Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 539 Is this a done deal?
This year's Spring Festival film season is packed with blockbusters, with "The Mermaid," "The Monkey King 3," and "From Vegas to Macau III" all considered a feast for the eyes.

"The Mermaid" grossed 2.8 million yuan on its opening day, failing to break the record set by "Mojin: The Lost Legend". Incidentally, "Mojin: The Lost Legend" received an extension key and will continue to be shown until the Lantern Festival.

As of now, "Mojin: The Lost Legend" has grossed 26.8 billion yuan, with almost no further growth, and it will also be unable to secure screenings during the Spring Festival season.

《美人鱼》4天破10亿，也没能打破《寻龙诀》3天12亿的华语最速10亿记录。

However, the market for the Spring Festival season is much larger than that for the December New Year's season.

Despite the overwhelming success of "The Mermaid," "From Vegas to Macau III" also achieved impressive results, grossing 170 million on its opening day, 410 million in three days, and 520 million in four days, despite the film's highly controversial reputation.

《西游记之三打白骨精》首日1.6亿，3天3.8亿，4天5亿。

It's not fair to say that it lost to "The Mermaid." Both "From Vegas to Macau III" and "The Monkey King 3" grossed over 10 billion yuan, so everyone is a winner.

However, Li Qiutang's family did not go to the cinema this year.

There's always something missing when there's one less person in the family.

"Yifei, is the crew still working today?" Li's mother asked her daughter-in-law as the whole family sat in front of their phones for an overseas video call with Liu Yifei that evening.

Liu Yifei laughed and said, "Foreigners don't celebrate the New Year; they still have to work."

"Then when will you come back?"

"It'll be another month or so. Qiu Tang will take you all to have a good time in Yanjing. I'll come back to Fengtian to see you after I finish filming." Liu Yifei was quite good at coaxing her mother-in-law.

After saying a few more words, the parents asked the couple to have some private conversation. Li's mother was bold enough to say to her son, "You just got married, how can you not miss your wife? Talk to Yifei."

Under the watchful eyes of his parents, Li Qiutang took his phone and went to the side to talk to his wife.

Li Qiutang asked her how her work was going and if she had encountered any problems while filming.

But Liu Yifei clearly didn't want to hear any of this, saying, "Is this a husband talking to his wife, or a boss inspecting the work? You dared to say anything when you came to visit the set before, but now you're mute?"

Liu Yifei wanted to hear her husband say something sensual and alluring.

Li Qiutang glanced around to see if anyone was there, which prompted Liu Yifei to laugh at him: "There are only four of you at home, who else could it be? Is it so hard to say you miss your wife?"

Li Qiutang held the phone to the microphone and said a couple of flirtatious things, such as "I miss you so much that my hands ache, and I don't even have enough tissues."

"Pah, that's all you can think about." Luckily, Liu Yifei was wearing headphones, otherwise, if her assistant had heard these lewd remarks, the two of them would have been mortified.

She added, "When I finish filming and come back, I'll treat you to a good meal." She wasn't worried about her husband having affairs back in China.

By the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, her parents were already insisting on going back home, so Li Qiutang had no choice but to send them back.

Wan Da originally planned to hold a celebration banquet for "Mojin: The Lost Legend" before the Lunar New Year, which would also serve as a media appreciation banquet before the new year.

However, there have been many changes within Wanda recently. Ye Ning, the head of Wanda Cultural Industry, suddenly resigned, causing a lot of discussion in the industry. In addition, Wanda also acquired Hollywood Legendary Pictures. With too many things to do, the celebration banquet was postponed.

In retrospect, not holding a celebration banquet was the right thing to do. "The Mermaid" was too powerful. Although it did not break the opening day record and the fastest 10 billion yuan record of "Mojin: The Lost Legend", its ability to continuously reap box office rewards was stronger than that of "Mojin: The Lost Legend".

Nine days after its release, "Mojin: The Lost Legend" grossed over 20 billion yuan at the box office, a feat achieved in just 10 days.

Although there is only a one-day difference, it is important to understand that the spending power of the Spring Festival season is incomparable to that of the increasingly declining Lunar New Year season.

Otherwise, how could a terrible movie like "From Vegas to Macau III" rake in so much money? This December, apart from "Mojin: The Lost Legend," there were no other big films. In the two weeks before "Mojin: The Lost Legend" was released, there were almost no decent films. Why didn't Wang Jing release any? I believe that based on the explosive performance of this year's Spring Festival film season, film companies will gradually abandon the December New Year's film season and instead put the most important films of the year in the Spring Festival season.

Anyway, that's what I plan to do in the fall.

The first thing we did after starting work in the fall was to analyze this year's Spring Festival film market, and we came to a similar conclusion: the New Year's film market is indeed no match for the Spring Festival film market.

However, it's unrealistic to say we're giving up the December release window; we'll just release whatever films are available.

Autumn is even greedy, wanting to capture both the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival slots, since the Lunar New Year slot, no matter how much it has declined, can still generate some box office revenue.

However, amid such high market enthusiasm, Li Qiutang poured cold water on the situation, raising a concern: "An overheated release period is not necessarily a good thing."

From a business management perspective, Li Qiutang believes: "This year's Spring Festival film season is so hot, and even more films will squeeze in next year. It looks lively, but the marketing and distribution costs during the Spring Festival season will inevitably skyrocket. During the May Day holiday, you might get 8 cents of results from 1 yuan of marketing, but during the Spring Festival season, you might only get 2 cents of results from 1 yuan of marketing. Marketing expenses will have to increase exponentially. This alone will squeeze out many small and medium-sized film companies, and the Spring Festival season will become an arena for large companies."

This is actually beneficial to autumn, but the soaring marketing costs are something autumn doesn't want to see. Starting three or four years ago, many people have complained that the marketing costs of a movie are too high, and the production costs and marketing costs are almost 1:1.

But the market is ruthless. Li Qiutang had predicted it, but he had no choice but to follow the market.

If others spend 2000 million on marketing and promotion, he has to spend 3000 million, otherwise he won't be able to survive during the promotional period.

However, on the other hand, this is also a sign of a prosperous market, and overall, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

Li Qiutang wasn't worried about Qiutian's survival in this competition.

After the first meeting after the New Year, Zhang Zhao teased him: "You're going to reorganize the Changchun Film Festival, and your thinking has completely changed. You keep talking about the industry and macroeconomics, and you're too lazy to look at the issues from the company's actual perspective."

"Is that so?" Li Qiutang was unaware of the recent change in her speaking style.

“We discovered it a long time ago, but we just didn’t say anything.” But Zhang Zhao added, “However, that’s not wrong. As an industry leader, and you’re the company’s chairman, you should consciously take a higher perspective and consider the overall industry. If we expand the market, we will grow along with it. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Zhang Zhao then asked, "What exactly did the ministry say? Will the Changchun Film Festival allow us to participate?"

But little did Li Qiutang know that he had been waiting for a reply ever since he gave his report before the Lunar New Year.

"No one told me, and we shouldn't ask about these things on our own initiative."

"Too."

"However, the person who had a private meeting with me before has already taken office as the chairman of Changchun Film Group in January."

On the surface, Changchun Film Group has no connection with the Changchun Film Festival; it is neither the organizer nor the sponsor.

However, if Li Qiutang is indeed needed to join the reform team in the future, it would be better to have the help of Changying Group.

As luck would have it, just as the two were plotting, Li Qiutang received a text message from Mr. Hu.

"We need to go to the ministry tomorrow for a meeting."

"Is this considered a done deal?"

"Let's see tomorrow."

So, the next day, Li Qiutang and Zhang Zhao both didn't come to the company and instead spent the whole day in a meeting room.

(End of this chapter)