On the evening of the 22nd, at UME Huaxing Cinemas, Li Qian and Tong Liya came to watch a movie, "Life of Pi" by Li Bian.
Like Wu Yusen, he is also a great director who came back from Hollywood. Although Li Yin's big-budget movie "The Incredible Hulk" a few years ago also failed miserably at the box office, Wu Yusen can't compare with Li Yin.
"The Incredible Hulk" cost 160 million, and the global box office still had 240 million.
Wu Yusen's "Wind Talker" cost a little lower, 120 million, but the global box office was less than 80 million, which is not even a little bit behind.
Moreover, two years later, Li Yin won the Oscar for Best Director for "Brokeback Mountain."
It can be said that Wu Yusen returned to China because he couldn't survive in Hollywood and had no chance to make blockbusters.
This is not the case for Li Yin. The cost of "Life of Pi" was as high as 120 million U.S. dollars, making it a proper big production.
Li Yin's domestic reputation is much better than Wu Yusen's. This time the new film is released, there are still many viewers who support it.
After entering, the seats were filled one after another.
IMAX3D hall, occupancy rate is 100%.
Because it is an adapted movie, many movie fans have known about the original work before and probably know what the story is about.
One person and one tiger drifting on the sea for more than two hundred days are already very attractive.
"How do you think this movie should be made? Is it just a man and a tiger on a boat battling wits and courage?"
Tong Liya was also very curious and kept asking Li Qian.
"It's almost time to start, and I keep asking questions." Li Qian grabbed a handful of popcorn and put it in his mouth. He was a little hungry after shopping for a while.
Tong Liya was very dissatisfied with Li Qian's perfunctory answer. She snatched the popcorn that Li Qian had handed to her mouth and threw it into her mouth.
But after the pre-roll ads were played, the movie officially started, and I concentrated on watching the movie.
However, at the beginning, the growth experience of an Indian boy mixed with religious beliefs was a bit boring, which made her a little disappointed.
However, after the family moved and left Indo by boat, the ship was wrecked at sea. All the family members except Pi were killed. Pi luckily survived by falling on the hatch cover of the lifeboat. There was also a hyena on the same boat with him.
A zebra with a broken leg, a female orangutan, and an adult Bengal tiger.
Once you get here, you are immediately attracted to the place.
The rafting experience became more and more bizarre every day. The hyena killed the orangutan, ate the zebra alive, and the tiger killed the hyena again.
What follows is the story of Pi and Tiger adrift on the sea, surviving and dealing with Richard Parker.
Knowing that he cannot defeat the tiger, Pi finally chooses to face the drifting life with it. He has to collect fresh water, catch fish and shrimps, and use all sea survival skills to feed the tiger and keep himself alive.
Storms, shark attacks and various exciting and bloody dangers are also extremely exciting.
After Pi and Tiger ran out of food, they fell into despair and were ready to die calmly. But miraculously, they followed the boat and drifted to a paradise island. After a short stay to rest, he discovered that this was a food paradise.
Human Island.
The frightened Pi and the tiger started drifting again until they were rescued on the beach in Mexico, but the tiger disappeared without looking back.
how exciting!
Tong Liya was filled with emotion. She originally thought that the experience of drifting on the sea with one person and one tiger would be a bit boring, but it was not like that at all.
At the end of the plot, as Pai returned to land, Tong Liya also relaxed.
However, when Pai was interviewed shortly after, he told another story.
In fact, there were no animals on the lifeboat, only a cook, a sailor with a broken leg, Pi and his mother.
The cook killed and ate the sailor, then his mother, and finally Pi couldn't bear it anymore and killed and ate the sailor too.
In the end, only Pi survived.
"hiss!"
Although it was just a few words, lightly spoken by Pai, Tong Liya felt a chill, even though there was heating in the screening room.
The expressions on their faces were exactly the same as those of the two interviewers, looking frightened.
...
"The story I made up later is too scary!"
After coming out of the cinema, Tong Liya still had a bit of a toothache. Compared to the previous fantasy journey, the story told by Pai at the end was a bit overwhelming, especially when she thought about it in conjunction with the previous process afterwards, the more she thought about it, the more scary it became.
"The first 120 minutes are made up, and the last few minutes are facts." Li Qian said.
"How is that possible? It wouldn't be a horror movie."
"From the most basic logic, the latter story makes more sense. A tiger and a child coexisted peacefully for 200 days. It is not as logical as a teenager."
"But this is a movie, and the title says Life of Life!" Tong Liya and Li Qian started to argue.
Li Qian shook his head, "Li Bian hinted at it earlier. When the ship encountered a storm, after Pi jumped into the lifeboat, a Chinese crew member shouted "Zebra! Zebra!" in Chinese, and then the zebra jumped into the lifeboat.
When the mother who was working on the ship wanted to switch to vegetarian dishes, the cook behaved in a very bad and teasing manner, which was exactly in line with the vicious character of the hyena.
The orangutan found the lifeboat after drifting for a long time and got on board with the help of Pi. And only the orangutan got on the boat with the help of Pi.
After the orangutan was killed by the hyena, the tiger suddenly appeared and fought back against the hyena. This is the same order of appearance as in the second story, after Pi's mother was killed by the cook, and Pi finally couldn't bear it anymore and killed the cook."
"hiss..."
Tong Liya took a breath again, and it became more and more terrifying when Li Qianyi said it. It seemed that this was really the case.
"Also, haven't you noticed that the island looks like a woman's body? I guess his mother's body was eaten by him, otherwise it wouldn't have lasted that long."
"Ugh...cough cough cough..."
Tong Liya felt nauseated and quickly covered her mouth and said repeatedly, "Stop talking, I'm going to vomit out dinner."
Li Qian shrugged, "There is also the tiger named Richard Parker. In 1884, a cruise ship crashed, leaving only three crew members and a little boy alive. When they were drifting on the sea, the three crew members took the little boy away.
The boy was eaten by the idiot, and that little boy’s name is Richard Parker..."
.......
When I came back from watching a movie, I almost vomited. I even complained about myself after vomiting. Li Qian was also tired.
After coaxing her for a long time and promising not to tell such disgusting stories again, everything was fine.
After a night out, he was a little tired. Li Qian didn't care about the box office of the two movies, so he went to bed early.
Li Qian doesn't care, but the industry is waiting for the first-day box office results of the two blockbusters. After all, these are the first two movies to be released during the Lunar New Year.
As an investor and issuer, Huang Zhongjun is certainly the most anxious one.
Although the 3D version of "2012" failed to do well at the box office as expected, he had always had enough confidence in the movie, but he couldn't help but worry when things came to a close.
At a quarter past 12, the Distribution and Exhibition Association completed the statistics of each theater chain and sent it to each unit of the association.
Huayang Media is also a member of the association, and Huang Zhongjun received the email immediately.
56 million!
"Zodiac" grossed 56 million at the box office on its first day!
Seeing this number, Huang Zhongjun let out a sigh of relief and finally let go.
Then I casually glanced at "The Life of Pi" and saw that it only sold 13 million on its first day.
cut!
It was not as high as the first day of the 3D "2012". This box office was completely ignored by Huang Zhongjun, with a trace of disdain on his lips.
The two blockbusters combined were not enough to beat "Zodiac". Now Huang Zhongjun finally relaxed and prepared for the next pincer attack on "The Truman Show".
...
"Twelve Zodiac"'s first-day sales of 56 million made the Lunar New Year market completely booming. Huayang Media, which had been dormant for nearly two years, once again allowed the industry to see the glory of the number one private enterprise.
The box office will continue to rise in the next few days. After all, kung fu comedy is very suitable for the Lunar New Year. Although Cheng Long is old, from the moment he appeared, the continuous mountain speed skating scenes told everyone that Cheng Long can still compete.
Although those light movements before were much clumsy in the film.
The next Friday, the box office exceeded 60 million, earning 63 million.
On Saturday, the box office directly exceeded the 70 million mark!
On Sunday, although the box office dropped somewhat, it still took in 64 million.
The total box office in four days was as high as 253 million!
A number that is satisfactory enough. The movie's reputation is pretty good, and Huang Zhongjun is looking forward to the follow-up.
However, the only thing that made him unhappy was that "Pi", which only had 13 million on its first day, had a box office of 110 million in the four days of the weekend, which was a complete improvement.
However, fortunately, "Zodiac" performed well the next week and still took in 270 million, bringing the total box office to 523 million.
It has exceeded 500 million. It is the third Chinese film to exceed 500 million this year.
The continuous hits made Huang Zhongjun overjoyed, and the previous gloom was swept away. Even though "Pi" had a better reputation, it received 180 million in the next week, and the total box office in two weeks reached 290 million.
Huang Zhongjun was surprised by this movie, which has an incredible reputation and has been rated as a masterpiece online.
But fortunately, it is not the opponent of "Twelve Zodiac Signs".
Huang Zhongjun, who is in a good mood, can even think on the bright side. Having another blockbuster movie will put more pressure on "The Truman Show", which is not a bad thing.
The 3D version of "2012", which was released two days earlier, received 90 million in the first week, but only 30 million was left in the second week, which is comparable to the Philippine diving brigade.
As for the newly released costume blockbuster "The King's Feast" this week, the box office in four days was close to 40 million.
This data is quite good in normal times, but during the Lunar New Year period, it is obviously not enough.
Not only did Huang Zhongjun not pay attention to "A Feast for the King", the industry also did not care about this newly released blockbuster. All eyes were focused on "The Truman Show" which was officially released in three days.
Time has entered December, and the Lunar New Year battle is about to reach its most critical moment, which is also the most heart-wrenching moment.
During the half-month period when "Zodiac" harvested the box office, the promotional campaign for "The Truman Show" became more and more intense, and trailers were released one after another, making the audience more and more eager to see the movie.
More and more urgent.
On Tuesday, December 4th, "The Truman Show" released its final trailer.
The final trailer is extraordinary at first glance.
The official Weibo of "The Truman Show" announced the trailer the day before yesterday, and the final trailer will be released at 8pm tonight.
Almost at the same time, at eight o'clock in the evening, when the trailer was released, countless fans across the country clicked on the video instantly.
On a dark night, in a small city without a steel forest, countless people poured into the streets.
From an overhead perspective, countless people gathered together in the streets and alleys of the entire city, walking forward in groups, as if searching for something.
"boom!"
Suddenly, four huge beams of light shone over the city from the distant sky, illuminating the originally dark city as if it were daytime.
The four beams began to swing in different directions regularly, like a searchlight, trying to hide something.
Just when the light beam suddenly appeared, the whole city erupted in uniform shouts, and they were all shouting the same name.
"Truman!"
"Truman!"
"Truman!"
In the small town, tens of thousands or even more than 100,000 people gathered in groups, shouting the same person's name.
At the same time, coupled with the four giant searchlights shining from the endless sky, it was obviously looking for someone.
No, it’s not looking, it’s searching!
"I'll wipe it!"
This scene made countless viewers watching the trailer feel horrified and couldn't help but curse.
The shouts sounded like some life-threatening spiritual music to the ears.
Four huge searchlights coming from the distant sky made every corner of the city invisible, and also made the audience feel chilled in their hearts.
The lights that can illuminate the whole city drive away the night, but they are so dazzling to the eyes!
The trailer didn't last long. It only lasted five seconds, starting with giant searchlights illuminating the entire city and the sound of uniform shouts.
Including the entire final trailer before, the total length is exactly eight seconds.
After the trailer was played, all the audience looked at the screen and were stunned.
That's it?
Is this the end?
I wipe it!
After waiting for two days for the final trailer, which lasted only eight seconds, countless viewers started to curse again.
"Hell, Li Qian, can you shorten it a little bit, just eight seconds? A rabbit is stronger than you!"
"I'm really convinced, this is the ultimate preview? Are you fooling me through the distance?"
"At eight o'clock in the evening, there was an eight-second trailer. Li Qian, you fast shooter has evolved again. You are a real man in eight seconds!"
"Eight o'clock in the evening is twenty o'clock. At least there should be a twenty-second trailer!"
"But these eight seconds are too scary. Based on all the previous information and this trailer, the plot is already very clear. There is a problem in this city!"
"Didn't I say before that Truman is going to escape from this world? I guess he refers to this city. This trailer should show that Truman is going to escape. As a result, the whole city is searching for him. There must be hundreds of thousands of people.
I shudder when I think about it, so many people want to arrest me, but I don’t know why.”
"The scariest thing is probably those four lights. They came from the sky. The four lights lit up the whole city. They were shooting across each other and there was absolutely nowhere to hide."
"This is too intrusive. Could it be that aliens are spying on Truman?"
"Didn't Li Qian say it's not a different world? How could there be aliens?"
"He said that there is no other world, but he did not say that there are no people from other worlds. If they are not aliens, they must be satellites. Otherwise, who would have the ability to install four huge lights so high in the sky."
"Truman must have some big secret. It's so terrifying. There are people watching him from the sky, and there are countless agents in the city."
"This movie is getting more and more sinister. It was promised to be a comedy, but now it's a horror movie!"