Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 494 They're getting anxious.
For many people, the fact that "Like Father, Like Son" only grossed 800 million at the box office on Wednesday is a big deal.

This is so unusual.

There was still 1900 million in box office revenue on Tuesday.

Even if the release of "Transformers 2" on Wednesday squeezed out the screenings of "Like Father, Like Son", it's impossible for a movie that has only been released for three days to experience such a large drop in screenings.

The key point is that the box office performance in the first three days was very stable, rather than experiencing a sharp drop.

Tuesday's box office of 1900 million seems significantly lower than Monday's 2300 million, but it's important to remember that in many places, the tradition of half-price tickets is still maintained on Tuesdays.

Therefore, the actual number of moviegoers on Tuesday was not lower than on Monday.

This makes Wednesday's box office figures stand out even more.

Director Tong of the Optoelectronics Department also received the box office data.

He had someone investigate the actual reasons, and the results were similar to what he had expected. Many private cinema chains that had been newly established in the last two years were outwardly compliant but inwardly defiant, spending almost the entire day scheduling "Transformers 2".

"Like Father, Like Son" was hardly ever shown in theaters!

This is what worries Director Tong the most and gives him the biggest headache.

With the booming domestic film market in recent years, many people in other industries have seen opportunities, and as a result, many companies that are very "domineering" in other fields or places have begun to enter the cinema market.

If the film market is to continue its rapid development, cinema chains must definitely be prioritized.

In recent years, the approval process for cinema construction and the issuance of screening licenses have become much more relaxed, so cinemas have begun to expand rapidly.

With only half of 2009 gone, the Film Bureau, based on the construction and filing of cinema chains, predicts that the mainstream market will see an increase of 142 cinemas and more than 600 screens compared to 2008.

On average, about 1.7 new screens will be added every day, bringing the total number of screens in mainstream cinemas nationwide to around 4800. And this only refers to the number of screens in mainstream cinemas.

When "Hero" was released in 2002, there were only 1843 movie screens in China.

Furthermore, this number is increasing every year, especially in the last two years, where the growth has been even faster.

The opening of cinema chains to the private sector, along with the significant increase in cinema chains and screens, foreshadows a long period of "disorder," or rather, unbridled growth.

What follows is a mix of good and bad, a lack of rules, and reckless behavior.

After all, some private companies may have been local "dominants" or leaders in a certain industry that received preferential policies before entering the film and television industry.

In this era, these local "dominant" enterprises and industry leaders often receive excessive protection from the local government, in other words, they are spoiled.

When they enter the film and television industry, they often bring this kind of attitude with them, with a kind of arrogant "I'm awesome" attitude.

Although time will teach them a lesson and let them know that the film and television industry is not a place they can easily stir up.

However, before they learn their lesson, they will be extremely bold.

So powerful that they dared to tamper with Cao Yang's films.

Director Tong knew very well that Cao Yang's position as vice chairman of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles might not be very convincing in other industries, but as a renowned director with huge international influence, as the face of the Beijing Film Academy, and as the leader in charge of film and television associations...

Moreover, Cao Yang is likely to remove the "deputy" title next.

Oh, what a headache.

Director Tong rubbed his temples.

Sometimes, as long as it is within a controllable range, "wild growth" can also be a form of healthy competition.

This is the consensus of everyone.

The key is still those two words: controllable.

Is the current growth in cinema chains and screens manageable?

I am very sure of that.

But even under controllable circumstances, something uncontrollable happened.

As the survey results below indicate, most of the companies that have entered the cinema industry in recent years have one thing in common: they have seen the huge potential for growth in the box office market and they are here to make money.

There are also some companies that want to make a long-term investment in the film and television industry.

But these companies brought their old practices from their original industries to the film and television industry: acquiring land to build or renovate cinemas, mortgaging them, and then acquiring more land to build or renovate cinemas...

Therefore, regardless of the type of company in the film and television industry, they all want to achieve outstanding results in the short term.

The first type is those who want to make quick money.

The second reason is that they want to achieve outstanding performance so they can mortgage more.

It's common knowledge that Hollywood blockbusters have the highest box office in the first week of their release in mainland China, especially purely visual blockbusters like "Transformers".

This resulted in these cinemas showing "Transformers 2" all day long.

If you only look at the surface, this is purely a business transaction and is a perfectly normal thing.

However, if every theater chain does this, Director Tong is willing to risk his own future to guarantee that in less than two years, the mainland market will belong to Hollywood.

This is not only cultivating the market for Hollywood, but also stifling domestic films.

It's not that these private cinema chains can't schedule films based on the market.

Director Tong also has a survey here, which shows that the attendance rate of "Transformers 2" is far lower than that of "Like Father, Like Son".

Do those private cinema chains know this?

They definitely knew.

But if they know that, why are they still scheduling Transformers 2 all day?

They were afraid that if they allocated screenings to "Like Father, Like Son," it wouldn't be able to compete with "Transformers 2," so they didn't dare to take the gamble.

All they knew was that the week before "Transformers 2" had the highest box office and would definitely make a lot of money, so they didn't dare to try it, nor did they want to.

In short, just blindly rank Transformers 2 and that's it.

Tong Ju was not actually a radical person.

As was his usual practice, all he needed to do was send these private cinema chains a set of occupancy rate data for the cinemas that had screened "Like Father, Like Son".

Once they saw the attendance figures, they naturally knew what to do.

However, what gave Director Tong a headache was that this was Cao Yang's film.

"Director Tong, China Film Group has locked up a lot of copies of 'Transformers 2' because they said there was a problem with the copies and they need to be taken back to the factory for maintenance."

After receiving a phone call, Director Tong's headache worsened.

Generally speaking, for Hollywood blockbusters like "Transformers 2", in order to prevent piracy from appearing in advance, the distributor will have someone take the copy to the cinema in a safe with a combination lock, monitor the entire screening process, and lock it in the safe after the screening.

In other words, the distributor has complete control over the copying process.

Therefore, it would be very simple for China Film Group to take away the film.

How much did China Film Group recover?

What Director Tong fears most is that China Film Group will ignore everything and take away all the copies of "Transformers 2" intended for private cinemas, which would cause a huge uproar.

At that point, those private cinema chains will definitely be unable to survive in the film and television industry.

However, President Han will certainly not be able to get out of this mess either, and Director Tong will also be held accountable.

"There are about a dozen cities, and all the copies taken away are from cinemas in the most central locations."

call!
Director Tong breathed a sigh of relief.

It's alright, it's alright.

In an instant, Director Tong came up with more than a dozen "reasonable" reasons for taking away these confiscated copies.

"What about the copies of 'Like Father, Like Son'? Have China Film Group and Qingdao Film Studio retrieved them?"

"Copies from these same dozen or so cities were also recalled."

Director Tong paused for a moment. In other words, after these copies were retrieved, some cinemas in these more than ten major cities faced the situation of having no films to show.
Well, currently, apart from "Transformers 2" and "Like Father, Like Son", the box office performance of other movies is negligible and not worth mentioning.

"Director Tong, many cinema managers are in a hurry. They've not only gone to China Film Group, but also to the Film Bureau."

“I’ll be away on a business trip for the next few days. Could you talk to China Film Group and ask them when those severely damaged copies can be repaired? Then forward China Film Group’s reply to the theater managers.”

Are you worried now?

late!

Cao Yang was discussing graduation defense with Hou Keming.

Everyone knows that the so-called defense is just a formality, but it still has to be done. There's not much to discuss; it's just about confirming the time and place, telling Cao Yang about the candidates for the defense committee, and asking for his opinion.

Just then, Hou Keming's phone rang.

He glanced at the document and saw that it belonged to the CEO of a film and television company, with whom he had a decent relationship.

"Go ahead and answer it, why are you looking at me?"

Cao Yang said with a smile.

"Sigh, I can guess what it is without even answering, I really don't want to answer."

Hou Keming shook his head with a wry smile. Sometimes it's like that. You know the other person's purpose for calling, but for the sake of favors, you have to pretend you don't know anything.

"Old Cai, why did you suddenly decide to call me now?"

Hou Keming answered the call and said with a smile.

"Oh dear, you've learned to be so polite with me now. Just say what you need to say."

"Oh, you mean the copy? It was probably due to staff negligence that some damage was caused. We're rushing back to the factory for repairs."

"Haha, definitely. 'Like Father, Like Son' is a film co-produced by our Qingying Film Studio and China Film Group. Of course, we hope the box office will be as high as possible, and we will definitely repair it as soon as possible."

"Okay, okay, but it's graduation season right now, and I'm too busy to be in two places at once. I'll treat you when I'm done with this."

After hanging up the phone, Hou Keming shook his head. How many calls had this been?
"Your friend?" Cao Yang asked.

"I wouldn't say that. We've sponsored the school before, so we have a decent relationship."

Hou Keming shook his head slightly and said, "It's still about the copy. Those people are incredibly resourceful. I don't know how they found out about this connection, so they put it through him."

At this point, Hou Keming smiled unconsciously.

These people are now in a panic, and they're really grasping at straws, using every connection they can find.

This is definitely not all the connections they used; they must have also used connections at even higher levels.

But so what?

The film and television industry is not their comfort zone. They may be very successful in their original industries, or in certain areas, but in the film and television industry, well...

Of course, neither China Film Group nor Qingdao Film Studio can make any major moves against the newly emerging cinema chains.

But just like now, in the most prosperous cities, if your film supply is cut off, can your cinemas survive?
This is just the simplest and smallest lesson.

If we really want to delve deeper, there are too many ways to make some cinemas unable to stay in the film industry. Both China Film Group and Cao Yang could easily do it.

"These people are too eager for quick success and instant benefits. With the current size of the box office market, especially during the summer season, let alone two movies, even three movies can be big hits at the same time, the market can accommodate them."

Hou Keming sighed.

Cao Yang smiled. Isn't being eager for quick success and instant benefits a characteristic of capital?

He still remembers a sentence from his junior high school political textbook: "Capitalists are willing to sell the rope that hangs them for profit."

Although this statement seems somewhat out of place here, it reflects the short-sighted behavior of capital.

Therefore, sometimes instilling awe in capital is not only a protection for the people, but also, to some extent, a protection for capital.

Therefore, the importance of certain appropriate and targeted policies is highlighted.

Cao Yang recalls that Article 44 of the Film Administration Regulations stipulates that screenings of films must comply with the time ratio for screening domestic films and imported films as stipulated by the state.

Screening units shall not spend less than two-thirds of the total annual screening time of domestic films.

In other words, regardless of the cinema chain, the total runtime of domestically produced films shown each year must not be less than two-thirds of the total runtime of all films shown each year.

In addition, the yet-to-be-enacted Film Industry Promotion Law emphasizes the principle of market fairness and prohibits the use of a monopoly position to exclude other films.

For example, when "Avengers: Endgame" was released, some cinemas allocated more than 80% of the screenings, which involved monopoly, and these cinemas were summoned by the Film Bureau.

Cao Yang could probably guess what position he might be given next. He felt he needed to seriously consider the pros and cons and whether he should push forward the promulgation of the "Film Industry Promotion Law" ahead of schedule.

Only with laws to follow can the market be better regulated.

However, sometimes enacting laws too early can restrict the rapid development of the market.

That's why we need to consider the pros and cons.

The decisive measures taken by China Film Group and Qingdao Film Studio have left many cinema managers extremely anxious.

Some company CEOs even took matters into their own hands, but those who had always been successful finally ran into a wall in the film and television industry.

This also made them realize that sometimes capital is not omnipotent.

If the higher-ups don't work, then try appealing to personal relationships.

As a result, many well-known domestic directors, film and television company executives, famous agents, and big stars received calls asking for favors.

However, something surprising happened to these CEOs and theater managers.

These people, who used to be very polite to them, were not willing to act as mediators after learning the whole story.

And they all avoided seeing them.

This lesson should have taught them a lot.

On Thursday, in more than half of the major box office cities, there were no screenings of either "Transformers 2" or "Like Father, Like Son".

Meanwhile, the cinemas that were not affected were either state-owned enterprises or joint ventures. With normal screening schedules for "Transformers 2" and "Like Father, Like Son", almost every show was sold out that day.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

For four days in a row, this was the case.

Cao Yang did not ask the cinemas that were not affected to give special consideration to "Like Father, Like Son," but instead allowed them to schedule screenings as usual.

Under normal screening schedules, "Like Father, Like Son" does not have as many screenings as "Transformers 2".

Transformers 2 had 52% of the screenings, Like Father, Like Son had 40%, and the remaining 8% was given to other films that had almost no box office revenue.

On Thursday, the box office of "Like Father, Like Son" saw a significant increase, almost doubling from Wednesday's figure, and nearly reaching 1600 million.

Friday's box office revenue increased again, reaching 1800 million.

By Saturday, due to the weekend, the box office had reached 2500 million.

At this time, "Like Father, Like Son" had been in theaters for exactly seven days, with a total box office of 1.459 million yuan.

For an art film, achieving this box office figure in its first week is absolutely astonishing in the current box office market.

Sunday's box office dropped slightly to 2200 million, which is normal; Sunday's box office is generally lower than Saturday's.

Including Sunday's box office, "Like Father, Like Son" earned 1.68 million yuan in eight days.

"Assembly," directed by Xiao Gangpao, is currently the highest-grossing Chinese-language film, with a total box office of 3.2 million yuan.

"Assembly" was released on a Thursday, and its box office revenue in the first four days was 8800 million yuan, which seems to be proportionally more than the 1.68 million yuan that "Like Father, Like Son" earned in eight days.

But box office figures aren't calculated that way.

It's important to know that the longer a film is in theaters, the greater the drop in box office revenue.

Therefore, the 8800 million yuan earned by "Assembly" in its first four days is not as valuable as the 1.68 million yuan earned by "Like Father, Like Son" in its eight days.

The box office record for Chinese-language films that Little Cannon cares about most is probably in jeopardy.

Based on the current box office trend of "Like Father, Like Son", it is expected to break the box office record for Chinese-language films set by "Assembly".

That evening, Li Xiaoran called Cao Yang and said with a smile that Xiao Gangpao had been in a terrible temper these past few days while filming, yelling at everyone he met, and even Ge You had been yelled at several times.

In the past, even if Little Cannon was in a bad mood, he would never take it out on Ge You.

Did Director Feng scold you?

Cao Yang couldn't help but ask.

"Oh, no, he wouldn't dare."

Li Xiaoran said with a touch of arrogance.

Of course, Cao Yang could also tell that Li Xiaoran wasn't really being arrogant, but rather using it to charm him.

That's just how women are.

(End of this chapter)