Tokyo Literary Godfather

"The Legend" will be officially released in two days. Fujiwara Keiichi originally chose to release "Infernal Affairs" in September or October, but he was actually dissuaded by Yoshida Kafumi and Dongzhen.

The reason is that September and October are not considered the peak season, and the peak season should wait until December.

However, even during this period, which is not considered the peak season, the competition is particularly fierce. There are many films that could threaten "Infernal Affairs" or even be released at this time. Two of them are Hollywood movies.

"Two Guns" is one of them. It has earned more than 200 million U.S. dollars at the box office in North America, and the global box office is expected to exceed 3. It can achieve good results in the top five box office rankings in the United States for the whole year.

It's also a police movie, so the distributor is worried that "Infernal Affairs" will be released a few days ago, and the hot market will be completely taken away by Hollywood. And after The Two-Gun Man, there is still a Hollywood romance movie waiting to be released.

It's no wonder they are worried, the current situation of Japanese movies is that "the color changes after hearing the lotus".

But Kei Fujiwara insists on releasing it at this time. Firstly, he has the idea of ​​​​earning quick profits. Only when money is in the bag can he be safe; secondly, at the end of the year, many local films are released in China. It seems to be the peak season, but competition It’s also fierce, and the competition is with local filmmakers.

Kei Fujiwara has now felt the feeling that a big tree attracts wind. Especially after entering the film industry, he has already felt the dissatisfaction of many people in the industry.

Although competition in the broadcast industry is fierce, it is not as fierce and straightforward as in the film industry.

Movie audiences are not as large as those for TV series, and movie tickets are relatively expensive. Many TV series viewers may watch three or four TV series a week, but few people have the budget and energy to watch three or four movies a week.

If you want to avoid losing ratings to Fujiwara dramas, simply change the time slot. Originally airing on Mondays will be aired on Fridays, and the impact will not be great. But the movie is different. If you want to change the time slot, you will have to postpone it for two months. You will miss the peak season and all plans will be disrupted.

So now Kei Fujiwara deliberately does not compete with local filmmakers for profits, and even gives some profits. Shuibo Production has been so popular recently. It is not a good thing to become famous too quickly. There must be a transition period.

Since we don’t compete with local filmmakers for profit, we have to fight to the death with outsiders.

The movie "The Man with Two Guns" was scheduled a few months ago, so many film producers have avoided this time period, which is so cowardly that people despise it. Because of this, the competition now is not fierce.

Just defeat such an opponent.

Fujiwara Kei thought.

For the major genre of original live-action films, local films have never been a rival to Hollywood. This time "Infernal Affairs" can be regarded as facing the difficulties. If it were anyone else, I am afraid that the industry has already given some pessimistic predictions, but this time the situation is different. This time it is Kei Fujiwara who takes the initiative.

In the Japanese film and television industry, he has won every battle and can almost be said to be a talented person who has the audience in his hands. Therefore, industry insiders in the industry generally give an optimistic view, believing that the movie "Infernal Affairs" will still achieve high box office even if it will be affected by "The Man with Two Guns".

But some people also made sarcastic remarks. These sarcastic remarks were not deliberately made by some industry insiders who couldn't stand Kei Fujiwara's recent popularity. Kei Fujiwara intentionally did not compete with local filmmakers for peak season slots. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that, and some people thanked him from the bottom of their hearts. Turning around to bite the hard nut of Hollywood made those people support him from the bottom of their hearts.

On the contrary, some fans of Hollywood movies in Japan continue to express their disdain for "Infernal Affairs" on forums and in some small publications. I feel that even though such a movie has merits (the plot, acting, and scheduling are all okay), it is vulnerable to the world's top production level.

Even many fans of the leading actors of "The King of Guns" went to Kei Fujiwara's forum and commented on some fans' posts bragging about the box office performance: "Don't be complacent. After the release of "The King of Guns", the box office will naturally drop. .Kei Fujiwara’s good days are coming to an end.”

"After all, local movies cannot be compared with Hollywood. Kei Fujiwara made a mistake. If the release was postponed for two months, it might be possible to replicate the box office success of "My Sassy Girl." But now there is absolutely no possibility."

Kei Fujiwara is now becoming more and more famous and has more and more fans. However, as the number of fans increases, the number of anti-fans has also increased sharply. There is nothing black about Kei Fujiwara, and logically there is no reason why he would be hated by a group of people.

But a famous person will also have more negative comments, which is also in line with social laws.

"Infernal Affairs" has only been released for four days, and the box office has already exceeded 2 billion, which is very eye-catching. Some small local theaters even gave this movie a full schedule. Driven by the high box office, it attracted more and more audiences who wanted to check it out. Herd mentality is a normal consumer psychology, just like seeing a long queue outside a restaurant and wanting to queue up to try it.

"President Fujiwara, there is news from Akutagawa Pictures that an American producer named Daniel Ellison wants to meet with you alone. Do you have time?"

The work assistant asked when arranging his travel plan for the next period of time.

"Daniel Ellison? I remember..."

"He's the producer of "The Man with Two Guns."

"Why did he come to see me?" Fujiwara Kei was a little confused. The two movies were about to compete, and they were considered competitors. They couldn't invite him to promote him, right?

Although it is not unusual for movie producers who are competing in the competition to suddenly take a stand, and the movie market is not so small that it can only accommodate one movie in the same quarter. But that's what people with good connections would do, and the American himself had never seen that before.

"Hmm... I'm not sure, but according to Akutagawa Pictures, Mr. Ellison watched "Infernal Affairs" and admired your unique talent in film creation and wanted to get acquainted with you."

Fujiwara Kei twitched the corner of his mouth, not paying attention to this statement, and asked: "Are you inviting me to participate in the event? Or..."

"It's a private meeting."

"Did you leave your phone number?"

"Stayed."

"Report now, I'll call him."

Kei Fujiwara had planned to reach out to Hollywood. After all, although the Japanese film market is now the second largest market in the world, the difference between first and second is really an exaggeration.

Only after the Chinese film market rises to become second will the number one and number two shorten at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Otherwise, Japan will not be able to support a large market with its population of more than 100 million.

So if you want to really make big money, you still have to extend your tentacles into the American film market.