Li Mu used "Those Years" and his own online resources, Mu Ying's ticketing system, and even the movie's theme song to perfectly control the direction of the domestic box office. The strong exposure and topic attracted the attention of most movie lovers, which gradually turned "Those Years" into a box office storm, sucking in most of the audience who went to the cinema to watch the movie. Almost all the movies released at the same time as it failed without exception.
In the blink of an eye, "The Hero" had been in theaters for three days. After barely earning 2.6 million on the first day, the box office of "The Hero" continued to decline. The total box office for three days was only 6 million. It was an irreversible reality.
At the same time, ten days after "Those Years" was released, its box office earnings officially exceeded 100 million yuan. On the tenth day, it reached 105 million yuan, becoming the first movie in China to have a box office earnings of over 100 million yuan. At the same time, it also became the movie with the shortest time to do so.
To celebrate the box office hit 100 million, Makino Image held a celebration party in a five-star hotel in Yanjing. All the main creative team of "Those Years" were there, and all the media also rushed to the scene to report on it. Once again, the popularity of "Those Years" was raised to another level.
Once a movie achieved this kind of comprehensive exposure in a period of time, it basically formed a situation where it slaughtered everything during the screening period. It was unstoppable.
However, Director Zhang was almost driven crazy by the low box office!
"The Hero" was the movie he had directed so far, with the highest investment cost. Originally, he wanted to use this movie to create a bunch of domestic box office records, and then go overseas to win a bunch of international awards. However, he didn't expect that he would encounter a Waterloo in front of his own home.
Not only him, the entire production team of "The Hero" and the investors were all devastated by the box office performance. It was said to cost 30 million US dollars, but in reality, it didn't cost that much, but it still reached almost 200 million RMB. However, it couldn't even beat a youth romance movie that cost 10 million RMB. How could they accept that?
Therefore, when "Those Years" was celebrating the box office hit 100 million, the entire production team of "The Hero" began their "counterattack."
The first countermeasure for "The Hero" was to buy ticket sales. According to sources, the producers of "The Hero" promised all the cinemas through special channels that in the next three days, as long as they gave "The Hero" a screening schedule, the producers would guarantee at least 60% of the seats!
In other words, as long as the cinema chains were willing to schedule screenings for "The Hero", even if there were no customers, the production company would still make up for the 60% occupancy rate. Currently, most of the cinema chains in the country were not connected to the Mu Ying ticketing system. Even if "Those Years" had a high occupancy rate, on weekdays, mornings, and evenings, the occupancy rate for "Those Years" was less than 50%. The average occupancy rate was around 30-40%.
If the cinema chains released these movie screenings to "The Hero," even if the screenings were at 9: 30 in the morning and 12: 00 at night, they would still be able to get 60% of the box office subsidy from the producers. It was a great deal.
Then, on the fourth day of "The Hero" screening, the number of screenings for "The Hero" surged all over the country. Although the increase was only in the mornings and evenings, due to the subsidies from the producers, the occupancy rate of "The Hero" suddenly surged, and the "box office" also skyrocketed.
At noon, the producers of "The Hero" and the entire core creative team had a meeting. Zhang Weiping mobilized everyone in the meeting, "Our goal today is to make the box office of" The Hero "reach more than 10 million. Don't worry, with our operations, we will definitely achieve this goal today. We have already communicated with dozens of domestic media reporters in advance. Now, they have already prepared the press release for" The Hero's "box office comeback. Tonight and tomorrow, we will focus on reporting on" The Hero's "box office comeback."
If they wanted the audience to willingly pay to watch the movie, they first had to make the audience interested in the movie. Right now, the audience's attention was all on "Those Years". If they didn't create some eye-catching news, the box office of "The Hero" would be even worse in the future.
At this time, a public relations manager added, "To make the news more realistic, we have arranged for more than 20 special 'audiences' of different ages. They will be interviewed by the media in all the major cinemas. We have basically decided on the script for the interview. Now, there is one more problem that we need your further instructions on."
A representative from the investors asked, "What's the problem?"
The public relations manager cleared his throat and said, "Regarding the interview script, we have designed more than 30 versions. Among them, more than 20 versions will praise" The Hero "from various angles, such as the director, the cast, the visual effects, the huge investment, the strong sense of history, and the promotion of national culture. Then, they will be cross-edited and broadcast by various major media outlets. There are also more than 10 versions that will be compared to" Those Years ". In this batch of scripts, the enthusiastic audience will compare" The Hero "and" Those Years "together. They will criticize" Those Years "for its love, lack of depth, exaggeration, and even the wrong values. What we can't decide now is whether or not to publish this batch of scripts."
The representative from the investors frowned and asked, "Can you give me an example of this script?"
"Okay!" The public relations manager nodded, picked up a printed document, and said, "For example, this script:
The reporter asked the audience: Hello, I am a reporter from XX TV station. I would like to interview you. Did you just watch the movie "The Hero"?
The audience nodded and said, "Yes, I just watched it." As he spoke, he took out the ticket stub in his hand.
The reporter then asked, "I would like to ask you, what do you think of the movie" The Hero "?"
The audience gave a thumbs up and replied with a sincere expression, "It's very good. It's really the best domestic movie I've seen in the past few years. Director Zhang Yimou's ability to frame such a serious theme is too strong. Moreover, the movie is a big production. The visual effects in the cinema are really amazing, especially shocking!"
The reporter then asked, "Have you seen the other movie," The Girl We Chased Together in Those Years ", which is also being released at the same time?"
The audience replied, "I've seen that movie too."
The reporter asked, "Then, do you think there's anything different about" The Hero "compared to" Those Years "?"
The audience replied, "The difference between these two movies is too obvious. Not only is there a clear difference in theme and genre, but there's also a big difference in connotation, foundation, and viewing value. I think" The Hero "is a movie that is based on history and Hua Xia's traditional martial arts spirit. You have to go to the cinema to feel the shock. As for" Those Years ", I think this movie is like a bowl of instant noodles, which you can eat alone at home."
After listening to the public relations manager talk about the script, the dozens of people in the conference room all had different expressions.
Director Zhang Yimou's expression was as ugly as ever. The representative from the investors looked a little happy, but most of the others were a little scared.
After a moment of silence, the representative from the investors said, "I think this kind of interview script is very interesting. On one hand, it can attract the audience to the cinema to watch" The Hero ". On the other hand, it can discourage those who are interested in watching" Those Years "in the cinema. This kind of love movie doesn't have any sense of setting. It's enough to watch a pirated DVD at home. There's no need to go to the cinema at all."
Speaking up to this point, the investor representative smiled and said, "My suggestion is to use a script like this. We will hype it up in the media, and at the same time, we will mobilize the Internet Water Army to promote our 'Hero' on the Internet. At the same time, we will criticize 'Those Years' on the Internet. As long as its reputation is good, we will have more room for development!"
At this moment, a management member of the production company said, "Director Liu," Those Years "is Makino Image's first movie in the cinema. If we attack it and discredit it, we might anger Makino Image or even Makino Technology. Then, we will be stirring up a hornet's nest!"
As soon as this was said, many people's expressions changed.
Indeed, looking at all the private enterprises in Hua Xia, who would dare to provoke Makino Technology for no reason? Li Mu's influence in the country was extremely strong. He was also the most respected private entrepreneur and philanthropist. His corporate influence was undoubtedly outstanding among private enterprises. Many companies wanted to stay away from him on the road of development. Who dared to take the initiative to find trouble with him?
However, the representative from the investors sneered and said, "So what if it's Makino Technology? It's really awesome on the internet, but what does it matter in other fields? What we need to do now is to attack it and make the audience compare our movie with theirs. That's the only way to attract enough attention. The more it is like this, the more we have to take the initiative to grab hold of Makino Image. Even if we have to resort to scamming them, we have to tie them to us. If we can make people think of "The Hero" when they think of "Those Years", then we will have half succeeded! "
The investors of "The Hero" came from the physical industry and had nothing to do with the internet. Therefore, even if Makino Technology was powerful and Li Mu was influential, they were not worried that Makino Technology would retaliate. On the contrary, in their eyes, the box office of this movie was the most important thing.
If the box office of this movie was a flop, then the overseas market would also be greatly affected. Hollywood's Harvey was a vampire with a human's face but a beast's heart. He had yet to negotiate the specific terms of buying the overseas distribution rights of this movie. This was also his usual way of doing things. If this movie was a flop in the mainland of Hua Xia, then Harvey's offer would probably be even lower. By that time, this movie would probably face complete failure on a global scale.
For investors and producers, this was a situation that they could not accept no matter what.
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