Although there are super blockbusters such as "Shuimen Bridge of Changjin Lake" in this year's Spring Festival film, due to the impact of external factors such as the epidemic, the overall box office capacity is 2 billion less than last year.
Now think about Wang Jing, who changed "New Heaven Sword and Dragon Slayer" to the Internet. It seems that he really made a correct and wise choice, because the Internet box office so far does not dare to say that it has made a big profit, but it must be a return. .
However, the new "Etienne", which is divided into two episodes of "Eternal Dragon Slayer: Jiuyang Magic" and "Etian Slayer: Sacred Fire Heroes" , has a terrible reputation and rating.
Because it is a remake of martial arts movies, the two new "Eternal Dragon Saber" cannot help but be compared with the classics of the year.
On December 18, 1993, "The Demon Sect Leader of Heaven and Dragon Slayer" starring Jet Li was released in Hong Kong. As a result, it was released for 20 days and only achieved box office results of 11.85 million Hong Kong dollars.
The originally planned sequel "Yin-Yang Sacred Fire Order" was also left unfinished. Zhao Min, who was amazed to look back, had been waiting for almost 30 years in most cities, and Zhang Wuji did not wait.
Compared with the current new "Etienne", Jet Li's old "Etienne" was definitely a classic; but it was a real fiasco at the box office, so in 2022, a new regret will be used to make up for an old one. Regret.
So, why did this "Eternal Dragon Slayer: The Demon Sect Leader" fail miserably at the box office? The sequel was not made, is it really just because of the poor box office?
1993 was the year of Hong Kong martial arts movies, and nearly 50 martial arts movies were released throughout the year; Jet Li, the number one superstar of Hong Kong martial arts movies, was the leader of this wave of martial arts movies.
This year, Jet Li released 6 films, all of them martial arts films, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
On February 11, 1993, "Once Upon a Time in the Lion King" was released, with a box office of 27.46 million;
On March 4, 1993, "Fang Shiyu" was released, with a box office of 30.66 million;
On April 1, 1993, "Once Upon a Time in Iron Chicken and Centipede" was released, with a box office of 18.18 million;
On July 30, 1993, "Fang Shiyu Sequel" was released, with a box office of 23.01 million;
On November 18, 1993, "Tai Chi Zhang Sanfeng" was released, with a box office of 12.54 million;
On December 18, 1993, "The Demon Sect Leader of Heaven and Slaying the Dragon" was released, with a box office of 11.85 million.
It is a pity that "The Demon Sect Leader of Heaven and Slaying the Dragon", which was released at the end of the year, was the worst film at the box office, and also had the worst reputation back then.
Obviously, the poor box office of "Etienne", in addition to the quality of the film itself, is mainly due to the influence of the environment. There were too many martial arts films that year and the audience was tired .
Jet Li's two "Once Upon a Time" and two "Fang Shiyu" films were both worse at the box office than their first releases; "Zhang Sanfeng" and "Etienne" released in the second half of the year were also worse than those released in the first half of the year, and The drop is huge.
In addition, on December 13 of that year, Liang Jiahui and Tony Leung's "New Brothers and Sisters" were released, and on December 23, there were Xu Guanwen and Xiao Fangfang's "Money Stealing Couple" and Leslie Cheung and Lin Qingxia's "The Legend of the Witch with White Hair 2". It was released on December 18. The "Ei Tian Tu Long Ji: The Demon Sect Leader" is facing the situation of being attacked by the enemy on both sides.
There is also "New Love", which was released on November 11. It was screened for 64 days and achieved a box office of more than 31 million, setting a new box office record for literary and artistic films. Arrange slices.
However, is the poor Hong Kong box office of "Eternal Dragon Slayer: The Demon Sect Leader" the direct reason for the cancellation of the sequel?
Using the original crew to shoot a sequel can save a lot of money in terms of costs such as costumes, props and scenes, and even in the actual shooting cycle. Then in 1994 or later, finding a suitable schedule for release is the preferred plan to return to the original. For example, "God of Gamblers 2", the sequel to "God of Gamblers" in 1989, was released in 1994.
In 1992, Wang Jing also directed another Jin Yong martial arts classic "The Deer and Ding Ji", which was also released in two episodes. Because the box office and word of mouth of the first film exploded, the sequel "The Legend of the Lu Ding Ji" even stepped up to shoot and was released ahead of schedule.
The hero of "The Lu Ding Ji" is Zhou Xingchi, the hero of "Eternal Sky" is Jet Li; the heroines such as Qiu Shuzhen and Zhang Min, as well as the director, screenwriter and many other behind-the-scenes teams are all from the same team.
In the Hong Kong movie box office market, Jet Li can't beat Stephen Chow ; but with the mainland, Taiwan Province and the entire Southeast Asian market, Stephen Chow at the peak may not be able to beat Jet Li.
Therefore, there is every reason to believe that Wang Jing can make a better sequel and earn back the loss of the first one for the boss.
However, the reason for the cancellation of the sequel of "Etienne" is not as simple as the bleak Hong Kong box office.
The story begins in 1992.
Because in this year, Jet Li's new agent, Cai Ziming, was assassinated, and then Jet Li founded his own film company, Zhengdong Productions , and began to pull investment to make movies. Li Lianjie is the producer named Li Yangzhong in "Eternal Dragon Slayer: The Demon Sect Leader".
At that time, it was the darkest moment in the Hong Kong film industry, and many stories happened, so Jet Li, who was brought in to invest, worked in Beijing for almost a whole year in order to avoid risks.
From "Fang Shiyu" to "Heaven Slaying the Dragon: The Demon Sect Leader", 5 of the 6 films that Jet Li released in 1993 were shot in Beijing. company.
Therefore, we have seen many mainland actors in these films; we have also seen the school battle of "Tai Chi Zhang Sanfeng" and the five-element flag battle of the six sects in "Eternal Dragon Slayer" and many classic big scenes. , which were all made with the support of the relevant local departments, including the dispatch of officers and soldiers from nearby troops.
In 1993, of the 6 films starring Jet Li, 5 were produced by Jet Li's company, 1 was a cooperation with Jiahe, and 2 were a cooperation with Yongsheng, including "Eternal Dragon Slayer: The Demon Sect Leader".
At that time, Jet Li chose to cooperate with Yongsheng of the Xiang Huaqiang brothers. On the one hand, the other party has background and strength, and on the other hand, the other party has money.
In 1989, Jet Li and Li Zhi fell in love when they filmed "Dragon in the End of the World" in the United States. Then Lizhi retired from Xiying to do business in 1992. As a result, he accidentally lost his investment and owed a huge amount of debt.
Therefore, there is a saying that Li Lianjie's 72 million 6 films "sell himself" Yongsheng , and then use the advance remuneration to help Lizhi repay the debt.
1993 was the beginning of the cooperation between Jet Li and Yongsheng. He also had a very good relationship with Xiang Huaqiang's family, and finally accepted Xiang Huaqiang's son Xiang Zuo as his apprentice.
As for the continuous cooperation with mainland film companies, in addition to the influence of Beijing native Jet Li himself, but also because of the cancellation of the mainland film industry's "uniform purchase and sales" policy, the first large-scale cooperation between mainland film companies and Hong Kong film companies was opened. deep cooperation.
During that period, not only Jet Li's martial arts films, Brigitte Lin's "New Dragon Inn", Zhou Xingchi's "Wu Zhuangyuan Su Qi'er", Andy Lau's "Sword and Sword", etc., and even later "Journey to the West", etc. It was filmed in cooperation with a mainland film company in the mainland.
The way of cooperation at that time was as follows: Hong Kong companies made the bulk of the investment, and mainland film studios made a small portion of the investment, which would definitely use mainland scenes and people, and mainland copyright and box office revenue would also go to mainland studios.
This is the case for "The Demon Sect Leader of Heaven and Slaying the Dragon". The whole process was filmed in the mainland. Many important roles, such as Xie Xun, Cheng Kun, Hebiweng, Baimei Yingwang, Mie Shitai, and Fire Foreman, were all cast by mainland actors. played.
The box office of "Eternal Dragon Slayer: The Demon Sect Leader" in Hong Kong is a big hit. What about the box office in the Mainland and other places?
Also miserable!
In 1993, it was a freezing point in the history of Chinese film box office. The national box office (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan) was only 1.3 billion , and the previous year was 2 billion.
The most direct reason for the Chinese film box office to drop to freezing point is the rapid popularization of VCRs, VCDs and DVDs. To put it bluntly, it means rampant piracy.
At that time, all kinds of small video halls sprang up like mushrooms after the rain, and there were several or even a dozen in almost every township. Most of these small video halls display all kinds of new Hong Kong, Taiwan and Hollywood films, including "The Demon Sect Leader of Heaven and Slaying the Dragon", which has crowded out those township and even county-level cinemas in just a few years.
In fact, the Hong Kong film industry is also encountering the same predicament. Hong Kong films have also declined since then, and they have not recovered. In 1992, there were 12 films in the Hong Kong film industry with a box office of over 30 million Hong Kong dollars, and in 1993 there were only 5 films.
Therefore, even if Hong Kong Yongsheng has the confidence to make a sequel to "Etienne", the mainland film partners are unable to follow up, and "Etienne" is a large-scale production with an investment of 50 million.
The 1993 Hong Kong box office champion "Tang Bohu Dianqiuxiang" is Yongsheng, and the 1994 box office champion "God of Gamblers 2" is also Yongsheng, and Yongsheng has been making money as a whole.
However , the ice age of the mainland film industry is far from over . In 1994, the national box office was only 1.1 billion, which is equivalent to the total box office of a Hong Kong city. In the middle of the few years, in addition to opening the window and introducing classic Hollywood blockbusters such as "True Lies", for the time being In addition to boosting some box office results, the total box office volume has declined as a whole for several years; the minimum annual box office is only 850 million, and it did not return to the 2 billion mark in 2005.
[By 2019, the total annual box office of Chinese films has exceeded 50 billion. 】
For example, Beijing Film Studio, which cooperated with Jet Li the most, produced 20 films in 1993, 15 in 1994, and only 6 in 1995.
Therefore, it was really because the box office was not good that the sequel of "Eternal Dragon Slayer: The Demon Sect Leader" was not filmed immediately; but the underlying reason for the poor box office was the result of the strong impact of the entire market environment by piracy and other external factors.
So, it's not that Zhang Wuji doesn't want to go to Dadu to find Zhao Min, it's that Dadu is gone!
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