Chapter 549: "Little Broken Ball" vs. "Manjianghong"
Although they were once top stars, Li Yifeng's arrest did not have any impact on the industry except for giving netizens some more gossip in their boring life at the end of the year.
Traffic stars are fast-moving consumer goods. As soon as he leaves, a new candidate will immediately take over this ecological niche.
And even as gossip material, this matter only lasted a few days before fading away, because a more important thing overwhelmed all entertainment news. A
few days before the end of the year, the authorities suddenly announced that all influenza control policies would be cancelled and fully relaxed at the social level.
As soon as the news came out, it immediately overwhelmed all other news. This is a real nationwide hot topic. No one is not talking about this matter online or offline.
The vast majority of people are excited about this and celebrate that this difficult period is finally over.
In fact, in the later stages of influenza, the threat posed by the virus itself is already very low, but various prevention and control policies are increasingly restricting everyone's actions.
Now that the economy is fully open, there is still a certain possibility of infection, but compared to the threat of the virus, having no money in your pocket is more terrifying.
For the entertainment industry, full opening is also of great significance. Celebrities can fly around without being subject to quarantine requirements, film and television crews can start work normally, and various music festivals and concerts have been arranged one after another.
The most exciting here is the film industry, especially theaters and cinemas. First of all, there is no need to worry about when the doors will be closed, and secondly, the previous 50% fixed seating ban can also be cancelled.
The stock prices of several major film companies have rebounded to a considerable extent, including Wanda Film, which has been green for more than half a year. The downward trend during this period has also slowed down, and the long-lost red has appeared.
For this situation, many people in the industry couldn't help but tease that Ruyi really picked a good time to take over Wanda. Although even if Wanda has to sell it even if it waits for two more months, it will definitely be sold at a higher price.
But surprisingly, Ruyi didn't say anything about it, and Wanda didn't care much either.
They sold their assets to solve the urgent need, and the final price reached was satisfactory to both parties. There was no need to care too much about the difference of 300 million or 200 million.
Chen Zhixi was quite excited. She was about to become the new president of Wanda Film. At this time, a huge wave of good news came. Even if the actual benefits were not considered, it sounded like a good sign.
It was precisely based on this point that she was quite confident in taking charge of Wanda Film and made a bold statement to turn Wanda's financial situation from loss to profit within three years.
"You are drawing a big pie." Meng Bai said on the phone.
"Newcomers, new atmosphere. No matter what, I am the new president of Wanda Film. I have to give investors and shareholders some hope." Chen Zhixi's smiling voice came: "What's more, the policies are now relaxed, and the days of theaters will not be worse than the past two years."
"That's not necessarily true. The key to the income of theaters is how many high-quality movies they can produce."
Meng Bai was not as optimistic as Chen Zhixi. As I said before, a large number of crews stopped working for three years due to the flu, and the output of film projects was not large. Even if work resumes now, it will take at least a year or two to get back to normal.
After all, movies are not short dramas, and any project will take at least a year. The next two years will definitely not be as easy as imagined.
But these are all later stories. The most important thing right now is the upcoming Spring Festival.
...
Compared with the past few years, the 2023 Spring Festival is a little early, starting in late January.
Similarly, the number of movies released during the Spring Festival this year has also been greatly reduced. In addition to the long-awaited "The Wandering Earth 2" and the annual "Boonie Bears", there are seven films in total, including "Man Jiang Hong", "Wu Ming", "Exchange Life", "Deep Sea", etc.
Among them, "Man Jiang Hong" is a costume suspense comedy shot by Zhang Yimou, Zhang Yi, Shen Teng, and Yi Yang Qianxi. Just looking at this lineup, you can tell that this is the most competitive movie in this year's Spring Festival.
The director of "Wu Ming" is Cheng Er, and his last famous work was the very high-end "The Wasted Times". This time is the same. Although the leading actors have brought in the film emperor Liang Chaowei and the most popular Wang Yibo, it is still the way of art films, and the upper limit of the box office is estimated to be no more than 1 billion.
So to be honest, the only ones who can compete for the championship during this year's Spring Festival are "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Man Jiang Hong".
This can also be seen from the pre-sale box office.
According to Maoyan's statistics, as of 8 p.m. on New Year's Eve, the pre-sale box office of "The Wandering Earth 2" was 222 million yuan, and "Man Jiang Hong" was 214 million yuan. The two can be said to be on par with each other.
"The Wandering Earth 2" is backed by China Film Group and Ruyi, while the main controller of "Man Jiang Hong" is Huanxi Media, which has attracted a large number of directors in recent years.
Both parties know that the other party is their most important opponent in the future, so the two capitals began to exert their strength behind the scenes long before the movie was officially released.
The advantages of "Man Jiang Hong" lie in the lineup and subject matter, which are still very important for the main audience groups of the Spring Festival. Huanxi Media also mainly starts from these two points, and the trailer is almost entirely Shen Teng.
As for "The Wandering Earth 2", it is based on the excellent quality of the previous work and the title of "the first domestic science fiction movie".
Ruyi knows that the audience is talking about Guo Fan's "cyber succubus" character and the story behind the crew, so it also emphasized these two parts during the promotion.
For example, they "tricked" Xugong Group into supporting them through private messages on Weibo, and the major engineering groups promoted the film. They also asked Wang Zhi, who only appeared in the first film, to play the female lead.
Anyway, these things are true, and it is not too much to promote them.
The competition in publicity and promotion is fierce. On the other hand, the two companies are also fighting for the cinema schedule.
In theory, "The Wandering Earth 2" is a masterpiece with special effects as its selling point, and the demand for IMAX giant screens is greater. But in actual scheduling, most of the IMAX screens in China are occupied by "Man Jiang Hong", a drama with no special effects.
The reason is also very simple. Meng Danqing, the new CEO of IMAX China, happens to be Zhang Yimou's son-in-law. This is both a father-in-law and a thigh. How could he not help when he needs it?
This move is a bit uncomfortable for "The Wandering Earth 2". After all, the feeling of a special effect masterpiece on an IMAX screen is better than that on an ordinary screen.
But there is no way for their own family to help, and they can only rely on China Film's own domestic giant screen hall to barely support the needs.
However, in terms of scheduling on ordinary screens, "The Wandering Earth 2" has more advantages. In addition to the China Film Theater Chain, Wanda and several of Evergrande's previous top theater chains are all in the hands of Ruyi. Although it will still be based on revenue overall, it will definitely be more inclined to its own projects.
As one rises and the other falls, in the end, the two films' scheduling rates on the first day of the Spring Festival were actually tied, both arranging 25.2%.
The two films account for half of the resources of the entire market. Anyone can see that this year's Spring Festival champion must be between these two.
In this atmosphere of confrontation, the 2023 Spring Festival has finally opened.
(End of this chapter)
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