Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

"Bang!" A stack of newspapers fell on the table.

"Rebellious, rebellious, this Stephen Chow is really rebellious!"

In a luxurious villa in Repulse Bay, Xiang Huaqiang pounded the table angrily.

Mrs. Xiang, who was no longer as pretty as she used to be and had become as fat as a ball, picked up the newspaper. The big headline on it read: "Stephen Chow expressed his admiration for Chow Tsz-Heng and said his new movie was the most worthwhile movie to watch during the summer vacation."

The subtitle is even more direct: It is reported that Stephen Chow does not like the recently released "King of Comedy" and refuses to attend the film promotion conference.

Mrs. Xiang was flipping through the newspaper and her face visibly darkened.

After the failure of "A Chinese Odyssey", the Xiang family invited Stephen Chow back to film "The King of Comedy".

The box office of the movie is very impressive. Although it has only been released for about a week, the total box office has reached 10 million. It is not a luxury to hope that the final box office will exceed 30 million.

In order to keep up the good work, Yongsheng has already started planning its next project, and "From Beijing with Love" is already in preparation.

Although Mrs. Xiang and Xiang Huaqiang both understood that Yongsheng and Stephen Chow had a deep grudge due to some reasons that could not be disclosed.

However, Stephen Chow's move of not promoting his own movies and instead supporting the movies of Yongsheng's rival Hengyu inevitably made the two of them feel extremely bad.

"How much is the box office of "Tazza"? " Xiang Hua asked, suppressing his anger.

"It's already 18 million. The collapse of word of mouth still has an impact on this movie. The box office will definitely drop next week."

After a pause, Mrs. Xiang continued, "However, there must be no accidents. If there were more influential people like Stephen Chow to speak for it, movie fans would probably go to the theater to watch this movie."

Hearing this, Xiang Huaqiang gnashed his teeth and said, "Zhou Xingchi is an ungrateful wolf."

"I went to the theater to see it. The quality of this film is indeed very good. It can be said that it has created a new style. Zhou Ziheng himself has extraordinary appeal, and ordinary attacks cannot affect him at all."

Madam Xiang said, looking at Xiang Huaqiang, “My suggestion is that we can no longer be pioneers.

Huasheng has left, Wong Jing has withdrawn, and it looks like Stephen Chow won’t be able to stay with us for long.

Without their support, it would be of no benefit for us to go head-to-head with Hengyu.”

“I know what you are talking about. I plan to slowly withdraw from the film industry. Macau’s gaming industry is a good investment target.

I'm planning to open a bookmaker, what do you think? "

Xiang Huaqiang took a deep breath and spoke slowly.

Hong Kong films are no longer good; this is the consensus among people of insight.

Otherwise, no one would make a fuss about Zhou Ziheng introducing a Hollywood movie.

It’s not like Hong Kong has never introduced Hollywood movies.

It’s just that no one is as direct as Zhou Ziheng in planning to import and release Hollywood movies for a long time.

Zhou Ziheng was just a scapegoat that everyone was looking for.

Everyone couldn't stand him, so they put a hat on his head.

“Gambling is good and can be done for a long time.

As for movies, if there are suitable projects, you can still invest in them.

But we can't be the pioneers anymore. Golden Harvest is the most anxious one now. Their annual output is the highest among many companies in Hong Kong.

With the decline of Hong Kong films, they are the ones most affected.

It would be most appropriate to let them fight Hengyu with real weapons."

Analyzed to Madam Xiang.

Xiang Huaqiang nodded and said, "I will reduce the investment budget for Hengyu."

……

By September, Zhou Ziheng also learned that the box office of "Tazza" had exceeded 20 million.

Very good box office data.

The word of mouth was not ideal, but the audience felt that the quality of the movie was very good and some even watched it twice.

But as for the film critics, almost all of them gave bad reviews. Except for a few honest film critics, most of them were influenced by the collective influence of the Hong Kong circle. Regardless of the quality of the film, they would just say one word: "scold".

According to critics, this movie is almost the worst movie in decades.

"The plot is old-fashioned. You can tell the ending after watching the beginning."

"The shooting style is exactly the same as Peace Hotel. It is confirmed that it was shot by Wei Jiahui."

"The singer should just go back to singing! That's not how movies are made. I watched less than ten minutes into an hour and a half movie and I lost interest in watching it. What a waste of my twenty-five dollars."

However, as the movie box office continued to rise and word of mouth among movie fans began to improve, these negative reviews began to slowly decrease.

Film critics can judge the quality of a film based on their own subjective preferences.

But they still need to consider market preferences.

When the audience says the movie is good, you are still entertaining yourself by saying it is a bad movie.

This will inevitably affect your own reputation as a film critic.

Film critics also have a reputation.

Many audiences will accept the movies recommended by good film critics.

If your reputation is bad, the audience will know that what you said is different from what they saw, so they will naturally not listen to your recommendations again.

In order to protect their reputation, film critics who are careful about their reputation will basically choose to keep silent at this time.

"Tazza" did well at the box office in Hong Kong and successfully attracted the attention of film producers in other regions.

Starting from September, film producers from Taiwan, Singapore, and even Japan and South Korea began to come to us seeking cooperation.

The first film producer that Wanwan approached was an acquaintance.

It was Wang Yingxiang who spent 30 million to introduce Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West", but ended up losing a lot of money in Taiwan.

After he arrived, he offered NT$6 million, hoping to get the rights to screen "Tazza" in Taiwan.

It can be seen that after suffering losses from "Journey to the West", Taiwanese film producers are no longer as keen on Hong Kong films as before.

If a movie made NT$93 million at the Hong Kong box office in and was still a hot movie in theaters, their offer would definitely not be less than NT$ million.

But now!

First, the failure of Jigong made them realize that Hong Kong films are not 100% profitable.

At the same time, last year Hong Kong film companies collectively united to refuse to give them films, which made them angry.

In addition, now that Wanwan has established contact with Hollywood, they have no shortage of films, which makes them feel much more confident when facing Hong Kong films.

However, how could Zhou Ziheng agree to acquire the screening rights of "Tazza" in Taiwan for NT$6 million?

Let’s not talk about the quality of the movie.

Just based on the number of his fans in Taiwan, his price is more than NT$6 million.

Compared to Hong Kong, he has more fans in Taiwan.

Last year, he won the third place in the Top Ten Idols selection.

Ahead of him, there are only Andy Lau and Nicky Wu.

With this kind of popularity, even if the movie is terrible and unwatchable, the box office will still be more than six million.

So, faced with Wang Yingxiang's offer, he directly chose to reject it.

In Zhou Ziheng's expectation, he would not agree to any company's offer if it was less than NT$20 million.

And he also believes that someone is willing to pay for it.

After all, no one would have a problem with money.

(End of this chapter)