The battle for traffic in Chinese entertainment

Chapter 245 Storytelling VS Movie Screen
"The attendance rate is still very high. In the morning, the attendance rate was 20%, and by the evening, it had increased to 35%. All platforms expect today's box office to exceed 1.2 million."

Liu Cheng was talking on the phone.

"I don't think you need to worry too much. The focus of their promotion is to be super explicit. Many of the first wave of people who came in were your fans. It's normal for them to feel a little scared.

"On the contrary, we can take the opportunity to market and ask boyfriends to go to the movie with us. Christmas Eve is on Sunday, and this weekend is the peak time for couples to watch movies together. There are intimate scenes, scary scenes, various brain-burning twists, and it can also allow boys to brag in front of girls.

"Apart from romantic films, this kind of movie is the most suitable for couples to watch together. That's what we did back then. You are responsible for attracting girls into the theater with your face, and we can attract boys to the theater with this kind of promotion.

"The key now is to control the negative comments about the plot of the film itself, and emphasize that some logical bugs were caused by reshooting in order to pass the review. Various unreshooted versions of the plot have begun to spread online, and netizens are still very enthusiastic about discussing it.

"On the contrary, there are no doubts about whether you are worthy of the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor. I think you can definitely get the 10 billion guaranteed, as long as your reputation doesn't collapse in the next three days."

Liu Cheng smiled.

"I hope so!"

Xu Xing also smiled.

The opening day of "Witness" was excellent enough, with 30% of the screenings earning over 1.2 million yuan at the box office, setting a first-day record for suspense films.

Today's 35% attendance rate is second only to the 37% of "Youth" after its word-of-mouth spread, but "Youth" only has 11% of the screenings.

——This achievement is also partly due to the dividends of "Wolf Warrior 2". When promoting "Witness", it used the banner of "Xu Xing's first work after "Wolf Warrior 2"".

The real rival of "Witness" is "Legend of the Demon Cat", which has 24% of the screenings and an attendance rate of 27%. It is expected to have a first-day box office of 7000 million, which is actually a good result.

It performed better than the previous "The Taoist Goes Down the Mountain", and the gorgeous "The Great Tang Dynasty" was also well received in terms of word of mouth. The worried Yang Guifei in the trailer was also praised as being really stunning in the movie. Many marketing accounts have already shouted "Director Chen is back to the top!"

But everyone tried their best to praise the first wave of feedback and promoted it, and tried their best to cover up the negative reviews.

Now it depends on whether "Witness" can sustain the phenomenal opening of non-mainstream genre films, and whether "Legend of the Demon Cat" can attract the audiences who have been deceived by Director Chen back to the theaters.

The three days of the weekend, including Monday and Christmas Day, a total of four days, will completely determine the winner.

On the first day, everyone was generally doing well and just blowing their own trumpets.

The next day...

[The magnificent and prosperous Tang Dynasty VS the dark and bloody rainy night, which scene would you prefer to see in the cinema? ]

[I really admire the King Oyster Mushrooms. Did you go to the cinema to watch a movie or to sing karaoke? The whole movie was full of laughter, exclamation, and screaming. I really want to thank you. Such a boring movie kept me awake. But I also suggest that the cinema should open a special show for King Oyster Mushrooms to give other audiences who want to sleep in the cinema a way out, okay? ]

[Although I know that the surrender scene was reshot for the approval, the male lead still looks like a clown even without surrendering. He took 200 million yuan back then, was he afraid that no one would know? How could he dig up the matter again? In order to pursue a reversal, it was superfluous. The rhythm was dull to begin with, and the Rashomon-style narrative was even more confusing. In the end, the male lead was a clown... I respect Xu Xing's performance at the level of an award-winning actor, but there is really no need to watch this kind of movie in the theater. ]

……

[By the way, did you meet any of Xu Xing’s fans when “Witness” came out? They gave you 10 yuan and asked you to give it 5 stars on Douban. If you met any of them, you can say like me that you didn’t have lunch and want 20 yuan. They also gave you 20 yuan.]

[“Witness” is really not as good as “The Burning Sun” two years ago, both are exaggerated…]

"When they saw that our pre-sales today were still so high, they got anxious. All the black PR came out overnight. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and their pre-sales tomorrow are currently average."

Sun Man said.

"So, we are also stepping down on them at the same time?"

Xu Xing asked.

"Yes, at the same time."

Sun Man nodded and handed over some of the more representative remarks and manuscripts criticizing "Legend of the Demon Cat" again.

——Wanda was only involved in the production of "Legend of the Demon Cat", not the main investor, and the same is true for "Witness". Before the release, they will maintain respect for each other, but after the release, it depends on their own ability.

[The storytelling ability of "Witness" was punished. "Witness" told nearly 120 stories in 20 minutes, and it was still easy. "Legend of the Demon Cat" couldn't even tell a story clearly. Director Chen should switch to making music videos...]

[The spiritual sequel to "The Promise"... On second thought, it's not as good as "The Promise". ]

……

[What is Pi Heshang doing with his sweet smile throughout the whole process? Can you please stop smiling, stop smiling, stop smiling…]

[Super luxurious middle school Mary Sue version of the ancient style Hai Tian Sheng Yan. 】

[Balala, the Little Magic Fairies of the Tang Dynasty...]

[Tell a joke, this is Li Bai...]

In fact, Xu Xing remembered that this Li Bai's case was overturned later, and many people stood up to say that Li Bai's performance was very good and that the real Li Bai was like this.

But it’s just like some people say that the Monkey King before Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West had no heroic spirit at all, and even knelt down and begged for mercy to Erlang Shen’s dog.

But in the hearts of the public, Sun Wukong is a hero.

In the public's mind, Li Bai is also an ethereal and elegant poet.

Therefore, even if the complaints about Li Bai in "Legend of the Demon Cat" are overturned and the public says "oh" to show that they know Li Bai is like this, the number of people who like him is not even comparable to Li Bai in "Honor of Kings".

So word of mouth cannot guarantee that the public will buy it.

The reputation of the movie "Legend of the Demon Cat" is also polarized.

Xu Xing chose to star in "Legend of the Demon Cat" because it would not help Director Chen to make a comeback.

Even fans who praise "Legend of the Demon Cat" will only say that the pictures are really beautiful. As for what Director Chen expressed, that is too difficult to say.

Reality and illusion, like dew and lightning, loneliness in a prosperous age, the disillusionment of love and beauty?
What is all this stuff?

Could you tell me more about what it is?

It’s better to just repeat the year beautifully.

Therefore, Xu Xing also logged onto the account of the Minister of Nanshan Entertainment and spoke up for "Legend of the Demon Cat" -

[Don’t try to understand it, just feel it. ]

After the second roadshow of the day ended in the afternoon, Xu Xing was surfing the Internet while sitting in the car and found that this sentence had become a hot topic.

#Just feel it# ranked second in hot searches.

Clicking into the hot search square, at the top is this Weibo post by the Minister of Nanshan Entertainment, and the popular Weibo posts below are all press releases expressing the splendor of the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

Scrolling further down, King Oyster Mushroom was scolding the director of the Nanshan toilet for eating dog food from "The Legend of the Demon Cat" and was calling on everyone to report and expose the director's account.

However, the minister's loyal fans insisted that the minister was innocent, and that he was clearly being sarcastic about "Legend of the Demon Cat" and scolding that the show was incomprehensible.

But King Oyster Mushroom didn't buy it. Because after watching "Legend of the Demon Cat", passers-by who thought the movie was good also began to use "feeling it is enough" to cover up their lack of expression ability.

Although at the same time there were also a large number of passers-by who said that it was indeed the right thing to do not buy tickets to enter the cinema, Director Chen not only failed to explain the story clearly, but instead of feeling ashamed, he boasted about it with pride.

Well, on the second day of its release, public opinion that "Legend of the Demon Cat" was incomprehensible began to ferment violently.

As for "Witness", the main problem is that the film is boring and the viewing experience is average.

Many people were arguing about the contradictory motives of Xiao Qi's investigation. There were more criticisms during the day, but at night, led by some well-known film critics, there was a counterattack.

Xiao Qi initially investigated the case in order to avenge Zhongwen. He insisted on investigating because Xu Aiting was kidnapped and he still had some justice left in him. Further investigation revealed that it was Brother Qiu's overreaction that killed Aji.

Xiao Qi finally chose to surrender himself because he suddenly realized what was happening between life and death. Ah Wei's question, "Did you enjoy spending your money? Did you sleep well these years?" was actually Xiao Qi's inner self-torture.

The reason why Ah Wei was killed was because Ah Wei murdered someone. Xiao Qi whipped Ah Wei's corpse like a madman in the bathroom because he hated his past self.

Well, not only the motive for investigating the case, but also the retaken Xiao Qi’s capital must be cleansed and counterattacked together.

In fact, the writing was very abrupt, because Xu Aiting, who witnessed Xiao Qi killing A Wei, was obviously killed by Xiao Qi, although there was no direct shot.

But with the support of Xu Xing's fans, it was briefly justified.

Combined with the press release bombardment with the highest marketing weight of [Xu Xing contributed best-selling emperor-level acting skills], the direction of "Witness" was finally reversed.

However, on the 23rd, due to the mutual attacks between the two sides, the box office of both films failed to reach yesterday's forecast.

The box office of "Legend of the Demon Cat" only reached 8600 million.

The box office of "Witness" managed to maintain positive growth, but it did not break 1.3 million yuan, and the ticket refund rate on the day increased by 10% compared to yesterday.

On the contrary, "Youth", which has a stable reputation, reversed the decline in box office after the increase in screenings and re-earned over 1 million yuan.

On the second day of its release, "Legend of the Demon Cat" performed worse at the box office than "Youth", which had been released for nine days, and its decline was beginning to show.

That night, a marketing account added fuel to the fire:

["Witness" VS "Legend of the Demon Cat" is a storytelling ability VS movie pictures. Every fan can make his or her own choice. ]

It even topped the trending searches in the middle of the night.

In the topic forum, most of the audience said that they wanted more storytelling skills. Telling a good story is the ability that domestic films lack the most.

The remaining small number of viewers hold the view that "Can't we have them all?"

Director Chen's storytelling ability was once again severely criticized, and even other major domestic directors such as Zhang Yimou were dragged out for criticism by fans.

Even there are complaints that the storytelling ability of "Witness" is not particularly good.

But “That’s because they reshot the film in order to pass the review”, “Do you understand what Rashomon-style narrative is?”, “Compared to Legend of the Demon Cat, Witness is just this good”… Three, four, five, N consecutive hits were made with one click.

Xu Xing got up on the 24th to surf the Internet, and was shocked by the changes in public opinion online.

That Weibo post seemed to be praising the story of "Witness" and the top-notch graphics of "Legend of the Demon Cat", but in essence it was criticizing "Legend of the Demon Cat" for not speaking human language.

After all, storytelling is the most basic requirement of a movie.

When movies were first created, they were designed purely for storytelling.

Movies released in theaters are all profitable, and those excellent art films are actually very good at telling stories, it’s just that the themes they express are not liked by the general public.

After fermenting all night and the entire morning, the hot search #Storytelling Ability VS Movie Picture# was at the top of the list, and the box office of "Legend of the Demon Cat" began to show signs of collapse.

On Christmas Eve, the box office soared by 1 million compared to yesterday, Saturday. The box office of most movies currently in theaters was higher than yesterday, and the movies with reduced screenings were basically the same as yesterday. However, "Legend of the Demon Cat", which had a screening only 0.5 lower than yesterday, only grossed 8100 million.

On the third day of release, Christmas Eve Sunday, the box office fell.

On the tenth day of its release, "Youth" once again broke the 100 million yuan box office.

The box office of "Witness" exceeded 1.4 million on that day!
Won the daily box office championship for three consecutive days!

The cumulative box office has reached 3.9 million!
……

"Love you love you love you love you I love you so much!"

That night, Yang Mi called Xu Xing and had a crazy moment.

Xu Xing knew that it was probably because Director Chen kicked her out of the "Search" crew. Director Chen's wife even said in an interview that it was because she was busy with other projects. Now she felt that Xu Xing had helped her vent her anger.

When the movie "Legend of the Demon Cat" was first launched, it was rumored that Xu Xing would play the role. At one point, the official Weibo account of "Legend of the Demon Cat" even followed Xu Xing's Weibo.

But in the end, not only did Xu Xing not act in the film, he also sniped the box office of "Legend of the Demon Cat" with a suspense film when it was released.

The investment of Legend of the Demon Cat was 2.5 million yuan. Although the investment of Witness was not announced, Director Cheng thanked Xu Xing during the roadshow and took a very small salary, "probably not as much as he got for two days of filming in the mainland." Therefore, the outside world generally believes that the cost is around 1500 million yuan.

——Before the release of "Witness", a new company joined to share the shares, but it was a company in Hong Kong City and had no connection with Xu Xing at all.

——Director Cheng’s words also became one of the “evidences” that Xu Xingdao was a spy, because not only one producer said helplessly that Xu Xing’s salary was too high and they couldn’t afford it. There were also messy revelations, such as “Don’t give the script to Emperor Xing if you don’t have 1 million yuan in salary”, “20 million yuan for 1 episodes, and if it exceeds 20 episodes, Emperor Xing will kindly give a discount”…

"How dare you say that," Xu Xing complained, "Director Chen is still quite capable of teaching actors. If you had filmed Searching carefully and focused on improving your acting skills, maybe you wouldn't have failed so badly in the past few years."

Although "Search" cannot be compared with director Chen's "masterpieces" from the last century, it is also very good.

It also helped Gao Yuanyuan finally find the look that suits her best, and netizens started calling her their wife - this is probably her greatest contribution!

"I pounced a few years ago?"

Yang Mi was very dissatisfied.

"No."

Xu Xing didn't bother with her.

"If I hadn't failed, I wouldn't have asked you to act in Three Lives, Three Worlds!"

Yang Mi chuckled again.

"..."

Xu Xing found it difficult to evaluate her and hung up the phone.

　The previous 2k is finally made up...

　　Thanks to 三杯黄酒就好, 楠牛, 20180401190115430, 佳业, 磚賬, jin0527131, 20240727171341167 for their monthly tickets! Thanks to everyone for their recommendations and subscriptions!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)