Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 628: The War Before the Battle
domestic.

"The first-day box office of 'Grave Robbers' produced by Shanghai Film Group was 4180 million, higher than the first-day box office of 'Drug War' and slightly lower than 'The Dragon King of the Capital' produced by Huayi."

"It is reported that according to predictions by industry professionals, the box office of 'Grave Robbers' Chronicles' is likely to exceed 300 million yuan."

"The reviews of "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" are extremely polarized..."

Upper shadow.

Ren Zhonglun, Li Rengang and others gathered in the conference room to discuss the box office issue of "Grave Robbers' Chronicles".

"Director Ren, the audience's feedback so far shows that the main actors focus on the plot of the movie, and this is also the most negative part of the review."

"The cinema chain is increasing the screening rate. They said it can be increased to 30% within three days at the latest."

"What fans praised was the special effects of the movie..."

About ten minutes later, the assistant reported the information collected so far.

The director Li Rengang next to him looked unhappy. He was severely criticized by netizens in the past two days. The most common criticism was "It was a good story, but it was messed up by this guy. It was a waste."

"Hong Kong directors don't know how to make historical films, and now they don't even know how to make tomb-robbing films. Shanghai Film Studio has chosen the wrong people."

“It would be better to let Xingchen Films film “Grave Robbers’ Chronicles” and see how classic “Ghost Blows Out the Light” is.”

After reading a series of complaints, Li Rengang was almost depressed. Now seeing Ren Zhonglun's expression again in the meeting, he felt a little uneasy at the moment.

"Cough cough."

"Everyone heard it, let's talk about what to do!"

As soon as Ren Zhonglun spoke, a lot of discussion broke out from the audience.

"Talk to the theater chain and ask them to increase the number of screenings."

"I think it's a problem with the slogan. Do we need to change it?"

"We still need to do more roadshows. Look at Xingchen Films and Huayi. They did roadshows for more than half a month after the movie was released, and the effect was very good."

...

The noisy sounds continued and Ren Zhonglun couldn't help but frown as he listened. A group of people were chattering but no one said anything useful.

"Okay, to sum it up, it's because the publicity and promotion is not good enough. Haven't you found your own faults?"

Well, Ren Zhonglun's words made everyone present silent.

Seeing this scene, Ren Zhonglun sighed slightly, "Let me tell you about it."

"The following publicity will mainly focus on the special effects, and it is important to mention that this is produced by Xingchen Film and Television Company."

"Then each department will be responsible for public relations with major theater chains to increase the screening rate. At least it should not be lower than "The Dragon King of the Capital" and "Drug War". There is not much time left for "Grave Robbers' Chronicles". There are also "Personal Tailor" and "New Police Story" to come. By then, these two movies will definitely occupy a considerable part of the screening schedule..."

"Hire a group of trolls to post good reviews. The minimum requirement is to completely cover up the bad reviews..."

...

"Finally, each investor will take out 20 million yuan to subsidize ticket sales according to the proportion in the signed contract, and we will first boost the box office..."

"Mr. Ren, you continue to invest money before the box office share has been paid out. You're investing 20 million at a time. How many tickets do you have to sell to make the profit back?" A representative of another producer directly retorted.

"Short-sighted." Ren Zhonglun cursed inwardly, but with a smile on his face he said, "Ticket subsidies are just a means to an end. The goal is to increase the popularity of The Lost Tomb. Besides, how many tickets can be subsidized with a mere 20 million? That's it!"

"Mr. Ren, that's what you said, but..." Some people still wanted to continue to object.

"The meeting is dismissed!"

……

at the same time.

Inside Xingchen Film and Television Company.

Song Ge is in a meeting with Wanda's Ye Ning, Starlight's Lu Zheng, Chen Guofu and others.

The content of the meeting was very simple, about the scheduling competition between "New Police Story" and "Private Tailor".

Originally, the release date of "New Police Story" was to be postponed to the end of December, which would coincide with the three-day New Year's Day holiday. If handled well, it could contribute at least 12 to million yuan to the box office.

However, once the 14 holiday schedule was announced, the original idea had to be abandoned.

Because there is only one day off for New Year's Day, this is a huge shock to the film industry, which regards holidays as productivity. The box office productivity during holidays is incomparable to that on weekdays.

For example, in the North American market, only the box office data for the three days of the weekend are counted for ranking comparison.

In the conference room, representatives from the three producers of "New Police Story" gathered to discuss the release issue.

This time, Xingchen Film and Television Company and Huayi Company are competing in the same schedule!

The box office performance in the first three days, or the first day, is very important. Whether the performance is good or not will have a huge impact on the box office during the entire release period.

Especially for a film like "New Police Story" with high box office expectations, the success or failure on the first day will definitely have an impact of hundreds of millions of yuan on the subsequent events.

In the conference room, Song Ge, who was presiding over the meeting, said, "There are less than two weeks left until the movie is released. Let's all express our opinions and discuss it together!"

Among the three producers, Xingchen Films is only responsible for film production and manufacturing. The star-studded Lu Zheng is not good at publicity and marketing. Wanda is responsible for publicity and marketing and has the most say in this area.

Ye Ning flipped through the small notebook in his hand, writing and drawing on it with a watercolor pen, and said with a smile: "This year's Lunar New Year holiday, all the movies released have low investment. The only ones that are somewhat competitive are "Dragon King of the Capital" and "Drug War" released at the end of last month, "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" which has been released this month, and "Personal Tailor" and "New Police Story" which are about to be released. The only remaining movies are "Havoc in Heaven", "The Man from Macau" and "Chinese Partners"!"

Everyone nodded slightly when they heard this. In fact, in the 2013 Lunar New Year movie season, the only ones that could arouse the audience's interest were "Drug War", "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", "The Storm", "Personal Tailor", "Police Stories 2013", "Chinese Partners", "Journey to the West" and "The Man from Macau".

The next three films are scheduled to be released in January 14. In fact, it can no longer be counted as the Lunar New Year period at the end of 1, but should be called the Spring Festival period.

Song Ge continued: "Personal Tailor" is on December 12, and New Police Story is on December 19. The last three are all before and after the New Year, so we won’t discuss them today.

For New Police Story, I think we should increase ticket subsidies, improve publicity, and increase the screening rate. What do you think, Mr. Ye?"

Ye Ning agreed with what he heard. When it comes to distribution, Wanda is a veteran in the film industry, and Xingchen Films has also had many successful distribution experiences, and is familiar with all kinds of hard advertising and online marketing.

And Xingchen Films has another killer weapon this time, which is the ticket subsidy promotion activity of the online ticket purchasing APP.

Ticket subsidies are a killer weapon. Once used, it is like opening Pandora's box, which will inevitably attract Internet capital to invade the film industry. At that time, the money burned was hundreds of millions.

But even if Gu Wei doesn't become popular, Maoyan Movies will also become popular when "Transformers 14" is released in 4. It would be better for Xingchen Film and Television Company to ignite the first fire.

The plan has been finalized, and the three companies, Xingchen, Wanda, and Starlight Brilliant, have jointly supplemented the details of the publicity and promotion plan, including publicity and promotion activities for theaters, which remain the same.

The key is the ticket subsidy. From publicity and promotion to picking up tickets at the cinema, it is a very troublesome and huge project.

Fortunately, Xingchen Ticketing has been improving its functions since its establishment, and with the release of "The Wandering Earth", it is not in a rush.

Although the task of this battle with Huayi Company is heavy and the time is tight, there is a brave man under the great reward, and the employees in the company are very motivated.

...

In the following days, Xingchen Ticketing vigorously promoted the ticket subsidy activity, and the activities of 9.9 and 10.9 for a movie ticket really attracted the audience and netizens.

For a time, all the media in the circle were reporting on this matter, and some even believed that the software developed by Xingchen Film and Television Company had changed the mainland film market.

This can be seen from the release of "The Wandering Earth".

Xingchen’s ticket purchasing move naturally alerted Maoyan Movie, which also wanted to copy this business model.

So, they first went to find the production company of "Private Tailor", but both the two CEOs of Huayi and Feng Xiaogang felt that "Private Tailor" would definitely win the box office championship during the Lunar New Year holiday, so why spend money to subsidize the audience.

Besides, Huayi has always liked to product placement in its films. What they want is to get most of their investment back before the film is released. They have no interest in spending money on subsidies.

Maoyan did not give up and contacted the producers and distributors of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" and "The Golden Flower from Macau". These two companies showed some interest, but were willing to pay a small amount, only 5 million to test the waters.

After all, ticket subsidies have only recently come out, and not all companies choose to believe in them.

Maoyan hesitated for a while, and then decided to take the deal because they thought that even a small amount of money is still money, so they started to advertise low-priced tickets for 9.9 yuan everywhere.

Maoyan mainly promotes to the audience through hard advertising, trailers, WeChat and Weibo marketing.

In terms of momentum and means, it is much worse than Xingchen Ticket Purchase. The key is that it is a new thing and people are not very receptive to it.

……

Ten million, twenty million, thirty million. By the day of the premiere of "Personal Tailor", the pre-sale box office of "New Police Story 2013" had exceeded thirty million.

After this number was announced, it shocked many people in the circle.

Thirty million. Many films may not even get this much box office on their premiere day. But the pre-sales for "New Police Story" have this much. This world is crazy!
At the premiere of "Personal Tailor" in Beijing, in addition to the main creative team, many people including Xu Ke, Zhang Guoli, Zhang Hanyu, Yao Chen, Yuan Quan and others were present to support and appeared on the red carpet.

During the interview, Feng Xiaogang refused to predict the box office: "If I say too low, the boss will be unhappy. If I say too high, it will become a joke."

But the media has been asking about the box office figures. After all, "New Police Story" is about to be released, and it is less than a week away from "Private Tailor".

The two companies are in direct competition, and this battle concerns the reputation of both companies. Besides, the pre-sales of "New Police Story" are 30 million.

Feng Xiaogang could only reply: "Box office is not important, money is a bastard. Anyway, the film has already recovered its investment, so any box office revenue is net profit."

"As for the extremely high pre-sale box office of New Police Story, in my opinion, it is nothing special. After all, it is nothing special to sell it with ticket subsidies. Only those who have the ability to fight head-on with a knife are heroes."

At the premiere of "Personal Tailor", Feng Xiaogang's speech was naturally reported on a large scale by reporters.

Afterwards, Song Ge arranged for the company to respond.

"Ticket subsidies are also considered part of the movie box office. We can't just allow private screenings for "Earthquake" back then, but not allow subsidies for "New Police Story" now."

My goodness, when Song Ge said this, it sounded like he was directly provoking a fight.

"If we fight, whoever backs down will be a grandson."

"It's going to be a good show. Two mainland film and television giants are going to war. Just do it."

"What Xingchen Film and Television said is a bit revealing, but I like it, haha."

Soon after, Huayi Film Company also decisively showed its sword. "Personal Tailor-Made will book the box office champion of this year's Lunar New Year holiday in advance, and New Police Story is nothing to worry about."

Xingchen Films was also very concerned. "We hope that the box office of the movie 'Personal Tailor' will be as big as Huayi's. Otherwise, I'm afraid it will become a joke in the circle."

In this way, the two sides went back and forth, and the tone of the notices became more and more severe, until the employees of the two companies were just about to have a face-to-face fight.

What can other people in the industry and film and television companies do?
Of course, I would bring a small stool and eat melon while cracking melon seeds!
.........

at the same time.

A villa in the capital.

"Why are you packing? Isn't the school on vacation yet?" Han Sanping, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room drinking tea, asked puzzledly while looking at his daughter running around.

"Xixi told me that my senior brother asked me to go to Hollywood with her. The plane tickets have been booked. And Guo Fan from my senior brother's company will be there too!" Han Jianu said as she pulled out the suitcase.

"Hey, hey, hey, going to Hollywood? What's the matter? Why didn't he tell me? Let me give him a call and ask!" Han Sanping pretended to take out his cell phone.

"Oh, that's good."

"My senior brother told me to go to the crew of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and be an assistant director. Guo Fan is also an assistant director!"

The daughter of Han Jian was a little excited at the moment, her face flushed. That was a Hollywood blockbuster. Once it was released and sold well at the box office, then graduation thesis and defense would be no problem!

"Oh!" Han Sanping was a little touched, but he still said, "Really? Didn't they ask you to be the assistant director of Ning Hao's next movie?"

"Really, Senior Brother Ning is too slow, God knows when his next movie will start shooting.

By the way, my senior also told me to write scripts well, maybe I can win the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay in the future, haha."

Hearing this, Han Sanping's feeling of being touched disappeared instantly. It turned out that this guy actually encouraged his precious daughter to change her career to become a screenwriter. This was intolerable.

"Did he say this?" Han Sanping continued to confirm.

"Yeah, it was on your birthday last time."

"By the way, Dad, don't call Brother. He's very busy recently. I'll go with Xixi. It's safe."

"When do we set off?" At this moment, Han Sanping asked expressionlessly.

"the day after tomorrow."

The two chatted for a while, and Han's daughter continued to pack her luggage. Looking at his daughter's busy figure, Han Sanping walked out the door, came to the yard and made a phone call.

"Hey, Mr. Han, you're idle again. Don't you see what time it is now?" Gu Wei's confused voice came over.

"What are you up to? You let my daughter go to Hollywood without telling me in advance."

Hearing Gu Wei's somewhat tired voice, Han Sanping did not say the words of accountability he had originally intended to express.

"Boss Han, you really take my kindness for granted. I asked my daughter to come here because I remembered that she is about to graduate." In the villa, Gu Wei, who was originally drowsy, suddenly lost his sleepiness. He hadn't had time to implement his plan yet, so why did Boss Han become alert?
"I'm telling you, take good care of our daughter. If anything happens to her, I'll fly over overnight and break your legs." Han Sanping said with full energy.

"Well, then tell her not to come."

"Ahem, that being said, I still have to go, so I'll hang up now."

Hearing the beeping sound coming from the phone, Gu Wei muttered to himself: "Junior sister, blame your father if you want to blame someone."

.........

"Mom, didn't you say a few days ago that you were going back to your hometown to accompany grandma? Why are you suddenly not going now?"

In the car, Liu Yifei pouted and spoke to her mother.

"I miss my son-in-law. Go see him!"

Well, this sentence made Liu Yifei speechless, and the girl from the Han family next to her secretly covered her mouth and laughed.

"Okay, okay, look at the son-in-law, this reason is particularly noble." Liu Yifei joked.

"By the way, ask him, when are you two going to get married?"

The loud breathing confused the young lady.

"what."

"What? You'll be an old maid in a few years. Besides, wouldn't it be better to get married sooner? You can take a two-year break after marriage and have the baby first."

"Look at the two of you. He's a director and he's usually busy so he doesn't care about this. And you don't care about it either. When you become an elderly mother, it will be dangerous to give birth."

"Your Uncle Gu and Aunt Gu have told me several times to talk about you two, one by one..."

My goodness, Liu Xiaoli started nagging like an old mother, which made Miss Liu blush and feel overwhelmed.

After driving for more than half an hour, the convoy arrived at the Capital International Airport.

The reporters who were lying in ambush here naturally discovered the large group of people first.

"Yifei..."

"Yifei, are you going to Hollywood?"

"Yeah, it's going to Hollywood."

...

After answering several questions in succession, Miss Liu and her group were able to enter the waiting room smoothly.

Less than half an hour later, the outside world started reporting the incident.

"Liu Yifei left for Hollywood today, presumably to attend the Golden Globe Awards next month."

"Liu Xiaoli, Han Jianv, a graduate student of the Directing Department of Beijing Film Academy, Guo Fan from Xingchen Film and Television Company and others accompanied them..."

As soon as the news came out, the female stars in the circle were envious again.

In the waiting room, Liu Yifei sent a text message to Gu Wei before boarding the plane, and then turned off her phone.

...

"Ding." Hearing the sound of a text message, Gu Wei put down the wine glass in his hand and clicked on the text message, "I'm on the plane. See you later."

"Yifei?" Zhang Yimou on the opposite side saw the smile on Gu Wei's face and asked casually.

"?"

"I guessed it was her. Guo Fan told me that they were taking a flight today." Zhang Yimou explained happily.

"Well, I just got on the plane. I won't go to the next one after the cocktail party is over. I have to go to the airport to pick them up tomorrow."

The flight takes about twelve hours, and if we delay our work, it will be a big trouble.

"Okay, I'll accompany them. But I'm old now and can't play anymore." Zhang Yimou showed an expression that all men understand.

"Don't worry, Reid is with them. You just need to show up, brother. These people are having a great time so they don't mind if there are one more person or one less."

At this moment, Gu Wei suddenly felt the value of Reid. The other party really went for it at the critical moment.

"By the way, how is the movie preparation going?"

"Universal is very fast, worthy of being one of the Big Six in Hollywood. It feels like shooting a movie with an investment of 100 million or 200 million US dollars is just a piece of cake."

What Zhang Yimou saw and heard at Universal these days almost overturned his previous understanding of the film industry.

"Haha, does it feel like entering a production room and seeing those assembly lines?" Gu Wei said.

"Don't say it, it's true. It feels even more exaggerated than that. A blockbuster with a budget of more than 100 million US dollars, if it were made in China, it would probably take one or two years just to establish the project and prepare it. That's the difference."

"So, now you know why I want to introduce equipment and arrange for employees to come for training." Gu Wei said directly, and then continued to ask: "Are you adapting over there? Are the crew members obedient? Are there any difficult ones?"

"It's okay. After all, he's a Chinese director. There will definitely be people who are dissatisfied and find fault." Zhang Yimou recalled the arrogance of several white assistant directors and staff members, and a wry smile appeared on his lips.

"Brother, I have to say that you have too good a temper. The weaker you are, the more aggressive they will become."

"I'll give you an idea. If you encounter a difficult person, you must fight to the end. If you get the chance, you must fuck the person over in one go. After doing it a few times, no one will dare to stab you."

When saying this, Gu Wei's face turned fierce, with a sneer on his lips, as if he had become a different person.

"Is it appropriate?" Zhang Yimou was a little weak at heart, especially since he was in a foreign country.

Moreover, Hollywood is not entirely director-centered. Producers and screenwriters all have considerable say.

"It's appropriate. Even if something goes wrong, Universal will not replace you. Besides, I'm still here. Universal gave up 10% of its shares, and I'm also one of the investors, haha."

Speaking of the share of "Jurassic World", it was only decided in recent days.

The competition between Gu Wei and Lionsgate has greatly increased the box office of "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire", and Universal will naturally not miss such popularity.

Sure enough, after Universal Studios announced that Gu Wei was also involved in the investment, the movie "Jurassic World" became even more anticipated by moviegoers and fans.

"By the way, Senior Brother, are you interested in investing? I'll give you two points, which is about three million US dollars."

"Forget it. I'm not rich. Three million US dollars is equivalent to 20 million RMB."

Hearing the numbers mentioned by Gu Wei, Zhang Yimou was already numb. After all, Global's daily turnover had exceeded one million during this period.

"The company will lend it to you first, and you can pay it back when you get paid as a director..."

In the end, Zhang Yimou rejected Gu Wei's proposal. In his words, he could not invest too much money and affect his state of mind for filming the movie.

The two chatted for more than ten minutes and then went their separate ways. Many filmmakers came to today's cocktail party, so they greeted and chatted with each of them.

The cocktail party lasted until the early morning. After it ended, Gu Wei went straight to the villa to rest.

.........

(End of this chapter)