Jiahe Cinemas was one of the five biggest cinemas in Hong Kong. It was also one of the two cinemas that released 'Farewell My Concubine' this time. However, Jiahe was only helping out because of Guo Rong. When the manager saw that the box office for the past three days was only in the tens of thousands, he shook his head and called his subordinate in. "Don't release 'Farewell My Concubine' tomorrow. Change it to something else that's profitable!"
"Yes, manager … It's just that …" What the manager didn't expect was that his subordinate was actually a little hesitant and stuttering.
"Is there a problem?" the manager asked with a frown.
"There's no big problem. It's just that there's been a lot of people calling to ask when 'Farewell My Concubine' will be screening. They want to pick a time to watch it!" the subordinate said.
"Oh!" The manager didn't mind it too much. No matter how bad the movie was, there would always be people calling to ask about the screening time. After all, everyone had their own preferences.
However, the manager thought about it and realized that there was something wrong with the situation. If it was just people calling, it wouldn't be enough for his subordinate to stutter.
Unless there were a lot of people calling.
"How many calls like this have we received today?" the manager asked.
"Around a thousand …" the subordinate said with a bitter smile.
“1000！！” The manager's voice suddenly stopped. After a while, he asked in disbelief, "Are you sure? Over a thousand people calling to ask about the screening time? "
"That's right. The customer service department just complained to me that 'Farewell My Concubine' has too little daytime time. Furthermore, it's usually in the morning or after midnight. Many people who called to watch the movie gave up on watching it. At the same time, they called us pigs!" the subordinate said.
"Over a thousand people calling to ask about a movie?" The manager started to recall. The last movie that could achieve such an effect was Stephen Chow's' Death Inquisitor ', and the one before that was Stephen Chow's' Wei Long '. And before that was Brother Fa's' God of Gamblers'.
Without exception, these three movies were the box office champions in Hong Kong. How could a movie like "Farewell My Concubine", which only grossed a few tens of thousands, have thousands of people calling to ask about the showtimes?
The manager didn't know that there shouldn't be so many people calling to ask. Under normal circumstances, as long as the audience walked into the cinema, they would be able to see the movie schedule for the next few days on the bulletin board. There was no need to specifically call to ask.
However, there were too few cinemas where "Farewell My Concubine" was screened, and the number of screenings was also very few. Most of the audience couldn't find any screenings in two or three cinemas, so they could only call the movie company to ask about the schedule of the entire cinema chain. This caused the number of people calling to skyrocket.
However, this was also a signal that there were still many people who wanted to watch "Farewell My Concubine". Otherwise, why would there be so few people who called to ask about the showtimes for other movies with similar results?
"How many shows of 'Farewell My Concubine' did they have yesterday?" The manager immediately asked. Because someone had informed him that they wanted to suppress "Farewell My Concubine", the manager didn't care about the exact number of showtimes for "Farewell My Concubine". In any case, he just needed to get his subordinates to schedule fewer showtimes.
"Yesterday, our cinema chain had a total of 72 screenings in 72 cinemas!" the subordinate replied.
"What?! 72 screenings?! That's 48000 yuan at the box office! " The manager's eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. The attendance rate was already over 50%. What kind of goddamn movie was this to be able to achieve such a high attendance rate?
"Hurry up and arrange a screening for me right now. I want to watch this movie myself!" The manager felt that he had to personally experience the charm of "Farewell My Concubine".
Thus, under the manager's arrangement, the manager and a few other executives in the company's cinema theater began to watch "Farewell My Concubine" for the first time.
They watched it for three hours. After three hours, the entire venue was solemn. Everyone, including the manager, couldn't help but wipe away their tears.
"I understand now why the attendance rate is so high!" The manager sighed. No one who watched such a good movie would say that it wasn't good. Furthermore, Guo Rong's acting was simply god-like. As a straight man who couldn't be any more straight, he couldn't help but be immersed in this man's emotional world.
"This will be a movie that will go down in history!" As a professional filmmaker, it wasn't hard for the manager to make such a judgment.
Hence, he immediately returned to his office and reported to Jiahe's boss, Mr. Zou, about the situation with "Farewell My Concubine".
"Boss, I guarantee that this is a movie that will shock everyone to the core. I strongly suggest that our cinema chain schedule a large number of screenings for 'Farewell My Concubine' in the next few weeks!" The manager directly expressed his opinion.
"Is this movie really that good?" Boss Zou was a little hesitant. His Jiahe was also a film producer, and there were 20-35 movies released every year. He actually didn't welcome Chinese movies being released in Hong Kong. If it weren't for his good relationship with Guo Rong, his Jiahe wouldn't have even given "Farewell My Concubine" a chance to be released.
But now, his subordinates had actually taken the initiative to call him to increase the number of screenings. This made Boss Zou very hesitant.
"Boss, if we allow it to be released, this will definitely be a movie that can reach tens of millions at the box office!" the manager finally said.
"Alright, I understand. I'll do as you say!" Boss Zou immediately made a decision. Money was the most important thing in the world. He could go against anything, but never against money.
"I hereby announce that from tomorrow onwards, our 283 cinemas will have at least 10 screenings of 'Farewell My Concubine' every day. At the same time, we will have at least 5 screenings of 'Farewell My Concubine' after 6: 00 pm. Do you understand?" The manager's order was quickly passed down and received resolute approval from every cinema chain.
In fact, compared to the high and mighty higher-ups of the cinema chain, the subordinate cinemas had a clearer view of the situation. After all, the managers of the cinemas could immediately see which movies were packed and which were deserted.
For example, a cinema in Mong Kok had scheduled "Farewell My Concubine" to be released at 12: 30 pm. They had thought that there wouldn't be a single audience at that time, but in fact, 80% of the seats in the cinema were filled.
The cinema staff had never seen so many people watching a movie in the wee hours of the morning. At the same time, the audience didn't forget to curse at the cinemas, saying that the cinemas were pigs for scheduling such a good movie in the wee hours of the morning. It was obvious that they didn't want to make money.
Hence, the subordinate cinemas had long wanted to increase the number of screenings. If the higher-ups hadn't taken the initiative to speak up, they would have raised their objections.
Fortunately, the higher-ups had ordered them to increase the number of screenings on the fourth day. Although the higher-ups had ordered them to have at least 10 screenings a day, the direct managers of the cinemas had increased the number to more than 15 screenings.
The audience's eyes were bright as snow.
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