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

Chapter 548 How did CCTV12 become an entertainment channel?
Thanks to a wave of official reposts, the popularity of "Escape from the British Museum" has been renewed, and its popularity even surpassed this year's National Day holiday.

However, this is also related to the poor quality of the movies released during this year's National Day holiday. Apart from "A Thousand Miles Home", there is no other movie that can support the box office.

The cumulative box office of more than ten movies during the entire National Day holiday was less than 1.5 billion, setting a record low in recent years. The entire film industry was in mourning, and major theaters and cinemas shouted "movie winter".

It was at this time that Wanda Cinemas, the largest private cinema chain in China, suddenly issued an announcement stating that it had reached an acquisition intention with Ruyi, and the latter would become a new shareholder of Wanda Cinemas.

"So, Wanda Cinemas belongs to you now?"

In the screening room of China Film Digital Base, Guo Fan asked curiously to Meng Bai who was sitting next to him.

He always felt that every time he retreated for a while to make a movie and then came out, the person next to him would do something shocking.

"You can't say that. Ruyi took over Wanda Films. Their operations are not under my control." Meng Bai said: "Wanda Films is still in a loss-making state. I may let Sister Xi take charge next."

Although he said "maybe", in fact, Ruyi has already made a decision. After the handover of Wanda's original senior management is completed this month, Chen Zhixi will resign as the general manager of Ruyi and become the new president of Wanda Film.

"That's great." Guo Fan said with a smile, "I'll go and congratulate her later, and ask if we can schedule more screenings for The Wandering Earth 2 when it's released."

The post-production of "The Wandering Earth 2" has been completed, and the release date is scheduled for the Spring Festival of 2023. They came to the China Film Base today to see the finished film with the main creators and producers.

Compared with the first part, "The Wandering Earth 2" has made great upgrades in content and volume.

The science fiction elements are more hardcore, including space elevators, digital life, lunar phased arrays, AI revolution...

Judging from the plot content alone, "The Wandering Earth 2" has little connection with Liu Cixin's original novel. Guo Fan has dug up a lot of concepts and elements from "The Three-Body Problem" and put them to good use.

However, as a result, the length of the film had to be extended to three hours.

For a commercial film, this is a dangerous length. Just as short videos and short dramas are becoming popular, the patience of the audience is becoming increasingly thin with the development of the times. A 30-minute movie commentary has to be played at double speed, let alone a three-hour movie.

Meng Bai was not the only one who thought of this problem. As the music at the end of the movie sounded and the lights in the theater turned on, the room instantly became noisy. Obviously, everyone was a little worried about the length of the movie.

As a director, Guo Fan is actually helpless. He naturally knows that the long film market is not very friendly to the audience, but there is no way, the volume of the plot is here.

This is already the version after he ruthlessly deleted many shots. The original "director's cut" was nearly four hours long.

Looking at Meng Bai who was sitting in his seat concentrating on thinking, Guo Fan asked: "Why, do you also think the duration should be shortened?"

Meng Bai shook his head when he heard this: "It can't be reduced any further. The current plot logic and details are very complete. If the quality of the film is affected for commercial effects, the audience will not be able to understand it."

"Ah, I said you are the one who understands me." Guo Fan immediately smiled, "So what are you thinking about here?"

"I was thinking, actually compared to the length of the movie, I think another factor has a greater impact on the final box office results."

"what?"

"This film incorporates more science fiction elements and concepts, and the audience's threshold for watching the film is higher than the previous one."

Strictly speaking, science fiction movies are a niche genre worldwide. The classic "Inception" grossed only $800 million worldwide, "Interstellar" and "The Martian" grossed just over $600 million each, and the three films in the "Matrix" series grossed just over $1.2 billion combined.

It can be said that except for the special case of "Avatar", although science fiction films are very famous, their box office ceiling is really not high - unless Marvel superheroes are also counted as science fiction films.

This is actually quite normal, as the upper limit of a film's box office depends on the audience of the subject matter. Compared to those family-friendly cartoons and comedies, the audience of science fiction films is basically concentrated in young people between 16 and 28, and they must be young people who have received a certain amount of basic science education.

The total box office of "The Wandering Earth 1" is over billion, which is equivalent to million US dollars. Judging from the box office alone, it has almost reached the ceiling of science fiction themes.

What's more, the first one is strictly speaking more like a disaster film with science fiction elements. It is enough for the audience to just watch the spectacle and special effects, and it is not so brain-intensive to understand.

But "The Wandering Earth 2" is different. It can be said to be a standard hard-core science fiction, which is inherently unfriendly to non-target audiences.

Just like now, young audiences like Meng Bai who are familiar with science fiction have a good impression after watching it. But for older investors like China Film, it is a bit difficult for them to understand it.

This does not include another main audience group during the Spring Festival - children, especially those under the age of seven or eight, who are definitely not within the target audience of "The Wandering Earth 2".

According to the family movie-watching habits during the Spring Festival, one less child is equivalent to three less tickets.

Add to that the current cold wave of movie watching...

"I feel that this movie's box office performance may not exceed the first one." Meng Bai patted Guo Fan on the shoulder, "You have to be mentally prepared."

Guo Fan smacked his lips. When it came to making movies, he was very confident, but when it came to business matters, he was absolutely convinced of Meng Bai.

Now that he has said that the box office might be low, it is almost certain to be true.

“It’s okay. If we can’t surpass it, then so be it. As long as we can ensure the quality of the movie and not make a loss, it’s fine.” Guo Fan said optimistically.

But this is true. The "Wandering Earth" film series is not just a commercial project, it also carries many higher-level meanings. So as long as the quality is not a problem, even if it doesn't make money, the authorities will support the completion of the entire series.

Just like what was said when the first film was released, the existence of this kind of movie itself is more valuable than a few hundred million more or less in box office revenue.

What's more, Meng Bai just thinks that it should not exceed the 5 billion of the first part. With the current popularity of this IP, it should be no problem to get 4 billion.

……

Like Guo Fan, many people in the industry have been discussing Ruyi’s acquisition of Wanda Films recently.

Although it is somewhat surprising to see such a big deal in this cold winter of the film industry, it does not actually have much impact on the entire industry. It is nothing more than the replacement of one giant with another.

As for ordinary netizens outside the circle, they have new fun - the Chaoyang Public Security Bureau in northern Beijing issued a police report that artist Li Moufeng was detained on suspicion of multiple prostitution incidents.

It just so happened that the "Wu Fan case" which had been on trial for a year had also recently reached its final verdict, and he was sentenced to thirteen years in prison.

Many people have expressed their feelings that after watching CCTV12 for so many years, they did not expect that it would soon be labeled as an entertainment channel.

(End of this chapter)