As of press time, the box office of "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City", which was released for 13 days, reached 467 million, and the gap between this film and "The End of the Road" is getting smaller and smaller, and the performance is full of stamina, and it won the new Hollywood film "Rise of the Planet of the Apes: New World" with not too many games, and "Peacekeeping Anti-riot Team" starring more than two top stars Huang Jingyu and Wang Yibo is only a matter of one or two days.
Hong Kong films, finally raised their eyebrows.
Of course, based on the current environment, the important thing for Hong Kong films is not to win or lose, but to find a way to survive.
Fans who pay attention to this movie must know that the project "Kowloon Walled City" was prepared as early as 2014, but it was ill-fated and stranded halfway, and it was not until 2019 that Zheng Baorui took over and rethought how to package and create this movie.
The film is adapted from Yu Er's novel "Kowloon Walled City" and the comic of the same name created by Situ Jianqiao. This idea is good, but today, such an approach will obviously make investors lose money, so in the end, Zheng Baorui changed his direction to action commercial films, which is what it is today.
Although the genre has changed, Zheng Baorui still adheres to the insistence of his predecessors, gritting his teeth to build a Kowloon Walled City to ensure the quality of the movie.
This is not counting, originally chose the mainland film and television base to borrow a part of the scene, and set up a scene in the film and television base, cheap and convenient, asked friends who do decoration in Hong Kong, the mainland labor is only one-third of Hong Kong's labor, and the cost of materials is also one-third.
But the movie was launched at the end of November 2021, and everyone understood the situation at that time, so the director could only give up the mainland and find a piece of land in Hong Kong, faithfully restoring the whole picture of the Kowloon Walled City back then.
The interior furnishings and details are also very exquisite, electric meters, wires, all kinds of doors and windows, gadgets, many of them are props that the crew has a sense of age everywhere, these hard work is not in vain, the reason why "Kowloon Walled City" is cool, burning, and good-looking, is mainly to play novelty, making full use of the cramped alleys, corridors, and canopies and other scenes in the Kowloon Walled City, which not only reproduces the glory of Hong Kong-made action movies in the past, but also has a special Hong Kong flavor and fireworks.
Zheng Baorui said that because the land price in Hong Kong is too expensive, the Kowloon Walled City that has been built with great effort can only be demolished painfully, and it will be demolished after demolition, but after filming for so long, regardless of the cost, the total production cost of "Kowloon Walled City" is as high as 300 million Hong Kong dollars.
Now it seems that "Kowloon Walled City" is not a big problem in returning to its original cost, and it should even have a slight surplus.
Take a look at the data. The movie currently has a cumulative box office of 467 million, but based on good word-of-mouth, the total box office forecast given by the professional platform reaches 649 million. If calculated according to this box office, plus the box office of more than 38 million in Hong Kong, China, the cumulative box office of "Kowloon Walled City" is expected to exceed 690 million, so that according to the 37.68% account sharing, the film party's account sharing box office will reach 260 million.
It seems that there is still a little distance from the cost of 300 million, don't forget the copyright of the post-video platform, as well as the distribution copyright of other countries and regions, so the film will not only be able to return to its original cost in the end, but also hope to make a profit.
Again, Hong Kong films have finally raised their eyebrows.
To say that the big hero behind the scenes, one is the director Zheng Baorui, who brought this almost aborted project back to life, and the direction and tone of the film were very successful and widely recognized by the audience.
The other is Louis Koo. He is not only the starring role of the movie, but also the investment boss of the film, with his support, this movie is possible, and he also took over the film shooting equipment and post-production, this is not the first time Louis Koo has supported Hong Kong films, he has been doing this all these years.
In addition to these two and the movie starring, they can share the joy of the success of the movie, fame and fortune, at least two people will be extremely disappointed and regret not being at the beginning.
One is Donnie Yen.
The project cycle is too long, and it took 8 years from 2014 to 2021 to start up. You can see the pictures uploaded as early as 2014 on Douban, which proves that the starring role at that time was Donnie Yen, and the introduction reads: ""Kowloon Walled City" tells the story of Donnie Yen gathering a group of JC to fight corruption and fight against the evil forces of Kowloon Walled City. It shows that in addition to the starring role at that time, the story was completely different from today's version.
Later, due to various reasons, Donnie Yen did not participate, but looking back on Donnie Yen's movies in recent years, except for "Angry Case" in 2021, other movies are basically below the passing line, and the filming of "Angry Case" did not collide with "Kowloon Walled City".
If the reason why Donnie Yen didn't participate in the filming was the filming collision, then there was only "Fast Pursuit 4", when "Kowloon Walled City" was launched, Donnie Yen was filming "Fast Pursuit 4" in Hollywood. If this is the case, it is understandable, after all, starring in Hollywood blockbusters and getting paid US dollars is more attractive than making a Hong Kong film! It's just that Donnie Yen only has 40 minutes of scenes in "Fast Pursuit 4", in comparison, if he stars in "Kowloon Walled City", it is more valuable and fulfilling.
The other is Wu Jing.
Originally, he was one step away from "Kowloon Walled City", just imagine, if Chen Luojun played by Lin Feng was replaced by Wu Jing, and his identity was changed to a mainlander who fled from Vietnam to Hong Kong back then, the character creation may be more tense, and Wu Jing is also more capable of fighting, at least more exciting than Lin Feng.
Moreover, Wu Jing and director Zheng Baorui and producer Ye Weixin collaborated on "Kill the Wolf 2", playing the male lead, at that time, "Wolf Warrior 2" had not yet come out, and Wu Jing, who was at most a second-tier star, was actually a high-climbing IP of Killing the Wolf, and it was also highly praised by Zheng Baorui and Ye Weixin.
Intriguingly, during the "Greedy Wolf" roadshow interview, Zheng Baorui and Ye Weixin repeatedly emphasized that "Greedy Wolf" is not "Kill the Wolf 3". I asked the two, why hasn't "Slaying the Wolf 3" started yet, is it still starring Wu Jing? I still remember their answers.
The approximate answer and scenario is:
"Greedy Wolf" is not "Kill the Wolf 3". "Kill the Wolf 3" will definitely have, and the two of us (Zheng Baorui and Yip Weixin) will work together alternately, taking turns as producers and directors. As for why it hasn't started yet, Zheng Baorui's expression is silly and meaningful, saying that he has been contacting Wu Jing and waiting for his schedule, but now "Wolf Warrior 2" is so popular, everyone understands.
The last sentence "everyone understands" does have too much room for interpretation. Just imagine, if Wu Jing's schedule is not so full, he is willing to put down his body and actively star in "Slaying the Wolf 3", the role of Chen Luojun in "Kowloon Walled City" should be in his bag!
What's more dramatic is that the filmmaker first announced that "Kill the Wolf 3" was put on the agenda, and then "Kowloon Walled City" was released, the quality is so hard and the reputation is so good, the level of "Kill the Wolf 3" has been raised by two levels, but Wu Jing's hope of starring is honestly very slim.
Although Wu Jing has filmed "King Kong River" in recent years, "Me and My Fathers", "Changjin Lake" and "The Wandering Earth 2", he has achieved remarkable results, and it has also allowed him to consolidate his status as a super-first-line actor. But what Wu Jing really wants has always been kung fu movies and action movies.
This can be seen from the project he led the preparation, "Knife", which is scheduled to be released in 2025, is the story of a pig boy who fights a bandit and breaks into the underwater knife formation; "Dart Man" cooperates with master Yuan Heping, a typical costume martial arts action movie; "Hell's Angels" should be a similar fashion action movie to "Kowloon Walled City"; And "Iron Horseman" is the big movie version of the "Riding the Wind" unit in "Me and My Fathers", which is a war action film that focuses on showing Iron Horseman. Since you love action movies so much, it's really better to take down "Kowloon Walled City" first!
Finally, from "Kowloon Walled City" to "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City", the change in title makes people see the hope of a sequel. Whether it is the title or the open-ended ending, I believe that Zheng Baorui and Ye Weixin, who have already filmed the third part of "Slaying the Wolf", have ideas to create a sequel, and now the movie is expected to be profitable, I hope the two of them will put the sequel on the agenda as soon as possible!