Chinese entertainment for engineering students

Regardless of whether Wang Xu and Yu Zhuo's small theater chain can develop, "The Matrix" will not be able to catch up anyway, but after various adjustments made by the new leader, some changes can still be seen.

The first thing is that Magic City will finally be able to see the film a week later. Of course, this batch is not limited to Magic City, but many prefecture-level cities have also received copies.

Although piracy has been rampant in the past two years, it has not reached the point where you can directly grab the original copy in a few years. The cost of video tapes is also much greater than that of VCD, and the chip of VCD is still held by the ugly country, and it will take time for them to increase production capacity.

Therefore, the environment Wang Xu faces is actually more relaxed than it will be two years later.

Without the back-and-forth and the buck-passing, China's mobilization power is still exaggerated, at least as can be seen from the large-scale release of the movie this time.

More than a thousand copies were quickly spread across the country, and large-scale screenings were officially launched.

Magic City has obviously not caught up with Tou Tang, and most of the Magic City cinemas are still in the lobby mode, and the equipment is relatively old, but they still have amazing market potential.

Because it made local news, this film can be said to be a household name in Shanghai. A film that can cause conflicts, lead to onlookers and even make news, in any case shows the quality of this film.

Then there are various analyzes and interpretations of the film reported by newspapers from various places, and finally there is the word-of-mouth that spreads from colleges and universities.

The superposition of various effects made it possible for people to queue up and not be able to buy tickets on the first day of the release of Magic City.

Not only did this situation not improve after the first batch of audiences finished watching the movie, but it completely detonated the entire theater chain in the Magic City because of the overwhelming reputation.

It can be said that no theater has tickets. Not to mention the prime time in the evening, even the garbage time in the morning and afternoon are hard to get a ticket.

Not too many people skip school or work to watch movies, which gives leaders of many units a headache.

Then there is positive feedback. After local newspapers see this situation, they will naturally conduct another wave of interviews, and TV news will naturally not lag behind.

Interviewing people queuing up to buy tickets, interviewing audiences who have just watched a movie, interviewing passers-by, and interviewing aunts selling soda on the street are quite a bit of a grand event in the entertainment era of later generations.

"How long have you been queuing here?"

"Almost an hour."

"There is such a long queue in front of you, why are you still waiting in line?"

"I can't help it. My girlfriend wants to see it, so what else can I do?" The young man looked sad.

"Do girls also like to watch science fiction movies? Aren't science fiction and action movies generally what boys want to watch?"

"The classmates in their dormitory promoted it. It must be a romantic movie. What can I do? I have watched this movie. I just thought that girls don't like watching it, so I didn't take her with me. She almost ended up with me. separate."

"That's what's wrong with you. You didn't even ask her. How do you know she doesn't like to watch it? When a young man is in love, of course he has to go to the movies with his girlfriend. No wonder she's having a fight with you." The aunt in the queue at the back continued. .

"Auntie, why are you queuing up here? Do you also like movies like this?" The reporter curiously interviewed the aunt who interrupted.

"It's not that I don't watch fighting movies. My son wanted to watch it but couldn't get out at work, so I queued up for him." The aunt proudly announced the reason.

"Does your son have a partner? Is he also watching with his girlfriend? Don't you have a job?" The reporter was curious. This aunt seemed to be in her forties or fifties.

"He has a partner, but his girlfriend won't watch it. This movie costs fifteen yuan a ticket, so expensive and hard to watch." Auntie seemed to have some double standards.

"..." The young man in front was so angry.

"Have you just watched the movie?" The reporter quickly captured a young man who had just come out of the cinema with an excited face.

"Yes." There was excitement in the young man's voice.

"What do you think of the movie?" the reporter asked.

"It's beautiful, so beautiful." The young man was obviously not very good at expressing himself, but his excitement was beyond words, which was more convincing than any words.

Similar scenes were staged in front of major theaters in the Magic City, and in the evening, the news was received by the entire Magic City.

This is the so-called phenomenon-level movie. The previous Shaolin Temple was almost in this situation, and the current Magic City is almost in the same situation.

Of course, the ticket price of fifteen yuan does deter many potential moviegoers. This price is really too luxurious for many people.

This situation is reflected in the box office, and the data is naturally full of surprises. Although due to slow statistics, Wang Jinghua still got the first-day box office of the Magic City on the afternoon of the next day, which was 4.5 million.

This is a number that no one expected. At the moment, there are only 200 theaters in the city, including some rural theaters. Most of them are single halls. On average, there are four to five hundred people in each hall. In other words, there are only about two hundred screens in the Magic City.

The single-day box office for a single theater is 200,000 yuan. You must know that in China at this time, most movie theaters shoot five or six movies a day, usually two hours each.

Of course, this is also a consequence of the hall. You have to leave at least 20 minutes between exiting and entering. If you rush too much, accidents may easily occur. As people enter and exit, there is only such a small door, and tickets must be checked. It will take another ten to twenty minutes for cleaning in between.

Naturally, the efficiency cannot be improved, so a box office of 200,000 means that the attendance rate of these theaters is basically full, otherwise it would be impossible to achieve such results.

At the same time, the movie theaters in the Imperial Capital have been showing it for a week, and the weekly box office has been officially released. The box office of 13.7 million in a single week has also blinded countless people.

The situation in the Imperial Capital and the Magic Capital is similar. There are fewer theaters than the Magic Capital. There are more than 100 theaters, most of which are single halls. Although it is not as full as the first day, the average attendance rate is definitely more than 50%.

In addition, Yangcheng has more than 6 million, Paidu has more than 5 million, and Chengcheng has more than 6 million. The four first cities directly contributed 25 million to the box office.

When the national box office was released in the second week, it can be said that the whole country was shocked. Magic City took the lead, with 20.8 million in a single week, achieving the 20 million box office record in a single city for the first time, while all other cities , including the first four cities, only contributed a total of 28 million box office.

The Magic City occupies almost half of the country. Of course, this is not surprising. In recent years, except for a few large cities, the remaining cinemas are pitiful. Some counties do not even have a cinema.

The situation in the three northeastern provinces is better, and there are still many old facilities such as workers' clubs. Most cities in the interior really have few cinemas. There are more than 3,000 counties in the country, but there are only 1,500 screens. Of course, this is a cinema. internal to the line.

There are still many people who have not joined the theater chain and have not been included in the statistics. At the moment, the various data are very messy and not very accurate.

But even if statistics are included, the total number is less than 3,000 screens. On average, a county is not allocated one screen.

Even in the following ten years, this situation has not only not improved, but has worsened in some years. This is also an important reason why the influence of movies in these years is far less than that of TV, because let alone whether it is good or not, you simply can’t watch it. OK.

When "The Matrix" is officially released in China four weeks later, well, it is not actually released, but the division of accounts stops. The theaters will still show it if they should, and the income will belong to the theaters themselves.

After four weeks of settlement, the total box office of "The Matrix" in China was 180.9 million yuan. According to the official exchange rate, it exceeded 20 million U.S. dollars. It can be said that this result suddenly shocked the entire Chinese film industry.

Historically, the first imported film was released at the end of 1994. It took in nearly 30 million yuan in box office in two weeks, and then was forced to cancel it by China Film. It is said that it was afraid of scaring the domestic film industry, and it seemed to have influenced some films. The position of leadership.

Then, in 1995, "Red Zone" was released with a box office of more than 95 million. Two months later, "True Lies" officially exceeded 100 million.

So, it’s not that no one in China watches movies, it’s just that the movies are not good-looking.

Just like the movie "The Matrix", it was actually said to be released after four weeks, but almost all theaters will take it out and show it from time to time. At this time, there is no way to take back the copies. The copies are all kept by the theater itself. , if he wants to let go, can you still stop him?

The theater with the most outstanding results this time is none other than the Agricultural Exhibition Hall. The renovated Agricultural Exhibition Hall Cinema has a total of six auditoriums. Except for a 250-person hall, they are all medium-sized halls with 150 people.

Of course, this size was actually called a small hall in this era.

In other words, the Agricultural Exhibition Hall Cinema has a total of 1,000 seats, while the Imperial Capital Exhibition Hall Theater built symmetrically with him can accommodate 1,200 people watching movies in one hall.

But these 1,000 seats, from the premiere to the end of the four-week period, brought nearly 4 million in box office revenue to the Agricultural Exhibition Hall, with the highest box office revenue of 700,000 in the first week.

Throughout the four weeks, the box office has been on a very slow downward trend, and the attendance rate has always been above 80%. The key is that after the split, "The Matrix" was shown here with an average attendance of 50%, and there are constant calls for additional evening shows. .

One-third of the 6 million yuan investment in renovation costs was recovered in less than a month. This efficiency made the new leaders of the Agricultural Exhibition Hall extremely happy.

Moreover, the most exaggerated thing is that after the movie stopped splitting accounts, theaters made more money by showing "The Matrix". This situation even affected the subsequent splitting system, extending the splitting time to avoid excessive profits for the theaters.

Such benefits naturally make the leaders of countless theaters jealous. This is simply like robbing money. Well, Brother Yuzhuo's equipment has sold a lot.

This is the benefit of the entire industry chain. There is always a place to make money. In these years, the Chinese film market can be said to have just sprouted. Even in the West and in China, many theaters still have very old equipment.

Movies have gone from being the only way to enjoy moving pictures to the rise of television, video recorders, VCDs, DVDs, and online videos. These are all encroaching on the share of movies, especially cinema movies.

The film industry can only continue to update technology. For decades, it has been fighting back and forth with other media. It can be said that film has never stopped developing.

From black and white to color, from silent to sound, from narrow screen to wide screen to giant screen to surround screen to dome screen, from 16 mm to 32 mm to 48 mm, from mono to stereo to surround sound to sound field, From film to digital, from 2K to 4K to 8K.

The same goes for Chinese movies. Wang Xu believes that it is meaningless to blindly accuse piracy. The absence of piracy is certainly more suitable for the development of film and television, but without piracy in later generations, no earth-shattering works have been produced by Chinese films.

Only the first few, or more than a dozen movies can be watched every year. The others are either niche, outdated, or made up. In proportion, they are no better than they were in the 1990s.

Wang Xu plays in entertainment, but he really doesn’t have any lofty ideals such as saving movies, music, and paintings. Entertainment is just entertainment. On the one hand, he likes it. On the other hand, he can change the technology to make him like it more. That’s it. .

Movie technology will definitely continue to change in the future. Anyway, Wang Xu watched movies at home in his previous life, and the effect was no better than that in a theater. A complete set of laser equipment and simulated sound fields produced an effect that was even better than an ordinary theater. Well, the total price is only over 100,000.

In the future, retinal projection technology will be able to put giant screens directly into your eyes. The effect can be said to be more shocking than that of a movie theater. But are movie theaters dead?

No, the box office has hit new highs again and again.

Therefore, instead of worrying about movies, it is better to climb the technology tree steadily. Compared with art itself, which is close to metaphysics, technology appears to be much more rational.

Art is really mysterious. It is always led by a very small number of people and is often far ahead of its time. A lot of art was so advanced that no one understood it, but it became very popular later on.

For example, abstract art, which not many people understand, gives you a lot of explanations with a few lines and colors, but you think they are just fooling you.

But when you really decorate your house, you will find that such hanging paintings are often the most suitable, beautiful and coordinated.

You don’t care what this painting means. It looks beautiful when hung in your home. It will not look outdated for more than ten years, nor will it make you feel old-fashioned. Abstract art occupies most of the decoration field, but this type of The paintings were actually created by people nearly 100 years ago.

Similarly, there are literati paintings in Chinese paintings, as well as various calligraphy and other things. When you can't understand it, you feel like what it is all about. But when you want to hang a scroll or decorate half of a white wall, you You will find that these things are the most suitable.

Most of the various art forms have such characteristics that they are collectively called art, and the same is true for film and music. Many of the elements that are popular now come from the flash of inspiration of some people a long time ago.

This is why Wang Xu really respects art, but he is not obsessed with it.

Maybe you can't do it, but some people do it, but no one knows that they did it until a long time later.

Maybe he did it, but no one knew he did it until much later.

Of course, in fact, there are also similar examples in advanced technology. In the end, everything is philosophy, and different paths lead to the same end.

Of course, many netizens will say that it is all metaphysics in the end. In a previous life, a Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to a physicist who was dedicated to promoting the existence of the quantum state of the soul. Do you think this is science or metaphysics?

Wang Xu didn't understand at the time, but he was greatly shocked. He really didn't understand. Anyway, he couldn't understand that person's theory, let alone what that person said about the soul.

But now he does believe in the existence of souls. He himself is an example, but he really can't say this out loud.

No matter how Wang Xu makes money, "The Matrix" has indeed become a phenomenon in China. In fact, the release cycle of this movie is far longer than four weeks.

Until those copies are released, this film will continue to be released. If we can really count all the box office, it's hard to say if there are more, but there should be no problem if it exceeds 200 million.

In this era, movie theaters all decided by themselves what movies to show. Most of the time, there was no so-called theater chain operation. "The Matrix" can be said to be the first of its kind.

Therefore, watching movies in the 1980s and 1990s was really random. A movie theater only had one lobby, and you didn’t know what was playing. You only found out what movie was playing today when you got to the door of the movie theater.

Unless there is a certain popular movie, most of the time, the movies shown in the two cinemas may not be the same. Then the cinema will buy a copy and how much a copy will cost. This has also led to the gradual convergence of the costs of these movies. Because your costs are too high, you will most likely lose money.

Therefore, this wave of reform is actually about learning from Western methods, using theater chains to integrate theaters, and forming a relatively complete purchasing system, thereby having stronger bargaining power. This is inevitable in a commodity society and is also in line with the direction of domestic reform. .

But no matter how reformed or made, relying solely on the local market will definitely create a box office ceiling, which will then feed back into the so-called cost ceiling, and eventually form a standard investment amount for a movie.

In the ugly country, this is the so-called B-level movie, which is actually a standard local market movie.

The upper limit of this number is roughly US$20 million. If you invest more, the result will be a high probability of losing money.

Of course, but if there is a global market, then it can accommodate more investments, which is what is called A-level investment.

All this is very similar to industrial products. Only export can create additional profits, which can then be fed back to the country and its people. Why does China desperately want to enter the WTO? Isn’t it just to obtain the export market? This is obtained in peacetime. The only means of extra profit.

Therefore, the core of the strength of ugly Chinese films is the global market, and the global market has been cultivated bit by bit over decades, which requires the result of the all-round evolution of politics, economy, and culture.

When the Soviet Union still existed, Hollywood was not that powerful. Why? Because the ugly country did not dare to harvest Europe unscrupulously, let alone weaken Europe infinitely. Europe had its own strong industry as a background, and their cultural industry naturally also Not too bad.

Europe is not considered the vote bank of the Ugly Country at all. It was not until the fall of the giant red bear that the Ugly Country began to harvest Europe unscrupulously, even at the expense of tampering with history and completely erasing the red giant bear from history.

As for China, there will be no such soil in a short period of time. Therefore, similar to Chou Country, even if the domestic film market is very mature, it is still unlikely to harvest the world like Hollywood.

The Chinese people save the world, that is, they are wolf warriors and are laughed at by countless people, but the ugly people do not do the same thing. Why? Because in the subconscious mind of most people around the world, it seems that the Ugly people have really saved the world. This is the meaning of their tampering with history.

Therefore, when China has not reached the international status of the Chou people, don't always think about counterattacking Hollywood. Even if there is an occasional successful case, like "The Matrix", it is just an example and does not represent anything.

Protecting your local market is already a great thing.

This is why Wang Xu actually does not advocate making so-called blockbusters, because the investment in blockbusters exceeds the capacity of the Chinese market. Without a stable international market, such investment is basically bound to fail.

However, the success of "The Matrix" has whetted the appetite of the entire Chinese film industry. This is actually contrary to Wang Xu's original intention. I don't know if it is considered a good intention but a bad thing.

I just don’t know where China’s blockbusters will go in this life, and whether they will arrive early. Wang Xu doesn’t know, but he is also very curious. .

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(See you tomorrow)