Chapter 468

Chapter 468

Chapter 468

Ever since Wang Hao's "Inception", when Hollywood movies were released in mainland China, there has been a regular hype of the leading stars coming to China to promote the movies.

The same is true for this "Kingsman: The Secret Service", whose leading actors have carried out roadshows and promotions in several cities across China.

Thanks to the fact that the movie was released between the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival periods, and it is a work of the Galaxy Cinematic Universe, although it is an overseas side storyline, its box office performance is still good, with a good result of 1.1 million Chinese yuan on the first day.

Following this trend, the total box office of "Kingsman: The Secret Service" in mainland China is estimated to be around 8 million to 9 million yuan.

And this is just the box office in one place. The main battlefield of "Kingsman: The Secret Service" is still in North America and Europe, especially Europe.

Compared with other Hollywood movies, this film incorporates many British elements, giving it distinctive characteristics.

For example, its action design perfectly combines the elegance of British gentlemen with the aesthetics of violence, which even surpasses the former John Woo.

When performing their missions, the agents wore well-tailored suits, carried high-tech umbrellas and various small equipment, and their movements were clean and neat, showing a kind of "elegant violence".

In addition, the photographer's use of long lenses and smooth camera movements are eye-catching.

The most classic example is Harry Hart’s fight scene in the church, which was shot in one take, with the camera following Harry’s movements, showing the chaos and violence of his fight with so many enemies.

The action scenes in the film make extensive use of such long shots and smooth camera movements, which enhances the continuity and watchability of the action and gives the audience a special experience.

Coupled with the exaggerated violent aesthetics, the originally bloody scenes are made exciting and interesting through humorous and cartoon-like treatments.

As well as novel weapons and equipment that are full of creativity and technology, such as bulletproof umbrellas, electric shock rings, poison pens and exploding lighters, the film left a deep impression on the audience and made it stand out among many action movies.

In the North American market alone, Kingsman: The Secret Service grossed more than $900 million on its first day and more than $4000 million in its first week.

Add to that the first week box office in the UK of about 1400 million pounds, the first week box office in South Korea of ​​about 900 million US dollars, and the first week box office in Japan of about 700 million US dollars... the total global box office of this movie must be at least more than 5 million US dollars.

As one of the main investors of the film, Galaxy Group can earn at least $100 million in box office profits from the project, not including the film's peripheral revenue and discs.

Don't underestimate this point. As a fashion action film, "Kingsman: The Secret Service" perfectly showcases the style of British gentlemen. Everything the agents wear and use is both stylish and eye-catching. Many brands had already rushed to acquire product placements before the filming of the movie.

Now that the movie has been released and has received a warm response, the brands are naturally very happy and are actively cooperating with the film's promotions, contributing a lot to the film's huge sales.

If you add these peripherals, discs, and videotapes, Galaxy Group's revenue from "Kingsman: The Secret Service" must be at least more than 15 million US dollars, or billion Chinese yuan.

Such a high profit, and it's just for one movie, is enough to make domestic film and television companies jealous.

However, no matter how jealous they are, it is difficult to replicate the success of the Galaxy Group.

So many years have passed. Galaxy Group started to expand overseas with "Wushuang" and conquer the Hollywood market.

Subsequent films such as "Taken 1 and 2", "Inception", "Limitless", and the most recent "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" all achieved good returns.

Although these domestic peers are jealous, they still have achieved nothing and have not been able to keep up with the pace of the Galaxy Group.

That is, Wanda Pictures has acquired a cinema chain overseas and is currently negotiating the acquisition with Legendary Pictures.

But that was just relying on the influence of Galaxy Group and its financial advantage to make purchases, and it did not really participate in the production of film and television projects in Hollywood.

The same goes for others like Tencent Pictures, China Film Group, or Magic Film. You can invest money, and those Hollywood vampires are very popular, but it is impossible to interfere in the production of other parties' films and television programs. At most, you can squeeze in a few insignificant female stars, and even these are only available in the China special edition.

Only the Galaxy Group has its own production team that can rival Hollywood, and has creative ideas and stories that fit Hollywood and the global market. It can participate in the global film and television market and earn far more profits than domestically.

Of course, in this process, the Galaxy Group also encountered many problems and troubles.

Although the film and television industry is apparently in the commercial field, it actually involves higher-level struggles behind the scenes. Westerners are not that stupid.

Many times they would also cause trouble for Galaxy Pictures' overseas branches, and their films would also encounter various different treatments when released overseas.

That is, Galaxy Group also has overseas partners such as Sony Pictures and Columbia, and later established connections with Fox and Legendary Pictures to form a small group.

In addition, since last year, China has announced that it will gradually open up the mainland film and television industry market.

Although this kind of opening is currently only aimed at Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, with this piece of meat hanging in front of them, Hollywood at least has some hope, and naturally dare not do too much to Galaxy Pictures.

However, even so, it would be difficult for Galaxy Group to transfer all the profits earned from "Kingsman: The Secret Service" back to China.

Fortunately, the Galaxy Group also has many places overseas that need money.

First of all, in terms of film distribution, Galaxy Group has been cooperating with Wanda Group since last year and has acquired several medium-sized publicity and distribution companies and small cinema chains overseas, especially in Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

This year they will also spend money in these areas to initially establish their own East Asian distribution channels, build their own base, and then expand to Europe and the United States.

Secondly, because the Galaxy Group has a far-sighted chairman like Wang Hao, they attach great importance to technology, especially scientific and technological knowledge in the film and television industry.

At present, Galaxy Group has invested in many small start-ups overseas, and its research directions are mainly in the fields of graphics processing, optical equipment, AI intelligence and digital humans. Especially AI intelligence, when Wang Hao traveled through time, it was the time when various AI concepts emerged. The emergence of this new technology not only changed the way of content creation, but also had a profound impact on the entire industry chain.

In the future, directors can use AI to quickly generate storyboards, screenwriters can use AI to assist in writing scripts, and even special effects teams can use AI to automatically generate complex visual effects.

With the help of new technologies, one person can even independently produce many wonderful film and television works with the cooperation of AI.

Although those AI-generated film and television works are still relatively short and there are also various problems, which require a long time to adjust, there is no doubt that the emergence of this new tool will undoubtedly greatly improve the work efficiency of professionals.

For film and television projects, time is money and efficiency is life.

In the past, the special effects processing of a special effects blockbuster might take two or three years, and thousands of people would have to work together.

With the help of AI, this time may be shortened to one or two years, and the number of staff can be reduced to hundreds.

If the filming is finished early, the production is completed early, and the film is released early, the payment can be received early, and the company will be under much less pressure.

Even though Galaxy Group is already the largest film and television company in the country, it is still a hassle to ask for money from theaters at the end of each year.

What's more, although Wang Hao does not understand AI, he has knowledge from his previous life and has heard something about the development of AI. He knows that in addition to physically stacking chips to increase computing power, this thing can also use mathematics to build a more efficient framework.

So since we have to develop eventually, instead of being strangled by others in the future, it is better to prepare for the future and start early while we still have money and opportunities.

Of course, AI and other things are long-term things, and Galaxy Group is only investing in this area and is not looking for immediate returns.

The most important thing for them at the moment is the development of the company, the construction of the [Galaxy Cinematic Universe] and the shooting of new movies.

In mid-January, when Kingsman: The Secret Service was a hit in the global market, after attending the movie premiere, Wang Hao returned to the crew of Ball Lightning to continue filming the new movie.

However, they have already completed the interior scenes at [Oriental Galaxy Cinema]. After director Wang Hao arrived, the crew quickly packed up their equipment and set off for Dunhuang City in the northwest of the country, preparing to take exterior shots there to shoot the scenes of "Capturing Ball Lightning" and "The Blue Sun Next Door".

The reason for choosing Dunhuang is that it is famous for its vast yellow sand and desolation, and there are many peculiar landforms around it, which is very suitable for expressing the mystery and unknown of "ball lightning".

In addition, the wind, sand and extreme weather conditions in the desert can add realism and dramatic tension to the film.

Dunhuang also has the famous domestic film and television shooting base Dunhuang Film and Television City, which is also known as the "Song Dynasty Shazhou City" and "Dunhuang Film City". It was built in 1987 for the Sino-Japanese co-production of the large-scale historical feature film "Dunhuang".

The overall architecture was designed by Kou Honglie, a famous artist from the Eight-Star Film Studio, with reference to the styles of ancient Shazhou, Ganzhou and Bianliang. The main street was modeled after the famous Song Dynasty painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival". The famous martial arts film "New Dragon Inn" was filmed here. Its internal infrastructure is complete, which greatly facilitates the logistical support of the crew.

Of course, Wang Hao's "Ball Lightning" did not need to be filmed in these ancient buildings, he just needed to shoot the plot of "capturing ball lightning".

The plot is also very simple. According to the description in the original book, it is just two specially modified military helicopters flying in the air pulling an electric grid. The electric grid can be added with special effects in post-production, so it is enough to shoot the two military helicopters flying in the air with a distance of one or two hundred meters between them.

However, just shooting the helicopter is not enough. If it is a plot like this, he can shoot in the vicinity of Shangjing. Even if he wants the Gobi Desert as the background, he can choose it nearby without spending more time, energy and money to go to Dunhuang.

The reason for choosing Dunhuang and the Northwest is mainly due to further considerations.

Ever since he filmed his first theatrical movie "Fatal Call", Wang Hao has been consciously showing the beautiful side of his motherland in his movies.

He is not one of those fifth or sixth generation directors who need to win awards overseas. His films are first made for Chinese people and then for foreigners. Who doesn't want to be able to proudly introduce the good things about their hometown to outsiders?

So he filmed "The Call" in Shanghai to show the prosperity of the big city; and he filmed "Source Code" to show the advanced high-speed rail in China.

Now that he is filming "Ball Lightning", he naturally turns his attention to China's northwest.

"Director, this is the location where we will shoot next."

On the plane, the assistant director sent the shooting locations and itinerary to the tablet in Wang Hao's hand.

There are a number of locations:
[Qarhan Salt Lake] is located in the Qaidam Basin in the western part of QH Province, China. Because the lake water is rich in potassium salt and various mineral elements, the lake water looks clear and green, and is called "the emerald lost in the world."

In addition, the Qinghai-Tibet Highway and the Qinghai-Tibet Railway also cross the salt lake. The roadbed is paved entirely with salt and is 32 kilometers long. The salt bridge (road) is like a jade belt, with no guardrails on the side, no bridge piers underneath, and no flowing water. The entire road surface is smooth, flat and straight. The salt bridge (road) splits the salt lake in half from the middle and is called the "Ten Thousand Meter Salt Bridge."

[Heidu Mountain] is located more than 10 kilometers northeast of Lenghu Town, Mangya City, at the junction of Gansu and Qinghai.

This is just an unnamed mountain area, not a tourist attraction, but because its surface is covered with black sand and gravel, it is also called "the place that most looks like the surface of the moon."

[Colorful Danxia], located in ZY City, GS Province, is known as "the wonder of nature". In an area of ​​more than 10 square kilometers, a variety of bright colors such as red, yellow, orange, green, white, blue-gray, gray-black, and gray-white can be seen everywhere, decorating countless gullies and hills brilliantly, showing the wonderful style of "color like cinnabar, brilliant like bright clouds".

Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Lake are located 5 kilometers south of Dunhuang City, GS Province. They are famous for the wonderful landscape of "mountain and spring coexisting, sand and water coexisting", and are praised as "one of the most beautiful scenery outside the Great Wall".

[Dunhuang Yadan], also known as the "Dunhuang Ghost City", is located at the junction of Xinjiang and Gansu. Due to lake bottom sedimentation, crustal movement, rain scouring, and strong wind erosion, a fairly regular Yadan landform was formed, which looks like a forest of strange peaks with various shapes.

[Jinta Populus euphratica Forest] is located in Chaohu Forest Farm west of Jinta County, JQ City, GS Province. It is part of the Three North Shelterbelt System and has tens of thousands of acres of Populus euphratica forest.

……

(End of this chapter)