Chapter 410 You Don’t Blame Me for Not Doing Well
After hanging up the phone, Liu Yifei was in a very good mood.
She looked up and looked around. Gu Wei had not returned yet, and the people in the crew were fiddling with their phones.
Everyone looked happy and smiling, and Nazha, who was sitting next to her, had an even more silly smile on her face.
"Who are you chatting with? You look so happy?"
Liu Yifei asked curiously.
"Ah? Sister Yifei~"
Nazha moved her eyes away from her phone and turned to look at Liu Yifei beside her.
"With a good friend of mine, hehe, showing off my movie achievements to her!"
"Is he also an actor in our circle?"
"Yes, from the same place as me, a frontiersman~"
"Oh? You're from the same hometown again. What's your name?"
"Dilraba Dilmurat, she starred in a TV series called [Diamond Lover] before, and it was a bit of a hit~"
Liu Yifei thought about it.
"I haven't seen the TV series you mentioned, but I have some impression of the name."
She is usually busy with work, and in her free time she rarely watches TV series except for reading.
"When I have time, I'll introduce her to you, Sister Yifei. She's a nice person and a great beauty."
Not long after, Gu Wei communicated with the staff outside and walked into the room. He clapped his hands to attract everyone's attention.
"Everyone, that's all for today. Let's go back to the hotel and get some rest. We'll leave for our next city early tomorrow morning."
After saying that, Liu Yifei and the others packed up their things and stood up to leave.
When a new movie is released, some people are happy while others are sad.
"Detective Chinatown 2" broke 1.1 billion yuan in box office revenue in its first week, but "The Legend of the Gods" which was released on the same Friday was not so lucky.
It was released one day later than "Detective Chinatown 2" and its box office performance on the first day was only 77.92 million.
Although this single-day box office result was second only to "Detective Chinatown 2" on Friday, ranking second in the national single-day box office, it was higher than the third place "Skiptrace" of 40.17 million.
But you have to know that this is the first day box office of the 500 million investment blockbuster "Legend of the Gods". If there is no accident, this result basically means that the movie will lose money.
Sure enough, on the following Saturday and Sunday, due to the poor reputation after its release, the box office of "Legend of the Gods" declined all the way in the first weekend, receiving 64.54 million and 55.51 million respectively on the two days.
You should know that for movies that are normally released, except for those that happen to be released during holidays such as Spring Festival and National Day, the highest box office is usually in the first weekend.
Just like "Detective Chinatown 2", the box office revenue was over 200 million in the first two days of its first week, and it immediately reached over 300 million by the weekend.
After being released, there are not many films whose box office even drops in the first weekend. It can only be said that the reputation of the film has deteriorated to a certain extent.
[The Legend of the Gods] was released for three days and earned a total of 201 million yuan in box office revenue in the first week, and its reputation completely collapsed.
Nearly 30,000 people gave it a score of 2.8 on Douban, and it was met with widespread criticism online.
This epic mythological film, set against the backdrop of King Wu's conquest of King Zhou, has redefined human cinema. Titled "The Legend of the Gods," it features a galaxy of top Chinese stars, each showcasing their own dazzling acting choreography in this epic masterpiece. The storyline, costumes, and special effects are unparalleled, surpassing even the classic "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" in comparison. This is truly a masterpiece!
Li Lianjie just stopped by the set to make a cameo appearance on his way to the bathroom, and they still had the nerve to put his name prominently at the top to cheat the box office!
[This "Legend of Xiang Zuo" tells the story of shooting the sword of light into the fountain of life]
[Within three years, there won't be a worse movie than this one. If there is, it will definitely be its sequel!]
Lei Zhenzi said to Baby, "I'll show off and help you fly." Baby responded affectionately, "You're so nice, Lei." Hahahahaha, anyway, it's hilarious, and the imagination is extraordinary. You can't imagine what will happen next, hahahahaha!!
[I have to speculate that this was filmed by Xiang Huaqiang, who held a knife to the necks of the stars, threatening them. Except for his son, the enigmatic aesthetic, the constantly off-kilter plot, the shockingly bad quality, and the unique style are all impressive. Even Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains is impressed!]
【.】
With a box office of 200 million in the first week, a rating of 2.8, and a reputation that was criticized by the entire network, everyone can tell this time that "Legend of the Gods" is a complete flop.
The 500 million yuan production that has been promoted for several months, starring international superstar Li Lian and joined by a number of top stars from the domestic entertainment industry, now seems like a joke.
Just as netizens commented, Li Lianjie was clearly a supporting role, but he was put in the position of the leading actor, and Xiang Zuo, who was last in the cast list, was actually the real leading actor.
How can such blatant deception not make the audience who go to the cinema to watch the movie angry?
Moreover, it was clearly adapted from the story of "Fengshen Yanyan", but in the end it became "Lei Zhenzi", an orphan of the Winged Clan played by Xiang Zuo, who embarked on the journey of finding the Sword of Light in order to save the Elven Clan.
What kind of shocking plot is this, and what does it have to do with [Investiture of the Gods]?
It’s no wonder that the audience was so excited after watching the movie. It can only be said that "The Legend of the Gods" had bad intentions from the beginning.
The producers and distributors clearly knew that the film was not well made, but for their own benefit, they used this method of deceiving everyone to promote it, and it was only natural that it would cause such a huge backlash in the end.
Bona Films.
The atmosphere in the office is rather depressing.
Xiang Huaqiang finished smoking a cigarette, took the last puff, and extinguished the cigarette.
"Mr. Yu, can't we think of another way to improve our movie?
With this result now, the loss is too much."
Yu Dong, who was sitting opposite, smiled bitterly and said:
"Boss Xiang, it's not that I'm not contributing, you've seen the current state of online public opinion.
The reputation of "The Legend of the Gods" is really bad, and its current box office performance is thanks to the early publicity.
Once word of mouth spreads, anything else you do will be in vain."
Xiang Huaqiang was still a little unwilling.
"I know that Legend of the Gods wasn't very well made, but the comments from netizens are a bit too much. Is it really totally useless?
Director Yu, do you think someone is deliberately hiring cyber-trolls to discredit us?
Yu Dong looked at Xiang Huaqiang sitting opposite him and felt amused.
Do you need others to criticize your movie? If you don’t look at anything else, just look at the fact that the protagonist of the movie is your son. There is no way to whitewash it.
"Um~ Mr. Xiang, Bona has been in the industry for so many years. In terms of publicity and promotion, we are not the first in the domestic entertainment industry, but we are confident that we can be in the top five or even the top three.
We have dedicated personnel to monitor all major media platforms on the Internet, professional self-media celebrities and internet influencers.
There really wasn't anyone bashing us this time; it was all just the spontaneous publicity from the audience who had seen the movie."
After a pause, Yu Dong continued.
"Besides, there are only two movies released at the same time as ours. Skipjack, which was released last Thursday, has seen its box office momentum decline, with only 30 to 40 million yuan in a single day. Slandering us won't have any effect on boosting its box office.
"Detective Chinatown 2", which was released on Thursday morning, one day after "The Legend of Gods", is honestly not on the same level as ours.
They make two to three hundred million at the box office every day.
I guess Mr. Gu from "The Wei Ming Tian Xia" only paid attention to the box office of "The Investiture of the Gods" on the first day, and he stopped paying attention to it after seeing that it was only more than 70 million.
So your worries are totally unnecessary."
In fact, Xiang Huaqiang knew exactly what Yu Dong said, he just had no choice.
Judging from the current situation, he has lost a lot of money on this movie.
Although [The Legend of the Gods] did not have as much investment as the advertised 500 million yuan, the production and promotion cost more than 200 million yuan.
The special effects of the movie were indeed made by a Hollywood team, and various celebrities were paid to join, of course most of them were at friendly prices.
Including the publicity and promotion fees paid to Bona, the total investment exceeded 250 million.
Now it seems that he will lose at least 100 million yuan. Such a huge loss makes Xiang Huaqiang extremely heartbroken.
He originally wanted to use his connections to get big stars like Li Lianjie to join, and add some impressive special effects to rival the "Journey to the West: Havoc in Heaven" starring Chow Yun-fat and Aaron Kwok from two years ago, and it was sure to get a box office of 1 billion.
By then, I can make money and support my son at the same time, killing two birds with one stone.
Who would have thought that Li Lianjie, Fan Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, Louis Koo, and Liang Jiahui had no box office appeal at all, and the movie was actually criticized so much by the audience.
Not only did he lose money, but his son also failed at the first step in his star journey. It was a complete loss of both the wife and the army.
Thinking of this, Xiang Huaqiang frowned and took out another cigarette.
Seeing this, Yu Dong on the opposite side hurriedly picked up the lighter to help light it.
"Mr. Xiang, I have a suggestion for you. You might as well contact foreign film distributors and see if you can sell the copyrights to other countries.
With the Li Lianjie brand and the film's special effects having certain merits, selling some foreign copyrights can also reduce some losses.
I feel the domestic film market is failing, so it’s best not to hold out any hope.”
Xiang Huaqiang exhaled smoke and nodded slowly as he listened to Yu Dong's words.
The two chatted for a while, Xiang Huaqiang left Bona, and the office returned to silence.
Yu Dong sat in his own office chair, clasped his hands together, and thought for a while.
A large part of the publicity and promotion costs of "The Legend of Gods" had been received before the movie was released, and a small part of the remaining part, according to the contract, would not be paid until the movie was released.
Although the producer [China Star Film] lost money, [Bona Film Group], as the publicity and distribution company, did not lose any money.
"Boss Yu, you called me?"
The assistant knocked on the door and came in.
"Ask the heads of the marketing, planning, and publicity departments to come to the conference room for a meeting in 10 minutes."
"Understood, Mr. Yu."
According to Yu Dong's experience, with [The Legend of the Gods] having reached this stage, no other promotional methods are of any use, and the rest can just be left to nature.
He was not prepared to invest more resources in this unproductive film.
The National Day holiday is just two months away, and Operation Mekong, produced by Bona Film Group, is about to be released. He plans to capitalize on the popularity of Gu Wei's Detective Chinatown 2 to promote his own film.
"Boss Xiang, don't blame me for not helping you. It's just that the movie Investiture of the Gods is so disappointing.
China Star paid for the publicity and promotion, and Bona Films did enough before the film was released. Now I have no choice but to abandon you."
Thinking of this, Yu Dong picked up his phone and dialed Gu Wei. After a few beeps, the call was connected.
"Hello? Mr. Gu, congratulations on the box office success!
Hahaha, I knew that Mr. Gu’s movie would be a success.
It's nothing. Operation Mekong will be released in two months, and I'm going to have the company start releasing advertisements and trailers.
It won't waste Mr. Gu's time. You just need to cooperate online in the early stage. We will start the roadshow when the movie is about to be released.
I'll host a party later and invite Director Lin Chaoxian, and Mr. Gu will definitely come."
Yu Dong is a pure businessman. To him, whoever can help him make money and bring benefits to Bona is his closest partner.
(End of this chapter)
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