Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

Chapter 106 Zhou Ziheng Does Not Sell Tickets
December is not a particularly popular period.

Hong Kong’s current hot box office period is somewhat similar to that of later generations.

It is mainly concentrated in the Spring Festival and summer vacation periods.

Among them, the Spring Festival period is the hottest. Stephen Chow, the most popular movie star in Hong Kong, is the overlord of this period. He has killed other movies in this period for three consecutive years, and only Jackie Chan can compete with him.

Therefore, UFO has never considered the Spring Festival period.

That's not something that ordinary people can get involved in.

Even if Zhou Ziheng is very popular and is the most popular singer this year, it won’t work.

If he dares to enter the Spring Festival period, Stephen Chow will teach him a lesson in every minute and let him know who is the boss during this period.

Therefore, after the movie was finished, UFO chose to release it during the small Christmas season.

Hong Kong people are exposed to a lot of European and American culture, and many of them celebrate Christmas.

Therefore, students will also have holidays during this festival. Although the holiday will not be for a few days, due to the festive atmosphere, many people will still go to the cinema.

Originally, UFO Company's plan was to only have "The Money Grabbers" by the Xu Brothers as its rival during this period.

And because UFO company had a certain investment in this movie, the release time was deliberately distinguished from "The New Hard Times".

"The New Hard-Earned Brothers" will be released on the 11th, and "The Money-Grabbing Couple" will be released on the 22nd, about ten days apart.

This would prevent the two films from colliding head-on.

However, despite all their calculations, UFO Company made a wrong move.

They didn't expect that Jet Li, whose "Tai Chi Master" was just released in November, would be inserted into the Christmas season at short notice.

Who is Jet Li?
He is the second most famous movie star in Hong Kong after Cyrus, Anita Mui and Stephen Chow.

His unique action scenes have earned him a large number of fans.

It is no exaggeration to say that if one could find three movie stars in Hong Kong who would attract people to the cinema just by hearing their names.

Except Jackie Chan and the currently popular Stephen Chow.

Another person I think is Jet Li.

Even Chow Yun-fat has to stand aside.

Mainly because of style.

The styles of these three are irreplaceable.

Although Chow Yun-fat is very popular, to be honest, except for "A Better Tomorrow", his other films are not supported by his personal charm.

To put it simply, he is not irreplaceable.

And Jet Li.

Although the box office of "Tai Chi Master" in Hong Kong in November was disappointing, it could be said to have suffered a Waterloo.

But it is undeniable that he was not affected by it.

On the contrary, it is because "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" is a martial arts novel by Jin Yong, and Jet Li had previously played Linghu Chong in "Swordsman" and received rave reviews.

This makes movie fans very much looking forward to Jet Li's version of "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber".

Zhou Ziheng and others promoted "New Hard Times" on a large scale.

Thanks to Zhou Ziheng's current hot record sales and the hot influence, plus the fact that UFO company has invested a lot of money in publicity.

As a result, the expectations for "New Hard-Earned Brothers" are actually much lower than those for "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber".
On the 10th, UFO Company specially organized people to conduct random inspections in major cinemas.

Probably more than three hundred people were questioned.

The spot check results were not satisfactory.

Among the three most popular movies in the Christmas season.

About 150 people said they would watch "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber", and almost half of them were looking forward to it.

The remaining more than 100 people are half each from "The Money Grabbers" and "The New Hard-Eaters".

Obviously, the participation of Zhou Ziheng, a popular singer in the music industry, has indeed brought a lot of attention to "New Hard-Earned Brothers".

The film has received the highest exposure both in terms of media and audience.

But success is also Xiao He, and failure is also Xiao He.

Zhou Ziheng brought attention and made his fans go to see this movie.

It also made many movie fans look at this movie with tinted glasses.

They felt that although Zhou Ziheng was popular, his first drama might not be that exciting.

This is actually the disadvantage of being a top star. Leon Lai, Aaron Kwok and others all went through this.

Their films are somewhat similar to fan-oriented films of later generations.

Apart from their fans, other fans knew about the movie but did not trust him.

If word of mouth about a movie hasn’t come out yet, people generally won’t choose to watch it.

This situation was obviously not expected by the UFO.

Therefore, when the investigation report came out, Zeng Zhiwei's face turned black.

The day before, he was excited about the huge attention Zhou Ziheng brought.

Now that I've seen the investigation report, I'm completely disappointed.

That night, he found Chen Kexin.

"You probably haven't told him yet about inviting Zhou Ziheng to film a few more shows for us, right?"

"Not yet!" Chen Kexin is writing the script for his next movie.

Hong Kong is a fast-paced city.

Movies are a perfect example.

Because Hong Kong movies have been so popular in the past two years, they have a very strong appeal in Southeast Asia.

This has made Hong Kong directors become quick shooters. After finishing filming a movie today, they will start to form another crew tomorrow.

The most typical one among them is Wang Jing.

This guy has taken the idea of ​​making money for the New Year to the extreme.

I even filmed several movies at the same time.

At the end of last year, he was filming "City Hunter" for Jackie Chan while filming another movie for Yongsheng.

Because he was too busy, he even had a big argument with Jackie Chan and was finally kicked out of the crew by Jackie Chan.

Although Chen Kexin is not that busy, he is actually one of the more famous directors in Hong Kong.

There are many movie invitations.

Look, even before "The New Hard Times" was released, he was already preparing a new movie.

"That's good that you didn't say it. Let's not talk about it for now. Let's wait and see." Hearing this, Eric Tsang breathed a sigh of relief.

"You're not going to say it anymore?" Chen Kexin frowned. "What do you mean, you regret it?"

"Look, this is the result of the investigation we arranged today.

Zhou Ziheng is indeed very popular, but because of him not many people bought tickets to enter the cinema.

His records are selling well now, so his salary will definitely increase next year.

But from the looks of it, he doesn’t seem to be selling tickets.”

Chen Kexin looked at the report data, frowned, and raised his head, "Newcomers are all like this, I think you should know this situation.

When we invited Zhou Ziheng, wasn't it just for his fans?
It seems like you've set your expectations too high.

You know, the investment in this play was only about five million.

With this much investment, so much attention, and so many people willing to go to the cinema to watch it, this is actually a very good result.”

After a pause, he continued: "Also, don't forget that Zhou Ziheng can also make a difference in other markets in Southeast Asia.

Because of him, a large number of film companies will be willing to pay for the copyright of this film."

"I know, but it's not worth it!" Zeng Zhiwei has made up his mind, "The matter between Zhou Ziheng and Jacky Cheung has more or less offended a lot of people.

People including Golden Harvest and Jackie Chan don't like him.

I don’t want to offend other people because of him.”

Chen Kexin opened his mouth and wanted to say something else, but finally closed it.

UFO's major shareholder is Eric Tsang.

He only invested as a director. Although he was the boss, his say was much less than that of Eric Tsang.

“You will regret it. If you don’t quickly make an appointment with Zhou Ziheng for a film contract, you will definitely not have another chance after this movie is released.

Other companies don’t think as much as you do.”

(End of this chapter)