Chapter 449: The Dust Settles, Prison Storm

Chapter 449: The Dust Settles, Prison Storm

Chapter 449: The Dust Settles, Prison Storm

As a Hollywood blockbuster, "Transformers 4" is worthy of the attention that Galaxy Group has given it.

Even though they used their connections to postpone the release date by a month, the official Weibo account of the film revealed it at around 4 a.m. after Transformers was released in mainland China.

"Transformers 4's premiere midnight show grossed over 3600 million, breaking the record again."

3600 million, this number even exceeds the 2 million midnight box office of Wang Hao's "Wolf Warrior 2200", which is truly dazzling.

Some industry insiders calculated that based on the fact that more than 50% of the film’s screenings were scheduled on the first day, they estimated that the first-day box office of “Transformers 4” would most likely exceed 2 million.

This data is even close to the record set by Wolf Warrior 2 just last month, which has caused a group of mainland film and television practitioners to cry wolf. Could it be that even Wang Hao can't resist Hollywood blockbusters? Will the top spot in the domestic movie box office rankings be relocated?
In response to this, the film department's superiors specifically called on theaters at a film symposium to schedule films rationally and to appropriately support the development of domestic films.

In addition, Mr. La from Huaying also contacted Wang Hao privately, asking if he needed any help, such as extending the screening time of "Wolf Warrior 2", or asking Wanda Cinemas and Moying Cinemas to reduce the screening schedule of "Transformers 4" and so on.

Wang Hao said that it was not necessary.

"Don't worry, Mr. La. We have to win fairly. Domestic films are not inferior to Hollywood blockbusters. There is no need for such underhanded tactics!"

Wang Hao was not arrogant or underestimating his enemy. It was mainly because he remembered that the movie "Transformers 4" had not broken the 20 billion box office mark in the mainland in his previous life.

Not to mention this world, not only was the release of "Transformers 4" delayed by a month, a lot of resources were added online, and there was also a rival like "Wolf Warrior 2" ahead of it.

The summer box office market is limited, and sometimes a family may only watch a movie once. "Wolf Warrior 2" was released earlier and absorbed a lot of movie box office in advance, which naturally reduced the box office potential of "Transformers 4" in disguise.

Even though it earned 6 million yuan at the box office in just three days of release and easily broke the 10 billion mark in the first seven days, this was already the limit of its powerful publicity campaign.

Wang Hao has the data collected by Tao Piao.com on hand, and it can be clearly seen that the current single-day box office of "Transformers 4" in mainland China has begun to decline, and the rate of decline is worse than the original data of "Wolf Warrior 2".

This is enough to show that the quality of "Transformers 4" itself cannot compare with "Wolf Warrior 2". After all, it is the fourth film in the series, and it is normal for the plot content to go downhill.

Moreover, the "Transformers" series itself is not known for its plot. It is inevitable that the movie plots are all low-end, inexplicable, and ridiculous. Some netizens even commented that this is "the counterattack of the rag collectors and the rags" or "Can you please stop filming?"

That is to say, a large number of Chinese elements were added to this movie. Not only did Chinese actors Li Binbin, Han Geng, and Zou Shiming star in the film, but a large number of scenes were shot in Beijing, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Hong Kong and other places, as well as product placements for various mainland products. This made the film much more acceptable to Chinese audiences.

But even though this movie has added so many Chinese elements and its special effects are much better than "Wolf Warrior 2", "Wolf Warrior 2" is still more suitable for the Chinese audience. With this obstacle in front, "Transformers 4" will not be able to make a big splash.

Sure enough, things developed just as Wang Hao had expected. After breaking through 10 billion, the box office growth of "Transformers 4" became visibly weak.

In particular, several domestic and foreign blockbusters were released in August to grab the summer box office, which further diluted the box office potential of "Transformers 8".

In the end, this Hollywood blockbuster that Paramount had high hopes for only grossed 17.3 billion yuan in the mainland, which was more than million yuan less than its original box office revenue.

But even 17.3 billion is already amazing enough. The only good news is that "Transformers 4" is not the only one that stands out. At this time, "Wolf Warrior 2" has naturally been taken off the screen.

However, the final box office of Wang Hao's tenth movie in his life reached 22.6 billion in the mainland, once again breaking the record of the mainland movie box office rankings, and also surpassing "Transformers 4".

And this is not the first time that Wang Hao's movies have surpassed Hollywood movies. In addition to "Avatar", his previous movies have also surpassed Hollywood movies several times and became the box office champion of the year.

Therefore, this result did not surprise the public. In fact, the general public is happy to see the success of "Wolf Warrior 2".

After all, this is a Chinese director, Chinese actors, and a Chinese story. It is undoubtedly a happy and proud thing that it can defeat Hollywood's big productions.

Wang Hao also responded to this matter at the celebration party of "Wolf Warrior 2".

"Director Wang! What do you think about the fact that Wolf Warriors 2 is selling well at the box office and surpassing Transformers 4?"

“Of course I watched it with a smile.”

Wang Hao did look very happy, but as a young man with great success, he had reason to be proud. People did not feel offended by his words, and most of them just laughed out loud with good intentions.

“Just kidding, but the fact that Wolf Warrior 2 has broken 20 billion yuan undoubtedly shows that my country’s film and television industry is moving from the development stage to the mature stage, and the development speed is extremely fast, one step a year, and a huge change in five years.

I still remember when I just graduated, it was a great thing for a domestic movie to have a box office of over 20 million. Who could have imagined at that time that today's Chinese film market can accommodate a movie with a box office of over billion in the summer season alone, and at the same time allow more than a dozen movies to make a profit.

And it's not just the box office that has increased, mainland audiences' movie-watching choices and tastes have also changed.

In the past, everyone liked Hollywood blockbusters, and foreign-language films have always accounted for a high share of the domestic film market’s box office.

But in recent years, we can clearly see that domestic films are beginning to be favored by mainland audiences, and the production of mainland commercial blockbusters is becoming more mature, which is undoubtedly a very good thing.

So I hope that everyone will continue to support our domestic films and our young directors in the future. We will definitely not let you down."

The mainland entertainment industry in 14 was just beginning to catch fire. Young directors from the Galaxy who also came to participate in "Wolf Warrior 2", such as Guo Fan, Lu Yang, and Rao Xiaozhi, also had smiles on their faces.

For them, the current mainland film and television market with Galaxy Group is undoubtedly the best era.

They can't imagine the cold winter of the mainland film industry in the future. Some people will say that the audience will not go to the cinema and the Chinese film industry is facing a life-or-death situation. The domestic entertainment industry is really great. These young people have the opportunity to direct movies, with a large number of actors, excellent backstage, advanced equipment, and more types of choices. The vibrant and flourishing world is right in front of us.

La Peikang, the new chairman of Huaying Group, was also extremely happy. He had just taken over such a great political achievement after taking office. Although the movie was shot during Han Sanping's term of office, the achievement was made after he took office, so he could not help but be happy.

"China has been a land of outstanding people and rich culture since ancient times, so we naturally attach great importance to the film and television industry, and welcome everyone to invest money and energy in it.

Last year, the total box office revenue for the summer season in mainland China was 63 billion yuan, and the total number of moviegoers reached 1.82 million.

This year, in 2014, according to statistics, the mainland summer box office has exceeded 100 billion, and the total number of moviegoers has reached 3 million.

In the future, we are also certain that the domestic film and television industry will continue to flourish, and both the overall market performance and the number of moviegoers will be greatly improved.

Of course, we will face many problems and challenges in this development process, but no matter what, we have achieved such results in just a few years, and the advantage is still ours! ”

As expected, the celebration party for "Wolf Warrior 2" once again turned into an industry briefing.

There is no other way. This is also determined by Wang Hao and Galaxy Group’s current status in the industry. They must be highly tied together with relevant government departments.

With his size and influence, he already possesses the value of unity.

The simplest thing is that after Wolf Warrior 2 was released and broke 20 billion, the higher-level leadership department contacted him and helped him obtain a representative quota.

In addition, some leaders of TZ District and Shangjing City, and even higher-level leaders, visited his company and Galaxy Film Industrial Park several times, and asked him more than once if he needed any help. This is enough to show that the leaders valued him as a young director.

However, many of these things were only seen in some internal or more serious newspapers and magazines, and did not cause any waves in the popular entertainment section.

In comparison, the public's attention is more attracted by another incident happening in the entertainment industry.

However, because of this incident, major mainland film and television associations, directors associations, dozens of brokerage companies, and performance groups gathered together to hold a symposium at the call of leaders of higher-level departments.

Because of his identity, Wang Hao was naturally invited to participate.

At the symposium, the higher authorities mainly gave briefings and reminders, calling on people within the film and television industry to abide by laws and regulations, be careful in what they say and do, and set a good example for star idols.

At the same time, after the meeting, all companies jointly signed the "Anti-Drug Commitment Letter for the Entertainment Industry", stating that they would "not recruit or organize drug-related artists to participate in performing activities, and purify the entertainment industry."

It is not clear whether some people in the film, television and entertainment industries will mend their ways because of this, but the atmosphere in this period has improved a lot anyway.

Influenced by this, Wang Hao also carried out a self-examination and rectification campaign within his own company, mainly targeting the contracted personnel of Xingdou Culture. It was not limited to celebrity artists, but also those behind the scenes, even agents, assistants, drivers, etc.

But don't underestimate the influence of these people. Sometimes such things are not just the work of one person. After all, they have a lot of contact with those celebrities and artists. They might have bad intentions and drag those celebrities and artists into the water as their bad friends.

And this investigation actually caught a lot of bad apples among these people.

And after that, the personal information column of actors, stars and behind-the-scenes staff on the good production website also added information about hair testing and certification.

This is much more useful than advocating industry self-discipline, and it can be said to be cutting off the source of the problem.

Although this move caused some dissatisfaction among some celebrity actors and directors behind the scenes, who believed that it violated their privacy rights, it also won the unanimous support of the majority of producers, and the number of registered production companies on Good Production Network increased significantly.

After all, when actors, stars and behind-the-scenes people are involved in that kind of stuff, it is the producers' interests that are primarily harmed.

Even some decent actors and celebrities applauded this. You know, sometimes one person's mistake will often affect the entire project team.

Although today is not like in later generations, where idol stars’ reputations are ruined one after another, which is good for the AI ​​face-changing industry, it is not much different, and many projects are often delayed from being released because of a certain guy.

Therefore, with the screening process of HaoZuoPian.com, everyone will feel more at ease.

Amidst this chaos, at the end of August, another film from Galaxy Group, "Now You See Me", which also belongs to the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe" but was produced by Hollywood Columbia Pictures, was released in China right at the end of the summer vacation.

This movie is an overseas branch of the Galaxy Cinematic Universe and has little to do with the several movies shot by Wang Hao.

Ever since the release of Inception and Wang Hao's rejection of all overt or covert solicitations from Hollywood, he knew very well that it was unlikely for his films to achieve the same box office and reputation success as Inception in all markets around the world.

On the one hand, there is no way Hollywood would allow a foreign director like Wang Hao to conquer their territory.

On the other hand, as the main storyline of the Galaxy Cinematic Universe develops and advances, "confrontation" and "conflict" have become one of the hidden or obvious elements in his films.

Films like his "Wolf Warrior", "Gravity" and "Wolf Warrior 2" are obviously unlikely to pass censorship and be released in North America.

Even if it is released, some parts of the plot are unlikely to be liked by American audiences. This is determined by cognitive differences and is a conflict of concepts.

Even if he was Wang Hao, he couldn't change this.

(End of this chapter)