Chapter 405: Change of plan, prepare to win the championship
Although it was a midnight show, there were not a few spectators in the theater. And unlike the usual "couples", most of the audience came with two or three boys, and occasionally there were a few girls.
Although everyone was wrapped up tightly in winter and not afraid of being recognized, Meng Bai and Li Yitong still habitually bought seats in the back row.
"Here."
The two sat down in their seats, and Li Yitong handed the popcorn and milk tea in her hand to Meng Bai.
"You don't eat it, and you bought it so enthusiastically just now." Meng Bai complained.
Li Yitong said confidently: "Watching a movie without popcorn will lose the atmosphere, and I didn't say I don't want to eat it, I'm just too lazy to take it."
Seeing her smiling brightly, Meng Bai didn't care.
Girl, just have fun first, and when you go back after watching the movie, you will have the time to cry.
Before the start time, there were still spectators entering from time to time. The back row is higher, and Meng Bai roughly estimated that there would be about 30% to 40% of the occupancy rate.
Among the movies in the Spring Festival, only "The Wandering Earth" opened a midnight show, which was discussed by Meng Bai and Guo Fan.
Science fiction itself is not advantageous, and they do not have a star lineup or previous works like other movies. The only way out is to open up the market through word of mouth and form spontaneous publicity and recommendation by the audience, which may have a miracle.
The midnight show is both an opportunity and a challenge for a theater movie.
If the quality is excellent and the level is outstanding, then it can take the lead among the audience; if the quality is poor or there are any major problems, it is very likely to cause public opinion before the official show begins, and there will be no chance to cheat a wave of money.
Meng Bai and others naturally think that "The Wandering Earth" belongs to the former situation, but sometimes it is difficult to say about movies, and no one dares to guarantee that their efforts will be accepted by the audience.
Thinking of this, he sent a message to the main creator WeChat group of "The Wandering Earth" while the lights in the theater were not turned off.
Meng Bai: [I am watching the midnight show, and I feel that the attendance rate is not bad. ]
Guo Fan: [Coincidentally, Gongger and I are also in the cinema. I just heard some audience members chatting nearby. Most of them came to support the original work.
Gongger: That's for sure. Our two most powerful box office figures are Brother Jing and Teacher Liu.
Wu Jing: Unfortunately, I have something going on at home and can't go to see it.
Meng Bai: It doesn't matter if you can't see it, Brother Jing. You can buy the tickets. It can also be considered a contribution to our box office. According to the current trend, it may even break the midnight box office record.
Wu Jing: That makes sense. I'll buy one ticket for each of my family members and treat it as going out to see a movie.
Guo Fan: Alas, I'm a little worried now. Will the fans scold us for changing the original work after watching it?
Meng Bai: It's okay. Anyway, my name is in the screenwriter column. If I really get scolded, I'll be the first one.
Guo Fan: Fans: Push him out and burn him to death.
Gongger: Use a low fire! (Smile)]
Meng Bai: [The other side threw a two-dimensional foil at you.jpg]
"Is anyone looking for you?"
Li Yitong, who was standing by, saw him holding his phone and sending WeChat messages for a long time, and asked curiously.
"Old Guo and the others are also watching the midnight show with their families outside." Meng Bai glanced at her from the side of the phone screen.
Li Yitong glanced at it and didn't pay much attention to it. However, she was very satisfied with the title of "family members" and smiled with curved eyes: "They should be under a lot of pressure now."
"Of course, five years of hard work, success or failure depends on this one." Meng Bai sighed.
"Yes, I hope the box office will be a big hit."
Seeing that Li Yitong was no longer interested in his phone, Meng Bai took the time to reply to Li Qin, Song Zhi and others with a few WeChat messages, saying that he was watching the midnight show with Guo Fan and others.
Li Qin and the others have all gone home now, and after hearing what he said, it is naturally not good to disturb them anymore, so they can have a quiet night tonight.
Time slowly approached midnight, and the lights in the theater had dimmed. Finally, with the appearance of the golden dragon familiar to all domestic audiences on the screen, the movie finally began.
"At first, no one cared about this disaster.
It was just a wildfire, a drought, the extinction of a species, the disappearance of a city.
Until, this disaster is closely related to everyone
..."
On the screen, news pictures flashed one by one. It doesn't look like a movie, but more like watching the "News Broadcast". But the effect is very good. A few simple scenes and language switching can immediately make people feel that this is a "global" disaster.
Meng Baixin divided his attention, watching the movie while paying attention to the status of the audience.
In the opening part at the front, some whispers can be heard from time to time. Many people are wondering, except for the "underground city", "holographic classroom" and "dried earthworms", they don't seem to see any big scenes.
What about the special effects blockbuster? It won't be just a few metal-style rooms.
Many viewers are confused.
Until, in the plot, Liu Qi and Han Duoduo took the elevator from the underground city to the ground.
"Stand firm!"
"Whoosh--"
On the screen, a strong wind mixed with cold air and snowflakes swept into the elevator, causing the male and female protagonists, who were inexperienced in going out for the first time, to stagger.
At the same time, this scene also blew into the hearts of the audience.
Then, the camera slowly pulled up, and the tall mining machinery, the cold and hard armored engineering vehicles, the "Earth Engine" full of violent aesthetics, and the blue tail flames that shot straight into the sky, appeared in the audience's field of vision.
"Wow--"
Even though everyone knew that no noise was allowed in the theater, there was still a burst of exclamations in the theater when seeing this magnificent scene.
Li Yitong, who was sitting on the side, had no interest in movies of this type. She was just accompanying Meng Bai. But now, she has been completely immersed in this apocalyptic scene.
Meng Bai looked at her wide-eyed expression and couldn't help but chuckle, and at the same time glanced at the screen. Although he has seen this scene many times, he still can't help but exclaim every time he comes to this point.
However, the shock brought to the audience by the movie has not ended.
The frozen world that stretches for thousands of miles, the Oriental Pearl Tower wrapped in ice, the fallen Hangzhou underground city, the whale frozen in the air... until the final explosion of the space station and the ignition of Jupiter.
Every plot is refreshing the audience's perception of domestic science fiction movies, and every shot is challenging the limits of everyone's imagination.
As Guo Fan said before, most of the audience who choose to watch the midnight show on New Year's Eve are either fans of Liu or science fiction fans.
After two hours of movies, almost the whole time was exclaimed until the end.
Until the final credits came out, most people were still immersed in the world of movies.
"Wow, this movie, really..."
Li Yitong sighed at the side, Meng Bai looked at her: "How do you feel about it?"
"Great!" The girl praised without hesitation: "I feel it is much better than those Hollywood blockbusters. And you don't have to read the subtitles, just watch the plot directly. Are there any Easter eggs in the end?"
"No, we didn't arrange Easter eggs in the first part."
In fact, when making it before, Meng Bai and Guo Fan also discussed whether to add Easter eggs at the end, such as the trailer for the second part. But at the end of the discussion, everyone gave up this idea.
Not to mention that it is still unknown whether the first part will be successful or not, and whether there will be a second part. Even if there is, they haven't decided what to shoot in the second part yet, so where is the trailer. There is no point in adding anything else, so just end it normally.
The lights in the theater came on, and the two put on their coats and walked out with the audience.
Meng Bai walked out while listening to the discussions around him. There is no doubt that most of the audience's thoughts are similar to Li Yitong's, full of shock.
"I can only say that coming out to watch a movie in the middle of the night on New Year's Day did not make me waste these few hours."
"Indeed, this movie can be considered a high-quality domestic science fiction."
"Fuck, this is 'high quality'? That's awesome!"
"I've seen The Three-Body Problem before, and I have a Chinese New Year break recently, so I have to finish watching The Wandering Earth."
"The original is quite short. If you read it quickly, you can finish it in no time when you go back."
"..."
The advantage of everyone being a fan of the same type is that even if they don't know each other, they can still chat with each other.
Listening to the audience's discussions, Meng Bai gradually gained confidence. At least from the response of this first batch of audiences, the quality of the movie is still a success.
When he walked out of the theater, he saw the two boys again. They obviously didn't notice Meng Bai behind them, who was chatting enthusiastically about the movie.
"How was it? It was worth it for you to come out to watch a movie with me."
"Indeed, this movie is pretty good, but I feel that Han Duoduo's global broadcast at the end was a bit exaggerated. Not to mention that an ordinary middle school girl could give a fluent speech as soon as she opened her mouth, the rescue teams who received the news actually believed it and went back."
"You are just arguing. In a movie, the atmosphere must be the priority. Can the lines be written according to the level of a junior high school student's composition? Besides, you don't understand the power of loli girls at all. Didn't you see that the rescue team on Little Days were the first to turn back when they heard that it was a young girl asking for help."
"It's really difficult to understand the thinking of you otakus."
"Stupid pop star... I don't feel satisfied after watching this movie once. Tomorrow, no, I have to go out to pay New Year's greetings during the day. When I have time on the second day of the New Year, I plan to watch it again."
"Okay..."
Watching the two people slowly walking away, Meng Bai smiled - that's good. He has already gained two viewers who watched the movie twice.
"Hey, Meng Bai."
Li Yitong called him, "Look, it's snowing."
Meng Bai looked up at the sky, and sure enough, the snowflakes were falling from the gray sky. After a while, the roads and buildings were dyed with a layer of white.
It's good, and it fits the atmosphere of the movie.
"Auspicious snow means a good harvest." Meng Bai sighed, "I hope this Spring Festival will also have a good harvest."
"It will definitely be." Li Yitong said firmly.
Meng Bai retracted his gaze and looked at the girl next to him: "There should be a sense of ritual during the New Year. Let's go back and have a New Year's Eve party."
"Bah, hooligan!" Li Yitong's eyes curved like crescents, "Besides, it's already the New Year." "
That's right, then let's have the first New Year's party to show our strength!"
"..."
-
Thanks to the increase in ticket prices, the box office performance of "The Wandering Earth" at midnight reached more than 15 million, surpassing the previous "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back", and set a new "domestic film midnight party" box office record.
However, the box office is only incidental, what is really important is the audience evaluation and word of mouth derived from it.
Although the time is too short and the score has not been released yet, on Weibo and various social platforms, many viewers of the midnight show have praised "The Wandering Earth", and some people have spontaneously promoted and recommended it in their own circle of friends.
Meng Bai accompanied Li Yitong for a day on the first day of the Chinese New Year, and they did not separate until she had to return to the crew on the second day of the Chinese New Year.
After watching her get on the plane, Meng Bai turned around and went to Guo Fan. Coincidentally, the statistics for the first day of the Spring Festival have come out.
"How much was our box office yesterday?"
"190 million."
"That sounds good. With the midnight show, it's over 200 million."
Meng Bai raised his eyebrows, and then saw Guo Fan and Gongger's happy expressions, "Looking at you two, we weren't the single-day champion yesterday, were we?"
"No, the first-day champion was "Crazy Alien", with a box office of 410 million; "Flying Life" was second, 320 million; "The New King of Comedy" was third, 270 million."
"Hmm..."
Meng Bai smacked his lips. Well, the gap is indeed quite large, but this is also expected. The vast majority of the audience will definitely go to Huang Bo, Shen Teng or Zhou Xingchi first.
It's just...
"Although the results are okay, there's no need to be so narrow-minded. Are you so happy to be ranked fourth?"
Guo Fan touched the stubble on his chin and said cheerfully: "Of course I'm not happy to be ranked fourth, but our results are definitely more than fourth."
"Oh, what do you mean?"
Guo Fan handed over the complete data sent by the theater chain. Meng Bai glanced at it and immediately understood.
If we only talk about the box office performance, then "The Wandering Earth" is really nothing to say. But from another perspective, they took more than 13% of the box office share with 11% of the screenings.
More importantly, the average attendance rate of theaters throughout the day yesterday was as high as 60%, which is similar to "Crazy Alien" and far better than the other two.
Meng Bai naturally understands the significance of this data. Fewer screenings have higher box office, and the attendance rate proves the audience's enthusiasm for movies. The fact that
"The Wandering Earth" can get this data with three other blockbusters is enough to prove its value, and the increase in the screening is a foregone conclusion.
Sure enough, Guo Fan told Meng Bai that their screenings today have been raised to 17.4% by the theaters. The extra part was "ripped off" from "Flying Life" and "The New King of Comedy".
"Are these two movies bad?" Meng Bai asked.
"Speeding Life is okay, 7.1 points is acceptable." Guo Fan said: "The New King of Comedy is a bit bad, with an opening score of 5.9 and a lot of negative reviews."
As a classic IP of "Master Xing", "The New King of Comedy" has been on the "feelings" route from the beginning.
In fact, there is nothing wrong with talking about "feelings". After more than 20 years, it is also good to let fans feel the "dreams, efforts, and struggles" of the past.
It's a pity that this new sequel was messed up.
Or to be more precise, the film company was not aiming to make it well from the beginning. This movie was originally a work that Zhou Xingchi came up with temporarily in order to meet the gambling requirements. It took only four months from the project establishment to the release.
I have to say that this speed is very much like the style of Hong Kong movies back then.
However, the audience now is no longer the newbies who found everything interesting. Under the dual effects of Hollywood blockbusters and the rise of domestic films, everyone's requirements for movies have increased countless times. It is no longer possible to attract the audience with just one word "dream".
"What about us?" Meng Bai asked.
"Douban's opening score is 8.3, which is not bad." Guo Fan suppressed the smile on his lips, but anyone could see that he was in a good mood.
But it is true that the score of 8.3, and it is on Douban, which has always been more stringent for domestic films, does prove that the quality of the film is extremely high.
In comparison, "Crazy Alien", which also has science fiction elements, only scored 6.7 points, which is considered Ning Hao's worst movie in recent years.
Although the relationship between the two crews is good, and Ning Hao had borrowed a lot of their props and scenes before, in this release period, everyone is more of a competitor.
Among the "Four Heavenly Kings" of the Spring Festival, "The Wandering Earth" has a reputation that is broken, and the data is also very good, which is enough to prove that this movie has great potential.
This is indeed the case.
On the second day of the Chinese New Year, the second day of the Spring Festival, the box office list changed dramatically.
"Crazy Alien" continued to lead with a single-day box office of 280 million, winning another single-day championship.
The second place was replaced by "The Wandering Earth", with a single-day box office of 260 million, becoming the only movie that rose against the trend. At the same time, it continued to maintain an extremely high attendance rate of 50%, which directly shocked the entire film market.
Guo Fan and others were very excited about this, and they were looking forward to the subsequent results. Maybe they could win a single-day championship next.
In this regard, Meng Bai said without hesitation that you really have no pattern. What is a single-day champion? Why can't it be the overall champion of the Spring Festival.
Even extending it further, last year's annual champion was "Operation Red Sea" during the Spring Festival. As a film released during the Spring Festival, why can't "The Wandering Earth" win the annual box office championship?
(End of this chapter)
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