Huayu is free to do as you like

The popularity of [Do You Know] has not brought much blessing to Gu Wei.

His popularity is already high enough, and no matter how the series is ranked during the promotion, [Do You Know] is a TV series with a female protagonist after all. The main content is not a plot drama, but is biased towards house fighting, with the heroine Sheng Minglan's Life as the main line.

For Gu Wei, the success of "Knowledge" is just the icing on the cake, adding another excellent TV series that has gained both ratings and word-of-mouth to his beautiful resume.

But for Zhao Liying, [Do You Know] has brought her too much.

Since "Legend of Lu Zhen" became popular, Zhao Liying has produced a hit drama almost every year, such as "Shan Shan Is Coming", "Flower Thousand Bones", "Lao Jiumen", and "Chu Qiao Biography", one after another. With the accumulation of hit TV series, her fame and popularity reached a peak in 2017.

At that time, her traffic volume almost surpassed that of other people in 85 Flowers, and only Damimi could compare with her due to the popularity of "Three Lives Three Worlds".

So at that time Zhao Liying and her team made a decision to get involved in the film field, hoping to achieve new breakthroughs and development.

I started filming "Riding the Wind and Waves" and the response was very good, with both box office and word-of-mouth success.

It's just that "Riding the Wind and Waves" is Han Han's movie. The main characters are Deng Chao and Peng Yuyan. Although the role played by Zhao Liying is the heroine, she doesn't have many roles and has no opportunity to perform. She is a borderline heroine and a vase.

Audiences will not attribute the film's success to her.

As a result, she successively starred in "Secret War" and "Journey to the West".

Speaking of which, these two movies were both co-produced with the King Aaron Kwok. When the film was released and promoted, the male lead was also played by King Kwok.

However, the producers of the film are well aware of how popular and popular Zhao Liying is at the moment, and the film's promotions focus on her.

[Journey to the West, Daughter's Kingdom] even raised the banner of "Empress Gong Ying" and promoted Zhao Liying to the sky.

But no matter how high the praise is, the fall will be severe.

"Secret War" was released in November 2017, with a total box office of less than 80 million. The box office revenue received by the producers was not enough to pay the film's protagonists.

While it was a flop at the box office, the film also had a bad reputation, with a Douban score of only 4.3, which is also a bad film and not as high as Yang Mi's "Rescue" of the same year.

There is no doubt that Zhao Liying took the blame for the failure of "Secret War", and the audience's criticism was also directed at her.

Three months later, "Journey to the West: My Country" was released during the Spring Festival.

The investment for this movie was bigger, the expectations were higher, and the publicity was overwhelming.

However, the final result gave the producers a heavy blow.

The production cost of the movie is as high as 500 million yuan, and the total box office is only 719 million yuan. According to the account sharing ratio, the revenue that the film studio can share is about 260 million yuan.

Taking into account production and publicity costs, the film studio ultimately lost about 300 million.

Of course, someone had to take the blame for such a huge loss. Zhao Liying, as the most popular star during the promotion, once again took the blame.

Two consecutive disastrous failures had a certain impact on Zhao Liying's popularity, and directors and producers in the film industry also doubted her appeal.

So she immediately took one foot back into the film industry. In order to consolidate her base, she once again took on filming TV series.

After the movie failed one after another, the results of her first TV series "You and Me" aired in 2018 did not meet expectations.

The ratings were only ranked 3 or 4 among TV dramas of the same period, and the response was mediocre.

Just when Zhao Liying herself was very anxious, [Do You Know] was broadcast at the end of the year.

The popularity of this drama finally allowed her to return to the throne of "Queen of TV Dramas" and win back a lot of popularity.

"Actually, I'm very grateful to you. In the past year or so, as you know, I have encountered some problems in my career.

If [Knowledge] hadn’t been so popular, I might have really fallen into a trough in my career.”

"You are so polite to me, who of us is following the other.

Besides, [Do You Know] is indeed a good drama, and no matter how good your acting is, I didn’t contribute much in it.”

In the evening, in the crew's hotel room, Gu Wei took a cell phone to video chat with Zhao Liying after washing up.

After the video connection that day, the two communicated more frequently, mainly talking about TV series promotion.

According to the arrangement of the video platform, before the finale of [Do You Know], Gu Wei and Zhao Liying will have an online connection and offline interview promotion activities respectively.

"You don't need to say that. I knew how difficult it was last year. The main reason was that I was too anxious and took too big steps.

It is also the success over the years that has made me a little arrogant." Opposite the video, Zhao Liying was wearing a black and white silk pajamas with a shower cap on her head. It looked like she had just finished washing.

Gu Wei smiled.

"I think you should be careful when you make movies in the future. There is a high probability that Aaron Kwok and you are not compatible. You will suffer a lot if you watch the two movies you two acted in.

Moreover, he is obviously the male protagonist, but the loss of the movie seems to have nothing to do with him. The negative impact is all on you, the heroine.

It’s okay if the movie takes the blame for the first time. It’s obviously the second time but it blames you for the failure.”

As a good friend, Gu Wei naturally looked at the problem from Zhao Liying's perspective and spoke for her.

"Teacher Guo is a superstar in the film industry, and is also the winner of the Golden Horse Best Actor and the Best Actor of the Academy Awards. I would definitely not be the same without him.

And I do have some responsibility for the movie’s failure. I didn’t choose the script in advance and I over-hyped it during the promotion.”

More than a year has passed, and now Zhao Liying looks back at the beginning and is already very calm and indifferent.

"But as you said, I may really not get along with him, and there is a high probability that there will be no chance of cooperation in the future."

Gu Wei nodded and did not dwell on this topic any more.

"Are you filming on the set now? Are you in a hotel?"

"No, I'm at home." Zhao Liying said and picked up the phone and turned it left and right to let Gu Wei see the furnishings in the room.

“We have been communicating with [Hesong Media] about the franchise at the beginning of the year, and now it has been settled, and it will be announced next month.

By the way, a few days ago I took a set of [Fashion COSMOPOLITAN] cover photos with Sister Bingbing, which you can see next month.”

“I know, I heard Li Bingbing say it at the [Weibo Night] party a few days ago.

It seems that you still haven’t given up on pursuing movies." Gu Wei thought for a while and said.

Zhao Liying smiled.

"This is also one of my dreams. How can I give up? Although I am encountering difficulties now, I have to find a way to solve it.

And even if I join [Hesong], I won’t make a movie right away. "

"Then what are your plans?"

"With the good results of [Knowledge], I plan to film more serious dramas next. Most of the dramas I acted in before were idol dramas, so this can be considered an attempt to transform.

Of course, I may have to bring some newcomers from [Hesong], which is also one of the conditions for joining, resource exchange.

As for movies, if there is a good script and a good opportunity, I will try it, but I will be more cautious."

"It's good. After all, no one can film idol dramas for a lifetime. If you change early, your artistic life can be maintained longer." Gu Wei still admires Zhao Liying.

With the current popularity and popularity of the other party, it is not easy to try to transform.

If you are willing to do it and do it with your heart, you are already better than most celebrity artists.

"Don't forget me if you have a suitable script over there," Zhao Liying said with a smile.

"rest assured."

The filming of [Life Events] went by day by day. In addition to the online promotion of [Knowledge], Gu Wei devoted himself wholeheartedly to this drama.

The time is getting closer to the Spring Festival.

The promotion of several movies released during this year’s Spring Festival has also intensified.

“According to feedback from theaters, [The Wandering Earth]’s national film schedule on the first day of release on the 5th was about 18%, second only to [Crazy Alien]’s 20%.

After us are [Flying Life] at 16% and [New King of Comedy] at 15%.

Brother Cheng Long's new drama "Detective Pu Songling" has only 7.2% of the film schedule, and the rest are films such as "Integrity", "Bear Infested: Primitive Era", and "Peppa Pig".

On January 27, when Gu Wei was on the plane back to Beijing, Yang Dan was reporting to him on the schedule of major movies for the Spring Festival.

This time he returned to the capital to attend the premiere press conference of "The Wandering Earth".

"It's only 18%. Wu Jing and I can't compare to Shen Teng and Huang Bo?" Gu Wei frowned slightly.

Although he has a very good relationship with Shen Teng and Huang Bo, and even worked as neighbors with the crew of "Crazy Alien" during the filming, he will never give in when it comes to box office.

Yang Dan smiled bitterly and said:

“Boss, the competition for this year’s Spring Festival stalls is really fierce.

Your film with Wu Jing, a film directed by Ning Hao starring Huang Bo and Shen Teng, a comedy by Xingye, a film with Han Han and Shen Teng, a film by Brother Cheng Long, etc.

With so many highly anticipated films being released together, the fact that it can get 18% of the national film schedule is because of the sake of you and Wu Jing on the part of the theaters.

I have communicated with the theaters. If "The Wandering Earth" is a military film or an action film, like "Wolf Warrior 2", the film should be at least 25% higher.

But "The Wandering Earth" is a science fiction film. You also know the current situation of domestic science fiction films. No one believes that Chinese people can make good science fiction films.

Moreover, Director Guo Fan's reputation is far behind that of Ning Hao, Han Han, and Xing Ye.

We are able to achieve the current film schedule rate only because this is the first time you and Wu Jing have collaborated since "Wolf Warrior 2".

What is really promising during this year's Spring Festival is "Crazy Alien". The comedy directed by Ning Hao has never disappointed, and it also stars Huang Bo and Shen Teng.

The theater chain believes that [Alien] has a size of at least 4 billion."

Yang Dan made it very clear, and Gu Wei also nodded to express it clearly.

"Haha. It's not surprising that sci-fi movies have been underestimated, so just wait and see."

On the surface, the competition for this year's Spring Festival stalls seems to be very cruel, but Gu Wei has never paid attention to other movies because he is confident in his box office appeal and even more confident in the quality of "The Wandering Earth"