Chapter 372: The first-day box office exceeded 100 million!
"Have the first-day box office data come out?"
"We have already contacted the theaters, and it should be about this time."
In the conference room, the heads of Arclight's film, publicity, and operations departments sat at the table, waiting anxiously.
Meng Bai, who was sitting in the first seat, was calmer, letting these executives whisper below.
They were not in a meeting, but waiting for the box office results of "Psychological Crime: City Light" on the first day of its release.
Yesterday was August 17, Friday, and it also happened to be the Chinese Valentine's Day. For a newly released movie, it is a good time. If the movie is also a love movie, it would be even more suitable.
Unfortunately, "Psychological Crime: City Light" is a criminal investigation crime theme, and the male protagonist's "fiancée" is dead.
However, the impact is not great, and the box office of the midnight show still exceeded 20 million. Although it did not break any records, it is also a very outstanding result.
More importantly, the overall evaluation and public opinion atmosphere of the audience are also good, and there is no large-scale complaints or bad reviews.
For Meng Bai and others, this is a preliminary victory. However, the specific situation still depends on the box office data after the official release.
Everyone chatted absent-mindedly with each other, and their actual attention was all on the manager of the film and television department.
The manager of the film and television department, who became the focus of the whole audience, felt that he was under great pressure. He looked at his mobile phone from time to time, fearing that he would miss the news.
"Ding——"
After waiting for a long time, finally, the mobile phone of the manager of the film and television department rang with a reminder sound.
Everyone at the scene suddenly became alert and cast their eyes over. Even Meng Bai no longer held his boss's posture. He turned his chair and looked at his subordinates.
"Mr. Meng, the box office data from the theater is out!"
"How much?"
"The official box office is 82 million, plus the performance of the midnight show, the total box office on the first day has exceeded 100 million!"
Hearing the numbers shouted out by the other party, the conference room was quiet at first, and then immediately a relaxed exhalation sounded.
Although there was a "Soul Ferry: Huangquan" before, it was an online movie after all, so although everyone was concerned about the results, they were not too nervous.
But this time is different. "Psychological Crime: City Light" is a blockbuster movie with a serious investment of hundreds of millions of yuan, and almost all of Arclight's strongest team lineup has been brought out.
And everyone can see how much the boss of the company attaches importance to this movie this time. If something unexpected happens, or if the box office performance is not good, then the problem will be big.
Fortunately, the final result did not go wrong.
On the contrary, this result is somewhat unexpected.
According to Arclight and the distributor's previous estimates, the cumulative box office on the first day can exceed 60 million to be qualified, and more than 80 million to be successful.
Unexpectedly, with the blessing of the midnight show, it can directly break through the "100 million" threshold.
Don't look at the extra 20 million, but the effect is incomparable.
Not to mention the difference in the income of the movie itself, the first-day box office can exceed 100 million, which means that the movie has strong box office potential. The film company can directly communicate with the theater with this result to increase the proportion of the film's schedule and the intensity of display.
Higher scheduling will also bring higher box office, and a virtuous circle will begin from then on.
As long as the reputation of the movie is not a problem, the next thing is to wait for the audience to come in.
The atmosphere in the conference room was relaxed, and the leaders were in the mood to joke.
"In fact, I think the box office of 100 million is still a little less, mainly because it was delayed by the Chinese Valentine's Day yesterday."
"Indeed, my child also went to the cinema last night and came back saying that most of the people in the cinema were young couples. On such a day, they would definitely choose those warm and romantic movies."
"That can't be said. Young people nowadays are different from us back then. They can watch war movies on New Year's Eve, so it's okay to watch suspense on Chinese Valentine's Day."
"..."
Listening to everyone's chat, Meng Bai also showed a satisfied smile. The box office of over 100 million on the first day also exceeded his expectations.
Don't underestimate this result. This year's summer season has produced many excellent works, but even so, in addition to "Dying to Survive" with 300 million on the first day and "The Richest Man in Xihong City" with 200 million, only Huang Bo's "A Good Show" also exceeded 100 million.
Oh, no, there is also "Love Apartment".
Relying on the "emotional points", this movie is in a close race with "Dying to Survive" in pre-sale and first-day results, both of which exceeded 300 million.
Unfortunately, after the movie was actually released, the audience found out that they had been deceived. "Love Apartment" became "Tomb Raider Apartment", and an unprecedented "fraudulent" marketing was carried out.
The box office of the movie also "collapsed", with a box office of 300 million on the first day, and the total box office has barely exceeded 400 million after more than half a month of release. The score is 3.2, and the reputation is catching up with the amazing domestic film "Dreaming of the Entertainment Circle".
Therefore, when companies count the movies of the same period, they don't really include this movie in the comparison list, because there is no data value at all.
"Okay, just relax appropriately, but don't rush to celebrate."
Meng Bai said: "It's just the first day box office, and the movie's ratings have not yet come out, and the subsequent results are still uncertain. The original publicity and promotion will continue, and the theater chain is also very quick to communicate about the subsequent scheduling adjustments."
Everyone agreed and went to work on the follow-up work.
...
Soon after the memories on Arclight's side ended, "Psychological Crime: City of Lights" also started scoring on several rating platforms.
On Maoyan and Tao Piaopiao, viewers who have watched the movie gave it a score of 9.4. Of course, the scores on these two platforms have always been inflated, so they can only be used as a reference at best.
In comparison, although Douban has always been criticized by netizens for being "too literary and artistic", "pretentious", "worshiping foreign things", etc., it is indeed the most valuable platform for domestic entertainment.
"Psychological Crime: City of Lights" scored 7.8 on Douban, which is a relatively objective number.
Compared with Arclight's previous works, this score is not high. But compared with other domestic suspense crime films, especially those in recent years, this rating can already be ranked at the top, and it can be regarded as a "worth watching" film.
【I started following the web series before, and I've graduated from college in the blink of an eye.
After so many years, I finally saw the ending of Fang Mu and the others. 】 【Alas, I've been waiting for so many years, hoping that Fang Mu can have a good ending, but I didn't expect it to be a tragedy in the end. Fortunately, Meng Bai gave an open ending, which can be regarded as an expectation. 】
【Fang Mu's tragedy has actually been laid out since the beginning of the web series. In the end, he ended with death, which I think really perfected this character. But looking at the design of the ending, it may not be impossible for him to be resurrected in the future. 】
【Hahaha, I guessed it right before. How could Q be so awesome? It turns out to be an organization! 】
【How should I put it? The setting of the Q organization still can't get rid of the "elitism" thing. The style is a bit low, but the logic is much more reasonable. 】
【Well, everyone, I'm a little stupid, I don't think I understand it very well. In the end, only Liao Yafan's tombstone appeared. Does it mean that Fang Mu is not dead? Also, who is the mysterious person wearing a Q-shaped ring at the end? Is there a sequel? 】
【Damn, Liao Yafan lost his father when he was young, and then his mother became a murderer and died. He ran away from home and finally came back, but he died so easily? Fang Mu, if you don’t want a wife, you can give it to me! One-star bad review! (Just kidding)】
【……】
The audience’s comments are varied. Some are reminiscing about the time they have been chasing dramas for so many years, and some are discussing the setting of the background of the "Green Ivy Detective Universe" in the movie plot.
There must be a lot of bad reviews and complaints, including even fans of the online version of "Psychological Crime", mainly targeting Liao Yafan's death and Fang Mu's final ending.
However, most of the audience are still satisfied with the movie version. At least no one says it is a money-making work that eats IP.
With the blessing of a fairly good reputation, the box office performance of "City Lights" has steadily maintained its momentum on the first day.
On the second day of its release, the theater line’s screening schedule was increased to 31%, the attendance rate remained normal, and the single-day box office was 120 million.
On the third day of its release, the screening schedule was increased by three points again, and the single-day box office continued to increase by 120 million.
So far, in the first three days of the weekend, the cumulative box office of "Psychological Crime: City Lights" has reached 350 million, ranking 16th in the total box office ranking of the summer season.
If this trend continues, there will be no problem in making money, it's just a matter of how much you make.
Wu Bai, Qin Hao and Li Qin have been running road shows for a while, which consumes a lot of energy. But after seeing the box office results of the movie, they immediately became full of energy and said that it doesn't matter if they run for another week.
The "audience reaction" that Meng Bai mentioned to the publicity and distribution team at the premiere has also been released on short video platforms during this period.
Although it is an actual recording, the publicity and distribution team still tried to pick some more story-telling shots.
For example, when some viewers saw Fang Mu bit off his finger to preserve evidence, they shed tears; when some viewers saw the plot involving "helping the elderly but being blackmailed" and "private cars blocking fire trucks causing fires", they frowned and were indignant.
If there is only one person, it would be awkward, but with the movie theater scene later, there is no big problem.
Just looking at the data of these short videos, they are actually pretty good, and each has more than 100,000 likes. As for how many actual viewers it can bring, this cannot be counted.
But as Meng Bai said before, anyway, the cost is not high, it doesn't matter if you try it, at least it is effective in maintaining the popularity.
...
The first weekend is over and a new week begins. The single-day box office of "Psychological Crime: City Light" has experienced a small decline.
This is a normal phenomenon. After all, on Monday, there are definitely not as many people who can come out to watch movies as on weekends.
This is why so many film producers pay special attention to the first week results, because it occupies the majority of the entire release cycle.
The leading actors of the crew are running road shows, and Meng Bai is not idle. As a screenwriter and producer, he accepted interviews from several film and television media, mainly talking about things about the movie.
"Mr. Meng, regarding the ending of the movie, many viewers are discussing whether the male protagonist Fang Mu is dead or not. I wonder if you have any official answer."
The speaker is Xiao Lin of Orange Entertainment. He has also cooperated with Arc Light in many interviews before, and can be regarded as an old acquaintance.
Originally, after he was promoted to the director of the film channel this year, he actually didn't appear on the scene much. But this time, when he heard that Meng Bai was going to come in person, he hurriedly applied to come himself.
In addition to being an entertainment reporter and a film
and television blogger, he is also a fan of Arclight and Meng Bai. Meng Bai also had some impression of this reporter who could often be seen in Arclight projects. He nodded and greeted him, then smiled and said, "The official answer is just like the ending of the movie - everything is up to the audience to understand."
"Huh?" All the reporters, including Xiao Lin, were stunned.
Boss, you seem to be teasing us. There is no difference between this answer and no answer.
"Haha, just kidding." Meng Bai laughed, then said more formally, "In fact, for Fang Mu's ending, we discussed many versions during the filming. There are clear deaths and survivals, no matter which one is reasonable. In the end, no one convinced anyone, so it was made into an open ending."
"Personally, I prefer Fang Mu to be alive..." Meng Bai spread his hands, "After all, the protagonist is alive, so we can continue to shoot the rest of the story."
No, boss, are you so sincere?
Because Meng Bai rarely participates in interviews, the reporters don't know much about him and are not really used to his style.
Only Xiao Lin thought of an Easter egg shot near the end of the movie. After the case was solved, a figure wearing a "Q"-shaped ring appeared again. Combined with what Mr. Meng just mentioned about "the back story", does that mean that the "Psychological Crime" series has not ended yet and there will be a sequel in the future?
It was not easy to talk to Mr. Meng directly in person, and he didn't hesitate to ask his guess on the spot.
Meng Bai didn't hide it either: "There is definitely a back story, but it may not be the "Psychological Crime" series. The "Chinatown Detective" web drama to be broadcast next month, and the "Chinatown Detective 2" to be released during the National Day, will also have a lot of content about the Q organization and the "Green Ivy Universe" background. You can look for it there."
That's right, the reason why Meng Bai accepted the interview, in addition to the movie "Psychological Crime: City Lights" itself, the most important thing is to warm up and promote the next two "Chinatown Detective" works.
Meng Bai has always focused on cost-effectiveness in his work. It would be a waste of time to only talk about one movie in one interview.
After all, our President Meng is very busy now.
After the interview, seeing that the performance of "Psychological Crime: City Lights" had stabilized, Meng Bai gradually shifted his attention away from the movie.
He confirmed with the Film and Television Department the progress of several projects currently being run by ArcLight. "Secret and Great" has been completed, "Hunting Crime Picture Book" is nearing the end, and "The Hidden Corner" has been almost prepared and is ready to start shooting at any time.
There were no problems with each project. At the end of August, Meng Bai flew to Shanghai with Gu Fei and people from Qiming Venture Partners.
After three years, Pinduoduo, the "super unicorn" in the e-commerce field, is finally going to be listed.
(End of this chapter)
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