Chapter 45: The Hero is a Hero
Chapter 45: The Hero is a Hero
These two days, the most popular news is about Zhang Yimou. In addition to the release of "House of Flying Daggers", "Hero" has finally been officially released on a large scale in North America.
However, the release name was changed to "Heroes of Jet Li".
That’s right, in North America, the main promotional poster for “Hero” is Jet Li.
Jet Li has a strong appeal in the overseas action film industry and is known as the "King of Kung Fu". When "Hero" was first launched, it was only a three or four million US dollar project. The investor said, "If you bring Jet Li over, I will raise 30 million in financing for you."
It was because of him that Miramax spent a high price of 1500 million US dollars to purchase the copyright of "Hero".
But the film was delayed in release after the purchase, which created a rift between the producers of "Hero" and Miramax.
Zhang Chen has heard two versions of the rumor about this.
One version of the story is that after Miramax bought the copyright, it happened to be breaking up with Disney, and the two sides were fighting each other. If Miramax released "Heroes" at this time, it would be tantamount to aiding the enemy, so it definitely couldn't be released.
Later, it seemed that Quentin strongly recommended the film to Harvey. He admired Zhang Yimou very much and was even willing to sign his name as producer of "Hero". Only then did Harvey agree to release the film, and it was a large-scale release in more than 2000 theaters.
Another version is that Miramax purchased Hero solely for the purpose of eliminating competitors, which is somewhat similar to a protective acquisition.
In March 2001, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" became the best-selling foreign language film in American history after its North American box office exceeded 3 million US dollars, so the eight major production companies were all optimistic about "Hero".
After the completion of "Hero", both Warner and Sony Classics expressed their intention to distribute the film, but in the end it was Miramax that took it.
Miramax had no choice but to do this. They had invested in two blockbusters, "Gangs of New York" and "Chicago", with both films costing 2 million US dollars each, so they had to succeed and not fail.
Miramax must do its best to ensure that other films will interfere with these two films as little as possible. If "Hero" was acquired by other companies, it would likely become a strong competitor in the Christmas season that year. Therefore, Harvey relied on his relationship with Jet Li to successfully get "Hero".
After acquiring the rights, they did not release the films, just to ensure that their two films would have no competitors at the same time.
From this point of view, "Hero" is indeed quite successful, and its box office is not bad either. After three days of release, it successfully won the North American weekend box office championship, which is unique in the history of Chinese-language films.
Riding on the hot sales of "Hero" in North America, "House of Flying Daggers" became even more popular in China. Zhang Weiping was very excited about it, not only making horizontal comparisons but also vertical comparisons.
"House of Flying Daggers" grossed 5500 million in its first three days over the weekend, surpassing the previous 5240 million of "Hero".
The first-day box office of "House of Flying Daggers" was 1500 million, while last year's champion film, Feng Xiaogang's "Cell Phone", only had a first-day box office of 220 million.
Feng Xiaogang was very depressed. Why are you pulling me for no reason?
But he seemed to have forgotten that he had pulled Xiao Cui in the same way in the past.
But he couldn't refute it because they were speaking with data.
But Zhang Weiping also had some unsatisfactory aspects. According to the feedback from word of mouth, "House of Flying Daggers" was a bit popular but not well received. To use a popular saying on the Internet, the word of mouth was lousy.
People who have watched the movie have said that "House of Flying Daggers" is not good and seems like a rushed work.
Some even say it's a gorgeous pile of shit.
Zhang Weiping naturally refuted, saying that these were all bought water armies and were deliberately smearing, but the strange thing was that the number of bought water armies was increasing.
Beijing News reporter Zhang Xiaobei took the opportunity to interview Zhang Chen and wanted to stir up trouble: "Have you seen House of Flying Daggers?"
"Looked."
"How was it?" Zhang Chen said bluntly, "To be honest, I'm a little disappointed. This movie, like Hero, is aimed at the overseas market and is made for foreigners. The costumes and pictures are very exquisite, and the colors are also in the style of director Amou, just like poetry, but the plot is too dragged out, and the action design is extremely beautiful, but it doesn't look like a martial arts film. So foreigners may think it's good, but Chinese people will definitely feel cheated..."
Zhang Chen complained as much as he could, which was also a way to vent his anger for his movie being forced to be taken offline.
"You mean, "Hero" is also a piece of garbage?" Zhang Xiaobei didn't even bother to hide his little thoughts.
Zhang Chen couldn't do what he wanted, so he waved his hands and said righteously: "I didn't say that, don't write nonsense. Hero is still very good. Although it was also made for foreigners, it is much more exciting than House of Flying Daggers."
After Zhang Chen finished speaking, he turned and left, not giving the other party a chance to continue.
In fact, what he just said was not true. He also did not like "Hero". However, this movie is of great significance. The evaluation of it cannot be described by the words "good-looking or not". In the history of Chinese cinema, it is a milestone.
The film grossed 2.5 million yuan in the mainland, directly breaking the box office record of Shaolin Temple and accounting for a quarter of the total box office in the mainland that year.
It ushered in the era of blockbusters, saved the mainland market with blockbusters, and brought audiences back to the cinema.
It ranked 2667th in Hong Kong with 4 million, and was the only Chinese-language film in the top ten in Taipei with nearly 7500 million. It was the champion of Chinese-language films in South Korea with 3 million viewers, and was in the top ten in Japan with 191 billion, breaking the 40.5-year record for Chinese-language films in Japan held by "Shaolin Temple".
Moreover, "Hero" is the first Chinese-language film to open in 2000 theaters in North America, which has never happened before.
For example, when "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which was released in almost the same period, was first released, no one knew about it because it was only shown in two theaters. After it was shown for a while, everyone thought it was pretty good, so they opened 20 more theaters. After the 20 theaters were good, the number of theaters increased to more than 100, and then 200.
Secondly, the box office of "Hero" in the three largest markets in the world, China, the United States and Japan, exceeded 3000 million US dollars, which is unique in the history of Chinese-language films. Even in the future, there will still be no Chinese-language films overseas that can have a box office of 3000 million US dollars in the United States and Japan at the same time, only "Hero" can do it.
With so many firsts, even though Zhang Chen doesn't like "Hero", he can't say anything bad about it, because it is no longer just a movie, but a pioneer and pathfinder for Chinese films to go global.
"Hero" itself is a hero.
……
Zhang Chen's complaint spread throughout the entertainment industry through the media the next day.
Young Director Criticizes Zhang Yimou
"House of Flying Daggers Let Me Down"
"House of Flying Daggers: A Movie Made for Foreigners"
Zhang Weiping angrily accused Zhang Chen of disrespecting his predecessors
Reporters like Zhang Chen the most. They can get a lot of bonuses just by saying something from this guy.
Teacher Fu called again:
"Teacher, I promise that I have no opinion about Director Amou. I am simply evaluating the movie... OK, I understand. I will definitely pay attention next time..."
Only after making a lot of promises did Teacher Fu let him go.
Just after hanging up the phone, another unfamiliar number called in. Zhang Chen thought about it, answered it, and heard a voice inside:
"Director Zhang, hello, I'm Wang Jinghua..."
……
New book, please vote for me, please read it later
(End of this chapter)