Chapter 545 The Second Half of the Summer Vacation

Chapter 545 The Second Half of the Summer Vacation

Chapter 545 The Second Half of the Summer Vacation

"Mr. Ma Dong-seok, welcome to join the crew of Godzilla 2!"

In the office building of [Oriental Galaxy Cinema Metropolis], in the audition room rented by the crew of "Godzilla 2", director Michael Dougherty stood up with a smile and shook hands with Ma Dong-seok who was sitting opposite him.

After Wanda Group acquired Legendary Pictures, there were some benefits. At least the "Godzilla" project was transferred to them.

In Wang Hao's previous life, because Wanda Group's capabilities in film and television production were not outstanding, even if they acquired Legendary Pictures, it was difficult for them to interfere in its internal operations and film and television project production. At most, they would just be a financial sponsor and invest some money, and they mostly relied on Hollywood teams and members.

However, Wanda Group and Galaxy Group have always had a cooperative relationship, and Galaxy Group is one of the leading film and television production companies in China and even in the world.

The film industrialization system it has created is almost as good as its counterparts in Hollywood.

With Galaxy Group's help, Wanda Group's control over Legendary Pictures has been greatly enhanced. All the Hollywood teams and personnel who choose to stay are obedient.

In this case, it would be easy for Galaxy Group to ask Legendary Pictures to give Ma Dong-seok the second male lead in "Godzilla 2" as a gift to make him stand on the team.

In addition to Ma Dongxi, other Korean artists such as Crown Group, Yoona, Kim Da-mi, Choo Ja-hyun, etc., as long as they spoke out, they all gained something and were welcomed by a large number of Chinese audiences.

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After some Korean stars left, the vacant positions were quickly filled by them. Various variety shows, TV dramas, movies, advertisements, commercial performances and other collaborations came one after another. This can be regarded as a reward from the Galaxy Group to them, and also a little compensation for their loss of the Korean market.

In addition, the development of CJ Group in China has also benefited from more favorable factors, especially its products, such as Bibigo's dumplings, pan-fried dumplings, fried chicken, Korean soup, fried rice cakes, pasta and other products, which have been sold out and are very popular among the Chinese people.

Corresponding to this is the decline of Lotte Group in China, because their company's decision quickly caused a fierce response in China. The most direct choice was to boycott the company, refuse to buy their products, and stop patronizing their stores.

Don't underestimate this point. Lotte Group's choice to ignore the crisis soon showed up in its business operations and financial reports.

In just one month, sales at its stores in China fell sharply, and many stores had to be closed or sold.

According to domestic media reports, Lotte's direct economic losses in the Chinese market amounted to billions of dollars, and its operations were almost paralyzed, which was a powerful lesson for it.

However, whether it is a big stick or a sweet date, it is actually based on one's own strong strength.

Only with this as a foundation can we deal with any problem calmly.

Unfortunately, it has been 10 years since Wang Hao was reborn. The Galaxy Group is also a leader in China's cultural industry, and its film industrialization system is already mature. However, there are always some old people in this world who cannot see the trend and keep up with the times.

For example, the movie "Legend of the Gods" which was released at the end of July was a complete step backwards for the cultural industry.

The Galaxy Group has already set the example for these domestic special effects blockbusters, but they just don't want to watch or learn, and insist on sticking to their own path.

Not to mention the completely Westernized story structure of "The Legend of the Gods", just the art effects alone are full of Western style and elements.

The war between the Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty was made to look like The Lord of the Rings, but without the real texture and careful polishing of others. It had a typical web game style and light pollution. Nezha looked like a ghost doll, and the aesthetics were seriously downgraded. Netizens nicknamed it "Silver Saint vs. Gold Saint".

Even with this, it still has the nerve to call itself a domestic fantasy blockbuster, claiming to have invested 500 million yuan and gathered many superstars from the Chinese entertainment industry.

Compared with any movie produced by Galaxy Group, even those made by new directors are thousands of times better than this one.

In response to this, all the audiences who bought tickets to watch this movie on the Internet cursed the director and all the new and old actors who participated in the movie. Even though the movie emperor Tony Leung was in the movie, they still cursed him.

After all, these audiences have seen good things. Not to mention those Hollywood special effects movies, they have also seen a lot of works from Galaxy Pictures.

With these works as anchors and benchmarks, most domestic audiences can already distinguish the quality of film and television works, and know what are good special effects and good movies.

Not to mention that your special effects are better than Wang Hao's "Gravity", but at least you should be able to compare with Guo Fan's "Distortion Crisis" and Lu Yang's "Knife of the Assassin".

When Guo Fan directed his first independent film, "Distortion Crisis", he went to Japan specifically to shoot the scenes. It didn't cost 3 million yuan, and the quality of the film is top-notch.

And you only spent 300 million to shoot this?

Even most of the viewers who have watched this movie online unanimously agree that "The Legend of the Gods" is not as good as "Ghost Blows Out the Light 3: The Worm Valley of Yunnan", which is currently popular online.

At least the special effects of "Yunnan Worm Valley" are real, unlike "Legend of the Gods" which made special effects for the sake of special effects. It fully demonstrates the beautiful customs and culture of Yunnan Province.

The acting skills of Pan Yueming's Hu Bayi and Ni Ni, Jiang Chao and others are all online. Coupled with the weird and confidential adventure story, it is even more fascinating, exciting and far surpasses the terrible "Legend of the Gods".

This one-sided criticism and complaints, when reflected on the box office, would be a disaster.

After using various means to grab 34% of the screenings on the first day and earning nearly 8000 million yuan at the box office, "The Legend of the Gods" saw its single-day box office drop to 6500 million yuan on the second day of its release, and to 4000 million yuan on the third day. It just exceeded million yuan after five days of release.

This sharp decline in box office results made Xiang Tai sadly post on Weibo, and she even blamed the poor performance of the film on various external factors.

However, this summer, it was not just "Legend of the Gods" that held back Chinese films. Wang Changtian of Enlight Pictures also admitted that the box office of "Big Fish and Begonia" of more than 500 million yuan did not meet his psychological expectations.

As for other movies such as "Skiptrace", "The Lost Tomb", "So Young", "A Love So Beautiful", etc., their box office did not exceed the legendary minimum guarantee.

Not to mention that the "Rock Mastiff" invested by Huayi cost 3 million yuan but only made 3000 million yuan at the box office. From the perspective of the past, this year's summer movie has a complete range of genres, diverse styles, and excellent production. There are a large number of popular IPs and young actors involved in them, so it stands to reason that the hardware configuration is not inferior.

However, the reality of the 2016 summer season is that the IPs and young actors that were fought over by various film producers no longer seem to be a guarantee of box office success.

Even the top domestic traffic stars Wu Moufan and Liu Tianxian, their work "So Young - So You Are Still Here" only grossed 300 million yuan.

This result might have been laughable five years ago, but it would be a complete joke now.

So what if you’re a top streamer?
Whether it is a film and television company or an agency, they all suddenly realized a truth during this summer.

The so-called traffic star cannot determine whether a movie is successful or not? On the contrary, an excellent work can determine who is the traffic star.

Just like the equally young Ou Hao, the movie "The Great Wall" earned 20 billion yuan at the box office, which directly pushed him to the top position among young male artists in China, and for a time he even overshadowed Wu Moufan.

Song Zue, who is also very young, has seen his various data in the industry skyrocket after the total box office of the movie "The Witch" exceeded 18 billion.

Whether it is Weibo super topics, Douyin fans, or various brand endorsements and fashion magazines, they have all skyrocketed. She is even more popular than many popular big stars, such as Yang Mi and Liu Yifei. She is unparalleled at the moment, and all the brokerage companies are envious.

They have to invest all kinds of resources to maintain the status of a top-tier star, but the Galaxy Group itself has a strong ability to create stars and can launch two top-tier stars with just one move.

Because of this, there are even rumors that those brokerage companies want to spend a lot of money to poach Song Zuer and others, but as long as the artist has a contract with the Galaxy Group, from the top to the supporting actors, no one wants to leave.

Even many celebrity artists who have not been able to develop well in the industry have begun to think about whether they should terminate their contracts with their own companies and switch to Galaxy Group.

After all, Galaxy Group’s continued success over the years has proven that they are the strongest company in the Chinese cultural market.

There is even a voice on the Internet now, which is that the works of Galaxy Pictures can be purchased without any thinking, and you will definitely not suffer any loss.

And when the time came to August, this statement was undoubtedly confirmed again.

"Rampage", co-produced by Galaxy Pictures, Hollywood Columbia Pictures, Legendary Pictures and Sony Pictures, was released on the 12th. Other films released at the same time include "Line Walker" and "The Brink".

The former is the film version of the TV series "Line Walker", directed by Man Wai-hong, who participated in directing "A Step into the Past" and "The Best of Times", and starred by stars such as Nick Cheung, Louis Koo, Francis Ng, Charmaine Sheh, and Benz Hui. It tells the story of searching for "undercover".

The latter was directed by Benny Chan and starred by Andy Lau, Louis Koo, Eddie Peng, Wu Jing, Yuan Quan and others. It tells the story of a turbulent era of warlord separatism. The warlord commander Cao Shaolin (played by Louis Koo) was brought to justice by Yang Kenan (played by Andy Lau), the head of the Pucheng Defense Corps, for killing three people, but eventually brought disaster to Pucheng.

Both movies are Hong Kong films with gorgeous casts, but they are both from the old days.

In this era with increasingly diverse entertainment options, which young person still wants to watch these Hong Kong stars in their forties and fifties talking about love and waving their old arms and legs on the big screen?
Hong Kong films can no longer introduce new talents, have lost their own ability to generate revenue, and find it difficult to position themselves correctly in this country, which is doomed to their decline.

Even if Louis Koo’s line “I don’t eat beef” in “The Brink” goes viral on TikTok, it would just be a personal flash in the pan and would not provide any help to Hong Kong films.

In comparison, "Rampage", one of the works in the [Galaxy Cinematic Universe] series, still performs stably.

The film is mainly a sequel to the previous "Abnormality", and is still directed by Guo Fan. Most of the team members are Chinese, and the starring role is Hollywood action superstar "The Rock" Johnson.

In the film, he plays Davis Okoye, a primatologist who develops a deep bond with George, an extremely intelligent silverback gorilla whom he raised from infancy.

Just because the Brilliant Group was attacked by the United Nations and Dr. Chen Ang fled, the group’s test base in the United States was also targeted and controlled by the authorities.

During this conflict, the person in charge of a test base of the Brilliant Group chose to fight to the death and controlled the self-destruction of their test satellite deployed in space, causing the genetic medicine inside the satellite that was exposed to high-energy particle rays from space to fall on the U.S. mainland.

This drug caused the creatures that came into contact with it to mutate, not only did their size begin to grow dramatically, but they also became extremely aggressive.

George, the silverback gorilla in the zoo, was unfortunately exposed to the substance, which made Davis extremely distressed. At the same time, George's change also attracted the attention of the Sapiens company, which was responsible for taking over the American branch of the Brilliant Group.

The Sapiens company captured George, a special experimental subject. At the same time, the appearance of two other giant beasts also brought great disaster to human society.

Giant wolves rampage through the city, leaving a mess wherever they go; giant crocodiles lurk in the rivers and city sewers, launching surprise attacks from time to time.

The military and the Homo Sapiens company were greatly troubled by this and dispatched a large number of troops to deal with the two behemoths, but with little effect.

As a result, George, the gorilla who still retained his sanity, instantly became the focus of attention of the Sapiens company, and various experiments were started on him.

During this process, Davis couldn't bear to see his good friend George suffer, but when he thought of the giant beasts still wreaking havoc everywhere, he hoped that the Homo Sapiens company could develop a medicine to cure George as soon as possible.

During this period, he also met Kate (played by Wang Keying), a scientist from Sapiens. However, Kate, who had always felt uneasy about her conscience, told him that Sapiens did not actually intend to cure George. They and the US military had witnessed the terrifying power of these behemoths and believed that they had the potential to be weaponized.

Of course, the prerequisite is to be able to control these behemoths, and George, who still maintains his rationality at this time, will undoubtedly become a breakthrough.

Davis, who learned of this, deeply regretted not being able to trust George. At the same time, they also discovered that Karl Mendel, the experimental director of the Sapiens Company, had actually extracted a special serum from George, and was trying to lure the two behemoths to the vicinity of Chicago, use the serum to restore their consciousness and control them, so as to realize his own ambitions.

In order to stop Mendel's conspiracy, Davis and Kate rescued George together and helped him defeat the giant wolves and giant crocodiles in the city, successfully thwarting Karl Mendel's conspiracy and exposing the evil deeds of the Homo Sapiens Company to the world.

(End of this chapter)