Huayu: Starting from joining the mainstream entertainment industry in 96

Chapter 235, Part 233: Release Date Set

In the first week of August 1999, the heat wave still swept through Beijing, but even hotter than the weather was the TV series "The Legendary Twins" broadcast during Hunan Satellite TV's prime time slot.

Just as Wang Sheng, Cai Yinong, Li Guoli, and others had predicted, this well-produced and well-adapted Gu Long martial arts drama quickly seized the tail end of the summer season and became a hot topic of conversation on the streets.

If you walk through residential areas of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and even many second-tier cities in the evening, and you hear televisions coming from windows, you'll almost certainly hear the highly recognizable theme song of "The Legendary Twins," or Xiaoyuer's (played by Lin Zhiyin) sly laughter, or Hua Wuque's (played by Su Youpeng) aloof dialogue.

The widespread adoption of cable television networks and Hunan Satellite TV's successful nationwide rollout strategy have allowed this "unparalleled" trend to quickly spread throughout the country.

The characters' fates in the drama are captivating, and Fan Xiaopang's portrayal of Tie Xinlan has led to a steady rise in popularity due to her sincere and struggling emotions between Xiaoyuer and Hua Wuque, as well as her image that combines gentleness and chivalry.

More discussions about "Tie Xinlan" and Fan Xiaopang began to appear in the entertainment sections of newspapers and on emerging online BBS forums.

Although he is far from becoming a sensation, this steadily growing popularity is an extremely valuable asset for a young actor who has yet to have a representative film.

Fan Xiaopang, who was on set with the film "First Love", occasionally heard feedback from the outside world through his executive agent, which made him very happy and gave him even more enthusiasm for filming.

The filming of "A Little Thing Called First Love" has entered its final sprint stage.

After initially struggling with her "shifty gaze," Gao Yuanyuan seems to have finally found the balance in her performance. She can accurately convey Xiao Shui's unrequited love while firmly focusing this emotion on her co-star Huang Xiaoming, rather than the director Wang Sheng.

The atmosphere on set became increasingly harmonious through continuous adjustments and shared goals.

As a result, the production team's efficiency has improved, and filming is expected to wrap up in about another week.

……

Meanwhile, a top-down transformation within the film industry is quietly unfolding with the issuance of official documents.

Last month, Han Sanping strongly pushed for rectification measures to address the industry chaos caused by the box office underreporting case at an internal meeting. After nearly a month of repeated discussions, debates, and refinements, these measures have finally been condensed into two guiding documents:

First, there is the "Joint Initiative on Standardizing Film Box Office Reporting and Building a Trustworthy Market," initiated by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television in conjunction with the China Film Group Corporation.

This document explicitly requires all distributors, cinema chains, and theaters to strictly implement the system of timely and accurate reporting of box office data, establish and publicize a mechanism for punishing violations, and encourage and support third-party audits and the system of dispatching box office monitors, aiming to curb the deep-rooted problem of concealment and underreporting from the source.

Secondly, there is the "Suggestion on Appropriately Adjusting Ticket Prices During Special Periods to Attract Audiences Back to Cinemas," issued in the form of a recommendation from China Film Group.

The document does not mandate price reductions, but it explicitly states that during this special period of limited imported films and low market confidence, cinemas can "flexibly utilize price leverage" by offering "lunchtime specials," "exclusive discounts for students/seniors," "family packages," and even temporary general discounts to lower the barrier to entry for moviegoers. The aim is to "gather audiences, cultivate the habit of watching domestic films, and weather the storm together."

These two documents were quickly distributed to major cinema chains and theater companies across the country.

The market reacted quickly and positively.

As a bellwether for the national film market, the Beijing-Tianjin region was among the first to respond. Beijing's New Film Union cinema chain and several major cinemas in Tianjin quickly announced a series of promotional activities, with luncheon movie tickets sometimes dropping to about half the usual price.

In Shanghai, despite his mixed feelings, Zhu Yongde, as a Chinese filmmaker, knew that boosting the market was crucial for everyone.

Major cinemas under the Shanghai Television and Film Company quickly followed suit, launching similar promotional strategies.

Cinemas in Guangzhou have always had a keen sense of the market and are naturally unwilling to lag behind.

Meanwhile, the seven cities in Jiangsu Province, which were caught in the vortex of public opinion surrounding the previous "Seven Roads Against the King" incident and the current box office underreporting case, reacted in a more nuanced way.

The heads of municipal companies, represented by Gusu Xiangqianjin, keenly realized that this was a good opportunity to further consolidate their position and break free from the constraints of provincial companies.

They responded to the spirit of the document almost at the fastest speed, on the one hand to show their own standardized operation and support for reform, and on the other hand to show goodwill to the production companies (especially the Beijing Film Studio Alliance and Shengying Media) in order to obtain more high-quality film sources in the future.

As for the mess at Changjiang Film Group, they tacitly chose to distance themselves – “That’s a problem with the provincial company and a few bad apples, and has nothing to do with us.”

For a time, the film markets in major box office cities across the country—undoubtedly still centered around the four first-tier cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Yangzhou, along with the economically developed cities of Suzhou, Xuzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, and Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province, Hangzhou and Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, Jinan and Qingdao in Shandong Province, Shenyang and Liancheng in Liaoning Province, Chengdu in Sichuan Province, and the capital of Hubei Province, among other provincial capitals and important economic cities—saw a mini-boom in price reductions, promotions, and efforts to revitalize the film industry.

Although the effects remain to be seen, the cinemas are indeed a bit more lively than they were two months ago.

Just as the industry was beginning to show signs of change, the release of "Flying Colors" was already in full swing.

Thanks to the efficiency of the Beijing Film Studio's post-production base, the film completed all post-production work and passed censorship by the end of July (Han Sanping secured a fast track).

Shengying Media's distribution department worked closely with China Film Group's distribution branch to determine the release strategy: given the cost of copies and market concentration, the first round of screenings will focus on the aforementioned major box office cities, and will officially launch in key cinemas in these cities on August 6.

In 1999, the cost of manufacturing and transporting a 35mm film print was considerable.

A single copy can typically only be used by one cinema during the same time period. However, through staggered screenings, a single copy can theoretically cover different screening rooms in the same cinema. But the maximum utilization rate is limited by the screening density and film length. In practice, popular films usually require multiple copies in core cinemas to ensure screenings.

Therefore, for major films like "Flying Colors," approximately 150 copies were produced for the first run and transported to film screening companies in major cities or directly to core cinemas by early August via fast channels such as civil aviation cargo.

The revenue sharing ratio is 40% for the production company.

As for how much the cinemas, film companies, and other relevant departments might conceal, that remains unknown.

Piracy...

It wouldn't be surprising if they appeared on the day of the release.

(End of this chapter)