

Then he looked at Jiang Heng.

"What do you think I mean?"

Jiang Heng was a little confused by his gaze, but he quickly reacted, "You mean, Lion Camel Ridge has a grand concept, many characters, and it only pursues special effects?"

Yu Dong waved his hands and said, "No, no, I didn't say that!"

Jiang Heng snorted, "Although you didn't say it, I understand what you meant!"

Yu Dong smiled helplessly and didn't explain. Jiang Heng was naturally confident in his film. The plot was a little bit worse, but in terms of special effects, if it weren't for the "book production cost" limit, he could make a film with visual effects better than "Avatar" in a minute!
"Actually, what you think is not important at all. Do you know what the key to the problem is?"

"What is it?"

“It’s about finding the key problem!”

Yu Dong was a little confused. What was he saying? What did I just hear? How come I could understand each word, but was confused after hearing the whole thing?
Seeing this, Jiang Heng stopped talking about "nonsense literature".

Directly said: "The key is to pass the review!"

"Oh, from what you said, it seems like a big problem!"

"That's right! You have a wide network of contacts and managed to get the film approved smoothly."

Yu Dong said: "No problem, I'll try first. If it doesn't work, I'll have to ask Mr. Han San. He is now the 'head' of China Film Group and has a lot of influence!"

Jiang Heng nodded slightly, thinking: "When I came to the mainland, I took the initiative to cooperate with Mr. Han San. Isn't this what I wanted?"

If Beijing Film Studio had not been about to be merged into China Film Group at that time and Han Sanping had not wanted to make any mistakes, this film might have been a co-production.

As for the present moment, it can be said to have both good and bad aspects.

The good thing is that all the profits belong to you, but the bad thing is that they may be reduced to small pieces.

And every bit of money cut out is box office revenue!
"Lion Camel Ridge" is still in "post-production" and is not in a hurry to start operation. "True Colors of a Man" is a standard Hong Kong police and gangster action film, and there is nothing too extraordinary about it. After it was submitted for review, it was edited and modified a little and got the Dragon Mark. After that, Bonanza Pictures began to carry out large-scale publicity activities.

However, in the 99 Chinese New Year movie season, there wasn't a single movie that could compete.

The original Lunar New Year film was directed by Feng Xiaogang, who shot the film he had always wanted to shoot, "A Sigh", after completing the trilogy. It was not released until September 00.

In 2000, there was a masterpiece with a box office of over 1.16 million yuan, "Life and Death Choice", a rare anti-corruption drama with a box office of million yuan.

Of course, for this movie to have such a high box office, it was naturally necessary to have "booked out" the entire theater to watch it, which almost dominated the entire summer vacation.

If "Lion Camel Ridge" is released at the same time, it will definitely be affected, and the release date of "Lion Camel Ridge" may have to be moved forward!
There is still a good movie in this year's Lunar New Year period, which is "Happy Times" directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Uncle Benshan. It is a very warm movie. The blind girl played by Dong Jie is gentle and kind, which is very touching.

However, such heartwarming films usually don't have very high box office revenue.

"Happy Times" is no exception, with a box office of only over 5 million, which has almost no impact on "True Men".

However, a week before the film was released, Bonanza Pictures held a premiere, and Jiang Heng led Sammo Hung and a group of main creative staff to the auditorium.

After watching the film clips, the question-and-answer session began. But after Jiang Heng finished speaking, all the reporters asked questions about the plot of "Lion Camel Ridge".

In their opinion, "True Men" is just a rather clichéd Hong Kong-produced police and gangster action film, and they can't imagine what's new about it. They think "Lion Ridge", which cost 50 million US dollars to invest, is more worth looking forward to.

"Jiang Heng, can you tell me the estimated release date of Lion Camel Ridge?"

"Director Jiang, how would you rate Lion Camel Ridge? Can it surpass The Matrix and 10,000 Years BC?"

“Director Jiang…!”

Jiang Heng's head was buzzing with questions like this. He felt that if he didn't reveal something to everyone, these people would not let it go!
So he said, "Lion Camel Ridge is tentatively scheduled for May Day!"

(End of this chapter)