China Entertainment Mythology 2004

Chapter 328: John Wick 2’s global box office performance and the stimulated Zhang Yimou

From early November to early December, the publicity and distribution department of the film "John Wick 11" began to gradually exert its efforts. During this period, the film crew successively released multiple versions of trailers, and offline screening activities also started. Wu Jing and Lin Chaoxian The director appeared on many programs to promote the movie, and the two also traveled offline to multiple cities to interact with movie fans in advance.

In terms of schedule, a total of two new films will be released in China on December 12. In addition to "John Wick 5", there is also "The Year in a Hurry" directed by director Zhang Yibai.

The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Nine Nights Chapter. It has a huge domestic readership. It stars Peng Yuyan, Ni Ni, Zheng Kai, Wei Chen, Zhang Zixuan, etc. The cast has a very strong cast and will definitely play a role in "John Wick 2". threats.

However, currently, Hua Shang's "John Wick" still has the advantage overall. When the pre-sale box office of "John Wick 2" exceeded 7000 million, the pre-sale box office of "The Year of Rush" was only 4700. Around [-], but this is definitely an opponent that cannot be underestimated.

In the North American market, there is only one film scheduled to be released at the same time as "John Wick 2", "The Pyramid", and this film basically does not pose any threat to Huashang's "John Wick 2". Hollywood Almost no one is optimistic about this movie. It is said that there are less than 600 theaters for the premiere, while the number for "John Wick 2" is 3500!
The two films are not on the same level at all!
What can pose a certain threat to "John Wick 2" are precisely those films that were released a week or two ahead of it, such as "Penguins of Madagascar" and "Bad Boss 2".

There was constant good news before the film was released, and Wu Jing couldn't help but feel a little complacent.

Last year, "John Wick 1" took in nearly 7 million in box office in the mainland. The domestic film market has become even bigger in the past year and more, and the film has the popularity foundation of the first film. Therefore, Wu Jing is very excited about the film this time. The psychological expectation of the mainland box office is 10 billion!

In other words, if the overseas box office this time can reach the size of the first film, then the global box office of "John Wick 2" can easily exceed the US$3 million mark.

You must know that the global box office of "Die Hard 5" released last year was only US$3 million, and the "Die Hard" series has always been an action movie series that Wu Jing likes very much.

I remember that when he first came to see Li Mu, Wu Jing was daunted by the seemingly extremely harsh conditions set by Li Mu.

The contract period is 6 years!
He was almost 40 years old when he signed the contract. When the contract expires, he will be 45 and turning 50. For an action movie actor, this is almost all the time he can still play.

But at that time, his career was slow to develop, so he finally gritted his teeth and signed this contract, which was like a contract of betrayal. However, looking back now, he is very grateful for the choice he made.

The "John Wick" series made him stand out in Hollywood, and the "Operation Mekong" that was being prepared was a resource that he didn't even have to think about, and, by the way, there was also "The Wandering Earth".

The contract Huashang Media signed with him was indeed very harsh, but he also received extremely generous rewards!

……

On November 11, the crew of "John Wick 30" held its world premiere in Beijing.

On December 12, the crew went to the United States to hold the American premiere. After the premiere, Wu Jing went to the set of "The Hunger Games 3" to meet Li Mu. Li Mu took the opportunity to arrange a supporting role for him in "The Hunger Games 3" Role.

On December 12, "John Wick 5" was officially released worldwide - with its clean fighting scenes, unobtrusive plot, and amazing grasp of details, "John Wick 2" quickly conquered the hearts of movie fans around the world. Not surprising.

In fact, speaking in detail, the version of "John Wick 2" produced by Huashang Media is quite different from the original film of Time and Space.

This is not because Li Mu is not satisfied with the plot of the original movie, nor does he think that the modified "John Wick 2" will definitely achieve a higher box office, but if he does not significantly modify the plot, then "John Wick 2" will definitely achieve a higher box office. "John Wick [-]" will most likely fail to pass domestic review.

Yes, Li Mu does have certain privileges in China. If he doesn't go too far, Li Mu's movies can basically be reviewed and approved with a blind eye, but if he goes too far and turns a blind eye, If you can't even use one eye, then it must be really bad.

The plot of "John Wick 2" is inherently dangerous.

It’s not that there are too many murders in this movie and it’s too bloody. “Operation Mekong” also has very high standards but can still pass the review. The key is that the setting and behavior of the protagonist must not be too controversial.

For example, "A World Without Thieves" was unable to pass the review at the beginning because the two protagonists, Liu Dehua and Liu Ruoying, were identified as thieves.

Later, Feng Xiaogang, who was anxiously looking around, found Wang Shuo. Wang Shuo smiled slightly and gave Feng Xiaogang an idea, saying that it would be better to make the female thief pregnant. As expected, he passed the trial smoothly.

The protagonist of "John Wick 1" is the killer of Jin Pen Washing. The setting of the killer protagonist generally cannot pass the review, but the setting of Jin Pen Washing and reforming his evil ways is completely negotiable.

The trigger for the plot of "John Wick 2" is that the villain Mike D'Antoni asked the protagonist to kill his own sister with a blood contract. The protagonist had asked for this villain many years ago, so he gave her a button at that time. A blood contract with his own blood handprint.

The blood contract has a very special status in the world of killers. According to the rules, the blood contract is somewhat similar to Yang Guo's Jade Peak Needle in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and Xie Yanke's Black Iron Order in "The Journey of the Knight", but the first two rely on The sender is conscious, and if the sender of the blood contract refuses to complete the task, he will have broken the rules of the entire assassin class, and will end up being hunted down by the entire killer organization.

At first, the protagonist rejected the villain, and then the villain blew up the protagonist's home with a rocket launcher. The protagonist's house held too many memories of him and his dead wife.

In this way, the protagonist has a motive for revenge, but according to the rules of the killer world, if he refuses to complete the task assigned to him by the villain, the killer organization will not allow him to take revenge.

As expected, the protagonist found the villain's sister, a woman who had no ability to resist in front of the protagonist. When the woman saw the protagonist, she knew that there was no way to survive, so she took the initiative to commit suicide, but the protagonist finally shot her in the head.

The plot design here is not a problem from a plot perspective, but it is very problematic from a review perspective.

First of all, the protagonist refused to perform the blood contract mission at the beginning, which was somewhat dishonest.

Secondly, regardless of whether the villain's sister is a member of the underworld or a villain, at least she has no direct and violent conflict with the protagonist. The protagonist simply kills a person with one shot in order to complete the task that the villain threatened with the Blood Contract 4. The one who took the initiative to commit suicide was the head of a woman who had no direct conflict with the protagonist.

Although this kind of filming shows the protagonist's basic qualities as a killer, and his no-nonsense style of acting is indeed quite able to attract some fans, this kind of character setting is really difficult to pass the review in China.

So how did Li Mu modify this plot here?

In fact, it's very simple. Just add a rejection rule to the blood contract mission in the killer world.Even if Zhang Wuji promised Zhao Min three things, it would not be against the principles of chivalry. Isn't it normal for the blood contract to refuse to execute the terms?

In Li Mu's modified setting, after the holder of the blood contract finds the giver with the blood contract, the giver of the blood contract does not only have one choice to complete the task, but also has another clause about giving up.

In terms of specific settings, the giver of the blood contract must either help the holder complete the task, or avoid the crazy pursuit of the holder within 24 hours. During this period, the giver of the blood contract can only escape for his life but cannot fight back, let alone cause any harm. After the death of his own killer, as long as the sender of the blood contract survives for 24 hours without violating the rules, he can take back the blood contract openly and refuse the blood contract mission assigned to him by the blood contract holder.

In the novel "Dragon Master", in order to show mercy to his subordinates, Qiao Feng did not hesitate to insert a knife into his chest to take the punishment for his subordinates. After Qiao Feng suffered the consequences for his subordinates, the mistakes made by his subordinates could be wiped out.

In order not to complete the task that he did not want to complete, the sender of the blood contract did not hesitate to resist the killer's pursuit for 24 hours without fighting back. Logically speaking, it makes sense.

In the end, the villain must be very aggressive. The protagonist has obviously escaped the 24-hour pursuit and has completely lifted the blood contract mission in compliance with the rules. However, the villain is still unyielding, even completely ignoring the constraints of the 24-hour period and still wants to kill him. Kill the protagonist so that there will be no problem for the protagonist to fight back.

In this way, the identity of the protagonist is still a good person who is tired of the killer job and returns from the lost way, rather than a true cold-blooded killer who can kill a woman who has no direct conflict with him without hesitation in order to complete the killer mission, and what he did later Everyone killed was to protect themselves.

After these modifications, "John Wick 2" successfully passed the domestic review.

Although the Huashang version of "John Wick 2" has made certain changes to the plot in order to pass the review, the overall style and most of the plot remain unchanged. The film is still a favorite among loyal fans of "John Wick 1" The familiar movie is clean, decisive, simple and crude, and full of super cool gun fighting skills.

Therefore, there is basically no possibility that the box office of the film will be lower than that of the first film.

That's exactly what happened.

The film earned 1.03 million, 1.31 million and 1.27 million yuan in box office in the first three days of its release. Including on-demand screenings and midnight screenings, the film's cumulative box office after three days of release was 4.13 million yuan.

The box office of "The Year in a Hurry" in the first three days was 6986 million yuan, 9084 million yuan and 7596 million yuan respectively, with a cumulative box office of 2.67 million yuan.

As for the evaluation of the film, "John Wick 2" has a Douban score of 8.0, while "The Last Year" has a Douban score of only 5.6.

Today's movie audiences have become less and less interested in youth movies that often involve pregnancy and abortion. It seems that youth without abortion is not youth. Therefore, as soon as the film was released, it caused crazy complaints from movie fans, and countless people expressed their extreme disappointment with the film. .

Disappointment comes from hope.

After all, there was Peng Yuyan in "The Year in a Hurry" who was so handsome that the girls screamed, and Zeng Xiaoxian who was so mean that netizens laughed, and Ni Ni's performance in "Waiting for the Wind" was also remarkable, and there was Zheng Kai His past acting skills have been recognized by many people.

Besides, the original novel is really good. In August this year, the online drama version of "The Year in a Hurry" starring Yang Le, Bai Jingting, and He Hongshan has just been launched on Sohu.com, and has received unanimous praise from netizens. Its Douban The score is as high as 8 points!
Netizens said to themselves, with so many good conditions put together, it would be difficult to make "The Year in a Hurry" look ugly, right?
Unexpectedly, director Zhang Yibai actually achieved this and exceeded the task!

However, although "The Year in a Hurry" was criticized wildly by netizens, the box office of the film was actually not bad. Three days after the film was released, Maoyan Movies gave a final box office forecast of 7.1 million yuan.

By the way, the predicted box office of "John Wick 2" has reached 12.5 billion yuan at this time.

The three days of first weekend plus on-demand screenings and zero-point screenings totaled 4.13 million yuan. It is expected that in the second week, it will normally earn about 4 million yuan, and in the third week, it will be about 2 million yuan. The box office of 1 million yuan in the fourth week is not a big problem. Normally, the final The box office of [-] billion is not a big problem.

At the same time, the film's first weekend box office in North America was also officially announced.

《疾速追杀2》以3102万的周末成绩登上本周的北美票房榜冠军，亚军则被上周五首映的动画电影《马达加斯加的企鹅》以1110万美元票房摘得，票房榜No.3是上周上映的另一部R级喜剧《恶老板2》，本周末票房860万美元。

In addition to the mainland and North American markets, "John Wick 2" has also achieved good box office results in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, Australia and RB. The market predicts the film's final overseas box office results. It should be around US$1.7 million.

At the current exchange rate level, with a mainland box office of about 12 billion and an overseas box office of US$1.7 million, the final global box office of "John Wick 2" will likely reach a huge US$3.7 million!
In 2012, Li Lien-lien starred in "The Expendables 2", which was packed with big names, and its global box office was only 3.14 million US dollars. Of course, Wu Jing's current reputation in North America cannot be compared with that of his senior brother Li Lien-lien, but if we look at the box office performance alone, he was previously regarded as Senior brother Li Lianlian's achievements, which Wu Jing thought were out of reach, no longer seemed as difficult as before.

"John Wick 2" performed well at the box office, especially in overseas markets, and ultimately had a certain stimulating effect on some domestic directors and actors.

Take director Zhang Yimou, for example. This year he has just reached a cooperation agreement with the Hollywood independent film company Legendary Pictures. In the future, he will be the director of the film "The Great Wall", which is written by the boss of Legendary Pictures himself.

From the very beginning, Zhang Yimou felt that the script of the "Great Wall" project was old, popcorn, and uninteresting. However, his agent told him that the film could be released in hundreds of countries around the world at the same time, and it would most likely win in North America and other markets. The box office champion of the week, Zhang Yimou had distracting thoughts when he heard it, so he took it.

After all, Zhang Yimou was moved by the prospect of global release and North American championship. As a "national teacher", director Zhang Yimou's "Hero" released in 2002 had a domestic box office of 2.5 million, while China's movie market for the entire year was only 9 It’s only [-] million. How terrifying was the “Hero” back then?
But to this day, our director Zhang Da is still tempted by the prospect of global release, the week's champion in North America and other markets, and these things that even Zhang Yimou would be tempted by, let alone Li Mu, are Huashang Media's Other directors have nothing new to say.

Director Guo Fan's first independent film "Shark Beach" won the box office championship in North America that week, and his second film "Passengers" grossed US$6.51 million at the global box office. The global box office of the explosive "Mission: Impossible 4" was only US$6.9 million!

There are also the "Rescue" series and "Collapse" directed by Chen Musheng, "Source Code" and "John Wick" directed by Lin Chaoxian - speaking of these actors who have worked closely with Li Mu, which one has not Easy global release?

Which one didn't win the box office championship in the North American market on the week it was released?
One by one, these directors were once far inferior to director Zhang Yimou. However, after these directors cooperated with Li Mu and Huashang Media, today, one by one, all of them have completed their global releases and easily won the North American and overseas movies that week. It has become the box-office champion in many markets, and to this day, director Zhang Yimou is still tempted by this prospect, even taking on film projects that he was not optimistic about from the beginning.

This also reflects from the side that Li Mu is now the only one in the Chinese film industry. Even director Zhang Yimou, who is known as the "National Master", is completely unable to compare with him.

In addition, looking at the good box office performance of "John Wick 2", fellow kung fu superstar Yan Yan also fell into silence.

(End of this chapter)