After The Vicious Cannon Fodder Was Reborn

After the premiere, Tao Mu, the leading actor and producer, was surrounded by overseas distributors with a keen sense of smell and a good ability at spotting business opportunities. And this scene was also photographed by the reporters, and then posted with the title "The premiere of "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" was a big success, overseas distributors scrambled to get the copyrights".

Counting the promotion and popularity of the TV series, the promotion period of the movie version of "Soldier Elite" spanned almost an entire year, not to mention the national popularity. Especially the upsurge of joining the army some time ago had stirred up a patriotic feeling and desire to join the army in all viewers and netizens. Now "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" was released under the banner of the movie version of "Soldier Elite", many viewers subconsciously began to pay attention to the outcome of the premiere. Knowing that the film was a great success and was fought over by overseas distributors, these audiences couldn't help feeling gratified and honored.

In this state, when some film critics criticized the film for "too much emphasis on commercialization and explosive special effects, and did not dig deep into the hearts of the characters", the audience did not take it seriously. They just couldn't wait to watch the movie.

The official release time of "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" was scheduled for September 30th, and the second day after its release was the consecutive seven-day National Day holiday. Coupled with the overwhelming online and offline publicity before the film's release, everyone could see the ambition of the producer. And that what Tao Mu said in the interview, "The goal is to break the box office record of "XXX", and the point of the knife aims straight at the top of the box office rankings of Chinese movies", was definitely not just talk.

Out of trust in Tao Mu himself and affirmation of the IP of "Soldier Elite", on the day of the film's release to the public, there were long queues at the ticket outlets of major movie theaters. A reporter squatted at the entrance of the cinema and found that not only young people in their twenties and thirties entered the cinema, but also middle-aged people in their forties and fifties and elderly people in their seventies and eighties. Probably because it was very close to the National Day holiday, many movie fans came out to watch movies with their families. Watching movies seemed to have turned into a holiday pastime.

"Why did you choose to watch this movie?" In the long queue at the ticket gate, the reporter randomly interviewed a gray-haired old man who looked about eighty or ninety years old.

"I am a veteran of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Back then, when FlyNews.com and XX established the charity fund for the veterans of the Second Sino-Japanese War, I was also a beneficiary." The old man approached the microphone unsteadily, speaking full of emotioms: "I have watched Tao Mu's "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood", I have also watched his "Soldier Elite". I like this young man very much. I think he can capture the essence of a soldier. So when he made a movie this time, I also wanted to watch it."

The eyes of the reporter who interviewed the old man lit up. He was keenly aware that this was definitely a news point that could make a big splash. The cameraman kept wandering through the long crowd with the camera on his shoulders, and the reporters kept interviewing fans with their families, especially the elderly fans in their fifties and sixties. It soon became apparent that this was not an isolated case. In fact, on the day when "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" was officially released, many viewers came with the whole family. The movie's attendance rate reached 100% on this day.

This situation had also attracted the attention of theaters.

"It seems that the national popularity of "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" is not bad!"

"Generally, the audiences who watch movies are between their teens and thirties, and most of them are friends or couples watching movies together. This kind of family group watching movies mostly occurs when animated cartoon movies are released. And the attendance rate is very low. It is really rare for the whole family to watch an explosive action movie with full attendance.”

"There are a lot of viewers in their 60s and 70s. Almost half of the 80-year-old online audience."

"Have they ever seen a 3D movie? They are already so advanced in years, are you sure nothing will happen?"

Out of certain considerations, many theaters contacted the hospital to prepare ambulances on stand-by in case of emergencies.

Fortunately, this worrying situation did not happen. Two hours later, all the excited audience walked out of the cinema, and some gray-haired elderly people couldn't help tearing up on the spot.

"I really didn't expect that our motherland had become so powerful."

"In my lifetime, I finally saw the day when our motherland can be strong enough to protect us."

Many veterans of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the elderly who have experienced that era were filled with emotion. When they were young, the country was weak and precarious, the invaders eyed them covetuously, ignoring China's sovereignty and wantonly carving up China's interests. The young and passionate people were not willing to be oppressed, even if they were unarmed or equipped with the most lacking weapons, they still chose to fight and resist. In the end, through sacrificing flesh and blood they worked hard to create a bright future for the motherland.

Now that the motherland was finally strong, even if there were wars raging abroad, so long as there was a place where the five-star red flag was raised, it could ensure that the Chinese people could pass through the line of fire safely and return to the embrace of the motherland.

Such a scene, even if it was only seen in a movie, was enough to make one feel gratified.

In fact, there was a very touching scene in the movie theater, that is, at the end of the movie, when the hero and several other special forces raised the five-star red flag and crossed the battlefield, when both sides of the exchange of fire in the movie stopped and watched the convoy leave, in the movie theater, all the veterans of the Second Sino-Japanese War also stood up and saluted the national flag on the big screen.

This scene was also photographed by some viewers with their mobile phones, and then posted on FlyNews.com. Many netizens and media shared it one after another. Even Tao Mu himself and the production team did not expect this phenomenon. But after realizing this, the film publicity department also immediately contacted the media and marketing accounts they had good relations with to actively promote this point——

After all, it was a big production movie made to celebrate the National Day. Of course, the more news that promotes positive energy, the better. Moreover, this kind of publicity entry point could better stimulate the patriotic psychology of the audience, and it was also good for the box office and movie reputation.

It must be said that FlyNews.com's publicity and marketing department was absolutely top-notch in the industry under the leadership of Tao Mu, and its ability to discover news and hype news was quite impressive. Coupled with the high quality of the film, when the film was just released for four hours, and including the 200 million pre-sale box office, the total box office broke the record of 330 million on the first day. As soon as this data came out, it immediately caused an uproar in the media and the industry. Everyone clearly knew that "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" was definitely a hit this time.

What's even better was not just this point——because Tao Mu used the banner of celebrating the National Day before the filming crew even began filming, aiming at the National Day schedule, and invested a total of 100 million, as well as joined forces with the military and Beijing Film Academy, creating a great and vast momentum. Coupled with Tao Mu's consistent good reputation of "Tao Mu's productions must be high-quality", many films did not dare to take on the film, and either moved up or postponed their release dates, avoiding the National Day schedule one after another.

So much so that during the National Day period, except for the big production movie "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Sword", the rest were almost all low-cost movies that could not change their schedule, or relatively dull mainstream art films. This directly led to none of the other movies released at the same time during the seven-day holiday being able to put up a fight. Many viewers were not satisfied after watching "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" once, and had no interest in watching the other movies, so they could only watch it twice or a third time. It directly led to the box office of "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" during the seven day holiday becoming an unstoppable force like a flood bursting a bank, and the attendance rate of each showing completely full. In eight days, the box office of the movie directly broke through 1.5 billion, and instantly topped the box office rankings.

Tao Mu said in an interview before that he would try his best to hit the box office record of the Hollywood blockbuster "XXX". Many people joked that Tao Mu was talking big, that he had grown an inflated ego after just a little achievement, that he dared to challenge Hollywood blockbusters. But now that Tao Mu had proved his rhetoric with facts, the industry and the media instantly shot out colorful rainbow farts. Practically praising Tao Mu as the hope of the domestic film industry——of course this was actually close enough to reality!

On the second week of the film's release in China, the film's box office broke the popularity of the Hollywood blockbuster "XXX". Overseas distributors who had finalized the overseas copyright with the producer at the premiere ceremony also started releasing "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" one after another. It was screened in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Northern Europe, Western Europe and North and South America.

It must be said that this was the charm of the explosive action scenes in commercial blockbusters. No matter what color you were or what country you were from, whether you could understand Chinese or understand Chinese culture, so long as you could understand explosive scenes and fighting scenes, there was only one word for it——cool.

What was more, the movie "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" was not only an action movie with grand explosion scenes, but also had enough fight scenes that were crisp and neat, and the plot was also very interesting. Based on the script adapted from true stories, the evacuation of overseas Chinese that year also aroused various praises internationally. Now being moved to the big screen by Tao Mu and the main creative team, many international friends could intuitively feel the power of China and the power of China's special forces.

Now the goal of "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" was not to sit firmly at the top of the box office rankings in China, but to start a record at the international box office.

And this big production movie, which was highly anticipated by the domestic film industry, did indeed live up to everyone's expectations. Four months later, when "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" was released one after another around the world, the final box office sales exceeded 2 billion dollars. Although it still failed to break the Hollywood blockbuster "XXX"‘s box office record of nearly 3 billion dollars, it still ranked second in the global box office rankings.

For decades, the film industry in mainland China, which had been unable to even rank among the top 100 in the global box office rankings, and whose achievements in commercial films have been very bleak, finally amazed the world in a single brilliant feat.

Like a drop of ice water falling into a hot oil pan, the domestic entertainment industry boiled over instantly. Tao Mu and the main creative team of "Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife" were regarded by the media as national heroes who promoted the prestige of the country and won glory for the country. All kinds of reports containing gorgeous rhetoric, true feelings, and rainbow fart emerged endlessly. Wang Boyuan and several other actors who participated in this movie could only grin from ear to ear. Director Cheng Baodong, who had always had a grudge against Tao Mu, and later developed admiration for the other during filming, was finally convinced. On the day he received the news, he made more than a dozen phone calls to Tao Mu, expressing his admiration and respect and asking Tao Mu not to change directors when he made "Soldier Elite 2" and "Soldier Elite 3". It almost annoyed Tao Mu to death.

Originally, they just wanted to shoot a movie to encourage their students, but Beijing Film Academy, which accidentally released such a satellite, suddenly became the star of the industry. In the past, the industry always said that Beijing Film produced actors, but Beijing Film's actors could not increase the box office ratings. But now there was no such evaluation anymore!

The global box office record of 2 billion dollars, the brilliant record of ranking second in the global box office rankings, a good grade that the Chinese film industry had never scored in decades. And the crew of such an impressive production was made up entirely of Beijing Film students and alums, no one else. And other colleges couldn't take away such good grades even if they wanted to.

The day the principal of Beijing Film got the news, he asked people from the administration department to collect relevant news reports and put them in the school's exhibition room. In the name of a celebration party, he even invited the principals of the neighboring Yan Film Academy and the Shanghai Theater Academy to attend. That proud and gleeful face nearly vexed Yan Film's principal to death.

As the center of the whole vortex, Tao Mu, who single-handedly took on the leading role, producer and investor, was naturally busier than the others. All friends and colleagues in the industry called one after another, congratulating Tao Mu and reminding Tao Mu not to forget them when he made "Soldier Elite 2". Regardless if it was the lack of investment or the lack of guest actors, they were all willing to participate in some way. Summer Star Entertainment and Longteng Entertainment, who invested in this movie with Tao Mu originally out of goodwill, were now crazily ecstatic. Long Tianao called again and kept urging Tao Mu to hold a celebration party where everyone could gather to celebrate.

Tao Mu readily agreed. It was not difficult to imagine the upsurge this celebration party would cause in the entertainment industry. Tao Mu's popularity in the circle was originally very good, and when everyone heard that Tao Mu was going to hold a celebration party, almost all the big names in the circle expressed that they would come to join in the fun. Tao Mu couldn't refuse everyone's enthusiasm, so he could only agree one by one. And so the final celebration party was even more star-studded than the annual Golden Crow Awards. In an instant, it became another fashion festival.

And in this carnival atmosphere, the domestic entertainment circle also ushered in another year's Lingxiao Awards Ceremony. Tao Mu, as the leading actor in the TV series "Soldier Elite", was directly shortlisted for the Best Actor Award, and "Soldier Elite" was also successfully shortlisted, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay, and other important awards.

In an atmosphere with almost no suspense, Tao Mu took the whole crew of "Soldier Elite", as well as their family members, to the award ceremony of the Lingxiao Award.

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