Chapter 480 One Billion Box Office!

"Due to the flu, the film industry was suspended for half a year. This is a major loss for both production companies and cinema chains. Now that it has reopened, we hope that all parties can unite and cooperate to restore the normal and orderly operation of the film industry..."

In the small conference room of the Film Bureau, the deputy director who had just taken office was persuading Huayi and Hengteng who were standing on both sides.

Since the Film Bureau was separated from the Radio, Film and Television and directly under the Central Propaganda Department in 2018, the film industry has become part of demonstrating cultural confidence.

In the past, the authorities would not bother to pay attention to the two film and television companies when they were arguing with each other, but this is not the case at this juncture.

The cinemas have finally reopened, and "The Eight Hundred" and "Famous" are the first two new films to be released. Everyone is waiting for them to get good box office results to boost the confidence of the industry.

As a result, not long after the film was released, they started to fight with each other.

It would be fine if it was normal competition, but seeing that the "tactics" of both sides were beginning to affect their respective box office, the Film Bureau could no longer tolerate it and had to quickly call the two parties together, which led to the current situation.

On the surface, it is an attempt to persuade the two sides to reconcile, but the actual meaning is to hint to people on both sides that during this sensitive period, they should not go too far.

No matter Huayi or Hengteng, there are no fools on either side, so they can naturally understand what the leaders mean. So the purpose of coming here today is to express our attitude, and everyone should take a step back and solve this matter.

After the deputy director finished speaking, Chen Zhixi and Meng Bai beside him looked at each other and said first: "As practitioners, we are all deeply touched by the current situation of the film industry. As a member of the industry, we at Heng Teng also hope to contribute to the recovery of the entire industry."

At this point, she took a deep look at Wang Zhonglei and Liu Ge who were sitting opposite her, and continued, "In business competition, it is normal for there to be some misunderstandings and frictions. We are also willing to reach a consensus on cooperation with Huayi, but the prerequisite is that the other party must issue an apology statement first."

"Oh, Mr. Chen, that's not right." Liu Ge laughed dryly and said, "Now it's you Heng Teng who are attacking us through public opinion, how come we have to apologize?"

"Mr. Liu, if you don't have evidence, don't talk nonsense. We all know who is manipulating public opinion. We don't want to apologize for what happened right now, but for the inexplicable trend you set in your WeChat Moments essay at the beginning. If we trace it back to the source, you were the first to do it."

"Mr. Chen, please don't take it personally. I was just expressing my personal feelings about the 'cinema stealing box office' issue..."

"Duh!"

Liu Ge was interrupted halfway through his words. The deputy director knocked his knuckles on the table to stop the two of them: "Enough, what are you arguing about? Didn't we just say that we should reach a consensus and work together?"

After stopping the arguing parties, he looked at the leader sitting beside him and said, "Minister Nie, look at this..."

"I just happened to come here to listen. You can handle your movie matters on your own."

Minister Nie said with a smile: "But I think that the one who made the first move should take a step back. This is definitely reasonable."

The deputy director understood what he said immediately. He nodded and turned to look at Huayi: "Mr. Wang, as a senior in the film and television industry, you Huayi should set an example, right?"

Wang Zhonglei, who had been silent for a long time, looked gloomy when he heard this.

He was also familiar with the "Minister Nie" just now. He was the Deputy Minister of the Propaganda Department and Director of the Bureau of Radio, Film and Television. It could be said that the entire domestic entertainment industry was under his jurisdiction.

When he came in to say hello, he was curious about why this person was here today. Now it seems that he was recruited by Heng Teng.

Wang Zhonglei quickly glanced at Chen Zhixi opposite him, but found that she also had a surprised look on her face, which was a bit unexpected. Almost subconsciously, he turned his gaze to the young man who had been silent and had a faint smile on his face.

Could it be him?

Many thoughts came to mind, but this was not the time to delve into them. Wang Zhonglei forced a smile and replied, "Yes, you are right. This time, we may have had some ambiguity in our expression, which affected Mr. Chen and his team. This was indeed our mistake and we should apologize."

After he finished speaking, he glanced at Liu Ge beside him. The latter sighed inwardly, but immediately cooperated and said, "It is indeed my responsibility this time. It has caused a negative impact on Heng Teng. After we go back today, we will immediately issue an apology statement to minimize the damage caused."

Chen Zhixi thought there would be some wrangling, but she didn't expect the situation to be settled in the blink of an eye. Of course, she also knew that this was because the official leaders supported her, but she didn't quite understand why.

A thought flashed through her mind, and she glanced at Meng Bai beside her. Although the other party didn't say a word, she always felt that this matter was related to him.

Well, now is not the time to ask. I’ll ask after we get out.

Since Huayi expressed its willingness to issue a statement to apologize and will jointly promote the two films, Chen Zhixi did not push any further and said that Hengten will work together to restore the film market.

The subtext is that all the marketing accounts and soft articles on their side will be stopped.

Both sides shook hands and made peace, and everyone was happy.

After everything was settled, Wang Zhonglei came over with a smile on his face: "I'm sorry, Mr. Chen, I accidentally hurt you this time. I hope that next time when we have new movies released together, everyone can be more harmonious."

"It's the same for us, Mr. Wang. We also hope that the movie business will only be about the movie, without anything else getting mixed up in it." Chen Zhixi also smiled back.

Wang Zhonglei's expression froze for a moment after hitting a soft nail, but he recovered immediately. He laughed and looked at Meng Bai behind Chen Zhixi.

Before this, he really didn't care much about this young man.

Firstly, Chen Zhixi was the one who was in the front from the beginning to the end, and he had rarely seen Meng Bai; secondly, the other party seemed too young and had too little experience, and his main business in the past was online dramas, which made people unconsciously think that he should not be involved in the film industry.

But now think about it, this young man is definitely not that simple to have built such a big business empire at such a young age.

Wang Zhonglei had a vague suspicion that the reason why Nie Bu stood on Heng Teng's side today had something to do with this young man.

Thinking of this, he extended his hand: "Mr. Meng, nice to meet you. I hope we can cooperate more in the future if there is a chance."

Meng Bai smiled and said, "Mr. Wang, you're too polite. I'll definitely do it next time."

Wang Zhonglei frowned. This answer felt strange.

Seeing the people from Huayi leave, Chen Zhixi finally breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to ask Meng Bai about what happened today, he saw that "Minister Nie" standing at the door and shouted, "Xiao Meng, please stay for a moment. I have something to tell you."

"Okay, Director Nie, I'll be right there."

Meng Bai responded, then looked at Chen Zhixi who was standing aside with a surprised look on his face, and whispered, "I'll go over first, Sister Xi, if you have anything to say, let's talk when we get back."

"Ah good."

Chen Zhixi watched Meng Bai walk over and greet the "Minister Nie" in a very familiar manner, and then he realized - it turned out that he actually knew him.

I thought I would have to wait for a while, but I didn't expect him to come back in just ten minutes.

Seeing Meng Bai's slightly frowning expression, Chen Zhixi asked, "Why, is there any bad news?" "Ah?" Meng Bai was stunned for a moment, then reacted, "The news is indeed news, but it's hard to say whether it's bad or not. Why are you asking this?"

"Nothing, I'm just a little curious, do you know Minister Nie?"

"Yes, we've known each other for many years. In the beginning, he was only in charge of the film and television department, and later he was promoted step by step." Meng Bai gave a brief introduction.

Chen Zhixi suddenly realized, but then frowned and said, "It's a bit of a waste to invite him here for such a small matter today."

"Who told you that I was the one who found him?" Meng Bai spread his hands. "He came here today for something, and I just happened to run into him. Otherwise, I would definitely keep this kind of important relationship for when I need it."

"That's true." Chen Zhixi smiled, "So, what did he talk to you about just now?"

"Nothing serious. We just talked about the recent situation and the box office performance of the movie. By the way, he also told me that the Film Bureau is discussing 'separate distribution' and may choose a movie as a pilot in the future."

"Distribute through separate lines?" Chen Zhixi was puzzled. "Hasn't this been discussed for several years? Why is it suddenly brought up again?"

The so-called "distribution by lines" simply means that a movie will be broadcast in different theaters, theater chains, regions, and rounds, rather than being released uniformly in all theater chains as it is now.

Distributors can freely negotiate cooperation conditions with theaters based on the characteristics of different movies, including negotiating the profit sharing ratio. This can not only meet the audience's diverse needs for movies, but also give small-scale films more opportunities.

Of course, “distribution through different channels” is not all good. It requires more sophisticated operations and marketing, and more importantly, it requires the expansion of the cultivation of different types of audiences.

Because the operation is difficult, the film industry has discussed this for several years, but it has never been implemented. I don’t know whether the Film Bureau brought up the old issue again because it thinks the current film market conditions are sufficient or whether it has some new plans.

But then again, even if the authorities really want to do it, it will take at least a year and a half to conduct careful research before they dare to start trying, so it has little to do with these film companies in the short term.

"Let's first see how much the final box office of 'Famous' can be." Meng Bai said: "The platform's box office forecast is 10 billion. No one will interfere with it. Let's see if we can reach it."
-
With the official intervention to "mediate", Huayi decisively issued an apology statement, expressing its deep apologies for the adverse impact of the "bad remarks" on Hengten and the currently airing "Famous".

Netizens who saw this news were stunned. How come the two sides were fighting to the death yesterday, but they just knelt down today?

This is not the end. Many people found that a few days ago, "bad reviews" about "Eight Hundred" and "Famous" were everywhere on the Internet, but suddenly more than half of them disappeared overnight.

Of course, it’s not to say that there are no negative reviews at all, but the rest of them are obviously posted by the audience themselves or are just trying to catch the trend, and they don’t have that overwhelming momentum.

In this way, the two films finally returned to a normal public opinion environment.

However, in comparison, "Famous" has some advantages. After all, Hengten started the attack on "Eight Hundred" first, while Huayi was stopped just after it started, and the few negative reviews were scolded back by the audience, which was equivalent to having no impact at all.

This is reflected in the box office. The growth rate of "Eight Hundred" has slowed down slightly, while "Famous" has attracted many new audiences because of this wave of popularity.

Half a month after its release, "Eight Hundred" continues to maintain its position as the box office champion, leading with a score of 18 billion. "Famous" ranks second, with a total box office of 8.5 million, and it is just around the corner to "break ten".

This period coincides with the Chinese Valentine's Day, and there are several romance films released in the film market. The most popular one is "Wild Oats" starring Ma Sichun, Zhong Chuxi and Huang Jingyu.

Unfortunately, the plot of this movie is too bad. After earning 3400 million yuan on the first day, it collapsed on the second day. After ten days of release, the total box office is less than 5000 million yuan, which is a terrible flop.

The performance of other small-budget films was also mediocre. The only one that had some influence was Nolan’s new film "Tenet".

Meng Bai watched this movie privately, and it still had the familiar brain-burning style, including the novel setting of "reverse time and space".

This is different from the so-called "reverse timeline" works that travel through the past timeline and then move forward normally. The timeline setting of "Tenet" is more like "reversing cause and effect" - a simple explanation can be understood as the bullet hits first, and then the shot is fired.

This is a very strange movie-watching experience. The only problem is that it is a bit too counterintuitive, which causes many people to not understand it in one go.

Perhaps it is for this reason that the film’s box office performance was mediocre, earning only 200 million in the first week.

This is good news for Hengten. At least there is no need to worry about it affecting the box office in the final period of time.

……

Blue Island, Blue Island Bay Bridge connecting line.

Compared to the busy main bridge next door, this newly built cross-bay bridge has always been empty because it has not yet been officially opened to traffic.

But today, a large number of people and filming equipment unexpectedly gathered here.

At the bridge head, there is a bus parked with a red banner hanging on the body of the bus - "Opening Ceremony of the Film Crew of the Online Drama "The Beginning"".

This is the start of filming for Arclight's latest "Retrospective Series", the second part of "The Beginning". The leading actors and staff of the crew have just finished burning incense, unveiling the red cloth, taking photos, etc., and will now go their own way.

"Oh, luckily the movie was taken off the screen before filming started, otherwise I really wouldn't have been in the mood to shoot it."

On one side of the crew, Director Wu Bai said with emotion.

"To Be Famous" just ended its screening period two days ago, and as the director of the film, this guy finally put his mind at ease.

The final box office of the movie was set at 12.3 billion, far exceeding the initial forecast.

This achievement is due, firstly, to the quality of the film itself and, secondly, to this special time slot with almost no competitors.

As for "The Eight Hundred" released at the same time, perhaps affected by the previous twists and turns, its final box office fell to 28 billion and failed to break through .

It seems that the box office revenue of the two movies differs by more than ten billion, but if we really calculate the actual profits of the producers, it is hard to say which one has more.

The production investment of "Eight Hundred" is 6 million yuan, plus the publicity, the box office must exceed 21 billion yuan to recover the investment. With the current performance, the producer can only make more than 3 million yuan.

The production cost of "Fame and Fame" is only 5000 million yuan. If the box office exceeds million yuan, it will not lose money. In total, it can make about million yuan, or even more.

One gained face, the other gained substance. It can only be said that both Huayi and Hengteng are quite satisfied with this.

For the entire industry, the success of these two films also means that the film market has indeed begun to recover. Therefore, various companies have contacted theaters and are preparing to continue to release previously suspended projects.

The domestic film market has finally come back to life.

(End of this chapter)

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