Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation [PS: I was short of a reward just now. There are about ten chapters, so the author has decided to give everyone 12 chapters. Today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, all eight chapters. Please continue to support the author and remember to subscribe. Automatic subscriptions are useless because automatic subscriptions will only subscribe to the next chapter you are reading.
January 1st, 1993. On this day, Director Jia once again opened a new map and arrived at a new city, Hong Kong.
On this day, 'Farewell My Concubine' was finally going to be released. As the sole producer of 'Farewell My Concubine', Director Jia naturally had to make a trip to Hong Kong to attend the premiere of 'Farewell My Concubine'.
It was obvious that Director Chen's reputation wasn't enough. There weren't many celebrities attending the premiere, mainly the actors from 'Farewell My Concubine', such as Guo Rong, Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi, and so on. However, there weren't many real Hong Kong actors, and only Zhang Guorong was there.
There weren't many media outlets either, only about ten or so. There were quite a lot of people in the audience, but everyone was holding a sign with Zhang Guorong's name on it. It was obvious that they were attracted by Zhang Guorong's name.
"Looks like we're not very popular in Hong Kong!" Jia Yapeng said to Director Zhang with a smile as he looked at the sparse number of reporters and the fact that most of them were Zhang Guorong's fans.
"It can't be helped. This is Hong Kong, and we're making a movie from the mainland. This kind of scene is very normal!" Director Chen sighed, but it was obvious that he had encountered this kind of situation before.
In this day and age, it was very rare for a mainland movie to choose to premiere in Hong Kong. Moreover, Hong Kong had always been biased against the mainland, so it would be strange for them to be interested.
In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that Zhang Guorong's name was among the actors, there wouldn't even be a single reporter or fan present. Of course, the reporters who were invited over after paying the transportation fee didn't count.
"How many cinemas will be screening in Hong Kong tomorrow? How many screens will be given to us, and how many screenings will there be?" Jia Yapeng asked.
Jia Yapeng learned that in 1992, Hong Kong's film industry reached its peak. Just Hong Kong alone had five different movie theaters, thousands of big and small cinemas, more than 3,000 screens, and more than 100,000 seats.
Otherwise, it would be impossible for a single movie to achieve a box office of 60 million yuan in the Hong Kong market alone.
Therefore, the Hong Kong film market was able to create one box office miracle after another. The box office of a city could crush a country.
Therefore, it wasn't wrong for Director Chen to choose to premiere in Hong Kong. As long as "Farewell My Concubine" could get enough screenings, the box office would be very impressive.
"Well, about 200 cinemas will screen our movie today. There will be more than 300 screens. In terms of the number of screenings, there will be about 500 screenings!" Director Zhang said.
"So little?" Jia Yapeng's expression became a little ugly. Out of the 1000 cinemas, only 200 would be showing the movie, which was equivalent to 15% of the total. This was a little too miserable. Every cinema should at least try to show a movie and see how it turned out!
"Today is New Year's Day. Will there be a lot of new movies screening?" Director Jia asked.
"No, the new movies were already released on Christmas Eve. Today, we are the only new movie screening!" Director Chen shook his head.
"So the movie theaters are not optimistic about our movie?" Director Jia asked again.
"I don't think so. To be precise, other than two of the five major cinemas, the other three have not watched our movie at all. A few days ago, I went to each of the cinemas one by one. When they heard that our movie was from the mainland, they were not even interested in watching it and said goodbye to me!"
"Director Jia, I'm sorry. It looks like we're going to lose money this time!" Director Chen said with a little resentment. It seemed that Director Chen had suffered a lot these days. He thought that with the trump card of Guo Rong, he would be well-regarded in the Hong Kong market. He didn't expect that he would still be rejected in the end.
"These Hong Kong people look down on us!" Director Chen said with gritted teeth.
"Of course they look down on us, but there must be another reason!" Director Jia smiled.
"What reason?" Director Chen asked curiously.
"Naturally, it's because this movie's capital is from the mainland, which means it's my capital!" Jia Yapeng smiled and said, "The Hong Kong movie market is only so big. There are almost hundreds of local movie companies. They can't even eat enough of the box office. Why would they welcome an outsider like me to share the money?"
"So I'm guessing that this time, there must be a lot of Hong Kong movie companies behind the scenes. They want to collectively boycott us. After all, these movie theaters rely on the movie companies to make a living. It's not surprising that they would work together. Otherwise, with Guo Rong's name, they wouldn't have to do this!"
Boss Jia made such a judgment mainly because Jia Yapeng vaguely remembered that when Farewell My Concubine was released in Hong Kong in this world, it had earned 28 million HKD at the box office. This result was also ranked tenth on the Hong Kong movie box office rankings in 1993. It was a pretty good result.
This was definitely not a result that a movie that only 200 movie theaters were willing to release could achieve. It was obvious that there were people boycotting this movie compared to his previous life.
Everything in Farewell My Concubine was basically the same as in his previous life. The only difference was our Boss Jia. In his previous life, Farewell My Concubine was backed by the Tomson Group. It was a Hong Kong company, and the boss himself had made a name for himself in the film industry. He had a lot of connections in the Hong Kong movie industry, so he naturally received the most support from the movie theaters.
As for our Boss Jia, although he was a little richer, he didn't have any connections in Hong Kong. On top of that, he had the capital of the mainland, so it was normal for him to be boycotted.
"Then what do we do? It looks like we're going to lose a lot of money this time! " Hearing that Jia Yapeng had figured out the secret behind it, Director Chen's face turned even paler. If it was boycotted by the entire Hong Kong film market, then "Farewell My Concubine" might only make a six-figure box office. That would really be embarrassing for him.
"Don't worry, it doesn't matter if the box office is zero. I don't care!" Jia Yapeng patted Director Zhang's shoulder and smiled. "Director Chen, I've said before that the goal of this movie is to win an award. As for the other things, don't worry about it. Twenty-five million is just a small amount to me. Don't feel pressured, I'll support you in everything!"
"Thank you, boss!" Director Chen was extremely touched. He didn't expect to meet such a generous boss. This was something that many film directors couldn't even dream of. It seemed that he had to hold on tightly to Boss Jia's thigh in the future and strive to get him to invest money in him in the future. Also, he could let himself go a little more freely in his future movies and film something that he wanted to film.
Alright, if Jia Yapeng knew what Director Zhang was thinking, he probably wouldn't have said those words. Our boss Jia Yapeng didn't want to work with Director Chen again. This guy was really born to lose money. However, only Farewell My Concubine would win an award. Only an idiot would continue working with him.
"Hey, Brother Long is here!"
"Oh my god, Brother Long is here!" Suddenly, there was a commotion among the reporters in the theater. More than ten reporters rushed out and started taking pictures at the entrance of the theater. Then, Brother Long walked into the theater with a smile on his face.
"Why is he here? I didn't invite him!" Director Chen was a little dumbfounded when he saw Brother Long. He had tried to invite some local celebrities from Hong Kong, but they had all been rejected, so Director Chen simply gave up on inviting other big stars. He didn't expect Brother Long to come by himself.
"Oh, he's a guest I invited!" Director Jia said with a smile. This Brother Long really knew how to conduct himself. Even though he knew that the entire Hong Kong was boycotting him, he still came to the premiere. Based on this, it looked like Director Jia would have to help this big brother in the future.
Although he wouldn't be able to get him to shoot commercials in the future, he could still shoot movies. At least before 2010, Brother Long's name still had a lot of appeal in the film industry.
"Miss Yang Ziqiong is here too!" The reporters exclaimed again. Director Jia was also surprised by Yang Ziqiong's appearance. He didn't invite Miss Yang. She really came uninvited.
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