Chapter 187: Sensational Hong Kong and Money-Making
The overwhelming reputation of "New World" makes "The Promise" look even worse.

Poet Chen, who was so full of confidence at the beginning and even shouted that "Titanic" should be taken off the top of the box office list, is now being criticized so badly.

At this time, both the media and the audience were praising "New World" on one hand and complaining about "The Promise" on the other, and occasionally "Crazy Stone" also got some coverage.

Although "Crazy Stone" is considered a classic comedy, it is not as good as the two great directors and two blockbusters.

It still has some popularity, which is almost entirely maintained by Golden Harvest's publicity department.

Liu Zhou guessed that given the petty-mindedness of poet Chen, he must have hated him.

But Liu Zhou didn't care about it.

To be honest, the movie "The Promise" really completely shattered the filter in Liu Zhou's mind.

What’s more, poet Chen never rose again after “The Promise”.

Other directors may have had ups and downs and stumbles, but they have also produced representative works.

But poet Chen started out at the peak, then dived down, and then kept rising and falling in the valley.

The only movie that broke the box office record was "Changjin Lake", but he was not the main director, and all the limelight was stolen by Wu Jing.
The audience jokingly called him Wu Jing who saved him.

For a big director to end up like this, even an actor with a little capital would not be inferior to him, let alone entertainment tycoons like Liu Zhou.

On the surface, everyone respects and honors him because of his long experience and also for the needs of his character. I don’t know what everyone thinks of him in private.

In ten years, actors won’t be as easy to control as they are now.

Therefore, some of the highly-liked and suggestive comments on the Internet were mostly made by Jiahe’s publicity department arranged by Liu Zhou.

Of course, I am not trying to guide people to criticize "The Promise". There is no need for guidance on this.

It mainly directs the audience to the two movies "Crazy Stone" and "New World".

What God does not take, is to be blamed.

Poet Chen has created such a high level of popularity that it would be a shame for Liu Zhou not to go and try his cuisine.

In the following week, the box office of "New World" declined due to the weekday, but the daily box office remained above 10 million.

And by the new weekend, the box office had rebounded.

After ten days of release, "New World" grossed 140 million yuan.

The outside world was once again shocked by the strong box office performance of "New World".

It seems that the hope of bringing down "Titanic" lies in "The New World".

Liu Zhou didn't take such media reports to heart.

Some of these reports were press releases arranged by Golden Harvest to stimulate box office sales, while others were written by the media to attract attention.

Liu Zhou clearly knew the potential of "New World". It would be difficult to even break the domestic film box office record of "Hero", let alone push "Titanic" off the top of the list.

"New World" has been released for ten days, and the traffic benefits of "The Promise" should have been fully utilized. At the same time, the potential of the movie itself has also been almost fully utilized.

"New World" is just a Hong Kong film after all. Although it is a classic, its audience in mainland China was limited at that time.

For Liu Zhou, a box office of over 200 million would be a success.

At this time, "The Promise" had been released for 17 days and the box office finally exceeded 100 million yuan.

This also makes Chen Shishi the fifth billion-dollar director after Zhang Yimou, Liu Zhou, Zhou Xingxing and Feng Kuzi.

But undoubtedly, among these five directors in the billion-dollar box office club, Chen Shishi was the one who was criticized the most.

However, the box office potential of "The Promise" now seems to have been exhausted, with daily box office revenue of only two to three million.

Its final box office will definitely not reach the height of 1.75 million in its previous life, so 1.2 million would be considered pretty good.

Although the box office cannot be simply calculated by addition and subtraction, it is obvious that the tens of millions less than that of "The Promise" were eaten up by "Crazy Stone" and "New World" together.

"Crazy Stone" has been released for more than 20 days and the total box office has reached 80 million.

Although the box office potential of this movie is almost exhausted, this result also shocked the industry and beyond.

Ning Hao, a little-known director, became famous overnight, and his fame is at least several times higher than at this time in his previous life.

Liu Zhou received many congratulatory calls, and almost most of them mentioned Ning Hao at the end.

Han Shanping even joked about whether Ning Hao could be loaned to China Film Corporation.

Although Han Shanping was joking, Liu Zhou didn't dare to take him seriously as a joke, nor did he want to refuse bluntly.

Liu Zhou smiled and agreed that it would be no problem as long as Ning Hao was willing.

But this also shows how popular Ning Hao is now.

Moreover, Liu Zhou was certain that there must be many production companies that secretly promised Ning Hao huge profits in order to poach him.

Nowadays, directors who can make high-grossing commercial films are rarer than actors who can carry the box office.

Like Liu Zhou, Zhang Yimou and Feng Kuzi before, each of them as a director can support a big company in the industry.

One can imagine the importance of a business director.

Although Ning Hao is not as good as the above three for the time being, he has already shown great potential, and there is no company that does not want to recruit him.

Although he knew that someone was trying to poach Ning Hao, Liu Zhou did not react and asked Zhang Zhao and his men to keep their troops on hold.

To be honest, he really wanted to see what choice Ning Hao would make this time.

If he wants to leave, Liu Zhou will not stop him as long as he pays the penalty. Even if Ning Hao performs well in the future, Jiahe does not need him now.

If he chooses to stay, Liu Zhou will value him more in the future and will not give him less benefits than others have promised him.

Even if he wants to go out and work on his own in the future, Liu Zhou will not create any obstacles and will even support him.

Ning Hao obviously did not disappoint Liu Zhou. Before "Crazy Stone" was even released, he found Zhang Zhao to express his determination.

At the same time, he said that through the movie "Crazy Stone" he realized his shortcomings and wanted to calm down.

Of course Zhang Zhao agreed with a smile.

Although Ning Hao was discovered and recruited into the company by Zhong Lifang, the movie "Crazy Stone" was also spotted by him at first sight and filmed with his support.

Now that "Crazy Stone" has achieved such good results, he is also proud of it.

Moreover, he felt that Ning Hao made the right choice, so how could Zhang Zhao not be happy.

After Zhang Zhao reported the news to Liu Zhou, Liu Zhou smiled and said nothing.

At this time, he was paying attention to the box office of "New World" in Hong Kong.

"New World" was released simultaneously in Mainland China and Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, "New World" is also a highly anticipated movie, and it is also the movie that announced the return of Golden Harvest.

Although in November, "SPL", the first film produced by the reorganized Golden Harvest, was released in Hong Kong.

But this was just a small test, and Golden Harvest did not make much of a splash. The box office of SPL was also tepid. Although the fighting scenes were exciting, the Hong Kong audience grew up watching fighting scenes.

So this movie only earned more than 12 million at the box office in Hong Kong.

And because it was too bloody, it was never released in mainland China.

"New World" has caused quite a stir in Hong Kong since the project was launched.

In addition, many popular and powerful actors have joined the film, and Golden Harvest has also created a gimmick that is no less than that of "Infernal Affairs".

After Golden Harvest launched its full-scale promotion, everyone’s expectations were immediately raised to the maximum.

Although Liu Zhou is a mainlander, he is also very famous in Hong Kong.

Everyone also wants to see whether this mainland director is just bragging and whether he can make a movie with a strong Hong Kong flavor.

So when "New World" was skyrocketing at the box office in mainland China, its box office in Hong Kong was also very impressive.

On the first day of its release, it grossed HK$4.3 million.

This result can only be considered average in the mainland. After all, there are several movies in the mainland that have grossed over 10 million on the first day.

But Hong Kong is not the mainland after all. Since the new century, the local Chinese-language film market has become increasingly withered.

Just to talk about last year, if it weren't for Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu", which broke the box office record of Hong Kong local films and took in HK$6129 million, becoming the top of the box office list in 04, Hong Kong films would have had a fig leaf to save money.

Because the second, third, fourth and fifth are all imported Hollywood blockbusters.

But despite this, at the Academy Awards that year, the Best Director award was given to Derek Yee for One Nite in Mongkok. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that this was an attempt to suppress Stephen Chow.

It’s because Stephen Chow doesn’t have a good reputation in the Hong Kong circle.

This year, the box office performance of Hong Kong films is even worse.

The year 2005 is almost over. Among the top ten Hong Kong box office charts, except for Jay Chou's "Initial D" which ranked third, the others are all Hollywood blockbusters and an anime. Local Hong Kong films have been overwhelmed.

At the beginning of the summer season, everyone was counting on Xu Ke's "Seven Swords" to make a splash, but it ended up being a flop.

The Hong Kong media even exclaimed in despair that the Hong Kong film market is dead and Hong Kong films are over.

So now, both the media and industry peers are placing their hopes on "New World".

"New World" did not disappoint everyone's expectations. After earning 4.3 million on the first day, it earned another 6.5 million on the second day.

The box office exceeded HK$1000 million in two days!
Since the beginning of the 21st century, only three Hong Kong films have achieved this result.

The two are "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu" by Stephen Chow, the Hong Kong box office king, and "Infernal Affairs", which is hailed as the savior of Hong Kong films.

So, the Hong Kong media went crazy!

"New World" does seem to have a strong Hong Kong flavor. Although the director is from the mainland, the actors and production team are all from Hong Kong.

Some people have previously complained that this is not a pure Hong Kong film, but now, the Hong Kong media has confirmed that it is a pure Hong Kong film.

If a movie like this is not a Hong Kong movie, then what is it?

This is closely related to the interests of Hong Kong media.

Even though Hong Kong films are gone, actors, directors and related practitioners can still go north to the mainland to make a living.

The media would really have their rice bowl ruined, so even if people in the industry don't care, the Hong Kong media will have to praise "New World" to the sky and continue to build momentum for Hong Kong films.

In addition, "New World" is really good to watch and has a very good reputation.

There is no problem in saying that it is a classic that is no less than "Infernal Affairs".

Of course, there are some people or media that find fault with it, but Liu Zhou is too lazy to respond. With the praise from many media, it is no big deal at all.

Moreover, these people did not dare to criticize too much, as they still remembered Liu Zhou's ruthless methods clearly.

It’s not that Hong Kong audiences are unwilling to go to the cinema to watch movies, but in the past, when they went to the cinema, they were often fed poop.

Since you don't make the movie well, we have no choice but to not watch it.

However, when they come across a high-quality movie, Hong Kong audiences are still happy to go to the cinema.

This is the case with "Kung Fu", "Infernal Affairs", and those Hollywood imported blockbusters.

"New World" is obviously an excellent movie. With large-scale publicity, Hong Kong audiences also began to go to the cinema to have a look.

Ten days after its release, the box office of "New World" in Hong Kong exceeded 30 million Hong Kong dollars.

Following this momentum, it is very likely that it will surpass the 55 million box office of "Infernal Affairs".

As word of mouth spread, everyone began to compare "New World" and "Infernal Affairs".

Many people think that "Infernal Affairs" has greater depth, while "New World" is more commercial and has made many compromises.

But many people also think that "Infernal Affairs" is a compromise, and "New World" is the most realistic undercover choice, and it is more in line with the audience's psychology.

The two groups of people argued fiercely, but it also indirectly proved that "New World" is a classic that can be compared with "Infernal Affairs".

In addition to the debate about the film itself, there are also many debates about the actors.

The two characters, Li Zicheng played by Andy Lau and Chen Yongren played by Liang Chaowei, are better and worse, and whose choice is more correct is also the focus of everyone's debate.

In mainland China, there are even several related film reviews of tens of thousands of words appearing online.

But in addition to Li Zicheng, Liang Jiahui's Ding Qing is also very popular.

The brotherhood he displayed and the famous scene of the elevator god of war made Ding Qing extremely popular.

In addition to these two popular male protagonists, Fan Xiaopang also gained a lot.

Although the so-called billion-dollar movie heroines are not new in the past two years, it depends on the person.

Fan Xiaopang is very popular and has high commercial value. All parties are willing to cooperate. This billion-level movie heroine can bring her great benefits.

With Golden Harvest's all-round publicity and packaging, Fan Xiaopang also became the most popular actress at the end of 2005 by playing the female lead in "New World".

Fan Xiaopang is very hardworking and knows how to seize opportunities. After finishing the movie promotion, he and Zeng Jia immediately started their commercial performance journey.

In just ten days, it attracted eight million yuan.

Zeng Jia was a little dumbfounded by this. At this moment, she wanted to slap herself twice. Why didn't she force Zeng Li to participate in commercial performances to make money before?

Not only that, with the help of Golden Harvest, Fan Xiaopang is also negotiating five new endorsements.

The commercial value of a popular female star is fully reflected in Fan Xiaopang.

This makes Zeng Jia very motivated now, because there is not only one Fan Xiaopang in the company, but also one Huang Xiaoming.

The Return of the Condor Heroes, starring him, is about to be broadcast. By then, Huang Xiaoming will surely become very popular, which can be used to make money.

As of January 2006, , "New World" had been released for three weeks and its box office in Hong Kong officially exceeded million Hong Kong dollars.

It is only a matter of time before it surpasses Infernal Affairs. Now more people are curious about,

Can "New World" break through 60 million Hong Kong dollars, or even surpass Stephen Chow's two movies, and finally reach the top?
(End of this chapter)