Chapter 467 The whole of East Asia was frightened

The Seoul police in late June came suddenly and left quickly, and did not take Wang Chengguang with them, leaving the legal team alone.

Nancy also suspended the filming of the crew and ran back to investigate the situation. Nancy knew that Seoul's little tricks would not succeed against the boss Wang Chengguang, so she came back just to show her loyalty.

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass window of the hotel suite and drinking a cup of coffee, Wang Chengguang smiled and said, "Keep shooting and try to release it in August. After all the small moves, it should be calm for a while."

"At most, when The Wandering Earth is released, Europe and the United States will be very interested in your special effects base and want to reap the benefits. We can talk about the follow-up then."

Nancy also nodded hurriedly, "Train to Busan will definitely be finished in July, and post-production won't be difficult. I'll let you arrange it, boss."

This type of zombie movie, whether it's a zombie that runs as fast as a flying leopard or a zombie that's so slow that ordinary people can easily avoid it, mainly requires the actors to put on zombie makeup in a troublesome way.

But once the makeup of hundreds of zombies is done, a supercomputer can use proportional copying and cutout changes to create a terrifying scene of tens of thousands of zombies charging together.

The overall filming will not be any more troublesome than Infernal Affairs and Taken.

Wang Chengguang laughed and said, "It's a bit too much to ask you to use Hurricane Rescue to impact the Blue Dragon Film Festival in South Korea. Apart from the action awards, the story of Hurricane Rescue is relatively weak and straightforward. But if it is released in the summer, it will still work if Train to Busan can achieve both box office and awards."

Zhou Wenwen, their junior at Beijing Film Academy, is also one of the assistant directors.

After Nancy's rise, he felt that he could also let his junior schoolmate Wenwen direct a movie on her own and strive for the throne of a great director.

…………

Another month has passed quickly.

In total, Wang Chengguang had stayed in Seoul for more than two and a half months. He returned to Beijing on July 7th with the Huang family members and Zhou Wenwen.

After a simple night's rest, he went to China Film Corporation with "Train to Busan", for which all post-production work had not been completed. This version of "Train to Busan" had no music or dubbing, and the subtitles were translated by Spark 7.0 separately. The editing was also ten minutes more complicated than the finished product.

No final cut was done.

But that's enough. When a film progresses to this point, professional filmmakers can basically tell whether it is good or bad. Except for those who insist on exaggerating it, it is actually not difficult to distinguish between good movies and bad movies.

What Wang Chengguang didn't expect was that as soon as he arrived at the China Film Building, he saw the president of Beijing Film Academy, Teacher Guo, and the director of the directing department standing up and walking towards him in the lounge area on the first floor.

After a brief greeting, the principal happily smoked a cigarette and said, "Chengguang, I took advantage of my age and called you by your name, but you kept silent. It's been more than a year since you launched a satellite for our Beijing Film Academy. This "Train to Busan" is a model of Sino-Korean co-production."

"I also asked someone in South Korea about this. Many people in the South Korean film and television industry have spoken highly of Train to Busan. They all said that even if the box office doesn't explode, it won't be difficult to win awards. The two male protagonists are Chinese actors, and the directors are both from South Korea and China, and both graduated from Beijing Film Academy."

"I am the old man who is taking advantage of you this time. I dragged Xiao Guo and the others to watch the finished film eagerly. As long as you perform normally, our school will also do its best to make it a success in the summer of 02."

Wang Chengguang was a little disappointed when he heard the phrase "China-Korea co-production". After all, if we talk about China-Korea co-production after the millennium, which movie is the most famous? ?

A murder caused by a steamed bun... No, it was Wuji.

The Promise opened up a new world!
For a serious movie like Train to Busan, he really didn't want to be given this title, but he just complained about it in private, and went to the elevator with the principal, department head, Teacher Guo and others while chatting politely.

President Han just happened to walk out and took his people to the screening room.

After the crowd finished watching the more than 130-minute dubbed version without music, President Han applauded loudly, "Some scenes are a bit too bloody and scary, but it's not a big problem. This movie is not only well-edited and exciting, but also explores very profound topics."

"Congratulations, Director Wang. Another blockbuster is out. Your studio is really getting bigger and bigger. It's more powerful than a lot of film companies."

Although Wang Chengguang did not set up a company, he still has a separate director studio. Otherwise, it would be inconvenient to pay taxes, operate business, and make various money transfers.

President Han laughed again. "Although the process still needs to be followed, can we start the promotion of Train to Busan now?"

Wang Chengguang nodded. "It's easy to publicize it. Since the entire network has selected four lucky people who will visit the graves through computers, this topic is still very popular. When the time is right, let them attract traffic on their respective certified blogs, and the topic will become a big one."

It's July 7th already. Huang Yimei was asked to post the online audition, and the easter eggs for the four lucky tomb-sweeping winners have naturally been filmed long ago. The tomb-sweeping part of The Wandering Earth is still being reshot in mainland China, and Mr. Guo led the team to get it done.

It's really random. In South Korea, he is an ordinary working class, not in Seoul but in Incheon. In China, he is a tomb-sweeper for the Train to Busan Easter egg show. He is a college student from Hebei Province, 22 years old, a junior in an ordinary second-tier university.

Food, accommodation and round-trip air tickets are included, and there will be a reward of 100,000 yuan after taking the photo of the tomb-sweeping people's backs.

Since the results of this incident were announced, and the tomb-sweepers revealed their identities, each of them was officially certified and opened their own account on the Xinghuo Blog, and they have become another type of earliest new generation Internet celebrities.

It’s only 2002 and you’ve already become an Internet celebrity!

Now, the junior boy from the second-tier university in Hebei Province has more than 70 followers on his blog. This is mainly because during his time on the crew, he took a lot of work photos of Nancy and Zhou Wenwen, even from a long distance. He also took photos and group photos of some of the best actors and actresses in the South Korean film and television circles.

I will also update the status on the blog, occasionally telling some small stories about the crew, daily life, etc.

This was really eye-catching in 2002. One of the benefits of that person who had already developed into a big Internet celebrity with more than 70 fans was that manufacturers would approach him and pay him to run advertisements, whether they were text ads or ones with photos... This was a magical opportunity for these third-year students!
The same goes for South Korea’s grave-sweeping figures from behind, which is also a great tool for publicity and promotion.

Mr. Han, who was laughing, "..."

President Han was puzzled for a while before he asked curiously, "Director Wang, what kind of big linkage are you building? The eighteen levels of hell or something like that, although not very scientific. But if you simply promote the idea that good people will be rewarded with good even after death, and evildoers will get what they deserve, this simple value can still be promoted vigorously."

This ordinary version of Train to Busan does not yet have the underworld easter egg, but Wang Chengguang mentioned the promotion of the easter egg man with his back, and President Han was also speechless.

Every time it's just for those tens of seconds of conversation while visiting the grave, it's just to promote the idea that good will be rewarded with good and evil will be punished with evil. It's really painful to come up with two internal and external versions. Many netizens are criticizing the censorship.

Wang Chengguang was amused and explained, "Originally, I wanted to link up a super movie universe concept to show the concept that good people will get good results after death if they do good deeds, and bad people will be punished for their evil deeds. If there is a chance, I will shoot a mythological movie project about the underworld."

"Now it seems that as long as there are more classic linkages, countless fans have heard too much about the tomb-sweeping Easter eggs... It's better to believe it than not, and it can improve the social atmosphere to some extent."

"Once it succeeds, even if the future Myth Universe cannot be released in China, the effect of watching it online will be the same. Anyway, I am not short of money, so I am not afraid of losing money on the project."

President Han, "???"

He was completely torn apart, not because he was shocked by the Great Myth Universe project, but because he was stunned by the statement “I’m not short of money, so I’m not afraid of losing money by filming the project.”

Director Wang, now that you have said this, what else can he say?
After a few seconds of silence, Mr. Han smoked a few cigarettes and said with a smile, "Talent means you can be willful. But Director Wang, as someone who has been through this and is a predecessor, I actually suggest that when you encounter a project that may result in a loss, don't just do it yourself."

"For example, the investment in The Wandering Earth was so huge that China Film Group also contributed 20%. You are not afraid of losses. As long as we can boost the Chinese film industry, we can certainly afford the losses. Facts have proved that the manufacture of those special models has stimulated domestic demand for many factories."

"So, now many coal bosses dream of riding in your studio's car. There is a lot of money out there..."

China Film Group is serious about investing in building a photography base. They know that The Wandering Earth will most likely not make back its investment. For example, apart from Hollywood blockbusters, there are currently no serious blockbusters with a box office of over 100 million yuan in theaters in mainland China.

How can you expect The Wandering Earth to make a profit under these circumstances? But in order to support industrial development, some investment is necessary.

Wang Chengguang, “…”

…………

Starting from July 7, the promotion of Train to Busan has officially kicked off on the Spark Blog. First, a college student who played a guest role as a tomb-sweeper posted a dynamic again to relive the moments of the tomb-sweeping filming. We hope that this wild passerby can appear on the big screen in the big movie, and it can be released as soon as possible. It would be best if it can be released in the summer vacation.

Immediately following the official certified Huang Zhenhua account, he interacted and posted a few photos with several South Korean stars, with Huang Zhenhua as the absolute protagonist...commonly known as the C position, and the other South Korean stars were supporting roles.

He also said that Train to Busan has wrapped filming and he is looking forward to its release.

This interactive dynamic with a few photos suddenly took off like a rocket into flames.

Because the actors who played supporting roles for Huang Zhenhua were all the most popular South Korean idols, just like the movie The Promise in the original story, where a group of Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland stars played supporting roles for a South Korean star.

The most popular and hottest group of people in Hong Kong and Macau worked together to support South Korea and the Japanese! It’s not that they are stupid, but in the early 00s, the Korean wave was really impacting Asia.

The original series of idol dramas such as Autumn in My Heart, Winter Sonata, etc. have bombarded the ears of countless teenagers and young people who have just entered the workplace. Even if the mainland does not broadcast them on TV, there will be a huge amount of online resources!

If you have enough popularity and the director gives you a lick of praise, you can succeed.

Although the classic film and television projects in this dimension are different, the Korean Wave is indeed accompanied by a group of big idols who suffer from car accidents, amnesia, and cancer, and have attracted countless fans.

Therefore, when Huang Zhenhua was in the crew of Train to Busan, he had a group of popular idols and young actors in the TV circle playing supporting roles for him. But he didn't have to worry that those young idols would be unhappy, because at least in East Asia at this stage, the status of movie stars is much higher than that of TV stars.

The most popular melodramatic love idol drama protagonists are not only small figures in South Korea, but also in front of the circle and the chaebols? ? They are just fish to be slaughtered and exploited.

So Huang Zhenhua suddenly became popular!
Even though he had become famous because of Han Chen before, a bunch of top idols including young ladies ran to play supporting roles for him and praised him. When his popularity soared in an instant, there were a lot of scoldings on the Internet, saying that he was not worthy of Lao Huang.

then……

When the popularity of the drama was at its peak, several South Korean idols and top young actors came out to help Huang Zhenhua. They all praised Huang for his good character and acting skills, and said that they had helped them a lot in the Train to Busan crew. They hoped that the outside world would stop smearing Huang.

Otherwise, they should all kneel down and kowtow in shame to apologize. There is no more, Huang Zhenhua's popularity has soared unbelievably!
Under such circumstances, the crew of Train to Busan officially announced that it would officially screen Train to Busan in Greater China and South Korea at 8 a.m. on August 9.

The Internet world was in an uproar.

In fact, it won’t take more than ten days to complete all the post-production of Train to Busan. The split left by Xiaohuo 7.0 can be easily done in a few minutes.

This still requires some reasonable speculation about time and efficiency from the outside world.

Various posters, advance trailers, etc. of Train to Busan have also begun to hit the Internet, with large-scale promotion both above ground and underground.

Nancy and Zhou Wenwen have appeared on several shows in South Korea and China, all of which were interview programs mainly talking about the fun things, difficulties and how to get through the filming of movies, etc. Although once they were on the show, the most frequently asked question was about the relationship between the two women and Wang Chengguang.

But those gossips are meant to be hyped. Neither admitting nor denying, these rumors have been flying around for more than a year. Let time settle them. Now, almost the entire network is proving that Wang Chengguang has almost eaten up Nancy's family fortune.

After all, after paying taxes on the revenue from the first and second installments of Infernal Affairs, do you want to invest 800 million RMB in the production of The Wandering Earth? That is far from enough!
The distribution rights of Infernal Affairs cost 2000 million US dollars, but only equaled more than 6 million or million Hong Kong dollars in box office? After paying taxes, theater chain shares, production costs, etc., the net profit that fell into Wang Chengguang's hands was definitely less than %. He made a maximum of more than million Hong Kong dollars!
So they spent more than 800 million before going to South Korea to do the special effects? Where did the gap come from?
With this kind of solid evidence, the outside world doesn't know that Lao Wang is Ghost King's man, and you can beat him to death without him believing that he is not a gigolo.

Under such circumstances, Train to Busan finally ushered in its premiere day and opening weekend, which was also the most exciting period of the summer vacation. Even if it is a horror movie, how can we say it? In the East, the scariness of zombie horror movies is far less than that of ghosts in the Eastern system.

The original Resident Evil series was released in China. Although the box office was not outrageous, the publicity and promotion did not scare many people away from watching it.

Train to Busan was a huge hit in its first weekend, with over 200 million viewers in South Korea in three days, and the box office revenue directly breaking through 1.07 million Hong Kong dollars. In mainland China, the revenue reached 3300 million RMB in three days.

Don’t think it’s outrageous that Hong Kong Island took in 2300 million Hong Kong dollars in its first weekend. The original version of Train to Busan took in 6600 million Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong Island! Even with the poor performance in Taiwan, it still took in 1000 million Hong Kong dollars in its first weekend.

All I can say is that in addition to the positive reviews from the outside world in various newly released film reviews, Train to Busan has received rave reviews and directly won the high standard of 8.0 points from Spark Movies, and took in more than 1.7 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office in three days.

The whole of East Asia and Southeast Asia were shocked!

As we all know, the investment in this movie was only 1000 million US dollars, and there was a little bit left at the end. The publicity was huge, but the mainstream online publicity basically used the Spark platform established by Zhou Wenwen and Nancy themselves.

Is it possible to make back the money after only three days of release? The remaining screening period, as well as the 20-day summer vacation, means that all the money has been earned? Even if it is selling the film's screening rights, it is not a small amount of money!

Not to mention ordinary audiences, countless veterans in the industry felt they could hardly understand the film, and said that these people making the movie were really like robbing a bank. No, it's even more outrageous than robbing a bank. What's even more outrageous is that no matter whether they are academics or ordinary audiences.

We all know that Train to Busan is a movie that is very likely to win awards!
…………

At noon on August 8, at a large hotel in Beijing.

The main figures of the "Train to Busan" team, including the male protagonists of big idol dramas who played supporting roles, all appeared in a group at the celebration banquet, waiting for Wang Chengguang to speak. Old Wang did not say too much in polite conversation. He just said a few words and wished that "Train to Busan" could break the previous box office records in China and South Korea respectively, and then let everyone start eating and drinking.

There was wine, too, but not much.

Because Huang Zhenhua, Huang Jianzhi and other main creators are also going to start roadshows. The fact that Taken was able to gross 1.2 million yuan in the mainland during the Lunar New Year holiday was actually due to a lot of roadshows. At this stage, audiences are not short of money and the number of cinemas is increasing.

The attraction and appeal of celebrities must be put into action to increase the box office data.

After he sat down and raised his glass, Zhou Wenwen and Nancy clinked their glasses happily. Wenwen's junior sister couldn't help laughing, "Boss, Nancy and I are now members of the mainland's billion-dollar directors club, not counting the inconvenient statistics of the 1980s."

"A Hurricane plus a Train to Busan, this is a really big gimmick."

Originally, it was Zhang Guoshi who opened up this club title, but now it has been pushed forward by two new generation students from the directing department of Beijing Film Academy. In fact, last summer was when Zhou Wenwen officially graduated.

Nancy is also a South Korean student! Even though Zhou Wenwen was only the assistant director of two films, she is well-known in the entertainment industry and in East Asia.

Huang Yimei hurriedly poured more wine to toast Zhou Wenwen. Roses were useless during the roadshow and did not need to participate, but Zhou Wenwen and Nancy were also important iconic figures of the roadshow. After all, these two famous directors had better figures and looks than many popular actresses.

Huang Zhenhua also took a sip of his drink excitedly, and said with emotion, "Thank you Director Wang for giving us the opportunity and promoting us. I have now become a symbol of acting in the Chinese entertainment industry. I am dizzy, but Director, even if Train to Busan can break 100 million box office."

"But with such a huge investment, it's hard for The Wandering Earth to break 2 million or 3 million, right? The loss at the box office is still a bit big."

At this stage, no one is worried that Wang Chengguang will be completely ruined after filming The Wandering Earth. The success of a series of movies is a strong proof of Director Wang's ability.

Moreover, Infernal Affairs, Rescue, and Train to Busan can all start sequel series, and sequels represent gold mines. What everyone wants most now is to lose as little as possible.

Wang Chengguang was also happy. "You guys should go around more and try to reach every provincial capital. Train to Busan grossed 3300 million in the first weekend in mainland China. It won't be difficult to break 1.5 million. But whether it can break 2 million or million still depends on the pace."

The next moment he looked at Zhou Wenwen, "What is the outside world's current valuation of the Spark platform? This is the platform you two created, and the number of active users has exceeded 100 million. Use this as the promotional background for Train to Busan and try to arouse the public's curiosity about you."

The purpose of hype is to create as many gimmicks as possible.

Let the spectators eat until they are full, and approach the spectators with all kinds of mentalities.

In August 2002, the super Internet bubble effect of the millennium had come to an end and was almost over, so in the fall of 8, when Spark had 2002 million active users, its valuation should have taken off.

This is the total activity in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and South Korea. There are also some international students in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and island countries. Overseas Chinese have started to register and use it. There are also many people who have registered multiple accounts and are active. But no matter what, this is the data!

Zhou Wenwen excitedly took another sip of wine. "The highest bid is 3 million US dollars. The venture capital is willing to pay 3000 million US dollars for 10% of the financing. My 80% stake is worth 2.4 million US dollars."

This is still a very underestimated figure. It is still under the influence of the bubble, and the end is also sound. Otherwise, the valuation would have to be increased tenfold to the price of US$30 billion.

With just one sentence, everyone at the table fell silent. Huang Yimei, who was pouring wine from her glass, almost spit out her food. "No, Sister Wenwen, how did you become such a rich woman?"

Everyone is making movies, so how did you become an entrepreneurial hero? Teacher Guo coughed violently a few times and said with emotion, "The Xinghuo platform is very easy to use. You can chat publicly with friends, chat with friends privately, and have an email address to read various news..."

"The film, music, and reading sectors are also very active. Hiss... That's 3 million US dollars? No wonder Director Wang said you're not afraid of losing it all."

Wang Chengguang smiled and nodded, "Wenwen, please post another Weibo, saying that you are grateful for the venture capital firm's recognition of Xinghuo, but you are not short of money, so you rejected it. Let the whole Internet know you as a wealthy woman in a new form."

"Whether Train to Busan can break 2 million RMB box office in the mainland depends on you and Nancy."

These two are martial arts masters of divine level. They are immune to cold and heat and cannot get drunk by ordinary alcohol. The crazy roadshow that can make ordinary people fall asleep while glued to their chairs is child's play for them.

In terms of film quality, historical background and huge publicity gimmicks, this version of Train to Busan is a dimensionality reduction blow compared to its more serious counterparts.

This is indeed the case. On the way to the Beijing roadshow after lunch, Zhou Wenwen posted updates on her laptop, as well as various beautiful selfies of herself, which once again made Train to Busan, Zhou Wenwen and Nancy the hot search topic and dominated the trend.

The Spark platform only appeared in 2001. In just one year, it grew from a small workshop to a huge online platform recognized by international capital with a market value of 3 million US dollars, or more than 24 billion RMB?
Zhou Wenwen is worth more than 19 billion RMB, and Nancy is worth more than 4 million RMB. This topic was too shocking for the Internet world in the early 00s, and it was brought up by two beautiful women.

The entire network, including the South Korean network, was shocked as if there was a sound in silence. After a while of silence, it erupted with the vigorous impact of an active volcano. From August 8 to 12, the second week, the box office of "Train to Busan" in mainland China directly reached 18 million.

This is already the highest box office standard for mainland Chinese-produced films in the past two years.

There were 330 million moviegoers in South Korea alone, which is equivalent to 1.54 million Hong Kong dollars in a single week, and Hong Kong Bay was 4200 million Hong Kong dollars. The total revenue for the entire second week was 2.5 million!
Needless to say, the celebration banquet will continue, and the topic will continue to be promoted! This time, it was also the first time that Nancy sat on the throne of the South Korean entertainment industry. Although her family went bankrupt, she was not only thriving in the film and television industry, but also held 20% of the shares of the Spark platform.

Many South Korean experts and professors have commented on Spark and announced that this last little princess is already a ray of hope for the country and will become an Internet tycoon. Internet tycoons are also very powerful, and there are many examples in North America.

It was the third week of Train to Busan's release in August. As long as Nancy and the others kept running around, being interviewed, and being called upon online, their popularity continued to spread. Although the box office in various places declined compared to the second week, it still grossed more than 2 million Hong Kong dollars in the third week.

Overall, the total box office in mainland China has reached 1.38 million RMB after 1.5 days of release. This means it will easily break 2 million. However, if the film wants to reach the million threshold, it will still need to work harder, including postponing the release.

This is also the basic operation and treatment of blockbuster movies. The 2002 movie Hero earned 2.5 million yuan in the mainland at the box office, which was accumulated step by step in this way.

The 1.7 million US dollars that Hero earned worldwide is roughly equivalent to 14 billion RMB at the box office. In fact, as long as Wang Chengguang does a good job in publicity and promotion, The Wandering Earth will surely surpass Hero easily, and there is even a slight hope of making a profit in terms of box office revenue.

The visual bombardment of super special effects on the big screen is really incomparable to that of DVDs or small screens on laptops.

August 8, outside China World Trade Center.

Wang Chengguang looked at the large outdoor LED screens on buildings and nodded with satisfaction. "Although there are only a few of them, they are enough. They are not only for the main buildings in Beijing, but also for the capitals of various provinces, including some second- and third-tier cities."

"We need to find landmark buildings and hang a number of these large LED screens, so that countless people can clearly see and feel the difference between the big screen and the small screen, which will make it easier to attract audiences to go to the theater to watch movies."

The Wandering Earth will be released during the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of the year. In the remaining months, the Spark platform will produce a large number of the most top-notch and advanced large display screens that are more advanced than those in Europe, America, and South Korea. We will run around the country looking for landmark buildings and give them away for free!
This is the top-level and highest-definition outdoor advertising platform.

When Xinghuo is needed, it can play its own content for promotion. When it is not used on a daily basis, each owner can decide what advertisement to play.

This kind of win-win cooperation is easy to discuss.

This is the factory that Xiaohuo 7.0 built on the Anti-Earth. It is a fully automated robot manufacturing factory, which includes a little bit of the black technology of the Marvel Universe and a number of super-large displays, allowing the Spark Platform to open a shell company in South Korea.

Just transport it from outside the earth.

When it is covered with landmark buildings in the future, it will be another kind of free cinema. For example, like the Six Princesses, occasionally during festivals, classic works will be screened nationwide? It is also beautiful for countless people to stand and watch outdoors.

(End of this chapter)