This director lacks vision.

Chapter 91 It's not that Avatar looks down on us.
On January 5th at 7 PM, a new episode of "Da Shan Kan Da Shan" aired, titled "It's not that Avatar is looked down upon, but that 'Lost in Thailand' is more cost-effective."

"The domestic film market has been very lively recently. First, Lost on Journey broke 100 million yuan at the box office in three days, and then Avatar made a stunning debut."

As a country bumpkin, I wanted to join in the fun when I saw a top Hollywood blockbuster being released.

When I checked the ticket prices, wow! A regular movie ticket costs 60 yuan, and a 3D ticket costs 100 yuan or more and is still in short supply.

Forget about IMAX; it's said that scalpers are selling tickets for as much as 1,000 yuan each, and some viewers even travel from Shijiazhuang to Yanjing just to see an IMAX movie.

You know, Avatar must have made a lot of money!
Hey! Qiao Shan, why aren't you saying anything? I've already finished my lines, and now this is so awkward!

"Don't even mention movies. I took my wife to see Avatar yesterday, and we spent all our money. We haven't eaten all day, so we don't have the energy to talk."

"You're exaggerating. It's just watching a movie, it's not like you'll go hungry."

"How could it not be? We bought scalped tickets for 400 yuan! That's all my savings!"
I regret it so much! I should have gone to see Lost on Journey!

It's not that Avatar looks down on us, it's just that "Lost in Thailand" offers better value for money!

……

The episode of "Da Shan Talks About Mountains" immediately attracted considerable attention after it aired.

"It's not that Avatar looks down on us, it's just that 'Lost in Thailand' is more cost-effective," this phrase began to circulate online.

That evening, a viral post appeared on Li Yi Bar titled "Online Dating Is Unreliable".

A female netizen shared her experience of meeting her online boyfriend in person. In her post, she complained: "You bastard, I flew from Qingdao to Chengdu to see you, and you treated me to 6 yuan's worth of spicy hot pot, and then kicked me out 13 times in one night!!!"

The content of this post was so abstract that people couldn't help but believe it, attracting a large number of netizens to come and watch.

Before long, the post had thousands of replies and began to go viral.

Netizens are making fun of the mala tang (spicy hot pot) meme.

On the morning of January 6th, the male protagonist responded in the post.

"Don't talk nonsense. Didn't I invite you to the movies?"

The female lead replied, "I want to watch Avatar, why did you ask me to watch Lost in Thailand?"

The male protagonist continued, "It's not that Avatar looks down on us, it's just that Lost in Journey is more cost-effective."

Combined with the meme surrounding mala tang (a spicy hot pot dish), the phrase "cost-effectiveness" suddenly takes on a different meaning.

Netizens did the math: 13 times a night, 6 yuan for spicy hot pot, 60 yuan for a movie, averaging 5 yuan per visit.

The price-performance ratio is contradictory; it's both very low and very high.

As described in the witty comments in the post, it's called "very low price, very high cost performance".

Along with the viral post about "mala tang" (a spicy hot pot dish) and "cost-effectiveness," the phrase "It's not that Avatar looks down on us, but that 'Lost in Thailand' is more cost-effective" also became a hot topic.

A large number of netizens copied this sentence everywhere to make fun of it, and people also used this sentence structure to introduce more content.

"It's not that I can't afford to date, it's that the technicians are more cost-effective."

"It's not that Japanese food is unaffordable, but that mala tang (a type of spicy hot pot) is more cost-effective."

"It's not that we can't afford down jackets, it's just that military overcoats are more cost-effective."

……

Of course, all of this was planned and arranged by Jiang Yifeng.

There are online trolls behind this.

Jiang Yifeng deliberately borrowed the reference to spicy hot pot from his previous life to reinforce the concept that "it's not that Avatar looks down on us, but that 'Lost in Thailand' is more cost-effective," thus conveying a price concept to the audience and differentiating himself from the competition.

The results were surprisingly good.

The phrase "It's not that xx is too expensive, but that xx is more cost-effective" perfectly reflects the "loser culture" that is gradually emerging on the internet today.

Everyone's using this meme.

Some businesses have even started creating similar sentences to advertise their products.

Phrases like "It's not that I can't afford to play World of Warcraft, it's that Conquer Online is more cost-effective" have started to appear.

In addition to using memes to expand his reach, Jiang Yifeng also bought trending topics on Weibo for promotion.

The phrases "Avatar 2D is terrible", "You must watch the 3D version of Avatar to watch Avatar", and "Lost in Thailand is the king of 2D" have been trending on Weibo's hot search list.

Although these trending topics were bought, they did reflect the sentiments of the audience to some extent and gained the approval of many people.

Many video bloggers on Sohu Video have also posted related videos.

I highly recommend everyone watch the IMAX version of Avatar!

"Avatar is a groundbreaking and great film. Let us take you behind the scenes of Avatar's production."

"Avatar Saves Cinemas? In-Depth Analysis of the Secrets of 3D Movies."

Although these videos have different titles, they all share the same underlying narrative logic.

Avatar is awesome. Its visuals are groundbreaking. The 3D and IMAX effects are breathtaking. You must watch Avatar in 3D or IMAX. The 2D version is a rip-off; it's expensive and not good at all.

Viewers who want to see the 2D version should go see Lost in Thailand instead.

This movie is funny and lighthearted, and it deals with the theme of the Spring Festival travel rush in China. It's definitely worth watching.

With Avatar currently enjoying great popularity and a large following, and given that it's also distributed by Huaying Film Studio, Jiang Yifeng also needs to consider Han Sanping's feelings and hasn't directly opposed Avatar for the time being. Instead, he's going with the flow.

They rave about Avatar's special effects and visuals, then point out the film's flaws—the 2D version is no good, watching the 2D version is a huge waste.

This promotional approach is entirely from the audience's perspective, offering an objective analysis.

The marketing was subtle, and most people couldn't tell.

Many netizens, after watching the trending topics on Weibo or searching for videos related to the arc, felt that this was indeed the case.

If you're going to see Avatar, you should see it in 3D. Anyone who goes to see the 2D version is an idiot. Spending 60 yuan to see a cheap movie is crazy. You'd be better off watching Lost in Thailand, which is more cost-effective and at least will make you laugh.

Thanks to Jiang Yifeng's promotional strategy, Avatar dominated the 3D and IMAX markets, and tickets for the movie were extremely difficult to obtain.

However, the performance of Avatar 2D has been getting worse and worse, with attendance rates declining all the way down.

Under these circumstances, the box office performance of "Lost in Thailand" remained very strong.

1月5号1180万票房，1月6号1210万票房，1月7号1290万票房。

Three consecutive days of decline!

This box office trend demonstrates remarkable resilience and proves that the high box office performance of "Lost in Thailand" is not a flash in the pan.

This is because, on the one hand, "Lost in Thailand" has a very good reputation, and comedies have always been very popular during the Lunar New Year season;
On the other hand, Jiang Yifeng's publicity strategy was very successful. The differentiated positioning allowed "Lost in Thailand" to avoid direct competition with "Avatar" and reap box office rewards on the 2D screen.

Moreover, the phenomenal success of Avatar is not entirely a bad thing for other movies released at the same time.

At least Avatar boosted visitor numbers and the overall market.

During this period, the number of moviegoers increased many times over.

These people have all heard of the "Lost in Thailand" story, and some of them will be diverted to other jobs.

After seeing the box office performance of "Lost in Thailand", Han Sanping also kept his promise and began to reduce the number of screenings of "Avatar 2D" and restore the number of screenings of "Lost in Thailand" to more than 30%.

On January 9th, the first Saturday after Avatar's release, the box office saw a small surge, reaching 48 million yuan in a single day.

No one was surprised by Avatar's strong performance.

Many media outlets and viewers even felt that it was too little.

After all, Transformers 2, which was released last summer, grossed over 6000 million yuan in a single day.

Avatar had a much stronger hype than Transformers 2, but it only grossed 4800 million in its opening Saturday, which was somewhat below expectations.

But what's even more surprising is...

Lost on Journey grossed 2770 million yuan on its second Saturday after release!
This low-budget comedy film actually managed to create a certain rivalry with Avatar!

By Sunday, January 10th, Avatar's box office had finally surpassed 50 million, reaching 51.3 million.

The story of "Lost in Thailand" is like a cow taking a plane – incredibly awesome!

Surprisingly, after only 10 days of release, the box office revenue rebounded to over 3000 million.

It grossed 3080 million yuan in box office revenue in a single day!
Upon seeing this situation, many media outlets suddenly changed their tune.

"Avatar faces competition from Lost in Thailand, resulting in lower-than-expected box office performance!"

"Lost in Thailand creates miracles, and the Chinese film industry is carrying the banner of domestic films!"

"It's the king of 2D movies, and even more so, the king of cost-effectiveness! Lost in Thailand disrupted Avatar's path to the throne."

……

The main reason these media outlets reported it this way is that they had overly high expectations for Avatar's box office performance.

This film swept the globe, sparking a movie-going frenzy and being hailed by the industry as a super movie that saved cinemas.

However, its daily box office revenue on its opening weekend was lower than that of Transformers 2.

People naturally assume that Lost on Journey was so successful that it took away some of Avatar's box office revenue.

In fact, the reason why Avatar's highest single-day box office in China was limited was because there were too few 3D screens in China, not because of the film itself.

Given the popularity of Avatar, even if there were twice as many 3D movie tickets, they would still be sold out.

But the 2D version is definitely not good.

After Jiang Yifeng's differentiated competition strategy was successfully implemented, the screening schedule of "Lost in Thailand" was guaranteed, and the negative impact of "Avatar" on "Lost in Thailand" was minimal.

It even has some positive effects.

Jiang Yifeng was quite certain that if "Lost in Thailand" had been released in another time slot, it might not have achieved such good box office results.

Jiang Yifeng, of course, did not bother to explain the media's misunderstandings, but rather accepted them with a smile.

Moreover, Lost in Thailand did indeed have an impact on Avatar. Jiang Yifeng's publicity strategy caused Avatar to lose a lot of box office revenue for the 2D version.

The highest single-day box office for the previous Avatar was 56.7 million, which was achieved on January 10th.

Now it's only 5130 million, which is 540 million less.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Jiang Yifeng began the third step of his plan—confrontation.

(End of this chapter)