For movie enthusiasts, 1994 is definitely a memorable year. During this year, numerous classic movies were born.±,
In the West, this year there were "Forrest Gump", "Pulp", "This Killer Is Too Cold", "Speed", "The Lion King", "The Shawshank Redemption", and "Ed Wood"
, "The Year of Love", "The Man in Disguise", "True Lies", "Joan of Arc", "Red" and other films. Chinese-language films also have many good films, "Alive", "Sunny Days"
", "Eat Drink Man and Woman", "Westward Journey", "Chongqing Express", "Butterfly Lovers", "Golden Leaves", "New Love", "Domestic Lingling Paint" and other movies are the memories of a generation.
Due to the butterfly effect brought by Kang Jianfei, some movies in this time and space will never appear again. For example, "True Lies", Cameron originally wanted to make "Titanic", but he backed out because the special effects technology and funds were not fully prepared.
The second best thing to do is to make this movie first. Since Kang Jianfei captured Cameron to shoot "Jurassic Park", and Cameron has been working on the preparations for "Titanic" since then, "True Lies" will naturally not
It was filmed. Even if it were to be filmed, it would definitely not be directed by Cameron.
But more movies were not greatly affected, with only some minor changes. For example, in "The Man in Disguise", Kang Jianfei arranged for Aishwarya to be the heroine, while the female lead in "Sunny Days"
Number two was also replaced by Li Bingbing.
In Hong Kong, "New Era of Cohabitation" kicked off by Zhang Sijia in 1994. The box office of more than 20 million yuan heralded the recovery of the Hong Kong film market.
Then comes the Spring Festival holiday. Although it is the same as the Christmas holiday two months ago, there are only five Hong Kong films released, but the gold content of these five films is very high.
The film shown at Yonggao Cinema is "The Dragon Gambler's Flag Rises" jointly invested by Yonggao, Zedong and Taiwan Scholars. Although the title of this film is vulgar, the cast is not bad. There are Tony Leung Ka-fai, Tony Leung Chiu-wei, and Ekin Cheng.
, starring Wu Junru, Zeng Zhiwei, Zheng Yuling and Mak Jiaqi, etc., it can definitely be regarded as a big cast.
This film should be a discontinued production of Yonggao Film Company. Roger Cheng entered the film industry after watching the popularity of Hong Kong films. Now that the film market has shrunk and he is not good at film production, it is inevitable that the company will cease production.
matter.
In addition, Huang Baiming's Metro Pictures is also back. "The Rich Family" continues the New Year comedy style of "Happy Events in the Flower Field" and "Happy Events in the Family". It not only has Gao Zhisen as director, but also brings together Leslie Cheung,
Tony Leung Ka Fai, Mo Shun Yun, Lau Ching Wan, Wong Pak Ming and many other stars.
It is worth mentioning that the production company of this drama in another time and space was Meiya Laser. However, because Kang Jianfei established Oriental Entertainment Distribution Company early and grabbed a large share of the film and video market, the development of Meiya Entertainment was very slow.
It didn't go well, and now it's just an ordinary-sized video production and distribution company, and has not been involved in the field of film production.
Apart from these two movies, there are "Drunken Master 2" and "Kung Fu". As for the remaining movie "Dharma Master", we can ignore it, it is just a street Kung Fu movie shot by Yuan Jiaban.
At this time, the number of movie theaters in Hong Kong has dropped from the peak of 190 last year to only 142. The only ones left alive are the tenacious predators.
The five Lunar New Year movies represent the five major cinema chains, namely: "Drunken Master 2" - Golden Harvest Cinema, "Kung Fu" - Oriental Cinema, "The Dragon King" - Yonggao Cinema, and "The Rich House"
The Chinese New Year is approaching, but Chen Rongmei doesn't feel any festive atmosphere.
Yuan Jiaban's "The Patriarch of Bodhidharma" was screened in only three theaters on the second day of its release because the attendance rate was too low. The cumulative box office in five days did not exceed 1 million.
There were too many screenings of this crappy movie in three theaters, and the number of screenings was eliminated to two theaters a day.
"It's hard to make movies!" Chen Rongmei looked at the empty theater. It can no longer be described by the attendance rate. During the Spring Festival, each screening room only had an average of seven or eight viewers. Just a year ago, his
The movie theater was still making a lot of money, but who could have expected that it would be so embarrassed that it had no movies to show.
Xinbao Cinemas is the one that most relies on Taiwan-funded Hong Kong films to supply film sources among the major theater chains in Hong Kong. Now Taiwanese film companies have reduced investment, so much so that Xinbao cannot produce a good movie during the Spring Festival, which is quite embarrassing.
It has the meaning of sunset over the western mountains.
Chen Rongmei smoked a cigar dully, called for the general manager of the theater chain, and ordered: "Contact Jiahe, Metropolis, Yonggao and DreamWorks to see if they have any intention to rent the theater."
The theater manager is also helpless. The attendance rate of theaters is so low. For him, it can only be regarded as a mistake. In the past, most of the movies released by Xinbao Cinema were the works of independent film companies such as Hong Jinbao and McDonald's.
It was invested by Taiwanese financiers. Nowadays, Taiwanese financiers no longer invest money, and Hung Kim-bao and others have no films to make. When Xinbao Cinemas arranges films, they can only choose bad films to make up the number.
During the Spring Festival in 1994, a great time to make money, Xinbao could only watch others make money. Theaters in good locations were rented to other companies to screen blockbusters, while theaters in poor locations were used to show expired movies.
…
Golden Harvest Film Company.
Zou Wenhuai and He Guanchang were drinking tea and quietly waiting for the first week box office data of "Drunken Master".
Not long after, a middle-aged man in a suit knocked on the door and came in. He put a form on his desk and reported: "Mr. Zou, Manager He, "Drunken Master 2" had 13.64 million in its first week!"
"Phew!" Zou Wenhuai breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's not low anymore."
He Guanchang asked: "Is there any data on "Kung Fu"?"
Zou Wenhuai shook his head and sighed: "There is no need to know. Our current enemy is not DreamWorks, but the shrinking Hong Kong and overseas box office markets."
…
Tseung Kwan O Studios, Chairman's Office.
"Boss, the first week box office statistics of "Kung Fu" are out." Li Meifeng handed over the form and said, "16.28 million."
Kang Jianfeiyun said calmly: "I know, let's go make a cup of tea for Manager Jiang."
Jiang Zhiqiang smiled and said: "This time we win again."
"It's not interesting to be alone," Kang Jianfei threw the other two forms to Jiang Zhiqiang and said, "Look at the Christmas schedules of Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. The top one is from 1992, and the bottom one is from 1993.
."
Jiang Zhiqiang took the form and read it carefully. He frowned after reading it for a while.
Kang Jianfei continued: "In 1992, the Christmas films in these three places were dominated by Hong Kong films, both in terms of box office and number of films. But in just one year, Hollywood films have caught up. If this continues, Hong Kong films will
The box office of the film in these three places will be surpassed by Hollywood films."
Jiang Zhiqiang asked: "What does Mr. Kang mean?"
Kang Jianfei said: "It's because of this incident that I bothered Brother Jiang during the Chinese New Year. Nowadays, the overall quality of Hong Kong films has declined rapidly, and there are many similar and bad films that follow the trend, which has caused aesthetic fatigue among overseas audiences. Nanyang Generation, Cathay Pacific and Shaw Brothers
China is the largest theater chain, and they are only responsible for screening films and not producing. Now Hong Kong films are not popular, so in order to make money, they will release a large number of Hollywood films. If things go on like this, the film markets of Southeast Asian countries will be conquered by Hollywood.
, even if there are good films in Hong Kong, they can't compete with Hollywood blockbusters in terms of film schedule. I want to invest in building Nanyang Cinemas!"
"It should have been like this a long time ago!" Jiang Zhiqiang slapped his thigh and said, he advocated the rapid expansion of Oriental Cinemas.
Kang Jianfei asked without question: "Before this summer, I want to see a total of 15 modern multiplex theaters in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. Is there any problem?"
"As long as there are sufficient funds, there will be no problem at all." Jiang Zhiqiang said confidently.
"Then I'll trouble Brother Jiang." Kang Jianfei said with a smile.
Investing in Nanyang cinemas cannot fundamentally save the decline of Hong Kong films. Forging iron requires one's own hard work. Only when the quality of Hong Kong films improves, those markets will not be occupied by Hong Kong films.
In 1993 and 1994, Hong Kong films were only in decline. Hong Kong films were truly on the verge of death only after 1995. In 1995, the Taiwan authorities lifted restrictions on copying of European and American films, which directly caused Hong Kong films to lose the most important Taiwan market, creating a vicious cycle.
, the Nanyang market was also quickly captured.
Can Kang Jianfei prevent this from happening?
Maybe, at least Taiwanese film producers did not break up with Hong Kong producers like the original time and space. This is all due to Kang Jianfei's mediation last year. Without Taiwanese film producers clamoring to lift the copy restrictions of Hollywood films, at least Hong Kong films would not have died.
Got so fast.
Hollywood has conquered the world by relying on high-tech computer special effects, and DreamWorks has already produced many special effects blockbusters, and has already gained a reputation in this regard, not losing to its Hollywood counterparts.
After Jiang Zhiqiang left, Kang Jianfei called Li Meifeng: "Call Mr. Zhang from Dark Horse Animation Company and ask him to come to my office."
Kang Jianfei really has a lot to do. He does not need to worry about the daily operations and management of each company, but he must be at the helm of the company's development direction.
At least, if Kang Jianfei had not taken the initiative, Dark Horse Animation Company would not have thought about developing digital 3D animation. Disney’s digital 3D animation has been released for several months, but the animation talents here in Hong Kong have little idea of this technology.
Kang Jianfei's request is very simple, that is, to spend money on Dark Horse Animation Company, let them steal the work, poach people, copycats, and spend a few years to make "Kung Fu Panda". At least after 2000, Dark Horse Animation Company must have
The ability to independently produce 3D animated films.
There is still a long way to go. At least in the next few years, a large number of Hong Kong film companies will die, and the rest will either struggle to survive or flourish. As long as DreamWorks can survive until after 2003, the huge mainland China
The market will gradually open up in an all-round way, and at that time there will be another opportunity to take off.
Let’s go too far, let’s talk about the release situation of “Kung Fu”. (To be continued...) u
