China Entertainment's whatever you want

During the opening week of Avatar: The Way of Water, many people went to the cinema with high expectations.

The industry had high expectations for the film in the early stages, with some predicting a box office of 25 billion yuan. However, the film's box office in its opening week did not meet expectations.

Although the box office exceeded 100 million yuan on the first two days of release, accounting for more than 95% of the total, it dropped directly on Sunday and did not exceed 100 million yuan.

Ultimately, combining preview screenings and midnight screenings, Avatar 2's opening weekend box office in mainland China was only 4 million yuan.

After its first week, the platform revised its box office forecast to 10 billion.

In terms of word-of-mouth, Avatar 2 scored 9.2 on two ticketing platforms, while its score on Douban dropped from 8.4 to 8.2.

Looking back at the first Avatar, it has accumulated 130 million reviews on Douban and has a high score of 8.8.

After its first week, the box office for "The Way of Water" continued to decline, and its market momentum was clearly insufficient.

"The promotional work for [Sheep Without a Shepherd 2] has been going very smoothly during this period."

With the established reputation of the first film, coupled with the fame of the three main actors, Xiao Yang, Zhang Tianai, and Tony Leung Ka-fai, the company worked hard both online and offline, and the film's popularity was quickly boosted.

As of yesterday, the pre-sale box office for "Sheep Without a Shepherd 2" has exceeded 1 million yuan. Based on the current growth trend, surpassing 1.5 million yuan in pre-sales before its official release should not be a problem.

At the [Wei Ming Tian Xia] company, Gu Wei, who had just returned from vacation, was listening to Yang Liwen's report in his office.

This month, the company's key project is "Sheep Without a Shepherd 2". As the second installment in the blockbuster film series "Sheep Without a Shepherd", everyone from the main creators of the film crew to the company's internal publicity team believes that this sequel has the potential to continue to be a big hit.

Gu Wei thought for a moment: "【Sheep Without a Shepherd 2】changed its director, and it's a young newcomer like Cui Rui. Have the movie fans raised any questions?"

"Well, there are indeed some related voices on the internet."

However, Director Wen Muye (director of the first part of "Sheep Without a Shepherd") is also the producer, and during the promotional period, Director Wen has consistently supported Director Cui in interviews.

Therefore, most moviegoers feel that the quality of "Sheep Without a Shepherd 2" is still guaranteed!

Yang Liwen continued, "There's also some good news about the movie, which is a pleasant surprise."

At the beginning of the month, the company had already negotiated the screening schedule for "Sheep Without a Shepherd 2" with the cinemas.

Because the box office performance of "Avatar: The Way of Water," which was released last week, did not meet expectations, many of the additional screenings originally planned for the film were cancelled.

This way, the screening rate of "Sheep Without a Shepherd 2" will increase somewhat after its release.

Gu Wei smiled slightly: "This month marks the start of the Lunar New Year film season. Every year around this time, a number of blockbusters are released."

This year, because Avatar 2 was scheduled for release very early, many other films chose to postpone their releases.

Now that Avatar 2 is underperforming at the box office, theaters can only rely on our film, Sheep Without a Shepherd 2.

The box office performance of a film depends on many factors, among which the timing and release period are very important.

For example, many romantic movies are released on Valentine's Day or Christmas, while comedies are mostly released during the summer and Chinese New Year seasons.

In addition, the box office performance of other films released at the same time also has a significant impact on the box office performance of one's own film.

If you're unlucky enough to be released at the same time as a super blockbuster, your own movie's box office will be siphoned off by the other film, and your own movie's box office performance will likely not be very good.

This is similar to when "Wolf Warrior 2" was a huge hit, almost no other movies had a chance to stand out in the same period, and the entire box office of the 2016 summer season was sucked dry by this movie.

Even earlier, in the 2011 Lunar New Year film season, Zhang Yimou's "The Fork in the Wind" and Tsui Hark's "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" were released at the same time.

Two equally exciting blockbusters went head-to-head, with the latter grossing over 5 million and the former over 6 million, neither meeting expectations, resulting in a lose-lose situation.

This is also why no other movies chose to screen Avatar: The Way of Water during its two-week run.

Da Peng's "Guarantee Your Safety" was originally scheduled for release in the middle of this month, but after "Avatar 2" was scheduled for release, "Guarantee Your Safety" was withdrawn from the schedule not long after.

Others in the company had advised Gu Wei to change the release date of "Sheep Without a Shepherd 2," also considering that the film's box office would be affected by "Avatar 2."

Yang Liwen nodded with some emotion: "No one expected that Avatar: The Way of Water would be met with a cold reception in China."

Based on the current ticket sales trend, this film should have no problem breaking 10 billion yuan in total box office revenue in the domestic market, but that's about it.

For a regular movie, breaking 10 billion at the box office would definitely be a huge success.

But this is the second Avatar movie.

I still remember the movie-going frenzy that ensued when the first film was released in 09. Cinemas all over the country were showing it, and theaters were packed. Tickets for 3D screenings were especially hard to come by!
The total box office revenue directly broke the domestic box office record at the time.

Gu Wei smiled and shook his head: "Times have changed."

Thirteen years ago, Avatar was a pioneer, leading the world of cinema into the 3D era and giving audiences a brand-new cinematic experience, naturally reaping huge benefits.

While the second installment boasts even more refined visual effects, it hasn't achieved any groundbreaking developments.

Moreover, today's domestic audiences are not like before; they have seen too many Hollywood special effects blockbusters and have become somewhat numb to this kind of thing.

People value the plot more, but that's precisely Cameron's weakness.

"By the way, how's the negotiation with Wanda going about that matter we talked about before?"

Yang Liwen's expression turned serious when she heard Gu Wei ask this question.

"I have been communicating with Wanda Cinema and Wanda Investment recently."

Currently, Wanda seems to have a strong desire to sell a portion of its stake in Wanda Film, although the exact transaction amount is still uncertain.

Since this news broke, several organizations have been in contact with Wanda, including financial companies and well-known film and television companies.

Wanda Cinema was founded in 2005 and is a subsidiary of Wanda Group.

With the strong capital and resources of its parent company, Wanda Cinema has become one of the largest cinema chains in China in just ten years.

In 2015, Wanda Film officially listed on the A-share market, becoming the first listed cinema chain in China. It owns 260 cinemas and 2300 screens, firmly holding the largest market share in China at that time.

In 2016, Wanda Group acquired Legendary Pictures, gaining access to important resources in Hollywood film production. Subsequently, it acquired New Media Chengpin, a domestic TV drama production company, extending its reach into the TV drama field.

During the peak years of the film and television industry, Wanda Film's market value once soared to 1200 billion RMB, making it the film and television company with the highest market value in the Chinese entertainment industry.

Unfortunately, changes in the overall environment cannot be changed by an individual's will.

The film and television industry is facing a downturn.

Wanda Cinemas, a capital-intensive cinema chain that relies on offline channels, has been severely impacted, plunging the entire cultural and media sector into a slump, and causing the stock market to plummet.

This isn't even the worst part. As long as Wanda Group doesn't collapse, Wanda Films can withstand any setbacks.

Unfortunately, Wanda Group is now also facing trouble.

Old Wang is burdened with huge debts and can barely take care of himself.

According to publicly available data, Wanda Group's total liabilities amount to 6000 billion yuan, of which Wanda Commercial Management has 1412 billion yuan in interest-bearing liabilities and 400 billion yuan in debt due within one year.

The current plan to sell Wanda Film's shares is also to raise money to pay off debts.

"What is Wanda Cinema's market value now?" Gu Wei asked.

“Today’s figure is 298 billion,” Yang Liwen said without hesitation.

Since taking on this job, she checks Wanda Film's stock price and market value every day.

Gu Wei tapped his fingers on the desk for a moment, thinking.

"We're continuing to communicate with Wanda. As long as they want to sell, we can take over, and the price is negotiable."

Moreover, we can acquire it with cash, which I think is definitely what Wanda values ​​most!

"Understood, Mr. Gu."

Since its inception, [Wei Ming Tian Xia] has developed a very complete mechanism and process from production to distribution.

There is no shortage of directors, artists, and various film and television industry staff; it can be said that there is a wealth of talent.

All that remains is the lack of a cinema chain of its own.

Of course, the films produced by [Wei Ming Tian Xia] have always performed very well at the box office, so there's no need to worry too much about theatrical releases.

However, now that there is such an opportunity to make up for the company's last shortcoming, Gu Wei still hopes to seize it.

(End of this chapter)