I really don't want to be the top streamer anymore

Chapter 265: Encounter in Zhu Yu's Office, Shang Lucha's Suspicion

The promotion of "Sweet Honey" indeed started half a month before its release.

For Xu Kong, he was not very busy during this period.

But when the movie was released, as a director and also one of the investors, there were a lot of miscellaneous things to deal with.

And it’s not like during previous filming or post-production of a movie, when most of the energy was focused on one thing.

They are all trivial things and don’t seem to be a big deal, but they are more likely to consume people’s energy and patience.

He has delegated most of the responsibilities to Zhu Yu and Guo Zihao.

But there are some things that you really need to make your own decisions about, especially when it comes to overseas markets. Strictly speaking, most domestic companies have little experience, and Fengge is no exception.

On the contrary, it was Fengxiang Films in Hong Kong. Because Hong Kong films had a very good audience and market in some nearby countries before, the chairman Cao Bentao gave Xu Kong a lot of suggestions and directly used Fengxiang's resources to help solve many problems.

……

"The effect of this promotion is very good."

At this time, in the management office of the Fengge Film and Television Department Building, Yan Rui couldn't help but speak.

"Director Xu's film is indeed quite special."

The people from the Propaganda Department below echoed.

Is Fengge’s publicity and promotion ability weak?
It is definitely not weak. As one of the largest film and television companies in the country, it is absolutely at the top level in the industry in terms of resources and experience.

The number of movies and TV series that we help with every year is probably one of the largest among the companies in the industry.

But precisely because of this, as someone who has been involved in a lot of new movie promotion work, he knows that the promotion and marketing effect of "Sweet Honey" is so good and the attention is so high that it can be on the Weibo hot search once or twice almost every day.

Most of the reasons are due to Xu Kong’s special nature.

Although Xu Kong is not considered a big director with a high status in the circle.

This is even the other party's first theatrical movie.

But because of Xu Kong's own popularity, as well as the popularity and quality of the three dramas he has filmed since becoming a director, they hardly have to spend too much effort on publicity and promotion.

Quite a number of netizens even paid attention to Xu Kong's new movie completely spontaneously.

Such treatment is not something that any director or even more well-known movie stars can achieve.

……

"We have already negotiated with most of the theaters, and the screening quotas they have given are around 20 to 30 percent."

After talking about the progress of publicity and promotion, Yan Rui began to care about specific matters such as the screening schedule.

"After all, it's April, so the cinema chains are quite willing to negotiate the number of films scheduled."

Yan Rui was aware of this slightly awkward period in April.

The Spring Festival period has just passed, and there is still some time before the summer vacation period.

Generally speaking, only low-budget movies will choose this schedule.

Because it can avoid clashing with some big productions, the box office has a basic guarantee.

But at the same time, it is assumed that the box office ceiling for movies released during this period is not very high.

"Actually, I think it could be released during the summer..."

The manager of the Propaganda Department couldn't help but speak up.

He is not sure about the other things, but in terms of promotion and marketing, although the competition is fierce in the summer season, with Xu Kong's popularity and heat as a bonus, "Sweet Honey" will even have a lot more room for operation in promotion and marketing.

After all, the summer season has always been a popular time period every year.

There are a huge number of students, and although their spending power is not very high, their contribution to the box office is still considerable.

……

"It's already been scheduled, so there's no need to mention this kind of thing anymore."

Yan Rui replied indifferently.

Of course he knew that the ceiling of the summer season was high, but the specific time of the release was Xu Kong's idea.

Not to mention that Xu Kong's identity is indeed quite special.

Even if some well-known directors under Fengge are replaced, they still have a certain say in matters such as the release time of the movie.

The most he can do is give some advice, and it is really not easy for him to intervene directly.

"By the way, how is the promotion overseas?"

The higher-ups in the Propaganda Department weren't stupid enough to continue talking about the schedule at this point.

Instead, answer truthfully:
“It seems to be pretty good.”

"Especially in Korea, Director Xu has talked to several companies about cooperation. It seems that it has attracted a lot of attention on their network."

This matter was indeed somewhat beyond expectations.

Although I knew before that Xu Kong became quite popular because of his appearance after he went to Korea to attend an awards ceremony.

But who knew that as a Chinese movie, it could attract such high attention just by Xu Kong alone.

……

"But Manager Yan, I still have to say something."

"The overseas publicity and promotion investment for "Comrades: Almost a Love Story" is not low. If the box office is not ideal, it is very likely..."

Xu Kong's investment budget for this film is probably over 200 million.

The previous shooting and production cost about 150 million yuan.

But now the domestic investment in publicity and promotion is indeed not high. By the time the film is released, the budget will be approximately 30 to 40 million yuan.

However, the investment in overseas markets is also not low, and is even much higher than that in the domestic market.

At present, the budget of Xu Kong’s "Sweet Honey" has already exceeded the budget.

The most important thing is the specific box office performance in overseas markets, which no one can be sure of.

Even though the publicity and promotion effect was good, for quite a long time, domestic films have not been able to achieve impressive box office results in neighboring countries.

The entire matter was decided by Xu Kong.

Many people within Fengge are not quite sure where Xu Kong got his confidence from. He really believes that the movie "Sweet Honey" can achieve the goal of successfully entering the overseas market, which major film and television companies have not been able to do for so many years.

……

"It does not matter."

Yan Rui's expression remained unchanged.

It seems that he is unwilling to explain more.

Yan Rui has always done things from the perspective of Fengge Company.

In his opinion, after watching the movie "Sweet Honey", he is not sure how it will perform commercially, but it is unlikely that its reputation will be particularly bad.

Maybe it would be easy to win two awards with higher value.

"Sweet Honey" may not make any money, or even incur a loss.

But as Xu Kong’s first movie, as long as the word of mouth is maintained, Xu Kong’s foray into the film industry can be considered a success.

That’s right, in fact, Yan Rui didn’t have much confidence that Xu Kong’s “Sweet Honey” could get a particularly high box office.

As for the target of 2 billion proposed by the other party, even though Xu Kong seemed to think that the number was too low and was not very satisfied with it, in his opinion, it was already a very good result.

If we're lucky, it might even make it into the top ten domestic box office films this year.

……

"Manager Yan, has Manager Lu ever contacted you privately?"

The senior executive of the Propaganda Department suddenly lowered his voice and mentioned something unrelated to Xu Kong's new movie.

This made Yan Rui stunned for two seconds.

Then he asked with some doubt:

"Are you talking about Lu Hanwen?"

Both of them are managers of the film and television department, and Yan Rui is quite familiar with his colleague Lu Hanwen.

However, the biggest impression the other party gave him was that he had no idea what he was busy with every day.

Although he seemed very busy and was not even in his office most of the time, he really had no idea what the other person was busy with.

However, with Lu Hanwen doing this, Yan Rui does have much more power.

Although it is a bit tiring, he would rather accept having more things to do than being sidelined.

……

"Didn't he contact you?" "That's okay..."

When the other party saw Yan Rui's reaction, he quickly shook his head and answered somewhat awkwardly.

"Manager Lu looked for you before?"

Yan Rui's expression suddenly became confused.

After the original head of the publicity department resigned, the top management immediately asked him to take over.

It should have nothing to do with Lu Hanwen, right?

It was against the rules for Lu Hanwen to take the initiative to contact the people in the publicity department, and Yan Rui couldn't guess what the other party was thinking for a while.

"I only encountered it once..."

Hearing Yan Rui's question, he quickly explained.

But from the hesitant and somewhat nervous tone, it was obvious that this matter was not as simple as it was said.

Yan Rui asked for a while, but there was no real progress at all.

The other party was unwilling to speak, and even though Yan Rui was his superior, he had no way of really getting the truth and answers he wanted.

I can only give up.

But this did serve as a reminder to him.

It is true that I haven't seen Lu Hanwen in the company for a long time.

Don't know where he went.

On the surface, he reported that he was on a business trip, and he didn't pay too much attention to it before.

But suddenly bringing it up at this time inevitably attracted Yan Rui's attention.

Thinking of this, he ran to Lu Hanwen's office.

It's still the same as before.

The other party's assistant said that Manager Lu was on a business trip, and when asked about the specific situation, he was unable to answer at all.

……

“Have many senior executives left the company recently?”

In Zhu Yu's office, even Xu Kong heard the news.

There was no way. With so many personnel changes, although Xu Kong's studio was independently operated, it was inevitable that he would hear some rumors.

"Well, I don't know what's going on."

"Manager Li from the Artist Department also took a vacation some time ago. I don't know if he plans to come back."

Although Zhu Yu didn't pay much attention to these things, her workload increased significantly because one of the artist department managers suddenly left.

In such a situation, there will naturally be quite obvious feelings.

As she spoke, Zhu Yu slapped away Xu Kong's increasingly excessive hand.

Of course, it didn't have much effect. There was almost no time interval. Xu Kong was even more blatant this time.

In the past, Zhu Yu would have stood up and hidden away.

But now, I don’t know if it’s because Xu Kong is not honest whenever he comes to her office, but Zhu Yu herself has begun to get used to it.

……

Xu Kong was doing two things at once. On the one hand, he was working as he always did, to restore the familiar depression to its original appearance.

One side asked curiously:

"With so many people leaving, is there no response from the company's top management?"

Zhu Yu was trying hard to be patient at this time, but perhaps because she was talking to Xu Kong, her attention was diverted a lot.

Still able to answer clearly:
“That’s what I find strange.”

"It seems like the company's top executives have known about this for a long time, and there's not much going on."

Xu Kong's hands kept moving, but he was lost in thought.

He believed that even if Song Fuquan was really old, he would not be able to take care of things at all.

However, with such a large number of middle and senior management leaving during this period, it is impossible for the other party to be completely unaware of anything.

The only explanation is that Song Fuquan may know everything clearly in his mind, but he has his own plans.

Feng Ge still doesn't seem to have changed much at the moment, always giving people a feeling of the brief calm before the storm.

An inconspicuous humming sound was heard, bringing Xu Kong back to his senses.

Realizing that his efforts had achieved his goal, he began to toggle the switch that had just appeared up and down.

The one who controlled the switch was naturally Minmin's mother Zhu Yu, who was wearing black-framed glasses and had neat short hair that only a mature woman could pull off.

……

"Sister Yu, someone is looking for..."

The knock on the door came at just the right time.

Everything was finally settled at this moment. Otherwise, Zhu Yu would not want to experience the feeling of abrupt end when camping for the first time a second time.

"Wait for me a moment..."

Zhu Yu tried hard to calm her tone and answered calmly.

However, he looked helplessly at Xu Kong who was standing beside him.

Then he subconsciously reached out and hit the other person.

However, when the sound came out, Zhu Yu and Xu Kong were both stunned.

Because this time, she actually slapped Xu Kong on the butt.

……

"I'm going to see Minmin on the weekend."

After cleaning up almost everything, Xu Kong said lightly.

Zhu Yu’s expression froze for a moment.

Then he heard Xu Kong leaning close to his ear and whispering:
"I hold a grudge very well. I will repay you later!"

Feeling the voice next to her ear, Zhu Yu, who had calmed down, showed a noticeable reaction again.

……

"Manager Zhu..."

What Xu Kong didn't expect was that the person who came to see Zhu Yu was actually Shang Yuxin.

When Shang Yuxin saw Xu Kong, she was obviously stunned for a moment.

The reason she came to see Zhu Yu this time was really not because of Xu Kong.

But I didn't expect to meet him in Zhu Yu's office.

However, thinking about how she had been waiting outside the door for a long time, Shang Yuxin naturally had some guesses in her mind.

Then he stared at the two people's faces back and forth for several times.

Xu Kong was very calm. After all, Zhu Yu was the manager of Fengge's Artist Department, and she usually didn't show her emotions on her face easily.

So Shang Lucha didn't notice much that was wrong.

She had always felt that it was wrong for Xu Kong to go to Zhu Yu every day, even though the other party was Xu Kong's agent.

But do the two really have so much to communicate about?
"Ms. Shang, you are here for your two activities this month, right?"

"But your agent probably didn't tell you about this?"

Zhu Yu was not clear about the specific relationship between Xu Kong and Shang Yuxin.

I just know that the two should be friends. After all, Xu Kong’s new movie this time is a collaboration with Shang Yuxin.

"No, I mean, can someone else from the company go..."

Shang Yuxin came back to her senses and stated the purpose of her visit.

Shang Yuxin was not aware of the activities arranged for her by Feng Ge or her agent before. Her agent believed that participating in two commercial activities would not have much impact.

After all, she hasn't received a similar notice for quite a while.

But Shang Yuxin knew that "Sweet Honey" was about to be released and was unwilling to waste time and energy on other things.

……

(End of this chapter)