Shadow of Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 305 Ratings

In early July 2007, the first season of "Homecoming" premiered on ABC and quickly became a global phenomenon.

The show's popularity far exceeded Disney's expectations, with ratings soaring and its performance being nothing short of amazing.

From the audience's perspective, with its unique and novel action, science fiction, and superpower themes, as well as its gripping post-apocalyptic zombie storyline, the first season of "Homecoming" successfully attracted the attention of audiences of different ages and from different regions.

The protagonist Cici's growth process, her unique Eastern Taoist magic, and her powerful spatial abilities have all become topics of great interest to the audience.

Since then, discussions about An Xiaoqian, Cici, and "The Way Home" have remained popular on social media and film and television forums.

Many viewers were moved by Cici's tenacious and courageous spirit in the apocalypse, and shared their interpretations of the plot and their love for the character on social media.

They spontaneously promoted "The Way Home," creating a powerful word-of-mouth effect and becoming true fans on their own.

Fans not only enthusiastically discussed the exciting plot and superpower settings in the show, but also created a large number of exquisite fan works, including paintings and video edits, which further boosted the show's popularity.

In terms of viewership ratings, the first episode of the first season of "Homecoming" performed brilliantly and achieved quite good results.

The first episode of the series attracted more than 600 million viewers and achieved a rating of 3.5. After its broadcast, it quickly sparked related discussions and became the focus of heated debate in the television industry at the time.

Since then, each episode of "The Way Home" has maintained a consistently high level of attention, with an average viewership rating of over 3.5, consistently ranking first in viewership ratings for its time slot.

By the end of August, it had achieved a ratings miracle.

The show garnered over 1000 million viewers and its ratings soared to over 4.0, triggering a frenzy of posts on social media. That evening, topics related to "The Way Home" quickly topped the trending charts on various platforms.

Even before the first season of "Homecoming" had finished airing, it had already achieved remarkable success in the United States, and its broadcast in other parts of the world had also garnered enthusiastic responses and extremely high ratings.

In China, the novel of the same name, which was very popular in the early stages, already had a large fan base.

Coupled with the immense popularity of lead actress An Xiaoqian and the show's meteoric rise in popularity after its overseas broadcast, the first season of "The Way Home" quickly gained widespread recognition in China.

For some reason, the official domestic platforms have failed to import "The Way Home".

Viewers then turned to some pirated subtitle websites. Although the translations on these websites varied in quality, it did not dampen the enthusiasm of Chinese viewers for watching the series.

Even so, XiXi.com still did not upload the resources for the first season of "The Way Home" to its own website.

After all, there are some things that everyone knows and does, but Qianbeifeng Entertainment cannot do.

The specific reasons are clear to those who know.

In overseas markets such as Europe and Asia, thanks to Disney's powerful distribution network, the first season of "Homecoming" also successfully attracted a large audience.

Its viewership ratings far exceeded those of other dramas airing at the same time, sparking a "homecoming fever" in many countries and regions.

To promote her new drama, An Xiaoqian went to the United States in early July to participate in several popular shows, including Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The United States is not like China; even though both countries have bodyguards, guns are rampant there.

Moreover, given An Xiaoqian's current fame, there's no guarantee that someone won't have ulterior motives.

Although the probability of this happening was extremely low, even with Disney backing her up, Hu Xiaobei was still a little worried and quietly accompanied her abroad.

With the first season of "Homecoming" gaining popularity, Disney is ready to strike while the iron is hot and hopes that Hu Xiaobei can film the subsequent content first, so that more time can be freed up for post-production.

Hu Xiaobei understood Disney's intentions perfectly well; they were simply worried that with the show's immense popularity, the copyright fees and An Xiaoxi's salary would skyrocket.

After all, the contract they signed at the time left room for both parties to maneuver.

Hu Xiaobei spoke frankly with Disney: the contract could remain the same, but Disney had to step up its efforts in the follow-up promotion and awards campaign for "Mulan." The better "Mulan" performed, the greater Disney's profits would be.

Disney would certainly be happy about this.

In fact, regardless of whether Disney agrees or not, Hu Xiaobei has no intention of raising prices.

After all, they are outsiders, and even a powerful dragon can't suppress a local snake. Being able to occupy half the market share is already quite remarkable.

Everything in excess is bad. If the share were any larger, Disney would lose its apparent dominance and probably wouldn't be as enthusiastic.

Since mid-July, Hu Xiaobei and An Xiaoqian have been fully engaged in filming the second season of "The Way Home".

For a whole month, the entire crew worked together, deliberately slowing down the filming pace to strive for perfection, and finally wrapped up filming smoothly.

The second season will not air this year; post-production can be completed gradually, and it will premiere next July.

Immediately afterwards, the two threw themselves into preparations for the global premiere of "Mulan".

As a big-budget epic film of Eastern legend, "Mulan" carries the important significance of the integration of Eastern and Western cultures.

Disney put extra effort into the promotion and premiere, meticulously planning every detail.

Coincidentally, An Xiaoxi's 20th birthday fell on August 25, 2007, which coincided with the film's original global simultaneous release date.

Uh… okay, it’s definitely not a coincidence, but it’s all about public relations…

Hu Xiaobei and Disney "keenly seized" this opportunity and decided to combine An Xiaoxi's birthday party with the premiere of "Mulan" to create a unique event.

On August 25, the Hollywood Dolby Theatre was ablaze with stars.

On both sides of the red carpet, media reporters from all over the world set up their cameras and microphones, and flashbulbs went off one after another.

An Xiaoqian, dressed in a gorgeous gown specially customized by someone, transformed into a "modern Mulan" and made a stunning appearance with director Hu Xiaobei, becoming the focus of the entire event.

She wore a look full of oriental charm, paired with Disney's carefully designed "Mulan" themed accessories, perfectly blending femininity and heroism, drawing continuous praise and flashes of light from the audience.

This ceremony, hosted by Disney, combined the significance of a birthday and a premiere.

It not only attracted many stars and well-known directors from the film and television industry, but also gathered many business elites, fashion celebrities and other celebrities from all walks of life.

Inside the banquet hall, crystal chandeliers gleamed, and a giant LED screen played exciting clips from the movie "Mulan" on a loop.

Guests raised their glasses in celebration, witnessing the birth of this masterpiece that blends Eastern and Western cultures, while also sending birthday wishes to An Xiaoqian.

Hollywood giants such as Universal, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and Columbia all sent senior executives to attend.

However, these company executives, celebrity directors, and social elites all have their own different purposes for attending this ceremony.

As the saying goes, the real intention is not in the wine; the so-called ceremony and gathering are just a means for them to expand their network, achieve business cooperation, or achieve their own goals.

But no matter what, as long as the person comes, that's fine.

This unique event is bound to become a highlight of the film's promotion, attracting widespread coverage from entertainment media around the world.

This will not only lay a solid foundation for the global box office and critical acclaim of "Mulan", but also save a lot of publicity and distribution costs, which can be used for other promotional activities of "Mulan".

(End of this chapter)