Chinese Entertainment 2017: Starting from the Top Writers

Chapter 157 Backhand Strength
October 10st, the first day of the National Day holiday.

Nine o'clock in the morning.

The box office results for the first day of the National Day holiday are all out. With the release of several blockbuster new films such as The Shameful Iron Fist, A River of Sadness, The Foreigner, and Chasing the Dragon, the mainland film market has fully entered the fierce battle of the National Day holiday.

On the 30th, the market closed at 3.74 million, a surge of nearly 2.5 million compared to the previous day.

"Shameful Iron Fist" grossed 1.29 million yuan on its first day, ranking first.

"A River of Sorrow" grossed 8703 million on the first day, ranking second with 12% of the screenings, with a strong momentum.

The Foreigner ranked third with a box office of 7366 million. Chasing the Dragon, starring Andy Lau and Donnie Yen, ranked in the top four with a box office of 4088.7 million. Sky Hunter and Sewing Machine ranked fifth and sixth respectively in terms of single-day box office.

As for the other cannon fodder movies, their box office performance was almost negligible.

No one expected that this year's National Day movie season would be so hot and fierce, comparable to the competition during the Spring Festival movie season.

What was even more unexpected was that "A River of Sorrow", a relatively unpopular film about school bullying, could actually get such a high first-day box office.

Even though they had already overestimated the influence of Nanxun, this result still shocked everyone.

There are many blockbuster movies during the National Day holiday, and what matters is not only the quality of the films, but also the forces behind them.

In this year's National Day file, the four major cinema giants Wanda, Dadi, Hengdian and Jinyi participated in the joint production of "Shameful Iron Fist" among the capital lineup behind it. The online ticketing platform Maoyan was one of the four major producers of the film, and Tao Piaopiao joined the co-producer.

Whether it was theatrical distribution or Internet ticket sales, Shameful Iron Fist seemed to have won at the "starting line" from the very beginning.

In addition, Yaolai and Wanda are behind "The Foreigner", Chasing the Dragon is a key project of Bona, and China Film Group also participated in the co-production of "Sky Hunter".

As for "A River of Sadness", there is also the support of Ray and Penguin behind it.

A phenomenon was specifically mentioned in the media reports: The Foreigner accounted for 41.5% of the average screening schedule at Yaolai, with an average of 120.71 people per screening, while Chasing the Dragon accounted for 36.71% of the average screening schedule at Bona Cinemas, with an average of 94.57 people per screening.

These two data are significantly higher than the national average, while "The Foreigner" accounts for only 4.9% of Bona's screenings, and "Chasing the Dragon" accounts for 7.9% of Yaolai's screenings, which are also far below the national average.

This kind of private cinema chain often favors its own films, and the phenomenon of mixing upstream and downstream together also highlights the chaos in the industrial chain.

The movie channel posted a comment on Weibo, saying that the practice of theaters favoring their "own sons" is not only unfair, but also harmful to the entire industry.

Yaolai and Bona also responded quickly and will immediately adjust the screening schedule based on ticket sales and attendance.

Mid-level villa.

Lin Li woke up slowly after a hangover. He fumbled for his phone and opened it. A bunch of unread message reminders made him sober up immediately.

Dudu: You don’t seem to be worried at all and are in the mood to eat barbecue and drink.

Ruonan: Take care of yourself, this is not the way to drink.

Ruth: Brother Ali looks so handsome when blowing bottles O(∩_∩)O
Reba: The great director is really calm. On the first day of the movie’s release, he didn’t focus on the box office but was drinking beer and eating barbecue outside. It’s so easy!
Meng Ziyi: Teacher Nanxun, please take me with you to the barbecue next time. I can drink quite a bit. The movie box office is going to be great!
Wang Churan: "My husband is so handsome even when blowing a bottle! I miss you!"

Li Yitong, Yang Mi, Liu Yifei...

Lin Li was completely confused. How come they all knew that he went out for drinks yesterday and even knew that he blew the bottle?

Thinking of a possibility, he immediately opened Weibo.

Sure enough, the hot search headline was "National Day Box Office", followed closely by "Bottle Blowing in Lin Li"!
Lin Li couldn't help but cover his face. What a ridiculous title.

I clicked on the entry and saw that it was a video, so I continued to click on it.

The video shows him and Chen Chao raising the bottle and swirling it around their mouths. The video is about twenty seconds long and is quite clear. It seems that he was also a customer in the store yesterday.

Below the video title, "Yesterday I was eating barbecue at a very popular barbecue restaurant near Renmin University. As a six-year old fan, I recognized him at first sight when I walked in from Nan Da! I didn't have the courage to go up and disturb him, so I secretly filmed it. I just want to say that Nan Da himself is so tall and handsome!"

I opened the comment section and wow, there were over 300,000 comments.

There are also many photos taken in the comment section. The one with the most comments seems to be the one taken when the first day box office was released. In the photo, he is holding a mobile phone, and the angle is from the side, and you can clearly see a smile on the corner of his mouth.

Look further down at the comments section.

"Nanda can drink a lot, snap, snap!"

"Nanda is so confident. On the first day of the movie's release, he ran out to drink with others (laughing and crying expression)"

"Who is this handsome guy across from Nanjing University? I've seen him several times."

"That's my roommate from Nanjing University, and also a top student from Renmin University. He's now the general manager of Nanxun Culture."

"By the way, Nan Da's smile in this photo is really charming! Is this a winner's smile?"

"Yes, yes, it's so tempting!"

"I watched the movie yesterday. It was very good and meaningful. I finally understood what NTU said during the roadshow. We really need a movie like this to raise awareness of school bullying."

"I agree with the above, but when I think about how I cried my heart out while watching a movie yesterday, while Nanda was eating barbecue and drinking beer outside, I just laugh!!!"

"There's someone crazy upstairs, drag him away!"

…Lin Li looked at the comment section and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. What a bunch of idiot netizens!

I looked at the first-day box office performance of the top-ranked movies and the feedback in the comment section. It seems that the competition will basically be between "Awkward Iron Fist", "Chasing the Dragon", and "The Betrayal".

Although Jackie Chan's "The Foreigner" seems okay at the moment, he remembers clearly that the film performed very poorly afterwards and posed no threat.

After all, what everyone likes is the comedy action actor Jackie Chan, not the aging hero Jackie Chan.

Now, all he had to do was wait for his first backhand move.

Lin Li stretched and decided to take a hot bath to wake up.

After sending Chen Chao to the hotel yesterday, he asked Wang Bao to take him back to the villa halfway up the mountain.

It was already early morning when he got back, and he felt dizzy and sleepy, so he fell straight onto the bed without washing up, and he still reeked of alcohol.

And on the Internet, a small earthquake concerning society is brewing.

"The violence in the corners of the school is a childhood nightmare for many people, and even a cage that is difficult to escape from for a lifetime. Children are ignorant and fearless, and society cannot let it go on."

"I hope all members of society can pay attention and say no to school bullying!"

This report was initially only reprinted by some traditional media, and then various entertainment media also reprinted it, and it quickly became a hot search.

At this time, various film and television companies in the circle also found something wrong. When they saw "Sadness Is Like a River" and relevant departments frequently appearing in reports from major media, they realized that this National Day period might be about to change!

Lin Li, who was practicing shooting in the basketball court of a villa halfway up the mountain, noticed that his cell phone was vibrating. He put down the basketball and picked up the cell phone.

As soon as he saw the note was "Wang Changtian", he knew what was going on.

After answering the call and putting the phone to his ear, Lin Li spoke first in a cheerful voice.

"Mr. Wang, long time no see. Why did you think of calling me today?"

"Hey, Mr. Lin, please don't be polite with me. Let's be frank. Does today's news have anything to do with you?"

"Which one are you talking about, Mr. Wang? There are many that are related to me."

"Boss Lin, just be honest with me. We are in the same boat. Don't play tricks on me."

"Haha, Mr. Wang, you must be joking. Yes, it's me."

"Tsk! Mr. Lin really has great connections!"

"Mr. Wang is exaggerating. It's just that the subject matter is suitable. The relevant departments have already made plans in this regard. I just added fuel to the fire."

"Mr. Lin is being modest. I have confidence now. I can communicate with Mr. Xu about the next promotion and go ahead with it."

"Haha, thank you for your hard work, Mr. Wang."

"Mr. Lin, you're right. We're all family."

"Yes, one of us."

……

After some greetings, Wang Changtian hung up the phone in a hurry. It seemed that he was going to contact Xu Fei to discuss the latest publicity and promotion plan.

But when he saw the phone ringing again and the note showed the name "Han Zijie", Lin Li knew that he probably wouldn't have a peaceful afternoon.

On the other side, after hanging up the phone, Wang Changtian sat in the chair in the office and thought for a while, and did not contact Xu Fei immediately.

He needed to sort out his thoughts, and Lin Li gave him a big "surprise".

Wang Changtian felt that he had attached great importance to Lin Li, but he did not expect that he still underestimated his ability.

At the beginning, he valued Lin Li's status as a top writer and the halo of every successful adaptation of a work, and believed that cooperating with him would be a sure win.

Only now did he realize that Lin Li was not only a student of Renmin University, but also a very important figure of Renmin University.

Judging from this incident, the Renmin University must have given Lin Li support behind the scenes, otherwise it would be impossible for the education department to take action at this time.

This shows how much importance Renmin University attaches to Lin Li.

Wang Changtian felt that he needed to reconsider his attitude towards Lin Li. After all, Lin Li, who had the support of the National People's Congress, was different from Lin Li who only had the status of a writer.

I heard that Zhang Ruonan moved out of the apartment that the company prepared for her?
Wang Changtian's fingers tapped the table unconsciously, and an idea came to his mind as to how to get closer to Lin Li.

In the early morning of October 10nd, the box office figures for movies as of the 2st were released, and they were exactly as expected by the major film and television companies.

The National Day movie season has changed!

On October 10, "Shameful Iron Fist" continued to hold the number one throne with a box office of 1 million yuan.

However, the box office of "A River of Sorrow" has increased significantly, and it is closely behind with a box office of 1.58 million, and it is possible that it will overtake it at any time!

(End of this chapter)