Hong Kong Entertainment 1979: A Beating Up the Manager at the Start

The premiere of Happy Ghost was on Saturday. Initially, it was shown in 10 theaters all day, but by noon it had expanded to 15 theaters, and the box office exceeded 60. On Sunday, the second day, the box office actually exceeded 70.

Box office revenue declined slightly by Monday, but still reached nearly 500,000.

In total, the box office revenue for the three days reached 180 million yuan, which is already one-third of the box office revenue of the year's box office champion, "The Fearless Hyena".

Hong Kong newspapers also experienced various reversals, feeling as if they had swallowed a fly, but they had no choice but to keep up with current events.

First, Oriental Daily News published an interview with Li Jiangbo: "Those who criticized Happy Ghost are now lining up to buy tickets."

Next up is Ming Pao: "From 40% Slots at Midnight Shows to Complete Sold-Out Theaters, Happy Ghost Stages a Box Office Miracle"

......

In Zou Wenhuai's office at Jiahe Building.

Ho Koon-cheung was carefully examining the box office report for "The Deadly Sword and the Deadly Gun," while Zou Wenhuai, sitting at the desk, was also frowning as he looked at the report in his hand.

They couldn't quite figure out the box office performance of "The Fierce Fighter" these past few days, as the film's attendance rate had been declining due to the influence of Shaw Brothers' "Happy Ghost".

"The Deadly Sword and the Deadly Gun" grossed 200,000 yuan on its opening day with an occupancy rate of less than 40%; on the second day, it did not even break through 200,000 yuan, and the average occupancy rate dropped to 30%; the third day was the same as the second day.

In contrast, "Happy Ghost" climbed steadily at the box office, giving "Fight for Life" no chance at all.

Many newspapers are now saying that "Happy Ghost" is very likely to surpass the box office of "The Fearless Hyena," which was directed and starred by Cheng Lung.

Two days later, Zou Wenhuai stared blankly at the box office charts. "Fight to the Death" had grossed less than 1 million yuan in its first week, while "Happy Ghost" had already reached nearly 3 million yuan in its first week.

Zou Wenhuai summoned He Guanchang to urgently discuss whether to pull "Fight to the Death with a Single Blade" from theaters.

"Mr. Zou, it seems we have no hope of winning at this point."

Zou Wenhuai nodded. "I understand. Should we continue the screening now and recoup our costs?"

"The Deadly Sword and the Deadly Gun" was released by Garbo Films. It is a traditional kung fu film with an investment of approximately 100 million.

To break even, the box office needs to reach 200 million. In its previous life, the box office was close to 300 million, but now it's being crushed by "Happy Ghost".

It's estimated that it would take a month to break even and barely reach a box office of 200 million.

After a moment's thought, Ho Koon-cheung said, "Let's continue the screening then. We don't have any films that can immediately take over."

Zou Wenhuai sighed, "That's the only way. How's it going with Cheng Long? Has Xu Guanwen not made any preparations yet?"

Ho Koon-cheung said, "Cheng Lung is still arguing with Lo Wei, and Hui Koon-man is still making preparations."

Zou Wenhuai is having a terrible headache right now. Ever since he poached Xu Guanwen to Golden Harvest in 73, Golden Harvest has been able to gain the upper hand in its rivalry with Shaw Brothers.

However, Hui Koon-man's output was extremely low, almost one film per year.

Golden Harvest couldn't do anything about this guy; after all, his films were box office hits!

After a moment of silence, Zou Wenhuai said, "I remember Li Jiangbo wasn't a member of Shaw Brothers."

Ho Koon-cheung nodded. "That's right."

"Okay, you go and make contact with him. I'll handle Jackie Chan. Let's get moving; I think this year's box office champion is about to change hands."

......

On the other side, Shao Yifu was in a great mood, his mouth practically curved into a smile.

In their rivalry with Golden Harvest over the past few years, they have consistently lost more often than won.

Take this year as an example. Except for the box office champion and runner-up, which are not from two different companies, the rest are basically fights between two companies.

"The Thief of Time," released by Golden Harvest in January, has firmly held the third spot at the annual box office.

He originally wanted to try to beat Golden Harvest's third-place box office with the movie "The Legendary Twins", but as time went on, Shaw Yi-fu realized that this was impossible.

The two films were released around the same time, but their box office revenue differed by 80,000 yuan. Don't underestimate this 80,000 yuan difference; keep in mind that this was towards the end of the film's run, and the attendance rate had already been halved.

He simply gave up his schedule to "Happy Ghost" without much hesitation, and unexpectedly, the film became a huge success.

He is now particularly grateful that he did not show favoritism in the matter between Chen Tianfang and Li Jiangbo.

If we force Li Jiangbo to side with Jiahe, it will be a losing proposition.

He was even planning to hold a celebration banquet for Li Jiangbo and get to know the young man better.

On the eleventh day of its release, "Happy Ghost" officially surpassed the box office of "The Fearless Hyena," directed and starring Cheng Long, reaching a staggering 620 million yuan.

The entire Hong Kong film industry was shaken. A small-time erotic film director, along with three students, made a comedy ghost film that actually topped the charts.

This seemingly unbelievable thing was accomplished by someone who was at the very bottom of the film industry; it's simply defying the heavens.

Now, everyone in the industry is starting to study the reasons for the film's success, including Karl Maka and Dean Shek's Struggle Studio.

They are still a small studio, but they have grasped the essence of the success of "Happy Ghost" - a youth campus comedy, and are preparing to make a similar version called "Ghostly Campus".

Other companies, however, only analyzed that the film would be a success as long as the ghost existed.

The result of this analysis was that Leslie Cheung's salary skyrocketed, from 50,000 yuan per film to 200,000 yuan.

Some investors even offered 25 yuan to have Leslie Cheung make a comedy ghost movie, but they could never find him.

No one could have imagined that Leslie Cheung would hide in Li Jiangbo's Time Pictures to avoid the limelight.

"Director Li! What do we do now? These people are so annoying I can't even record a song."

Li Jiangbo looked at Leslie Cheung curiously, "Hey Leslie, this proves you're famous! Don't you want to be famous?"

Leslie Cheung gave a wry smile. "If that's the case, I'd rather not have it. I'm a singer, not a movie star."

Leslie Cheung hasn't been defeated by reality yet. He's only had two albums that flopped and been silent for two years. He still prefers to achieve success in music.

The two were chatting when there was a knock on the door.

"Please come in."

The secretary reported, "Boss, a Mr. He would like to visit you."

"Please let him in."

A short while later, an elderly man in his fifties followed the secretary into Li Jiangbo's office.

This man was none other than He Guanchang, one of the right-hand men of Zou Wenhuai of Jiahe.

Li Jiangbo immediately went up to him and shook hands with He Guanchang, "So it's Mr. He! My apologies for not recognizing you sooner."

He Guanchang glanced around Li Jiangbo's office and noticed Zhang Guorong sitting on the sofa.

He chuckled and said, "We have guests! Director Li, it seems I've come at the wrong time!"

Leslie Cheung hurriedly stood up, looking somewhat at a loss.

Li Jiangbo laughed and said, "Not at all, Ah Rong is just staying here to avoid the limelight. Too many people have been looking for him lately. Mr. He, please sit down. What would you like to drink? Coffee or tea?"

"Tea bar!"

Li Jiangbo asked his secretary to make tea, and after exchanging pleasantries, the two officially got down to business.

Ho Koon-cheung laughed and said, "I wonder if Director Lee has any intention of promoting 'Happy Ghost' to the outside world?"

Li Jiangbo immediately understood He Guanchang's intention: He had come to give him money.

"Well... of course they're interested! Who doesn't want to make more money? But Uncle Liu has already agreed to take care of the external publicity for 'Happy Ghost'."

Upon hearing this, Ho Koon-cheung didn't say much; he simply used this as an excuse to get to the real topic of the day.

"Oh, right! Even if a deal falls through, we can still be friends! By the way, I wonder what Director Li's views are on Hong Kong films?"

Li Jiangbo paused for a moment, then asked, "I usually watch it sitting or lying down?"

This answer left Ho Koon-cheung completely baffled. What did it mean? "Watching while sitting?" or "Watching while lying down?"

This young man is something else! I was careless and almost strained my back.