Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 901: The 'Prophecy' Hidden in "New Wolf Warrior 2"

"Entertainment Industry: The military-themed film 'Wolf Warrior 2,' invested by Beyond Pictures and directed and starring Wu Jing, was pulled from theaters on December 31 last year after a three-month extension. Its final official box office was 68.72 billion yuan (approximately 1 billion US dollars), making it the highest-grossing film in film history."

The film successfully entered the top 50 highest-grossing films of all time worldwide, and is the only non-Hollywood production to be included in the list of Asian films.

The success of "Wolf Warrior 2" far exceeded its commercial value, accumulating valuable experience for the cultural and creative industry and greatly enhancing the influence of the other side in the cultural and entertainment track.
The science fiction film "The Wandering Earth" has completed filming and is currently in the post-production stage. It is expected to be released during the Spring Festival next year.

Biyuan's subsidiary, Qidian Literature, is collaborating with its invested animation studios to develop IPs such as "Xian Ni," "Fanren Xiu Xian Zhuan," "Douluo Dalu," and "Doupo Cangqiong," with related merchandise being launched simultaneously.

Despite Wolf Warrior 2 topping the box office charts with 68.72 billion yuan, the profits of its main investor, Beyond Pictures, were equally impressive – a 2.2 million yuan investment yielded approximately 10 billion yuan in revenue, a return on investment of 500%.

Two months later, after launching on the other side of the video streaming platform and adding peripheral product development, the overall profit is expected to reach 12 billion.

The reason why its box office was able to leave the second place "The Mermaid" by nearly double the 33 billion yuan is partly due to the brand halo of Beyond Pictures. Previously invested works such as "Boonie Bears & Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf", "Brotherhood of Blades", "Kung Fu Jungle", "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" and "Wolf Warrior" have all achieved great success with small investments and have won both critical acclaim and box office success. Audiences went to the cinema because they trusted Beyond Pictures' productions.

But the more crucial factor is:
Extreme industrial investment: The film was supported by the company with a lot of money. The film's large-scale scenes are comparable to small wars, and the special effects budget was almost "unlimited". The final effect is at least an order of magnitude better than the original.

The script underwent in-depth polishing: After review by the top screenwriting team of Beyond Pictures, the script retained the core theme while eliminating a large number of dramatic exaggerations and coincidences, and strengthening the logical authenticity.

For example, in the original script, there was a scene where Leng Feng carried a flag across the war zone with his arm. This scene was extremely emotionally impactful, but it was only the surface. Adding dialogue or news footage to suggest the country's efforts at the diplomatic and military levels highlights the powerful motherland behind it.

Interestingly, when Chen Mo was studying the script, he became particularly wary of the "Ramanla virus" plot—its setting had a striking coincidence with a public health event several years later.

Anticipating potential risks, he personally took time out of his busy schedule to participate in script discussions and drive key adaptations:
Perhaps because he was the boss and provided investment, and these suggestions, which were related to the setting and had little impact on the overall film, were readily accepted by the screenwriters.

The final version that moviegoers saw was an upgrade of the original script's "Ramanla Virus" to "Ramanla Virus V2.0".

The film uses a news broadcast format to popularize the transmission routes of science, emphasizing airborne droplet transmission and contact transmission.
Symptoms: In addition to symptoms similar to Ebola, such as high fever and bleeding, the system adds the setting that "some infected individuals are asymptomatic but still highly infectious," and sets the incubation period to 1-14 days, with a median of about 7 days.

Most importantly, the source of the virus was changed from Africa to a biological laboratory leak from a certain hegemonic country. At the same time, news footage showed locals in a state of panic and chaos, with people buying things for free in various places, and signs and roadblocks indicating "lockdown and quarantine zones" appearing in some areas.

The virus then spread to Africa, and after the protagonist contracted it, the female lead, a doctor, provided public education on the subject.

"The most terrifying aspect of the Ramanla virus is not its mortality rate, but its insidious nature."

Many people are infected but show no symptoms. They act like normal people, yet unknowingly infect their family and friends…

Controlling it cannot rely solely on treating patients; it requires isolation, tracing, and breaking the chain of transmission.

Fortunately, with the SARS outbreak as a case study, Chen Mo's suggestion was well-received by most screenwriters. To ensure rigor, the production team invited infectious disease experts to serve as consultants. The passport dialogue at the end of the film was also replaced accordingly.
"The 'Ramanla virus' and its prevention and control plot in this film are all artistic creations."

Raising public health awareness and establishing rapid emergency response mechanisms are challenges facing the international community.

The fight between humanity and infectious diseases has never ceased.

Chen Mo then took a look at the film reviews on Douban and found that there were both positive and negative opinions, and a lot of discussion. Perhaps because SARS was so far in the past, people did not have a deep impression of it, and the discussion about the virus plot in the film accounted for a small percentage.

However, it doesn't matter. This work, which has reached hundreds of millions of viewers, has quietly planted the seeds of public health awareness.

It's worth mentioning that Liu Yifei, as the female lead of this phenomenal film, has become the top-grossing Chinese actress, with her total box office earnings from films she starred in exceeding 60 billion yuan.

Ma Li, who ranked second, came in second with 22 billion yuan in box office revenue (mainly from "Never Say Die"). If she hadn't lost the opportunity for "Hello Mr. Billionaire" due to a change in casting due to capital investment, Ma Li might still have had a fighting chance.

In this film, "Wolf Warrior," Jing Tian served as the behind-the-scenes producer, marking her first attempt at a creative model featuring two female leads working together.

Chen Mo knew that Jing Tian, ​​as a producer who entered the industry halfway through her career, did indeed have a gap compared to industry veterans, but Chen Tong's mature professional team would provide her with strong support.

What she needs to do is learn, understand, and master through practice.

As Chen Mo has always emphasized: ability is not the core, loyalty is the key - you can learn what you don't know, but you can't make up for disloyalty.

It is gratifying that, according to Chen Tong's feedback, Jing Tian has adapted to this new role relatively quickly.

Chen Tong is getting on in years, almost sixty, and her energy is limited, while Jing Tian is still young.
Chen Mo was relieved to hand over the rest of the film company to her. With his vision and the team built by Chen Tong, Jing Tian's job was simply to execute the plan, and there wouldn't be any problems.

Although this dual-female-lead format, with one female lead before and one after, had been simulated and practiced several times before, this was Chen Mo's first actual attempt, and the effect was very good.

When "Wolf Warrior 2" was released, the DD leak incident had sparked nationwide patriotic sentiment, which highly resonated with the film's theme, thus generating a strong response. Some media outlets even predicted that "its box office record will be unbreakable for five years."

However, Chen Mo disagreed, simply because "The Wandering Earth" had not yet been released—the film's investment scale reached 500 million yuan, more than three times that of "Wolf Warrior 2".

Guo Fan's original budget was only 200 million yuan, but it kept exceeding the budget during filming, so he applied to the investors for additional investment.

Chen Mo was optimistic about the project and the director's potential. When Chen Tong consulted him, he made a decisive decision to invest a total of 500 million yuan and encouraged him to "go all out," with the goal of creating an industrial benchmark for Chinese science fiction films.

(End of this chapter)