It only takes ten minutes to go from the courtyard to the cinema using the Wangquan Express.
The cinema is located in the bustling Dashilan Pedestrian Street. It was originally the Daguanlou Cinema. It was built in 1907, only two years after the birth of Chinese cinema. It was one of the earliest film screening venues in the Qing Dynasty.
Wang Quan's father, Wang Qiankun, was a projectionist at Daguanlou Cinema when he was young. Along the way, Daguanlou changed from a state-owned unit to a public-private partnership, and finally turned into his own private company.
In the 1980s, Wang Qiankun was smart and started to pick up antiques. When he had money, he bought the Daguanlou Cinema where he once worked and renamed it Dawang Cinema.
At that time, the film industry was definitely not as profitable as antiques. Lao Wang was purely motivated by his love for movies. Wang Quan was also influenced by Lao Wang since he was a child. Instead of going home after school every day, he went to the cinema first and watched whatever was on, so He developed a strong film reading capacity and a deep love for movies. Movies were his childhood.
In the 1990s, Lao Wang suffered heavy losses due to an accident. He was so sad that he simply left the antique business and used the remaining money to buy some shops and several buildings. The shops were used for rent. After three divorces, the buildings were basically divided between Lao Wang and Lao Wang. Mom, at the same time, he focused his work on the operation of the cinema.
Lao Wang carried out a series of renovations on Dawang Cinema, introduced the most advanced projection equipment from the United States, built a super-large screen auditorium, improved the viewing environment, enriched the cultural heritage of the cinema, and finally became one of the top cinemas in Beijing.
It is a pity that the TV industry is in the spring and the film industry is in the winter. In 1991, the total annual box office in the mainland was still 3.1 billion, but by 1999 it was only 810 million. The high-investment Dawang Cinema suffered heavy losses and struggled to make profits.
The reason why it is called a movie theater is that in addition to showing movies, it also occasionally rehearses opera programs to make a living. Peking Opera, Bangzi, and cross talk are all available.
During this period, relevant departments also made efforts to make market adjustments. For example, starting from "The Fugitive" in 1994, 10 Hollywood blockbusters were introduced every year in the form of box office splitting.
In 1995, the Film Bureau adjusted the qualifications for film production, and production rights were gradually decentralized to the private sector. However, the decline of the mainland film market remained unchanged.
It was not until the end of 2002 that "Hero" was released, ushering in a new era of Chinese-language commercial blockbusters. In 2003, the total box office in the mainland was 1 billion, in 2004 it was 1.5 billion, and in 2005 it was 2 billion!
With this growth rate, Wang Quan can't wait to time travel to more than ten years later, when the mainland box office is worth tens of billions, which is the stage suitable for him!
We arrived at the Dawang Cinema. It is antique and has the charm of Ming and Qing Dynasty architecture. The old building from a hundred years ago no longer exists, but my father still chose to decorate it according to the original style. Therefore, it was also featured in the movie "Farewell My Concubine" that year. A scene was selected and Wang Quan had the honor to watch.
After entering, there were all familiar faces. Wang Quan had also worked here during the holidays earlier.
"Hey, the young master has returned to China!"
"When did you come back, Master?"
"The boss is not here, I am here to inspect for my father~"
The employees were all familiar with Wang Quan, and they had fun for a while. Wang Quan paid and asked them to give him a copy of "Huo Yuanjia" from the latest performance. The price was 38 yuan a piece, which was slightly higher than the average ticket price, but because there were members , so it only costs 28 yuan.
Ever since he went to college and was able to make money by making his own commercials, Wang Quan has become aware of supporting the box office. Although the cinema belongs to his family, going in to watch it without buying a ticket is ultimately an act of stealing the box office.
The most recent one was half an hour later, in a 600-seat auditorium, with a big theater and a big screen, making it even more enjoyable to watch.
While waiting, Wang Quan observed the audience. There were crowds of people. Most of them came to watch "Fearless Fearless". This is the charm of blockbusters, and of course, it has something to do with the schedule.
The New Year is approaching, and around New Year's Day and before the first day of the Lunar New Year are considered Lunar New Year stalls, which are much better than the summer stalls that are still insignificant today.
If you look at the movies released at the end of the year, you can understand the strength of the Lunar New Year festival. It started with "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (Haha 4), followed by the musical blockbuster "If Love" directed by Chen Kexin, and then "If Love" The new film "King Kong" from the director of "Lord of the Rings".
During the same period, there were also three domestic films interspersed, namely Liu Zhenwei's "The Great Sage", Zhang Yimou's "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles", and "The Promise", the only domestic film in 2005 that had a box office of over 100 million~
In 2005, domestic films ranked 1st, 5th, 7th, and 8th at the box office, and imported films ranked 1st and 2nd at the box office. They all took place during this period. It goes without saying how popular the Lunar New Year movies are.
After waiting for more than ten minutes, he could go in to watch the movie. The clerk chose the best viewing area for him. After he entered, the surrounding area gradually filled up with people. By the time the movie officially started, there were already people in the 600-seat auditorium. The attendance rate is 70% to 80%.
And after the movie started, people started coming in one after another, almost filling the theater. A girl wearing a hat and a mask came in midway. Seeing that her seat was occupied, she reluctantly ran to the back corner.
Wang Quan paid no attention to anyone else and enjoyed the movie immersedly. The movie opened with middle-aged Huo Yuanjia competing in a martial arts ring with foreigners, and then began a flashback from when he was a child.
The plot begins with a ring match between the young Huo Yuanjia and his father Chang Wei. Soon, the child grows up. When he grows up, Huo Yuanjia is brave and fierce and behaves erratically. He once said, "This punch lasts for twenty years." , can you stop him?" This person's domineering and confident character was fully exposed.
I didn't expect that Huang Feihong, who has thick eyebrows, big eyes and elegant demeanor, would be so arrogant one day. I feel that Li Lianjie's performance is a breakthrough. It is not difficult to get a Best Actor nomination for this film.
The subsequent scene of Huo Yuanjia PKing Master Qin was even more explosive. It made people tense up and not dare to breathe. Seeing the wonderful part, Wang Quan could not wait to press the pause button and analyze the shooting frame by frame. techniques.
That sense of blow, that destructive power, it hurt even the audience watching it. Sure enough, action movies have to be made by professionals to make them look good. Needless to say, Li Lianjie, the national martial arts champion, after Master Qin beat Fearless and Ip Man, He is also a Lianjiazi.
Even though the standard of Hollywood action movies has greatly improved since Yuan Baye entered Hollywood, and it is no longer a rigid model where you punch and I kick back, there is still a big gap between it and this battle.
Later, Huo Yuanjia experienced a major setback when his family was wiped out, and his personality began to change, and he initially possessed the demeanor of a great master.
Although it is very cliche, and although it allows people to watch the end at a glance, this is not a suspense film. "You will know the end when you see the beginning" cannot be a panacea to belittle the watchability of a movie, not to mention that the ending of Huo Yuanjia's life is well known.
Precisely because the ending of Master Huo is well known, he was poisoned, defeated and died miserably, so Wang Quan believed that this was not a commercially pleasing film in the strict sense. Such an ending greatly limited the final box office results.
The last one is so sadistic that even if you like the previous action scenes, it will be difficult to watch it again and again, so the real Fearless will never be as good as the fictional Chen Zhen.
The director was well aware of this, so he designed a RB warrior who understood justice well. In the end, the warrior was impressed by Huo Yuanjia's martial arts spirit and publicly announced that the poisoned Huo Yuanjia had won. This was a happy compromise. point, giving the audience an outlet for their emotions.
Even if the story of Huo Yuanjia is filmed by Wang Quan, he has no more suitable solution for the time being, unless it is magically changed. However, the audience may be happy, but the descendants of the Huo family may not be happy.
Even if it is just an adaptation of this level, Wang Quan feels that the descendants of the Huo family will probably be dissatisfied.
After watching the movie and walking out of the cinema, Wang Quan discovered that he also had a director's cut of "Fearless" in his film and television library. The released version was 101 minutes long, but the director's cut was 141 minutes long. He could make up for it when he went back.
Many movies have to be shortened in order to facilitate screening in cinemas and to seize more film schedules. Sometimes masterpieces can be cut into rubbish. For example, in order to arrange more fight scenes in this Fearless movie, some of the emotional development was not done properly. place.
Just as he was thinking about it, a girl's voice suddenly came from behind him, "Hey, Wang Fugui!"
Wang Quan turned around, and the girl behind him took off her mask, revealing a fierce look in her eyes.
Wang Quan was surprised at first, and then pretended to be angry, "What did you call me?"
"King! Rich! Noble! You pay for my leading female role!" The girl rushed over with her teeth bared.
Wang Quan hugged the angry little powerful man and spun him around twice, "Girl, are you fat?"
