China Entertainment started from Nortel 2002

Chapter 630 The Boss Never Sticks to the Pan
However, compared to the premiere of "Big Fish and Begonia", which is known as the "savior of domestic animation", the premiere of "Rock Mastiff" is more interesting.

I'm not talking about the movie. Although the premiere was as grand as "Big Fish and Begonia", Faye Wong, who rarely appears in public, even brought Dou Jingtong to the event, which increased the exposure of the film.

Because two days before the premiere, Zheng Jun, the original author of the story of "Rock and Roll Tibetan Mastiff", posted a long Weibo post titled "Capitalists are the bosses of the cinema, but the audience is the owner of the movie". The gist of it was that "Rock and Roll Tibetan Mastiff" ranked first in attendance in the preview, but heard that a theater chain wanted to ban this movie.
So when the media asked Zheng Jun how he viewed the rumor that Huayi's films were "banned" by Wanda Cinemas, Zheng Jun remained silent for a long time and then replied:
“To be honest, I don’t believe it. It must be a rumor. We are telling a Chinese story to the world and don’t want to be slapped in the face by our own people before we even leave the country.

I really don’t understand the scheduling, but I looked at the schedule for “Rock Mastiff” and it’s indeed a bit short. Someone also told me that it will be released on July 7th. Now everything is still undecided, so I hope this is just a misunderstanding.”

"."

Zheng Jun's "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" brought the rumors that were originally circulating in the dark to the surface and into the sunlight, which immediately made the industry lively.

Since Ye Ning changed jobs, there have been rumors in the industry that Wanda Cinemas has banned Huayi's films. The two parties involved have never responded to the rumors, and there was no obvious targeting before, so it was just a rumor.

But Zheng Jun's response now gives the media something to write about.

"Rock and Roll Tibetan Mastiff has triggered the "hidden rules of cinema chains", and the low screening schedule seems to be intentional by Wanda."

"On the first day of screening, the national average screening share of "Rock Mastiff" was about 6.7%, which was the lowest among the three new movies in the same period!"

"."

All kinds of news and rumors suddenly emerged frequently, and undercurrents surged in the industry. After all, these were not two small Karami companies, but two big players in the industry!
Li Mu and Liu Yifei had already seen a lot of news reports on the morning of the release day.

“Is the screening schedule of “Rock and Roll Tibetan Mastiff” really so low?”

Liu Yifei drank the nutritious porridge prepared by her aunt, but she didn't quite believe it. After all, the media reports were becoming less and less true.

"It's true, Wanda Cinemas only accounts for 3.33% of the screenings!"

Li Mu looked at the statistical data sent to him by the company and saw Wanda’s screening schedule at a glance. It was really too obvious.

The so-called 6% screening schedule reported in the media is only brought up because the rest of the theaters gave it a relatively normal screening schedule.

Wanda Cinema Line is backed by Wanda Mall, and its cinema strength is really too great. A 3.33% screening rate has directly lowered the rate too much.

However, what made Li Mu happier was that Wanda issued an announcement before normal working hours.

The "ban" is pure nonsense. Wanda Cinema Line has never issued such an order within the company in any written or oral form.

During the three-day weekend, all Wanda Cinema Line cinemas had scheduled screenings of the film, with an average of more than 500 screenings per day."

As a result, with "Cold War 2" and "Big Fish and Begonia" both having a screening rate of around 20%, the box office of "Rock Mastiff" on the first day was instantly reduced to ashes.

"Cold War 2's first-day box office exceeded million yuan, winning the single-day box office championship, rewriting the single-day box office history of Chinese-language police and gangster films, becoming the first police and gangster film in the Chinese film industry to have a first-day box office of over million yuan, and setting a new record for the Chinese-language film market."

"The first-day box office of Big Fish and Begonia exceeded 7500 million, second only to the first-day box office performance of The Monkey King: Hero is Back"

"Rock and Roll Tibetan Mastiff grossed 351 million on the first day."

The numbers of "Rock Mastiff" are deafening and really surprised people in the industry.

At the same time, Huayi.

Zheng Jun was furious after learning that the people below had passed back the information they had collected.

"Wanda Cinemas is really overbearing. They have scheduled more than 500 screenings, but all of them are in the morning. There is not even prime time, and not even in the lobby."

You have to know that this is a movie that he spent six years to prepare and cost 6000 million US dollars, but it only made 351 million on the first day. If people got the news, they would be laughing out loud.

Although it is targeting the global market, the domestic box office is concerned, and the other distributors are not fools.

"real or fake."

"Wanda's move is really amazing!"

"Wanda has its reasons, but Huayi also has its own problems!"

People in the industry are watching the show.

Wang Changtian felt extremely lucky. With Wanda's move, the obvious beneficiaries were the other two films, with Big Fish and Begonia generating the most profit.

However, Wanda is also the producer of "Big Fish and Begonia". It is true that the best way to make money is for everyone to share.

At the same time, Ye Ning rubbed his brows and called Li Mu.

"What's the matter, Mr. Ye, do you have something to talk to me about?"
.
Li Mu was not surprised. Given the current state of "Rock Tibetan Mastiff", it must be looking for someone to rescue it. Li Mu estimated that Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei were probably making phone calls frantically today.

"Director Li, it's about 'Rock Mastiff'." Ye Ning said with a wry smile.

"I understand what you mean. Mengying Media can increase the film schedule on weekends. It's not a big deal."

Li Mu smiled faintly and said, there are currently three new films, and the rest are almost ready for release with little potential, so a few more can be squeezed out, which will not have much impact, and it is estimated that there will be some improvement over the weekend.

"But this time, there was a big problem with the release of 'Rock and Roll Tibetan Mastiff'."

Li Mu recalled the promotion and marketing process of "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" and felt that it was not appropriate.

"Rock Mastiff" is the main film promoted by Huayi Brothers in recent times. From the 7 messages released by Huayi Brothers WeChat official account from July 1 to 8, 13 of them are related to "Rock Mastiff", which shows that Huayi Brothers has high expectations for "Rock Mastiff". However, compared with "Big Fish and Begonia", which focuses on online channels and conforms to the perspective of young people, "Rock Mastiff" focuses on offline channels, such as theaters and city roadshows, which is obviously far from the current popular trend.

"Director Li, what do you say?"

Ye Ning's head was aching at the moment. This damn movie was going to cause Huayi's hometown to lose money.

"Forget it, I'd better be careful about what I say about this." Li Mu thought about it and still didn't say it. "Okay, I will arrange this matter, but it will only be this weekend. After that, it will depend on the results." Li Mu said with a smile.

"Okay, thank you Director Li, I'll treat you to a meal some other day."

Ye Ning didn't hesitate and hung up the phone after getting Li Mu's reply.

At this moment he breathed a sigh of relief. Although "Rock Mastiff" was not led by him, he was still in Huayi now. He did not expect that just a few months after joining the company, a big hole would appear again and he had to find a way to fill it.

On Saturday, "Rock Mastiff" broke 7900 million, a slight improvement, but "Big Fish and Begonia" broke 2 million, and "Cold War " continued to break million.

The latter two directly occupied 30% of the screenings each, crushing the entire field.

However, Wang Changtian's happiness did not last for two days, and now he is frowning.

Because it took 12 years to sharpen a sword, the process was full of twists and turns, and it gathered crowdfunding from thousands of people. While "Big Fish and Begonia" is still a hit in theaters, the reputation of "Big Fish and Begonia" has become polarized: both sides are tearing each other apart, each sticking to their own opinions.

Some people praised it for its strong Chinese charm, conformity with modern aesthetics, and beauty that makes people marvel and cry. It is a new dawn and new peak for domestic animation.

Some people criticized the film for its melodramatic plot, dull characters, and distorted values, saying it was a waste of good technology and was an "epic bad movie" that relied on emotional marketing.

So much so that many media outlets called "Big Fish and Begonia" a melodramatic Qiong Yao drama.

Anyway, its reputation is now plummeting. It originally had a Douban score of 8.1, but now it has dropped to 6.5.

So much so that recently, Li Mu and Wang Changtian would tease him whenever they met.

But compared to "Rock Mastiff", it was much luckier.

At the same time, Huayi’s internal senior management was holding a seminar.

However, judging from the content on the current PPT, it seems more like a meeting to hold people accountable and pass the buck.

Wang Zhonglei was at the top, giving instructions and making comments, because he was specifically in charge of the "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" project. After all, this was a project that had been polished before Ye Ning came, and it was impossible for him to just throw it away.

"I think there is something very wrong with our release this time. Very serious problem!"

Wang Zhonglei said indignantly at this moment.

Below the stage, Ye Ning's eyes narrowed slightly, and she was about to listen carefully, while the faces of several directors in charge of distribution were gloomy.

“First, there was a scheduling error.

This movie should not be released in the summer vacation schedule. You should know that nearly 7 movies have been released in the summer vacation schedule in July. Why should it be released in the summer vacation schedule?
As for the animated series "Rock Mastiff" competing with "Big Fish and Begonia", it has no obvious advantage in terms of reputation or IP subject matter, so why not choose to change the release date?"

When Wang Zhonglei finished saying this, Ye Ning immediately wanted to roll his eyes. Damn, they must have asked you guys about the schedule for promotion and publicity. Are you still shirking your responsibility?
However, at this time, Wang Zhonglei was still arguing, while Wang Zhongjun sat quietly in the middle, seemingly just a listener.

"Rock Mastiff" was naturally the investment choice of him and Wang Zhonglei, but he could never take the blame, this is an iron rule.

"Secondly, the publicity was not good. The publicity of "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" found the wrong focus. It should have been based on the reputation of "parent-child" type, but "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" mistakenly chose the "family-friendly" type of publicity selling point.

"Rock Mastiff" adopts the new model of Chinese investment + Chinese IP + Hollywood production. It is a very international animation. The film hired the team of Ash Brannon, the screenwriter and director of "Toy Story 2", and the characters were created by the designers of "Ice Age". In the words of director Zheng Jun, it is "Chinese heart with world style."

But the family-friendly promotion strategy failed in the face of Rock Mastiff. After all, this is an unfamiliar film to the vast majority of Chinese audiences, and the IP appeal is not enough to make everyone buy tickets to the theater."

What Wang Zhonglei said did make sense. After listening to it, everyone seemed to be nodding.

Only the person in charge of issuance silently took all the responsibility.

On Monday, Huayi issued a sudden announcement:
"Due to the major mistakes in the national distribution of "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" and the significant losses caused to the company, the company's management has decided to demote Ms. Zhang Qian, the former deputy general manager of the distribution company, and Mr. Sun Ao, the deputy general manager, to the position of distribution director from today, and make corresponding adjustments to their salaries. We hereby notify you!

For this reason, I sincerely hope that all the publishing colleagues will strictly implement and execute the distribution strategy of "Rock Tibetan Mastiff" and successfully complete the distribution task! "

This announcement confused people in the industry, especially those who are in charge of issuing securities.

However, a senior issuer in the industry asked: "What's the logic behind the issuer taking the brunt of the investment mistakes?"

"Fortunately Director Li is not such a boss!"

"This is outrageous Huayi, luckily we are in Tiangong Animation!"

"."

Many people from Tiangong Animation were feeling fortunate after watching this. If this happened at Huayi, wouldn’t they, the animation technicians, have to be laid off if the animation failed one day?

This can directly put the blame on the distributor, so what else can't Huayi do?

After reading it, Li Mu and others couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Huayi has made such a high investment, and its goal is not clear. From production and development to the simultaneous release of five films, the situation is already full of dangers. Now blaming everything on the distribution seems to be an attempt to cover up the boss's investment failure, which is a bit absurd.
(End of this chapter)