Chapter 472: Crowded Spring Festival

Chapter 472: Crowded Spring Festival

Chapter 472: Crowded Spring Festival
February 2th is Valentine's Day in the West, and it is only four or five days away from this year's Spring Festival.

After returning to Beijing, Wang Hao gave most of the "Ball Lightning" crew members a ten-day holiday so that they could have a good Spring Festival.

As for some crew members, they still have to deal with the materials from this location shooting and will have to wait until New Year’s Eve and a few days during the Chinese New Year before they can rest.

Naturally, Wang Hao first had dinner with his fiancée Jing Tian on Valentine's Day, and then, together with a small group of crew members, devoted his energy to processing the materials.

Of course, during this process, many business documents of the Galaxy Group also needed to be reviewed by him as the helmsman.

For example, the upcoming Spring Festival period.

In 2015, we had the latest Spring Festival in history. The Spring Festival and Valentine's Day periods were combined into one. Various companies and films rushed in, and it was a bustling and noisy time with one company taking the lead and another coming on stage.

The first day of the Lunar New Year of the Sheep can be said to be the most tense day in the movie schedule in recent years.

A total of eight movies were released on this day, and the most eye-catching one was naturally "Detective Chinatown 2" from the Galaxy Group's [Galaxy Cinematic Universe] series!
The film is the sequel to the movie "Detective Chinatown". This time, Qin Feng and Tang Ren went to Chinatown in San Francisco, where they were to start a thrilling exotic adventure.

There are laughter and tears, comedy and suspense. Coupled with the reputation of the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe" and its predecessor, as well as the popularity of Wang Baoqiang, "Detective Chinatown 2" can be said to be the number one player in this Spring Festival.

In addition, there are two blockbuster movies that also belong to the first tier of the Spring Festival period, only lower than "Detective Chinatown 2", namely "Zhong Kui Fu Mo: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal" and "Dragon Blade".

"Zhong Kui Conquers the Demons: Snow Goblin and the Dark Crystal" is the only domestically produced magical special effects blockbuster in the entire Lunar New Year season. The film is jointly produced by Dasheng International Media (BJ) Co., Ltd. and Enlight Pictures, co-directed by Bao Dexi and Zhao Tianyu, and starring Chen Kun, Li Binbin, Zhao Wenxuan, Yang Zishan, Bao Beier, Jike Junyi and others.

Among them, Li Binbin's fame and status were greatly improved because of his previous performance in "Transcendence", and he then took on the role in "Zhong Kui Fu Mo: Snow Demon Spirit" at a high price.

As for Chen Kun, he is also quite famous. He used to be a popular young movie star in mainland China. He has also appeared in the post-credits Easter egg of "Source Code" in the Galaxy Cinematic Universe. It is said that he will play an important role in the movie universe in the future.

With these two people starring in the film, and the good special effects in the trailer released now, the audience's expectations are extremely high.

The only problem is that the fantasy theme has been almost overused in domestic films.

Not to mention the destruction of classics, the unspoken rule that domestic films are not allowed to have ghosts has caused everyone to collectively switch to catching monsters, and "Zhong Kui Fu Mo: Snow Demon and the Dark World" is no exception.

Under such restrictions, what new tricks can the factory flower and Sister Binbin come up with? It remains to be seen.

Another film, "Dragon Blade", is undoubtedly an ambitious work of Brother Cheng Long.

The film was produced by nine companies including Huayi Brothers, Zijincheng, and Moying, directed by Hong Kong director Li Rengang, and starred by Jackie Chan.

For this movie, Brother Cheng Long also played Hollywood cards such as John Cusack, who is familiar to Chinese audiences because of "2012", and the big-nosed uncle Adrien Brody, who is very famous among Chinese movie fans.

However, the market is not optimistic about this movie. Jackie Chan has been living off his past successes in the past two years.

Every shot in "Chinese Zodiac" can be found in "Project Condor". Just by listening to the name "Police Stories 2013", you can tell which movie it is paying homage to.

Now, "Forbidden Kingdom" has started to use the old trick of combining Chinese and Western elements. Ever since Wang Hao started this routine with "The Warriors", then "Taken", and finally promoted it with "Inception", many domestic directors have liked to use this trick, such as "The Forbidden Kingdom", which is extremely "classic".

It’s just that other directors are not as good as Wang Hao, so the effect of combining Chinese and Western styles is naturally not outstanding.

However, although everyone is using these routines, it is rare to find someone as convenient as Brother Cheng Long.

In addition to the three top works "Detective Chinatown 2", "Zhong Kui" and "Dawn Blade", the second tier is two works by Hong Kong directors heading north.

Hong Kong’s former reputation as the “Hollywood of the East” made its film and television productions popular all over the world.

However, with the continuous shrinkage of overseas markets, especially in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, coupled with the rise and encroachment of mainland counterparts, the decline of Hong Kong films has become an established fact.

There are not many local filmmakers who can truly stick to Hong Kong production, so going north has become their common choice.

There are two such works in this Spring Festival, namely "The Man from Macau 2" and "Triumph in the Skies".

In fact, "The Blade" should also be considered a Hong Kong movie, after all, its director and leading actors are from the Hong Kong circle.

However, Brother Jackie Chan's status in the industry is there after all, and it seems a bit inappropriate to put it together with "From Vegas to Macau 2" and "Triumph in the Skies", so it was promoted to a higher level.

Let’s talk about the two Hong Kong films again. The first is "The Man from Macau 2", which is also a sequel. The director is the famous Hong Kong commercial film director Wong Jing, and the starring actors include Chow Yun-fat, Nick Cheung, Carina Lau, Shawn Yue, Wang Shiling and others.

Speaking of Wang Jing, he can be regarded as an extremely special director among Hong Kong directors.

In China, although countless directors come forward to make a bunch of bad movies every year, the crown of "King of Bad Movies" has only ever been worn by Wong Jing.

But everyone is used to Wang Jing's bad movies. At least he is very sober and smart. His movies are usually bad but within an acceptable range. Although the content about shit, piss and fart is vulgar, it can still amuse the public.

Moreover, although the first "The Man from Macau" was a bad movie, it still easily earned 500 million at the box office.

Now the second movie is back with the original cast, still with the gambling film elements, plus some newcomers. Just looking at the trailer, it seems to be another comedy movie suitable for the whole family to watch during the Spring Festival.

Compared to Wong Jing's commercial films that cater to the market completely, another film "Triumph in the Skies" can be regarded as a representative of "Made in Hong Kong".

The target audience of this movie is very obvious. Although TVB is no longer in its heyday, there is still a large number of viewers who can occasionally recite the lines from those Hong Kong dramas, so naturally there is a movie version of the TV series with the same name.

The film was produced by Media Asia Films, co-directed by Wilson Yip and Raymond Chow, and starred by Louis Koo, Julian Cheung, Francis Ng, Sammi Cheng and Amber Kuo.

In terms of the lineup, it can be said to be a star-studded cast, but judging by their ages, the super luxurious lineup back then can no longer make today's movie fans scream.

Just looking at the trailer showing the couple of wrinkled uncles and aunties in love, one can only sigh: time gone forever cannot be recovered!

The only good news is that these two works at least belong to the second tier. Below them is "Wolf Totem", which cannot be categorized and is recommended to cute pet lovers, Feng Shaofeng fans, readers who still remember the novel, and fans of the director.

From the name of this movie, you might think it is an action movie, but in fact it is an art film with many special effects scenes. It can be considered a cross-track player.

In addition, the publicity and promotion were mediocre, so the public didn't pay much attention to it.

Similar to it are two variety show movies "Where Are We Going, Dad 2" and "Dad's Vacation".

Last year's "Where Are We Going, Dad?" movie shocked many people with its astonishing input-output ratio, and also made many people see the huge popularity of the variety show "Where Are We Going, Dad?"

Although many seniors in the industry have criticized and condemned this unique and novel type of film, capital is profit-seeking, and they cannot stop the shining debut of variety shows, and two of them were released this year.

No matter whether it is a movie or not, if there are people willing to watch it, there will naturally be people willing to shoot it.

However, although the movies are going to be released, the reputation of these two movies is not good after the loss of the previous movie "Where Are We Going, Dad?". According to the feedback collected from the Internet, their box office results will not be as exaggerated as "Where Are We Going, Dad?"

Of course, the Spring Festival period is also full of animated films. The intentions of these works are obvious: there will always be parents taking their children to the cinema, right? OK, what else can they watch besides animated films? It's a waste if not cheating!
Especially last year's Spring Festival movie "The Return of the Great Sage" came out of nowhere and announced the rise of Chinese animation with a box office of over 1 billion yuan, which made many people see opportunities.

Therefore, during this Spring Festival, two animated films, "New Year's Eve" and "Rabbit Hero: Legend of Qingli", will be released.

Of course, the upper limit of animated films is definitely set, and these two films do not have the reputation of "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" or "Boonie Bears".

However, with eight movies squeezed into one schedule, the competition is still very fierce. Before the movies are released, theaters have already started fighting over screening schedules and each has its own tactics.

Fortunately, "Detective Chinatown 2" has the reputation of its predecessor and the movie universe, and with the support of Galaxy Group, Huaying, Moying and Wanda, it finally grabbed 27.8%, nearly one-third of the first-day screenings.

As for after the first day, it depends on the movie’s box office performance and attendance on that day.

Wang Hao was very confident about this, because after the editing and production of this film was completed, he and several senior leaders of Galaxy Group, Wanda, Huaying and Moying had already watched the film internally, and some representatives from theater chains were also invited.

Most people have a positive opinion of this movie, saying that there is absolutely no problem with a family watching such a movie during the Chinese New Year.

So Wang Hao quickly put aside the matters concerning the Spring Festival period. What he needed to worry about at the end of the year was the company's year-end summary and analysis meeting, and the staff's bonuses, dividends, and New Year's benefits distribution.

It is difficult to conquer the world, but even harder to defend it!

After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he was racking his brains over how to enfeoff his ministers.

Although Wang Hao is not the emperor, the Galaxy Group is also a large company with many internal interests.

Moreover, last year, Galaxy Pictures, a subsidiary of the group, was listed in China. This is the first time that the company has so much money on hand. Everyone is watching and waiting for a prosperous year.

Therefore, Wang Hao has to pay special attention to how to divide the cake, especially the senior leaders of the group company. He has to inquire about the relevant dividends, bonuses and benefits.

Of course, although Galaxy Pictures has been listed, Wang Hao has always aimed to keep the company going for the long term. Naturally, it is impossible for him to use shareholders' money to pay large dividends and salaries to senior executives.

The group’s executives had no objection to this. After all, most of them knew the mission of the Galaxy Group when they joined the company.

“I just hope that, regardless of success or failure, I can leave a commentary on Chinese science fiction films for future generations.

I only hope that we and our descendants can see the bright future of the golden age of Chinese science fiction films.

I only hope that the passion will be with our Chinese filmmakers!"

Wang Hao, Zhang Yang, Li Kui and others said this in the classroom of Beijing Film Academy ten years ago. Wang Hao would repeat it every year at the annual meeting of Galaxy Group.

Everyone who joins this company has a sense of mission and is here for the future of Chinese film and television, especially Chinese science fiction films.

Even if some of them do not think this way in their minds, the Galaxy Group is just not "extravagant", which does not mean that their welfare benefits are worse than those of other companies.

Among the companies in Shangjing City, Xinghe Group is already considered a very good enterprise.

Apart from anything else, it is the only private enterprise that can provide housing to its employees.

Although there are many prerequisites for this kind of housing allocation, such as how many years you have worked in the company, getting married, the allocated house cannot be traded, and it needs to be returned when you leave the job, this has already made countless migrant workers in Beijing envious.

At least they really distribute the houses and treat everyone equally. They don't just give houses to senior managers, but middle-level managers and grassroots employees also have the opportunity.

Moreover, the geographical location of the [Galaxy Community] near [Oriental Galaxy Movie Metropolis] is also very good. It was a bit remote in the past, but with the development of the TZ area, the completion of the film and television base and the start of the [Galaxy Park], this place should become a prime location.

With housing prices soaring in Beijing today, if you go out and say that you are an employee of the Galaxy Group, you can get a house when you get married, and you will be in great demand during blind dates.

Therefore, as Galaxy Group has developed to this day, it is still very united as a whole. The atmosphere of the company is positive, healthy, and uplifting from bottom to top, and is full of young people's vitality and passion.

In order to reward the passion of these young employees, Galaxy Group will still not hold a large-scale annual meeting this year, and the money saved will be distributed to the employees below.

According to statistics from the finance and human resources departments, the bonuses to be distributed to middle and lower-level employees this year are estimated to be as high as 4 million Chinese yuan, which means each person will receive at least 5 or 6 yuan on average.

Taking into account the virtual shares held by most employees, at least ordinary employees can have a good year this year.

And because most of the employees of the Galaxy Group currently live in the Galaxy Community, some employees who are already married and have children still stay here during the New Year. They did not choose to go back to their hometowns, but instead brought their parents and family members here.

Therefore, the employees with money naturally promoted the commercial activities in [Xinghe Community] and a large surrounding area.

(End of this chapter)