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“Everyone is a unique code, and life is the process of decryption.”——Excerpt from the movie "Decryption》A sentence written by Chen Sicheng in the Easter egg.

Two years later, following theMozart from outer spaceAfter "The Decryption", Chen Sicheng, the third largest director in China's commercial box office, finally has a new work coming out, which is "The Decryption" which is currently in theaters.

After several rounds of previews, the film still failed to set off a wave of domestic theaters. It premiered on August 3 and was a cold reception, losing to Shen Teng's "Catch dolls”, and finished second. Considering the cost issue, it is very likely to lose money again this time.

So, what will be the final box office performance of the movie "Decryption" and what about the quality of the movie?

1. Box office: Chen Sicheng failed to stop Shen Teng.

This year's summer season is so disappointing. Compared to last year, it's like heaven and earth.

Last year, many movies were released, such asShe disappeared》《Octagonal Cage》《30,000 Miles of Chang'an》《Investiture of the Gods Part I》《Hot》》《The Meg 2》and 《All or Nothing》etc.

But this year is really terrible. Counting from the end of June, the summer season is already halfway through, and currently only two films, "The Silent Killer" and "The Dolls", are performing well.

Several films that were highly anticipated failed one after another, including Nicholas Tse's "Customs Front》、Jackie Chan'slegend》, Wuershan's "Under the Aliens", and Marvel's "Deadpool vs. Wolverine", etc., failed to create a ripple.

Entering August, the hope of a good start was pinned on Chen Sicheng's new film. However, the cold reception of "Decryption" at its premiere was beyond everyone's expectation. This time, Chen Sicheng completely failed to stop Shen Teng.

First, let’s compare the detailed data on August 3.

As of press time, Shen Teng's "Catching Dolls" used 27.5% of the screening time, in exchange for a single-day box office of nearly 80 million. The total score officially exceeded 2.6 billion, and the attendance rate reached 10.8%, once again winning the single-day box office championship.

Although "Decryption" defeated Zhang Ruoyun's "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century”, however, with a screening share of 23.6%, the premiere only earned more than 40 million yuan, which is half of the box office of “Catching Dolls”, and the attendance rate was only 7.1%.

Second, predict the box office.

Since its release, "Catching Dolls" has defeated many films in the schedule, won 19 single-day box office champions, and finally aimed at 3.5 billion, winning the 2024 summer box office champion with almost no suspense.

Before the release of "The Decryption", the ticketing platform predicted the box office to be between 600 million and 1 billion. On the first day of its large-scale opening, the box office was predicted to be 500 million. If the attendance rate of the premiere cannot be improved, the screening will be replaced by other films. It will be very difficult to make a comeback.

Finally, there is the roadblock.

Careful fans must have also discovered that the animation IP sequel "White Snake 3" and Xu Zheng's "Retrograde Life"The Decryption" has also started its preview event recently. If either of these two new films gains popularity, it will be fatal to "The Decryption".

At that time, "Catching Dolls" had been released for more than a month and had little impact on it.

Therefore, no matter how you compare it, "The Decode" cannot reach the box office heights of "Catch the Dolls".

2. Movie review: Honor in defeat!

The plot synopsis of Decrypted is as follows:

The hero of this film is Rong Jinzhen, played by Liu Haoran. He was raised by a foreign dream interpreter since he was a child. His mathematical talent is based on dream interpretation. Later, he was adopted by his uncle in Nanjing.

His adoptive father Rong Xiaolai (played by Daniel Wu) is a university president and a master of mathematics who studied abroad. With the recommendation of his uncle, he entered Zhijing University, where he met his mentor, Sheesh, played by John Cusack.

This opens the door to password unlocking.

On the eve of the founding of New China, the teacher was forced to leave Nanjing and go to the United States to engage in electronic computer big data research and development. The teacher was planning to take Rong Jinzhen with him, but at this time, something unexpected happened.

Since then, the two have started a ten-year-long duel...

Interpreting the title of the movie, “Decryption” has two meanings.

One refers to simply deciphering the code.This is a battle without the smoke of gunpowder. Once the code is successfully deciphered, it will save many lives and can even turn the tide at a critical moment.

Rong Jinzhen's two decryptions correspond to two major events in modern Chinese history.

The second refers to the psychological decryption between Rong Jinzhen and his mentor.

In a chess match, he was sure to win, but his teacher accidentally stole a chess piece that was about to be eaten. Mathematical geniuses often have too meticulous logical thinking, and this missing chess piece allowed the teacher to turn the defeat into victory.

Through this introduction, the teacher laid the groundwork for him to be set up later.

Rong Jinzhen spent his best years, from the age of 22 to 32, in 701, where he specialized in special work and lost his most precious freedom. During these ten years, he only went out once to save his adoptive mother and sister.

His daily job was to deal with codes. Everything was arranged, including his love and marriage. Personal emotions and communication were completely lacking, and all correspondence was handled by his superiors.

The teacher and adoptive father proposed two concepts of "home and country". One is a plain and simple life with family, mountains and rivers around him. This is his country and his home. The other is cultural heritage and sovereignty. When necessary, take up arms to defend the homeland.

"Decryption" is a combination of "Inception", "Oppenheimer" and "Me and my motherland", a personal biographical film with a tragic tone, interspersed with family and country feelings, is considered to be the highest quality film of all Chen Sicheng's films.

I personally give it four and a half stars, 8.5 points, and it is worth recommending.

Although the box office performance of "The Decryption" was not satisfactory, Chen Sicheng still won honor in defeat this time. This movie should go abroad, and if the distribution is good, it will surely be a success when it is released in North America.

3. With a cost of 500 million, Chen Sicheng is going to lose money.

At the film premiere, Chow Yun-fat said: "After so many years, tonight I finally saw a film that has truly gone international."

Wang Baoqiang said: "All the money Chen Sicheng earned from making movies over the years has been spent on movies."

That’s right, the budget cost of “The Decryption” is as high as 500 million yuan. It is a real big-budget film. The reason why it is so expensive is mainly reflected in two aspects.

First, the film, like Nolan’s “Dunkirk,” was shot with an IMAX camera.Films in this format are very expensive. Depending on the model, the cost of an official IMAX camera ranges from 40,000 to 2 million US dollars.

In addition, shooting with an IMAX camera requires purchasing film at a cost of $1,000 per 3 minutes. There are only 12 IMAX cameras in the world, and the rental cost is as high as $160,000 per week.

The wide-angle lens shot by this machine can achieve close-up figures without distortion. Of course, this makes the cost of IMAX shooting much higher than the production cost of traditional movies.

Second, dream effects.

There are a large number of special effects shots in the movie. Rong Jinzhen has a total of ten dreams, such as the red beach, the giant walrus, the huge electronic computer, the collapse of three Ferris wheels, the moving deep wall maze, the walrus on the train, etc.

These dreams require real money to create. The texture of the film is great, especially Cao Yu's photography is so shocking, and the sound effects are also top-notch.

Wuershan's "Fengshen Part I" cost 800 million yuan, the two parts of "Changjin Lake" cost 1.3 billion yuan, and "The Wandering Earth 2" cost 600 million yuan. 500 million yuan is only 65 million to 70 million US dollars in Hollywood, which can only be regarded as a medium investment, but it is a top-notch production in China.

Chen Sicheng dared to make such a big move because the expected box office of "Decryption" was between 3 billion and 3.5 billion. However, the reality was cruel. The premiere was a flop and the predicted box office was only 500 million. The pressure to make a profit this time is huge and the probability of losing money is extremely high.

4. If Chen Sicheng wants to surpass Tsui Hark, he will have to wait another two years.

Well done Chen Sicheng!

He has two major box office codes in his hands: the fictional country in Southeast Asia and the "Detective Chinatown" suspense comedy style, but he didn't use either of them this time. In my words, Chen Sicheng is dreaming for himself and wants to find a new way through this movie.

I remember that when "Dune 2" premiered in mainland China in March this year, director Denis Villeneuve came to China to promote the film, and the first filmmaker he came into contact with was Chen Sicheng.

When talking about the style of the film, Villeneuve admitted: "I haven't seen Chen Sicheng's movies yet, but many people have told me about your movies, so I'll watch them when I get home."

Chen Sicheng is indeed very famous in China, but he has no reputation at all internationally. He needs a different movie to increase his popularity.

Chen Sicheng stepped out of his comfort zone and made a very serious movie.

The film is somewhat abstract, especially the dreams, which many movie fans may only have a vague understanding of. Indeed, if you want to fully understand the content of the dreams, you still need to rely on film reviews to interpret them, and it is not easy to fully understand them in one viewing.

Currently, in terms of box office revenue among Chinese film directors, Chen Sicheng ranks third, with the first and second being the famous directors Tsui Hark and Zhang Yimou.

The box office of films directed, written and produced by Tsui Hark reached 14.6 billion, while Chen Sicheng's result was 12.3 billion, a difference of 2.3 billion between the two.

Originally, it was thought that Chen Sicheng could surpass Tsui Hark and win the top spot this summer with "The Decryption", but now it seems that this is no longer possible.

Later, Tsui Hark has "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Greatest Hero", and Chen Sicheng has two works with the potential to be big hits. One is "The Accidental Detective 3" starring Xiao Yang; the other is "Detective Chinatown 1900", which is expected to be released during the 2025 Spring Festival.

These are all Chen Sicheng's masterpieces, and the box office potential of each one is over 1.5 billion. It only takes one year to surpass Tsui Hark!

5. Conclusion

There are many exciting highlights in "The Decryption", including guest appearances by Wang Baoqiang, Xiao Yang, Chen Sicheng, Pan Yueming and others.

Finally, let me talk about the easter egg. When I finished watching the movie, my first impression was why Chen Sicheng was so narcissistic, metaphorically comparing himself to Rong Jinzhen. Does he think he is a genius among directors?

Later, I thought about it carefully, this should be the meaning of Inception, and it is exactly the same as the ending setting of the Hollywood science fiction film "Upgrade". The light that can't be extinguished means:

The interview he did could be a dream of Chen Sicheng! The whole movie could be in a dream!

Well, let's stop talking about this movie. Do you have anything to say about "Decryption"? Let's complain about Chen Sicheng's handwriting. Is it really so ugly?