During the first week of the release of [Avatar: The Way of Water], many people went to the cinema with great anticipation.
The industry had high expectations for the film in the early stages and once gave a box office forecast of 2.5 billion. However, the box office in the first week of the film did not meet expectations.
Although the daily box office exceeded 100 million yuan in the first two days of its release, accounting for more than 95%, it dropped directly on Sunday and did not exceed 100 million yuan.
In the end, combining the preview screenings and midnight screenings, the box office of "Avatar 2" in mainland China in its first week was only 400 million yuan.
After the first week, the platform adjusted its box office forecast to 1 billion.
In terms of reputation, "Avatar 2" scored 9.2 points on the two ticketing platforms respectively, while Douban's score dropped from 8.4 points at the beginning to 8.2 points.
Looking back at the first part of "Avatar", it has accumulated 1.3 million reviews on Douban and has a score of 8.8 points so far.
After the first week, the box office of "The Way of Water" continued to decline, and its market momentum was obviously insufficient.
".During this period, the promotion and marketing of [Manslaughter 2] has been going very smoothly.
With the fame of the first film as a foundation, and the fame of the three leading actors Xiao Yang, Zhang Tianai, and Tony Leung Ka Fai, the company made efforts both online and offline, and the popularity of the movie quickly increased.
As of yesterday, the pre-sale box office of "The Accidental Murderer 2" has exceeded 100 million yuan. According to the current growth trend, it should not be a problem for pre-sales to exceed 150 million yuan before the release."
[Wei Ming Tian Xia] Company, Gu Wei, who had just returned from vacation, was listening to Yang Liwen's report in the office.
The company's key project this month is "The Accidental Murderer 2." As the second installment in the hit movie series "The Accidental Murderer," everyone from the main creative crew to the company's internal publicity and promotion team believes that this sequel has the potential to continue to be a big hit.
Gu Wei thought for a moment, "[The Accidental Murder 2] has a new director, and it's a young, new director like Cui Rui. I don't think the fans have any doubts, right?"
“Well, there are indeed some related voices on the Internet.
However, Director Wen Muye (the director of the first part of "The Accidental Murder") is the producer after all, and during the promotion period, Director Wen has always supported Director Cui in interviews.
Therefore, most movie fans feel that the quality of [The Accidental Murder 2] is still guaranteed!"
Yang Liwen continued, "There is also good news about the movie, which is an unexpected surprise.
At the beginning of the month, the company had already negotiated with the cinema chain about the screening schedule for "The Accidental Detective 2".
Because the box office of "Avatar: The Way of Water" released last week did not meet expectations, many of the screenings originally planned for this movie were cancelled.
This way, the screening rate of "The Accidental Murder 2" can be increased after its release."
Gu Wei smiled slightly: "This month marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year holiday season, and every year at this time, a number of blockbuster films are released.
This year, because "Avatar 2" was scheduled for release very early, many movies chose to withdraw.
As a result, now that [Avatar 2] is not doing well at the box office, the only thing the theaters can rely on is our [The Accidental Murder 2].
There are many factors that determine how much a movie can achieve at the box office after its release, among which the time and period of its release are very important.
For example, many romantic movies are released on days like Valentine's Day or Christmas, while comedies are mostly released during the summer vacation and Spring Festival.
In addition, the box office performance of other films released at the same time also has a significant impact on the box office performance of its own films.
If you are unlucky and your film is released at the same time as a super-hit blockbuster, the box office revenue will be sucked away by the blockbuster, and the box office performance of your own film will most likely not be very good.
It's just like when "Wolf Warrior 2" was a big hit, there was almost no chance for other movies to stand out in the same period, and the 2016 summer box office was drained by this movie.
Even earlier, during the 2011 Lunar New Year holiday, Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War" and Xu Ke's "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" were released at the same time.
Two equally exciting blockbusters competed against each other, the box office of the last one was more than 500 million and the other one was 600 million, neither of which met expectations, so both sides suffered losses.
This is also the reason why no other movies chose to schedule screenings for the half month after the release of "Avatar: The Way of Water".
Dapeng's "Keep You Safe" was originally scheduled for release in the middle of this month. After "Avatar 2" was scheduled, "Keep You Safe" was withdrawn not long after.
At the beginning, other people in the company also advised Gu Wei to change the release date of "The Accidental Detective 2", also considering that the box office of the movie would be affected by "Avatar 2".
Yang Liwen nodded with some emotion: "No one expected that [Avatar: The Way of Water] would be a cold reception in China.
Judging from the current ticket sales trends, this movie should have no problem breaking 1 billion in the domestic box office, but that’s about it.
If it were an ordinary movie, it would definitely be a big hit if the box office exceeded 1 billion.
But this is the second part of Avatar.
I still remember the movie-watching craze it caused in the country when the first film was released in 2009.
This movie is showing in theaters all over the country. The theaters are packed and tickets for 3D screenings are hard to come by!
The total box office directly broke the domestic box office record at the time."
Gu Wei smiled and shook his head: "This is a different time.
"Avatar" 13 years ago was a pioneer, leading the world cinema into the official 3D era, giving the audience a brand new viewing shock, and naturally reaped the benefits.
Although the second part has been more sophisticated in visual effects, it has not made any breakthrough after all.
Moreover, today's domestic audiences are not like before. They have watched too many Hollywood special effects blockbusters and have become somewhat numb to this aspect.
People pay more attention to the plot, but this is precisely Cameron's weakness."
"By the way, regarding that matter we mentioned earlier, how's the discussion with Wanda going lately?"
Yang Liwen's expression turned serious when she heard Gu Wei ask this.
"Recently, I have been communicating with Wanda Films and Wanda Investment.
Now it seems that Wanda has a strong desire to sell part of its shares in Wanda Films, but the specific transaction amount is still uncertain.
After this news came out, several institutions have contacted Wanda, including financial companies and well-known film and television companies.
Wanda Film was established in 2005 and is affiliated to Wanda Group.
Relying on the strong capital and powerful resources of its parent company, Wanda Cinemas has become one of the largest cinema chains in China in just ten years.
In 2015, Wanda Cinemas officially entered the A-share market, becoming the first listed cinema chain in China. It has 260 cinemas and 2,300 screens, firmly holding the top market share in China at the time.
In 2016, Wanda spent a large sum of money to acquire Legendary Entertainment, gaining important resources for Hollywood film production. It then bought the domestic TV drama production company New Media Eslite, extending the tentacles of the film and television industry to the TV drama field.
During the years when the film and television industry was the hottest, Wanda Film’s market value soared to 120 billion yuan, making it the film and television company with the highest market value in the domestic entertainment industry.
It’s a pity that changes in the overall environment are not subject to personal will.
The film and television industry is experiencing a cold winter.
Wanda Film, an asset-heavy cinema chain that relies on offline channels, was hit hard, the entire cultural and media sector fell into a depression, and the stock market plummeted.
This is not the worst. As long as Wanda Group does not collapse, no matter what setbacks Wanda Films encounters, it will not be a big deal.
But unfortunately, Wanda Group is now in trouble.
Lao Wang is burdened with huge debts and can barely protect himself.
According to public data, Wanda Group's total debt is as high as 600 billion yuan, of which Wanda Commercial Management's interest-bearing debt is 141.2 billion yuan and debt due within one year is 40 billion yuan.
The plan to sell Wanda Film’s shares is also to raise money to repay debts.
"What is the current market value of Wanda Films?" Gu Wei asked.
"Today it's 29.8 billion." Yang Liwen said without hesitation.
Since she took on this job, she has taken a look at Wanda Film’s daily stock price and market value every day.
Gu Wei tapped his fingers on the desk and thought for a while.
"We are still communicating with Wanda. As long as they want to sell, we can take it over and the price is negotiable.
We can also acquire it with cash, which I think is what Wanda values most!"
"Understood, Mr. Gu."
Since its establishment, [Wei Ming Tian Xia] has had a very complete mechanism and process from production to distribution.
There is no shortage of directors, artists and staff from various film and television industries. It can be said that there are many talented people.
The only thing left is that it doesn’t have its own cinema chain.
Of course, the box office performance of Wei Ming Tian Xia's previous films has been very good, so there is no need to worry too much about the theater chain issue.
But now that there is such an opportunity to make up for the company's last shortcoming, Gu Wei still hopes to seize it.
(End of this chapter)
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