The battle for traffic in Chinese entertainment

Chapter 236 Trying Every Means

Now that he has won the Best Actor award and the film has signed a guaranteed box office of 10 billion, Xu Xing must pay more attention to the box office of "Witness".

Originally, Xu Xing’s idea was to just get a nomination for Best Actor. Even if the film flopped at the box office after its release, it wouldn’t have much of an impact on him, and he would be able to make a quick comeback as “Detective Chinatown 2” would.

Therefore, there is no need to do too much promotion after the movie is released, and the crew can just concentrate on filming "Joy of Life" which has a tight schedule.

And now, Xu Xing has temporarily suppressed all doubts and is being praised even higher as the superstar actor; if the reputation of "Witness" collapses and the box office fails after its release, it will be an even worse fall.

It may even affect "Detective Chinatown 2".

——Signing a minimum guarantee can indeed guarantee the release of the film, but once the film fails, in order to achieve the minimum guarantee, it will be more embarrassing than a normal film, and the companies will go crazy and do everything they can to reduce losses. The failure will be more spectacular, which will cause greater damage to the image of the actors.

Therefore, the day after the Golden Horse Awards, Xu Xing did not leave the island province by plane in the morning as originally planned, but postponed the flight to the afternoon.

Xu Xing had to watch the film "Witness" before it was released so that he could have a clear idea of what it was like.

"You didn't have a blast last night, why are you here so early?"

Director Cheng Weihao yawned and laughed.

Although the film did not receive nominations for Best Picture or Best Director, it successfully produced an actor, which was also a gain for him.

Coupled with the 1 billion guaranteed box office when the film is released in mainland China, if he can really achieve that, his status in the island province's film industry will rise even faster.

"I don't really like staying up late."

Xu Xing smiled.

"Going to bed early is a good habit," Cheng Weihao patted Xu Xing's shoulder, "unlike those weak guys who can only get hard at night."

After laughing a few times, I quickly started watching the movie.

After watching it, Xu Xing felt that it was indeed awkward for the male protagonist Xiao Qi to turn himself in at the end, but the whole thing was okay in the beginning. The addition of more interactions between Xiao Qi and Maggie in the early stage also made the originally dull film more relaxed.

Then, Xu Xing noticed that there was a document in front of Xiao Qi when he was telling the story, but in the retaken surrender shot, the document disappeared.

"Is this a blunder?"

Xu Xing asked.

When we were doing the supplementary shooting, since there were only three days, the crew was a bit busy and it seemed that they had indeed forgotten to take the documents.

"Eh?"

Cheng Weihao scratched his head.

After reshooting the scenes, he focused more on inserting the early interactions between Xiao Qi and Maggie during editing. The final confession was just pasted on and he didn't look at it much.

Now it has been submitted for review and will be released soon...

"That's fine," Xu Xing smiled. "Everyone knows that we reshot the ending to pass the review. This way, fans can interpret that the surrender is a fantasy that doesn't exist at all."

"Yes!" Cheng Weihao clapped his hands excitedly, "That's much better!"

After watching the film, I don’t know if it’s because I feel good about myself, but Xu Xing felt that he acted really well. Except for a few shots where he couldn’t help showing off, overall his performance as a loser and a bootlicker was quite vivid.

As for the box office... 5 million should be about right, but 10 billion is still a stretch.

and--

"Let's move the file up."

In the car on the way to the airport, Xu Xing made a suggestion to Qu Mingzhen.

"Huh? Moved up?" Qu Mingzhen was surprised. "It just happened to be during the Lunar New Year period. There weren't many competitive films that week. And before that there was the blockbuster film Legend of the Demon Cat directed by Chen Kaige. People in the industry gave that film high reviews after watching it. Everyone thinks Director Chen is going to prove himself this time.

"Further ahead is Feng Xiaogang's Youth, which is also highly regarded by the industry. Although the box office may not be too high due to the subject matter, it may become a dark horse, and it is too far away from New Year's Day. We will release it together with Legend of the Demon Cat. If Youth performs better than expected, the audience will be snatched away by those two films."

Ever since "The Mermaid" grossed 2016 billion during the 33 Spring Festival, the industry's Lunar New Year blockbusters have basically been moved from New Year's Day to the Spring Festival.

This year, apart from Xu Xing's "Witness" which attracted a lot of attention, the only films that movie fans are looking forward to during the entire New Year's Day period are "Legend of the Demon Cat" and "Youth", and "Youth" is scheduled to be released on December 12th.

"But since Director Chen's The Promise, which movie has had a hit at the box office in all these years? Legend of the Demon Cat and Youth are both literary and artistic movies with good reputations, while on New Year's Day, Ex-Files 3 and The Ring are more commercial movies, so the competition is actually greater.

“Instead of believing that “The Demon Cat” and “Youth” will be big hits at the box office, I think it’s better to believe that “Ex-Files 3”, which has a solid foundation with the first two films and a stable base of young couples, and “The Demon Ring”, a comedy starring Shen Teng, will be a hit.

"If I want to achieve box office success for my film Witness, I still have to rely on the younger audiences who are almost the same as those of these two films. By then, it will be hard to say whether I can compete with them. The audiences of Legend of the Demon Cat and Youth will be relatively more rational.

"We'll release the film earlier so that word of mouth can spread by New Year's Day, which will attract more audiences to the theaters. So, let's move up the release date."

Xu Xing is not an insider of the cinema industry, and he does not have access to the audience portraits of various types of films, so he can only try to find some excuses. After all, before the release, who would have thought that "Ex-Files 20", which had two terrible films and did not even get 3% of the screenings on the first day of release, would be such an exaggerated dark horse and get such a high box office.

Although the influence of the two hit songs "Say Goodbye" and "Dignified" was crucial in the previous life, Xu Xing had stockpiled them early on, but the first promotional song they released still began to gain momentum on Douyin.

"..." Qu Mingzhen nodded thoughtfully, "What you said makes sense. In the current comedy market, Shen Teng's appeal has indeed risen. "Charlotte's Troubles" and "The Shameful Iron Fist" have already accumulated a good reputation for him, and this time it is indeed very likely to be a big hit.

“In fact, I heard that the cinema chain was not optimistic about “The Ring” after watching the film internally, and felt that it was a bit too nonsensical. But it is really easy to make mistakes with comedy films. Shen Teng now has his own comedy style, and the audience just likes it. When they see his face, they want to laugh. The quality of the film itself is no longer important.

"From this perspective, it is indeed necessary to advance the release date! It is really thanks to you that after watching the film today, you immediately thought that we should advance the release date. Otherwise, if we really wait until New Year's Day, there is a high possibility of problems.

"In fact, I originally thought that Witness should be released earlier. But Legend of the Demon Cat was also distributed by Wan Da, and they suggested that it would be better to stagger the two films. I had to go back and tell them that the release date must be moved up. If that doesn't work, then Legend of the Demon Cat can be released on New Year's Day."

The more Qu Mingzhen spoke, the more cheerful his expression became, and his eyes became clearer.

The main reason was that Xu Xing’s vision on the box office was too accurate, and she had made several bets with Xu Xing but never won.

At the beginning, Xu Xing was optimistic about the newcomer Shen Teng in the film industry, "Charlotte's Troubles", and now he can no longer ignore Shen Teng...

"Uh...yes!"

Xu Xing nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.

It’s okay if I was mistaken for “The Ring”!

Same way.

……

After solving the problem of advancing the file, all Xu Xing could do was to move another song out.

Originally, Xu Xing did not agree to the crew's invitation to write a song because he could not think of a suitable song at the time.

Because "Witness" is not mainly about the bootlicker Xiao Qi and the green tea goddess Maggie, their relationship is just a diversion, and it is not easy to use the most easily spread love song to help promote it.

Now we can only try harder to think of a solution.

In addition, will the method of launching super long preview screenings be launched in advance?
No, that would create a bad atmosphere, and now is the most prosperous period of the domestic film market. There is no shortage of films in the cinemas, and people are unlikely to agree to this kind of thing.

Ugh……

On the way back to the crew, Xu Xing was thinking about what good songs to sing and what else could be promoted.

Then--

"Just now, the Taiwan media broke the news that you and Hsu Wei-ning fell in love during the filming of "Witness" and it became real. They talked a lot about how you were ambiguous on the set, and even "named" her as the one who fought with you for 18 hours last time, and said that she actually visited the set of "Want to See You" to have a tryst with you. The report was accompanied by a photo of you and Hsu Wei-ning chatting happily at the Golden Horse Award nomination reception, and her eyes were almost tearing.

"There are also photos from the set, and photos of the two of you walking together when the crew went out to eat together. Originally, after the premiere at the Golden Horse Film Festival, various reports talked about the passionate scenes between you in the movie, saying that you gave the most explicit scenes of your debut to Tiffany Hsu. Now that the news has been revealed, it has become very popular on Weibo.

"This should be the initiative of the crew from the island province to promote and hype up Xu Weining and the movie. I think we should warn them not to do such tricks. What era is it now? They still use such low-level hype methods. What do you think?"

Sun Man asked.

"Uh..." Xu Xing was silent for a moment. "Actually, even if we tell them, they won't listen. This movie has already signed a 10 billion guarantee, and they will do everything they can to hype it up and increase the box office."

To be honest, although creating scandals is low-level, it is really useful.

It will really add a lot of heat to the movie.

After watching the movie, fans are eager to go to the theater to see what is going on. They will also get involved with haters online. Ordinary people are also curious about the love affairs of big stars.

However, it turned out that Xu Weining was so active in the previous two days and invited me three times in a row. Her fundamental purpose was to create some hype. It was really... a mistake.

"They should be warned! Otherwise, they might go even further."

Sun Man said.

"Yes," Xu Xing nodded, "Warning, use the marketing account to clarify and dispel rumors."

"You won't sue? Look at the report. Some parts are exaggerated, saying that you guys do it every day on the set. Although it's true, are we just going to accept it?"

Sun Man frowned.

"I don't mean to acquiesce," Xu Xing shook his head, "Wait a minute."

"...Does that mean we should let Cheng Ge's parents suffer first?"

(End of this chapter)