"Assembly Number" sold 70 million in its second week, and Ma Xiaogang was free to focus on other things.
In the lounge of a movie theater, we also talked about Li Qian's "Frequency of Life and Death".
He had previously said that he would go to the premiere to see it, but after the large-scale screening of "Frequency of Life and Death", word of mouth spread and it became very good.
He changed his mind again and stopped going.
Although Ma Xiaogang doesn't think that a low-budget movie can pose even the slightest threat to "Assembly", it can still be considered a competitor in the same schedule.
If he is a great director and attends the premiere of a low-budget movie, isn't that just a disguised form of publicity for him?
He, Ma Xiaogang, is not a stingy person, but he cannot promote other movies of the same period.
Moreover, he knew that the Huang brothers had been recruiting Li Qian before.
Immediately after interacting with the audience in the theater and being interviewed by reporters, I was also asked about the topic of "Frequency of Life and Death" and Li Qian.
"The Letter of Entitlement" has been released for more than half a month, and there is nothing left to dig out of the movie itself.
Moreover, the four leading actors, plus the director Chen Kexin, are not flamboyant people.
"Frequency of Life and Death" has a good reputation. Li Qian also bluntly announced the goal of a box office of over 100 million, and the topic gradually became more and more popular.
"Hello Director Ma, what do you think of "Frequency of Life and Death"? Do you think this movie has the potential to reach a box office of 100 million?"
The reporter who asked the question looked at Ma Xiaogang expectantly, as did everyone else.
People can only be given wrong names, not wrong nicknames.
Ma Xiaogang's films have often been criticized by academic filmmakers. Seven years ago, he dared to directly criticize the Golden Rooster Awards officials, scolding fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation directors.
It is said that through the hard work of the first three generations of directors, Chinese cinema built the treasure palace of Chinese cinema. After the "palace" was completed, a group of troops came in, occupied the palace, and locked the door tightly.
This is the fourth generation of directors. They have created a genre. If others want to make movies, they have to make them their way.
Then, another group of people came. Instead of going through the door, they "broken in through the window" and created their own way of shooting.
They are the fifth generation of directors. The fifth generation of directors, mainly composed of the "78 Class" of the Beijing Film Academy, are like the fourth generation. After entering this hall, they not only closed the door, but also blocked the windows.
At this time, the fourth and fifth generation directors lived together in the palace, living a comfortable and stable life.
Immediately afterwards, the sixth generation directors also entered this palace. They neither walked through the door nor the window, but emerged from the ground.
And when talking about himself: "When I come here and take a look, not only will I not be able to enter this treasure palace, but even if I were to enter, there will be no place for me to set foot.
So I simply built a wing next to the palace. Unexpectedly, through continuous development, my life was pretty good. But when I looked into the palace again, it was so crowded that I didn’t even want to go in.
I wish I had gotten in, and now, people in the palace see that I am doing well, and they can’t help but want to come out, and some people have even stuck their heads out.”
Seven years ago, Ma Xiaogang dared to ridicule all fourth-generation, fifth-generation, and sixth-generation directors, calling them shady.
The veritable number one troll in the Chinese server.
Ma Xiaogang also watched the news. This Li Qian was young and had a good tone.
but...
After weighing it in my mind, I spoke.
"I have been busy with the promotion of "Assembly" recently, and I don't have time to go to the movies. However, young people still have to be down-to-earth and walk step by step. If you walk too fast, you will easily fall."
The reporter was overjoyed. He did not expect Ma Xiaogang to be so cooperative today, and quickly asked, "Does Director Ma mean that he is not optimistic about Li Qian's "Frequency of Life and Death"?"
"Here, I would like to give him some advice. The big screen is not an online movie. Don't be complacent and arrogant just because you have achieved some results in other industries."
...
Ma Xiaogang was so cooperative that the reporters on the scene also deliberately asked some pointed questions one after another to create conflicts.
After a while, the interview ended and Ma Xiaogang left with the crew.
Soon, a lot of news about Ma Xiaogang criticizing Li Qian appeared on the Internet.
"New director Li Qian boasted that the box office exceeded 100 million, and Ma Xiaogang insinuated that young people don't know how high the sky is."
Li Qian used his mobile phone to surf the Internet and read these news, his forehead was inexplicably slow.
"Why is this horse and cannon attacking me for no reason!"
Tong Liya said from the side, "Is it made up by the media? Don't let them take the lead."
"No, there is another video."
Li Qian shook his head. This interview seemed like a road show in a movie theater. The person was himself and the voice was correct.
"Then you have to be careful later, there will definitely be reporters coming to stir up trouble."
"It's okay, the time is up, let's go out, don't keep the audience waiting."
After taking the actors to the screening room, the audience inside had just experienced a touching movie-watching experience, and they generously applauded their arrival.
The road show was very short, half an hour, after all, the movie theater still had to show movies.
Interact with the audience, take a photo, answer the audience's questions, and then the reporter interviews.
There is no doubt that a reporter is looking for trouble.
Ordinary directors and actors can basically just listen and accept the reprimands of seniors with higher status. Even if they feel unhappy, they will not show it in public.
Although China is not like Neon or Nanbang, the workplace and any industry are strictly hierarchical. When facing superiors, seniors can only obey, and even have to accept the slaps from superiors at every turn.
However, it is actually the same in China, but it is not as serious.
If your seniors teach you a lesson, you can only accept it with an open mind. If you refute, say that you don't know how to respect your seniors and are arrogant.
Respect the old and love the young. If the old does not love the young, why should the young respect the old?
Although I don’t know why Ma Xiaogang went crazy and criticized himself after eating so much, Li Qian would not just accept it like this.
"I don't know what you mean by not knowing the heights of the world, but I seem to remember that my last movie "Jaws" had more than 4 million viewers, and director Ma Xiaogang's last movie "The Night Banquet" also had just a few domestic viewers.
Four million, the number of viewers for both movies is the same, so why is it that my target of over 100 million is so high and mighty, while Director Ma’s bold statement that breaking the box office record of "The Golden Jacket" is right?"
Damn it!
The reporters at the scene were shocked. Li Qian had such a bad temper that he immediately confronted him!
"But Director Li, online movies are not theater movies. Your four million moviegoers don't cost money."
"Of the 4 million accounts that have watched "Jaws", 70% paid to watch it, and there are 800,000 non-member accounts that chose to become members in order to watch this movie. I don't know where this reporter got the idea that there is no need to spend money.
, aren’t these 1.5 million viewers spending money?”
These reporters couldn't tell the truth from this number for a while.
However, Li Qian did not wait for them to ask questions, and continued, "After "Frequency of Life and Death" was screened and screened for one day, the response from the audience was very good. The vast majority of the audience was very satisfied and liked the movie.
"It is the audience who buys tickets to watch the movie, and it is the audience who decides the final box office. Since the audience is satisfied, then why should we care about other people's opinions."
"What's more, making comments without even watching the movie, I think this is not what a professional filmmaker should say."
...
I haven’t even watched the movie yet, so I’m just chatting away. At the very least, I should watch the movie, talk about what’s bad about the movie, and come up with some useful information to criticize.
No matter what his reasons are, Li Qian doesn't like him and will fight him if he wants to.
It would be too frustrating to pretend to be a grandson in everything.
Seeing Li Qian beating around the bush, the other actors were dumbfounded.
I have never seen someone so strong. He is Ma Xiaogang, one of the most famous directors in China, and Li Qian is still a newcomer to the big screen.
During filming, Li Qian was quite easy to talk to most of the time, but he didn't expect that he would dare to directly counter Ma Xiaogang's criticism of him right after the movie was released.
After coming out of the cinema, Li Qian immediately called Wang Changtian.
It is not a bad thing for Ma Xiaogang to look for trouble. As long as it is used well, it can also be beneficial to the promotion of the movie.
The premise must prevail in public opinion, and netizens must not feel that Li Qian does not respect his seniors.
After briefly discussing the matter with Wang Changtian, Guangxian immediately started to carry out targeted publicity.
In the following road show, Li Qian didn't say much more, just saying it once was enough.
Other media will naturally add that they are the best at this kind of thing.
...
As for Ma Xiaogang, his wife Xu Fan was puzzled by his unprovoked criticism of Li Qian.
"What's wrong with you? A young man made his own movie at the age of 23, and it was pretty good. Why are you suddenly criticizing others like this?"
Although he has the nickname "Ma Dapao", his family knows his family best.
Every time Ma Xiaogang criticizes reporters, media, and film critics, it's because they criticized Ma Xiaogang's movies first.
There is a reason for scolding the Golden Rooster Awards Organizing Committee.
Scolding Wang Jiawei for being a coward... There is no reason for this. It was purely because Ma Xiaogang said what was in his heart at the spur of the moment.
Ma Xiaogang shook his head and did not answer, but asked, "With the current situation, it is not a problem for this "Frequency of Life and Death" to get a box office of 30 to 50 million yuan. A 23-year-old director can sell 5,000 yuan for his first movie."
Wan, what do you think this is?"
"Then what does this have to do with you?"
"The two brothers have been wooing this Li Qian a few months ago. Now that they see his ability, they will definitely win over him at all costs. By then, the company will have a second director who can sell box office."
Xu Fan probably understood, "You mean, if he comes to Huayang, it will have an impact on you, but didn't you already reject Huang Zhonglei before?"
"Just because I refused before, it doesn't mean I will continue to refuse. It just doesn't have enough benefits."
"If he can cooperate with Guangxian, he can also cooperate with Huayang. If he can cooperate, he can also join Huayang."
"I heard that he is not very arrogant. Zhang Jun didn't even see him at first, and Huang Zhonglei was rejected. Young people in their early 20s must be arrogant. When I say this, they will definitely feel angry.
, which also eliminates the possibility of him coming to Huayang."
"So, you want him to be angry with Huayang as well?"
Xu Ran suddenly realized, that's no wonder.
Although Ma Xiaogang can be very extreme sometimes, he still has great wisdom in getting to where he is now step by step!
As long as he is the only director in Huayang who can sell the box office, he can always enjoy the privileges. No matter how excessive the request is or how unpopular the movie is, Huang Zhongjun will agree.
But once you have a second one, it's hard to do whatever you want.
It’s not that he is not taken seriously. A director of this level will be supported wherever he goes, but if he is too arrogant, the boss will always have objections in his heart.
It's not that Ma Xiaogang didn't know that Huang Zhongjun had opinions about him, but he didn't care. He showed his displeasure directly because he had enough confidence that Huayang Media couldn't do without him.
If you change jobs, it's the same as going to other companies. If you really want to leave, you have to wait until the company goes public and you get shares.
But Xu Fan said again, "Are you so worried about that Li Qian?"
"I just don't want to cause trouble. Are you tired of intrigues?"
Ma Xiaogang shook his head. If he had the time and energy, it would be better to teach young actresses more about their acting skills and take classes.
"Then what if he gets too angry and scolds you? Are you planning to scold him from a distance now?"
"That's too cheap. Besides, I told him, so he still dares to talk back?"
Ma Xiaogang smiled with a conceited look on his face. No matter how angry a young man is, how could he still dare to talk back when faced with the education and criticism of a senior director?
That's not outrageous. You don't understand any rules. No one would be so stupid.