While they were chatting, the movie started to play. At first, some of the audience were whispering, but as the movie progressed, the entire theater fell silent.
Soon, the theater was filled with faint sobbing, and many people's eyes turned red. When Cheng Dieyi died in the arms of her senior, the entire theater was filled with unstoppable sobbing.
This was actually the first time Director Jia had watched "Farewell My Concubine." Although he had mentally prepared himself, he still couldn't help but sob when he was deeply in love.
[PS: The author has never watched "Farewell My Concubine," so he won't write any comments. Anyway, Hua Xia's highest rating should be enough to explain everything.]
When the movie ended, the entire theater was still filled with sobbing. No one stood up to clap, and no one wanted to leave.
A few minutes later, Jia Yapeng was the first to stand up and clap. Then, Brother Long and Yang Ziqiong next to him also reacted and started clapping.
Then, the entire theater reacted. Everyone clapped with all their might, and the sound echoed throughout the theater. Many reporters who had attended countless premieres were shocked.
"This is definitely the best movie I've ever seen!" Brother Long held Director Chen Kai's hand tightly and said excitedly, "Director Chen, thank you for bringing such an excellent movie to the world and to Hua Xia!"
"Director Chen, that was great!" Yang Ziqiong said as she wiped her tears.
Guo Rong, who was the main lead, cried more miserably than anyone else when he watched the movie again. He didn't seem to have the strength to stand up and speak.
At that time, not many people knew about Zhang Guorong's sexual orientation. After all, it wasn't 30 years later, and homosexuality had basically become politically correct in the world.
Gays in this era had to endure social pressure and the hatred of fans. Therefore, Guo Rong had always been hiding it. "Farewell My Concubine" was simply a replica of his and Mr. Tang's story.
They were childhood sweethearts who had been together since they were young, and they had suffered the torment of their own lives and families. They had also suppressed their own feelings.
Even the final outcome was the same. Zhang Guorong had stabbed her with his sword, and she had died.
Some people even said that Guo Rong's suicide was due to the influence of Farewell My Concubine.
It was precisely because of this that Zhang Guorong was able to put all his emotions into this movie and act as the unparalleled Cheng Dieyi. From then on, this movie became a masterpiece in the world, "Farewell, My Concubine."
Jia Yapeng looked at Zhang Guorong with a complicated expression. As a man, it was not appropriate for him to intervene in this kind of matter. The only thing he could do was to send someone to watch over Zhang Guorong in the hotel in 2003 and save his life at a critical moment.
At this time, the applause in the theater had not yet ended. The audience was still clapping uncontrollably. It was not until a few minutes later that the applause gradually stopped and the crowd reluctantly dispersed.
"Director Chen, no matter how the movie does at the box office, this movie is destined to go down in history and become one of the monuments in the film history of Hua Xia!" Director Jia said with a sigh as he patted Director Chen's shoulder. At this time, Director Chen's expression was much better. With so many people applauding, and even the reporters crying, the box office of Farewell My Concubine should be able to be salvaged!
However, reality proved that Director Chen was wrong. Although all the Hong Kong reporters were crying, the next day, when these reporters' reviews came out, Director Chen was so angry that he wanted to curse.
There was no need to mention the specific content of these reviews. One look at the titles of the reviews and you would know.
"It's actually a gay movie. Don't watch it if you don't like it."
"An old bottle of new wine, but it's not as good as Hong Kong's Farewell My Concubine."
"Tears for nothing, but no real feeling. The director is too emotional."
"Farewell My Concubine, the biggest mistake of Zhang Guorong's life."
"A movie that's as hard to swallow as dry bread."
"Two Farewell My Concubine movies: The gap between the mainland and Hong Kong is still 30 years."
Actually, the movie "Farewell My Concubine" had already been filmed in Hong Kong in 1980. It was called "Hong Kong's Farewell My Concubine."
Well, there wasn't an extra name, but two Hong Kong. The reason was that at the end of the movie, Duan Xiaolou and Cheng Dieyi were reunited in Hong Kong, so two ports were used.
Comparing the two versions, the Hong Kong version's ending was slightly better. However, whether it was the idea, the content, the actors, or everything else, it was completely crushed by the mainland version.
Don't be fooled by the 9.3 on Douban. If you looked closely at the reviews, you would realize that they were looking at the wrong movie. They were rating this old Hong Kong version as if it was the 1993 version of "Farewell My Concubine." What a joke.
Director Chen had naturally watched this movie before. After watching it, Director Chen knew very well that although this movie was actually not bad, it was still quite a distance away from his painstaking work.
He didn't think that he would be called worthless by the Hong Kong media. This made Director Chen so angry that he wanted to vomit blood.
However, all of the Hong Kong media said the same thing and called "Farewell My Concubine" worthless.
The box office for the next two days seemed to confirm the media's point of view.
The first day was the day with the most screenings of "Farewell My Concubine". There were a total of 523 screenings. On average, there were 100 seats for each screening, and the tickets were 10 RMB each.
If it was calculated according to the normal attendance rate of about 30%, then the box office on the first day should be about 150,000 HKD. This was the passing line for a movie. If it couldn't reach this passing line, then the movie would be directly abandoned by the cinema.
In the end, the box office for the first day was 93,000. It didn't even break six digits. When Director Chen heard this news, he was so dizzy that he almost fainted.
In the end, the number of screenings on the second day dropped to 312, and the box office dropped to 82,000 HKD.
On the third day, there were only 163 screenings left, and the box office dropped to 78,000 HKD.
The total box office for the first three days was 250,000 HKD. According to the Hong Kong market, the box office for the first three days was equivalent to 20% of the total box office. Therefore, the total box office for "Farewell My Concubine" shouldn't exceed 1.25 million HKD.
According to the Hong Kong film market, there was a 50/50 split between the studio and the theater. Therefore, the final box office for the Hong Kong film market shouldn't exceed 600,000 HKD.
[PS: Actually, the rules for the Hong Kong film market's box office are a bit complicated. It also depends on where the film's producer comes from, the strength of the theater, and whether there's a mafia behind the scenes. The specific rules are hard to calculate, so here we'll calculate it according to a 50/50 split for most movies.]
In reality, Director Chen felt that the box office for the movie might not even reach 500,000 HKD. This was because the theater wouldn't continue to screen the movie. His upcoming screenings would probably reach double digits. "Farewell My Concubine" was really done for.
"Director Jia, let's go back. I don't have the face to stay here any longer!" Director Chen finally found Director Jia in shame and said.
"Don't worry!" Jia Yapeng laughed instead. He looked at the box office data in front of him and said, "Director Chen, don't you think this box office data is very interesting?"
"How is it interesting?" Director Chen was stunned.
"Look, compared to the first day on the second day and the third day on the second day, the number of screenings we had decreased by almost half. However, our box office only decreased by about 10%. Don't you think this data is very interesting? "
"You mean …" Director Chen's breathing suddenly became rapid. He was surrounded by negative emotions, so he didn't see the obvious problems with the box office data.
However, now that Jia Yapeng had pointed it out, he realized that the data was indeed very interesting.
The decrease in screenings was very high, but the drop in box office was very low. At 500 screenings, it only had 90,000 HKD. At 150 screenings, it was still close to 78,000 HKD. This data was indeed unusual.
This meant that even though the number of screenings had decreased, the average attendance rate had increased.
On the first day, the attendance rate was around 17%.
On the second day, the attendance rate had increased to 26%.
On the third day, the occupancy rate had reached 47%.
God, the highest attendance rate was 47%. In Hong Kong, there weren't many movies like this in a year!
Director Chen's breathing suddenly became rapid.
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