Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 871: The high threshold for watching movies has both advantages and disadvantages

"Dong Zhuo, he was indeed a fierce man in the early days. He had no background or power. At most, he was a powerful subordinate. He managed to become the leader of the local area."

"Isn't he related to some Empress Dowager Dong?"

"He climbed up to someone like that in order to increase his status. In fact, there is no blood relationship between us. He basically relied on himself to get to the point where he became the cholera man."

"So that's how it is. He's really quite amazing..."

Da Tiantian looked at the screen again. On the screen at this time, Dong Zhuo was arranging his soldiers to enter the city during the day and leave the city at night, over and over again, pretending that he had a large number of troops.

The animated version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" generally advances the plot according to historical events, but among many events, there are some individual episodes with a certain character as the absolute protagonist.

For example, the episode that Da Tiantian is currently watching is about Dong Zhuo's recollections of some events in his past as he went to Beijing in response to He Jin's summons.

This includes his rise from obscurity, how he made a name for himself in the Western Liang region, and later how he experienced the Yellow Turban Rebellion and gained enough merits, and was eventually summoned by He Jin.

There are many characters like Dong Zhuo who have their own personal collections, including Yuan Shu, Lu Bu, Liu Zhang, Liu Biao, Gongsun Zan, etc.

Everyone will appear in the corresponding chapter to improve the character's personality.

Back to Dong Zhuo, it can be said that Dong Zhuo made basically no mistakes in his operations during the process of entering Beijing, and every step he took was accurate and decisive.

Repeatedly let the soldiers march to build up momentum; bribed Lu Bu to kill Ding Yuan to threaten others; and took the emperor away before Yuan Shao to take the initiative.

It was not until he entered the imperial court that he discovered that there were new ways of playing in the court and that the court officials would not play with him, a barbarian from Xiliang, that he gradually fell into the quagmire and finally went crazy step by step.

Da Tiantian pointed at a comment on the screen and said.

"This person said that every monarch in the Three Kingdoms seemed to have fallen from grace, and that it was all their own choice, not the fault of God. I thought about it, and it seems to be true."

Zhou Mo also thought about this sentence and nodded after a moment.

Failure is an inevitable part of the lives of all monarchs in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

If a monarch fails once, either because of bad luck or a weak mentality, he will die immediately, such as Yuan Shao.

If they are lucky, even if they do not die, they will need a lot of time to recuperate and regroup, and basically they will lose the opportunity to unify the world and can only place their hopes on the next generation, such as Cao Cao.

More than an hour later, Da Tiantian finished watching the eight episodes of the second day.

The Rebellion of the Ten Eunuchs ended and Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang City.

"It's really not satisfying. I wish I could watch all 100 episodes at once." Da Tiantian was still not satisfied.

"One hundred episodes. After watching them, you might die suddenly in front of your computer."

"Then I woke up and found myself traveling back to the Three Kingdoms era!"

"And then Cheng Yu made it into small pieces of jerky?"

Da Tiantian: "..."

……

The next day.

Zhou Mo received data reported by the company again.

The purchase volume of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" on the second day was around 300 million, much less than that on the first day.

However, this decline was entirely expected.

Animation is not a movie. Watching it in one night is just a small chapter. The incomplete plot will naturally make some viewers choose to wait and put it aside until there are enough people to watch it again.

"Director Zhou, many netizens who have purchased the full series have made requests on the platform and in the fan group, hoping that the company can release more episodes at once. Eight episodes a day is too slow, and they may not be able to watch it after the holiday."

On the phone, the assistant gave feedback on the opinions collected on the Internet in the past two days.

After thinking about it for a while, Zhou Mo did not agree to this proposal.

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is broadcast eight episodes every day, which is actually related to the production of animation. Every eight episodes covers a major event, and the time is not very long.

If too many films are released at once, some viewers who can stay up late or have more free time may be able to watch them all at once, but more students or adults who need to work on time during the day will not be able to watch them all.

Compared to not being able to watch enough, not being able to finish watching is more likely to lead to putting it aside.

Once put aside, it is not easy to pick it up again.

Therefore, it is better to publish one chapter a day, which can not only maintain the popularity but also tap the purchasing power of the audience as much as possible.

"Just follow the normal plan. We can also start a daily update plan and give prizes to those viewers who read the latest episodes quickly and catch up with the latest episodes as soon as possible. You can decide on these things."

"it is good."

In the next few days, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" basically maintained a daily purchase volume of 400 million, until the seventh day, the Battle of Red Cliffs chapter.

In this battle, the main characters of the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu all appeared on the stage, famous heroes in history took to the battlefield, special effects technology was off the charts, and flames shot up into the sky.

The total purchase volume of these eight episodes reached 600 million in three days.

On the evening of the announcement, Zhou Mo held a banquet in the crew to celebrate the good results of the animation.

"Six hundred million. If converted into movie tickets, it would actually be close to twenty billion. Wouldn't Director Zhou be the most commercially successful animation producer in the world by then?"

During the banquet, Deng Chao made a joke.

As soon as these words were spoken, the others couldn't help but reveal similar expressions of anticipation.

Everyone knows that this statement is pure fantasy. The ticket price for animated films is not much different from that for ordinary films, both are around 40 yuan.

Even if it is a discounted ticket, it will not be less than 20 yuan.

The average purchase price of an episode of Romance of the Three Kingdoms is less than one yuan, and if you buy all eight episodes at once, you can get an additional discount.

All in all, there are eight episodes a day, nearly three hours of plot, and it’s all covered with just seven dollars.

Seven dollars, that’s the price of a meal of rebellion.

It is precisely this price that has enabled the purchase volume of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to exceed 300 million every day.

Zhou Mo just came over with a drink in his hand. Hearing Deng Chao's words, he laughed out loud: "To become the world's top commercial animation work, you need the right time, right place, and right people. It's not that easy to do."

How can it be so easy to achieve?

Doesn’t it mean that it is possible to achieve?

So confident?
Everyone keenly heard the other meaning in Zhou Mo's words. They were surprised but also did not find it difficult to accept.

After all, this is Zhou Mo.

Suddenly, Deng Chao's eldest son looked at Sun Li and said, "Mom, what is the world's number one animated film right now?"

Sun Li thought for a while and shook her head.

It is true that she often watched movies with her children, but she has no memory of the box office of the movies.

Deng Chao has done a lot of homework on animation recently. The success of "Nezha 1" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has made him interested in the animation field.

Deng Chao explained to his son: "It's the Frozen you watched when you were a kid, the one with Princess Elsa."

After saying that, he looked at Zhou Mo inquiringly, and the latter nodded, confirming his answer.

"The global box office of 'Frozen' has exceeded 13 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to more than billion RMB." billion!

Many people were quite shocked.

An animated film that grossed more than 4 billion yuan more than the highest-grossing film in the country.

Disney's ability to conquer the world is truly well-deserved.

Sun Li suddenly remembered something at this time and continued to ask: "By the way, is Frozen 2 coming out soon?"

"Yes, it's on the 22nd of next month." Zhou Mo nodded.

As soon as she finished speaking, Sun Li's two children vied to say that they wanted to go see "Frozen".

Sun Li told the two little ones not to be anxious and looked at Zhou Mo.

Zhou Mo smiled and waved at them.

“When the time comes, just go.”

Sun Li smiled and took the two children to the side to have some drinks.

Among the remaining group of people, someone suddenly sighed and said, "Wow, the first movie has such a high box office. If the second movie is of good quality, won't it be even higher?"

"Of course it will. After all, it's been four or five years. Whether it's technology or cinemas, Disney has been making progress. Naturally, the box office will be higher in the end."

This answer came from an assistant director of the crew. He is an employee of the company and also Zhou Mo's junior. He knows a lot about animation production and he has contributed to the production of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

The other members of the crew also knew the identity and level of this assistant director and were convinced of his predictions.

Someone else suddenly sighed: "I never thought that animated films could sell so well. I thought only children liked to watch them."

The assistant director shook his head and corrected the statement: "It is precisely because the threshold for watching movies is low enough that even children can enjoy watching them, that animated films can sell so well all over the world."

The assistant director's words made Zhou Mo fall into deep thought.

The topic of the threshold for watching movies has always been highly discussed, and he has thought about it many times in his mind.

Raising the threshold for movie watching is not all bad as some articles say.

High thresholds are very conducive to cultivating common recognition among small groups.

Recognition, in the film and television industry, actually means word of mouth and money.

This is also an operation that many accounts and influencers will start to do once their fans and followers reach a certain level:
Wash powder.

To some extent, washing fans is a disguised way of raising the threshold for following someone.

At first glance, this mindless operation of reducing the number of one's own fans is really strange and there is absolutely no point in finding any purpose.

But in fact, after washing fans, the commercial value of the internet celebrity or account will often increase to a certain extent.

The reason lies in the power of recognition.

The same logic applies to the film industry, which is fan economy + celebrity effect. People can watch the same movie over and over again just for their idols.

On the other hand, if the threshold is lowered, the approach will be to increase the audience as much as possible.

Ordinary audiences are generally not that willing to spend money, and they won’t watch a movie once, twice, or three times. However, as long as there are enough ordinary audiences, if everyone watches it, the movie’s box office can be pushed up very high.

Previously, Zhou Mo seemed to be taking the route of lowering the threshold, but in fact, it was just the opposite. He was taking the route of raising the threshold.

Whether it is the "immortal and mortal worldview" that is filmed later and later, or the killer worldview that is laid out all over the world, or the TV series with the background of the Ming Dynasty.

For works under different IPs, every two works are connected to each other, which does invisibly increase the threshold for watching the works.

It’s like the audience who haven’t watched “I Want to Be the Emperor”, when they first come into contact with “The Red Tower”, they will definitely wonder what this drama is about and what the background is in the Ming Dynasty, and they will also wonder who “Emperor Huangdi” is.

As for why Zhou Mo is seen as taking the first route, it is because the domestic market is too large and there are too few good works.

As long as a director serves the market seriously, more and more audiences will support him and be willing to pay him.

That's why he can break records again and again.

But the road to raising the threshold is not always smooth.

When the threshold is raised to a certain level, the work will become a game within a small circle.

Once a small circle is formed, the upper limit of the works is basically completely locked.

If you want to break through again and expand your circle, the first ones to oppose it will not be the audience outside the circle, but the fans and audiences within the circle.

Zhou Mo naturally didn't want this to happen. In the field of animation, he did recognize the assistant director's side more and believed that the viewing threshold should be lowered as much as possible.

And "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is an attempt.

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is very popular all over the world, especially in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and there are basically no special barriers to reading and watching it.

For example, when it comes to the development of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" over at Sakura, the development over there is much more comprehensive than in China, with novels, animations, games, and fan works, it can be said that it has blossomed in all aspects.

Therefore, he wanted to see if he could attract enough audiences in East Asia and Southeast Asia by taking advantage of the popularity of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Judging from the current results, his attempt was quite successful.

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" currently contributes tens of millions of purchases every day in countries such as Sakura and Kimchi.

There are fewer purchases in other regions, but there are still purchases in the millions.

"By the way, Director Zhou, CCTV called this afternoon and said they want to interview you about The Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

At this moment, the assistant suddenly came over with a cell phone.

Zhou Mo came back to his senses and roughly looked through the contents of his phone.

The performance of Romance of the Three Kingdoms was so impressive that CCTV wanted to interview him. The topic was related to Chinese comics, involving the rise of Chinese comics, how to display traditional cultural elements in Chinese comics, the development of the Chinese comics market and so on.

"Sure, no problem. You can arrange the specific time. This topic is actually quite easy to talk about. Just a little preparation will be enough."

The assistant nodded and left.

Zhou Mo looked at the time. It was already past nine o'clock in the evening.

Looking at the crew members again, it was still lively.

He could understand this situation. Staying in the crew for a long time was actually a very boring and stressful thing.

The leading actor might be better off, with more lines, more plots, and more things to do.

But it’s different for supporting roles. They often have only a few lines and actions, and they need to be shot back and forth over and over again.

The key is that most of the time, it’s not up to you to decide how many times to shoot.

Rather, it is determined by whether the leading actor makes a mistake or not.

After a few months, the supporting actors will basically be full of resentment.

It's good to vent like this occasionally.

(End of this chapter)