Chapter 346: No. 1 in Mainland China, No. in Film History
Chapter 346: No. in Mainland China, No. in Film History
“Hello, Director Wang. Recently, there is a voice on the Internet saying that among domestic directors, you, as a new generation director, have enough strength to replace the older generation such as Director Zhang Yimou and become the main force of our Chinese film in the overseas market.
What do you think of this kind of statement? "
In the movie theater in Shanghai, when Wang Hao heard the reporter's question, he subconsciously looked at him several times.
Of course he knew that the other party was looking for trouble. Over the past few days, as the performance of "Inception" has been getting better and better, the momentum it has created on the Internet has become increasingly huge, and the audience's response has been extremely enthusiastic, which naturally has had an impact on many of his peers.
Just the day before yesterday, Zhang Guoshi's partner Zhang Weiping blasted Wang Hao online and in the media, saying that he did not respect his predecessors and that he suppressed other films in scheduling...
Anyway, the box office performance of "The Flowers of War" is not good, and the responsibility lies with others.
Wang Hao completely ignored this unreasonable and vexatious behavior of shifting the blame.
After all, he knew that Zhang Weiping was still using the same "controversial" marketing and promotional methods that he had used in the past. To put it bluntly, he just wanted traffic and popularity, which was no different from those live-action anchors in later generations.
The more you pay attention to this kind of person, the more excited he will be. Right or wrong is not important to him. All he needs is to attract the public's attention.
So Wang Hao ignored him and continued to follow his own publicity plan.
But the majority of the public don’t seem to think so. They want to watch good movies and enjoy the fun.
"Inception" is very popular nowadays, and all topics related to Wang Hao can attract everyone's attention. So even if Wang Hao does not respond, there are always people who want to set up traps and cause trouble.
Facing the trap set by the reporter, Wang Hao was somewhat dissatisfied, but he did not lose his temper. He just thought for a moment and replied with a smile:
“Replacement… not really.
With our country's economic boom and the thriving society, everything is thriving.
In this era, the material life of the people is becoming increasingly abundant, and their pursuit of spiritual and cultural pursuits and their needs for daily entertainment will naturally increase.
As a result, China's cultural and entertainment industry naturally ushered in a golden period of rapid development.
The number of big screens began to increase, and many blockbuster movies were released. Even science fiction films like mine, which require huge investments, have found a place to survive in China.
So in this golden age where everything is competing and the market is gradually expanding.
No one can stop you from shining, but you can't cover anyone else's light either.
All of us in the cultural and entertainment industry are working to bring joy to the general public in this golden age. There is no such thing as one replacing another or one suppressing another.
Everyone is just serving the people within different scopes.
It’s like I’ve been shooting modern science fiction movies, while Master Zhang and his team are shooting action martial arts movies, ancient history movies, and modern comedies.
Does it mean that if my performance is good, the audience will stop watching other types of movies? That's impossible.
And I personally admire Director Zhang and his team very much, because they were once epoch-making filmmakers.
At that time, Chinese films developed the film market to a certain extent through their own efforts. Even under such bad market conditions, they made so many innovations and filmed and produced so many good works. This requires ability, boldness, courage, wisdom and so on.
We have been able to achieve various achievements today by continuing to move forward on the basis they have laid. They have also contributed to the current status of Chinese films, and this cannot be erased.
I just hope that I can leave something behind in the future so that future Chinese filmmakers can continue to develop in an upward and positive direction.”
Wang Hao's speech was posted online and received praise almost instantly.
Although people no longer have the same admiration for older generation directors and artists like Zhang Guoshi, it is not yet the era when the post-00s will be in power ten years from now. People are not interested in such authority, but they do not reject it either.
If Wang Hao behaves too ostentatiously, it will easily cause many people to feel disgusted.
And what he said now is seen by everyone as polite, humble and friendly, a manifestation of high emotional intelligence.
In addition, he is very outstanding and has achievements, so he is naturally more popular among movie fans and audiences.
The key point is that Wang Hao also gave Zhang Yimou face. If the other party continued to refuse to give in at this time, then in the eyes of others, Zhang Yimou would be bullying the weak and showing off his seniority.
It’s a pity that many people still overestimate Zhang Weiping’s moral level.
Even though Wang Hao had said this, Zhang Weiping continued to attack him online, saying that the failure of "The Flowers of War" in North America was mainly due to the interference of two major Japanese film companies in Hollywood, who rejected the film on the grounds of sensitive subject matter.
It is said that Wang Hao was behind this. It was for the sake of his own "Inception" that Wang Hao teamed up with Sony Pictures to target the "patriotic film" "The Flowers of War".
He even said that the reason why "The Flowers of War" was eliminated at the Golden Globe Awards was because Wang Hao influenced the judges.
However, just when everyone was ready to continue having fun, Zhang Yimou, who had always been in sync with Zhang Weiping, stood up this time and published a long review of "Inception" on the Internet in his own name.
This long review did not disparage "Inception". On the contrary, Zhang Yimou actually praised Wang Hao's movie in his review.
From the creation of plot content to the picture shots, from 3D technology to visual effects, Master Zhang was generous with his praises. At the same time, his words were meaningful and his analysis was very logical. He can be said to be the most professional and authoritative review of "Inception".
At the end of this film review, Zhang Yimou also wrote:
“When it comes to making movies, I actually always have a sense of urgency.
I don’t know how long I can continue to shoot. I don’t know where the future of Chinese films will go. I don’t know if this industry still needs me to contribute.
But now, after watching "Inception", this sense of urgency suddenly disappeared.
I feel relaxed and happy.
Because I know that Chinese films have always been on the right path of development.
As long as we have talented young directors like Wang Hao and tens of thousands of young filmmakers, Chinese films will be able to continue to serve the masses and bring more joy and enjoyment."
Zhang Yimou's words almost seemed to put an end to the previous online debate, personally putting the hat of the successor of Huaxia Film on Wang Hao's head and acknowledging his status in the film industry. At the same time, his behavior also made Zhang Weiping a clown.
After all, even the director of "The Flowers of War" admits that he is inferior to him, so what qualifications do you, a producer, have to jump up and down?
Not to mention how angry Zhang Weiping was because of Zhang Yimou's backstabbing, when Wang Hao, who was doing promotional activities in the mountain city, heard the news, he couldn't help but laugh.
Of course he knew that Zhang Yimou was trying to help him, but he also knew that the conflict between him and Zhang Weiping had reached a point where it could not be resolved.
In fact, the conflict between the two Zhangs had already begun to show signs a few years ago. As a great director, Zhang Yimou still has some artistic pursuits, while Zhang Weiping is purely a speculative businessman.
These two people worked together before, and at the beginning they could probably be considered complementary.
Zhang Yimou's films provide excellent content, while Zhang Weiping's publicity expands their influence.
But as the cooperation lasts longer, the contradiction between the two naturally expands.
Especially in Zhang Yimou's last film "The Flowers of War" and this one "The Flowers of War", Zhang Weiping, whose personality became more and more arrogant, actually began to forcibly interfere with Zhang Yimou's creation.
In the matter of "Movies and TV Series", Zhang Yimou bluntly said that he wanted to make money, used Xiao Shenyang to hype it up, and cobbled together the script, making it a bad movie.
In "The Flowers of War", Zhang Weiping asked Zhang Yimou to add war elements to expand the content of the film. Later, in order to increase the selling point, he vigorously promoted the passionate scenes between Ni Ni and Bale.
This made Zhang Yimou furious, and he said that Zhang Weiping had wasted everyone's labor and was a disgrace to them.
Of course, these were just the fuse. What really accelerated the breakdown of their relationship was that Zhang Weiping owed Zhang Yimou his director's salary.
You should know that the cost of "Three Guns" is said to be over 3000 million yuan, but as far as Wang Hao knows, it is actually less than million yuan.
The film eventually earned 2.6 million yuan at the box office. Although it was far from the film company's expectation of 4 to 5 million yuan, the film was still a commercial success and made money.
However, Zhang Weiping withheld Zhang Yimou's director fee on the grounds that "Three Guns" did not make any money.
Now Zhang Weiping is using the same method in "The Flowers of War". The cost of "The Flowers of War" is announced to be 100 million US dollars, but apart from the cost of inviting Bale and Williams' explosion special effects team, the other expenses are not large.
According to the information collected by Wang Hao, the actual cost of "The Flowers of War" was at most 200 million yuan, so the movie actually made money.
However, Zhang Yimou's director salary for "The Flowers of War" was still in arrears by Zhang Weiping. How could Zhang Yimou feel comfortable about this? It was natural that he caused some trouble.
After learning the news, Wang Hao smiled and immediately contacted his own agency. He also called his mentor Tian Zhuang, hoping to use the relationship with the Shanghai Film Academy to invite Master Zhang to dinner after this matter was over.
Of course, the eating was fake, but poaching was real.
After the two Zhangs broke up, although people mostly ridiculed Master Zhang's later films, especially "The Great Wall", in fact, Master Zhang still made many successful films.
Movies like "Shadow", "Coming Home", "On the Cliff", and "As Solid as a Rock" may not be amazing, but it is rare that Master Zhang can be so productive at his age, and the quality of most of his works is above standard.
The great poet Chen and the great cannon Feng, who are at the same level as him, do not have this ability.
Moreover, Master Zhang is a man of few tricks and works diligently on making movies. It would be foolish not to recruit such a talent.
After arranging someone to contact Master Zhang first, Wang Hao continued to devote himself to the promotion activities of "Inception".
It is now the fourth week since the movie was released. Although the box office trend of "Inception" is still declining, it still earned 1.96 million yuan in the mainland.
In North America, theaters of course reduced the number of screens showing the film, but the box office results were still $9830 million.
Combined with the $7220 million in other regions, Inception's global total for its fourth week was $2.016 million.
This also means that the cumulative box office of Wang Hao's "Inception" has successfully exceeded 10 billion US dollars, making it the undisputed number one in the box office performance of a single film directed by a Chinese director.
At the same time, "Inception" also successfully surpassed the 10.402 billion box office of "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace" with a box office of 10.27 billion US dollars, and officially entered the top ten of the global movie box office rankings, ranking tenth.
This is also the first work by a Chinese director to enter the top ten of the global movie box office rankings, and its significance is immeasurable.
Almost as soon as the news was confirmed, it reached the hands of major news media and also arrived at the desks of official leaders such as Han Sanye.
In an instant, the news that #Inception is the tenth-highest film in global film history# directly ranked first on Weibo’s hot search list.
Not only that, some news that had been suppressed before, such as #Inception Movie Guide#Dream within a dream#Is Cobb still in a dream#Leo's trip to China#, etc., were all dug up and quickly pushed to the end of #Inception's tenth place in global film history#.
It can be said that "Inception" directly dominated the entire Weibo hot search list that day.
Wang Hao also received many calls and text messages on his mobile phone, congratulating the film "Inception" for its outstanding performance.
Wang Hao responded to the blessings from his good friends one by one.
As for someone like Mr. Han Sanye, Wang Hao would have to call him back in person.
“Yes, Uncle Han, this is only the fourth week. Although the box office has dropped, the film still has a lot of stamina. Tenth place is not my limit.
So let’s wait a little longer. It won’t be too late to hold a celebration party after I come back from my promotion in Japan.”
"Hahaha, since you are so ambitious, I won't rush you. I'll just wait for the good news when you come back."
Han Sanping's hearty laughter came from the other end of the phone, and he seemed very happy.
After hanging up the phone, Wang Hao boarded a plane to Japan, which will also be the last stop of the global promotional tour of "Inception".
When he returns to China, it will be the moment when he completely dominates the Chinese film and television industry.
(End of this chapter)