Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 694 Let's begin class!

Chapter 694 Let's begin class!
"Operation Red Sea" has grossed over 11 billion yuan during the holiday, and it should be able to recoup its costs without any problems. The most exciting and profitable Spring Festival season is over, yet Li Qiutang actually thinks that "Operation Red Sea" has only just begun to gain momentum.

Many people don't believe it.

But once again, facts proved that Li Qiutang's judgment was correct.

There should be a welcome increase in people returning to the city and work after the Spring Festival, which is something everyone can expect, since returning to the city and work will also bring a group of viewers.

Filming resumed on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, and the Spring Festival box office champion, "Detective Chinatown 2," earned 1.8 million yuan that day. On the ninth day, Saturday, filming resumed, earning 1.7 million yuan. Filming resumed on the tenth day, a break from work, earning 1.5 million yuan.

The daily increase in box office revenue for "Detective Chinatown 2" is declining, but it still remains above 100 million yuan, maintaining its position as the top-grossing film during its release period. This is a normal trend for a film's box office performance.

There's no such thing as a movie where the box office increases as it goes on.

However, the box office performance of "Operation Red Sea" after the Lunar New Year was quite unusual. It earned 2.12 million yuan on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, 2.2 million yuan on the ninth day (Saturday), and rose to 2.39 million yuan on the tenth day (Lunar New Year).

While everyone else's prices fell, his only price rose.

You don't understand, do you?

Furthermore, Li Qiutang boldly predicted that while "Detective Chinatown 2" would be the champion during its release period, the box office champion would be "Operation Red Sea".

"There's no other reason, the audience's emotions have reached this point."

In fact, when analyzing film performance, we can't just focus on quality; market sentiment is also an important indicator. To be precise, "Wolf Warrior 2" is just a high-quality film in terms of finished product quality, but it resonated with market sentiment, and audience enthusiasm propelled it to the top of the box office with 57 billion yuan.

In other words, once market sentiment is right, performance has little to do with quality.

This can also be seen as a manifestation of market blindness.

In the autumn, Li Qiutang had been enjoying youth films immensely, but he predicted the decline of youth films more than a year in advance. As a result, the company stopped developing new youth films in 15. It turned out that Li Qiutang's judgment was correct, and the company avoided a lot of losses.

Li Qiutang now judges that the audience's sentiment has shifted towards commercial mainstream blockbusters. "Operation Mekong", "Wolf Warrior 2" and "Operation Red Sea" seem to prove this point. So the question is, should we follow this trend in the fall?
But then another problem arises: Qiu Tian doesn't have much experience making mainstream commercial blockbusters. All he's done is two "Wolf Warrior" films, and those weren't made as mainstream blockbusters. Both "Wolf Warrior" films were aimed at "mainstream Hollywood military action films."

In the fall, they participated in the investment of "Operation Mekong," and the team was Bernard.

In the fall, the team that was in charge of "Operation Red Sea" was still using Berna's technology.

With so many young directors under his wing in the autumn, their overall style leans towards strong genres and plots; mainstream commercial blockbusters are definitely not his forte.

Analysis is one thing, but venturing headlong into an unfamiliar genre of films could easily lead to a lot of trouble.

But you have to try.

Especially with next year being the 70th anniversary, making a commercially viable patriotic film as a tribute would certainly be very promising.

Li Qiutang also agreed to try commercial mainstream themes, but demanded that they not lose their composure, that projects that have already been approved and are in production should not be disturbed, that support for young directors should be increased, and that their own core audience should always be the most important.

According to the company's projections, this year and next will be big years for output, especially for the animated film sector, which has been in the works for three or four years and will see a surge in output in 19.

"At worst, we can just cooperate with Bernard; their team is very mature in making mainstream films."

However, Chen Zhixi had something to say: "We can tell that mainstream commercial films are the trend, but others can't? Besides, they have more experience making mainstream films than we do. Would they take us along?"

“If you don’t want to bring it, then don’t. We don’t lack films.” Mainstream commercial films are in vogue, but Li Qiutang judged that this was not enough to become a new type that could support the company’s innovative development. The new type that Qiutang was betting on was animated films.

Animated films can be made for 10 or 20 years, but how long can mainstream commercial films last?

"Should we still present a gift in 19?"

"No need to rush. We can look for suitable projects. If we find one, we can try it; if not, so be it. China Film Group will definitely take the lead, and we can just participate."

Before leaving the company, Li Qiutang informed the company of several things she had promised to do.

Firstly, "Dying to Survive" was scheduled for the summer release, and Li Qiutang promised Wen Muye's company that the films would be released at least two weeks apart from "Dying to Survive" to make way for him.

"Then we can only schedule it for early July. We don't have any films in June, and Mahua FunAge is releasing 'Hello Mr. Billionaire' at the end of July, starring Shen Teng. We can't possibly let that happen."

Shen Teng's films naturally wield considerable influence and he won't give way to a new director.

“No problem, you can negotiate the schedule with Wen Muye.” Although it was still early, Li Qiutang reminded the company, “Do a good job with the publicity and distribution of this film, and it will be a success.”

Secondly, regarding the Three-Body Universe, Cao Ping has already started following up on the TV series' progress. Lin Qi, having been bitten by a snake once, is now extremely wary and doesn't want to make movies for the time being. However, the company will still follow up and continue to contact the Three-Body Universe to try and secure the film's development rights.

Li Qiutang doesn't need to repeatedly emphasize the value of the "Three-Body Problem" IP, nor does he need to elaborate on the difficulties of developing it into a film. "Are you going to make it?"

“I’m not filming it myself. I got it for Guo Fan. He’s been dreaming of filming ‘The Three-Body Problem’. I bragged to him before that I would find him a science fiction script after he finished filming ‘Mulan’, and I would get him ‘The Three-Body Problem’ too. Now that I have the opportunity, of course I have to give it a try.”

"besides……"

"And what else? Just how much bragging have you been doing outside?"

“This is the last one.” Li Qiutang smiled. “Go and help me with the Chinese culture section.”

"What's wrong?"

“Li Ruigang has been contacting me every few days lately, either for meals and drinks or fishing and playing ball. I know what he wants to do, either to cooperate or to invest. You guys go and make the assessment.”

“Okay. CMC mainly focuses on co-investment and distribution in the film and entertainment sector, without ever having a controlling stake. However, they have been quite successful in their investments in other forms of entertainment, and the capital market is currently very optimistic about CMC’s valuation. I think if necessary, we could cooperate with Mr. Li.”

"You guys do the evaluation. I'm not getting involved in this. I couldn't stand drinking with him for the past few days of the New Year."

In the afternoon, as agreed with Song Ge, Li Qiutang arrived at the China Film Huairou Film and Television Base, the acting training camp for the "Fengshen" crew.

Director Wu Ershan is not on set today, so Song Ge is personally leading today's acting class.

"Alright, for today's acting class, I've invited a very distinguished teacher."

Thirty men and women in the classroom looked at each other in bewilderment.

Previously, Li Xuejian, a teacher in the same group, had taught them acting theory, and Liu Tianchi from the Central Academy of Drama had also given them acting lessons, but neither of them were personally introduced by the big boss Song Ge. It seems that the teacher today is really someone important.

"Give me a hint."

Song Ge smiled and said, "Director."

"Zhang Yimou!"

"You really dare to guess."

"Chen Kaige!"

"Guessing as younger."

"Then let's go with Ning Hao."

"Chen Sicheng!"

"Lu Yang."

"Wu Jing!"

"I'll give you three days and you still won't be able to guess. I'm not going to keep you in suspense any longer, Li Qiutang!"

A buzz went through the classroom as several actors excitedly stood up: "Is it really him?"