Chapter 368: No Man's Land is a great success at the box office and in the public opinion
The story of "No Man's Land" is very simple. It is about Pan Xiao, a lawyer who is good at sophistry and eloquent, played by Xu Zheng, who successfully helped the boss of a Northwest poaching gang who poached the national rare bird Altai Falcon and brutally killed a policeman to clear his name.

The boss promised to pay the balance in ten days, but Pan Xiao did not trust him and asked him to mortgage a red car.

The movie mainly tells the story of Pan Xiao driving this red car from the Northwest back to the city, crossing an uninhabited area.

In this no-man's land, it's not that there are no people, but that the people here ignore the law and do not distinguish between good and evil.

Then Pan Xiao met all kinds of people while crossing the no-man's land, and a series of things happened that seemed unrealistic but very reasonable.

In the end, all the people he met, including himself, were left in that uninhabited area forever, leaving only a girl who was trafficked there alive.

In the original version of “No Man’s Land”, this girl was also not going to survive, and everyone in the movie died in the end.

So No Man’s Land was censored.

Finally, with the mediation of Han Shanping, Ning Hao slightly changed the ending, allowing the girl to survive and return to the city, which allowed the film to pass review.

Although the impact of the film has been slightly reduced after this change, it still makes people feel a little scalp-tingling.

The version currently being screened is not the one that was modified many times by Ning Hao in later generations.

This version is much bloodier, and the images of the savagery, brutality and law of the jungle in the no-man's land are portrayed more deeply.

After the movie ended, Liu Zhou noticed that many people seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Although "No Man's Land" does not have any big scenes that can make your adrenaline rush, it still catches everyone's attention through a series of stories that are linked together, and there are no boring moments throughout the whole process.

After everyone recovered from the shock, most of them spontaneously applauded.

Upon seeing this, Ning Hao and other main creators all went on stage with smiles on their faces to thank the audience.

At this time, Liu Dehua said to Liu Zhou with some regret:
"It's a very good movie. I regret rejecting Director Ning's invitation."

"Haha, Brother Hua, you can work together again if you have the chance in the future."

Ning Hao initially invited Andy Lau to play the role of Pan Xiao, the male protagonist of "No Man's Land", a role that represents a highly urbanized symbol.

But unfortunately, Andy Lau had three film contracts at that time and his schedule was fully booked.

Ning Hao couldn't keep waiting, so he finally found Xu Zheng, a Shanghai native who had worked well with him the previous two times.

Historically, it was because Andy Lau funded 3 million yuan that Ning Hao was able to have enough funds to shoot "Crazy Stone".

Later, he always wanted to work with Andy Lau, but he never had the chance until more than ten years later, when the two collaborated on "Mr. Red Carpet".

"I hope there will be a chance. I think after No Man's Land, Director Ning Hao's fame and status will rise to a higher level."

"No matter how famous Ning Hao is, can he be more famous than you?"

"I wish you a big box office success. I won't be attending the dinner because I still have a lot of work to do."

"I see. Thank you, Brother Hua, for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come here."

"Don't be so polite, we are friends."

"By the way, there shouldn't be anything between you and Zhou Xingxing, right?"

Hearing Liu Zhou's words, Liu Dehua couldn't help but smile bitterly:

"No, Mr. Zhou is not a narrow-minded person. This time, love came to me for no reason."

"This is not without reason. It's because you were once favored by the Xiang family!" Liu Zhou said with a smile.

As we all know, Andy Lau is a model worker in the circle, but it is hard to describe the works he has starred in. There are many excellent ones, but also many bad ones.

Some bad movies may be made because people are forced to make them, but many bad movies are made to repay favors.

When the Hong Kong market was at its most prosperous, the Hong Kong entertainment industry was also at its most chaotic.

The Xiang family, with their unique status, provided shelter to many artists and helped many people during that chaotic period, so they also gained a lot of favors.

So why did Jet Li and Liang Jiahui agree to star in the film "Investiture of the Gods" that the Xiang family used to support their son? It was also because they wanted to repay a favor!
Otherwise, for a movie that is obviously a terrible one, these two already successful people would not take on such a movie even for the sake of their reputation.

In fact, many actors are not stupid, and they can tell the good from the bad in most scripts at a glance.

The reason why they still take those bad movies is not only because they may be paid too much, but more because of personal connections.

"That seems to be true, but I'm too lazy to get involved in such things."

"If you still owe the Xiang family a favor, you should pay it back as soon as possible. I have a feeling they will cause more trouble in the future."

"I understand. Let's not talk about this disappointing thing. I'm leaving first. You can go and greet the others."

After sending Andy Lau to the door, Liu Zhou also returned to the hall. At this time, the audience and guests had already left one after another and most of them had left.

Liu Zhou then sent Han Shanping, Zhang Yimou and others away, leaving only Golden Harvest employees and the film's creators. "Boss Liu, thank you for your help this time. I hadn't planned to have a premiere."

As soon as Liu Zhou came back, Ning Hao walked forward with a smile on his face.

"Then you have to work harder and don't let yourself be defeated by that great talent Lu Chuan."

“Don’t worry, Mr. Liu. Although the other party’s film has an advantage in subject matter, I don’t think they can grasp such a subject matter well.

Seeing him always bragging and complaining online, it can be seen that he has a frivolous personality. How can he film such a heavy subject as the Nanjing Massacre well? "

"Haha, it seems that you still value Lu Chuan very much and even go out of your way to get to know her. Although I think what you said makes sense, don't take it lightly."

"No, we plan to visit more cities during this roadshow."

Then Liu Zhou chatted with Xu Zheng and Huang Bo for a few words and left.

Shortly after the premiere of "No Man's Land", many film reviews appeared on the Internet.

At the same time, Golden Harvest also took the opportunity to release a large number of promotional materials for the film.

After the premiere, "No Man's Land" will be released in major theaters across the mainland at midnight.

The movie actually started promoting a long time ago, and tonight is just the last large-scale promotion before its release, and it is mainly concentrated on the Internet.

It can be said that Golden Harvest’s investment in the promotion and marketing of “No Man’s Land” is no less than that of a big production.

"No Man's Land" did not disappoint the expectations of Golden Harvest and Liu Zhou, and grossed 22 million on the first day of its release.

This result can be said to be very good. Even in 2009, there are not many movies that have a first-day box office of over million.

All the films that can achieve this result are big productions, and the total box office is almost always over 200 million.

So when this result came out, many media and independent filmmakers predicted that the total box office of "No Man's Land" would be at least 200 million.

Not only that, "No Man's Land" not only has satisfactory box office, but also very good reputation.

Douban gave it a high score of 8.6, and the online reviews were almost all positive.

"No Man's Land" can be said to be a thorough display of Ning Hao's dark allegorical style. For some people, they will love it very much.

Even if some people come to watch this movie because of Ning Hao's reputation as a comedy, they will not feel disappointed after watching it.

As word of mouth about the film spread, "No Man's Land" again earned 25 million at the box office on the second day of its release, and 31 million on the third day.

In the first three days of the film's release, it grossed a total of 78 million yuan at the box office.

If nothing unexpected happens, there is a high probability that the movie box office will exceed 200 million.

As word-of-mouth for movies continues to explode, perhaps the only surprise is the upcoming "Jinling Jinling".

When "No Man's Land" was being released in theaters, "Nanjing Jinling" was also being promoted in full swing.

As Lu Chuan's masterpiece that she has been preparing for five years, and a major production with an investment of 80 million yuan from the industry giant Star Media Group, all publicity for "Jinling Jinling" has also been fully mobilized.

Star Media Group is not a small company. In fact, in terms of corporate strength, it can be said that it is second only to Golden Harvest Group in the mainland, and is several points stronger than Huayi and Guangguang.

Currently, the largest cinema chain in China, China Film Star Media, has a controlling stake in the China Film Group, but Star Media Group is also involved in the operation of the cinema chain and also has huge influence.

And since Star Media is able to cooperate with China Film Group on the country’s top cinema chain, how bad can their relationship with China Film Group be?

Therefore, Star Media’s distribution capabilities in the Mainland are stronger than Huayi’s.

Not only that, perhaps seeing the explosive growth of the domestic film market, Star Media Group has been preparing for a wholly-owned cinema chain, which is currently under construction.

At the same time, Star Media Group also established an advertising company, realizing a modern professional media company with seven major business clusters, including cinema construction and cinema chain distribution, content production and channel operation, audio-visual distribution and chain network, newspaper publishing and distribution, advertising planning and media sales, online digital media, film and television bases and rental services.

By next year, Star Media will comprehensively expand its media business and poach the famous agent Chang Jihong from Hairun to establish Star Media's 100 billion agency company.

The original Liu Ye followed Chang Jihong to join Star Media, and then under the operation of Star Media, he played the role of a teacher in "The Founding of a Party" the following year.

In fact, there are several such media groups in China, but because they are not too involved in film and television production and artist brokerage business, they are not well-known outside the industry. In fact, in terms of strength, they are not bad at all.

Just like the media group company under Poly Group, it is also a behemoth. Their business even exceeds that of Star Media, including cinema chains, theaters, advertising, newspaper and magazine publishing and distribution, opera houses, stage performances, etc.

For example, the well-known China-Korea Song Festival is hosted by a media company under the Poly Group.

Later, in order to enter the film production business, Poly Group merged with Bona to form Poly Bona, but Yu Dong and Poly separated last year.

After stabilizing its other businesses, Star Media Group officially began to get involved in the film production field last year.

"Jinling Jinling" is the first film invested and produced by Star Media Group.

(End of this chapter)