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

Chapter 405: Plan has changed, prepare to win the championship

Although it was a midnight show, there were quite a few people in the theater. And unlike the usual "couples", most of the audience came in pairs of three boys, and occasionally there were a few girls.

Although everyone was wrapped up tightly in winter and not afraid of being recognized, Meng Bai and Li Yitong still habitually bought seats in the back row.

"Give."

The two sat down in their seats, and Li Yitong handed the popcorn and milk tea in her hand to Meng Bai.

"You don't want to eat it, but you were so enthusiastic about buying it just now." Meng Bai complained.

Li Yitong said confidently: "Watching a movie without popcorn would be a waste of atmosphere, and I didn't say I didn't want to eat it, I was just too lazy to take it."

Seeing her bright smile, Meng Bai didn't care.

Girl, just be happy first. After the movie is over, you will have the chance to cry.

Even before the show started, there were still spectators coming in from time to time. The back row was higher up, and Meng Bai roughly estimated that the attendance rate was about 30% to 40%.

Among the movies released during the Spring Festival, only "The Wandering Earth" had a midnight show, which was a decision made by Meng Bai and Guo Fan.

Science fiction themes themselves do not have an advantage, and they do not have a star cast or previous works like some other movies. The only way out is to rely on word of mouth to open up the market and form spontaneous publicity and recommendations from the audience, and only then may a miracle happen.

The midnight show is both an opportunity and a challenge for a cinema movie.

If the quality is excellent and the level is outstanding, then it will be able to take the lead among the movie-watching group; if the quality is poor or there are some major problems, it is very likely to cause public opinion before the official show begins, and there will not even be a chance to cheat people out of money.

Meng Bai and others naturally think that "The Wandering Earth" belongs to the former situation, but movies are sometimes hard to say, and no one can guarantee that their efforts will be accepted by the audience.

With this in mind, he sent a message to the main creators of "The Wandering Earth" in the WeChat group while the lights in the theater were still on.

Meng Bai: [I'm watching the midnight show, and it seems like the attendance is pretty good.]

Guo Fan: [What a coincidence, Gongger and I were also in the cinema. I just heard some audience members chatting next to me. Most of them came to support the original work.]

Gongger: [Of course. Our two most popular actors are Brother Jing and Teacher Liu.]

Wu Jing: [Unfortunately, I have something going on at home, so I can’t go and see it.]

Meng Bai: [It doesn't matter if you can't watch it, Brother Jing, you can buy the ticket, and it will be considered a contribution to our box office. According to the current trend, maybe we can even break the midnight box office record or something. ]

Wu Jing: [That makes sense. I’ll buy one for each of my family members and treat it as going out to the movies.]

Guo Fan: [Alas, I am a little worried now. Will the fans criticize us for changing the original work after watching it?]

Meng Bai: [It’s okay. My name is on the screenwriter column anyway. If I really get scolded, I’ll be the first one.]

Guo Fan: [Fans: Push him out and burn him to death.]

Gongger: [Use low heat! (Smile)]

Meng Bai: [The opponent threw a two-dimensional foil at you.jpg]

"Is anyone looking for you?"

Li Yitong, who was standing by, saw him holding his phone and sending WeChat messages for a long time and asked curiously.

"Old Guo and the others are also outside with their families watching the midnight show." Meng Bai glanced at her sideways at the screen of his cell phone.

Li Yitong glanced at them but didn't pay much attention to them. However, she was very satisfied with the title of "family" and smiled: "They must be under a lot of pressure now."

"Of course. Five years of hard work, success or failure depends on this one move." Meng Bai said with emotion.

"Yeah, I hope it'll be a big hit at the box office."

Seeing that Li Yitong was no longer interested in his phone, Meng Bai took the time to reply to a few WeChat messages to Li Qin, Song Zhi and others, saying that he was watching a midnight movie with Guo Fan and others.

Li Qin and the others have all gone home now, so after hearing what he said, it would be a bad idea to disturb them any further, so they can have a quiet night.

Time slowly approached midnight, and the lights in the theater dimmed. Finally, with the appearance of the golden dragon familiar to all domestic audiences on the screen, the movie finally began.

“Initially, no one cared about the disaster.

It's just a wildfire, a drought, the extinction of a species, the disappearance of a city.

Until this disaster is closely related to everyone

......"

On the screen, news footage flashed by. It didn't look like a movie, but more like watching the "News Broadcast". But the effect was very good. A few simple scenes and language switching immediately made people feel that this was a "global" disaster.

Meng Baixin was doing two things at once, watching the movie while paying attention to the audience's state.

At the beginning, you can hear some whispers from time to time. Many people are puzzled. Apart from the "dungeon", "holographic classroom" and "dried earthworms", there seems to be no big scene.

Where's the special effects movie? It's not just a few metallic rooms.

Many viewers were confused.

Until, in the plot, Liu Qi and Han Duoduo took the elevator from the underground city to the ground.

"Stand still!"

"call--"

On the screen, a strong wind mixed with cold air and snowflakes blew into the elevator, causing the inexperienced male and female protagonists, who were going out for the first time, to stagger.

At the same time, this scene also blew into the hearts of the audience.

Then, the camera slowly pulled up, and the tall mining machinery, the cold armored engineering vehicles, the "Earth Engine" full of violent aesthetics, and the blue tail flame shooting straight into the sky appeared in the audience's field of vision.

"Wow--"

Even though everyone knew that people were not allowed to make noise in theaters, there were still exclamations of surprise in the theater when they saw this magnificent scene.

Li Yitong, who was sitting on the side, had no interest in this kind of movie, she was just accompanying Meng Bai. But now, she was completely immersed in this apocalyptic scene.

Meng Bai looked at her wide-eyed expression and couldn't help but chuckle, while glancing at the screen again. Although he had seen this scene many times, he couldn't help but exclaim in admiration every time he saw it.

But the shock the movie brought to the audience was not over yet.

A frozen world stretching for thousands of miles, the Oriental Pearl Tower wrapped in ice, the fallen Hangzhou underground city, whales frozen in the air... until the final explosion of the space station and ignition of Jupiter.

Every plot is refreshing the audience's perception of domestic science fiction films, and every shot is challenging the limits of everyone's imagination.

Just as Guo Fan said before, most of the audience who choose to watch the midnight show on New Year's Eve are either fans of Liu Cixin or science fiction fans.

I watched the two-hour movie with exclamations almost throughout the entire process until the end.

Until the final credits came out, most people were still immersed in the world of the movie.

"Wow, this movie is really..."

Li Yitong sighed at the side, Meng Bai looked at her: "How do you feel?"

"Very good!" the girl praised without hesitation, "I feel it's much better than those Hollywood blockbusters. And you don't need to read the subtitles, you can just watch the plot directly. Are there any Easter eggs in the end?"

"No, we didn't arrange any Easter eggs in the first film."

In fact, during the production, Meng Bai and Guo Fan also discussed whether to add an Easter egg at the end, such as a trailer for the second part. But in the end, everyone gave up the idea.

Not to mention that we still don't know whether the first part will be successful, and whether there will be a second part. Even if there is, they haven't decided what to shoot in the second part yet, so where is the trailer? It feels meaningless to add more, so let's just end it normally.

The lights in the theater came on, and the two put on their coats and followed the audience out.

Meng Bai walked out while listening to the discussions around him. Undoubtedly, most of the audience had similar thoughts as Li Yitong, and were completely shocked.

"I can only say that I didn't waste a few hours of my time by going out to watch a movie in the middle of the night on New Year's Day." "Indeed, this movie can be considered a high-quality domestic science fiction."

"Fuck, this is called 'quality control'? This is awesome!"

"I've watched The Three-Body Problem before, and since I'm on holiday for the Chinese New Year, I have to finish watching The Wandering Earth as well."

"The original is quite short. If you read it quickly, you can finish it in no time when you go back."

"..."

The advantage of everyone being a fan of the same type is that even if you don’t know each other, you can still chat with each other.

Listening to the audience's discussion, Meng Bai gradually gained confidence. At least judging from the response of the first batch of audiences, the quality of the film was still a success.

When he walked outside the theater, he saw the two boys again. They obviously didn't notice Meng Bai behind them, who was talking enthusiastically about the movie.

"How about it? It's not in vain that you came out to watch a movie with me."

"Indeed, this movie is pretty good, but I feel that Han Duoduo's global broadcast at the end was a bit exaggerated. Not to mention that an ordinary middle school girl could give a fluent speech, the rescue team who received the news actually believed it and went back."

"You are just arguing. Movies are supposed to be about atmosphere first. Can you really write lines at the level of a junior high school student? Besides, you don't understand the power of loli girls at all. Didn't you see that the rescue team turned back the first time they heard that it was a young girl asking for help?"

"It is indeed difficult to understand the thinking of you nerds."

"Stupid Xianchong... I don't think I'm satisfied with this movie after watching it once. Tomorrow, no, I have to go out to visit relatives and friends during the day. I plan to watch it again when I have time on the second day of the New Year."

"Okay……"

Watching the two people slowly walking away, Meng Bai was happy - that's good, he has already gained two viewers who came to watch the show for the second time.

"Hello, Meng Bai."

Li Yitong called out to him, "Look, it's snowing."

Meng Bai looked up at the sky, and sure enough, snowflakes were falling from the gray sky. Soon, the roads and buildings were dyed white.

It’s pretty good, and it fits the atmosphere of the movie.

"Auspicious snow indicates a good harvest." Meng Bai sighed, "I hope this Spring Festival season will also have a good harvest."

"Of course." Li Yitong said firmly.

Meng Bai retracted his gaze and looked at the girl beside him: "It's the New Year and we need to have some sense of ceremony. Let's go back and have a New Year's Eve party."

"Bah, you rascal!" Li Yitong's eyes curved like crescent moons. "Besides, it's already the New Year."

"That's right, let's have the first shot of the New Year to boost our momentum!"

"..."
-
Thanks to the increase in ticket prices, the box office performance of "The Wandering Earth" at the midnight show reached more than 1500 million, surpassing the previous "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back" and setting a new "domestic film midnight show" box office record.

However, box office is just a side issue. What is really important is the audience evaluation and word of mouth derived from it.

Although the time is too short and the scores have not been announced yet, many viewers of the midnight shows have expressed their praise for "The Wandering Earth" on Weibo and various social platforms, and some people have spontaneously promoted and recommended it in their own circle of friends.

Meng Bai spent the whole day with Li Yitong on the first day of the Lunar New Year and they separated only when she had to return to the crew on the second day.

After watching her get on the plane, Meng Bai turned around and went to Guo Fan. Coincidentally, the statistics for the first day of the Spring Festival have been released.

"How much did we do at the box office yesterday?"

"1.9."

"That sounds pretty good. If you include the midnight show, it will be over 2 million."

Meng Bai raised his eyebrows, and then saw Guo Fan and Gongger's happy expressions, "Looking at the two of you, we weren't the single-day champions yesterday, were we?"

"No, the champion on the first day was Crazy Alien, with a box office of 4.1 million yuan; Speeding Life was second, with 3.2 million yuan; and The New King of Comedy was third, with 2.7 million yuan."

"Well……"

Meng Bai smacked his lips. Well, the difference is indeed quite big, but this is also expected. The vast majority of the audience will definitely go for Huang Bo, Shen Teng or Zhou Xingchi first.

only……

"Although the results are okay, you don't have to be so petty. Are you so happy about ranking fourth?"

Guo Fan stroked the stubble on his chin and said cheerfully, "We're not happy about being ranked fourth, but our results are definitely better than fourth."

"Oh, what do you say?"

Guo Fan handed over the complete data sent by the cinema. Meng Bai took a glance at it and immediately understood.

If we only talk about the box office performance, then there is nothing to say about "The Wandering Earth". But from another perspective, they took more than 11% of the box office share despite accounting for 13% of the screenings.

More importantly, the average theater attendance rate throughout the day yesterday was as high as 60%, which is similar to "Crazy Alien" and far exceeds the other two films.

Meng Bai naturally understood the significance of this data: fewer screenings but higher box office, and the attendance rate further proved the audience's enthusiasm for the movie.

The fact that "The Wandering Earth" can achieve this data ahead of three other blockbusters is enough to prove its value, and an increase in the screening schedule is a foregone conclusion.

Sure enough, Guo Fan told Meng Bai that the cinema had increased their screening schedule to 17.4% today. The extra portion was taken from "Speeding Life" and "The New King of Comedy".

"Are these two movies bad?" Meng Bai asked.

"'Speeding Life' is okay, 7.1 points is acceptable." Guo Fan said: "'The New King of Comedy' is a bit bad, the opening score is 5.9, and there are quite a lot of negative reviews."

As a classic IP of "Master Xing", "The New King of Comedy" has been pursuing the "sentiment" route from the very beginning.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with talking about "feelings". After more than 20 years, it is also nice to let fans feel the "dreams, efforts, and struggles" again.

It's a pity that this new sequel was messed up.

Or to be more precise, the film company was not aiming to make a good film from the beginning. This movie was originally a work that Zhou Xingchi made temporarily to meet the requirements of the bet. It took only four months from the project establishment to the release.

I have to say, this speed is very much in the style of Hong Kong movies of that time.

However, today's audiences are no longer the newbies who found everything interesting. With the rise of Hollywood blockbusters and domestic films, people's requirements for movies have increased countless times. Just relying on the word "dream" is no longer enough to attract audiences.

"What about us?" Meng Bai asked.

"The Douban score is 8.3, which is pretty good." Guo Fan suppressed the smile on his face, but anyone could see that he was in a good mood.

But it is true that the score of 8.3, especially on Douban, which has always been more stringent on domestic films, does prove that the quality of the film is extremely high.

In comparison, "Crazy Alien", which also has science fiction elements, only scored 6.7 points, which is considered Ning Hao's worst movie in recent years.

Although the two crews have a good relationship and Ning Hao has borrowed many of their props and scenes before, during this release period, they are more like competitors.

Among the "Four Heavenly Kings" of the Spring Festival, "The Wandering Earth" has a great reputation and the data is also very good, which is enough to prove that this movie has great potential.

that's the truth.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, the second day of the Spring Festival period, the box office charts changed dramatically.

"Crazy Alien" continued to lead with a single-day box office of 2.8 million, winning another single-day championship.

The second place went to The Wandering Earth, which had a single-day box office of 2.6 million, becoming the only movie to rise against the trend. At the same time, it continued to maintain an extremely high attendance rate of 50%, which directly shocked the entire film market.

Guo Fan and his team were very excited about this and were looking forward to the subsequent results. Maybe they could win a single-day championship or something.

In response to this, Meng Bai said without hesitation that you really have no vision. What's the point of being a single-day champion? Why can't it be the overall champion during the Spring Festival?

Even further, last year's annual champion was "Operation Red Sea" during the Spring Festival. How could "The Wandering Earth", also a Spring Festival work, not win an annual box office champion?

(End of this chapter)