Middle age: leisurely life in the entertainment industry

The film "The Tuner" was finally completed in mid-January. Fortunately, the Spring Festival came late this year, on February 16, but there was only one month of promotion time.

Time is quite tight, and Li Wan is mainly responsible for this matter. Concept posters have been pre-heated, and movie trailers, premieres, and city road shows have been released.

But as a director, he couldn't be idle. Yu Dongqing and his starring team followed Li Wan to the Magic City and Xi'an, and they were very busy.

Of course I haven't forgotten my huge fan base.

The popularity finally picked up and it became one of the more popular movies among the seven movies released during the Spring Festival this year.

This of course attracts the attention of competitors.

Magic City Jiachang Media Group.

In the office of distribution director Zhang Bende located in the 53-story building of the Weihai Road headquarters, he was chatting about something with another middle-aged man, Xu Zhizheng, director of the distribution department.

Zhang Bende frowned and looked worried.

"This year's prime time during the Spring Festival, the competition is fierce." Zhang Bende said.

The Spring Festival period has always been a battleground for the strongest films. All major blockbusters are aiming to release during this prime time period. This year, the competition is particularly fierce.

Among the seven films, there is the large-scale costume fantasy film "The Demon War" invested and shot by Jiachuang Media Group.

This is a film created by Jiachuang with all its efforts and hired top domestic celebrities to star in it. The film alone will earn a salary of 200 million!

If you include the shooting costs, the entire movie investment is 300 million! If you don’t want to lose money, the box office must reach at least 900 million!

Putting it on the Spring Festival block was just to get a higher box office, but what I didn’t expect was that two big-budget movies would be released on the Spring Festival block at the same time.

One is the American Hollywood science fiction blockbuster "Silver Empire 3" introduced by Royal Capital Film and Television, and the other is the Hong Kong police film "Urban Storm" introduced by Asia Media Group.

The first two works of the former have achieved impressive results in the mainland and have a huge fan base. This sequel is even more aggressive, with pre-sale tickets on Maoyan and other platforms exceeding 200 million!

"Urban Storm" co-starred two of Hong Kong's best actors. It has been released in Hong Kong and has been rated as the best police film produced in Hong Kong in recent years.

In the recent online poll of "The Spring Festival Movies You Want to Watch" launched by Maoyan, these two films ranked first, while "The Demon War" had to settle for third place.

This makes Zhang Bende feel pressured.

What made him even more unexpected was that half a month before the Spring Festival, another originally inconspicuous movie "The Tuner" suddenly emerged and was copied by the media market. Just yesterday, Taopiao Piao announced the latest " On the "Spring Festival Movies Expected List", "The Tuner" had more votes than "The Legend of Demons"!

this?

Zhang Bende couldn't believe his eyes, so he discussed the matter with Xu Zhi.

"Mr. Zhang, you don't have to worry at all." Xu Zhi looked relaxed:

"Even if our "Legend of Demons" can't compare to "Silver Star Empire 3" and "Urban Storm", how can it not even compare to "The Tuner"? It is said that their investment is less than 20 million, which is even a fraction of ours. If not, are you still worried that their box office will exceed ours?"

"Of course not." Zhang Bende shook his head: "But, Lao Xu, have you ever thought about it. If "The Tuner" suddenly emerges and is hyped by the market, it will affect the film scheduling rate of the theaters! If there are too many of them, We may have less!”

Xu Zhi immediately understood what Zhang Bende meant.

The most fundamental reason is that the investment cost of "The Legend of Demons" was much higher than expected. The original investment was less than 200 million, but due to the remuneration of the leading actor, it was increased to 300 million.

This requires a higher box office and a capital guarantee of 900 million. To obtain expected revenue, the most conservative requirement is 1.8 billion.

It would have been okay if there were no American blockbuster and Hong Kong film, but they were like two mountains weighing down Jia Chuang Chuan, and the film scheduling rate became a battleground for them.

"Lao Xu, let me tell you some inside information. I heard that Huangdu Cinemas, a subsidiary of Huangdu Media, has asked its theaters to start increasing the schedule of "The Tuner"." Zhang Bende added.

Xu Zhi was suddenly startled.

Royal Capital Cinemas is the largest cinema chain group in China, with approximately 800 cinemas in operation and more than 6,000 screens. Its cinemas (including franchises) have a cumulative market share of 15%.

Far exceeding the share of Jiachuang Media’s theater chains.

If the Royal Capital Cinemas increases the screening rate for this movie, will other cinemas do the same?

"Mr. Zhang, what do you mean?"

Xu Cheng knew that what Zhang Bende said was definitely not out of nowhere and just out of emotion. He had his own ideas.

"The investors behind "Silver Star Wars" and "Urban Storm" are all large conglomerates. It's hard for us to start, so let's start with "The Tuner"! It is said that their investors are only two small studios .”

After Zhang Bende said this, there was a hint of sternness on his face.

Start?

Of course, Xu Zhi understood what Zhang Bende meant, which was to discredit the other party, mobilize trolls to spread rumors, belittle the quality of the film, deliberately give low scores on Douban, etc., thereby affecting the audience's viewing and theater arrangement.

This is a commonly used method in the film and television industry and has almost become an open secret.

"Mr. Zhang, where should we start?" Xu Zhi asked again.

Zhang Bende thought for a while and replied: "Isn't this movie made by Yu Dongqing a remake of that micro-movie? The original movie of more than ten minutes suddenly stretched into two hours. Do you think it was water injection? This is obviously Come here to get money."

"Mr. Zhang, you are right!" Xu Zhi immediately agreed: "After you reminded me, I suddenly remembered that two months ago, a self-media V named Ma Kai was a professional film critic and had written an article I questioned this question, but Yu Dongqing didn’t answer, and finally let it go.”

"Contact him, make a good hype, and don't be afraid of spending money!" Zhang Bende warned.

"Okay, I'll go take care of this right away." Xu Zhi said, and when he was about to leave, something suddenly occurred to him.

"Mr. Zhang, I heard that Yu Dongqing has a good personal relationship with Jin Yunfeng from the Imperial Capital. Will Jin Yunfeng strive to ensure the scheduling rate of Yu Dongqing's films?"

"Good personal relationship? How good can it be?" Zhang Bende snorted coldly: "Do you think Jin Yunfeng interfered with the film production rate of the theater because of this relationship? You are wrong! In the face of interests, let alone friends, sometimes even parents You don’t have to admit it!”

Time flies by very quickly, and in a blink of an eye it is already the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, and the Spring Festival is only a week away.

Today is the Lunar New Year. Yu Dongqing has finally finished all the movie promotion work and stayed at home quietly, sitting on the sofa and drinking tea comfortably.

Yu Tongtong is playing the piano in the living room.

Why.

Drinking steamy tea and listening to my daughter's beautiful piano music, this is life.

Thinking that he was as busy as a dog some time ago, Yu Dongqing couldn't help but sigh.

At this moment, the phone rang. When he saw that it was Li Wan, he picked it up.

"Holly, it's bad! Someone on the Internet is slandering the movie we made!"

Thanks to book friend 20190318164243794, book friend 20181108210514481, ghxs, and reader 1661550644301701120 for their monthly votes