Huayu 05, our science fiction movie universe

Chapter 654 Train to Busan 2

"Boss, this is the information from the market information department."

Early in the morning, when Wang Hao arrived at his office on the top floor of the Xinghe Building and sat down, a fresh summary document was soon placed in front of him.

China's total box office revenue in the first quarter was 196.05 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1%; the number of moviegoers was 4.97 million, a year-on-year decrease of 12%.

This first piece of news made Wang Hao frown. The market reaction was already evident from the briefing held not long ago.

According to the data, this is the first time since 2011 that China has seen a year-on-year decline in quarterly box office revenue, especially considering the release of "The Martian" during the Spring Festival and "Avengers: Endgame" in April, which shows how dire the market situation is.

The main reason for the decline in box office revenue in the first quarter was the collective increase in ticket prices after the end of the ticket subsidy program. According to data from Taopiaopiao.com, the average ticket price in various regions increased by nearly 1.5 yuan year-on-year.

Looking at different cities, box office declines in second-, third-, and fourth-tier cities exceeded the national average, indicating weak growth in the film market.

"When the wind rises from the tip of a blade of grass, the chill always appears at the extremities."

Wang Hao had this idea in mind, and then he instructed his assistant to compile statistics on the company's own cinema branches.

In this situation, taking precautions and preemptively eliminating a number of outdated cinemas located in third- and fourth-tier cities is a suitable approach.

The number of TV dramas registered for production nationwide in the first quarter decreased by 27% compared to the same period last year, and the filming start rate at Hengdian World Studios decreased by 45% year-on-year.

Well, here's another piece of bad news.

Wang Hao shook his head, lamenting that the film and television industry's downturn had come too suddenly, with the higher authorities' briefings coming too late.

Fortunately, the third piece of news wasn't so bad.

The first quarter saw a phenomenal explosion of variety shows across the country. Compared to the lukewarm reception of movies and TV dramas, the "short, quick, and easy" variety shows attracted more investment and actors.

The domestic variety show advertising market expanded to 220 billion yuan in the first quarter, a 16.12% increase compared to the same period last year.

The data is okay, but it's just a death throes.

Wang Hao continued to shake his head vigorously.

Indeed, domestic variety shows have received capital investment during this downturn, but the final results are still not optimistic.

The data also analyzed that in 2019, domestic variety shows were still largely "copy and paste" from one platform to another.

Following rap and street dance in the previous year, acting-themed variety shows became popular last year, and this year they have begun to occupy a significant portion of the variety show market on video platforms.

Among the acting-related variety shows currently registered, iQiyi plans to launch "The Character of an Actor," while Tencent and Youku have "Actors, Please Take Your Seats" and "Acting School," respectively. Even Starry Sky Video Network currently has a show called "This Is an Actor" in preparation.

With so many similar programs launching at the same time, variety shows are finding it difficult to even find mentors. Anyone they can get their hands on or anyone they can invite will be invited.

People like Zhang Ziyi, Song Dandan, Xu Zheng, Yu Zheng, Lu Chuan, Chen Kaige, Guo Jingming, Li Shaohong, Derek Yee...

The range of mentors is incredibly diverse, and some of them have even sparked controversy.

Even their Starry Sky Video program "This Is an Actor" considered inviting Wang Hao to be a mentor, but Wang Hao declined on the grounds that he was too busy with work.

However, Zhang Yang, a director under their group, was also drafted.

This shows that video platforms' self-produced variety shows will soon follow the same path as satellite TV variety shows.

In the future, variety shows from South Korea, Japan, Europe, and North America will appear in China after being repackaged.

Following this series of reports is a summary.

[Currently, the total investment in the entertainment and media industry in the first quarter of 2019 decreased by 78.7% year-on-year, and nearly 2000 film and television companies were deregistered.]

The industry as a whole has begun to show signs of "structural differentiation." Top-tier content creators can still achieve both commercial success and positive reputation, but the survival space for small and medium-budget projects is still being squeezed.

It's really tough!
Wang Hao put down the summary information he had just finished reading, sighing at how difficult this year had been for the industry, and then picked up another report, [Xinghe Paradise]'s first quarter report, to read.

Compared to the difficulties faced by the film and television industry, cultural tourism projects like [Galaxy Paradise] have actually seen a surge in revenue.

Especially at the end of the first quarter, with the arrival of spring and the gradual rise in temperature, the number of visitors to [Star River Paradise] often remains above 80% of its maximum capacity, and tickets are even harder to come by during holidays.

Even though Galaxy Park's ticket prices, as well as its merchandise, food, and toys, are more affordable, its first-quarter revenue was 12% higher than that of Shanghai Disneyland, a similar park.

Moreover, the immense popularity of [Star River Paradise] has not only benefited the park itself, but has also boosted various revenue streams in the cultural and tourism sector in the surrounding area and even the entire TZ district.

Hotels, restaurants, entertainment, shopping, transportation...

Almost every business has benefited from the explosive popularity of [Galaxy Amusement Park].

For example, the average revenue per store of Xinghe Shopping Plaza exceeded 47 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2019, and the total revenue of the four stores reached 19 billion yuan in the first quarter.

Currently, Galaxy Group's Asset Management Business Group is considering opening another new Galaxy Shopping Plaza, and the new store is in the site selection stage.

Besides [Galaxy Paradise], the group's other business, [Douyin], has also achieved remarkable results, basically holding the number one market share among similar apps both domestically and internationally.

Good, everything is basically stable.

After reviewing the summary of each company's performance in the first quarter, Wang Hao had a general understanding of the group's current operating situation.

At least as the film and television industry gradually enters a downturn, Xinghe Group remains as usual and has not been greatly affected.

This allows him to focus more of his energy on new film projects with greater peace of mind.

Wang Hao's new movie is called "Game Era," which is actually an adaptation of the novel of the same name by the well-known writer Fang Baiyu.

However, the novel had already been bought by Wang Hao a long time ago, and Fang Baiyu was also invited to join the creative planning department of [Galaxy Cinema Universe]. His novel series "Game Era" was also integrated into [Galaxy Cinema Universe], just like "Ghost Blows Out the Light".

Unlike Wang Hao's previous films, in this movie he will try a new genre and style - period action.

As the lead director of the Galaxy Cinematic Universe, his previous films have consistently traversed genres such as urban life, science fiction, action, suspense, and military. Historical action films are indeed a completely new area for him. However, despite the different themes, the film production process remains largely the same within the industrialized system.

Wang Hao doesn't understand history, ancient clothing, or languages, but he can find experts who do.

Moreover, the domestic film and television industry has significantly more experience in the field of period action films than in other film and television genres.

So even though it was a new field and a new attempt, he wasn't in a hurry and continued to proceed step by step.

Anyway, the new movie won't be released until next year, which is the summer of 2020.

Of course, this is under the premise of no unexpected factors.

Just as Wang Hao was sorting out the group's situation and focusing most of his energy on the preparation of the new film, Galaxy Cinematic Universe's second film of 2019, "Train to Busan 2," was released after Labor Day, right after "Avengers: Endgame."

As a sequel to the zombie film "Train to Busan," "Train to Busan 2" is still led by Xinghe Group and is a co-production between China and South Korea. Like the first film, due to the cultural openness strategy and the arrival of the film and television industry downturn, even though the film's content involves sensitive topics such as zombies, it was still able to be released in China.

As for the story content, Train to Busan 2 continues the style of its predecessor.

In fact, in Wang Hao's previous life, South Korea did indeed produce a movie called "Train to Busan 2", which was called "Train to Busan: Peninsula".

However, apart from sharing the same background, that movie had absolutely no connection to its predecessor.

However, "Train to Busan 2: The Rescue," a co-production between Galaxy Group and CJ Entertainment, is different.

The film mainly tells the story of Busan being under military control several months after the events of "Train to Busan 1," but the virus continues to spread between cities such as Seoul and Incheon.

Fortunately, although the mutant zombie virus developed by the ETO organization increased the speed and aggression of the infected, it still had the weakness of being "afraid of light and sound". This allowed the South Korean military to establish a rift zone after the initial panic.

Meanwhile, when the news reached the international community, the coalition government and several countries surrounding South Korea immediately paid close attention to the incident and simultaneously deployed troops to form a "peninsula exclusion zone".

With the help of neighboring countries, South Korea has successfully stabilized the domestic situation, but problems still need to be solved. In cities such as Seoul and Incheon, which are under lockdown, a large number of survivors are still waiting for rescue.

To eliminate this threat, the South Korean government, together with neighboring countries (China, Japan, and North Korea), launched "Operation Dawn" in an attempt to retake the occupied territories and rescue survivors.

Because of this, China specially dispatched nanobiologist Zhao Hailun, witch Zhao Xiumei, and former South Korean agent Cha Tae-seok to South Korea to provide support.

After arriving in South Korea, Zhao Hailun quickly figured out the origin of the virus by using advanced nanobiology technology through zombie samples. It was a special ancient virus that must have reappeared due to global warming and the melting of Arctic glaciers, and was then discovered and used by the ETO organization.

Utilizing the characteristics of this virus, as well as similar modern viruses and nanotechnology, Zhao Hailun quickly developed a preliminary viral inhibitor.

But to completely solve this problem, she still needs to obtain the original source of the virus, which is the very source of its initial infection.

Only by comparing the two can we be more confident in completely solving the zombie virus problem.

This means that someone needs to risk entering the lockdown zone to find the original target of the virus in the sea of ​​zombies.

So one of the male leads from the previous movie, police officer Lee Jang-ho (Ma Dong-seok), stepped forward.

In the first part, he successfully escaped to Busan with his pregnant wife and little girl. Later, thanks to his identity as a police officer, as well as his special experience and skills, he quickly obtained a certain position on the edge of the lockdown area.

Therefore, Li Changhao stated that he happened to be on-site when the virus crisis broke out and could take them to the source of the crisis.

Thus, Zhao Hailun, Zhao Xiumei, Li Changhao, Cha Tae-seok, a South Korean tactical squad, and the "Wolf Fang" tactical squad supported by China formed a "suicide squad" to penetrate deep into the blockade zone.

What followed was a tense and exciting adventure in the restricted area. The team arrived near the mission location aboard several armed helicopters, and Zhao Hailun and her team began searching for the target.

What they didn't know was that renowned biologist Dr. Chen Ang had also taken notice of the incident and had similarly arranged for his subordinates to travel to South Korea to collect information on the virus at the scene.

After all, this zombie virus was somewhat related to his research in the ETO organization, and such a large-scale virus transmission and infection experiment was indeed rare.

Thus, the two forces appeared in the same city infected by the zombie virus, along with the city's survivors and some mutated zombies.

The situation is complex and critical, which makes the plot tense and exciting.

In this part of the story, compared to the previous film, director Yeon Sang-ho clearly let loose.

More investment allowed him to move beyond simply exploring human nature and incorporate elements such as gunfights, zombie chases, melee combat, car chases, and explosions into his films.

At the same time, compared to the previous film, which was limited to trains and stations, the scenes in "Train to Busan 2" are undoubtedly more diverse.

Subway stations, abandoned hospitals, streets, shopping malls, ports—the more complex scenes and chaotic streets undoubtedly create a far more terrifying and tragic apocalyptic landscape than the first film, giving viewers a stronger sense of awe.

It's clear that the overall production quality of "Train to Busan 2" is a significant improvement over its predecessor, and it's also more commercially oriented in style.

This is certainly not because Xinghe Group, which invested in the previous film, was stingy. It's just that after gaining experience from his previous works, director Yeon Sang-ho's abilities have improved, which is why the investors dared to let him work on larger commercial film projects.

After all, making a blockbuster film is sometimes much more difficult than making a low-budget movie; the management skills required are on a completely different level.

For the audience, Train to Busan 2 is actually quite good.

While Train to Busan 2 may not be as refined in terms of story and emotional depth as its predecessor, the thrill of its grand scenes sent their adrenaline soaring.

While Zhao Hailun and her team were fighting against Dr. Chen Ang's subordinates, they also had to guard against the mutated zombies.

At the same time, the kindness and malice shown by the survivors put them in a dilemma.

Fortunately, everything will eventually have a happy ending.

After overcoming numerous dangers, Zhao Hailun and the others finally captured the zombie mother. However, their actions triggered a zombie horde, trapping them in a building.

In the moment of crisis, Zhao Hailun directly used the device she carried to analyze the virus, compared it with previous experimental data, and adjusted the antidote based on this data.

So when everyone retreated to the rooftop of the building, about to be overwhelmed by the horde of zombies, countless helicopters and planes carrying the prepared antidote finally arrived over their city and began spraying it over a large area.

(End of this chapter)