radicalducati Chapter 20: Taking the Lead in Cultural Export!
Chapter 20: Taking the Lead in Cultural Export!
Perhaps this boss's sense of humor is naturally higher than that of ordinary people.
"Happy Ghost" was screened simultaneously in three major cinema chains in Hong Kong. The first screening achieved an astonishing average attendance rate of 86%, while the second and third screenings were completely sold out and tickets were hard to come by. As the summer movie season was about to end, it suddenly sparked a movie-watching craze that swept the entire city.
Its opening day box office soared to an astonishing figure—HK$1.8 million.
What exactly is this concept?
To put it simply, the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong in 1977 was "The Detective Girl", which grossed HK$7,704,046. It took a full two months to achieve this result. However, based on the current box office trend of "Happy Ghost", it will only take five days to completely surpass last year's champion.
However, the reality was far more outrageous than anyone expected, as the film's cumulative box office had already surpassed three million Hong Kong dollars by the very next day.
In just two days, the total box office reached HK$4.8 million.
This astonishing figure instantly shocked everyone in the Hong Kong film industry.
That's a whopping four million eight hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.
Is this an amazing sign that the box office will break ten million within a week?
Both established giants Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers were stunned at this moment. No one had expected that this film, which everyone thought was just a rich young man's whim, would achieve such brilliant results.
It broke ten million in box office revenue in just one week, which will completely shatter all box office records in the history of Hong Kong films.
Both Chow Wen-huai and Shaw Yi-fu felt unprecedented pressure at this moment. Originally, they thought this was just a low-budget film made by a rich young master as a hobby.
It's fine if I just help out casually.
But who the hell could have imagined that this wasn't just some casual hobby project Gu Yuhan came up with? This was a bombshell dropped into the Hong Kong film industry.
Once this bomb was detonated, it turned the entire Hong Kong film industry upside down.
Once this bomb was detonated, it sent the entire Hong Kong entertainment industry reeling.
The box office exceeded 10 million in just three days?
What exactly does this mean?
Last year's box office champion is simply no match for "Happy Ghost".
What do you have to compete with me with?
Of course, there are three main reasons for achieving such amazing results. The first is that it was released simultaneously by the three major cinema chains, and all of them gave it a very good screening ratio. The second is that the movie ticket price has increased slightly. And the most important third reason is that the quality of this movie is indeed impeccable.
Hong Kong's major media outlets were instantly in an uproar.
Many media outlets have hailed "Happy Ghost" as the savior of Hong Kong cinema, as the Hong Kong film industry has not seen such a phenomenal blockbuster film since Bruce Lee's death.
This truly ushered in a new era for Hong Kong cinema.
Of course, these media outlets also received a lot of kickbacks, and they went to great lengths to praise the media.
However, in a sense, this film can indeed be said to have ushered in a new era.
Originally, this new era should have been pioneered by Jackie Chan's kung fu comedies, but now "Happy Ghost" has taken the lead. Huang Baiming is overjoyed and immediately begins preparations for the filming of "Happy Ghost 2".
As for the script for the sequel, it was naturally just something Gu Yuhan casually tossed to him.
In his previous life, he had only seen the first and second parts of "Happy Ghost". As for how Huang Baiming would film the sequels, that was his own business.
Meanwhile, the other core members of Cinema City were also busy preparing for their new movies. They were all very clear about one thing: their boss, Gu Yuhan, was truly generous.
However, at this moment, Gu Yuhan did not focus too much on the company's daily operations.
"Ah Long, take a look at this company contract first!"
Gu Yuhan smiled and said, "I have great faith in your potential. As long as you sign with Oriental Entertainment, I will tailor a series of films for you, each with its own lead role, designed with a unique style tailored to your characteristics!"
Sitting opposite Gu Yuhan was Cheng Long, who was not yet a big star at the time.
As a future film industry leader, Jackie Chan's acting career was not without its challenges. In 1976, he joined Lo Wei Film Company as a contracted actor. In March, he played the male lead in the action film "New Fist of Fury," deliberately imitating Bruce Lee's performance style. In September, he tried playing a villain for the first time in the martial arts film "The Storm Riders," co-starring with Wang Yu. In the same year, he also starred in the action film "Shaolin Wooden Men," playing a simple, kind-hearted mute boy.
In 1977, he played a promising young man from a wealthy family in the action film "Sword Flower and Rain in Jiangnan". In March 1978, he starred in the action film "Snake Crane Eight Steps", playing the simple and kind-hearted male lead Ah Long. However, all of these films were box office failures.
As a result, Jackie Chan was almost labeled as box office poison. It wasn't until 1978, when Ng See-yuen borrowed Jackie Chan from Lo Wei to make a movie, that his fate took a turn for the better.
During this time, Jackie Chan also got double eyelid surgery, which completely transformed his appearance and elevated his overall demeanor.
In September, Jackie Chan starred in the kung fu film "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow," in which he completely broke away from the traditional tough guy image of kung fu films, cleverly integrating comedic performance into the kung fu movie, thus establishing his unique comedic kung fu style. In October, he starred in the kung fu film "Drunken Master," which added a lot of comedic elements to the kung fu film. Jackie Chan also reshaped the classic image of Wong Fei-hung in an unconventional way.
However, before Wu Siyuan could formally extend an olive branch to Cheng Long, Gu Yuhan had already taken the initiative.
He directly recruited Cheng Long into his ranks.
The contract was for a full ten years, and the hundreds of thousands of yuan in breach of contract fees owed to Luo Wei were nothing to Gu Yuhan.
This is such a trivial matter.
As for others trying to poach Cheng Long with a high price, they shouldn't even think about it. Gu Yuhan directly increased the penalty for breach of contract to HK$100 million.
The contract not only guaranteed Jackie Chan's leading role, but also included generous benefits such as box office revenue sharing and commercial endorsement commissions.
For a promising actor like Jackie Chan, Gu Yuhan offered him a B-level contract, and his agent, Chen Ziqiang, was also poached from Lo Wei's company by Gu Yuhan.
Chan Tze-keung was originally Jackie Chan's exclusive agent.
One of the core businesses of Oriental Entertainment is the training and management of artists.
Cheng Long naturally had no reason to refuse. The box office failures of several films in a row had dealt a huge blow to his confidence. Now that Gu Yuhan had given him a chance to prove himself again, he was naturally extremely grateful.
After signing Cheng Long, Gu Yuhan didn't sit idle.
Gu Yuhan also recruited Cheng Long's fellow apprentices one by one. Those with acting talent were given roles, while those who were not suitable for acting were assigned to be martial arts instructors. In addition, Gu Yuhan also established a special film special effects company.
The core members of the future renowned Jackie Chan Stunt Team and Sammo Hung Stunt Team have basically been recruited by Gu Yuhan in advance.
Although Sammo Hung has not yet joined, Gu Yuhan has successfully won over Lam Ching-ying and Yuen Biao. In addition, Yuen Woo-ping and his father Yuen Siu-tien have also joined.
They were primarily responsible for the film's action design. In addition, Gu Yuhan also made early plans for the future field of computer special effects.
Gu Yuhan asked the group to brainstorm and record any good ideas in a timely manner, and then discuss together whether they were feasible and had practical value.
If the proposed idea can be put into practice, a generous additional reward will be given.
Gu Yuhan also requested that these mature experiences and skills be compiled into a book as a guiding standard for the company's future film production.
The goal is to achieve the industrialization and standardization of Hong Kong film production.
Gu Yuhan firmly believes that while the success of a film certainly depends on the box office appeal of its stars, it also depends on the joint efforts of the entire crew.
Without the full support of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, many of Jackie Chan's bold ideas would never have become reality.
If conditions permit, Gu Yuhan also wants to introduce a salary cap system, but this can only be implemented after he has a sufficiently strong position in the industry.
Not urgent!
Everything must be done step by step!
Just as the group was talking, Su Rongrong walked into Gu Yuhan's office: "Boss!"
"Is there something you need?" Gu Yuhan looked up at Su Rongrong.
Su Rongrong glanced at Cheng Long and Chen Ziqiang sitting next to her, and the two immediately got up and left. After they left, Su Rongrong hurriedly said, "Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers have both reduced the screening ratio of our 'Happy Ghost'!"
"What is our total box office revenue now?" Gu Yuhan asked calmly.
"It's already reached eleven million Hong Kong dollars!" Su Rongrong replied quickly, "It has completely broken the all-time box office record for Hong Kong films!" "Whether it's the record previously held by Shaw Brothers or Golden Harvest!"
Gu Yuhan smiled and said unhurriedly, "Of course they can't just stand by and watch us continue to grow and expand like this. We broke their box office record, which they had held for many years, in just five days. If they let us keep going like this, what would happen?"
Su Rongrong understood this perfectly well, and she couldn't help but say, "But it's only been three days, and they've already started drastically reducing our screenings!"
"It's okay!"
Gu Yuhan smiled and said nonchalantly, "There's plenty of time; we don't need to rush!"
Whether it's Golden Harvest or Shaw Brothers.
Gu Yuhan has one major advantage over them: he has an inexhaustible supply of money. Once he invests his enormous capital into the film industry, the reward will be far more than just a few dozen cinemas.
Regardless, Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest's actions still drew widespread criticism from the media.
The screening rate they initially gave was quite reasonable, but in just three days, the screenings plummeted. Currently, apart from Golden Princess Cinemas maintaining a high screening rate, other cinemas are significantly reducing the screenings of "Happy Ghost".
However, even so.
"Happy Ghost" still broke the historical box office record for Hong Kong films.
From then on, Hong Kong films officially entered the era of box office revenue exceeding ten million, which was enough to shock the entire industry.
Major media outlets lavished praise on "Happy Ghost," while also criticizing Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest, accusing them of being stingy for reducing screenings of such a rare and excellent film.
This behavior is really petty.
This is also thanks to the conflict between Lei Juekun and Gu Yuhan, which led to Gu Yuhan's acquisition of Kowloon Construction. And now... every showing of "Happy Ghost" at Golden Princess Cinemas is sold out.
Cinema ticket office
"Sister, is 'Happy Ghost' really that good? We finally managed to get the whole family together to see a movie, and you've been saying how great it is the whole way. Is it really that exciting?"
"Don't worry, all my classmates have seen 'Happy Ghost,' Dad. You can rest assured, I heard it's really good and hilarious!"
"Hello, I need eight tickets for the 7 PM showing of 'Happy Ghost'."
"Okay, that's 70 yuan in total. I'll take 100 yuan from you and give you 30 yuan in change. Please take it."
Buying eight tickets at once is already quite rare, but I didn't expect someone to buy twenty at once and then resell them for double the price of ten yuan each.
Ten yuan a ticket, that's already considered a relatively conscientious scalper.
Some unscrupulous scalpers have even inflated ticket prices to twenty yuan per ticket.
Although many viewers were grumbling and complaining, some were still willing to spend twenty yuan to buy a ticket because the movie was indeed worth watching.
People like Gu Yuhan, who are already tired of seeing things, are a very small minority.
This film, which premiered in Hong Kong five years ahead of schedule, is simply a bombshell.
Meanwhile, the box office of "Happy Ghost" also skyrocketed. Although it lost the support of Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers theater chains, the box office continued to climb and eventually broke through the HK$18 million mark.
It directly left last year's annual box office champion by a huge gap of 2.5 times.
The Hong Kong media practically raved about "Happy Ghost".
……
……
"The domestic box office is not bad, but how is our overseas box office?" Gu Yuhan asked with a smile, looking at Shi Nansheng in front of him.
Nansun Shi immediately replied, "I've already started making arrangements. I have some familiar distributors in Taiwan, but distributors in Southeast Asia are harder to find, and they generally have long-term, in-depth partnerships with Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers, so they might not be willing to cooperate with us!"
"Taiwan is also a very important box office market!" Gu Yuhan smiled and continued, "My suggestion is to strengthen our connections with local distributors. Don't be stingy with money; the more movies that can be shown in Taiwan, the better. Don't be afraid to invest!"
Shi Nansheng nodded to indicate that she understood.
Gu Yuhan continued, "As for Southeast Asia, I'll stick to my original principle: throw money at it, talk directly to their cinema managers, and get them to choose our films and cooperate with us as much as possible. As the saying goes, a local official is more powerful than a distant one. You should contact their frontline managers directly. To put it bluntly, give them money and get them enough screenings!"
Shi Nansheng now fully understands Gu Yuhan's style of doing things; simply put, he uses money to pave the way, and he doesn't believe anyone can resist the temptation of money.
Whether it's Shaw Brothers or Golden Harvest, unless it's their own cinema chain, as long as it's a cooperative relationship, no matter how good the relationship is with the partner, it can never be stronger than the relationship based on money.