( .) While the crew of "The Three Heroines of the East" was lurking in Macau for filming, Tsui Hark's "The New Shushan Swordsman" quietly landed in North America. (Souduwo)
It's not an exaggeration to say it's quiet. Except for Longhu Film Company's publicity at the time of release, those theater chains were not sure how much box office "New Shushan Swordsman" would have, so they didn't seriously cooperate with the publicity at all. At most, they were at the entrance of the theater. Just hang a promotional poster.
This is the beginning of Chapter 696 of Wang Zijun¡¯s attempt to impact the North American film market after returning to Asia to make films. With Lam Ching-ying's "Mr. Zombie" as the main focus, Chinese-language ghost films will be screened.
Wang Zijun is not the only one targeting the U.S. market. Zou Wenhuai founded Pan-Asia Film Company ten years ago to distribute Chinese films to Europe and the United States, but it has never had any good results.
A few years ago, Golden Harvest even hired Hollywood star Burt Reynolds to star in a movie with a sky-high salary of five million US dollars (definitely not worth the price). The purpose is to break into the American film market. Since last year, many of Jiahe's commercial films have been produced in the Hollywood style, and there has indeed been some improvement in sales to Europe and the United States.
Today, Golden Harvest produces about 30 movies every year. This does not include its satellite companies. In terms of scale and negotiation, it has to outperform Xinyi City. However, it is slightly inferior to Wang Film Group - Wang's annual output in 1984 has reached 42 films, and this does not include co-productions.
In the late 1980s, the Hong Kong film industry was dominated by the three pillars of New Arts City, Golden Harvest, and Debao (Lao Wang¡¯s memory is confusing, it seems to be written as Garbo). However, the current situation is that the old company Shaw Brothers has stopped production, and Yang Ziqiong's boyfriend's Debao company has only made a few movies. Hong Kong is now in a situation where New Art City and Golden Harvest are one mountain and two tigers.
Although Wang Zijun tried his best to be a peacemaker and asked Zou Wenhuai out for dinner several times, the competition among the film companies below was still fierce.
In the United States, the large-scale studio system has been eliminated. So the competition among film companies is more healthy. But in Hong Kong and Taiwan, since production and sales are not separated, the competition between film companies is actually deeper-level competition between theater chains.
When Lu Yuntao, the chairman of Cathay Pacific Group, died in a plane crash, Cathay Pacific and China Telecom declined one after another in order to deal with their old enemy Shaw Brothers. The successor of Cathay Pacific transferred its theaters and studios to Zou Wenhuai, and this was how Golden Harvest emerged.
When Wang Zijun went bankrupt at Cathay Pacific, he foolishly wanted to compete with Golden Harvest and buy Cathay Pacific's studio in Taiwan. Thinking about it, he felt naive. He had already decided to give it to Chow Wenhuai.
Wang Zijun¡¯s films later became big hits in Hong Kong. Initially, it took advantage of the contradiction between Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers, relying on Golden Harvest's theater chains and retail cinemas to gain a foothold. It was not until Wang's own theater chain was established in Hong Kong that he finally gained a foothold. Now he has cooperated with Xiang Huaqiang to buy the Shaw Brothers theater chain. In terms of the strength of the theater chain, it has already surpassed Golden Harvest.
Wang Zijun has two theater chains, and Zou Wenhuai has one. They usually compete for film sources and audiences. From a market perspective, Wang Zijun and Zou Wenhuai just go into battle naked and fight each other.
If you want to suppress internal conflicts, you can only transfer them outwards. Neither Zou Wenhuai nor Wang Zijun wanted to fight each other to death. When the conflict between the two companies came to a head last year when Shaw Brothers finally stopped production, Wang Zijun and Zou Wenhuai unanimously focused their attention on the European and American markets.
(By the way, Wang Zijun paid for the establishment of Xinyi City, which was supposed to be invested by Golden Princess Cinemas, and Xiang Huaqiang bought the Shaw Brothers Cinemas, which was supposed to be purchased by Debao Company. The result was that Golden Princess Cinemas and Debao Cinemas The companies have now joined forces. Once Debao becomes big, Hong Kong movies will still be three pillars.)
In order to develop the European and American markets, Golden Harvest released a total of three movies to Europe and the United States last year. When the box office in Europe and the United States was the highest, a single box office reached more than 13 million US dollars. After taking into account the share of the theater companies and movie theaters, it can still get several million. This year, Golden Harvest Company, which has tasted the sweetness, is preparing to release five Chinese-language films to Europe and the United States.
Wang Zijun released three Chinese-language films in the United States at the beginning of this year. This move made Zou Wenhuai very happy. The two are competitors in Hong Kong, but they are partners in Japan. In Taiwan, Zou Wenhuai still relies on Wang Zijun for help, and in the United States, they have become entrepreneurial partners.
Because the film market for Chinese-language films in the United States is extremely immature, and most American audiences are very unfamiliar with Chinese-language films. At this time, if one more good Chinese-language film is released in the United States, it is possible to cultivate a few more Chinese-language film fans.
¡¡¡¡¡¡
USA.
In a small screening room of the Carmichael Cinema Company, swords and swords were flying on the screen, and the screen was "New Shushan Swordsman".
Michael Patrick and his father Carl Patrick are already Chapter 696, picture, background??It's all great, it's definitely going to be a hit. "
"Your idea is too risky. Mike, you have to know that we are a small community theater chain. We cannot make big mistakes when selecting films, otherwise we will lose several months of profits." Old Patrick said , "Of course, I'm not saying that this film has no merit. How about we let the next one-third of the theaters show it in secondary time slots? If the box office is good, increase the canvas immediately?"
Michael Patrick said: "What about publicity?"
Karl Patrick spread his hands and said: "This is a matter for the distribution company. Do you think a small theater chain like us needs to spend this kind of money?"
Michael Patrick said: "How can we get box office without publicity? I think we should try our best to cooperate with Longhu Film Company's publicity work." "Okay, then I will ask the people below to print a few more promotional posters. That's settled. "Carl Patrick agreed.
Michael Patrick rolled his eyes and left the screening room, complaining in his heart that his father was a stubborn old man.
On May 20, "The New Shushan Swordsman" was finally released in the United States. The screening screen was only more than 300 pieces, and it was not during prime time.
It was afternoon. In front of a movie theater in New York, Carter walked over holding the hand of his girlfriend Winnie.
"Sweetheart, is it too early to watch a movie?" Carter looked at the time and saw that it was only four o'clock in the afternoon.
"My dear, you haven't watched a movie with me for three months," Winnie said while biting her ice cream, "I'm afraid you'll say you don't have time again tonight."
"Okay, then what movie to watch? You choose." Carter said helplessly. The most important thing when watching a movie is the atmosphere. Now when watching a movie, there are only a few people in the screening hall, so there is no atmosphere at all.
Winnie complained: "Originally, I wanted to watch Zachary's "et", but you said you didn't have time. Now "et" is all gone, so I can only go home and watch the video."
"Sorry, sweetheart, it's my fault." Carter kept apologizing. As an introverted and busy IT worker, he finally found a girlfriend, but he couldn't run away easily. However, while apologizing, Carter also scolded Wang Zijun. This Zachary did not work in the computer and game console industry, but insisted on making movies without doing his job, and also fascinated his girlfriend.
Carter accompanied his girlfriend to the ticket office, and Winnie asked almost out of habit: "Is there any new film by Zachary?"
The ticket salesperson said: "There are no new films, but there is a Chinese film produced by Zachary."
Produced by Wang Zijun, this is the most powerful promotional content for "New Shushan Swordsman" in the United States. As for promotional slogans such as special effects blockbusters, it is of little use at all.
"Isn't the director Zachary?" Winnie asked.
"No, Zachary is the chief planner and producer of this movie. I heard that he also participated in the revision of the script." The ticket salesperson is obviously very skilled at his homework.
¡°That¡¯s it, here are two pictures of this moviewhat¡¯s its name?¡± Winnie then remembered that she didn¡¯t even know the title.
The ticket salesperson said: "The Swordsman from Shushan."
"Yes, I want two copies of "The Swordsman from Shu Mountain." Winnie said and took out her wallet, and Carter on the side quickly paid the money.
The two of them walked into the screening hall one after another and waited until the movie started to show. There were only 26 viewers in the entire screening hall.
Carter, who was originally going to go to bed, was attracted by the picture not long after the movie started.
"Hey, cake buyers, Chinese people can actually fly to the clouds."
"What kind of monsters are those? Are they vampires?"
"Wow, those magic props are really powerful."
""
A group of American viewers who have never seen the world exclaimed from time to time. (You are welcome to come. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
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