It's reasonable for me, a stuntman, to live a crazy life, right?

Chapter 1139 The road is narrow...

Wednesday, April 25th, the weather will be sunny to cloudy.

In the capital, the premiere of "Time Raiders" was... a blast!

No one expected that the premiere of a seemingly ordinary fantasy, romance, and comedy film would actually be supported by all the main creative members of "Marvel"!

On both sides of the red carpet, the reporters who were invited to shoot and interview the Hollywood superstars led by Chen Fei were all bewildered.

"What the hell is this operation?"

"Wow! The premiere of 'Time Travel Together' actually had a huge cast of Hollywood stars supporting it?"

“So, this can also be considered a kind of linkage?”

"No need to guess, after all, strictly speaking, the behind-the-scenes investor of "Time Travel Together" and "Avengers 3" seems to be the same boss."

"Hiss! I seem to see tomorrow's hot search will explode again!"

Accompanied by a burst of heated discussions and cheers from many fans, Chen Fei led a group of Hollywood big-name actors into the premiere venue of "Time Raiders".

It was a coincidence that this group of people came here.

After all, "Avengers 3" will be released in half a month, so corresponding publicity, roadshows and preview activities will definitely be indispensable.

It just so happened that when Chen Fei led a group of people to the mainland for a roadshow yesterday, he heard the news that "Time Raiders" would hold its premiere today.

So he thought about it and planned such a joint publicity operation.

This is actually a win-win situation for the two movies. After all, the next two movies will definitely be bundled together to become a hot search.

Of course, the one who benefited the most was naturally "Time Raiders".

After all, whether in terms of popularity or cast, this movie is not comparable to "Avengers 3".

This can be seen from the excited state of director Su Lun.

As soon as she saw Chen Fei coming in, she immediately came up to him warmly, with an expression on her face as if she had met a financial sponsor.

"Director Chen, thank you so much for coming to support "Time Travel Together". Thank you so much!"

Su Lun had just read the Weibo post.

From the time all the cast members of "Avengers 3" stepped onto the red carpet to the time they entered the venue, it was only a few minutes, and the number one search list was already dominated by "Time Raiders".

This is the influence of the "linkage" of the two movies!

Even though "Us and Them" also held a grand premiere yesterday, its popularity has been overshadowed by "Time Raiders".

And if nothing unexpected happens, from now until its release, "Us and Them" will have no chance of surpassing "Time Raiders".

With Chen Fei personally in charge, and with a huge influx of publicity and promotion funds, there will be no problem for it to dominate the hot searches for a few days!

The only thing that made Su Lun a little dissatisfied was that no matter how hard she tried, the pre-sale box office results of "Time Raiders" could not surpass "Us and Them".

Obviously, the pre-sale box office of their own movie had soared to more than 80 million, but over there it soared from 60 million to 100 million in just one night!

This made her feel a little puzzled.

The promotion of the two movies is obviously not much different, and in terms of popularity, "Time Raiders" is not inferior to "Us and Them" at all.

But why is there such a big difference in the pre-sale box office results of the two movies?

She had a vague feeling that something was wrong, but for a moment she couldn't grasp the key point...

"Come on, I've seen this movie, it's very well made. Once word of mouth spreads, it might do well."

Chen Fei gave her a few words of encouragement, said hello to Luo Jin and Shu Chang who were running around the venue, and then left the premiere through the back door before the movie started.

At 12:30 noon, there was a fan meeting for "Avengers 3", so naturally he couldn't attend the premiere of "Time Travel Together" in its entirety.

Chen Fei did not stay in the country for too long.

After three days, he said goodbye to Liu Yifei who was reluctant to leave him and headed straight for Edinburgh, England.

The Royal Mile and St. Giles' Cathedral here are the city background shooting locations for "Avengers 4". Some of the intense action scenes and explosion scenes will be filmed here. The Gothic medieval ancient buildings can add a lot of unique colors to the film.

At the same time, when his plane took off, the domestic time officially entered the 28th.

With "Us and Them" being the first to hit theaters, this also indicates that the May Day period has officially begun.

However, what Chen Fei did not expect was that when he landed in the UK, he suddenly received a call from Huo Qigang.

"Something is not right."

Listening to the voice coming from the phone, Fade Chen was a little confused for a moment.

What's going on?

He asked with some surprise: "What's wrong? What happened?"

Huo Qigang said in a deep voice: "There has been a large-scale refund of tickets for Us and Them. The Pan Asia Cinema Chain alone has received refund notices for 110,000 movie tickets.

I specifically communicated with Wanda's Mr. Liu and Shanghai Film's Mr. Ren and found that their two cinema chains also had a large-scale ticket refund situation. Although not as many as ours, the number is not small..."

Hearing this, Chen Fei suddenly remembered what Shu Chang said a few days ago when he complained that the pre-sale box office of "Us and Them" exceeded that of "Time Raiders" by a large margin.

He didn't think much about it at the time, he just thought it might be because the other party's publicity was more effective.

But now it seems that this is not the case!

"Are most of the refund channels derived from online ticket purchases?" Chen Fei had vaguely guessed something.

"That's right. Maoyan and Tao Piao Piao have become the hardest hit areas for ticket refunds. Although offline channels also have a part, it is not a lot and can be almost ignored."

Hearing this, Fade Chen's face suddenly darkened.

He really didn't expect that after "Monster Hunt 2" was heavily fined, there were still companies that dared to go against the wind and resorted to the practice of relying on "loopholes in online ticket purchase rules" to inflate the box office.

"Which company invested in "Us and Them"? " he asked curiously.

Huo Qigang blurted out: "Huanxi Media."

In an instant, Dong Ping's name suddenly popped up in Chen Fei's mind.

He vaguely remembered that this person was also a tough guy. Although he did not follow the unconventional approach of Jiang Zhiqiang, his marketing methods were not inferior to the former.

As I recall, “Half Pool of Green” is his masterpiece!

“So, the first-day comprehensive screening data of Us and Them is not low, right?”

"Yes, affected by the initial high pre-sale box office, the comprehensive screening rate of this movie is as high as 43.8%, which is the highest among all the cinema movies in the same period!"

After hearing this, Chen Fei finally understood: "This is a very clever trick. By raising the pre-sale box office, they create a false illusion of prosperity and encourage the theaters to increase the number of screenings... and then refund the extra tickets. Haha, what a good trick."

"Isn't this just a scam? This guy is really brave."

Huo Qigang now understood that Huanxi Media's operation had fooled the online ticketing platform, the cinema chain, and the audience!

"So what do we do now?"

"Contact Maoyan first and ask them to fix this loophole as soon as possible, then communicate with other cooperating theater platforms and expose this to me first!"

At this point, Chen Fei became angry and said, "Finally, notify Maoyan to temporarily close the online ticket purchase and refund channels for Us and Them. When the situation becomes clear, the ticket purchase channels will be restored.

He actually wants to use pre-sales to increase the film schedule? Marketing? Haha, let Dong Ping taste the taste of failure first. From today on, no one can try this in front of me. Either do it for real or get out of here as soon as possible! "

After giving the order, Fade Chen no longer paid attention to the matter and devoted himself to the subsequent filming of Avengers 4.

At the same time, the producers of "Us and Them", which had just been released for half a day, had no time to be happy before they suddenly fell into the abyss!

At 2:00 p.m., several announcements were first released by the Maoyan platform:

"We are now issuing an urgent notice: Due to a large number of ticket refunds for the movie Us and Them, the number of theaters involved is as high as 5,000, and the amount of refunds involved is as high as 30 million. It is suspected that there are violations such as malicious pre-sale box office, malicious ticket refunds, and infringement of theater interests!

Maoyan App has now made an emergency decision to temporarily close the film's online ticket sales and refund channels. If users need to refund their tickets, they need to go to the front desk of major cinemas to handle it."

Along with the release of this announcement, several cinema chains, led by Pan Asia and Wanda Cinemas, all announced the ticket refund details for "Us and Them" at the same time.

Among them, the most are from Pan Asia and Wanda Cinema Line!

This situation is normal, after all, these two cinema chains have the largest number of cinemas in the country.

However! The emergence of this kind of ticket refund behavior infringes upon the huge profits of the cinema!

After all, the tickets have been sold and the money will be credited soon. Now, more than half of it has suddenly been refunded. This is a huge loss!

It is precisely because of this that several cinema chains have cooperated very well with Maoyan’s announcement and have expressed that they will launch an investigation.

For a while, as one announcement after another appeared, the film and television circles and even the entire Internet were in an uproar!

No one really expected that "Us and Them" had only been released for half a day and it was suspected of illegally increasing pre-sale box office and implementing large-scale illegal ticket refunds.

This behavior is really bad!

It is especially unfriendly to other movies released at the same time.

After all, under this kind of malicious competition, the screening schedules of other films released during the same period will undoubtedly be suppressed by theaters, and all of them will be fed back to "The Best of Us".

As we all know, theater scheduling means movie box office!

Once the screening schedule of their own films decreases, the box office will certainly not be much better.

For a time, "Us and Them" was suddenly caught in a state of being "condemned by everyone".

"Damn? Isn't this just relying on loopholes in online ticket sales channels to manipulate the box office?"

"If this movie is successful, what will the box office revenue of other movies during the same period be?"

"This is fucked up. What the hell is Huanxi Media doing? Can't everyone just compete fairly? Why do they have to have this kind of vicious box office competition? Do you have any shame?"

"Haha, what can't a listed company do to keep its stock price?"

“I suggest the General Administration intervene again and investigate! Revoke their film distribution license!”

"That's a good thing! Just shut down the online ticket sales and refund channels, and see how they can refund tickets. It's all in their hands!"

There was a lot of abuse in the circle. Once this unruly "competitive" behavior was exposed, it would inevitably be despised.

At the same time, as the film's reputation and rating mechanism were lifted, just as Huanxi Media was busy and struggling to deal with outside public opinion, a large number of negative reviews about the film suddenly appeared on the Internet.

"Now the capital is still set as the city of dreams. Maybe the audience is also aimed at young people in small towns? It's really embarrassing to shout at the capital many times, and the plot is dragged out and long. The only tear-jerking moment is the father played by Tian Zhuangzhuang. I am really impressed. Isn't Zhou Dongyu tired of playing this kind of role?"

"The various dirty jokes in it are quite funny, but I really don't understand the values ​​of this movie. When the plane was delayed and they stayed in a hotel, the ex-girlfriend and the man entered the same room. If the man's wife hadn't called, who knows what would have happened? And then they ran away holding hands. The current girlfriend had a green hair. The breakup was unclear. Zhou Dongyu's rejection when trying to win back the man was also confusing. It was really embarrassing to watch."

"Liu Nai Cha's girlish heart is so awkward. The male and female protagonists can suddenly start a dialogue of youthful pain no matter what the situation is. I am really impressed."

"Tsk tsk? Is the extramarital affair realistic enough? Let me see who the screenwriter is. Oh my god! It turns out to be the director himself. Is this reality reflected in the movie?"

"Come on, come on, eat some melons. I have a lot of stories about Liu Nai Cha and her teacher. The reality is even more magical than the movies."

Following the public opinion in the film and television circles, criticisms about the film also began to erupt online.

For a while, Huanxi Media, which was already in a state of chaos, became even more unlucky.

Even though the public relations team was dispatched at the first opportunity, it was impossible to take both of them into account in a short period of time due to the two major challenges of "movie reputation" and "boosting pre-sale box office".

At this time, at Huanxi Media, Dong Ping's face was already gloomy, and he could hardly hide his anger and sadness.

"What does Cat's Eye say?"

He looked at his assistant, revealing a hint of impatience.

After all, Maoyan’s current market share has reached 56%, far exceeding Tao Piaopiao and other online ticketing platforms.

It would be fine if they just closed the ticket refund channel. At worst, the tickets would not be refunded and would be fully credited to the total box office results.

But the problem now is that Maoyan has also closed its online ticket sales channel!

This is a complete killer move for "Us and Them"!

As we all know, today's movie fans and audiences usually choose to use online ticketing platforms when buying movie tickets.

As for going to the cinema ticket window to buy tickets, it is already out of date in this era.

Affected by this, Maoyan has now suddenly closed the online ticket sales channel for "Us and Them", which is undoubtedly a disaster for the film's box office performance!

"Maoyan responded that until the cause of the large-scale ticket refunds is found out, it will not be put on the online ticket sales channel for Us and Them in the short term."

After listening to his assistant's words, Dong Ping suddenly realized that he had messed up!

He had previously anticipated that the act of inflating the pre-sale box office and then refunding the tickets might have significant impacts and consequences.

But he never expected that he would eat such a "bitter fruit"!

"What about Tao Piao Piao? They haven't shut down their online ticket sales channels, right?"

Upon hearing this, the assistant quickly shook his head and said, "No, there is no movement on the Tao Piao Piao app."

Dong Ping felt a little relieved after hearing this.

Fortunately, there is always a way out!

As long as tickets can still be purchased from Tao Piaopiao, "Us and Them" still has a hope of recovering its costs.

Of course, the top priority now is to deal with the impact of online public opinion and eliminate the serious consequences caused by the "brushing up pre-sale box office".

"It seems that this road is no longer accessible."

Dong Ping murmured, feeling inexplicably distressed.

I had originally wanted to make a fortune from this opportunity, but I didn't expect it would lead to the current situation.

At first, he even fantasized that "Us and Them" could surpass "Time Raiders", but now it seems like a complete pipe dream!

Their pre-sale box office of over 80 million is real, but these are completely inflated.

In terms of real achievements, it would be good if it could achieve half of the results of "Time Raiders".

"Let's go to the public relations department first."

Dong Ping stood up and strode out.

Although this incident caused Huanxi Media to fall into a public opinion storm, it did not reach the point of shaking its foundation.

The worst that can happen is that we just have to spend a little more money to settle the matter and public opinion.

After all, Huanshi Media's operation this time was just taking advantage of loopholes in the ticket purchase and refund rules of the online ticketing platform, which is far less bad than the box office manipulation of "Monster Hunt 2".

A day later, "Us and Them" earned 145 million yuan on its first day due to external public opinion and Maoyan's closure of its online ticket sales channels.

Immediately afterwards, "Time Raiders" was officially launched and successfully took over a large number of screenings of the former.

Another day passed, and with the support of good word of mouth, "Time Raiders" closed at 186 million on its first day.

In contrast, the single-day box office of "Us and Them" fell to 83.62 million.

Then, the May Day holiday came!

"Time Raiders" set a new box office record, earning 226 million!

Although the box office of "Us and Them" broke the 100 million mark again, it was only 106 million.

Immediately afterwards, on May 2, Huanxi Media issued an apology notice, stating that the head of the company's distribution department, for the sake of personal performance, arbitrarily exploited a loophole in the online ticketing platform and carried out a "pre-sale box office" operation.

After introducing a scapegoat, apologizing across the entire network, and voluntarily accepting fines from regulatory authorities, Maoyan resumed the online ticket sales channel for "Us and Them" on May 4.

However, because the quality of the film itself is not strong enough, coupled with the influence of poor word of mouth, even if Maoyan has restored its online ticket sales channel, "Us and Them" no longer has any more box office potential.

On May 5, "Us and Them" ranked No. 2 in the May Day box office performance ranking with a box office revenue of 467 million yuan.

On May 6, "Time Raiders", which had been released for a week, topped the 2018 May Day box office performance rankings with a box office of 877 million!

This was also the first time that Huanshi Media tried to "bump" Feiyue Film and Television, but it ended in failure.

…

(ps: First update, please give me a monthly ticket!!!)