The group was kicked out, and low presence means they are bad?

Chapter 380: A distorted understanding of the market

Beijing, HR District.

Bai Xingjian is in the cafeteria of IP Amusement Park.

Li Jiahui took a piece of orange candy that looked like a cake, tasted it and said, "What kind of candy is this? It's sweet and delicious."

"Well, if I remember correctly, this should be loquat?" Chen Pan said thoughtfully.

She also had a piece of orange candy, which was given to her by the cafeteria aunt when she was getting lunch in the cafeteria at noon today.

"This candy seems to have been around in our country for a long time, but why did the cafeteria think of making this thing for us to eat at noon today?"

Chen Pan asked doubtfully, "Is it considered an extra dessert?"

Lin Feifang laughed loudly upon hearing this, and then said, "Why do I feel that this loquat may be related to "Squid Game"? After all, it looks like a snack that should be eaten while playing games."

"Hahaha, Xiaofang, you have a good imagination." Li Jiahui was a little amused by this.

Lin Feifang curled her lips and said unconvincedly: "How can you say that I have a big imagination? I have a basis for this, right?"

"Basis? What basis?" Li Jiahui's eyes lit up and she immediately became interested.

"Then tell me about it." Chen Pan said the same thing.

Seeing how serious the two of them were, Lin Feifang felt a little embarrassed and spoke in a lower voice:
"Hey, actually it's just my guess. Wasn't the game we played when we were filming 1, 2, 3, Statue? It was just a killing game, so you see, isn't the Squid Game shot by Bai Xingjian half beautiful and half cruel? The sudden appearance of the loquat in the cafeteria now probably symbolizes beauty, but behind this beauty, there will also be a cruel scene."

After hearing this, Li Jiahui and Chen Pan looked at each other, and both of them had strange expressions.

"Xiaofang, you have such a great imagination. It's a bit of a waste of your talent for you to be an extra here." Li Jiahui joked with a smile.

"Hahahaha, I actually think what Xiaofang said makes sense."

Having said that, Chen Pan still couldn't stop laughing.

"I just said it's just my own speculation, don't take it too seriously."

Lin Feifang waved her hands, feeling that her idea was indeed a bit far-fetched.

Time passed quietly during the shooting of various projects.

12 month 15 number.

There was a drizzle in the sky and the capital city was shrouded in dark clouds, as if a storm was about to come.

In the Phoenix Pictures office.

Bai Xingjian, wearing a pair of frameless glasses, sat in front of a computer screen and browsed company documents.

Not long after, there was a knock on the office door.

"dong dong dong~"

"Please come in."

Mei Jie, wearing a gray and black professional suit, walked in.

Perhaps it is because of the training she has gone through during this period of time, Mei Jie, a young girl who graduated from university three years ago, has completely shed the childishness of a college student. With her confident steps and sophisticated and capable dress, she looks like a strong woman.

It can be said that it is no different from the label of strong woman.

Mei Jie handed a document to Bai Xingjian's desk and said, "A large part of the post-production of the TV series 'Kuang Biao' has been completed. Currently, the heads of multiple video platforms have watched our sample clips of 'Kuang Biao', and the overall response is good."

"Not bad? Does that mean some of the platform leaders are not satisfied?"

Bai Xingjian smiled and said nonchalantly: "It's okay. They are not satisfied because they have poor taste. We don't need to satisfy them."

"Which platforms are currently planning to introduce "Kuangchuan"? " Bai Xingjian continued to ask.

“CCTV has made it clear that it wants to introduce ‘Kuang Biao’, and among online platforms, only Penguin has shown interest, but they are all still hesitating.”

Mei Jie said slowly.

Bai Xingjian was a little confused when he heard this. He looked at Mei Jie in confusion and asked, "Are these the only two who are interested in "Storm"? Even Penguin is a little hesitant?"

Logically speaking, shouldn’t these platforms be vying for TV series like “Kuang Kuang”?

Why does it feel like everyone just says it’s good, but no one is planning to buy it?

Bai Xingjian is a little difficult to understand.

Not to mention the sample footage of "Kuang Kuang", Bai Xingjian even patiently watched the original material of "Kuang Kuang".

Overall, he was very satisfied.

Given the limitations of current TV dramas, there are no flaws.

But it is such an excellent TV series, but only CCTV and Penguin took a fancy to it?

I’m afraid the people in charge of other platforms have some misunderstandings about this drama?

But after listening to Mei Jie's explanation, Bai Xingjian felt relieved.

"The main reason is that except for Penguin, other online platforms have their own main dramas this year, so when they have their main dramas, they naturally won't consider our "Knives Out."

Mei Jie explained in detail: "The reason why Penguin is interested is that their main drama this year did not meet expectations, so they plan to use "Crazy" to make up for it. However, they invested a lot in their main drama, so Penguin's current budget is not very sufficient, so they are hesitant."

Hearing this, Bai Xingjian seemed to recall something.

The main self-produced drama shot by Penguin this year is called "The Eternal Night Watchman", which is adapted from the novel of the same name by Yuandian Chinese.

The performance of the novel "The Eternal Night Watchman" on Yuandian Chinese is also second to none.

It can be seen that both Penguin and Yuandian Chinese are full of expectations for the film and television adaptation of "The Eternal Night Watchman".

But when the film and television series of "The Eternal Night Watchman" was released, they were all a little confused.

Overwhelming negative searches and countless negative reviews.

Under such circumstances, the performance of the film and television adaptation of "The Eternal Night Watchman" naturally continued to decline and finally fell short of expectations.

Thinking of this, Bai Xingjian sighed: "It took a lot of effort for the male channel to publish an S+ novel adaptation, but it ended up like this. I can only say that in addition to the poor environment of current film and television dramas, the director and screenwriter of this drama also have to bear the blame."

Because "The Three-Body Problem" has cooperated with Yuandian Chinese, Bai Xingjian also knows some of the situations of "The Eternal Night Watchman".

"It all depends on fate. It all depends on what the person in charge at Penguin will choose."

Bai Xingjian didn't say much about this. After saying this, he asked Mei Jie, "We plan to release 'Kuang Bi' in January. Will it clash with other popular dramas?"

Generally speaking, if resources allow, strength is sufficient, and there is no other choice, the self-produced dramas of major online video platforms are unwilling to collide with the schedule. In most cases, the TV series on your platform is halfway through, and the early publicity resources, popularity value, and good reviews have been obtained, then OK, the TV series on my platform can be launched online.

This will be enough to ensure that the two platforms and the two waves of fans of the two dramas will not fight with each other and grab resources.

Of course, this is usually the case.

In addition to this situation, there are naturally special circumstances.

Some platforms, relying on their own good resources, sometimes specifically pick certain dramas as targets, directly colliding with others' release schedules.

"The Eternal Night Watchman" is just like that, except that he is the one who got hit.

Although "The Eternal Night Watchman" is also an S+ film and television resource, the director and screenwriter had their own ideas and it was unsurprisingly knocked away.

As a result, another hit drama from Youshi made a lot of money.

Whether it is performance or reputation, a win-win situation has been achieved.

As for "The Eternal Night Watchman", although it did not lose much in terms of production costs, it failed to achieve the expected goals, so it is a loss.

Moreover, the public reputation is not very good. From the beginning of the broadcast to the end and to now, there are still constant negative reviews.

"There are currently only two shows scheduled for January, Youshi's Just Like You and Mango TV's Hidden Light. Like us, they plan to release them during the New Year's Day holiday."

Mei Jie expressed her opinion: "Especially YouTV's "Just Like You", because YouTV's previous drama was a huge success, they also fully utilized all the publicity and promotion resources for this drama, as if it is bound to become the opening work of 2026."

"'Just Like You'? What type of drama is this?" Bai Xingjian asked curiously.

"Urban love."

"This type, it seems that it is indeed quite powerful."

Bai Xingjian frowned, but soon his brows relaxed and he said with a smile: "There are always some things that can break all laws with one force, such as our "Storm"."

After saying all this, Bai Xingjian continued, "Since the schedule of the drama is clashing with that of Youshi, there should not be so much publicity for the drama "Kuang Biao" in the early stage of its launch. Just proceed in a safe way to avoid conflict with "Just Like You"."

Mei Jie nodded, and she understood Bai Xingjian's thoughts very well.

As for avoiding the sharp edge, others should be able to understand.

……

Deep city.

The office building where Penguin Pictures is located.

In a bright and splendid lounge, a group of people were talking about something.

"I said that the film and television adaptation of male-oriented novels is unreliable. After all, in the current film and television drama market, women account for the majority."

Ma Mingcheng, the director of Penguin Pictures, sighed and said, "If we replace "The Eternal Night Watchman" with a female-oriented novel, with the same resources, the return we get will definitely be more than double that of "The Eternal Night Watchman"."

"Forget it, forget it. Let's not dwell on it now."

Someone in the field waved his hand to stop Ma Mingcheng from complaining.

This person is a member of the Penguin board of directors, his name is Ji Qirui, and he has the most say among this group of people.

"In fact, that's not true. In the later stages of The Night Watchman, the proportion of male viewers actually exceeded that of female viewers, reaching 65%."

The data operator of the drama "Eternal Night Watchman" said: "If we hadn't deliberately adapted the content of this novel to be more female-oriented, the performance of "Eternal Night Watchman" would not be as miserable as it is now."

As soon as these words were spoken, the director Li Nan and screenwriter Xiang Bingbing of "The Eternal Night Watchman" instantly fell in expression.

But they couldn't refute this view.

Because the most complained point about the drama "Eternal Night Watchman" is that the director team made the drama too female-oriented, with too many love-related plots and even some borderline lala.

These points naturally angered many fans of the original novel and many male audiences.

Many fans of the original novel said:
This drama just likes to make random changes, right? If you like to make random changes, then let those people watch it randomly. Anyway, I won't serve you anymore.

Li Nan, the director of "The Eternal Night Watchman", and Xiang Bingbing, the screenwriter, also deeply realized their mistakes from these remarks.

Li Nan sighed and said, "Perhaps our current understanding of the film and television drama market is indeed somewhat biased. In the past, we looked down on men's spending power, and their spending power in this regard is indeed not as good as that of women.

But now, under the influence of the surrounding environment, men no longer fall in love or get married, and begin to focus on themselves. They begin to pursue what they like, spend more money on themselves, and buy more things.

So should we also consider shifting the focus of the film and television drama market back toward men? "

If the film and television drama market is considered as 100%, women currently account for 80% and men 20%.

The entire film and television drama market is heavily tilted towards women.

This can be seen from the film and television dramas launched on major online platforms, most of which are adapted from female novels.

There is probably only one TV series adapted from a male-oriented novel each year, and maybe two when things are going well.

Therefore, the current film and television drama market is a particularly distorted market.

Many online platforms, directors, and screenwriters are trying to please female audiences, thus ignoring the large number of potential male audiences.

"Isn't it leaning towards men now? But the result is still the same." Xiang Bingbing said coldly.

As the screenwriter of "The Eternal Night Watchman" and a woman, Xiang Bingbing was naturally quite disdainful of Li Nan's remarks.

And in her eyes, "The Eternal Night Watchman" is already very pleasing to male audiences.

But the results are still so bad. Doesn’t this just show that these men have poor purchasing power?
Li Nan snorted coldly and said, "That's because 'The Eternal Night Watchman' hasn't been biased enough. It's biased back to the direction of female-oriented."

"So from what you said, you think "The Eternal Night Watchman" should be completely male-oriented?"

Xiang Bingbing crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. "If that's the case, then many plots of this novel can't be broadcast on TV, right? And I'm afraid the reputation will be even lower, and more people will criticize it."

"How do you know if you don't try?" Li Nan did not give in at all.

"Alright, alright, the matter of 'The Eternal Night Watchman' is already in the past, so stop arguing so fiercely."

Ji Qirui, one of the Penguin board members, started to act as a peacemaker again.

"Li Nan's idea can be kept. Maybe we can try it next time if there is a chance."

Ji Qirui said, "But the focus of our discussion now should not be on this, but on Bai Xingjian's "Storm."

(End of this chapter)