"A Chinese Ghost Story" was officially released on Tuesday, February 21st.
And just yesterday, its biggest competitor, "Painted Skin," announced its first week's box office.
From the 14th to the 19th, the movie co-produced by Huaguan Pictures and Star Art Entertainment had a total of 36.77 million, which was quite a dazzling result.
In the past decade, Xiangjiang's local movies had been in a bad situation under the impact of Hollywood blockbusters. A large number of film and television production companies had closed down, the industry's talents had left, and there were few good box office results.
Although "Painted Skin" was a co-production, it was advertised as a Hong Kong production, so the 36.77 million box office in the first week broke the record for a Hong Kong film in the past three years.
Huaguan Pictures and Star Art Entertainment naturally celebrated. Even Jiang Wei, who was forced to apologize for scolding Wang Dong, became active again on his blog, posting several blog posts to show off, feeling very proud of himself.
But the people who didn't know the truth would think that "Painted Skin" was doing very well, and that the Hong Kong box office breaking the 100 million mark was just around the corner, but the people who knew the inside story had a very different view.
"Painted Skin's" results in the first three days were indeed eye-catching, the 24.45 million box office was incomparable, showing a soaring momentum.
However, on February 17th, "Painted Skin" box office suddenly dropped to 4.27 million, compared to the 16th, a drop of nearly 50%!
On February 18th, "Painted Skin" box office 3.2 million, continuing to drop sharply.
It was not until the 19th that the box office of 4.85 million showed signs of recovery, accumulating 36.77 million in the first week, and maintained around 5 million for the next 20 days.
On the surface, it looked very good, a box office of 5 million a day, many Xiangjiang movies might not be able to achieve even after a few weeks of release, but it could still crush the Hong Kong films released at the same time.
But an insider revealed that starting from the 19th, Huaguan Pictures and Star Art Entertainment started to push the market.
To put it bluntly, they were buying box office.
The so-called buying box office referred to some film producers using unfair competition to create the illusion of high box office, squeezing out competing films at the same time. That was, the producers paid for a large number of movie tickets, then gave them to the audience as gifts or sold them at a low price.
Because the cinema was a scarce resource, buying box office to create false box office figures, not only would it mislead the audience's choice, but it would also cause pressure on other films.
There was the phenomenon of buying box office in Hong Kong, but it was more common in China. The source was Hollywood in the United States. It was an unspoken rule in the film industry, and everyone had a tacit understanding about it.
The box office earnings were only 5 million, so the actual box office earnings could be imagined. Most importantly, "Painted Skin" had received a flood of negative reviews online, and the subsequent box office results were worrying.
And at this critical moment, "A Chinese Ghost Story" was released.
There was no need to say much about the competitive relationship between "A Chinese Ghost Story" and "Painted Skin". Both films were adapted from Pu Songling's "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio". First of all, the theme was similar, and they were both fantasy ghost films.
Moreover, there were other grievances between the two sides.
A Chinese Ghost Story was released a week later than The Painted Skin. Naturally, the two were like Mars colliding with Earth. It was quite eye-catching in the industry and could be considered one of the hottest topics in the industry.
Many people in the industry believed that it was impossible for "A Chinese Ghost Story" to beat "Painted Skin" in the box office. First of all, the investment between the two was several times different, and the cast of the latter was also stronger than the former.
As for the most important publicity, "Painted Skin" crushed "A Chinese Ghost Story" in all aspects. This could be seen from the premieres of the two films. If "A Chinese Ghost Story" had not benefited from Liu Gangsheng and Shi Fang, it was estimated that not many media outlets would have published such a large coverage.
There was another very important point. The Painted Skin had the upper hand and consumed a large portion of the box office potential. Naturally, it also put a lot of pressure on the box office of the same genre, A Chinese Ghost Story. Everyone had seen this kind of film before, so they really had to think twice before taking out money. Everyone's money did not fall from the sky.
Finally, "Painted Skin" would definitely suppress "A Chinese Ghost Story" by buying box office earnings. Therefore, the latter was facing a very serious situation. Some professionals estimated that the box office earnings of "A Chinese Ghost Story" in Hong Kong should be between 15 to 25 million.
The real battle between the two sides was still in mainland China.
Regardless of the public opinion in the industry, "A Chinese Ghost Story" arrived on time at all the major cinemas in Xiangjiang.
On that day, the screening for "A Chinese Ghost Story" was 18.75%, which was even less than the 20% estimated a few days ago. The reason was naturally because of the malicious pressure from its competitors.
18.75% screening could not be said to be too bad, but compared to "Painted Skin", it was undoubtedly a long way off.
As for the booking, the online and phone booking results of "A Chinese Ghost Story" were also not ideal. After the premiere on the 21st, only a mere 20,000 tickets were booked.
…
"Ah Hui, I'm downstairs."
Qi Zihao held his phone and asked in a low voice, "You, when can you come down?"
He was very nervous, and his palms were sweaty. He tried his best not to make his voice tremble. His slightly strange appearance made the aunties who passed by cast him a strange look.
Qi Zihao did not notice at all. All his attention was on his phone.
He was worried that Ah Hui would stand him up.
Qi Zihao was a second-year student at Jiulong Mingde High School in Xiangjiang. Recently, he had fallen in love with a first-year junior.
Qi Zihao came from an ordinary family. He was fair and clean. Although he wasn't exceptionally handsome, his looks weren't too bad either. It was just that he was a bit introverted and timid, so he hadn't held hands with any girls until now.
And to pursue a girl, one must be bold and thick-skinned!
Qi Zihao liked Jia Hui, this straightforward and cute junior, so with the encouragement of his good friend, he mustered up the courage to pursue Jia Hui.
Unfortunately, there was no lack of suitors for a junior like Jia Hui. In addition, he was not good with words and was not stunning, so so far, he could only say that there was a little hope. He was at least three streets away from success.
Tonight was the first time that Qi Zihao had asked Jiahui out. Although the latter had agreed, Qi Zihao was still worried about the gains and losses before he met her.
"Why are you here so soon?"
Fortunately, Jia Hui did not intend to go back on her word. She said on the phone, "Then give me another 10 minutes, can you?"
Qi Zihao suddenly felt as if he had been granted amnesty. He quickly said, "No … no problem, 100 minutes is fine!"
Jia Hui's uncontrollable laughter immediately came from the phone, making Qi Zihao's face turn red. He wanted to slap himself – it was too embarrassing!
After ending the call, Qi Zihao scratched his head in annoyance.
He had a feeling that if he could pursue success, it would all depend on his performance tonight.
In the end, he lost a point.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
