Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 720 30 Billion
The cast and subject matter of "Dying to Survive" make word-of-mouth marketing the most cost-effective option for the film.

Because when it comes to competing with other films, "Dying to Survive" simply can't compete with "Hidden Man," "Asura," and "Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings."

So far, the word-of-mouth for "Dying to Survive" has been quite good.

Multiple rounds of preview screenings allowed "Dying to Survive" to gradually gain positive word-of-mouth. The promotional data from Maoyan was simultaneously provided to the production team, allowing them to continuously adjust their promotional strategies in practice.

Data from the Maoyan platform shows that male viewers aged 25 and above are more interested in "Dying to Survive".

Furthermore, the production team discovered that most viewers weren't very interested in the "medical" aspect; they were more interested in "Li Qiutang" and "a comedy film."

The production team quickly adjusted its promotional strategy, abandoning any elements like being touching, hopeful, or heartwarming before the film's release, and focusing instead on comedy and the character Li Qiutang.

Poor Li Qiutang, as the producer, he didn't have to do any promotional work, but he was dragged along by the crowd.

To say now that Li Qiutang had a good eye and insisted that Han Jianu and Wen Muye write the story as dark humor would seem like hindsight.

But at the official premiere of "Dying to Survive," Wen Muye still talked about the story behind this creation:

"At that time, Jia Nu wrote the first draft of the script and showed it to Teacher Li. The script had a very literary title, called 'The Road of Life'." Han Jia Nu did not attend the premiere. "Then Teacher Li rejected it. Although it was rejected, the general structure and overall direction of the script were still retained. Teacher Li then gave the story to me and said that he thought I was suitable to film such a story."

"After I took over, I started revising the script with our screenwriter. Teacher Li asked us to add some elements of everyday humor. The subject matter itself is already very profound and attractive, so there is no need to delve deeper into the text. If we go any deeper, it won't be fun."

"Jianu and I are both newcomers. Without Teacher Li's guidance, it would have been really difficult for us to stand on this stage today."

Li Qiutang, standing to the side, quickly waved his hand, saying it was too kind of him. He felt a little embarrassed by the flattery and immediately returned the compliment: "Actually, I'm just the one who talks the talk; they're the ones who do the actual work. They've worked really hard on this film over the past two years. If this movie achieves some success after its release, it's because they made it well. If people are dissatisfied with the movie, it's because I, as the producer, haven't done a good job."

These words were quite touching, drawing applause from the audience.

When asked about box office expectations, Wen Muye said that as long as the film doesn't lose money and is worth the company's investment, that would be fine. But Li Qiutang said, "It's not enough to just break even for such a good film. I think—is 10 billion enough?"

"Not enough!" Someone in the audience echoed Li Qiutang.

"Then 20 billion?"

"not enough!"

"30 billion? 30 billion is fine. Any higher and people will say I'm bragging." So 30 billion isn't bragging?
At today's premiere, many friends from the industry came to support "Dying to Survive," and all gave it positive reviews.

One very effective method for word-of-mouth marketing is preview screenings, especially large-scale preview screenings.

"Dying to Survive" did the same thing. It had to do this. How could word-of-mouth spread without large-scale previews? Can the audience really recognize your good reputation just by a few main actors shouting in their own voices?

Before its official release, "Dying to Survive" had already earned over 1 million yuan through preview screenings.

Large-scale preview screenings are a kind of early release, which isn't very ethical. Before its release, "Dying to Survive" also faced opposition and criticism from some people who said it broke industry norms.

But extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Large-scale previews and early screenings are both extraordinary measures that are not commonly used in autumn, so such voices were ignored.

However, while remaining optimistic, Li Qiutang also wanted to tell Wen Muye and the others: "The results are very good now, but the biggest test is yet to come. Medical themes are too niche in my country. We initially lured audiences into theaters with comedies, but what if they find our story too heavy and lose interest after watching it?"

That's the charm of movies; until the official release, no one knows if a film is good or bad. Previews and pre-release word-of-mouth—frankly speaking, all of these can be bought and manipulated.

The only thing that can't be bought is the box office performance after the film's theatrical release.

Thanks to large-scale advance screenings, films like "Dying to Survive," despite lacking production value and funding, have shown cinemas their potential as dark horses, making them willing to give them a good number of screenings on their opening day.

The 49% screen share is, of course, also because there weren't any decent films that week that could compete with "Dying to Survive" for screen time.

Both Jurassic World 2 and The Incredibles are starting to decline in popularity.

At 2:40 a.m. on the 6th, Li Qiutang was writing down her inspirations from the past few days in her study when she saw the first day's results posted by the producer in the "Dying to Survive" crew's group chat.

"Yesterday, our box office revenue for the premiere was 1.6 million yuan. Adding the box office revenue from the previous previews, our total box office revenue for the first day has exceeded 3 million yuan!"

"We broke even on the first day!"

Li Qiutang glanced at the numbers and then said in the group chat, "This is an excellent result. We need to keep up with the subsequent publicity and promotion, and then we can play the 'warmth and hope' card. Everyone has worked hard these past few days, and I'll ask the company to give you all big bonuses later. Where are you all currently on the job?"

Staying up until 2 or 3 a.m. is normal for people in the film and television industry.

Only director Wen Muye replied to him: "In Chengdu, just finished drinking with the manager of Pacific Cinemas."

After talking with Wen Muye, Li Qiutang was about to rest. Just as she turned off her computer, she received a call from Fan Bingbing.

Li Qiutang hasn't received any news from Fan Bingbing for half a month.

"Are you asleep?" Fan Bingbing asked. "Did I disturb you?"

"You're still awake? Is something wrong?"

"I'm fine, I just called to thank you." She had already received news from China that the tax authorities and banks had started investigating Feng Xiaogang. Feng Xiaogang was still on set, and he still thought he would be fine.

Fan Bingbing was still shaken. If she hadn't been able to hold back and said something to Cui Yongyuan half a month ago, who would be under investigation now? It's hard to say.

She wasn't sure if she would be alright, but a couple of days ago, Lao Hu gave her a good scolding on the phone. Lao Hu revealed some inside information, warned her about the seriousness of the situation, and told her, "You've essentially had your life saved."

That's when I remembered Li Qiutang.

"I'm doing well here. My new movie is a huge hit, and I'm in a great mood," Li Qiutang said with a smile. "And you? Where are you now? I heard that Feng Xiaogang couldn't find you, so he replaced Wu Yue with you."

"Fine, I'll switch then," she said casually. "Playing a mistress isn't very interesting, and I only agreed because I had no other choice."

"I'm in England now. I'll stay for another two months and then go back to thank you in person."

"Row."

"It's nothing, it must be very late back home, I won't bother you any longer, goodbye."

(End of this chapter)