Huayu: Starting with Marketing Bad Movies

After the celebration banquet, Xu Feng returned home.

There were too many people today, and Jing Tian was very conservative, so he didn't get a chance to get close to her.

Fortunately, he still has the lovely Zhao Liying at home, so he won't be left alone in an empty room.

The next day, Xu Feng took Xiao Zhao out for a big shopping trip and bought her a lot of things.

If you have money, of course you should spend it; otherwise, what's the point of making money?

Then Xu Feng had nothing else to do. The movie "The Warring States" was now past its prime, the hype had completely died down, and it was barely hanging on in theaters with a daily box office of a few hundred thousand yuan.

The company originally planned to screen the film for a longer period of time to earn more box office revenue, but after seeing how dismal the box office numbers were, they decided to pull it off the screens sooner.

The main problem is that the quality of "The Warring States" is really bad. Its high box office was all due to hype. Now that the hype has died down, its true level has been exposed.

Xu Feng agreed to end the film's run as soon as possible. Once the film was off the screens, the system would settle the rewards, and he needed this right now, as he was just getting started.

The scriptwriting for "Unexpectedly" has entered a critical phase, and Xu Feng has encountered difficulties.

The biggest challenge is how to combine short skits of a few minutes into a two-hour movie that still makes the audience laugh.

The original production team got stuck on this point, resulting in a very poor film quality.

If you ask them to film a short skit that's only a few minutes long, they can do it very well, making it hilarious and full of unexpected contrasts that will make you laugh until your stomach hurts.

However, expanding a short drama into a movie is beyond their capabilities.

Xu Feng had an idea; he planned to turn the film into a nonsensical spoof comedy similar to "Hot Shots!".

A complete story, told in a nonsensical and spoof way, that will make you laugh out loud.

The problem is how to ensure that the audience laughs, rather than awkwardly scratching their toes.

It's fine to let Xu Feng modify some unexpected jokes and write them into the script, but it's a bit difficult to ask him to create his own original funny jokes that fit the plot.

I can come up with quite a few ideas, after all, I've been through the era of short videos and watched a lot of funny short videos and jokes, so it's easy for me to fill them into a script.

Those are the culmination of countless people's wisdom, have been tested by the market, and have been recognized by the public.

But with different times and circumstances, will audiences find it hard to understand and miss the jokes?

And are these jokes really suitable for a movie? Wouldn't they feel out of place?

All of them are problems.

The idea of ​​making a comedy film was wonderful at first; it seemed like a low-budget, high-return endeavor with minimal investment.

But when he actually started creating, Xu Feng found difficulties everywhere, and he was overwhelmed with ideas for the script.

If I had known, I would have just copied "Lost in Thailand". If Xu Zheng, Wang Baoqiang and Huang Bo had just invited them and copied the script, they would have easily made 500 million at the box office.

It's okay if the system rewards are low; I can always earn more later.

Or making a film like "Hello Mr. Billionaire" would be simpler than making "Unexpected".

But at this point, Xu Feng couldn't change his mind. He had poured too much effort into this film, and it was too late to give up now.

On May 20th, the Hollywood blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" hit theaters across China, raking in over 100 million yuan in just two days and bringing a strong shock to mainland audiences.

Although the fourth installment was not as good as the first three, its strong cast, exquisite visuals, epic storyline, and the influence of its predecessors still propelled the film's box office to new heights.

It must be admitted that during this period, the quality of domestic films was indeed inferior to that of Hollywood blockbusters. This is not to boost the morale of our enemies or diminish our own, but simply to state the truth.

If you can't beat them, you can't beat them; you have to admit the gap.

But it's much better than at the beginning of the century, and the quality of domestic films is catching up. As time goes by, they will eventually surpass Hollywood blockbusters.

Or you could say it's a two-way journey.

When we progress while others regress, it becomes easier to surpass them.

Domestic media outlets have been full of praise for the film. At this time, people still have many beautiful fantasies about the country across the Pacific Ocean, which are filtered through a layer of glass.

They also view Hollywood movies through a filter, mostly praising them, and even when they do nitpick, their tone is very gentle, the kind of criticism that's more of a help than a criticism.

Then some media outlets mentioned "The Warring States Period" and directly criticized it.

Look at Hollywood movies, that's what good movies are, that's what blockbusters are. What is "The Warring States"? It makes money with vulgar and tasteless marketing. It's not even in the same league.

In comparison, domestic films are simply garbage, not worth mentioning at all.

Some media outlets have used this to elevate the issue to the level of national character, claiming that the film reveals the inherent flaws of the Chinese people, who are inferior to those across the Pacific in every way.

But they make no mention of the fact that this kind of fraudulent marketing originated on the other side of the Pacific.

Or perhaps they simply don't know, and are just looking for a reason to criticize domestic films and further criticize the people.

Of course, they are correct in a certain sense. It's hard to say whether the movie "The Warring States" has a greater negative or positive impact on Chinese films.

But Xu Feng is confident that his next movie will be different and will change everyone's opinion of him.

On May 25, the controversial film "The Warring States" was pulled from theaters. The film's final box office was around 5 million yuan, temporarily ranking first in the 2011 box office chart.

Of course, this record won't last long. Pirates of the Caribbean 4 has already grossed over 200 million in just six days, showing an extremely strong momentum. It will definitely surpass the box office of The Warring States in the end.

When Mr. Liu from Starlight Brilliant Company called, he expressed his regret, saying that it would have been better if this record could have been maintained for a longer period of time.

This is a good thing for both the company and Xu Feng's personal development.

Of course, "The Warring States" is already very strong, with a box office of 410 million yuan, ranking among the top five domestic films.

The directors ranked ahead of him are all big names like Feng Xiaogang and Jiang Wen. It's already quite impressive that Xu Feng's films can be listed alongside these big names.

Anyway, people in the industry remember him.

While he may not be on par with the great directors, he is definitely better than the average director.

However, his status within the industry is still somewhat weak.

The main reason is that Xu Feng's movies are of very poor quality and rely on marketing, which makes him very controversial.

Many people don't see him as a director, but rather as a marketing guru.

This is just a joke. One success doesn't mean anything unless Xu Feng succeeds again through marketing. That way, he can truly solidify his title as a marketing master, and then there will definitely be a long line of people asking him to help market their movies.

Mr. Liu called to ask if Xu Feng needed to settle the payment in advance. Although the movie had finished its theatrical run, it would still take some time before the theater's money was transferred to Starlight Brilliant Company's account.

However, the film's box office results have already been determined. According to the original contract, Xu Feng's director's salary was not high, but he was entitled to a share of the box office revenue.

If Xu Feng is short of money, Starlight Brilliant Company can settle the payment for him now.

Xu Feng really needs it; he's genuinely short of money.

But what he values ​​most is the system's rewards.

The system reward arrived the moment "The Warring States" finished its theatrical run.

Because the film's revival relied heavily on Xu Feng's marketing strategy, the system's reward this time is quite good.

Although the items rewarded by the system played a crucial role in this process, this cannot overshadow Xu Feng's own contribution.

It would be difficult for anyone else to come up with such a good marketing plan in such a short time, and it would also be difficult to execute it so well.

Xu Feng deserves immense credit for the success of "The Warring States" which grossed over 400 million yuan.

So the system rewarded him with an apartment in Beijing and ten million yuan in cash.

More importantly, there are system points.

With these points, Xu Feng could activate the system's functions to help him improve the script.

With the help of the system, Xu Feng completed the unexpected script in just one day.