The movie "Retrograde Life", which aimed the camera at the delivery man, was released for 4 days, and judging from the box office trend, Xu Zheng bet right again.
The release of this movie is like a roller coaster. The film encountered a cruel test of public opinion before its release, and due to the previous plan of "Mother" to be released on the Chinese New Year's Eve, and then withdrawn and sold to the platform, some theaters publicly announced that they would refuse to screen the movie, resulting in the previous incident caused by "Mother" resurfacing again.
As a result, the performance of the movie on the first day of release on August 9 was not ideal, 33.3% of the films scheduled, but only got less than 40 million box office, resulting in the proportion of films scheduled on the second day of release falling to 24.8%, but fortunately, the movie relied on good quality and realistic themes to attract audiences, with an attendance rate of more than 13%, and won more than 85 million box office on the same day, so on August 12, the proportion of scheduled films reversed, and the film is expected to throw a long-term line, which is very stamina.
It is undeniable that Xu Zheng is not only a director with strong creative ability, but also a producer with a keen sense of business. Over the years, he has almost no defeat in directing or investing in films.
Among them, the most successful and influential "I Am Not the God of Medicine", Xu Zheng invested and served as a producer/producer, with a box office of 3.1 billion, and in 2021, he will produce "The Myth of Love", and his true music is ranked second in the list of products, although the box office did not explode, but the word of mouth exploded, becoming the word-of-mouth masterpiece of the year.
As for the controversial "Embarrassing Mother", Xu Zheng also became the biggest winner of the Spring Festival file, and the movie was sold to the platform after it was withdrawn, with a transaction amount of up to 630 million, and the high profit was easily pocketed.
Speaking of "Retrograde Life", this time Xu Zheng bet right again.
Realistic themes are not easy to shoot, and there will be many restrictions at the policy level, and if you don't pay attention, you will fall into a situation of repeated revisions. At the same time, the quality and overall look of the film are also difficult to grasp, taking "Retrograde Life" as an example, reality and drama are at both ends of the scale, and it is difficult to balance the relationship between the two. tends to the latter, good-looking is good-looking, and it will be detached from reality, and will be accused by the audience of consumption suffering.
In the face of this project, Xu Zheng let people see the power of being a director and investor. The whole project is progressing very quickly, determining the topic, pre-planning, polishing the script, the film started on February 22 this year, only filmed for almost 50 days, and the film was completed by mid-April.
It's nothing to shoot fast, what's even more powerful is that the movie will be completed in mid-April, and it will be released in the summer, which is unimaginably fast, indicating that the movie should not be modified, and it will pass the review and get the dragon mark smoothly.
The production cost of a movie, in addition to the director's remuneration, actors' remuneration and the salaries of the staff of various departments, is actually a large part of the money consumed in the selection of scenes, equipment rental, hundreds of crew members every day of travel, eating, drinking, and Lazar, and saving a day of money for one and a half days of filming, and filming "Retrograde Life" for a month and a half is a realistic theme, and post-production does not cost too much money, so the production cost will not be very high, and it is not difficult for the film to make a profit, this time Xu Zheng made the right bet again.
It is worth mentioning that on the surface, Xu Zheng wrote and directed this movie, and he was not the main investment. Thanks to his prestige and influence in the film industry, Xu Zheng's filming is almost a response, "Retrograde Life" has 9 producers and 24 co-producers, and the management side wants to participate in and get a piece of the pie.
In such a situation, Xu Zheng is much more low-key, his Zhenle Dao did not appear in the list of producers, Ruyi Film and Television, Maite Films led the bidding, followed by Taopiaopiao, China Film, Maoyan and other head companies, even in the list of co-productions, Xu Zheng's Zhenle Dao is only ranked third.
It's not that Xu Zheng doesn't want to get more box office dividends, but the movie has more ways to play. Referring to "Mr. Red Carpet", the production details issued by the producer Huanxi Media at that time can be seen that not counting the cost of project planning and development, only director Fei Ninghao took 24 million, no wonder Huanxi Media paid all the production fees, Ning Hao's bad monkey did not participate in the investment, because it is not necessary, as a director, he got 24 million remuneration, and he definitely won by lying down, so why take the risk of the movie?
As we all know, Xu Zheng and Ning Hao have had a close relationship over the years, and the two have collaborated on many works together, and they are both signed directors of Huanxi Media, so there is a high probability that the two of them will be the same in terms of project operation and gameplay.
Then Xu Zheng in "Retrograde Life" can at least get three huge sums of money for the screenwriter's fee, director's fee and starring salary, which will only add up to more than Ning Hao, so naturally there is no need to force box office dividends, which should also be the reason why Zhenle Dao did not appear on the producer side of "Retrograde Life".