Chapter 548 How did CCTV12 become an entertainment channel?
With a wave of official reposts, the popularity of "Escape from the British Museum" has been renewed, and the popularity has even surpassed this year's National Day.
However, this is also related to the poor quality of the films in this year's National Day. Except for "A Thousand Miles Home", there is no other movie that can support the box office.
The cumulative box office of more than ten movies during the entire National Day holiday is less than 1.5 billion, setting a record low in recent years. The entire film industry is in mourning, and major theaters and cinemas are shouting "Movie Winter".
It was at this time that Wanda Film, the largest private theater chain in China, suddenly issued an announcement, expressing its intention to acquire Ruyi, and the latter will become a new shareholder of Wanda Cinema.
"So, Wanda Cinema is now yours?"
In the screening room of China Film Digital Base, Guo Fan asked Meng Bai, who was sitting next to him, with great curiosity.
He always felt that every time he closed himself off to make a movie for a period of time and then came out, the person next to him would do something shocking.
"You can't say that. It's Ruyi who took over Wanda Films. Their operations are not under my control." Meng Bai said: "Wanda Films is still in a loss-making state. Sister Xi may be in charge next."
Although he said "maybe", Ruyi has actually made a decision. After the handover of the original senior management of Wanda is completed this month, Chen Zhixi will resign as the general manager of Ruyi and become the new president of Wanda Films.
"That's great." Guo Fan said with a smile: "I'll go to her to congratulate her later, and ask if more screenings can be arranged when "The Wandering Earth 2" is released."
The post-production of "The Wandering Earth 2" has been completed, and the release time is scheduled for the Spring Festival in 2023. They came to the China Film Base today to see the finished effect of the film with the main creators and producers.
Compared with the first part, "The Wandering Earth 2" has been greatly upgraded in content and volume.
The science fiction elements are more hardcore, including space elevators, digital life, lunar phased arrays, AI revolution...
From the perspective of the plot content alone, "The Wandering Earth 2" is basically not very related to Liu Cixin's original novel. Guo Fan has dug up a lot of concepts and elements from "The Three-Body Problem" and used them for his own purposes.
However, in this way, the length of the film has to be extended to three hours.
For a commercial film, this is a dangerous length. Just as short videos and short dramas are popular, the patience of the audience has become increasingly thin with the development of the times. A 30-minute movie commentary has to be played at double speed, let alone a three-hour movie.
This problem is naturally not only Meng Bai's thought. As the music at the end of the movie sounded, the lights in the screening room turned on, and the room instantly became noisy. Obviously, everyone is a little worried about this length issue.
As a director, Guo Fan is actually very helpless. He naturally knows that the film market is too long and is not very friendly to the audience, but there is no way, the volume of the plot is here.
This is already the version after he ruthlessly deleted many shots. The original "director's cut" was nearly four hours long at that time.
Looking at Meng Bai who was sitting in his seat thinking intently, Guo Fan asked: "Why, do you also think that the length should be shortened?"
Meng Bai shook his head when he heard it: "It can't be shortened anymore. The current plot logic and details are explained very completely. If the quality of the film is affected for the sake of commercial effects, the audience will not be able to understand it."
"Oh, I said that you understand me." Guo Fan immediately smiled, "Then what are you thinking about here?"
"I was thinking that, in fact, compared to the length of the movie, I think another factor has a greater impact on the final box office results."
"What?"
"This one adds more science fiction elements and concepts, and the audience's threshold for watching the movie is higher than the previous one."
Strictly speaking, science fiction movies are a niche track worldwide.
The classic "Inception" has a global box office of only 800 million US dollars, "Interstellar" and "The Martian" are only more than 600 million, and the three films in the "Matrix" series have only a little more than 1.2 billion.
It can be said that except for the special case of "Avatar", although the name of science fiction films is very loud, the upper limit of the box office is really not high - unless Marvel superheroes are also counted as science fiction films.
This is actually very normal. The upper limit of the box office of a movie depends on the audience of the subject matter. Compared with those family-friendly cartoons and comedies, the audience of science fiction films is basically concentrated in young people between 16 and 28, and they must be young people who have received a certain basic science education.
The total box office of "The Wandering Earth 1" is more than 5 billion, which is equivalent to 700 million US dollars. Judging from the box office alone, it has almost reached the ceiling of science fiction themes.
What's more, the first one is strictly speaking more like a disaster film with science fiction elements. The audience only needs to watch the spectacle and special effects, and it is not so brain-consuming to understand.
But "The Wandering Earth 2" is different. This one can be said to be a standard hard-core science fiction, which is inherently unfriendly to non-target audiences.
Just like now, young audiences like Meng Bai who are familiar with science fiction have a good impression after watching it. But for older investors like China Film, it is a bit difficult for them to understand.
This does not include another main audience group during the Spring Festival - children, especially those under the age of seven or eight, who are definitely not in the audience range of "The Wandering Earth 2".
According to the family viewing mode during the Spring Festival, one less child is equivalent to three less tickets.
Add to that the current cold wave of movie watching...
"I feel that the box office performance of this one may not exceed the first one." Meng Bai patted Guo Fan on the shoulder, "You have to be mentally prepared."
Guo Fan smacked his lips. When it comes to making movies, he is very confident, but when it comes to such business matters, he is absolutely convinced by Meng Bai.
Since he now says that the box office may be low, it is almost nine out of ten.
"It's okay, if it can't be surpassed, it's fine as long as the quality of the movie can be guaranteed and it doesn't lose money." Guo Fan said optimistically.
But this is also the truth. The "Wandering Earth" movie series is now not just a commercial project, it also carries many higher-level meanings. So as long as the quality is not a problem, even if it doesn't make money, the higher-ups will support the completion of the entire series.
Just like what was said when the first film was released, the existence of this kind of movie itself is more valuable than a few hundred million more or less at the box office.
What's more, Meng Bai only thinks that it should not exceed the 5 billion of the first film. With the current popularity of this IP, it should be no problem to get 4 billion.
...
Like Guo Fan, many people in the industry have been discussing Ruyi's acquisition of Wanda Films recently.
Although it is a bit surprising to see such a big deal in this cold winter of the film industry, it actually does not have much impact on the entire industry. It is nothing more than a giant replaced by another giant.
As for ordinary netizens outside the circle, they have new fun-Beijing Chaoyang Public Security issued a police report that artist Li Moufeng was detained for suspected multiple prostitution.
It just happened that the "Wu Fan case" that had been tried for a year not long ago also ushered in the final verdict and was sentenced to thirteen years in prison.
Many people sighed that they had watched CCTV12 for so many years, but they didn't expect it to be marked as an entertainment channel now.
(End of this chapter)
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