Chapter 626 Controversy and Box Office Success: The Remaining Factor
However, Lu Yanhe, who is closely associated with these disputes behind the Golden Tripod Awards, is actually not very clear about these intricacies because he is not a producer of "Friends".
Yuehutai is the production company behind "Friends".
It is also the show that is most concerned about whether Friends can win any major awards.
This is not just an honor, but also a political achievement for the station director.
Therefore, the person who truly cares about this matter and has been active in the industry is Xu Senjin.
To promote Friends, he not only arranged for the show to be rebroadcast on Yuehu TV, but also asked major media outlets that Yuehu TV was on good terms with to respond to articles by Chen Miao, Guan Suchen, and others, calling for an end to discrimination and prejudice against sitcoms.
It caused quite a stir.
Whenever Lu Yanhe has a public event, he inevitably gets asked related questions.
Longyan Film Industry also knows how to piggyback on others' success.
When promoting "Even If I Fake Death, It Wong said, "Actually, it's not just sitcoms like 'Friends,' but also comedy films like 'Even If I Fake Death, It Wong,' that are not favored by mainstream awards. Even a talented director like Liu Bige cannot avoid such prejudice. Fortunately, even if those professionals don't like it, the market and the audience have very discerning eyes."
"..." Lu Yanhe was speechless.
Of course, he won't actively step forward to undermine them.
It's important to understand that while film awards do have some bias against comedy, with comedy films not winning as many awards as serious films, they have never been absent from the awards process.
However, sitcoms have always been overlooked by mainstream television awards, and have almost never been nominated.
Even though Liu Zi's performance in "My Own Swordsman" last year received high recognition from the industry, she ultimately did not receive any significant nominations.
Lu Yanhe didn't want to get involved in this kind of discussion, so he reduced the frequency of his outings and declined public events as much as possible. Even though it was the summer movie season with movies being released one after another and various film companies holding screenings and invitations flying in like snowflakes, Lu Yanhe turned down almost all of them, only attending two screenings of low-budget art films to support them.
During this time, Lu Yanhe basically stayed at the headquarters of "Jump Up" in Lingyang District every day, accompanying Chen Siqi and writing scripts.
Finally, on July 12, "Even Faking Death Is Not an Option" premiered.
Lu Yanhe booked out a theater to invite his fans to watch this movie.
As a key film promoted by Longyan Film Industry, "Even Faking Death Is Not an Option" achieved a box office of over 82 million yuan on its opening day, thanks to increased publicity from various sources.
The box office dropped slightly on the second day, to only 68 million, but by the third day, the daily box office had exceeded 75 million.
After three days in theaters, the film grossed over 200 million yuan, meeting Longyan Film Industry's expectations for the film and also aligning with the trend of romantic comedies.
Generally speaking, for this type of movie, unless it receives rave reviews, the opening weekend box office can account for about 70% of the total box office revenue.
Sure enough, on the fourth day, Monday, although the overall box office for the summer season did not decline too much, the daily box office for "I Can't Even Fake Death"—a romantic comedy that heavily relies on holidays—dropped to 55 million yuan, which is considered a very good result in terms of controlling the decline.
However, based on the current box office trend, "Even Faking Death Is Not an Option" should be able to surpass their target of 500 million yuan in total box office revenue without any surprise.
This was Li Zhibai's first starring film, and its box office success made him an instant sensation as a rising movie star.
During a promotional event, Mrs. Wong said with a beaming smile, "We are considering the possibility of filming a sequel."
This was a pre-determined publicity plan.
If the box office is good, using the excuse of making a sequel will definitely generate buzz.
At the same time, this is also a signal to those viewers who haven't seen the movie yet—
This movie is great, it did very well, and it's still showing in theaters, yet they're already planning a sequel.
It's all a routine.
However, as "Fake Death Is Not an Option" gained popularity at the box office, it also received some negative criticism, especially from director Liu Bige.
Led by Chen Miao, she pointed out very seriously that although it is obvious from the film itself that Liu Bige did not make this film perfunctorily, such a film is not worth Liu Bige's efforts to make into an artistic product. The essence of "Even Faking Death Is Not Acceptable" is still a farcical commercial romantic comedy. The appearance of each character and the development of the plot are full of "deliberate" and "formulaic" elements, which are just covered up by Liu Bige in a seemingly "original" way.
Finally, Chen Miao used one sentence to describe her impression of the film—
In Liu Bige's film "Pretending to Die," the skilled butcher who can butcher oxen is instead assigned to kill chickens.
When Lu Yanhe saw the last sentence, he almost spat out the water in his mouth.
To be fair, when these media professionals seriously write, you can see the sharp and sarcastic edge they strike when they type.
However, while their criticisms seemed to be directed at Liu Bige, they were actually mostly positive towards him.
What they are really pointing to is the script itself, "Even Faking Death Is Not Allowed," which is too commercially formulaic.
Liu Bige did not respond to these accusations.
Mrs. Huang didn't have any either.
With the box office situation currently very good, Longyan certainly doesn't want to respond to these matters, lest it create more public opinion and generate more discussion, thus affecting the box office.
Which movie releases without some negative news?
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In the days since the movie's release, Liu Bige and Li Zhibai have been basically on a promotional tour.
This means they face some unknown questions every day.
None of them knew what questions the audience would ask that day.
After these controversies surrounding Liu Bige emerged, the entire publicity team was particularly afraid that audience members would directly raise these questions with Liu Bige at the event. To this end, they prepared many answer templates and provided them to Liu Bige.
Liu Bige looked at it but said nothing.
Mrs. Wong accompanied them throughout the roadshow.
Running around doing promotional tours serves two purposes: first, to fulfill the promises made by the distributors during negotiations with theaters; and second, to continuously provide new promotional materials for the film.
Many movie promotional materials nowadays come from Q&A sessions at roadshow events.
Some of these were pre-designed questions, while others were genuinely funny moments that came to mind on the spot.
At the roadshow, Liu Bige seemed unaffected by the controversies surrounding him, answering questions with enthusiasm throughout. Even when an audience member asked him how he viewed the criticisms, he responded graciously, "Right now, my mind is full of the roadshow, and I haven't had time to think about those issues properly. After the promotional period for 'Even Faking Death Is Not Allowed,' I'll find a quiet place to think about it properly."
That's a pretty sincere answer.
However, there have also been viewers who kept asking questions, seemingly feeling particularly disappointed with Liu Bige for making such a film.
Liu Bige was embarrassed at the time. Li Zhibai picked up the microphone and said, "I have to take some responsibility for this. It's mainly because I'm an actor. Playing this kind of style and role is my comfort zone. So the director also made a lot of adjustments based on my acting style. If you feel that you can't find the feeling of 'Late Spring' because of the style of this movie, I apologize to you."
Li Zhibai forcefully interrupted the audience member's follow-up question with this attitude, easing Liu Bige's embarrassment.
However, the consequence was that he was used as the subject of a fabricated topic—
Li Zhibai admitted that the reason why "Even Faking Death Is Not Acceptable" was due to him.
"..."
Lin Suyang was furious.
However, regardless of the controversy, "Even Faking Death Is Not an Option" has resonated with the lower-tier market. According to surveys, viewers aged 15 to 30 account for 75% of the film's audience, a remarkably high percentage.
Li Zhibai's fans were particularly supportive. Perhaps because this was Li Zhibai's first starring film, they put in a tremendous amount of effort, both watching the movie themselves and encouraging everyone around them to see it.
When "Even Faking Death Is Not an Option" grossed over 600 million yuan in just ten days, no amount of criticism could reach Longyan's ears.
Box office success is what they want.
At this time, Lu Yanhe's "Love Letter" was finally going to have a special screening in China.
This time, Lu Yanhe once again chose to hold the special screening of "Love Letter" at Zhenhua University.
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I'm so sleepy, I can't write anymore, I'm going to sleep.
I recommend the new book "The Demon-Slaying Sword".
(End of this chapter)
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