Chapter 488

Chapter 488

Chapter 488

As a costume martial arts film, "The Blade of the Assassin" is undoubtedly at a great disadvantage in terms of subject matter.

Although martial arts novels have a large audience in China, the subject's ability to be performed on the big screen has lost a lot of appeal due to the rapid development of special effects.

After all, they are already flying in the sky, shooting lasers and flames with their hands, while you are still brandishing swords and knives on the ground, which is really not enough.

So if we count the martial arts movies in recent years, except for Tsui Hark's "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" which earned 5 million yuan at the box office, the others are not worth mentioning.

However, the quality of "The Blade of the Assassin" itself is not bad. And although it is called a martial arts film, it is actually more like a fusion of martial arts films and historical films. It tells a suspenseful story about the three brothers of the Jinyiwei who were ordered to hunt down Wei Zhongxian during the Chongzhen period of the late Ming Dynasty, but ended up being involved in a palace conspiracy.

This kind of subject matter is enough to attract more male audiences who are interested in history.

In addition, its production company is Galaxy Pictures, and its distribution companies are Tao Piao.com and Huaying Group, which is much better than the publicity and promotion treatment it enjoyed in its previous life.

So even though it was released at the same time as "Fast and Furious 7", "Knife of the Assassins" still grabbed 23% of the screenings, and the screenings were also pretty good.

Combined with Galaxy's star publicity offensive and the good reputation accumulated from the preview screenings, "Knife of the Assassin" earned 3600 million Chinese yuan on its first day of release.

This result has surpassed Tsui Hark's "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" and become a new first-day box office benchmark for domestic martial arts films.

The Hollywood blockbuster "Fast & Furious 5", which was released five days earlier than "Knife of the Assassin", occupied nearly 7% of the screenings, but faced with the impact of "Knife of the Assassin", its box office performance on the same day also dropped slightly.

This undoubtedly gave Lu Yang and the main creators of "The Blade of the Assassin" greater confidence, and they naturally began to step up their roadshow publicity work.

For several consecutive days, "Knife of the Assassin" performed well at the box office. Although it was suppressed by "Fast and Furious 7" the next day, the attendance rate dropped slightly and the box office was only 3200 million.

But soon, with the launch of the Douban and Tao Piao rating systems, "Knife of the Assassin" successfully rebounded at the box office with an opening score of 8.5, despite the pressure from "Fast and Furious 7", and exceeded 4000 million in a single day.

Soon after, film critics and media who were "friendly" with Galaxy Group also came to lend their support, praising the film as "a revival of martial arts films." Word-of-mouth spread and sparked a viewing craze, and ultimately "Knife of the Assassin" amassed a good result of 2.23 million in its first week.

Considering the film's cost of 6000 million, including publicity and promotion, this result has undoubtedly entered the profit stage.

Director Lu Yang was naturally relieved when he heard the news, and his face was full of smiles during the roadshow. Other leading actors such as Zhang Zhen, Jing Tian, ​​Wang Qianyuan, Li Dongxue, Nie Yuan, Jin Shijie and others were also very happy.

In the second week, the box office performance of "The Blade of the Assassin" was still good, and it was in a state of slow decline.

At the same time, the film's details about the Ming Dynasty's costumes and props and the social outlook of the time have also become a hot topic on social media.

After all, with the improvement of national strength, the element of "Hanfu" has become increasingly accepted and loved by the people.

When it comes to "Hanfu", Ming Dynasty clothing is undoubtedly unavoidable, especially in the movie "Embroidered Spring Blade", where the heroine Jing Tian changes her clothes in almost every shot.

Especially the horse-face skirt, Jing Tian often wore it when she followed the crew on roadshows and promotions, and she successfully became popular with this generous, simple and noble outfit with a cross-collar and horse-face skirt, and successfully started a trend of horse-face skirts in society.

Under the influence of these off-field factors, "Knife of the Assassin" also underwent pressure from "Fast and Furious 7" and once again grossed 1.8 million yuan in its second week.

In the third and fourth weeks, "Knife of the Assassin" was still extremely tenacious, and it survived very well next to "Fast and Furious 7" with its differentiated advantages.

Finally, when the movie was taken off the screen, "The Blade of the Assassin" successfully became the box office champion of the single genre of domestic martial arts movies with a good performance of 6.1 million.

As for "Fast and Furious 7", due to the interference of "Knife of the Assassin", compared with its previous box office performance of 24.26 billion in the mainland, this time it can only sigh at 20 billion.

Of course, even if the box office is less than 20 billion Chinese yuan, it is enough to make the film's producer, Universal Pictures, happy.

After all, the total global box office of this movie is only 15 billion US dollars, and the box office performance in China alone exceeds 1/5 of the total, which is enough to show how big the Chinese film market is.

This naturally led to the major Hollywood film producers paying more and more attention to the Chinese market, and as a result, they also began to pay attention to and respect the Galaxy Group, the local boss of China.

In April, when "Fast and Furious 4" was speeding along and "Knife of the Assassin" was dancing with swords, a major event also happened in the Chinese entertainment industry.

Speaking of which, this matter is also closely related to Wang Hao.

It turned out that at the end of May last year, Taiwanese writer Qiong Yao formally sued the well-known young screenwriter and producer Yu Zheng, as well as Hunan Economic TV, Dongyang Huanyu, Wanda Film and Television and Dongyang Xingrui.

The reason why Yu Zheng and these four companies were sued was because Yu Zheng, without Qiong Yao's permission, arbitrarily adopted the TV drama script created by Qiong Yao and the core original plot of the novel of the same name "The Plum Blossom Mark", adapted the TV drama script "Palace Lock and Chains", and filmed it for broadcast.

This case is not complicated. At the end of 2014, the court in Shangjing City made a verdict on the case, ruling that "Palace Lock and Key" did infringe on the adaptation rights of "The Plum Blossom Mark". Yu Zheng was required to publicly apologize to Qiong Yao, and the five defendants were required to pay a total of 500 million yuan in compensation.

Although the evidence was conclusive, Yu Zheng expressed dissatisfaction and filed an appeal.

As for compensating Qiong Yao and making a public apology, Yu Zheng would definitely not do that, so he simply disappeared.

Generally speaking, plagiarism is still very common in the film and television circles. China's economy has developed in recent years, but the protection of intellectual property rights is still somewhat imperfect, allowing many people to exploit loopholes.

Like Yu Zheng's plagiarism of "The Plum Blossom Mark" this time, and Guo Jingming's previous plagiarism case, the court also ruled that they must publicly apologize in the media.

However, the defendants often pretend to be deaf and dumb and never apologize. In the end, the matter gradually fades away and is left unresolved.

But old lady Qiong Yao was stubborn and obstinate, so under the guidance of someone with ulterior motives, she approached the Galaxy Group, no, it should be the "Creators Alliance" which has a deep connection with the Galaxy Group.

This is a folk creator organization founded by Wang Hao six or seven years ago. At the beginning, the main members of the organization were screenwriters affiliated with the Galaxy Group, as well as seniors who graduated from the Beijing Film Academy and worked as screenwriters in the industry.

Although there is a certain overlap in functions between the alliance and the Screenwriters Association, many people are aware that domestic associations, especially the Screenwriters Association, have a serious seniority system and the situation is very complicated. Therefore, the "Creators Alliance" has developed very rapidly and has absorbed a lot of young people in the following years.

Especially in recent years, as Xingdou Culture has signed more and more behind-the-scenes personnel, the "Creators Alliance" has gradually grown, its strength and influence have become stronger and stronger, and it has even been affiliated with the cultural department of Shangjing City, thus attracting a large number of cultural creators to join. Among these people are not only screenwriters for movies and TV shows, but now there are even novelists, songwriters, cartoonists and game developers.

They join the "Creators Union", pay membership fees, notarize and register their works, and enjoy the services of the copyright trading platform.

If problems arise, the Creators Alliance also has the responsibility to provide them with legal and possible assistance.

When Qiong Yao approached the "Creators' Union", applied to join it, paid the membership fees for past years, and entrusted the union to represent the copyrights of several of her works, Yu Zheng was in big trouble.

Yes, as a well-known screenwriter and producer in the mainland, Yu Chaochao has produced many popular film and television dramas in recent years, and a group of interest communities have been formed around him.

That's why he ignored Qiong Yao, an out-of-date senior from another province, turned a deaf ear to the legal verdict, and did not repent or apologize for plagiarizing.

However, the "Creators Alliance" is not Qiong Yao. The Galaxy Group behind it and the massive number of creators within it are more powerful than him when they work together.

Soon after receiving Qiong Yao's commission, the "Creators Alliance" took big action, using this name as an introduction, and took the lead in launching the "Self-Discipline Agreement of the Creation Industry" internally.

The central idea of ​​the agreement is to resist plagiarism and to severely boycott celebrities, artists, directors, screenwriters, singers and even companies with a history of plagiarism.

Launching this kind of activity at this time is obviously aimed at the plagiarism incidents of Yu Zheng and Qiong Yao, and it can also help to rectify the current chaos of rampant plagiarism in the industry.

At the beginning, Yu Zheng didn’t care much about the “Self-Discipline Agreement of the Creative Industry” of the “Creators Alliance”.

After all, the Chinese market is large enough to support more people, so there are very few so-called circles that can strictly ban someone in a certain industry.

Moreover, the "Creators Alliance" was established only a few years ago. Although it is not small in size, it has never demonstrated its strength before and seems to be extremely loose.

Therefore, Yu Zheng remains indifferent to the trend of the "Creators Alliance" in the industry.

In fact, if he had found Qiong Yao at this time, apologized and surrendered, there might have been room for negotiation and turnaround.

However, since Yu Zheng does not know what is good for him and does not realize the power of the "Creators Alliance", the alliance does not mind showing him a little bit of its power.

Soon, the "Self-Discipline Agreement of the Creative Industry" initiated by the "Creators Alliance" was recognized by most creators in the industry. Countless screenwriters, online writers, lyricists and cartoonists, both famous and unknown, signed and left their names on the agreement.

The momentum was first created with a lot of noise, but no matter how much the boycott was carried out, it seemed that it could not have any impact on the positive situation.

However, immediately after releasing the "Self-Discipline Agreement of the Creation Industry", the "Creators Alliance" launched the "Creations Blacklist" and "Risk Disclosure List" on the alliance's official website.

The "blacklist" naturally contains the names of plagiarists who have been confirmed by law. As for the "risk disclosure list", it contains plagiarism incidents that are still in the legal identification stage and are controversial but have not yet been concluded.

Of course, just putting your name on it is definitely not enough. After all, plagiarism is an act that can bring excess profits. Some plagiarists are shameless, and some plagiarizing companies dare to take risks.

Therefore, after the "blacklist" and "risk disclosure list" came out, the member companies of the "Creators Alliance" also began to speak out, stating that they would jointly boycott the people and works on these two lists in the future and cut off cooperation with them.

Of course, when we say alliance member companies, in fact they are mainly Galaxy Group, as well as some publishing houses, film and television companies and advertisers that have good relations with Galaxy Group.

But with them taking the lead, the momentum was initially created. Soon after, state-owned enterprises such as Huaying Group and Moying Group also cooperated with the "Creators Alliance" to speak out and express their resistance to plagiarism.

At this time, Yu Zheng had not yet realized the seriousness of the problem. Although the Galaxy Group was well-known in the industry, Yu Zheng did not think that Wang Hao could cover up everything.

There are still many rivals of Galaxy Group in the circle, such as new Internet capitals such as Tencent and Alibaba, as well as old forces such as Huayi, which seem to be able to compete with Galaxy Group.

However, he has also restrained himself a lot. On the one hand, he began to pass messages to Qiong Yao and the "Creators Alliance" through friends in the circle, and on the other hand, he also began to speak out on online media.

The content of the statement is also very simple. It is nothing more than confusing the concept of plagiarism and linking the conflict between himself and Qiong Yao to a clash of ideas.

At this time, he did not dare to criticize the "Creators Union". After all, he was not stupid.

Although he was not stupid, he underestimated the determination of the "Creators Alliance" to make an example of someone.

Not long after Yu Zheng spoke out, official media such as CCTV also started to intervene, calling on the industry to maintain a good atmosphere.

Well, speaking of this, the problem between CCTV and Chen Peisi had already been successfully resolved under the mediation of Wang Hao. Otherwise, they would have just boycotted plagiarism and called on everyone to pay attention to copyright, which would have been funny no matter how you looked at it.

And these were not the most severe things. As the incident escalated, the death knell for Yu Zheng was finally sounded after the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television issued a document to all major TV stations and video websites across the country.

Notice on Strengthening Content Originality Management

Just this one document has forced TV stations and video websites across the country to carry out busy self-inspection and self-correction activities.

As for how to check, just look at the “Blacklist” and “Risk Disclosure List” of the “Creators Alliance”.

So when he woke up, Yu Zheng felt like the sky had fallen, because not only were all his past works involving plagiarism unilaterally removed from the shelves by TV stations and websites, but even those companies that were in contact with his company to discuss subsequent projects kept their distance from him and terminated the cooperation negotiation process.

Some companies even filed lawsuits against him, claiming they would pursue compensation for the related losses.

By this time, when everything had settled, Yu Zheng had completely become a negative figure in the circle, and his career as a screenwriter and producer was completely ruined.

Of course, he can actually hide behind the scenes and give remote commands.

But his own screenwriting skills are just so-so. Without his own controversial personality, it is still unclear whether the work can be successful.

(End of this chapter)