It's reasonable for me, a stuntman, to live a crazy life, right?

Chapter 1222 It’s over! It’s completely over!
Friday, August 2019, 8, Weather: Sunny.

"Shanghai Fortress" is released!

"On the first day of screening, the love/science fiction/war film "Shanghai Fortress", directed by Teng Huatao and starring Lu Han and Shu Qi, had a comprehensive screening schedule of 33.4%."

"The first domestically produced science fiction war film in the history of Chinese-language films, "Shanghai Fortress", has been officially released today. The visual effect of the Chinese Magic City turning into a future battlefield is shocking, especially the special effects of the Magic City cannons and the Magic City sinking. It can be said that it is unprecedented and full of sincerity. Welcome everyone to go to the theater to watch the movie..."

"The CP feeling between Jiang Yang and Lin Lan is so touching. The editor advises everyone to bring a pack of tissues and don't miss the last Easter egg!"

"..."

When Chen Fei woke up early in the morning, he saw that most of the hot searches on Weibo were dominated by "Shanghai Fortress".

Even platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou have seen a lot of promotional releases and hot topics.

Teng Huatao created four selling points, namely: the Magic City Cannon, the Magic City Sinking, the Alien War, and the CP of Jiang Yang and Lin Lan.

Chen Fei could understand his thoughts.

After all, the audience is diverse. Some like hard science fiction, some like CP, some like alien wars, and some like big scenes and sensations.

These four selling points meet the requirements of all audiences.

But the key problem is that Teng Huatao's level is not good enough at all, and he is simply unable to connect all these selling points together. The final product is a complete mess!
At ten o'clock in the morning, as the ban on film reviews and rating mechanisms on major platforms was lifted, the audience who had already seen the movie couldn't help themselves!
"If the story didn't take place in Lujiazui but in Xiangyashan, and Jiang Yang's crush on Lin Lan was like Wang Changgui's crush on Xie Dajiao, then the background of Shanghai Fortress wouldn't be out of place except for being earthy. I think instead of making a Delta mothership, it would be better to shoot a future version of rural love. What the hell!"

"What can protect the Shanghai Fortress is not the bubble defense made by South Korea, not the drones made in the United States, and not the Shanghai cannon that emerged from the Huangpu River, but the sincere hearts of Chinese filmmakers placed in a titanium alloy box! Fuck you! Teng Huatao!"

"For a science fiction film, it basically collects all the mistakes that Chinese science fiction can make. As for a romance film, it has the self-awareness to not even dare to be released during the Chinese Valentine's Day. I still admire Teng Huatao for this."

"'The Wandering Earth' showed us the hope for Chinese science fiction films, and 'Shanghai Fortress' showed us the desire to make money."

"Well, it's over. Guo Fan finally opened the door to Chinese science fiction movies with The Wandering Earth at the end of July, but it was closed by Shanghai Fortress at the beginning of August."

"Wow, wow, wow... why are you so stubborn? Why didn't you tell me earlier that this was a bad movie? My eyes! My eyes!"

It wasn't even noon yet and Shanghai Fortress was already unable to hold back.

Maoyan's opening score was 7.0, and Douban's opening score was 2.9...

When the audience who had bought pre-sale tickets saw this situation, they immediately began to apply for a refund.

Those fans who were planning to go to the theater to watch the movie have also changed their goals, either choosing to wait and see, or simply switching directly to "The Wandering Earth" next door.

As for those audience members who have been deceived into entering the venue, all they can do now is curse and curse!
"Haha, it's only been one morning and the reputation of Shanghai Fortress has already collapsed."

At noon, when Chen Fei was about to go to the cafeteria to eat, he was blocked in the office by Guo Fan.

This guy came in and laughed without saying a word, which made Chen Fei almost think he was crazy.

"Come on, stop laughing. Let's go have a meal. We have an interview event organized by People's Daily this afternoon." Chen Fei put his arm around his shoulders and walked out.

As Guo Fan walked, he said, "Director Chen, do you believe this? This movie will definitely be on the list of winners for the next Golden Broom Awards."

"Believe it! Hahahahaha!"

The two of them were laughing happily, and at this time, the marketing team under Feiyue Film and Television came out in full force to start "revenge".

When it was six o'clock in the afternoon, the review control team of "Shanghai Fortress" had completely stopped.

There's no way. I can't control it at all.

Even the money-obsessed Taopiaopiao platform no longer dares to delete their reviews.

Without him!

There are too many negative reviews, too horrible, and too overwhelming to be contained!

At least eight out of ten viewers gave negative reviews, and the remaining two were die-hard fans of Lu Han, and their support was purely mindless.

How to do this?
How can this be saved?

Before, it was clamoring to compare with "The Wandering Earth", but now, don't even think about comparing, it's too embarrassing!

……

The incandescent light tube in the China Film Conference Room made a slight humming sound. La Peikang took off his gold-rimmed glasses and wiped the lenses repeatedly with a flannel cloth.

The real-time data on the projection screen looks like a dissected corpse, it is so horrible!
Douban scored 2.5, Maoyan predicted a total box office of 1.2 million, and at least six of the top ten hot searches on Weibo were "Shanghai Fortress scam"...

All of this indicates that this movie is over!
Raising his trembling hand, he put on his glasses again, and then he heard the sound of the porcelain bottom of the teacup scraping against the table when Zhao Yi, CEO of China Television Pictures, turned it for the third time.

"Director Teng is downstairs."

At this time, the secretary pushed the door open and walked in, bringing in a gust of cold wind.

The red tassels hanging from the central air-conditioning outlet were shaking, as if foreshadowing that the mood of everyone present was trembling and difficult to calm down.

Zhao Haicheng, the production director of "Shanghai Fortress" and vice president of China Film Group, glanced at La Peikang's position with a playful look on his face.

Recalling that three days ago, they were still in this conference room popping champagne to celebrate the successful premiere.

At that time, the crystal chandelier above our heads reflected the golden light of the champagne tower, it was so gorgeous, and everyone had a smile on their face.

But now, the box office curve chart hanging in the same position is like a dead centipede, completely unable to move.

It’s quite interesting to think about.

He was not nervous. After all, he was just a production director and the responsibility for the box office failure could not fall on him.

Instead, it is La Peikang who is in trouble!
His term of office is about to end, and at this critical juncture, he actually produced such a bad movie. Isn't this giving away evidence?
"crunch-"

The door of the conference room was suddenly pushed open.

When Teng Huatao walked in, he almost tripped over the seams of the carpet!
If you look closely, you can see the Starbucks coffee stains on his cuffs and the broken screen phone in his hand.

It was obvious that Teng Huatao had already vented his anger before coming here.

Zhao Haicheng even noticed the ends of his hair sticking up at the back of his neck, which was the messy look that only people who stayed up late at night would have.

"Mr. La, Mr. Zhao..." Teng Huatao's voice was extremely hoarse, as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper.

However, no one in the conference room responded to his greeting.

Zhao Yi didn't say anything, but just glanced at his deputy sitting next to him.

There were some things he couldn't say himself, so he could only let his subordinates speak for him.

"Director Teng, please take a look at this first." Li Manru, the director of CTS, stood up and pressed the remote control in her hand.

The next second, the projection screen cut to the Youku video area, where a certain UP host with millions of followers was watching a close-up of Lu Han wearing a military cap on a loop.

"Is this bangs a tribute to Shu Qi's ramen hairstyle? Why does a science fiction movie need idol drama styling? Are you kidding me? 5 million yuan was spent on such a crappy movie?"

As he complained, a waterfall of barrages of comments directly flooded the screen. The screen full of “HAHAHAHAHA” was like countless flying knives piercing the hearts of everyone in the conference room.

At this moment, Zhao Haicheng suddenly stood up!
He slapped the table, shocking Teng Huatao so much that he shuddered. "China Film invested 3.5 million yuan! The special effects shots were cut to pieces, and the emotional scenes were shot in scenes!
Who said that using popular stars could boost box office sales? Now even fans locking in the theaters can’t save attendance! What can I say? What can we do? "

"Haha, look at what Mr. Zhao said." Li Manru unscrewed the bottle of mineral water and took a sip, then started to speak: "Don't forget, the casting was ultimately decided by China Film Group. Lu Han's team asked for 80 million yuan. Who said it was worth that? Did you forget?"

Zhao Haicheng didn't say anything else, but looked at La Peikang.

The latter looked back at him and then turned his gaze to Teng Huatao.

China Film Group did make the decision, but Lu Han was chosen by this guy, and he said with certainty that he would be able to do it!

Seeing that everyone was looking over, Teng Huatao swallowed his saliva and said nervously, "In the original novel, the relationship between Jiang Yang and Lin Lan was the focus..."

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Li Manru's cold laugh, "What's the point? When Zhang Yimou was filming The Great Wall, even though he used Jing Tian, ​​he knew that he had to focus on depicting the war scenes. But you turned a science fiction film into a youth pain literature.

Also, the design of the mothership is copied from Independence Day, right? Do you really think the audience is blind? "

"Okay." Zhao Yi suddenly raised his hand to stop Li Manru beside him.

If he continued talking, they would be at loggerheads. Although he was very angry now, he still had to be a little calmer when facing La Peikang, after all, the other party was the chairman of China Film.

"Boss La, if the box office is only over 1 million as predicted, then our losses will be over 3 million. Don't you have any other solution?"

La Peikang opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know how to start.

China Film is a state-owned enterprise. It is impossible for it to use the same box office-boosting operations as LeTV, Huayi, and Emperor Entertainment, right?

But if I don’t watch it, I’m afraid I’ll lose a lot of money on this movie!
"I do have an idea." Teng Huatao's voice suddenly attracted the attention of everyone in the audience.

He said very quickly: "First of all, delete all those 'fire at me' videos on TikTok, and try to prevent the audience from being misled.

Then you can hire some netizens to increase the ratings, change all the front row of Douban short reviews to five stars, and then raise the rating to 6.0, maybe you can save some of it..."

"Haha, and then wait to be exposed and become a hot topic?" Li Manru spoke again, her words were so venomous, "Director Teng, why don't you go on a live broadcast to apologize, saying that there is a deviation between your creative concept and the audience's. Maybe the audience will feel sorry for you and support you for a while?"

Teng Huatao clenched his teeth so hard that his back teeth felt sore, and the phone left a red mark on his palm.

Let him apologize live?

Are you kidding me?
If he really did that, wouldn't he become a joke?

Of course, he couldn't do that, but he could shift the blame to others.

"Director Li, you're joking. How much influence can a director like me have?" He smiled awkwardly at Li Manru, and added, "Why not let Lu Han shave his head? The hot searches are all mocking his bangs. If..."

"Do you think that letting Lu Han shave his head will increase the box office?"

La Peikang finally spoke, completely interrupting Teng Huatao's fantasy.

"The film's reputation has collapsed, and everyone has an unshirkable responsibility..."

He was just about to say a few polite words, but at this moment, the mobile phone on the table suddenly vibrated.

After taking a look at the caller ID, his face suddenly changed!
"Hello, Director Li?" As the answer button was pressed, La Peikang had already stood up.

He didn't dare sit down and answer a call from his leader because the other end would be able to hear it.

"Come over to the bureau. The organization wants to talk to you."

Upon hearing this, La Peikang's face turned pale instantly, his legs went limp, and he almost fell to the ground.

coming!

The day has finally come!
The collapse of word-of-mouth after the release of "Shanghai Fortress" became the last straw that broke the camel's back!
After a long pause, he responded, "Okay, I'll go right away."

After hanging up the phone, La Peikang didn't even bother to tidy up his suit, and turned around and walked out in a hurry.

The secretary picked up the water glass he had forgotten on the table and ran out immediately after him.

Seeing this scene, everyone in the conference room looked at each other.

"Okay, let's stop here for today and adjourn the meeting." Zhao Haicheng stood up and walked outside.

Although he didn't hear what came out of La Peikang's phone just now, he could actually figure it out with just a quick guess.

If nothing unexpected happens, the bureau will talk to him.

It is not terrible to be unworthy of the position, but if the ability is not enough, then the position will definitely not be kept!
……

"On its first day of release, the love/science fiction/war film Shanghai Fortress, directed by Teng Huatao and starring Lu Han and Shu Qi, grossed 7554.9 million... its reputation collapsed!"

"Today, the overall screening schedule of Shanghai Fortress has dropped to 15.6%."

"The entire internet is full of criticism. How did Shanghai Fortress create a box office fraud scam? As investors, China Film Group and CTS have an unshirkable responsibility."

"..."

Unlike the rave reviews from major media on the first day of the screening, the media and marketing accounts quickly changed their tone on the second day of the film's screening.

Various voices of criticism, ridicule, and questioning swept in like a tide, completely drowning "Shanghai Fortress".

Under this situation, the reputation of the film can no longer be saved, and the same is true for the box office.

The box office on the first day was 7554 million.

The box office the next day was 2096 million.

1201 million on the third day.

477 million on the fourth day.

293 million on the fifth day.

Day 220 days.

178 million on the seventh day.

After being released for a total of one week, "Shanghai Fortress", which cost 5 million yuan to produce, only earned 1.2 million yuan at the box office.

On the eighth day of the film's release, the single-day box office dropped directly to 16, and the total screening schedule of theaters was only 0.2%.

At this point, the grand domestic first science fiction war film "Shanghai Fortress" is completely finished.

"Check Weibo, Teng Huatao has apologized, haha."

Early in the morning on August 8, Guo Fan's phone call woke Chen Fei up.

After walking out of the bedroom and into the study, Chen Fei went straight to his Weibo account.

As expected, an apology letter was posted on Weibo headlines:
“There were also audiences who didn’t like the movies I made in the past, but most of them criticized the movies themselves. But today, I saw a netizen saying that The Wandering Earth opened a door for Chinese science fiction, but Shanghai Fortress closed it. I was really sad.

As a director, I have an unshirkable responsibility, and I am really sorry because I believe that no one wants to close this shining door.

As a director, I didn't take everyone further on this road, but I know that everyone is working hard to move forward! I know that not all efforts are rewarded, but I will not stop working hard just because there is no reward this time.

Thank you investors. This movie made you lose money, but from beginning to end no one jumped out to blame me. Instead, they comforted me. Thank you to all the audiences who like this movie and let you see a little bit of touching in the story.

It's very sad, but this is how a person who didn't do a good job should feel. I will remember it and hope there will be more in the future. I also hope that Chinese science fiction films can get better and better."

Looking at this apology letter, Fade Chen just wanted to laugh.

The article posted on Weibo was quite sincere, but the words said in the interview exposed Teng Huatao's "shameless" behavior.

In the previous few days, he made it clear that he had used Lu Han incorrectly and said that Lu Han was not suitable to appear in science fiction films.

But today he sent another apology letter, taking a lot of responsibility on himself.

It is obvious that he was scared by the scolding from Lu Han's fans, so he had to issue such a statement.

However, even after the statement was issued, Lu Han's fans still did not let him go.

"What the hell were you doing before? Earlier you said it was my brother's fault that the movie failed at the box office, but now you've changed your tone. Are you going to die or not?"

"I have seen through this guy. He had previously focused all his attention on Lu Han, but he was perfectly invisible. Now that he sees that the situation is almost over, he has avoided the main issue and issued an announcement. It's really interesting."

"I just want to ask, was the line 'Fire at me' designed by Lu Han? Was the plot written by Lu Han? It's obvious that the biggest problems are with the screenwriter and director, and now they've brought the rhythm to my brother. How shameless!"

"We can admit that Lu Han's acting is not good, but we will never take the blame!"

"That's right! We don't take the blame for this! The box office failure wasn't just caused by my brother. Didn't Shu Qi also act badly?"

Looking at the angry responses from the "reeds" in the comment section, Fade Chen's mouth curled up slightly.

"Then... let me give you a hand!"

He had long disliked Teng Huatao, and this time he must not let this guy become completely invisible!

Lu Han does have some responsibility, but the biggest responsibility definitely lies with his grandson Teng Huatao!
……

(ps: Third update, please vote for me!!!)
(End of this chapter)