Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 761 The Road to Marketing
Before the release of "The Wandering Earth," someone leaked Li Qiutang's profit-sharing agreement for the film, claiming that Li Qiutang's share was "the most expensive salary in Chinese film history" and also "a shocking gamble in Chinese film history."

"The agreement is actually quite simple. The three major production companies, Qiutian, China Film Group, and Wanda, made a bet with Li Qiutang that the film would gross 20 billion yuan. If the total box office revenue did not exceed 20 billion yuan, Li Qiutang would only receive a fixed salary. We haven't been able to find out how much Li's fixed salary is. If the total box office revenue exceeded 20 billion yuan, Li Qiutang would receive more than 12% of the box office revenue in addition to his fixed salary. Yes, you heard right, it's a share of the box office revenue, not a share of profits. With 20 billion yuan in box office revenue, Li Qiutang would personally take 2.4 million yuan!"

A few years ago, this news might have been considered a good marketing piece, showing how confident "The Wandering Earth" was in signing such an agreement.

But in the present day, it takes on another meaning.

Financial issues in the entertainment industry have become a focus of public attention, and the authorities have issued a salary cap order. Now, it is said that Li Qiutang has signed the most expensive film remuneration sharing agreement in Chinese film history. Isn't this putting Li Qiutang in a very difficult position?

Although Li Qiutang is very popular with audiences and is one of the top directors in China, it is completely understandable that he makes a lot of money.

But the timing was too sensitive.

Sure enough, as soon as the news broke, in addition to the fans who thought Li Qiutang deserved to earn so much, a large group of people started to make sarcastic remarks, saying that money in the entertainment industry is easy to make, and that if you earn so much, don't forget to pay taxes.

They completely forgot that this was a box office betting agreement. If "The Wandering Earth" didn't gross more than 20 billion yuan, Li Qiutang would only receive that pitiful fixed salary.

As the largest producer, Autumn Pictures quickly came forward to refute the rumors, stating that the director's profit-sharing agreement that was leaked online was fake.

It's definitely fake; Li Qiutang's salary wasn't that low.

The 20 billion mark is true, but his share is not as low as 12%. His share is as high as 15.7%, and it is a share of all copyrights.

Some of the merchandise for "The Wandering Earth" has already gone on sale, so in theory, he should be making money right now.

"In Time" raked in 8000 million yuan at the box office during its 10-day re-release. Combined with the overwhelming publicity for "The Wandering Earth," it did indeed serve as a good warm-up for the latter.

Due to limitations at the time, "In Time" could only be filmed in an action-oriented direction, and the so-called "science fiction elements" were indeed somewhat lacking.

"The Wandering Earth" focuses on hard science fiction with heavy industry, which to some extent makes up for the shortcomings of "In Time". Viewers who have seen "In Time" will still be able to watch "The Wandering Earth" in a few days.

Successful predictions caused "The Wandering Earth" to soar in pre-sales, but it was still no match for "Pegasus" and "Crazy Alien," ranking third in the pre-sales chart. The gap between it and fourth-place "The New King of Comedy" was very small, and it could be overtaken if it wasn't careful.

"The Wandering Earth" is still holding limited screenings for certain groups to gain word-of-mouth. Science fiction is indeed too niche, and it is difficult to generate buzz without limited screenings.

With the conclusion of the Beijing premiere press conference for "The Wandering Earth" on the 28th, the film's promotion has entered its most intense sprint phase.

Li Qiutang is really busy. It's no exaggeration to say that he sometimes doesn't even know where he'll wake up the next day.

"It's okay if you don't know where you woke up, but you absolutely mustn't not know who's sleeping next to you," Liu Yifei warned her husband through the screen.

"Where did you learn these words?" Li Qiutang laughed. "You never used to care about these things."

Liu Yifei said, "With such a good husband, other people are staring at you like you're a thief, so I have to keep a close eye on him."

"What are you saying? I'm fine, but people are looking at me like I'm a thief." Li Qiutang knew she was trying to make a few jokes to relieve her tension and fatigue. "You're not even here to keep me company."

Liu Yifei laughed: "I'm just not smart, not stupid. You run to five or six movie theaters a day, I'm not going to go through that hardship."

The Wandering Earth has split into two groups and has already visited more than 100 cinemas in 20 cities.

Wu Jing, as both the lead actor and a friend, has already exceeded the promotional targets stipulated in his contract. He has suspended his activities and gone home to rest, and will return to work after the official release. But Li Qiutang cannot stop; he still has to keep going.

How can you expect a reward without putting in 200% effort?

While Director Li was on the front lines promoting the event, the team behind him adjusted their strategy accordingly.

Previously, "The Wandering Earth" focused on hardcore elements such as science fiction, heavy industry, and post-apocalyptic aesthetics. Now, the publicity team has started to play the emotional card.

The film depicts the grandfather-grandson relationship between Han Zi'ang and his two children, the father-son relationship between Liu Peiqiang and Liu Qi, and the sibling relationship between Liu Qi and Han Duoduo, highlighting Liu Peiqiang's tragic and heroic image of "sacrificing his small family for the greater good".

Slogans began to include emotionally charged content such as "Wherever we go, I want us to be together" and "For the next generation, risk the whole planet."

It's quite clear that the "Wandering Earth" production team needs to attract female audiences.

It is well known that in the film and television industry, whoever wins over women wins the world.

Although The Wandering Earth is a heavy-industry science fiction film, it is unwilling to give up the huge female market.

Li Qiutang, working on the front lines, gradually increased the discussion of emotional topics in the film. He even took the initiative to reveal that the female lead, Zhao Jinmai, was the daughter of his father's colleague. Before Zhao Jinmai auditioned for "The Wandering Earth," she had visited his home, and the two had this kind of relationship and affection.

The production team even created a topic called "Li Qiutang treats Zhao Jinmai like a younger sister".

It's all designed to evoke emotional resonance among female viewers; shipping the two as siblings is perfectly acceptable.

The most outrageous thing was that the publicity director actually asked him to do an event with Rocket Girls 101.

"The finale of Tencent's electronic music program 'Instant Electronic Music' is also in the next two days. All the members of Produce 101 will be there. Let's hitch a ride."

Six months ago, Li Qiutang mocked Jiang Wen for going to "Produce 101" to promote "Hidden Man" as a mistake, but now it's her turn to be the same!
"The show not only features Rocket Girls, but also Zhang Yixing and Alan Walker, all top stars. Zhang Yixing even made a guest appearance for us. It was a great opportunity."

"Meng Meiqi is also here; she's also the singer in our production team."

It didn't matter who sang the promotional song for "The Wandering Earth," in the end, it was all about getting Meng Meiqi's popularity, so they gave her the song.

Now that it had happened to her, Li Qiutang understood Jiang Wen.

The target audience is obviously misaligned, but to attract more viewers, it is necessary to do this kind of cross-industry marketing.

But Li Qiutang was still a little reluctant. He didn't oppose risky cross-border marketing, but he was like a beggar complaining about spoiled food. He felt that the show "Instant Electronic Music" didn't have much viewership and its format didn't match "The Wandering Earth." He had to learn from Jiang Wen's lesson.

But he does want to ride on the coattails of Rocket Girls' popularity.

"Do you think we could do a separate event with Rocket Girls? If all of Rocket Girls can't come, Yang Chaoyue and Meng Meiqi, those with high popularity, would also be fine." They really know how to think of things; they always manage to get the best of everything.

Others may not be able to do it, but Li Qiutang might actually be able to.

The publicity team was a bit hesitant, but still agreed: "I'll try my best, but I can't guarantee success."

(End of this chapter)