Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 273: Seven Swords

In early July, a bomb was suddenly thrown into the originally calm film market.

"Seven Swords" suddenly announced that it would be moved up to July 7, the same day as "Crazy Stone", and the implication of deliberate targeting was very obvious.

A movie with an investment of 1.4 million yuan was forcibly advanced and released at the same time as a movie with an investment of 800 million yuan. No matter how you look at it, it seems like an attempt to compete with each other.

The media reported on this and regarded the action of "Seven Swords" as a counterattack by the Hong Kong circle.

After all, Zhang Chen’s previous words were too arrogant, pointing at the nose of the Hong Kong circle and scolding them, "Come and fight if you don’t accept it."

In the conference room, Dong Jianqiang distributed the information one by one: "This is the situation. The Seven Swords are not friendly. How should we respond?"

"Is there a grudge between us and Ciwen Media?"

"Seven Swords" was produced by Ciwen Media, but Ciwen Media is not a Hong Kong company, it is a Beijing company. Chen Xi couldn't understand why it wanted to stand up for the Hong Kong circle.

"I can't say there's any hatred, but there is indeed some unpleasantness~"

Dong Jianqiang explained: "The previous "Little Fish and Flower" was produced by Ciwen Media. During the White Dragon Horse incident, Zhang Chen criticized this drama..."

"Is that why?"

"I'm not sure. There may be other reasons, but it's certain that he is not here with good intentions."

Chen Xi was a little indignant. You didn't do anything when someone hit you, and then someone else cared about you and you still held a grudge against him.

Besides, Emperor Entertainment Group is fine now, but you are having trouble.

"Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's get down to business. Seven Swords will be released on the same day as ours, so it will definitely compete with us for the screening schedule. All the previous discussions with the theaters will be invalid. We must negotiate with the theaters again immediately..."

"In addition, they will definitely compete with us for the promotional resources that we had originally agreed on. We must ensure that they don't get them. We must ensure sufficient exposure..."

On the eve of a movie’s release, scheduling and exposure are the most important, and directly determine the film’s opening performance.

As for word of mouth and so on, that is all a matter for the future.

Previously, the two films were released half a month apart, so the impact was not that big. But now they are suddenly released on the same day, so the two films will definitely compete for media resources.

Competition means price increases, and in a market economy, prices are determined based on demand.

When there is no competition, prices hover within a reasonable range. Once competition emerges, the original advertising costs may not even achieve half the effect.

All of these need to be prepared in advance.

In short, Dong Jianqiang was very annoyed by what "Seven Swords" had done, which disrupted many of their plans.

……

Ciwen Media
Ma Zhongjun is the chairman and founder of Ciwen Media.

Ma Zhongjun is a martial arts fan and likes martial arts very much. He was one of the investors in Zhang Da Huzi's "The Return of the Condor Heroes". This time, he personally contacted Xu Ke to make "Seven Swords".

"Seven Swords" is a novel by Liang Yusheng, originally named "Seven Swordsmen Under Tianshan". The copyright was acquired by Ma Zhongjun, who made a movie based on it.

In the past two years, martial arts movies have been extremely popular, especially with the success of A-mou, several other big directors have also started to make martial arts movies.

The reporters did not meet Ma Zhongjun at Ciwen Media, but unexpectedly ran into Xu Ke downstairs and immediately started an interview with him.

"Director Xu Ke, may I ask if the sudden advance of the release date of Seven Swords is intended to target Crazy Stone?"

Xu Laoguai pretended: "The release date of Seven Swords was moved up completely from a commercial perspective. The cost of this film is too high, 1.4 million yuan, and we definitely hope to release it for a longer period of time. The original date of July 7.29 is a bit too late, and the summer vacation is already halfway over...

As for the "Crazy Stone" you mentioned, to be honest, I don't think a low-budget movie with a cost of only 800 million will pose a threat to "Seven Swords"..." Xu Ke's undisguised contempt for "Stone" excited the reporters, and someone immediately continued to ask: "Director Xu Ke means that you think "Crazy Stone" can never be a rival to "Seven Swords"? "

Xu Ke knew that the reporter was setting a trap, but he didn't care: "That's true. In terms of volume, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is our biggest competitor. A low-budget film like Crazy Stone is likely to be affected by the competition among blockbusters..."

Xu Ke's words were already very subtle, but everyone could hear it - a situation that often occurs in business, the eldest and second in command get into a fight, and then the third in command gets beaten to death.

He has his own pride. Hong Kong has always been the film center of Asia. In the past two years, a Zhang Yimou suddenly emerged in the mainland. The box office was shockingly high, but the quality of the movies, to be honest, was just so-so.

He thinks the high box office of the movie is mainly due to the large market in the mainland, and has little to do with the quality of the movie itself.

So when Ma Zhongjun approached him this time and said he wanted to make a martial arts film, he immediately agreed.

It just so happened that after "New Shushan Swordsman" was messed up, he couldn't find an investor for a long time.

Someone is willing to invest in him, especially in the field of martial arts, which is his best area, and Xu Ke also wants to make some money back.

As for "Stone", he really didn't take it seriously.

He was not happy about the schedule change. It was indeed suspected that the veteran director was bullying the new director's low-budget movie with a big production costing 1.4 million yuan.

But Hong Kong is a society where personal relationships are important. If he wants to survive in this society, he will always have to repay favors.

And this matter was mainly promoted by Ma Zhongjun.

With Xu Ke's statement, the reporter immediately found Zhang Chen and translated the original words: "Director Zhang Chen, Xu Ke said that he never regarded "Crazy Stone" as a rival. The only one that he could regard as a rival was the Hollywood blockbuster "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"..."

Hey, I am being despised.

Zhang Chen and Dong Jianqiang looked at each other. Is Old Monster Xu so tough?

But this is actually a good thing. "Seven Swords" is a big production with a budget of 1.4 million yuan. By being tied to "Seven Swords", "Stone" is invincible.

You know, the cost of "Stone" was only 800 million.

"Since Director Xu Ke is so confident, let's wait and see. But I believe that on the 15th, he will regret his decision..."

After saying that, Zhang Chen felt that it was still not exciting enough and not topical, so he added: "In terms of cost, Stone only needs 2400 million to recover its cost, while Seven Swords needs 4.2 million to recover its cost. Thinking about this, I think Director Xu Ke should be the one who should feel the pressure."

Yes, yes, yes, the taste was just right this time, and the reporters left satisfied.

Zhang Chen and Dong Jianqiang looked at each other and understood that the real competition had just begun.

Sure enough, in the next few days, the publicity for the two movies was overwhelming.

Various media were full of news about "The Stone" and "Seven Swords", but there was no news about "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", which was released a week earlier than them.

The result of the fierce competition for publicity resources is that money is spent like water. In just a few days, Chen Xi found Dong Jianqiang and cried poor: "We have almost spent the 300 million yuan of publicity funds we booked before the movie is even released."

"Additional funds! I'll approve a note for you to add another 500 million right away. You must not lose momentum..." Dong Jianqiang waved his hand generously.

There are only a few days left before the release, and at this moment it is like a fight to the death, and no one can take a step back.

If you withdraw, you will save on publicity expenses, but it will also give the audience and theaters a feeling that you are not as popular as them, which will really affect the screening rate and attendance rate.

So we must never retreat at this time.

At this time, everyone is desperately spending money to buy resources, and they even want to print the name of the movie on the toilet paper. The only purpose is to stimulate your desire to watch the movie.

There will definitely be operations to smear each other, but not now. We have to wait until the movie is released at least, otherwise it will be too fake.

(End of this chapter)