Both films were released simultaneously, with cinema schedules fairly balanced across the country, but "Jinling Thirteen Cai" had slightly more screenings than "Dragon Gate Armor".
However, there was a slight difference in first-day box office numbers.
"Dragon Gate Armor" had a first-day box office of about 26 million, while "Jinling Thirteen Cai", which was released four hours later, had about 17 million.
Considering "Dragon Gate Armor" is a 3D film with higher ticket prices.
Also, since "Jinling" was released a bit later, it's hard to say "Jinling" is worse than "Dragon Gate".
There's another factor to consider.
That is, "Dragon Gate" is star-studded with a cast that can be called top-tier.
Even if Li Lianjie's box office appeal has diminished, he remains a leading figure in Chinese-language films.
"Dragon Gate Armor" sold well in overseas rights too.
Basically, it's all thanks to Li Lianjie.
Zhou Xun is a powerhouse big flower.
And Qi Hao and An Feng, needless to say, it feels like they alone brought in at least five million on the first day.
However…
Faced with such competitors, Qi Hao could only lament:
It's all garbage!
With a first-day box office of just over 20 million, to put it bluntly, among the films he released last year, there were truly few that performed this poorly.
Fortunately, "Lost on Journey 2" was released a few days later.
Otherwise, these two rookies might not have been able to peck out such box office numbers.
After the first-day box office results came out, Bern high-profile announced the box office of "Dragon Gate", while New Picture handled it low-key.
The reason is actually quite simple.
The total cost of "Dragon Gate" is 200 million, which is already a very exaggerated number, while "Jinling Thirteen Cai" has a total cost of 600 million.
It's just freaking…outrageous.
Can't even imagine how those 600 million were spent.
Six hundred million, you know.
Not sixty million.
Qi Hao thinks spending four to fifty million on movies and TV series is already very extravagant.
Give him six hundred million, he might not even know how to spend it.
A few days later, "Lost on Journey 2" also hit the screens.
The film stars Qi Hao, Wang Baoqiang, and Huang Bo, and is a comedy road movie.
Given the high box office and good reputation of "Lost on Journey 1".
Major theaters, withstanding pressure from Zhang Weiping and Yu Dong, forcibly allocated a lot of showings.
Of course, "Lost on Journey 2" still needed to prove itself, so the number of showings did not surpass "Dragon Gate" and "Jinling" on the first day.
A three-way tie!
Qi Hao relied entirely on last year's excellent performance, making cinemas full of expectations for him.
No way, after being used to opulence, it's hard to go to simplicity.
Last year, Zhonghao Entertainment exploded from the beginning to the end, with "First Love", "Lost on Journey 1", "Those Years", "Uncle", "Heartbreak 33 Days", "Let the Bullets Fly"…
Cinemas were thrilled with so many blockbuster films.
After Zhonghao Entertainment ran out of projects, major theaters were still eager for more, unable to calm down for a long time.
Come this year, without saying much draggy.
After all, "Founding of the Party" over 400 million, "Shaolin Temple" over 400 million, "Legend of the White Snake" nearing 400 million…
It's just no comparison to last year.
Even with a big increase in the number of screens compared to last year, why is the box office performing so badly?
Last year, when Zhonghao Entertainment's films exploded, many industry experts said it wasn't Zhonghao Entertainment's credit, but a market boom.
It was just that Zhonghao Entertainment's projects were concentrated and caught this tailwind.
This year, it's a slap in the face.
By the end of the year, during the holiday season, two super directors finally came up, Zhang Yimou and Xu Ke, both top figures in the commercial film field.
Turns out, they thought they would make a big splash, but they made a big mess.
First-day box office didn't even hit 30 million.
First-week box office struggled to reach 150 million.
After "Lost on Journey 2" hits, it'll have to drop sharply, and it would be good if the two films could barely accumulate 1 billion in box office.
"Dragon Gate" and "Jinling" are both too underwhelming.
Theater lines hope Zhonghao Entertainment will showcase its skills, so they naturally want to set the stage for it.
Even though Yu Dong and Zhang Weiping protested, "Lost on Journey 2" occupied the most showings second only to theirs.
Where did these showings come from?
Naturally, they were squeezed out of their hands.
The premiere of "Lost on Journey 2" was far less grand than "Dragon Gate Armor" and "Jinling Thirteen Cai".
Not because Qi Hao didn't want to invite many peers, just felt it wasn't necessary.
The final cut of "Lost on Journey 2" is awesome.
After seeing it, Qi Hao devised a "sympathy-seeking" marketing strategy.
"Dragon Gate" cost 200 million.
"Jinling Thirteen Cai" cost 600 million.
"Lost on Journey 2" cost 60 million.
The creators of "Lost on Journey 2", from top to bottom, were very unconfident and didn't know if audiences would still like to watch this sequel.
The director was very anxious, losing hair in clumps.
The producers and peers in the industry were not very optimistic about this film.
...
This is what's called doing the opposite.
At the premiere, Qi Hao and several other creators appeared worried.
They even bribed reporters.
Let them challenge them on the spot, asking if the film was trying to cash in emotionally, riding on "Lost on Journey 1"'s popularity while it lasts.
In short, it was one sad story.
This led to many wanting to see the film growing hesitant.
Was the film not going to be good?
Even those who watched the film and thought it was good were left feeling lacking in confidence by this atmosphere.
They even started to think maybe their sense of humor was low.
This situation was broken on the second day.
Before, box office statistics were troublesome, with the numbers only coming out by the third day and not being very accurate, only serving as a reference.
Now, with the internet era here.
Results from the previous day's box office can almost be known by the next morning.
On the 19th, when "Dragon Gate" and "Jinling" released their first-week box office numbers, it was also when "Lost on Journey 2" showed its first-day box office.
"Dragon Gate" had a first-week box office of 152 million.
"Jinling" had a first-week box office of 142 million.
While "Lost on Journey 2" had a first-day box office of 38 million.
Much higher than "Dragon Gate"'s first-day box office of 26 million, "Jinling Thirteen Cai"'s first-day box office of 17 million.
It truly matched the netizens' joke.
You two go up together.
Moreover, this was after reverse marketing's first-day box office.
After the second-day box office results came out, those who watched the movie on the first day were finally daring enough to say the film was good.
Sina Entertainment's front page gave this evaluation:
"Lost on Journey 2" is just a normal comedy, not burdened by the heavy load of societal themes, without the ambition to establish its own genre, just discarding the tricks of parody, saying goodbye to hollow madness, bringing comedy back to the "normal" road.
Peguin News was also eager to join in, offering a long review titled "What the People Really Want to Watch".
Various ally forces joined in the effort.
Zhonghao Entertainment mainly based its distribution on the internet, and this time was no exception.
The media praised it in every way, and many passersby were "clearing its name". The "injustices" it suffered were all soothed at this moment.
Of course, to stir up emotions, villains had to appear.
A university professor was found, who sharply criticized "Lost on Journey 2":
This is a typical "three vulgarities" film: lowbrow, superficial, kitschy! The Chinese cultural industry, represented by films, cannot only focus on box office numbers, it should emphasize cultural guidance and raising the cultural quality and taste of the people.
Movie fans weren't having it.
We work from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and finally found some free time to go to the cinema for some relaxation, choosing a comedy film that was said to be quite funny.
And you're talking to us about direction?
Instead of improving our cultural quality and taste, how about raising our salaries instead?
Since we chose a comedy movie, since we chose to relax.
The goal was very clear.
We just want to laugh!
And "Lost on Journey 2" delivered.
Just like the first film, we laughed from start to finish, and even felt unfinished after watching.
The audience gets to say if the movie is good or not.
With a breakthrough in marketing, both box office and word of mouth exploded.
Monday on the second day didn't affect breaking the first day's record at all, racking up 42 million.
While "Dragon Gate" and "Jinling"'s daily box office also saw a big drop.
The theater lines disregarded Yu Dong's and Zhang Weiping's pleas.
Directly allowing "Lost on Journey 2" to have more than 50% of the screenings, originally a three-way tie, it directly surpassed the combined number of "Dragon Gate" and "Jinling".
The combined screenings of "Dragon Gate" and "Jinling" didn't even reach 50%.
After all, theaters couldn't possibly give all showings to these three films; several other films were also released at the same time and had to take up some screenings.
Industry insiders believe that with its good reputation, "Lost on Journey 2" is very likely to break the mainland market box office record of 1.38 billion set by "Avatar".
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