"Shadow" became the biggest winner during the Spring Festival.
However, "Shadow" is not "Feng Shen 2" after all. Historical themes have inherent limitations. The script of "Shadow" also focuses on reversal. While making breakthroughs in the plot, it does sacrifice some universality. .
For those viewers who come to the cinema to watch movies and just want to have fun, "Shadow" is actually not very attractive to them, because "Shadow" is not a purely entertaining commercial movie.
At the end, the real and fake King Pei stabs the protagonist Jingzhou to death, which naturally improves the overall plot and improves the movie's rating by at least 0.5 points. However, in terms of box office, this ending actually does not add points.
Instead, it would be better to just let Jingzhou have a substitute until the end.
Because when most viewers watch a movie, they are still the protagonist.
However, Yue Guan himself played the role of King Pei, so he did not hesitate to choose a setting that was beneficial to him in the ending, and he did not hesitate to sacrifice some box office for this.
Anyway, he also gave assists later.
In the end, Zhang Yimou and Deng Chao were very satisfied with the box office performance of "Shadow" as a whole, and were even a little overjoyed.
1.12 billion dragon yuan.
The highest-grossing film in Zhang Yimou's directorial career.
After the release of "Shadow", whether it is the audience or the media, when it comes to Zhang Yimou, the most talked about is "The Return of the King".
In the play "Shadow", Zhang Yimou has indeed reached another peak.
Deng Chao also gained a lot as Zhang Yimou.
Before "Shadow", Deng Chao's status among Mesozoic stars was already very high.
But "Shadow" solidified his position and took him even further.
His performance in "Shadow" even surpassed that of Yue Guan. After all, he had more roles, and one person played two roles, which made him even more outstanding in terms of setting.
After all, the other King Pei played by Yue Guan only had a short scene at the end, so it was impossible to interpret particularly distinctive characteristics.
So from an actor's perspective, the most outstanding actor in this drama is indeed Deng Chao.
Many people believe that Deng Chao is sure to win a few Best Actors thanks to his film "Shadow", and even the Golden Dragon Award, the most important Best Actor, has hope.
Coupled with Deng Chao's own box office accumulation, his status in the film industry has surpassed Huang Xiaoming's.
Of course, Deng Chao is still far behind in terms of connections.
Huang Xiaoming had already finished the Grand Slam.
However, the evaluations of industry professionals are not consistent with the audience's evaluations of actors.
Huang Xiaoming has won all the Grand Slam Best Actor awards, but in terms of box office appeal, he is still beaten by several other Mesozoic male stars who have not won a Grand Slam.
The audience has a steelyard in their mind.
And Deng Chao has now begun to be classified as a trustworthy good actor in the eyes of the audience.
This is a huge improvement for him.
Therefore, both Zhang Yimou and Deng Chao were very grateful to Yue Guan.
They both know in their hearts that the greatest contribution to the box office and reputation of "Shadow" is so good to Yue Guan.
If Yue Guan hadn't changed the script, the box office and reputation of "Shadow" would have dropped by half.
At the celebration banquet, the two of them toasted to Yue Guan.
"Yue Guan, let me toast you."
Zhang Yimou actually doesn't talk much at ordinary times, but when he saw Yue Guan, he couldn't stop talking.
"Winning you into the cast of "Shadow" was the most correct decision I made last year." Zhang Yimou thought he was so wise.
Yue Guan said humbly: "I can at most take one-third of the credit for the success of "Shadow". Director Zhang, I take three-thirds of the credit for your directing skills, three-thirds of the credit goes to Brother Chao and the other actors' acting skills, and three-thirds of the credit goes to the announcement."
"Yue Guan, you are being humble. Your contribution is definitely more than 60%. If you make the wrong choice, no matter how hard you try, it will be useless." Deng Chao shook his head and said, "I could have acted well in the original script, but no matter how good I was, it would be useless." It's useless. It won't have much impact on the overall performance and reputation of a movie. Without you changing the script and setting the general direction, "Shadow" would just be an ordinary historical movie, and it wouldn't be as well-known as it is now. The best domestic historical film.”
Deng Chao was a sensible man.
So does Zhang Yimou.
So neither of them swelled.
Maintaining a good relationship with Yue Guan is much more important than inflation.
Especially Zhang Yimou.
He looked at Yue Guan with very eager eyes. If Yue Guan hadn't known that the national teacher had a gourd baby, he would have been afraid that he would have thoughts about him.
Zhang Yimou does have thoughts about Yue Guan, but this idea is career-related.
"Yue Guan, you said before that if the box office of "Shadow" exceeds one billion, then the "Xian Qin" series will be left to me to shoot, right?" Zhang Yimou looked at Yue Guan expectantly.
As a matter of fact, after the success of "Shadow", he had many choices.
But compared with the pie of "Immortal Qin Empire", in Zhang Yimou's eyes, all other choices are rotten fish and shrimps, not worth mentioning.
Zhang Yimou knows in his heart that if he can make the "Immortal Qin Empire" trilogy well, no, it doesn't even have to be particularly good. As long as he can reach the quality of the "Feng Shen" trilogy, given his own status, he will basically He can become the undisputed number one in the directing circle, and he can remain so for at least another ten years.
After all, his background and reputation were much stronger than Wu Ershan's before.
At Zhang Yimou's age and level, fame has even greater influence on him than Billy.
And "Immortal Qin Empire" is obviously the most beneficial to his fame and status.
So he wanted it very much.
Yue Guan did not whet Zhang Yimou's appetite.
"Director Zhang, I can give you the "Xian Qin" series, but the requirements are the same as before."
Yue Guan looked at Zhang Yimou and said in a very firm tone: "I have the final say on the script, and the final editing rights of the movie are also in my hands. Of course, we can discuss it, but when we have a conflict, my will will prevail. OK, is it acceptable?"
Generally speaking, a big director would not accept such a request.
Zhang Yimou had not accepted Yue Guan's proposal before, otherwise he would have been the director of the "Fengshen" trilogy.
But this time and that time.
The success of "Fengshen" has greatly improved Wu Ershan's status in the industry.
The success of "Shadow" also gave Zhang Yimou a deeper understanding of Yue Guan's ability and trust.
"Yue Guan, before filming "Shadow", I would definitely not agree to this condition." Zhang Yimou said: "But now, these problems are not problems. I believe in your ability. In terms of scripts, you are better than me."
Yue Guan was not modest either: "Director Zhang, your skills are all focused on color and graphics, and you are really not outstanding in terms of script and plot arrangement. But I have thought about it carefully, if there is anyone in the entire Dragon Kingdom who can surpass "The Immortal" The upper limit of the "Qin" series is only you, Director Zhang, and no other directors can do it."
Zhang Yimou obviously benefited from this wave of business exchanges.
The two quickly finalized their cooperation.
This made Yue Guan feel a little emotional.
A few years ago, Zhang Yimou did not have this attitude.
Now, he no longer feels it is an insult to bow his head in front of him.
Zhang Yimou has not gone downhill in recent years, and has even just reached a new peak.
But he still bowed his head in front of him and agreed to his conditions.
Because I have progressed faster in the past few years.
This is how the world works.
The higher you stand, the more others will respect you and your words will be listened to.
So, boy, keep working hard.
The respect you want can only be earned by yourself.