Huayu 05, our science fiction movie universe

Chapter 674 Box Office Explosion, 2020 Spring Festival Film Season

4.4 million yuan—that's the opening day box office figure for the film "Sky Ladder".

While this number isn't particularly outstanding among the various films in the [Galaxy Cinematic Universe] series, it's still enough to break the box office record for the Lunar New Year season.

Moreover, as the Spring Festival holiday approached, the daily box office performance of "Sky Ladder" remained very stable.

For audiences, "Sky Ladder" is an excellent sci-fi blockbuster; the spectacle of the space elevator alone is worth the ticket price.

However, compared to its box office performance, "Sky Ladder" has received rather controversial reviews online.

The film depicts the Chinese "Sky Ladder" team helping local people in Southeast Asia escape poverty and achieve prosperity through construction projects.

On the one hand, some viewers don't quite understand and feel that China's help to other countries is meddling in other people's business.

Some people simply dislike the ideas portrayed in the film "Sky Ladder," believing that China is not qualified to be a leader who controls international discourse.

If anything should be done, it should be done by the Western world; it's what the beacon of human civilization should do. If you do it, you have ulterior motives.

Although not many people hold this view, their fighting power is still very strong. Since the release of "Sky Ladder", they have been sparing no effort to smear the movie online.

On the one hand, many netizens are spontaneously defending "Sky Ladder" because the film is excellent enough that even without ideological considerations, it is still a very well-made commercial sci-fi blockbuster.

On the other hand, Galaxy Pictures' online public opinion monitoring team is not to be underestimated. In this era, how can those noisy individual opponents resist a well-organized and methodical organization?
On almost any mainstream media platform, especially Douyin, whenever someone posts a negative review of "Sky Ladder," a lot of people will pop up in the comments, partly to refute the review, and partly to muddy the waters and prevent the review from having the desired effect.

After all these years, Galaxy Pictures' publicity department has become very experienced in many aspects. Trying to cover up negative reviews like this will only provoke the audience's backlash and disgust.

Therefore, the correct approach is to pretend to be an ordinary passerby and then dilute this information with a massive amount of data.

Of course, this approach is generally only applicable to high-quality works, mainly to prevent criticism. As for those low-quality works, the criticism from the public is not so easy to resist.

The quality of "Sky Ladder" is naturally excellent, so the publicity and public opinion departments of Galaxy Pictures had a relatively easy time.

Moreover, a film like "Sky Ladder," which promotes positive mainstream values, is bound to be favored by relevant departments.

Soon, not only mainstream official media such as the movie channel and CCTV reported on the popularity of "Sky Ladder", but also CCTV launched a special program to highlight similar Sky Ladder projects that China has provided overseas aid to.

For example, in early 2019, COSCO Shipping Ports Limited, a subsidiary of China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited, acquired a 60% stake in the port of Chancay, owned by the Peruvian Volcanoes Minerals Group, and planned to build it into the largest fully automated deep-water port in South America.

The port construction project, with an investment of US$13 billion, will not only provide more than 8000 direct or indirect jobs for Peru, but also help Peru and its neighboring countries sell their agricultural products and mineral resources to Asia in exchange for the industrial products they need.

People like those from Brazil (for beef) and Chile (for cherries) will benefit from this.

It can be said that not only in movies, but also in reality, the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind is by no means just a slogan. The rising China has such a sense of responsibility as a major power.

This undoubtedly boosted the confidence of the local people, which was reflected in the fact that the box office of "Sky Ladder" rose day by day. As the Spring Festival holiday approached, the originally declining box office even rebounded slightly once or twice.

However, with the Spring Festival film season approaching, other films are also heavily promoting themselves, and have even begun to block "Sky Ladder," which still has box office potential.

Among them are Xu Zheng's self-written, self-directed and self-acted comedy film "Lost in Russia", as well as "Leap" and "The Rescue" adapted from true events, Jackie Chan's "Vanguard", and the animated film "Boonie Bears: Wild Land". Almost every film has accumulated a group of loyal fans who "want to see" it.

Fortunately, at this point, "Sky Ladder" was already close to 50 billion yuan at the box office. By the time the Spring Festival season arrives and the film is taken off the screens, it should be more than enough to break 50 billion yuan at the box office.

Even as the Spring Festival holiday approached, the entire Xinghe Group remained exceptionally busy. The company was not only busy with year-end performance reviews, summaries, and reports, but also with project planning and arrangements for the coming year.

Moreover, with the end of the year approaching, each branch office needs to take care of year-end bonuses, employee benefits, and annual party activities.

However, Wang Hao, the group's big boss, had already announced that the group would not hold a centralized annual meeting this year. The money saved would be distributed to employees in the form of New Year's goods such as rice, flour, oil, nuts, and preserved meats.

The frontline employees were almost all satisfied with this, since the annual meeting only included a lucky draw, a meal, and some entertainment.

But sometimes they still have to rehearse and perform for this show, so it's really not as easy as this.

What they didn't know was that while the employees of Xinghe Group and most people were looking forward to the Spring Festival of 2020, Wang Hao was paying attention to the news almost every day.

He also specifically set his location on Douyin to Wuhan, and as the Spring Festival approached, he would check it several times a day to keep track of the local situation.

Time passed slowly, and the Spring Festival drew ever closer.

Many departments of Xinghe Group have already started their holidays. However, in order to deal with unexpected situations, the company has also issued instructions to employees to try not to go home during the Spring Festival and to stay near the company if possible.

Fortunately, the company had already built several employee housing complexes in TZ District, allocating housing to many employees with sufficient years of service and families. Those employees who originally planned to return to their hometowns also brought their families to Beijing to celebrate the Spring Festival after receiving the company's notice.

However, even as the Spring Festival drew closer, Wang Hao didn't see any particularly noteworthy information online, and the Douyin account, which is located in Jiangcheng, remained calm.

Just a few days before Lunar New Year's Eve at the end of January, everything was still calm and peaceful. Wang Hao even thought that this world might be a parallel world and some things would not happen. As he was scrolling through Douyin, he suddenly came across a video posted by the people of Jiangcheng.

Then the next day, news also appeared in Jiangcheng.

However, unlike Wang Hao's previous life, not only was the time delayed, but the official news this time also reported that what appeared in Jiangcheng was only a relatively severe flu.

Yes, it's just a bad flu.

Although it is still very serious, the intensity does not seem to be as high. It is just that the transmissibility is a little stronger. Even in the cold winter, it has begun to spread rapidly.

Soon, information about this major flu outbreak appeared in the news several times, and major media outlets also paid attention to it. As a result, the city was much quieter than usual during the lively Spring Festival. People were reluctant to go out, and even when they did, they were well-prepared, walked quickly, and went straight to their destinations without much delay.

At the same time, different venues have also begun to make targeted arrangements.

For example, Galaxy Park, owned by Galaxy Group, has now reduced the number of visitors by half each day and requires reservations a week in advance.

Several of their Galaxy Shopping Plazas have also launched online shopping services. Users can place orders online and then either drive to the store for pickup via a special express lane or have a Galaxy Shopping Plaza delivery person deliver the goods to their door.

Meanwhile, seeing no signs of improvement in the special situation, Xinghe Pictures also issued an announcement a week before the Spring Festival, stating that due to force majeure, their animated film "Ne Zha 2: The Demon Child Conquers the Dragon King" would be withdrawn from release.

As for the specific release date of the movie, that still needs to be considered, and the company will notify you separately at that time.

This sudden news caused quite a stir in the film and television industry.

Of course, the uproar didn't escalate to an exaggerated degree.

After all, "Ne Zha 2" is just an animated film. If it were a movie directed by Wang Hao and suddenly withdrawn from release at this time, it would definitely be an earthquake in the industry and a huge blow to the entire Spring Festival film season.

Putting aside everything else, China Film Group and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television at the top will not agree to it, and the leaders will even have the impression that Wang Hao is irresponsible.

However, this is not the case for "Ne Zha 2," since there is another animated film, "Boonie Bears," released in the same period.

Even after Galaxy Pictures released this news, other film companies in the same release window waved their approval.

They were already worried that the Spring Festival film season would be disrupted by Star River Pictures' big commercial films, but the biggest threat, "Sky Ladder," was moved up to New Year's Day.

Now that "Ne Zha 2" has also been suddenly withdrawn from its release schedule, the freed-up screening slots are enough for them to share the profits.

As for whether the current social situation will affect the upcoming movies and the Spring Festival film season?

Those film and television companies are still relatively optimistic.

The only group with reservations about Xinghe Pictures' decision was the cinema chains.

However, Xinghe Group's Xinghe Cinema Line is already one of the largest cinema chains in China. Considering that the "Xinghe Cinematic Universe" IP will have many more major projects in the future, the other cinema chains do not dare to express too much dissatisfaction, at most they can only complain a few words behind the scenes.

Thus, "Ne Zha 2" withdrew from the 2020 Spring Festival film season, and four films, including "Lost in Russia," "Leap," "The Rescue," and "Boonie Bears: The Wild Life," began fierce competition during this period.

Among these, Xu Zheng's comedy films are the most favored by the capital market and the industry.

What? You're asking where Jackie Chan's "Vanguard" went?
Seeing that "Ne Zha 2" had been pulled from its release date, Jackie Chan, who felt uneasy and lacked confidence in his own work, quickly contacted Galaxy Group.

Ultimately, he partnered with Douyin, Toutiao, and Xinghe Pictures to premiere the Spring Festival film "Vanguard" for free on the first day of the Lunar New Year, setting a precedent for online film premieres.

However, controversy ensued, as the free online streaming of "Vanguard" certainly violated some industry norms.

However, given Jackie Chan's status and position, and considering the examples of his previous films, "Vanguard" did not hold a high position in the minds of theaters.

So the theaters only offered a slight resistance before quickly falling silent.

In contrast, cinemas and investors are more optimistic about "Lost in Russia" during this Spring Festival season. Crisis also represents opportunity. With the competition pressure greatly reduced, "Lost in Russia" might just become a dark horse.

However, things changed on the first day of the Lunar New Year when "Lost in Russia" was released.

As many viewers have seen the film, there has been a growing number of criticisms of it online.

This is partly due to the pressures of the real world affecting the audience, which made them feel a bit down and led to slightly harsher reviews.

However, the fact that it wasn't very funny as a comedy film, and that it tried too hard to convey moral values, are indeed its flaws.

Admit it, Xu Zheng as a creator is outdated.

[It's unbelievable that Xu Zheng's directing ability seems to be declining, with each film getting worse than the last. I wonder what kind of misunderstanding he has about his mother, wife, and middle-aged men.]

I hate this movie, it even makes me nauseous. It forces in platitudes, forcibly exposes the so-called dark side, and then forces a sentimental reconciliation at the end. No one is truly unreconciled; it's just that Xu Zheng himself isn't!

I don't know what to say after watching it. It was just average. A formulaic, unoriginal story. It tried to be funny but didn't want to be mindless comedy, so it spun in the themes of midlife crisis and the generation gap with the mother, but it didn't quite hit the mark. It felt like it was trying to grasp everything but ending up with nothing quite right. Overall, quite mediocre.

Similar comments are becoming increasingly common online. Even though the distribution team of "Lost in Russia" tried various methods, they still couldn't prevent the film's Douban rating from dropping from 7.1 to 6.3 shortly after its release.

However, the good news for the "Lost in Russia" team and Xu Zheng is that although the audience reviews of "Lost in Russia" are only so-so, they are at least better than other films released in the same period.

Take "Boonie Bears: Wild Land" for example; its target audience is limited.

Although "Leap," directed by Peter Chan and starring Gong Li and Huang Bo, received slightly better reviews than "Lost in Russia," its patriotic theme combined with sports was not particularly appealing during the Spring Festival season, resulting in significantly lower box office returns.

There's also "The Rescue," which has a director and lead actors who aren't exactly big names. Showing a tragic disaster movie during the Lunar New Year is just adding insult to injury, isn't it?
So even with its poor word-of-mouth, in the first few days of this Spring Festival film season, "Lost in Russia" still far outperformed the other films at the box office.

What was unexpected was that the situation suddenly changed just a few days after the start of the Spring Festival film season.

(End of this chapter)