The Spring Festival file ended, and Wang Yibo disappeared

Author| Weiweiwei

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WeChat public account: chief person view (ID: sxrenwuguan)

The Spring Festival file in 2023 is considered the most important battle by the film and television industry, and 7 days later, it ended with a total box office of 6.758 billion. Compared with 2022, the broader market increased by 11.89% year-on-year, and the ending of a single film is different.

"Manjiang Red" won more than 2 billion box office under the combination of Shen Teng and Yi Yangqianxi, ranking one on the list; "Nameless" opened high and went low, and was overtaken by "Bear Haunted" in the case of pre-sale first, and later caused polar word of mouth, so that Douban movies had to temporarily close the rating; "Chinese Table Tennis" even issued an apology announcement early during the Spring Festival, announcing the adjustment of the schedule due to poor consideration of the publicity and production.

7 films were released at the same time, and more than 10 film and television companies participated in the competition. "Nameless" may not be the best film here, but it must be the most controversial and the one that best shows the changes in the entertainment industry in three years - in the process, the flower beauty represented by one of the leading actors, Wang Yibo, is quietly disappearing, and the main theme film is also quietly changing.

01 Reverse

Wang Yibo failed to welcome the God of Wealth on the fifth day of the first lunar calendar.

The fifth day of the lunar month in 2023 is January 26, which is also the first day of the opening of Hong Kong stocks after the year, and the Hang Seng Index, which has fallen for a whole year, rose by 140.650, which is a bit of thin noodles, but Lehua Entertainment, which just completed its listing a few years ago, is an exception - January 26 is the third day of Lehua Entertainment's participation in Hong Kong stock trading, and the price per share has fallen from 6.48 on the day of issuance to HK$5.12. As a new shareholder of Lehua, Wang Yibo's personal assets have also evaporated.

It is not only the stock price that evaporates, but also the movie rankings.

On January 23, the day after the start of the Spring Festival, the movie "Nameless" starring Wang Yibo was overtaken by "Bear Haunted". By January 26, the fifth day of the movie's release, when the top two on the list "Manjiang Hong" and "The Wandering Earth 2" had won more than 2 billion at the box office, the score of "Nameless" was 507 million.

An unexpected reversal. During the pre-sale of the Spring Festival, "Nameless" occupied the first position at the pre-sale box office, which is very different from Cheng Er's last movie "The History of the Demise of Romance", but it is the regular result of the "top" Wang Yibo.

Wang Yibo has made a lot of efforts. At the New Year's Eve ceremony of Oriental Satellite TV on December 31, the finale performance was Zhang Yixing. However, after Zhang Yixing completed the last stage performance, Wang Yibo, who had long finished dancing, was invited to the stage again by the host, ending the stage with a tidbit from "Nameless". Later, at the New Year's Eve performance of Hunan Satellite TV, the publicity of "Nameless" was implanted in the form of Wang Han and Wang Yibo chatting.

This is not the convention of gigs. On the second day of the Oriental Satellite TV's New Year's Eve performance, Zhang Yixing's studio posted a Weibo, one of which was: "It doesn't matter whether it is the finale or not, the important thing is to continue to love the stage with the boss Zhang Yixing in the new year, speak with strength, be frank and honest, and move forward with integrity." ”

Obviously, Zhang Yixing's team believes that the original finale performance was given to others, frank and honest, and moving forward was interpreted by fans with a hint of irony for others. Soon, a "pink and black war" about the "finale performance" ignited among the fans of the two idol artists, but Wang Yibo himself did not make any response.

"Nameless" was pinned on high hopes. In a roadshow, Yu Dong, president of the producer Bona, commented on "Nameless": "The creator spares no time, the producer spares no effort, and there is no upper limit on the budget."

In August 2021, one month after the filming of "Nameless", Bona Film's subsidiary borrowed 140 million yuan from the Red Star Branch of Bank of Beijing to pay for the production fee of the movie "Nameless", and then borrowed several times, and in the end, its production and publicity cost was about 300 million yuan.

Since then, there have been a succession of road shows. Cheng Er and Wang Yibo, who do not like to appear, went to Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room once during the pre-sale period, saw Cheng Er, who sold tickets on the live broadcast, and asked the staff on the scene in the later Weibo live broadcast: Can you sell tickets on the link? When he got a negative answer, he said a few words one after another, "It's okay, I'll just ask", but his expression could not hide his disappointment. And even at 12:57 p.m. on January 26, at the end of the Spring Festival file, Wang Yibo forwarded a tidbit of competing with another actor Wang Chuanjun for ribs in the film, with the text: It tastes good.

So far, Wang Yibo has posted a total of 10 Weibo posts for "Nameless", far exceeding the promotion of other works. And another starring Tony Leung only forwarded a tidbit of "Nameless" in September 2022. This is also considered to be a better division of labor, with actor Tony Leung responsible for acting and traffic Wang Yibo responsible for the box office.

The effort is not rewarded. According to Maoyan's prediction, the final box office figure of "Nameless" will fall below 600 million, and the film side will share less than 200 million, and the final loss will be about 100 million - compared with the production cost of about 100 million for the screen debut of Yi Yangqianxi, another "top" artist who has transformed from an idol to an actor, "Young You", which is obviously not a cost-effective deal.

02 Tacit understanding

Sometimes, social fear is relative, and personality can be re-established according to needs.

On January 19, the day when Lehua officially rang the bell on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, founder Du Hua sat in the first row, with Wang Yibo on the right, director Cheng Er and Bona President Yu Dong on the right, which was the first time Wang Yibo was introduced as a shareholder of Lehua. Du Hua deliberately left time to promote "Nameless". When the camera swept to the three people, Cheng Er went to the bathroom, Wang Yibo was bending over and trotting back to his seat, only Yu Dongduan was sitting in the seat.

Similar inconsistencies often occur in road shows. In a roadshow before the Spring Festival, several main creative teams said "Happy New Year, all the best" New Year greeting, after repeating it several times, the most Qi Cheng Er said "Ruyi" two beats slower, Yu Dong pursed his lips and smiled badly, pointing to Cheng Er standing in the middle and the person next to him quietly sued, it was him. However, in this road show that was later brushed up on Xiaohongshu and Weibo, the starring Tony Leung and Zhou Xun only appeared in the form of video links, and in most events, the two almost never appeared.

The reason for not having tacit understanding was explained as social fear, and the fear of all members became the biggest tacit understanding of everyone. At least the official publicity is so, which is in line with the past personalities of several main creators - after all, director Cheng Er's publicity method is still in the newspaper, Tony Leung does not like to laugh, Wang Yibo only had a line of "see you in the next issue" when hosting "Every Day Up", and Zhou Xun went to Cannes to go to the popular platform and blurted out "there are many people". As a result, even on the day when the tidbits were originally scheduled, the official Weibo of "Nameless" would be delayed until the evening, and then add the sentence "I forgot to post it during the day".

But sometimes, the real disagreement is hidden in the details. For example, when Cheng Er said that he wanted to shoot Yibo next time to play a complete bad guy, Wang Yibo on the side just smiled and did not show excitement.

Playing negative roles is almost one of the minefields for "traffic" on the big screen, not only because it does not meet fans' expectations of the "positive energy" of idols, but also because there is a risk of "collapsing" in the future - not long ago, an online novel depicting the anti-drug police was removed from the shelves due to criticism from a certain media after publication, because it described the feelings of drug dealers, even Yi Yangqianxi, who was already considered to have successfully transformed, was carefully avoided in his screen debuts "Young You" and "Man Jiang Hong".

This careful Cheng Er quickly understood. He did not mention a similar topic later, but said with regret in an interview: when capital rushed forward, he did not shoot a few more; When Chinese films were all the way to the festival, he did not catch up.

Yu Dong seems to be the most confident of the three. As the president of BoeNex, he introduced the northbound wave of Hong Kong films in the film billing mode, and stepped on the main theme to create "Changjin Lake". For Yu Dong, continuing the box office miracle is an important issue in front of Bona Film.

But in the past two years, when Yu Dong was producing "The End of the Sea is a Grassland" and "Ordinary Heroes", although he invited big-name actors such as Chen Baoguo, Li Bingbing, Feng Shaofeng, Huang Xiaoming and other big-name actors to join, they all suffered market box office failures in the end. In this regard, Yu Dong explained: "The charm of the movie industry is that you never know whether the next movie can make money, you may lose money, or fame and fortune, very dreamy." ”

Indeed, this dream eventually became the tacit heart of several people.

In August 2022, at the listing celebration banquet of Bona Film, Du Hua also appeared on the scene. Bona President Yu Dong's speech had a lot of sadness and emotion, "Bona Film was finally listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange today, and I have waited for more than 2,400 days for this day! ”

In this regard, Du Hua said that he also felt the same way, "Everyone will envy Yu Dong and the boss of the listed company, in fact, all the hardships in it, only the parties know it." Now that Lehua is listed, everyone has come to congratulate me, and only I know the many hardships involved. In fact, after going to the market, I felt that I was under a lot of pressure. ”

In the previous 8 years, Lehua Entertainment hit the IPO three times, and the results ended in failure.

The latest twist was just a few months ago, on August 7, 2022, Lehua Entertainment passed the hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is scheduled to land on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on September 7, and Du Hua even excitedly gave a thank you speech in the circle of friends. However, just five days before the listing, Lehua Entertainment suddenly announced that it was temporarily suspending its listing plan.

In October 2022, the first contract between Wang Yibo and Lehua Entertainment expired, and the two parties subsequently renewed it until October 2026, which also gave all investors a reassurance. The partner with the "top" Wang Yibo is like a gamble by chance, Cheng Er and Wang Yibo both need a famous work to gain a foothold.

On set, Cheng Er would teach Wang Yibo how to feel the role and immerse himself in the performance, and he often suggested that Wang Yibo needed to be alone occasionally: "Because his life is still noisy, he must learn to live quietly alone all day." "Behind the efforts of the four, Bona Film and Lehua Entertainment both need beautiful box office curves to endorse their own stock prices.

03 Dislocation

Actors who really get the box office need to keep a low profile, such as Wu Jing.

On January 26, Wu Jing appeared in the roadshow and said to the audience: "I will feel very guilty, as if I alone represent so many front and back (staff), I beg you to try not to promote the 30 billion (box office) thing." "Wu Jing in 2023 has become a starring actor with a cumulative box office of 30 billion with "The Wandering Earth".

As a "tough guy on the screen", he was the main publicity point of the main theme film, and he once rushed to the hot search for angry denunciation of "little fresh meat". But in the past few years, as the actor "collapsed" for various reasons, his tone has gradually changed, he will say that filming injuries is not a good thing, and will also say that he will give "little fresh meat" some time.

Wang Yibo is exactly the "little fresh meat" in Wu Jing's mouth.

During the filming of "Chen Qingling" in 2018, Wang Yibo also served as a dance instructor in the idol selection program "Creation 101", and every once in a while, he needed to leave the shooting set briefly, and he had a quarrel with another starring actor Xiao Zhan for this, the reason was "love bean makeup": When Xiao Zhan asked Wang Yibo if he wanted to wear heavy makeup again, Wang Yibo replied yes, I am idou Wang Yibo, that is my idou makeup, of course, unlike actor Xiao Zhan, the actor can't look at us normally.

However, at this time, Wang Yibo's makeup is already the result of "localization".

This one of the earliest trainees signed by Lehua, left his hometown Luoyang at the age of 12 to go to South Korea for three-and-a-half years of intensive training, the model is completely based on the Korean idol training system, and officially debuted with the group UNIQ in 2014, when Wang Yibo had not too short long blonde hair and fair skin, and was jokingly called "Luoyang White Peony" by fans, and when meeting fans, he would obediently pick up his clothes to show his abs. In 2016, UNIQ returned to China for development, Wang Yibo cut his hair short, and his makeup was mainly pink or blues, but he still had heavy makeup in the eyes of the Chinese people.

Figure: UNIQ combination

That was when the career of Chinese idols was in the ascendant, and although idols sometimes acted, more energy was focused on singing and dancing on stage. Also in 2018, the "Ai Youteng" of the three giants of long video came to a wild end, sending more than 200 idols to debut in three years, Wang Yibo and an earlier batch of "four sons who returned to China" Huang Zitao and Zhang Yixing all served as mentors in the show as seniors, until "Qinglang" brought everything to an abrupt end.

Spring River Water Heating Duck Prophet. As an early employee of Lehua, the first domestic "artist broker" company, Wang Yibo and UNIQ members felt the chill early. His series of answers to Xiao Zhan on the set seemed to be a little boy's angry nonsense, and in the future, it seemed more like he had been stepped on a sensitive point in his heart.

Not long after Xiao Zhan replied good-naturedly, "I still like you lightly", the flower beauty boy Wang Yibo completely disappeared. Coincidentally, the "Chen Qingling" filmed by the two is a delayed drama, in which Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan's hearts cherish each other attracted a large number of CP fans for the two, and there are still people who refuse to go out of the "pit", and Wang Yibo's increasingly light makeup was later ridiculed by CP fans as too strict a tutor.

Wang Yibo, who lost the stage, walked to the big screen and became the "drainage tool man" of the main theme film. In the past, this was only the position of "tough guy" Wu Jing-type actors.

Perhaps the misplaced is director Cheng Er.

When cutting the trailer for "Nameless", the team took the mobile phone and said to the director: "Everyone still thinks it's too literary." Cheng Er said, then let's directly type a line of subtitles out: "super commercial film". But obviously, "Nameless", which played a super commercial film, is not a commercial cool film.

Compared with the fierce rhythm of the narrative of "Manjiang Hong" next door and the cheerfulness of ordinary people dying for faith, Cheng Er still stubbornly disrupts and reorganizes the narrative, and the originally climactic plot has become a glass window that reflects the subtlety of human nature, does not directly portray death to provoke the audience's emotions, and does not divide the characters into complete good and evil, which naturally makes the audience who hold the expectation of watching the "New Year file" feel bored.

Cheng Er's definition of "super commercial film" is reflected in the ending of the character's final successful completion of the task, which seems to be in line with the reunion of "family fun". However, during the roadshow, an audience member who watched the movie twice asked Cheng Er if the current ending was too idealistic, and Cheng Er said that everyone has had a hard time in recent years, so he wanted to make the ending of the movie more hopeful and exciting, as the sentence on the "Nameless" poster: There is light at the end of the tunnel.