Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 580: Polarization and the Lunar New Year Film Festival Opens

"Waiting for the Wind" accounts for 36% of the screenings, and "Ex-Files" accounts for 42% of the screenings.

The first-day box office of the two films was almost the same, but to be honest, "Waiting for the Wind" was definitely slightly better.

It seems that Huayi’s publicity and promotion this time was very good. With the support of the Ahri series, it is already able to slightly surpass Jiahe.

Of course, Teng Huatao’s contribution should not be underestimated.

"Love Is Not Blind" is a movie that broke the circle and was hotly discussed by the whole nation, and he, as the director, is also remembered by many audiences.

This Double Eleven he brought a new work, which is a love movie of the same type as "Love Is Not Blind", and Huayi even shamelessly announced the sequel to "Love Is Not Blind".

This also attracted many audiences to go to the cinema.

After seeing this result, the Wang brothers of Huayi finally felt relieved.

Although he has confidence in Teng Huatao, he is still a little worried about Jiahe. After all, Jiahe’s past record is too brilliant.

Now that the results are out, they were finally not disappointed and even felt a little proud.

After all these years, I finally defeated Liu Zhou once.

Although this is only the first day of the movie's release and the final result has not yet been settled, Wang Zhongjun is now more confident.

Of course, although he is confident, he is not arrogant. Since he has such a good start, he must continue to promote it.

Jiahe did not have much reaction to this result.

There was such a big fuss before the movie was released, partly because it was promoted by Huayi, and partly because last year's "Love Is Not Blind" did really well.

Of course, Golden Harvest also wants to replicate the miracle of "Love Is Not Blind".

Now that the first day box office figures have come out, Golden Harvest has suddenly realized that the situation of "Love Is Not Blind" last year was something that could only be encountered once in a while.

After all, "Ex-Files" is just a low-budget romance movie.

Maybe this result is normal now.

Compared with Huayi's blockbuster-scale publicity and promotion campaign, Golden Harvest was much more normal, carrying out routine publicity and promotion step by step.

Everything that needs to be done has been done before the release, and the subsequent box office performance will still depend on the quality of the film.

Besides, although the Double Eleven period has been quite popular in the past two years, the market size is indeed average.

The two films together occupied nearly 80 percent of the screening time, but only earned 32 million in box office revenue in a single day.

This result is considered failing even among the current blockbusters produced by Golden Harvest.

So instead of focusing on "Ex-Files", it would be better to focus on the two blockbusters "The Flowers of War" and "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" which will be released during the Lunar New Year holiday.

As we enter November, these two movies are about to launch large-scale promotions.

On the 12th, "Ex-Files" earned 18 million at the box office, while "Waiting for the Wind" earned 20 million, directly overtaking the previous film.

November 11th happened to be a Saturday, so the movie’s first week box office revenue was calculated based on the box office revenue of these two days.

"Ex-Files" grossed 34 million in its first week, and "Waiting for the Wind" grossed 36 million in its first week.

This made Wang Zhongjun unable to stop smiling.

His obsession with Liu Zhou is so deep that it seems that since Liu Zhou's debut, Huayi, which was originally going smoothly, has been in constant turmoil.

Until now, I have been overwhelmed by others' pressure, and they are no longer on the same level as me.

What made him even more speechless was that Liu Zhou did not use any crooked means, only upright methods.

So Wang Zhongjun wanted to beat him just once, but he failed every time.

Having finally seen the opportunity this time, Wang Zhongjun certainly would not let it go.

"'Waiting for the Wind' dominated the Singles' Day schedule in November, grossing 11 million in two days!"

"The box office of Waiting for the Wind surpassed that of Ex-Files in its first week, becoming the box office champion of the week."

"The acting skills of the two new actors in Waiting for the Wind were praised. This may be the most healing love movie in recent years!"

"In fact, whether it's life or love, no one needs to rush to make any decision. When standing on the cliff of life, it's better not to move or rush forward. Maybe all you need to do is just be quiet and wait for the wind to come."

“‘Waiting for the Wind’ is comparable to ‘Lost in Thailand’. Experts predict that it will boost Nepal’s overall tourism industry by 30%!”

"Continuing the box office miracle of 'Love Is Not Blind', the box office of 'Waiting for the Wind' is expected to break 300 million!"

"Comparable to the classic scene of the Titanic hugging and flying at the bow, the last scene of Waiting for the Wind, where the male and female protagonists stand on the top of the mountain waiting for the wind, will definitely become the most classic scene in Chinese love movies."

All major media and online forums have given "Waiting for the Wind" a lot of positive reviews and praise.

This is of course the work of Huayi, but many media outlets are relatively objective.

"The domestic film market is experiencing a craze for low-budget romance movies. The first-day box office of Waiting for the Wind and The Ex-Files both exceeded 10 million, and they earned 36 million and 34 million respectively in two days!"

"On Singles' Day, November 11, 11, the domestic film market also welcomed two not-so-perfect love movies.

In "Ex-Files", the hero and heroine finally greet each other as ex-husband and ex-wife. In "Waiting for the Wind", the audience watched for nearly a hundred minutes, but the hero and heroine did not end up together.

Both movies are really suitable for Singles’ Day.”

"After watching "Ex-Files", I realized that secret love is the most painful thing in the world."

"'Ex-Files', a movie that makes you laugh like a fool and cry like an idiot."

“Although “Ex-Files” is a romantic comedy, it is different from other comedies in the general sense. It is not a comedy that makes you laugh without leaving any traces. Instead, it can really leave a deep impression on you and even bring out some unforgettable things in your heart.”

……

With the large-scale release of the two films, they quickly became a hot topic under the promotion of Golden Harvest and Huayi.

Under the control of the two companies, the online reviews are almost all positive, and the negative reviews are drowned out.

But relatively speaking, "Waiting for the Wind" has a bigger momentum.

The two films were released at the same time. The box office of "Waiting for the Wind" surpassed "Ex-Files" by two million in its first week, which made Huayi win in the competition with Golden Harvest.

This made Wang Zhongjun feel somewhat proud, and also made Teng Huatao feel relieved.

The most nervous person was actually Teng Huatao.

He is not a newcomer now, but has the support of the film "Love Is Not Blind". If he competes with a newcomer, it is only natural for him to win, but it would be a great shame if he loses.

But the problem is that this is not an ordinary newcomer, but a newcomer launched by Golden Harvest, and even he dare not say that he will win for sure.

So he didn't have high expectations for this duel, as long as he didn't lose face. Now it seems that although the reputation of "Ex-Files" released by Golden Harvest is good, it should not be as good as "Waiting for the Wind" which he carefully crafted.

This shouldn't be embarrassing.

However, the market performance of "Waiting for the Wind" did not make the Wang brothers and Teng Huatao happy for long.

Just when Huayi was preparing to continue to intensify its publicity campaign, the box office of "Waiting for the Wind" on the third day did not increase but decreased, closing at 16 million.

It was four million less than the previous day, which was the same as the first day's box office.

What worries them even more is the reversal of word-of-mouth about "Waiting for the Wind" online, with more and more negative reviews.

What a messy plot, no logic, the heroine is pretentious and artificial
Can't hold it down.

What makes them even more upset is that the reputation of "Ex-Files" remains strong and it has received positive reviews, and it still grossed 18 million at the box office on Monday.

This instantly shattered Wang Zhongjun's idea that the box office decline of "Waiting for the Wind" was due to the working day.

He quickly instructed the publicity and promotion department to intensify efforts to control reviews, and at the same time urgently contacted the theaters in an attempt to stabilize the screening schedule.

Teng Huatao, who had originally breathed a sigh of relief, immediately became worried again.

It’s only been three days since the movie was released, and the box office has started to decline, and the word of mouth is getting worse and worse.

Following this trend, "Ex-Files" should surpass "Waiting for the Wind" tomorrow.

However, the subsequent situation was worse than he had imagined.

On Tuesday, the fourth day of the movie's release, box office revenue plummeted to eight million, a direct cut in half.

Perhaps the only good news for Huayi is that the box office of Golden Harvest’s “Ex-Files” also dropped a lot.

However, the decline was controlled within 50%, and it still earned 11 million box office.

At this time, the top executives of the two companies also understood that the dividends from the Double Eleven period had been exhausted, and the box office had returned to normal as it was on weekdays.

But "Ex-Files" is normal, but "Waiting for the Wind" is not so normal. While the box office of the movie plummeted, its reputation also began to collapse.

Even if Huayi starts to control reviews, once the word of mouth about the movie spreads, negative reviews cannot be controlled just by wanting to. This is not ten years ago.

After four days of release, "Ex-Files" successfully surpassed "Waiting for the Wind" with a box office of 63 million yuan.

The box office seems to be almost the same, but the reputation of the two films is polarized.

Although "Ex-Files" also received some negative reviews, overall it received mostly positive reviews, with a Douban score as high as 6.9, and this was even without Golden Harvest controlling the reviews.

However, the Douban score of "Waiting for the Wind" is only 4.3, and a large number of netizens have complained about it online.

As high the praise Teng Huatao received for "Love Is Not Blind" before, so is the harsh criticism he received after the release of "Waiting for the Wind".

Many viewers obviously had high expectations for him and his new movie, otherwise the box office revenue would have been higher than that of "Ex-Files" with a lower screening schedule in the first two days of its release.

Now that an obviously terrible movie has been released, people are complaining even more about "Waiting for the Wind".

As word of mouth spread and major theater chains adjusted their film schedules, the two films moved in completely two directions.

On Wednesday, the screening of "Ex-Files" increased by five points to 47%, earning 12 million yuan at the box office and a total box office of 75 million yuan.

Although the screening schedule of "Waiting for the Wind" remained unchanged under Huayi's public relations, the box office fell again, earning only 4 million on that day and a total box office of 64 million.

The situation is already very clear. In the competition between "Waiting for the Wind" and "Ex-Files", "Waiting for the Wind" completely lost.

Wang Zhongjun and Teng Huatao also became the biggest losers.

For the former, it was not just a simple loss to Liu Zhou again, but also a loss for the movie "Waiting for the Wind".

According to the current trend, the final box office of the movie "Waiting for the Wind" will not exceed 80 million.

Not to mention that the production cost of the film is as high as 50 million, the investment in publicity and promotion is also as high as 20 million, and this is when some of Ali's resources are not spent.

It seems that there is no need to think about the overseas copyright of the film now, and the income from other copyrights is definitely not much. Huayi will lose at least 40 to 50 million yuan on this film.

I thought that even if the box office of "Waiting for the Wind" was not as good as the more than 400 million of "Love Is Not Blind", Huayi would not have high requirements and would be satisfied with a box office of 200 million.

In this way, the cost can be recovered from the box office and even a small profit can be made, so the other income is pure profit.

Of course, the most important thing is the stimulation that the movie has on Huayi’s stock price, and this is what Wang Zhongjun values.

Everything is in vain now, let alone stimulating the stock price. It would be God's blessing if the stock price does not fall.

It was also my fault that I was too greedy at the time. I thought Teng Huatao could achieve greater success, so Huayi took all the investment in "Waiting for the Wind" and didn't leave any profit for other companies.

We also invested 50 million to allow him to shoot in Nepal, and now all the losses will be borne by Huayi.

As for Teng Huatao, his failure this time basically temporarily put an end to his path to becoming a great director.

The halo he gained from "Love Is Not Blind" was completely shattered. If he wants to make a movie in the future, he will no longer be supported by major film and television companies as before. He will have to go to film and television companies to solicit investment.

He couldn't help but feel a little regretful now. He should have been less arrogant and signed with Golden Harvest as an ordinary director.

In this case, Golden Harvest would not arrange any movie to compete with him during the Double Eleven period this year, and even the publicity and promotion resources of "Ex-Files" would be his.

As a result, in the whole month of November, there is only one highly anticipated movie, "Waiting for the Wind". The word of mouth may not be very good, but there is still a great possibility that the box office will exceed 1.5 million, and there is even hope for million.

Now that everything is gone, it will be difficult for him to make movies again, and his identity as a TV drama director will be magnified again.

He can only hope for a miracle and that the box office of subsequent movies will rise against the trend.

However, the miracle did not happen. By November 1.6th, two weeks after the movie was released, the total box office of "Ex-Files" had reached million yuan, and it should not be a problem to eventually break million yuan.

The box office of "Waiting for the Wind" is less than half of "Ex-Files", currently only 76 million.

Although it has only been released for two weeks, its box office potential has almost been exhausted. Now the daily box office is only 300,000 or 400,000, and the movie should be taken off the screen soon.

Although Tian Yusheng did not cause as much of a sensation in the circle as Teng Huatao did at this time last year, he is also highly sought after.

Of course, this also made Golden Harvest even more famous for its accurate vision in judging people, and further stimulated other directors, screenwriters, and actors to actively seek cooperation.

Especially for new directors, Golden Harvest’s appeal has greatly increased.

If Ning Hao, Xu Zheng and Teng Huatao had some foundation before, then Tian Yusheng really didn't have much fame.

Although he is a screenwriter, he is not very well-known and is almost like a complete newcomer.

However, Golden Harvest no longer has much energy to take care of the influence caused by "Ex-Files".

The 2011 Lunar New Year movie season is about to begin.

(End of this chapter)