Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 372: First day box office exceeded million!

“Are the first day box office data out?”

"We're already in contact with the theaters, so it should be around the same time."

In the conference room, the heads of ArcLight’s film, television, publicity, and operations departments sat at the table, waiting a little anxiously.

Meng Bai, who was sitting in the first seat, was calmer and let the executives whisper below.

They were not in a meeting, but waiting for the box office performance of "Psychological Crime: City Lights" on its first day of release.

Yesterday was August 17, a Friday, and it was also the Chinese Valentine's Day. It's a good time for a new movie to be released. If the movie is a romance, it will be even more suitable.

Unfortunately, "Psychological Crime: City Lights" is a criminal investigation crime theme, and the male protagonist's "fiancée" is dead.

However, the impact was not significant, and the box office of the midnight show still exceeded 20 million. Although it did not break any records, it was still a very outstanding result.

More importantly, the overall evaluation and public opinion atmosphere of the audience were also good, without any widespread complaints or negative reviews.

For Meng Bai and his team, this is a preliminary victory. However, the details will depend on the box office data after the film is officially released.

Everyone was chatting absentmindedly with each other, and their actual attention was all on the manager of the film and television department.

The manager of the film and television department, who became the focus of the whole audience, felt very stressed. He checked his mobile phone from time to time, for fear of missing any news.

"Ding--"

After waiting for a long time, finally, the film and television department manager's cell phone rang with a prompt tone.

Everyone at the scene suddenly became alert and looked over. Even Meng Bai stopped acting like a boss and turned his chair to look at his subordinates.

"Boss Meng, the box office data from the theaters is out!"

"How many?"

"The official show grossed 8200 million, and with the performance of the midnight show, the total box office on the first day exceeded million!"

As the other party shouted out the numbers, the conference room fell silent at first, and then a sigh of relief was heard.

Although there was a movie called "Soul Ferry: Huangquan" before, it was an online movie after all, so although everyone was concerned about the results, they were not too nervous.

But this time it’s different, “Psychological Crime: City of Lights” is a blockbuster movie with an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars, and it almost has the strongest team lineup of Arclight.

And everyone can see how much the boss values this movie. If something unexpected happens, or if the box office performance is not good, it will be a big problem.

Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with the final result.

On the contrary, this result is unexpectedly good.

According to previous estimates by ArcLight and the distributor, if the cumulative box office on the first day can exceed 6000 million, it will be considered a pass, and if it exceeds 8000 million, it will be considered a success.

Unexpectedly, with the help of the zero-point field, he was able to directly break through the "100 million" threshold.

Even though it's only an extra 20 million, the effect it brings is incomparable.

Regardless of the difference in the film's revenue, the fact that the box office on the first day was over 100 million yuan means that the film has strong box office potential. The film company can directly use this result to communicate with the theaters and increase the film's screening ratio and display strength.

Higher screening schedules will also bring in higher box office, thus entering a virtuous cycle.

As long as there are no problems with the movie's reputation, all that's left to do is wait for the audience to arrive.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was relaxed, and the leaders were in the mood to joke around.

"In fact, I think 100 million is still a little too little, mainly because it was delayed by the Chinese Valentine's Day yesterday."

"Indeed, my child went to the cinema last night and came back saying that most of the people in the theater were young couples. On a day like this, they would definitely choose to watch sentimental movies or romance movies."

"That's not true. Young people today are different from our generation. They can watch war movies on New Year's Eve, so there's nothing wrong with watching a suspense movie on Chinese Valentine's Day."

"..."

Listening to everyone's conversation, Meng Bai also revealed a satisfied smile. The first-day box office of over 100 million also exceeded his expectations.

Don't underestimate this achievement. There are many excellent movies in this summer season. Even so, apart from "Dying to Survive" which grossed 300 million on the first day and "The Richest Man in Xihong City" which grossed 200 million, only Huang Bo's "A Good Show" also grossed over 100 million.

Oh, no, there is also a "Love Apartment".

Relying on the "sentiment points", this movie was neck and neck with "Dying to Survive" in terms of pre-sales and first-day performance, both exceeding 300 million.

Unfortunately, after the movie was actually released, the audience found out that they had been deceived. "Love Apartment" became "Tomb Raider Apartment", which was an unprecedented "fraudulent" marketing.

The box office of the movie also "collapsed", with a box office of 3.2 million on the first day, and the total box office has barely exceeded million after more than half a month of release. The score is , and the reputation is catching up with the amazing domestic film "Dreaming of Show Business".

Therefore, when companies are counting movies released in the same period, they tend not to include this film in the comparison list, because it has absolutely no data value.

"Okay, just relax a bit, but don't rush to celebrate."

Meng Bai said, "This is only the first day's box office. The film's ratings haven't come out yet, and the subsequent results are still uncertain. The original promotion and marketing will continue. In addition, the theater chain is also in a hurry to communicate about the subsequent scheduling adjustments."

Everyone responded loudly and went about their subsequent work.

……

Shortly after Arclight's memories ended, "Psychological Crime: City of Lights" also started scoring on several scoring platforms.

On Maoyan and Tao Piao Piao, viewers who have watched the movie gave it a score of 9.4. Of course, the scores on these two platforms are always inflated, so they can only be used as a reference at best.

In comparison, although Douban has always been criticized by netizens for being "too literary and artistic", "pretentious", "worshiping foreign things", etc., it is indeed the most valuable platform for domestic entertainment.

"Psychological Crime: City Lights" has a score of 7.8 on Douban, which is a relatively objective number.

Compared to Arclight's previous works, this score is not high. But compared to other domestic suspense crime films, especially those in recent years, this rating can already be ranked at the top, and it can be considered a "worth watching" film. [I started following the online drama before, and in the blink of an eye, I have graduated from college. After so many years, I finally saw the ending of Fang Mu and the others. ]

[Alas, I have waited for so many years, and have always hoped that Fang Mu would have a good ending, but I didn't expect it to end in tragedy. Fortunately, Meng Bai gave an open ending, which can be regarded as an expectation. ]

[Fang Mu's tragedy was actually foreshadowed from the beginning of the web series, and he ended up dying, which I think really perfected this character. But looking at the design of the ending, it's not certain that he won't be resurrected in the future.]

[Hahaha, I guessed it right. How could Q be so awesome just one person? He must be an organization!]

[How should I put it? The setting of the Q organization still cannot get rid of the "elitism" thing. The style is a bit low, but the logic is much more reasonable. ]

[Hey guys, I'm a bit stupid and I don't think I quite understand it. At the end, only Liao Yafan's tombstone appears. Does that mean Fang Mu is not dead? Also, who is the mysterious person wearing a Q-shaped ring at the end? Is there a sequel? ]

[Damn, Liao Yafan lost his father when he was young, and later his mother became a murderer and died. He ran away from home and finally came back, but he died so suddenly? Fang Mu, if you don’t want a wife, you can give it to me! One-star bad review! (Just kidding)]

【…】

The audience's comments were varied, some were reminiscing about the years of following the drama, and some were discussing the setting of the "Green Ivy Detective Universe" background in the movie's plot.

There are certainly a lot of negative reviews and complaints, even including those from fans of the online drama version of "Psychological Crime", mainly targeting the death of Liao Yafan and Fang Mu's final ending.

However, most of the audience were satisfied with the movie version. At least no one said it was a money-making movie that relied on IP.

With the support of relatively good word of mouth, the box office performance of "City Lights" has maintained its first-day momentum.

On the second day of its release, the cinema schedule was increased to 31%, the attendance rate remained normal, and the single-day box office was 1.2 million.

On the third day of its release, the screening schedule was increased by three points again, and the single-day box office continued to increase by 1.2 million.

So far, in the first three days of the weekend, the cumulative box office of "Psychological Crime: City of Lights" has reached 3.5 million, ranking th in the total box office ranking of the summer season.

If we continue with this trend, there will be no problem in making money, it’s just a matter of how much you earn.

Wu Bai, Qin Hao and Li Qin have been doing road shows for a while now, which has consumed a lot of energy. But after seeing the box office performance of the movie, they are full of energy again and say that it doesn't matter if they continue to do it for another week.

The "audience reaction" that Meng Bai mentioned to the publicity and promotion department at the premiere has also been released on short video platforms during this period.

Although it was an actual recording, the publicity and promotion department still tried to pick some shots that were more story-telling.

For example, some viewers shed tears when they saw Fang Mu bite off his finger to preserve evidence; some viewers frowned and were indignant when they saw the plot involving "being blackmailed for helping an elderly person" and "a private car blocking a fire truck and causing a fire".

It would be awkward if there was only one person, but it’s not a big problem when combined with the movie theater scene later on.

Just looking at the data of these short videos, they are actually pretty good, with each video having hundreds of thousands of likes. As for how many actual viewers they can bring in, that is impossible to calculate.

But like Meng Bai said before, the cost is not high anyway, so it doesn’t hurt to give it a try. At least it is effective in maintaining the popularity.

……

As the first weekend ended and a new week began, the single-day box office of "City of Lights" experienced a small decline.

This is normal. After all, on a weekday, there are definitely fewer people who can go out to watch movies than on weekends.

This is why so many film producers pay special attention to the first week's performance, because it accounts for the majority of the entire release cycle.

While the main actors of the crew were on the road, Meng Bai was not idle either. He accepted interviews from several film and television media as a screenwriter and producer, mainly talking about the movie.

"Mr. Meng, regarding the ending of the movie, many viewers are discussing whether the male protagonist Fang Mu died. I wonder if you have any official answer."

The person who was speaking was Xiao Lin from Orange Entertainment. He had collaborated with Arc Light on many interviews before, so he could be considered an old acquaintance.

After he was promoted to the head of the video channel this year, he rarely appeared on the scene. But this time, when he heard that Meng Bai was going to come in person, he quickly applied to come himself.

In addition to being an entertainment reporter and film and television blogger, he is also a fan of Arc Light and Meng Bai.

Meng Bai had some impression of this reporter who he often saw in the Arclight Project. He nodded and greeted him, then smiled and said, "The official answer is just like the ending of a movie - everything is up to the audience to understand."

"Ah?" All the reporters, including Kobayashi, were stunned.

Boss, you seem to be kidding us. This answer is no different from no answer.

"Haha, just kidding." Meng Bai laughed, then said more formally, "In fact, we discussed many versions of Fang Mu's ending when we were filming. Some had him die, and some had him survive. Either one made sense. In the end, no one could convince anyone, so we made it an open ending."

"Personally, I'm more inclined to believe that Fang Mu is still alive..." Meng Bai spread his hands, "After all, the protagonist is alive, so we can continue filming the rest of the story."

No, sir, are you so sincere?

Because Meng Bai seldom participates in interviews, reporters don't know much about him and are a little uncomfortable with his style.

Only Xiao Lin thought of an Easter egg shot near the end of the movie. After the case was solved, a figure wearing a "Q"-shaped ring appeared again. Combined with what Mr. Meng just mentioned about the "back story", does it mean that the "Psychological Crime" series has not ended yet and there will be a sequel in the future?
It was not easy to have a chance to talk to Mr. Meng Bai face to face, so he did not hesitate and asked his guess directly on the spot.

Meng Bai did not hide it: "There will definitely be a story behind it, but it may not be in the "Criminal Mind" series. The "Detective Chinatown" web drama that will be aired next month, and "Detective Chinatown 2" that will be released during the National Day holiday, will also have a lot of content about the Q organization and the "Green Ivy Universe" background. You can look for it there when the time comes."

That’s right, the reason why Meng Bai accepted the interview, in addition to the movie "Psychological Crime: City Lights" itself, the most important thing is to warm up and promote the next two "Detective Chinatown" works.

Meng Bai has always focused on cost-effectiveness in his work. It is a waste of time to only talk about one movie in one interview.

After all, our President Meng is very busy now.

After the interview, seeing that the performance of "Psychological Crime: City Lights" had stabilized, Meng Bai gradually shifted his attention away from the movie.

I confirmed with the Film and Television Department the progress of several projects currently being run by ArcLight. "Secret and Great" has been completed, "Hunting Crime Book" is nearing completion, and "The Hidden Corner" is almost ready for preparation and is ready to start shooting at any time.

There were no problems with each project. At the end of August, Meng Bai flew to Shanghai with Gu Fei and people from Qiming Venture Partners.

After three years, Pinduoduo, the "super unicorn" in the e-commerce field, is finally going to be listed.

(End of this chapter)