Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 689 The Spring Festival film season is so lively!

Even after hearing the gossip about Yang Ying's pregnancy from his wife, Li Qiutang didn't bother to verify it.

Just treat gossip as gossip. No matter why she withdrew from the recording of "Keep Running Season 2", the one who benefits is Dilraba, who bought stocks in the fall.

The company respects Dilraba's opinion, but they still can't give up variety show resources like "Keep Running Season 2," so they can only make Dilraba continue to stay on the show.

At worst, they can just stop promoting the Lu-Di CP this season. Anyway, Lu Han has already officially announced it, so no one would believe it anyway. Both Jiaxing and Qiutian promised to heavily promote her in the next few years, which finally appeased her.

The exorbitant advertising fees paid by "Monster Hunt 2," including the purchase of a prime 60-second ad slot before the Spring Festival Gala, yielded immediate results on its opening day.

"Monster Hunt" broke the record for the highest single-day box office in film history with an incredible 5.5 million yuan.

This result is absolutely terrifying!!

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this record will remain for a year before being broken by Avengers: Endgame, which will be released next year.

The runner-up on the first day of the Spring Festival box office was rightfully from Autumn Pictures, with Detective Chinatown 2 following closely behind with 3.4 million yuan.

The third place went to "The Monkey King 3: Kingdom of Women," with 1.64 million yuan.

Fourth place still belongs to Autumn Pictures, with "Operation Red Sea" grossing 1.3 million yuan.

The fifth place went to "Boonie Bears: The Big Shrink," with 7600 million views.

The sixth place went to "The Thousand Faces of Dunjia," which Huayi Brothers acquired from LeTV. This film boasted a large cast of stars, and thanks to Huayi Brothers' strong distribution capabilities, it still earned over 5000 million yuan on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

The seventh place is "The Nineteen Generations of Ancestors", with 1740 million views.

On the first day, the five major films battled head-on, and everyone made a fortune, except for the one where the master was injured during the Spring Festival season.

"Boonie Bears" is not considered a traditional blockbuster during the Spring Festival. It has a fixed audience, does not participate in the Spring Festival promotional battle, and does not require a particularly high number of screenings. It releases one movie every year and takes its share of the box office on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

However, it's truly unexpected that the all-star comedy "The Nineteen Generations of Ancestors" couldn't beat "Boonie Bears".

"What makes him think he can beat 'Boonie Bears'?" Li Qiutang said to his wife after taking his family to see "Detective Chinatown 2" on the first day of the Lunar New Year. "You don't really think 'Boonie Bears' is an easy target, do you?"

"Boonie Bears can be considered the number one IP in Chinese animation. Don't you think so?"

Liu Yifei thought about it and realized it was true; the continued production of "Boonie Bears" series and movies had kept it firmly in its position.

"We at Almond Films have visited and learned from Fantawild Animation." Fantawild Animation produces a feature film every year, and this efficiency is worth learning from. "It's no exaggeration to say that Fantawild is the best company in China in terms of streamlining and industrializing its animation production process, bar none."

"Better than ourselves?"

"I'm not trying to belittle ourselves, but they do do better than us in some aspects."

Li Qiutang has a bad impression of The Grandmaster, but that's just a personal feeling. Speaking of the movie, Li Qiutang said, "Huace should take the blame. Even if it's terrible, with this all-star cast, it shouldn't have only made 1700 million on the opening day. The Spring Festival season is so lively, I could have easily made 5000 million on the opening day. Huace is good at making TV series, but they are still greenhorns when it comes to making movies."

The main production company behind "The Nineteen Generations of Ancestors" is Huace Film Company, but Huace seems particularly incompetent in the promotion and distribution of this film.

Aside from having Guo Degang promote his own commercial crosstalk performances and bringing his apprentices on shows like "Happy Camp" and "Day Day Up," there's nothing else.

"Detective Chinatown 2" chartered more than 300 high-speed trains for promotion, while "Monster Hunt 2" bought a 60-second advertisement before the Spring Festival Gala.

Huace made no move.

Another disappointing aspect of Huace is its lack of cooperation with cinema chains and ticketing platforms. While the number of cinemas Huace owns is negligible, it has long-term and close partnerships with cinema chains such as China Film Group, Wanda Cinema, New Film Union, and Hengdian Film & Television. Not to mention, Huace also owns Maoyan, the largest online distribution platform in China.

Other films released during the Spring Festival season partnered with theaters and online platforms, but Huace Film & TV didn't, rendering "The Nineteen Generations of Ancestors" essentially a bare release. Huace's marketing and distribution are culpable, but ultimately, the problem lies in the subpar quality of "The Nineteen Generations of Ancestors."

Even if ten thousand people came, it would still be a terrible movie. The master once again proved with his skills that he was not cut out for making movies.

Of course, the publicity and distribution team is partly to blame, and the mastermind will definitely shift the blame to Huace Media, but that's another story.

During the Chinese New Year, Li Qiutang's family only watched one movie, "Detective Chinatown 2," because no one had the energy to watch the second one.

However, this did not prevent "Operation Red Sea" from achieving a reverse decline in revenue of 1.48 million yuan on the second day and another 1.87 million yuan on the third day of the Lunar New Year, making it the only film among the five major films released during the Spring Festival to achieve a reverse decline.

《唐探2》初二初三两天都收入3.2亿，《捉妖记2》初二收入3.7亿，初三收入2.8亿。

The box office revenue for "Journey to the West: The Land of Women" dropped below 100 million yuan on the second and third days of the Lunar New Year, with a total revenue of only 160 million yuan in two days.

"The Thousand Faces of Dunjia" has only outperformed "The Nineteen Generations of Ancestors" in the past two days, earning 7000 million.

Furthermore, the reputations of films such as "Monster Hunt 2", "The Monkey King 3", and "The Thousand Faces of Dunjia" began to crumble.

The former was criticized by the audience for having a plot that was too childish and lacked the depth and conflict to attract adult audiences. The large-scale epic family-friendly marketing before the release raised the audience's expectations, but what the audience saw was a work aimed at children. This huge psychological gap led to negative word-of-mouth spreading rapidly and deterring a large number of potential viewers.

Tony Leung's performance was still recognized, but he was also criticized for "ruining his reputation in his later years" in this bad movie, and some even said that he was just there to "get box office results".

The film "Journey to the West: The Land of Women" faced even greater criticism.

The plot is bland, the main storyline is unclear, the plot twists are abrupt, the humor is awkward, and it is not self-consistent.

The art direction and special effects certainly maintain the high standard that the series has always been known for.

Gong Liying's marketing tactics backfired quickly on Zhao Liying.

"Zhao Liying should stop acting in movies; her eyes don't convey any emotion."

"Couldn't they find someone with a good temperament to play the Queen of the Women's Kingdom? What makes Zhao Liying resemble a queen?"

"Zhao Liying's face lacks cinematic expressiveness and she cannot handle the role of the Queen of the Women's Kingdom. Her idol drama performances would turn all the stories into silly and sweet romance films."

"The director is blindly optimistic about the ticket-driving ability of popular celebrities, while ignoring the most fundamental aspects of filmmaking: narrative and production."

Zhao Liying's fans then had something to say.

"Liying is the third lead actress, so she shouldn't be held responsible for the film's poor box office performance."

"The rumors about Gong Hou and Ying Huang are fabricated by the media and smear campaigns. Li Ying is a newcomer and would not be so disrespectful to her seniors."

"The title of Empress Gong was given by the production team, putting Li Ying in a very difficult position. Li Ying herself strongly opposed the production team doing this, but as a newcomer, she didn't have much say."

"If the box office is bad, why not blame the director and the lead actors, but instead target the third-billed female lead and criticize her? Isn't that just bullying Li Ying because she's weak and alone?"

"The Thousand Faces of Dunjia" received even harsher criticism, becoming the second worst-received film during the Spring Festival season.

Netizens directly criticized Huayi Brothers, saying, "If you don't have any films, you don't have to release them. There's no need to buy one just to disgust people!"

The Spring Festival film season is always bustling.

(End of this chapter)