Chapter 24 Propaganda
Gu Weixian returned to the company, picked up his agent, and went to China Film Group together.
In the conference room, Gu Wei, Lu Yang and Director Han sat opposite each other.
"The editing of [The Sword of Assassination] is basically complete, and now we are almost done with the music. It should be finished soon." Lu Yang said.
"Gu Wei, I called you here today because the movie is about to be completed. Let's discuss the release date together." Director Han said to Gu Wei.
"Director Han, China Film Group is professional in distribution. I have 100% confidence in Brother Lu. The movie will definitely be an excellent one. What time do you think it will be released to maximize profits and get the highest box office possible?" Gu Wei threw the question back and praised Lu Yang.
Director Han frowned upon hearing this. "The film's production still needs some time, and with the pre-production promotion, it will take at least a month. The earliest it can be released is the end of October, which means it won't be in time for the National Day holiday."
As he said that, he took out two pages of paper and handed them to Gu Wei and Lu Yang respectively.
Take a look at this: "These are all the movies that have been scheduled for release from the end of October to February next year."
Gu Wei took it and looked at it.
Director Han added, "The best time of the year is definitely the Lunar New Year period, but with so many excellent Chinese and foreign films coming together, the competition is fierce."
"Director Han, can China Film arrange for a release as soon as possible? I am confident in the quality of the film."
Lu Yang didn't know much about film distribution. This was his first film to be released. He was confident in the film and wanted to know the market response as soon as possible, so he was naturally a little anxious.
"I agree with my senior brother. We can reserve a month for promotion and release the film in late October or early November.
Our film has a small investment, so we try not to compete with those blockbusters. We choose a time slot with fewer blockbusters to release it, which will give us an advantage in terms of the screening share.”
Gu Wei also hopes that the film will be released as soon as possible. After looking at the film list, he roughly knows which of these films have good box office performance and which ones have not made much of a splash.
It definitely won’t work in December, as Lost in Thailand was released in December. Even people who don’t follow movies know that this movie was a huge hit when it was released in the previous time and space.
I guess the director himself didn't expect that a road comedy could reach a box office of 1.2 billion. It was the first domestic film to have a box office of over 1 billion, thus ushering in an era of 1 billion box office for domestic films.
The release period is also very long, and it will not be released until February of next year. In February, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" will take over "Lost in Thailand", another movie with a box office of over 1 billion yuan.
Jackie Chan's film "Chinese Zodiac" released at the same time was also expected to have the potential to reach 1 billion, but in the end it only achieved a little over 500 million.
Although Gu Wei is very confident about the quality of "The Sword Identity", we are far behind them in terms of investment or the popularity of the director and starring cast.
People with small arms and legs won't join in the fun with these big guys.
No matter how you look at it, November is still the best month. There are basically no competitive movies, except for "1942" directed by Feng Da and "Life of Pi" directed by Ang Lee. Both of them are released in late November. By the time they release "The Sword Identity", there will not be much box office potential left.
The only ones left that are somewhat famous are [Tai Chi 2], a famous bad movie, and [The Banquet], which was invested with over 100 million yuan and had a box office of 50 million yuan, making the investors bleed.
Furthermore, there are some names that Gu Wei has never heard of, which means that these movies basically did not make any splash after they were released.
The time is on my side, who else would I choose if not it?
Director Han thought for a moment and said, "Since you two are so insistent, I'll ask President Han to arrange for this release date."
"Please, Director Han." Lu Yang said
"Don't be polite with me. This is our own movie. Of course I hope it does as much at the box office as possible." Director Han said with a smile.
The next day, Gu Wei received a call from Director Han.
"Boss Han has made the final decision. 'The Blade of the Assassin' will be released nationwide on October 26th. The company has already completed the promotional plan before then."
"Thank you for your hard work, Director Han. How much publicity and promotion budget has our China Film Group provided for "The Sword of the Assassin"? "Gu Wei asked.
"Mr. Han watched the film and was very satisfied with its quality. After my efforts, the company plans to invest 10 million yuan in its publicity and promotion budget."
Director Han replied.
"That's great, Director Han. If you have time one day, Senior Brother Lu and I will treat you to a meal to thank you for your support of the movie." Gu Wei said happily.
"There's no rush to eat. I'll wait until the movie is released. I hope I can attend the box office celebration party."
"There will definitely be a box office celebration party." Gu Wei was full of confidence.
After the release date of the movie is set, everything starts to revolve around the release of the movie.
Lu Yang quickly completed all the post-production of the film, and released several promotional videos every few days to gradually build up the popularity.
"Now the first promotional video of "The Blade of the Assassin" has been uploaded to the Internet. Find some online trolls to hype up the popularity of this movie." Gu Wei instructed his agent Yang Liwen.
After all, China Film is a state-owned enterprise. In traditional thinking, publicity and promotion still mainly rely on news media and ground promotion, while publicity on the Internet is still a bit slow.
"Okay, Mr. Gu, what is the theme of our hype?" Yang Liwen asked.
Gu Wei thought for a moment and said, "[Embroidered Spring Blade] is a groundbreaking work of the new school of martial arts!
Tell the people on the water army side to find some people to praise first, then divide some people to criticize, and let both sides attack each other. It would be best if passers-by could be involved.
We do this every time we release a promotional video, and we have to keep it trending online."
"I understand, Mr. Gu."
With one month left before the film is released, China Film Group has also begun promoting the film.
First, various hard advertisements such as bus stop light boxes and cinema material displays began to be placed across the country. Then, at Gu Wei's strong suggestion, China Film began to organize media screenings.
The original version of "The Sword Identity" had a very big problem during its promotion and marketing. I don't know if it was because they were too confident in the quality of the film, thinking that a good movie would definitely be liked by the audience.
There was not even a media screening organized before the movie was released, resulting in no media coverage before its release and the audience was unaware of the movie.
No one knew what would eventually lead to the film's dismal box office performance in the early days of its release, with only 30 million in the first week, and the production of films dropped sharply.
Later, after the first wave of passers-by who had seen the movie brought their own free promotion, everyone realized that there was such a high-quality movie being released, and the box office fell in the second week.
Unfortunately, it was too late and the total box office failed to exceed 100 million.
Of course Gu Wei would not let this happen again.
"Sister Yifei, are you busy?" Gu Wei began to contact Liu Yifei. The difference from the original version is that the heroine of the movie now is Liu Yifei, who is very popular and cannot be wasted.
"I'm not busy. I'm just petting the cat at home." The voice on the other end of the phone sounded a little lazy.
"Our movie will be released next month. Please promote it on your Weibo. You know that the total number of Weibo followers of all the actors in our crew is not even a fraction of yours.
The promotion on Weibo still depends on Sister Yifei, right? "
Gu Wei's voice was a bit flattering, after all, he was asking for help.
"Haha, Boss Gu is indeed an investor. He's starting to care about the box office now. He's probably afraid of losing money."
Liu Yifei said playfully.
"I have confidence in the movie. The main thing is that this is a movie starring our sister Yifei, so the box office will definitely not be a problem." Gu Wei continued to praise
“You were so bold when investing, but now you feel anxious.
Don't worry, I have signed a contract and I am obliged to cooperate with the crew's publicity. I will post it on Weibo right away.
Remember you owe me a meal."
In the end, he didn't forget to blackmail Gu Wei for a meal.
"One meal isn't enough, ten meals are needed. Treating my sister Yifei to a meal is an opportunity many people can't ask for."
Gu Wei had it in mind: Yang Zi owed him ten meals, and he owed Liu Yifei ten meals. He would just let Yang Zi treat Liu Yifei, and he would just eat for free. Perfect.
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(End of this chapter)
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