"Mr. Zombie: The best summer movie to beat the heat!"
"The great director is back!"
"A great kung fu comedy that you won't see in ten years!"
Reporters from other newspapers restrained their praise of "Mr. Zombie" after watching the premiere, and there were also some mentally ill guys (in Kang Jianfei's opinion) who criticized it. But the three newspapers that Oriental DreamWorks spent money to buy advertorials from,
However, they frantically praised "Mr. Zombie" for three consecutive days before its release.
Under the influence of long-term reports, coupled with Kang Jianfei's previous reputation, on the first day of the release of "Mr. Zombie", 16 theaters including Golden Princess, Lee Stage, Watson, and Li Ge were full, and 7 theaters were fully booked.
The attendance rate is above 90%.
Such a grand occasion is in sharp contrast to the average attendance of "Happy Ghost" on its first day of release, which was less than 60%. It is even better than the performance of Cheng Long's "Junior Brother" during the Spring Festival.
The entire Hong Kong film industry was shocked. After the huge publicity and premiere of "Mr. Zombie", many people expected that Kang Jianfei's new film would be a hit. But who would have thought that "Mr. Zombie" would become such a hit?
The reason why "Mr. Zombie" caused a movie-watching frenzy is, to put it bluntly, very simple. It is nothing more than the following reasons:
First of all, of course, the publicity over the past few days has worked, and has already whetted the audience's appetite. It was only on the first day of the release that there were queues at the entrance of the cinema to buy tickets.
Secondly, Kang Jianfei's own fame, whether it is "Looking for Qin", "Shanghai Bund", "Happy Ghost", or his capture and killing of robbers some time ago, has made him a topical figure in Hong Kong;
Third, there are no other good movies during this period. Cheng Long is still filming "The Killer" in the United States, and Hong Jinbao is also producing "The Ghost". No one is competing with Kang Jianfei to compete for the audience;
Fourth. That is the quality of "Mr. Zombie" itself. No matter in terms of shooting techniques, genres, scripts, etc., this movie is among the best of this era.
Although "Mr. Zombie" was released only five years in advance, these five years were the five years of transformation, development and maturity of Hong Kong films, with a qualitative leap forward and backward!
It was shown in 23 theaters at the same time, 16 of which were full, and the remaining 7 theaters had an attendance rate of more than 90%. Such abnormal results directly shocked other filmmakers who got the news.
Even Lei Juekun and Li Maowen were frightened and did not believe the packed scene they saw with their own eyes.
Outside the ticket window of the Golden Princess Cinema, people lined up to buy tickets for more than 200 meters, blocking a nearby store and prompting the owner of that store to come to the cinema to complain.
Most of the people in line were students, and a large part were adults. Those in the front were fine, but those in the back were already impatient.
"Hey. Cut the queue, someone is cutting the queue in front of you!"
"Whoever cuts in line, come out quickly."
"No wonder we waited in line for so long and didn't move. It turns out someone cut in line."
"Pull that bad guy out quickly and beat him!"
"Who dares to touch me? My boss is Big Fei from Causeway Bay."
"You're the one I'm beating!"
"..."
The ticket buying queue suddenly became chaotic. Some people took advantage of the chaos to jump in the queue. Some people took the opportunity to take advantage of the situation, and there was a lot of noise and curses.
The cigar in Lei Juokun's hand was on fire, but the boss didn't realize it. He didn't put out the cigar until there was chaos in front of him. He said to Li Maowen: "Tomorrow, we will add an extra scene to "Mr. Zombie" and put out the "Spiritual Blood Arrow"
"Postponed screening."
Li Maowen said with emotion: "Kang Jianfei will be a super director from now on. If the current momentum can be maintained for a few more days, "Mr. Zombie" may have a box office of close to 20 million."
…………
…………
Zou Wenhuai has been very irritable these past two days. Due to the strong release of "Mr. Zombie", it directly sucked away the audience. As a result, the attendance rate of movies released in Shaw Brothers theaters was less than 40%.
"Dong dong dong!" There was a knock on the door.
Zou Wenhuai put down the pen in his hand and said, "Come in!"
The person who came in was Zou Wenhuai's assistant. He walked in quickly and said: "Mr. Zou, I just got the news that the box office of "Mr. Zombie" on the first day was 960,000. On the second day, due to the increase in screenings, the box office in a single day was 1.17 million."
"A single-day box office of 1.17 million?" Zou Wenhuai looked at his assistant in surprise. He thought his ears heard it wrong.
Damn it, there were so many movies released in Hong Kong in the first half of the year, but only 8 had a box office of over 2 million. "Mr. Zombie" actually exceeded a million at the box office in a single day, which sounds like a fantasy!
The assistant confirmed: "It is true that the single-day box office was 1.17 million, and 23 theaters showed five shows every day. All the movies released in the Golden Princess Cinema during this period gave way to "Mr. Zombie". Although "Mr. Zombie"
Attendance has dropped, but moviegoers have been surging."
Zou Wenhuai was so shocked that he couldn't open his mouth from ear to ear, and after a long time he said: "Where did this monster Kang Jianfei jump out from!"
Zou Wenhuai waved his hand and asked his assistant to go out first. Before the latter could close the door, He Guanchang walked in, pulled up a chair and sat down and said: "The box office of "Mr. Zombie" this time is too crazy."
Zou Wenhuai leaned on the leather chair and said, "Yes, the box office was so high that the audience seemed crazy."
He Guanchang suddenly laughed and said: "The higher the box office of "Mr. Zombie" is, the greater the rift between Lei Juekun and Kang Jianfei will be. I know Lei Juekun's temper. He will not be willing to let his movie be a hit in theaters.
But this film company is completely out of his control. I heard that Mecca and others are going to form a new company called New Art City. New Art City is absolutely controlled by Lei Juekun, and Kang Jianfei’s Oriental DreamWorks is still Kang Jianfei.
Totally sole proprietorship.”
Zou Wenhuai said: "You mean, after Jinbao Film Company and Xinyi City get on the right track, Lei Juekun will take action against Kang Jianfei, even at the expense of box office, to force Kang Jianfei to submit?"
"Absolutely!" He Guanchang affirmed, "However, if the box office of Jinbao Film Company and New Art City's movies is too bad, Lei Juekun will not have the courage to kill himself and will continue to cooperate with Kang Jianfei."
Zou Wenhuai remained silent. He could only wait now. Wait for Cheng Long to finish filming "The Killer's Trench" in Hollywood, and then use this Sino-US blockbuster to regain the lost scene.
…………
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"Uncle Nine!"
"Hello Uncle Jiu."
"Uncle Jiu, let's finish work and go have a drink together."
"..."
On the set of "Ghost Fighting", wherever Lin Zhengying went, everyone greeted her.
A week ago, Lam Ching-ying was just a senior martial artist in the Hong family class. However, with the popularity of "Mr. Zombie", as the leading actor, Lam Ching-ying has become an instant hit and has become a first-line movie actor in Hong Kong. He used to be called "Mr. Zombie".
People who work for Ah Ying now jokingly call him "Uncle Nine" after Lin Zhengying's name in "Mr. Zombie".
In just a few days, three film companies have approached Lin Zhengying to film movies, and all of them wanted to be the leading actor. In the past, Lin Zhengying never dreamed that he would be so famous. Even now, he feels like he is in a dream.
Feel.
Seeing Lin Zhengying coming over, Hong Jinbao asked eagerly: "Aying, how do you think this fighting scene should be filmed?"
"Let me read the script first." Lin Zhengying picked up the script and started reading it. He felt that Hong Jinbao had been much more polite to him in the past few days. However, this kind of politeness made him extremely awkward.
After increasing the number of screenings of "Mr. Zombie", its ability to attract money has been fully unleashed.
The box office on the first day was 960,000, and the cumulative box office in the first week was 7.05 million. Such terrifying box office has left others completely speechless. Six months ago, the box office of "Junior Brother" and "Happy Ghost" in two weeks was only about 8 million!
In fact, Kang Jianfei himself did not expect this situation to happen. Because the Hong Kong box office of the original "Mr. Zombie" was only a little over 20 million, and the movie ticket price at that time had already doubled from now.
Even if it is because of the strong publicity, lack of competitors, etc., Kang Jianfei thinks that a box office of around 15 million will be enough. But the current situation of "Mr. Zombie" seems to be heading toward 20 million!
In fact, Kang Jianfei still underestimated the box office gains brought by the movie's super era. It is not that Hong Kong people are reluctant to spend money to watch movies. The key point is whether this movie is worth everyone's money to watch.
Just like two years later, "The Best of Us" became the first movie to break 20 million, and it directly exceeded 26 million, far exceeding other movies of the same period.
why is that?
Because "The Best Partner" is well-produced, the audience is willing to buy tickets.
The same is true for "Mr. Zombie", which is almost flawless in every aspect. Moreover, the genre and plot are extremely novel, which ultimately resulted in incredible box office revenue.
How popular is "Mr. Zombie"?
Even TV hosts and magazine columnists mentioned "Mr. Zombie" inadvertently.
In order to increase the ratings of the variety show, LiTV specially invited the main creators of "Mr. Zombie" to be guests. At first, the director of the variety show department called Kang Jianfei to invite him. However, Kang Jianfei was quite vindictive and LiTV had not helped him broadcast the premiere before.
The screening has made him unhappy. Now when he gets a call, he doesn't even bother to contact the TV station. He just says he's not available and hangs up the phone.
As soon as Kang Jianfei put on the show, LiTV became anxious. The general manager of the TV station, Huang Xizhao, actually called and invited him personally. Now Kang Jianfei felt that he had some face, and he happily went there with his Tao Xun - the TV station wanted him to be in the recording
Blow twice during the show.
"Movie Weekly" published a special issue for "Mr. Zombie" and called it a leader among Hong Kong's new wave films. And Kang Jianfei was suddenly named a representative figure of the new wave director.
Due to the huge success of "Mr. Zombie", zombie movies have become completely popular. Before "Mr. Zombie" was finished, three follow-up zombie movies were started at the same time. It is conceivable that there will be more follow-up movies in the second half of the year.
.
Li Bihua, a now famous female writer, wrote in her column: "Kang Jianfei is a mysterious figure. The origins of many of his abilities are unknown, but his actions are often unexpected. He filmed "Happy Ghost",
Countless people followed the trend of comedy ghost movies; when he made "Mr. Zombie", countless people followed the trend of zombie movies. It seems that everything he does can set off a trend. I am looking forward to what his next movie will be.