The “Journey to the West” film directed by Stephen Chow (Master Star), who was named “master of comedy” for his “no-nonsense” style, has made an impressive box office of 1.2 billion yuan in 2013. It was supposed to be a good thing for both the director and the film’s distributor, Huayi Brothers, but the two sides broke up over an $80 million dividend, and Huayi Brothers is now in dire straits.
According to the mainland media Sohu.com, “Journey to the West” is Zhou Xingchi’s first comedy film released in the mainland after he retired as a director, and the film was a huge hit upon its release in 2013, allowing the film distributor to draw 1.2 billion yuan at the box office. However, Zhou’s film company in mainland China, Huayi Brothers, then broke up with Zhou Xingchi.
Before the release of the movie, Stephen Chow and Huayi Brothers signed a bonus agreement with a supplemental agreement that if the box office exceeded 500 million, Huayi Brothers would give Stephen Chow an additional 81.6 million as a bonus. The report said that this supplemental agreement was made at the time.
The report said that the supplemental agreement was sent in the form of an email. As the two sides were in a state of trust, Zhou did not sign the agreement, thinking that the other side was a big name in the industry and would not be reluctant to pay the money.
When the final box office of the movie reached 1.2 billion, Zhou Xingchi impulsively took the agreement to “Huayi Brothers” to get the dividends, but “Huayi Brothers” denied the existence of this agreement.
In this regard, the two sides also in court, but because this supplemental agreement Zhou Xingchi did not sign, does not have the legal effect, so Zhou Xingchi is “eat the yellow streak” have bitterness can not say.
After the economic dispute, not only did he not get his 80 million yuan back, but the boss of “Huayi Brothers”, Wang Zhonglei, also sarcastically said, “He doesn’t know anything about movies!” Many netizens were upset and retorted: “If Stephen Chow doesn’t know how to make movies, where did the box office come from? Is the audience all stupid?”
Although the relationship between the two sides completely broke down, but the character does not compete and not grab Zhou Xingchi did not indicate anything, but only later became a little more cautious when choosing the object of cooperation.
In 2016, Zhou Xingchi in the preparation of the film “mermaid”, directly to the “Huayi Brothers” the biggest rival “light media” company, the film was released after the box office up to 3.39 billion yuan. Outsiders believe that “Light Media” has picked up a big bargain.
Nowadays, Huayi Brothers has been in the news, and on April 28, the news of Chairman Wang Zhongjun’s high spending restriction hit the top search.
As Fan Bingbing was kicked for signing a “yin-yang contract” in 2018, Huayi Brothers was pushed into the limelight, not only losing its status as the top Chinese film and television company, but also losing its reputation, being boycotted by countless netizens, and falling into operational and financial bottlenecks. , the stock tumbled and suffered its first loss after listing.
The “Huayi Brothers”, which lost nearly 1.1 billion in 2018, announced the establishment of a party committee in 2019, dreaming of relying on the “party” to turn losses into profits. Although in 2020 set up a “military order” to reorganize the film, but unexpectedly encountered the epidemic storm, revenue fell again, into the third consecutive year of losses, the performance is disastrous.
According to the latest news, in order to save themselves, “Huayi Brothers” sent people to Zhou Xingchi to discuss cooperation matters, want to “reunite” with the comedy film master. The recent economic pressure may be in the way, Zhou Xingchi decided to cooperate with each other to produce “Mermaid 2”, the film is now a post-production stage.
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