Chapter 136 The box office champion of 1983
Although the top box office of this year's Hong Kong movies is not as large as last year, the overall box office is much larger than last year.
"New Oolong Courtyard", which Liu Hongmin previously considered to be in 1983, was ranked second in the annual box office by Hong Kong media in 1982.
During the Spring Festival in 1983, "The Best Show" continued the glory of its predecessor, earning more than 23 million at the box office. Although the box office is three to four million less than the previous film, it is still the box office champion in 1983 so far.
The second place is "Five Lucky Stars" with a box office of 21.99 million.
After "The Five Lucky Stars" was released, "Chinatown Detective" was released at the end of the summer season. Once released, it once again set off a movie-watching craze in Hong Kong.
Different from the slapstick comedies that are currently popular in Hong Kong, "Chinatown Detective" is much more restrained. It pays more attention to the story, and comedy elements are just interspersed with it. As the plot develops, unexpected reversals suddenly appear, which is very eye-catching.
Coupled with the reputation of Tomorrow Film Company, although Kung Fu Twins is no longer available, it does not affect the quality of the movie.
Among them, Tang Ren, played by Zhou Xingxing, is even more mischievous and chaotic but not annoying. Most of the dramatic parts in the film are on him. Qin Feng, played by He Jiajin, is not deliberately funny, but his stuttering and the way he is defeated by Zhou Xingxing are all the more endearing.
The most interesting scene in the film is the hiding scene in Axiang’s house. Every time something goes wrong, it's hilarious.
Due to the times, many jokes were removed, but this does not prevent this film from being funny. Kuntai's greasiness, Huang Langdon's unluckiness, Bei Ge's pretentiousness, Vietnamese boy's stupidity and King Kong's naivety all left a deep impression on the audience.
The audience's trust in Tomorrow Film Company made them rush into the cinema immediately. On the first day, the box office of "Detective" exploded to 2 million, and the box office in the first week was a terrifying 12.6 million.
Theater chain bosses think that the summer season is coming to an end, and cinemas’ profits will be much less. As a result, "Detective" became a timely success and once again made them a lot of money.
At the beginning of the second week, the box office of "Detective" dropped by only 20% at its highest. In other words, during the seven-day box office in the second week, there was no single day where the box office was less than 1 million. On Saturday, the box office increased by more than 50% again. In the second week, "Detective" once again took in nearly 12 million at the box office, bringing the total box office to more than 24 million. It surpassed "The Best of Us" in one fell swoop and temporarily became the box office champion of 1983.
Xu Xiaoming inquired about it and found out that in the next few months, the only one that can threaten the box office championship of "Detective" is Cheng Long's return from Hollywood - "Plan A".
He doesn't know how much box office "Plan A" can get, but "Detective" is already a phenomenal movie. It won't be released for another half month. Even if the box office is bad, it will still make three to four million at the box office.
It can be said that it is basically a certainty that "Detective" will surpass "The Best Partner".
"The Best" is a phenomenon-level movie in recent years. If "The Detective" surpasses "The Best", it will definitely be recorded in film history.
Phenomenal movies are not that easy to make. With the current size of theaters in Hong Kong, even a box office of 20 million requires luck. This year, three movies have exceeded 20 million, and it is difficult to accommodate the fourth one.
Although Cheng Long's movies are very popular at the box office, even if he is lucky and successfully breaks through the 20 million box office mark, it will be difficult to surpass "Detective". The Hong Kong media also praised "Detective" and praised Tomorrow Film Company by name.
Since the establishment of Tomorrow Film Company, all the films shot are of high quality. Not only did it earn a lot of box office, it was also very popular in Waifu.
In the report, many media released interviews with employees of Tomorrow Film Company. The employees said that the reason why all their shots are high-quality is because they have complete scripts. Screenwriter Liu Hongmin is very famous in Xiangjiang, and his status is comparable to that of Ni Kuang, only slightly worse than Mr. Jin Yong. But Mr. Jin Yong’s achievement is in martial arts novels, but Liu Hongmin is famous in many fields.
His "Shao Bao" successfully aroused the Bao Qingtian craze; "The Ming Dynasty 1566" became the favorite work of the two political and business circles in Hong Kong; "Lies" established his reputation as an internationally renowned writer. head.
It is a pity that he is from the mainland, otherwise when people from Xiangjiang are sorted, they will definitely rank him in front of Mr. Jin Yong. Although Mr. Jin Yong is a senior, in terms of performance, he is still far behind Liu Hongmin.
These interviews are all employees trying to please Liu Hongmin. What he said, although pertinent, is inevitably exaggerated.
However, these interviews still played a certain role. Film companies in Hong Kong have begun to pay attention to scripts. Everyone wants to make high-quality movies, which are too profitable.
Don’t look at the Hong Kong film industry to make money, but the costs are also very high. Given the prices in Hong Kong, if it weren't for the low remuneration of actors, many movies would be sky-high. For example, for an all-star cast like "The Five Lucky Stars", if calculated based on the net worth of these leading actors, the cost of a single actor would be several million. But in fact, these actors performed at reduced prices and took the initiative to reduce their remuneration in order to use more costs on film production.
The big scenes of "The Best Partner Shows Their Magical Powers" are a guarantee of box office, but they also burn money.
"Detective" also has many big scenes, especially the chase in the streets of Bangkok in the last part, which cost a lot of money. Coupled with some technical experiments, the cost of "Detective" was directly pushed to 10 million Hong Kong dollars.
So, by Friday of the second week, "Detective" had recouped its costs.
The cost of "The Best Partner Shows Their Magical Powers" is even higher than that of "Detective", and the Hong Kong box office just recovered the cost. If it weren't for Wai Fu, I think New City would have canceled this series of movies.
At the beginning of the third week, the daily box office of "Detective" finally dropped below 1 million, and it did not exceed one million in the two days of the weekend. Despite this, the box office in the third week was still 4.7 million. It grossed over one million at the box office in its fourth week and was released immediately.
In this way, "Detective" broke the Hong Kong film and television record with a total box office of 30.75 million Hong Kong dollars, becoming the Hong Kong film box office champion in 1983.
Tomorrow the film company is rejoicing, and what makes everyone even more happy is that the foreign copyright of "Detective" has reached 100 million Hong Kong dollars.
Because of "Lies", the Japanese did not want to introduce "Detective", but an executive from Random House saw an opportunity. His family runs a film company and directly spent US$5 million to buy the rights to Guizi and Europe and the United States. At the current exchange rate, US$5 million is almost equivalent to HK$40 million.
(End of this chapter)