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

Chapter 478 Things are fermenting
"Hey, Mr. Sun, how come you have time to come to my place today?"

In the cinema's office, Liu Liang poured a cup of tea for the man opposite him and said half-jokingly.

"Come on, we've known each other for so many years, how could we not know each other? Stop calling me Old Sun." The man took a sip of tea and cursed with a smile.

Liu Liang also laughed. This Old Sun, like him, opened a cinema in Guang'an.

After a few pleasantries, Lao Sun said with emotion: "I thought you were joking before, but I didn't expect that when I came here today, I found that you really weren't on "Eight Hundred"."

"My two cinemas have a deposit of more than 100,000 yuan in total. We are already short of money, so where can we get the money?" Liu Liang sighed, "At least your cinema chain has borne part of the cost for you. We don't get any subsidies at all."

Both of them owned small theaters with annual box office of less than 200 million yuan, but Lao Sun only owned one theater, and it was affiliated with another theater chain. After paying a deposit of yuan, he finally got the screening rights of "Eight Hundred".

Old Sun snorted and laughed. "It's worth it if you get it. My theater is big enough to hold ten shows a day at most. During the flu season, there are about 20 people in each show, and the daily box office is 7,000 to 8,000. And they also require the keys to be changed every day, so I have to find someone to work overtime to connect them. After deducting the labor and costs from this month's share, I make very little money."

Although Huayi said that the "deposit" will be returned later, who knows how long it will take. After working so hard to earn such a small amount of money, it doesn't seem worth it no matter how you calculate it.

Old Sun cursed in his heart more than once, thinking that the gang making the movie must be using the deposit of people like him to make interest, and "freeloading" them.

“So I say, you might as well have done the same as me and just given up on The Eight Hundred.” Liu Liang said, “The performance of The Fame will hold up this week without any problem. Next week we have The Wild Goose Lake, which will be released on the Qixi Festival, and Nolan’s Tenet the week after that. We don’t need another The Eight Hundred.”

"Forget it, I've already paid, so I'll just leave it alone for now. Any profit is good."

As soon as Old Sun finished speaking, he smiled and said, "Speaking of which, the guy surnamed Wang in the west of the city has the same idea as you. He also doesn't want to pay the money. He plans to rely on the movie "Famous" to support him until the Qixi Festival. It's very comfortable."

Liu Liang frowned. "That's not right. He should have paid the deposit. When I looked at the schedules of our local cinemas yesterday, he had a screening of The Eight Hundred."

"How is that possible? When we were chatting a few days ago, he told me that he didn't plan to hand over Mo's money." Lao Sun said with some disbelief.

But he soon stopped talking, because from the ticket purchasing platform's APP, he could indeed see that the other cinema had scheduled "Eight Hundred".

"Hey, this Wang guy told me he didn't have any money, but now he's bullying me, you son of a bitch!"

Old Sun was also impatient, so he took out his phone and called: "Fuck you, you idiot, you want to argue with me over such a small matter..."

Liu Liang was drinking tea and watching the fun. He was not very familiar with the "Boss Wang", but he knew that the two had been friends for many years.

As he watched, he found that Old Sun's face gradually darkened, his brows knitted together, and his tone of voice became hurried, as if he was trying to confirm something with the other party.

After a while, he finally put down the phone, and Liu Liang hurriedly asked, "What's wrong?"

Old Sun was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly cursed: "Fuck those bastards from Huayi! They were reluctant to give up the first week's box office, so they contacted those theaters that didn't pay the deposit and secretly gave them the key to release the film."

Liu Liang was stunned for a moment: "This... No way. Huayi is such a big company after all, how can it do this? And if there is any private cooperation, why don't I know about it."

"I don't know why you didn't cooperate, but Lao Wang did it this way. He said the cinema chain told them to say that if anyone asked, they should say that the cinema chain helped them get it, but in fact, it was Huayi that gave it themselves."

At this point, Old Sun spat angrily: "If I had known they were going to do this, I would never have paid Mozi's deposit. Fuck him*&……%￥#"

He cursed for about five minutes before he stopped and drank the tea on the table in front of him.

"Calm down." Liu Liang poured him another glass. "If this is true, then what Huayi did this time was really a bit unkind."

"No, we can't just let this go like this."

Old Sun slammed the table and said, "This shouldn't be a problem only in our theaters. I have to ask other theaters if this is the case. If I catch these bastards, I will make them give me their deposit!"

Watching his friend leave, Liu Liang returned to the office and shook his head with emotion.

This is the first time I've heard of such a thing after working in this field for so many years.

Sure enough, there was nothing wrong with my initial decision not to pay the deposit.
-
The first weekend of the summer season has ended, and the box office results of the only two new films on the theater market have been released.

The Eight Hundred took the first place in the first week with a box office of 600 million yuan. If the results of the previous previews are added, the total box office has reached 800 million yuan.

In comparison, the performance of "Famous" was a little worse. It took in 2.7 million yuan in the first weekend, and the cumulative total was nearly million yuan, ranking second.

Although the box office revenue was cut in half, no one would think that "Fame and Fame" performed poorly.

A low-budget movie that paid back its investment and started making money within three days of its release would be a very successful project no matter where it is.

Although they were released at the same time, one was a big-budget historical war film with a cost of nearly 600 million yuan, and the other was a low-budget detective comedy with a cost of 50 million yuan. No one would force them to compare the numbers.

Chen Zhixi and Meng Bai were not unhappy about the result. They had just wanted to take a gamble, but they didn't expect that the "bicycle would turn into a sports car".

The movie's reputation has also remained good. Although the number of people rating it has been increasing, it has always maintained an opening score of 8.0.

[The ending is terrifying if you think about it carefully. The newspaper says that a ship sank. Is it the ship that the protagonists are on? ]

[The Nightingale story was probably made up by Qi Leshan. These two people are probably members of the underground party. Killing the three elders was not revenge, but because they smuggled arms to make money in the national crisis.]

[The little girl died in pursuit of her dream of becoming an entertainer. The unspoken rules are fake. The patriots are brave and wise and kill the enemy to serve the country. That is true.]

[It’s so funny, “Nine out of ten projects fail, this is normal for commercial investment”, isn’t this really Mr. Meng’s self-deprecation? 】

【…】

Although "Famous" is also set in the Republic of China, the overall structure is obviously fictional, so there is no controversy about the background setting. The vast majority of comments are directed at the plot itself.

As for "Eight Hundred", the score of 7.5 is also acceptable. However, in recent days, many viewers have questioned the plot and characters online, believing that the creators are intentionally using the dedication and sacrifice of the National Army soldiers to beautify the outrageous actions of the Kuomintang.

[The National Army is the National Army, and the Kuomintang is the Kuomintang. I hope that when you voice your support, you can clearly distinguish between the two groups of people. ] [No way, no way, these days, there are really people who want to whitewash Sun Paopao? Don’t you know that this person is the master of the famous “Wind, Forest, Fire and Mountain” military theory! ]

[Isn't the above a commendatory word? ]

[Retreat and advance, it is as fast as the wind; support and encirclement, it is as slow as the forest; harass the people, invade like fire; when the friendly forces are in trouble, do not move like a mountain - the so-called "wind, forest, fire and volcano". ]

[It's okay to bluff, I'm used to adding personal opinions. But it's normal that there are some fictional elements in the details. The movie as a whole is still well made. ]

【…】

Although there are many controversies, the overall evaluation is still positive, and at least it will not affect the box office growth of the movie.

Following this trend, there is no doubt that the final total box office of "The Eight Hundred" will exceed 20 billion, and there is even a chance that it will reach 30 billion.

Huayi must be delighted with this achievement, after all, this is one of their few hits in recent years.

But before Huayi could be happy for too long, a piece of news about them spread on the Internet.

The operator of a small cinema revealed that the producer of "The Eight Hundred" Huayi Film and Television illegally collected a "deposit", but secretly provided keys to cinemas that did not pay, affecting the rights and interests of cinemas that paid.

A single stone can cause a thousand ripples, and soon a large number of small cinema owners from other places appeared online and confirmed the situation.

At the beginning, many netizens did not understand what this meant, but as more and more people came out with information, the cause and effect of the matter became clear.

As a leading company in the domestic film industry, Huayi is well-known among ordinary audiences. Therefore, as soon as the news broke, it immediately attracted a large number of people who came to watch the fun.

What everyone already knows is that it is true that Huayi collected a deposit, it is also true that it privately provided the first week keys to theaters that did not pay the deposit, and it is also true that the theaters that paid the money were wronged.

It all depends on how Huayi responds.

Huayi must have been prepared for this situation. It first issued a statement on its official Weibo account, saying that "the purpose of collecting deposits is to prevent small cinemas from stealing box office revenue," and that only more than 200 cinemas had not paid, which was a very small minority.

However, the second half of this statement was soon overturned. According to various comprehensive data comparisons, the number of cinemas that did not pay the deposit was at least over 2000.

Huayi chose to avoid discussing this argument and adopted a follow-up plan, pushing the blame on the cinema chain. It said that the reason why some theaters "did not pay the deposit but still got the movie key" was because the cinema chain paid for them.

However, this excuse is not very effective, because some relevant practitioners on the cinema chain side stated that they did not reach any payment cooperation, and everything was communicated between the film company and the cinema itself.

Obviously, the cinema chain was also very dissatisfied with Huayi's "tyrannical terms". Although they did not directly quarrel with each other to save their own face, the subtext proved that Huayi's explanation was pure bullshit.

At this point, many people have actually understood what happened. It's hard to say what the original motive was, but the specific situation is that Huayi came up with a rule because its customers were too powerful to be bullying the store, but then they were reluctant to give up the movie's box office, so they ended up staging this drama.

"Haha, just as I said before, Huayi is indeed doing something behind the scenes."

Chen Zhixi looked at the various summaries and interview reports on the Internet and said with a smile: "I said that the data of "Eight Hundred" was not as expected. Sure enough, I guessed it right."

"Wow, Sister Xi is awesome!" Meng Bai clapped his hands twice perfunctorily.

It's not that he doesn't care about this matter, but no matter what the truth is, it is ultimately a dispute within the film industry. Most of the netizens online are just following the story for fun, and it has no impact on ordinary audiences, nor does it affect the box office of "Eight Hundred".

He was a little uninterested in other people's affairs. Just as he was about to change the subject, he suddenly heard Chen Zhixi slam the table and curse, "No, Huayi and the others are sick, right? Just have fun by yourself. What does this have to do with us?"

Meng Bai was startled by her sudden outburst. Hearing this, he stood up and walked over to ask, "What did you see that made you so angry all of a sudden?"

"Look for yourself." Chen Zhixi took a deep breath and handed over the phone.

Meng Bai took it and took a look. It was an article from a marketing account, talking about Huayi’s recent turmoil.

However, unlike other similar marketing accounts, this article stands on the side of Huayi. The entire article downplays the issue of different treatment of deposits, and instead focuses on saying that "the deposit clause is intended to resist small cinemas stealing box office revenue."

By the way, a screenshot was added to the article, which was a "small essay in the circle of friends" sent by Liu Ge, the general manager of Huayi Publishing.

"To quote Mr. Lu Xun: A soldier with flaws is still a soldier after all, and a perfect fly is still a fly... This time, "Eight Hundred" says no to all the 'theaters that steal box office revenue'... If anyone wants to plead for the 'theaters that steal box office revenue', I will hang up the phone immediately, and if you mention it on WeChat three times, I will block them immediately..."

Objectively speaking, regardless of the motive, most of what is said in this essay is still very reasonable. The fact that small theaters steal box office revenue is indeed a chronic disease in the film industry, and Huayi's behavior this time can more or less curb some of the trend.

But as he watched, Meng Bai couldn't help but frown.

I don't know if he was too excited or did it on purpose, but Mr. Liu added a sentence at the end: "I hope the entire industry can unite to fight this chronic disease. I also hope that other movies that are being released at the same time will not only focus on short-term benefits and become accomplices to the evil, and we should all work together to resist the bad trends in the industry."

The so-called "other movies being screened at the same time" certainly does not refer to those re-released movies. In addition to "Eight Hundred", the new movie "Famous" is now on the theater line.

Although it is not explicitly stated in the original text, anyone who pays a little attention to movies can immediately guess who this is referring to.

"That doesn't make sense." Meng Bai stroked his chin, "We didn't join them in getting a deposit and sending out more promotional materials. Does that count as aiding and abetting the evil?"

"Oh, just looking for a reason to divert attention online." Chen Zhixi sneered, "Suddenly there are so many soft articles with similar content, is there any other possibility?"

Generally speaking, any marketing articles with similar content that appear in large quantities in a short period of time are basically sent by the parties themselves.

After cursing for a while, Chen Zhixi calmed down: "Let's find someone to communicate with the other party first and ask what Huayi means."

"I'll make the contact." Meng Bai said, "But if you ask me, there's no need to talk. If they don't follow the rules, there's no need for us to worry about it."

"It's better to ask first, so that they won't find other excuses."

(End of this chapter)