Huayu: Starting with Marketing Bad Movies

Back at the company.

Filming the movie took almost a month, and the company also accumulated a lot of business.

Most of them are minor issues that can be easily handled, and there are two pieces of good news as well.

One piece of news is that the investment for "Love is Not Blind" has been finalized.

The film's funding had already been secured, so there was no shortage of money.

However, the major production companies lacked confidence in the film, so when they heard that a company had come to invest, they readily agreed.

They wanted to diversify their risk and minimize their losses.

Making money was out of the question; most people thought the movie would lose money, or at least not make much.

If no other companies join, in order to get the movie released online and recoup costs, the major production companies will grit their teeth and make up for the investment.

But they certainly won't refuse if a new company wants to join.

Unfortunately, the investment was not much, only one million. After all, the movie had already started filming a long time ago, and Xu Feng was a bit late to the game.

Now, one million only gets you ten percent of the share, which is a very small percentage.

Xu Feng was fairly satisfied with the result. This was a famous film that achieved great success with a small budget, ultimately grossing 300 million yuan.

A 10% share can yield at least ten million, a huge profit.

I wonder what the investors' expressions will be when they find out about this outcome.

Xu Feng found it somewhat amusing; if they had known that "Love is Not Blind" was so profitable, they certainly wouldn't have allowed outsiders to invest.

But no one can predict whether a movie will make money before it's released. It's only because of the memories of the future that Xu Feng invested in "Love is Not Blind".

The investment in "The Flowers of War" has also yielded results: a seven million investment has resulted in a one percent share.

The film was advertised as having a budget of 600 million, but there's clearly a lot of exaggeration involved.

Zhang Yimou really spends a lot of money making movies. It's said that a single piece of glass cost ten million yuan. Whether that's true or not is hard to say, but it's definitely true that making movies is expensive.

It was precisely because movies are so expensive that even the reputation of Zhang Yimou, the director of the "National Director," couldn't cover the costs, and there were many shortfalls in film production, which led to the involvement of Shanfeng Films.

"Although we invested money, we don't have much say, and we can't send anyone to manage the finance department..."

Liu Yang from the company gave a report.

Zhang Weiping, the producer of "The Flowers of War", was very greedy. Relying on Zhang Yimou's trust, he made very harsh demands. Even though Xu Feng invested money, he had almost no say in the matter.

Xu Feng thought about it carefully.

The investment in "Love is Not Blind" was destined to be profitable, and very profitable at that, but "The Flowers of War" was a money-losing film.

The film grossed less than 500 million yuan after its release, which is a huge loss compared to its production cost of 600 million yuan.

He spent more money, but his share was smaller than other investors, so he lost even more.

If it weren't for the system rewards for investing in this movie, Xu Feng definitely wouldn't have invested.

He felt he had acted too hastily and shouldn't have invested in "The Flowers of War".

He's currently short of money, and those funds could be used to invest in more valuable films and TV series, such as "Lost in Thailand".

Investing in "The Flowers of War" was a bit of a loss.

However, this is not a big problem. Xu Feng can afford to lose eight million, and he won't lose it all. He can still have two or three million left in the end.

I'll be more careful next time.

"You did a great job. I've decided to promote you. From now on, you'll be the Business Director of Shanfeng Films."

Xu Feng said to Liu Yang, who was reporting.

"ah."

Liu Yang was pleasantly surprised. He'd become a director so quickly?

Whether it was the investment for "Love is Not Blind" or "The Flowers of War," it was all handled by Liu Yang.

While there are many reasons for successful investments, Liu Yang's ability cannot be denied. Otherwise, even if someone else had the opportunity, they might not have been able to seize it.

Since this guy is so capable, we should give him more responsibilities.

"I'm giving you a new task. The company's next movie is about to be released, and I plan to use short dramas to drive traffic to the movie."

"You are fully responsible for this matter."

Using short dramas to drive viewership for movies is a promotional tactic that Xu Feng came up with.

In later generations, many movies would release a lot of short videos to attract viewers before their release.

At that time, watching short videos was the most common form of entertainment.

Douyin and Manjiao are the two platforms with the most users and the longest usage time.

Only by releasing short videos can a film attract a large enough audience.

During this period, portal websites and online video platforms were the most widely used software, holding a status equivalent to that of short video platforms in later generations.

Traditional advertising methods, such as Google Ads and offline promotions, are becoming less effective than online advertising.

In this regard, many companies still have shortcomings, and some slow-witted companies have not even realized the importance of online promotion.

Xu Feng would certainly not make such a mistake.

Even before filming began, he had already figured out how to use the internet for promotion.

That is to edit a nonsensical short drama, release it on an online video platform, and use the short drama to drive traffic to the movie.

This is a very novel promotional method at this time.

Xu Feng mainly referenced the success story of "Unexpectedly" from his previous life.

Wanhe Tianyi started out making short dramas, and it was only after "Unexpectedly" became a hit that the "Unexpectedly" feature film was made.

Although the movie flopped, it was because of its poor quality.

If the quality is good, it will become another best-selling product.

With a ready-made path to success right in front of him, Xu Feng naturally wanted to learn from it.

Moreover, using online video platforms for promotion has another advantage: during this time period, the users of video platforms are mostly college students, young white-collar workers, and people from relatively well-off families.

These people are the main audience for movies at this stage.

If it can attract these people to the cinema, the movie "Unexpected" is bound to be a hit.

At the same time, these people are also among the most receptive to learning.

In addition to the quality of the film, the timing of its release is also very important for the success of a movie.

If "Wolf Warrior" had been released at a different time, it would never have become a phenomenon. "A Chinese Odyssey" is considered a classic, but it was a huge financial loss when it was released and only became popular again after being rediscovered by college students.

While "Unexpected" is undoubtedly a good movie, its nonsensical and spoof style is difficult for conservative older generations to accept, and they may even find it unconventional.

Young people don't have this problem; they can better appreciate the merits of movies, and only these people can contribute to the box office.

Xu Feng began editing the film.

He originally planned to have someone else edit it, but ultimately decided to do it himself.

At this stage, apart from himself, it's difficult for anyone else to edit in the style Xu Feng wants.

Moreover, Xu Feng is not only editing the movie, but also the short drama series "Unexpectedly" for promotional purposes, which requires him to take action even more.

The more parts of a movie he participates in, the greater his contribution, and the greater the rewards he will receive from the system in the end.