Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 866: Unprecedented Premiere Location
The next day.

Zhou Mo bid farewell to the "Nezha" team and flew alone to the "Military Bugle" crew.

Unlike "Nezha", which was full of energy from the beginning and was full of laughter after its release, the atmosphere on the crew of "Military Bugle" was much quieter.

To be precise, it's a huge pressure.

When Zhou Mo met the crew for the first time, he could clearly feel the tense atmosphere among them.

His arrival obviously brought confidence to the entire crew and made everyone have higher expectations for the future performance of the film.

"Director Zhou, congratulations! Nezha broke the record for domestic animated films in just one week. It is expected to break 50 billion in the future."

In the room, Chen Li, Wang Zhifei and others congratulated Zhou Mo on the achievement of "Nezha".

"You're welcome, everyone. We've been busy with Nezha these days, so I'm sorry that I didn't come until this time."

Chen Li waved his hand and said, "Director Zhou, you are too polite. We all know the situation over there. It's not too late. In fact, I hope you can stay in the crew of Nezha for two more days, so that you can accumulate more good performance and let our movie benefit from it..."

Zhou Mo was stunned, his expression somewhat stunned.

He didn't expect to hear the word "getting angry" from Chen Li's mouth.

Chen Li noticed his reaction and said with a smile: "Why, do you think what I said is new?"

"Yes, a little bit." Zhou Mo told the truth.

"It's really fresh, because this is also a comment I saw on the Internet. A student bought a ticket for our movie and said that he was looking forward to our movie after watching the promotional video. Since you are in both movies, I hope our movie can also achieve good results beyond expectations like Nezha."

Zhou Mo was in a good mood as he listened to Chen Li's words.

"It seems that my previous sales strategy was good."

"Yes, in the past month, many students have learned about our movie and bought pre-sale tickets for it."

"What about the exact amount?"

"Just talking about the student group, there are millions of pre-sale tickets. Apart from students, people of other age groups probably also purchased hundreds of thousands of tickets."

Zhou Mo briefly calculated the pre-sale amount in his mind.

According to his original plan, all student tickets were priced under 15 yuan, while non-student tickets were over yuan.

Combining the two numbers, the pre-sale box office is at least 20 million.

The pre-sale box office of 20 million is undoubtedly a huge improvement compared to the total box office of 50 million of "The Bugle" in its previous life.

After Chen Li introduced the situation to Zhou Mo, he asked Zhou Mo about his next plan.

"Director Zhou, then for the rest of our roadshow, let's follow what we said before and keep the content of the Q&A session within a certain limit?"

"Yes." Zhou Mo nodded slightly.

The plan that Chen Li mentioned is actually to no longer choose to select questions from the audience during the question-and-answer session of the roadshow, but to collect questions from netizens, pick out the questions through "random drawing", and then let the crew members answer them.

Of course, these questions, and the crew members' answers, like any ordinary roadshow, were trained and rehearsed in advance.

Such operation can be regarded as the final choice after considering many factors.

It not only satisfies the audience and crew members' desire to communicate, but also prevents the actors from being timid when answering.

"I remember the company has arranged for our crew to rehearse. How was the result?"

Chen Li is very confident about this
"Very good, there will be absolutely no problems during the roadshow."

Afterwards, Zhou Mo talked with Wang Zhifei and others about the possible problems that might be encountered in the publicity, then he said goodbye to everyone and returned to the room to rest.

The next day, "The Bugle" premiered.

This time, the premiere was not held at the old location where Zhou Mo often held premieres in the past, but a place that Zhou Mo rarely visited before.

Great Hall.

Early in the morning, Zhou Mo and everyone else began to busy themselves with their own affairs.

After working for a few hours, Zhou Mo had time to leave his work station and go backstage to replenish some water.

Before he could unscrew the bottle cap, a shout came from behind:
"Hey! The one who's drinking water, why aren't you working properly and are slacking off in the back?!"

Zhou Mo turned around subconsciously and saw the priest (the priest in "Let the Bullets Fly") sitting on the chair, looking at him with a smile on his face.

"Hey, Teacher Ma, why are you here?"

When the priest heard this, he raised his eyebrows and said, "What? You don't welcome me?"

Zhou Mo waved his hands repeatedly, "Teacher Ma, how could I not welcome you? In terms of familiarity with this place, I am far behind you."

When the priest heard this, he pointed at Zhou Mo in mid-air, as if he was helpless about his reaction. However, the increasingly obvious smile on the corner of his mouth showed that he was in a very good mood.

"You never suffer any loss with your mouth."

Zhou Mo took out a bottle of water and handed it to the priest.

"No, Mr. Ma, given the relationship between us, if we still talk about whether it's a loss or not, wouldn't that make us feel distant?"

"You said we have a good relationship, then why didn't you contact me when you took on the project some time ago?" The priest suddenly frowned and asked back.

Zhou Mo was stunned and didn't react.

"Project, what project?"

"The Great Battle."

Zhou Mo instantly understood what the other party meant and explained, "Before I accepted "The Final Battle", I actually thought about contacting you, but later I thought it might be too much trouble for you, so I gave up."

"You, you just think too much, is this a problem or not?
I also like "The Final Battle" and I also hope that this drama can be filmed well. If you had contacted me at the beginning, maybe I could have provided you with some help. "

Zhou Mo's eyes lit up instantly.

The priest's help.

That's not just a casual remark.

Let’s put it this way, as long as the priest’s name appears in the cast list, there are many things that don’t need to be considered.

“There’s no rush now, Teacher Ma… No, Senior Brother, Junior Brother, I still have a lot of things to do. You don’t know, sometimes I’m so stressed that I can’t sleep all night, and even my hair has become thinner.

Considering our friendship over the years, you have to help me no matter what...

I don’t ask for the same level of attention as Let the Bullets Fly did, I would be very grateful for help of a slightly lower level.”

The priest almost laughed out of anger at Zhou Mo's shameless words.

It's slightly lower than "Let the Bullets Fly".

Why don't you go to heaven?

He was about to get up and leave.

"It seems that you, Director Zhou, are quite powerful now. You can solve many problems by yourself. Please focus on filming "The Final Battle". I will go to the front desk now."

Zhou Mo grabbed him and smiled.

"No, Senior Brother, you are kidding me. I don't have any real ability. I am just a beginner in the film and television industry. I still have a lot to learn and a lot of room to grow. The Final Battle is a huge challenge for me. You have to help me no matter what."

The priest sat back in his chair and complained to Zhou Mo: "Look, you can say it nicely, but you have to be so naughty?" Zhou Mo coughed lightly.

"Habit, habit."

"Okay, you'll be busy later, so I'll make it short. I'll help you inquire about the filming of The Decisive Battle, and I'll provide you with anything I can.

As for you, just follow your original habits and methods and try your best to shoot well. I believe that your level will definitely be the best in the industry."

When Zhou Mo heard this, he immediately smiled.

That's what he wanted.

Although many people had given him assurances and support before, when all was said and done, they were still no match for the person in front of him.

"Don't worry, Senior Brother. I plan to invest 70% of the company's manpower in "The Final Battle" and will definitely not disappoint those who follow and support this drama."

The priest raised his eyebrows and suddenly spoke, imitating Jiang Wen's appearance:
"Why is it only 70%?"

Zhou Mo replied: "70% is good. I didn't even use 30% of the company's staff when I filmed "Eastern Han Dynasty" before."

After the words were spoken, the two looked at each other and burst into laughter.

……

A few hours later.

The premiere of "The Bugle" is over.

Zhou Mo looked at the main creators who were being interviewed not far away, his eyes full of satisfaction.

To be honest, due to the special nature of its content, "Military Bugle" was released at the very front of all the red movies, and the competition with other movies was not that serious.

This situation is both good and bad for movie box office.

Less competition means that the schedule is not popular enough and there are fewer potential audiences.

On the other hand, less competition also means that "The Bugle" does not have to worry about sudden dark horses. If it does its best, it will be able to steadily attract all the audiences who are willing to watch the movie.

Another hour passed and the interview session was completely over.

Zhou Mo opened a box of mineral water and distributed it to everyone who had completed the interview at once.

"Thank you for your hard work, take a rest, we will have dinner later."

After thanking them, everyone opened their bottles and started drinking water.

Holding a film premiere in a place like the City Hall is an honor but also a pressure.

How many actors never have the opportunity to come here to attend the premiere of their own movie in their lifetime, so there is no doubt that today's premiere is a day worth remembering for a lifetime for many people in the crew.

At the same time, such a memorable day also brings enormous pressure to people.

Zhou Mo saw that Liu Xing looked like he was splashed with water all over.

"Nervous."

Liu Xing wiped the sweat from his forehead and said in a timid tone: "I am indeed nervous. If Director Zhou hadn't asked me to prepare many times in advance, I would have been trembling when I spoke just now."

Chen Li smiled and consoled him: "It's okay, you performed very well just now. Your voice was very steady during the interview, and your speech was very organized. It was great."

In fact, Liu Xing had long forgotten what he had said during the interview just now. This is a normal reaction of the body when a person is extremely nervous.

After listening to the director's words, my tense body finally relaxed a little.

"It's fine as long as I didn't embarrass you guys. The only thing that came to my mind just now is that we can't let our crew fall behind."

"Your idea is very good. Let's do the next promotion like this." Li Youbin patted Liu Xing on the shoulder and said encouraging words.

As the main creator of the film, he went on stage today to be interviewed along with the leading actor.

I can only say that Li Yunlong is worthy of being Li Yunlong.

Although Li Youbin only appeared in a few scenes in "Military Bugle", he is still the most eye-catching one in all the interviews today.

He was in high spirits throughout the whole process and was able to answer all questions beautifully.

After a while, Zhou Mo saw that everyone had rested enough, so he called everyone to go eat.

Halfway through, Wang Zhifei suddenly brought up a topic.

"Come to think of it, didn't Director Zhou invite Teacher Li to star in "The Final Battle"? Did Teacher Li agree?"

Zhou Mo sighed and said to everyone in a very "distressed" manner: "No, Teacher Li didn't agree. Maybe I still couldn't meet Teacher Li's requirements."

Li Youbin looked at Zhou Mo who was pretending to be so pretentious and said unhappily, "Director Zhou, don't you see how old I am? I may not have the energy to play the leading role. Besides, there may not be any main roles suitable for me, so you don't have to persuade me."

Zhou Mo didn't say anything else, just sighed.

To this day, "Drawing Sword" remains a milestone in domestic military dramas.

Lee Yoo-bin himself deserves at least half of the credit for the drama’s success.

It can be said that Li Yunlong alone has given Li Youbin an irreplaceable position in the field of military themes.

It’s just that Zhou Mo hasn’t filmed many military-related works. He is more focused on history and cities. "The Decisive Battle" is one of the few opportunities for him to work with Li Youbin, but the latter, for many reasons, only agreed to a cameo appearance and did not agree to star in the film.

I have to say, this is indeed a pity.

"Since Teacher Li said that I can't play the leading role, then you can just play a few cameo performances when the time comes. That should be fine, right?"

Li Youbin agreed very readily this time.

After the group had dinner, they continued their promotion work for two more days.

Soon, the day of the movie's release officially arrived.

After Zhou Mo finished the first day of the roadshow, he immediately called the company to inquire about the situation of the movie.

"The first day box office was over 2700 million, about two million higher than expected."

As soon as the voice came out from the other end of the phone, cheers came from behind Zhou Mo.

"2700 million, this is really sky-high."

"I feel like I can celebrate in advance. I never dreamed of this achievement."

Among the crowd, Liu Xing was the most excited.

As early as two years ago, he participated in the filming of another movie directed by Chen Li, "Blood Battle on Xiangjiang River".

At that time, the total box office of that movie was over 450 million, and the box office on the first day was only over million.

Now, the first-day box office of "Military Bugle" is more than seven times that of "Bloody Battle on Xiangjiang River", so doesn't that mean the total box office has a chance to reach more than seven times?

That was a mainstream movie with a box office of over 400 million.

It's not the war main line kind.

With this achievement, he feels he can brag about it for the rest of his life!

(End of this chapter)