"how so?"
In an office at Chengguang headquarters, Chen Yuanhang no longer had the deep and arrogant look he once had.
Wei Lan, a director who has only been in the industry for two years, has never even appeared in public.
That low-budget sci-fi movie back then only attracted viewers by riding on his popularity. It can even be said that it was completely riding on his "Star Wars" to become popular. It also happened to be released on Teachers' Day. With the help of the system, it created that unique box office myth two years ago.
It can be said that most of the popularity of "Star Wars" was taken away by Wei Lan. It was obviously their investment, but in the end Wei Lan reaped most of the benefits. At this time, Chen Yuanhang could not have imagined that "Star Wars" itself also benefited from the benefits of "Starship Troopers", which he had not interviewed for before.
In Chen Yuanhang's opinion, although Wei Lan's subsequent films are novel, their scenes are not large and they have unique audience groups. Overall, they are not on the same level as "Star Wars" and will not affect his return this time.
Who would have thought that Wei Lan would simultaneously come up with a big-budget science fiction film? This time it was not like the tricky way of trying to make a small fortune as in the past, but a real head-on battle.
As an opponent, Chen Yuanhang did not dare to slack off this time. He went to see "New World" alone on the first day of its release. After watching it, he was deeply shocked and also had hope for the box office.
Although "New World" has commercial parts, overall, in Chen Yuanhang's opinion, it still has a strong independent film element. The depressing and anti-routine theme, as well as the 18-year-old viewing restriction, were all factors that originally hindered the box office.
Chen Yuanhang had originally had good ideas, but when the box office statistics came out in one week, he was ruthlessly slapped in the face by reality. The finale of "Star Wars" set things right, controversy triumphed over evil, and the scenes were grand, definitely not inferior to the previous two films. Moreover, it was not rated R18, but could be watched by teenagers over 15 years old. Why, under such circumstances, did Wei Lan still win at the box office?
What happened to the audience?
This is not just Chen Yuanhang's question, many film and television production companies have also raised this question.
The world's holographic film industry has developed rapidly in recent years. After successful cases, commercial films have more or less formed some fixed industrial routines. The scripts are so detailed that they specify when to make the audience laugh and when to make the audience cry. In this situation, a weirdo like Wei Lan appeared and redefined the market in a way that broke the market.
Not to mention the box office myth of "The Rural Teacher", the clothes worn by several heroines in the movie "The Queen", in addition to the rich people buying genuine products, the largest source of consumption is the large number of imitations on shopping websites. Last year, many clothing factories that were about to go bankrupt were revitalized.
The peripheral products related to the thriller and suspense film "The Contagion" are the most popular movie peripheral products on the market. Countless audiences are eagerly waiting for the second part. There is a special discussion community and the topic is still hot.
The market is so fast-changing that it is hard for investors to predict what the next "trend" will be.
"New World", a movie with deep and depressing meaning, has attracted the public's imagination of the future with its unique worldview. The cyberpunk art style has also aroused great popularity. After the movie was released, almost all well-known painters in the industry have tried to work in this style.
Because of the world's advanced consciousness technology, many students and scientific researchers have come up with many ideas about future research on consciousness connection technology because of this movie. The ethical issues behind the civilian use of consciousness connection technology have also aroused a lot of social discussion.
In terms of this influence, both in terms of depth and breadth, "A New World" has completely surpassed "Star Wars". Because if you look closely, although Star Wars also has its own unique worldview, it is generally just old wine in a new bottle, continuing the plot of the previous work. The audience has become aesthetically fatigued, so how can it compare with "A New World" where everything is new?
Chen Yuanhang is now completely panicked. "Star Wars" lost at the box office in the first week, and one can imagine what will happen next. The issue of investment recovery is secondary. The key point is that if he fails again this time, it will be his last chance.
When things were going smoothly for him, he felt that Chengguang, a place where whoever was most useful would get promoted, was very suitable for him. But when he became the one who lost his usefulness, he suddenly realized that Chengguang's speed of adding insult to injury was truly terrifying.
Especially in the past two years in Chengguang, he has learned a lot. This company... is not as simple as it seems from the outside. If things go wrong, it is not just about losing money and reputation, but also about personal safety...
When he thought of this possibility, Chen Yuanhang could no longer remain calm. His eyes were full of bloodshot. This was the result of the past two days:
"Let's... increase the publicity and buy negative articles for New World! Then we can buy reviews and increase the rating on Guangying.com!"
When Qiao Yu heard this, he looked up at Chen Yuanhang's expression, with a look of contempt and sympathy.
"If buying negative articles or faking ratings would work, the PR department would have done it long ago. The data analysis department is professional. They have compiled relevant data on the two movies and captured search discussions from various platforms. Whether calculated in terms of depth or breadth, the influence of A New World is greater than that of Star Wars..."
Qiao Yu looked at Chen Yuanhang's face turning pale rapidly and said:
"This kind of influence radiates to many industries, not just the film industry. This is a phenomenal movie! Don't you understand what it represents?"
Chen Yuanhang's bloodless lower lip trembled a few times, and he remembered everything he once had in Wei's.
He is the face director of the Wei family. As the producer, Wei Mingjie will unconditionally support any movie he wants to shoot, clearing away investment obstacles for him and often supporting him out of his own pocket. Even if he doesn't make any money in the end, he won't say anything but just say that the content doesn't suit the market.
At first he was grateful, grateful that Grandpa Wei adopted him and treated him like his own son, and Wei Mingjie also regarded him as his own brother... When did things start to change?
It was he who won the Golden Tripod Award for Best Director for filming "Under the Wind God". He became known as a great director. Other shareholders of Wei Group flattered him and wanted to invest privately in his films. He gradually realized his own "weight" and felt that he was not relying on Wei Group, but Wei Group was relying on him.
Wei Mingjie's behavior of investing in himself when he was not famous and could not get any investment was simply because he had discovered his potential and wanted to make money. He had not experienced the dilemma of other unknown directors who wanted to make movies but could not get investment.
He does have a talent for making movies, but he believes that his success today is entirely due to his own talent.
It was not until the appearance of Wei Lan, a truly gifted person, that Chen Yuanhang received a devastating blow.
When he was in Wei’s, even if the movies shot by Chen Yuanhang ended up losing money, Wei Mingjie and his son would support him. They would give him a chance if he failed. But now in Chengguang, a real pack of hungry wolves, he can only achieve great success to feed them and avoid being devoured.
The "Star Wars (Part 2)" filmed at Chengguang was not in the red, but had a small profit, but it did not meet the investment expectations. Judging from the first week box office of the current "Star Wars (Part 2)", even though it encountered pressure from "A New World", judging from the current first week data, it will not reach the level of loss.
But if it is not a big profit, it means losing money. Because of the previous events, the box office success of "New World" alone is enough for Wei to make a fuss. Now Chengguang's stock price has begun to fall.
Every decimal point drop in the stock price causes the wealth of shareholders to shrink rapidly. The money lost cannot be compensated by the box office of "Star Wars".
Qiao Yu, the shareholder who originally supported Chen Yuanhang, had to pay the price for the loss of the group's interests this time. He had to find a scapegoat -
Naturally, this person can only be Chen Yuanhang, who is now useless.
The "Star Wars" he brought from Wei's company did not bring the expected effect to Chengguang, and was defeated by Wei Lan twice. The first time could be said to be a trick, but the second time was a head-on confrontation. Although Wei Lan has accumulated a lot of popularity in the past two years, Chen Yuanhang and Star Wars are not unknown either. Not only was he at a disadvantage in terms of subject matter, he was still defeated by Wei Lan. This can only mean that Chen Yuanhang is not the one they are suitable for.
Everyone knows that things never happen more than three times.
"I understand. I won't mention anything about attending the shareholders' meeting again." Chen Yuanhang frowned, looked at Qiao Yu deeply, and said to him half pleadingly and half threateningly:
"After all, I am also a Golden Tripod Award winner for Best Director. Director Zhang has completely retired. Currently, no other director in Chengguang has won this award. I just hope to be a director in Chengguang in the future. Director Qiao, I will also be quiet and will not ask for things that do not belong to me."
Qiao Yu looked at him for a long while, then nodded slowly: "Of course, Director Chen, you are the most experienced director in Chengguang, but you may have to face some public pressure on this Star Wars box office issue."
What he meant was that Chen Yuanhang and "Star Wars" had to explain the falling stock price to shareholders. At the same time, his only role in Chengguang at present was to increase his external qualifications. Unless there were other circumstances in the future, he would not be able to obtain Chengguang's resources as before. He had been completely abandoned.
After leaving Qiao Yu's office, Chen Yuanhang took out his mobile phone, opened the contacts, and found the three words "Wei Mingjie" in it.
His hand hovered over the call button, but after half a minute, he still didn't press it.
Finally, he put the phone back into his pocket.
This was his last pride.
…
When Chen Yuanhang became a complete abandoned child of Chengguang, Wei Lan, the winner of this science fiction feast, stepped on the status of this veteran director and ascended the throne of "great director".
The box office momentum of "New World" remained unabated in its second week. With its deep fermentation in the industry from all angles and its influence spreading to the point where everyone knows about it, the box office of this movie increased instead of decreased in its second week, reaching an even more astonishing 940 million!
Time Magazine is a comprehensive news publication. Every time it appears on the cover, it features influential figures in different industries. It has published stories about scientists who have made major discoveries, experts who have proposed important bills, legendary movie stars, and so on.
In other words, when someone appears on the cover of Time magazine, it means that the person has achieved extremely dazzling and remarkable achievements in a certain field.
The latest issue of Time magazine features a black and white panda cub.
The title is: 'The youngest big director, welcome to join the 10 billion club.'
Wei Lan has been in the industry for two years and has starred in four movies. In addition to the box office revenue during the release period, there is also subsequent on-demand income from the holographic channel. Even if the share of the profits is taken into account, it is still a considerable income. Although the accumulated revenue is still a little short of 10 billion, "New World" has only been released for two weeks. Taking into account the box office expectations of "New World", Wei Lan's total box office revenue will surely exceed 10 billion after the movie is taken off the shelves.
In Wei's top-floor office, Wei Mingjie and Wei Sijia were flipping through this issue of Time Monthly.
Wei Sijia's activities as a member of the girl group are about to end. She just participated in a variety show under Wei's company. After the filming was finished, she went to the top floor to wait for Wei Mingjie to get off work and go home with her father in the evening.
Inside the pages are a personal interview with Wei Lan, and a summary at the end.
"I would like to call this sci-fi feast a transition between the old and new directors. Wei Lan took over the microphone from Director Chen with an absolute attitude, telling everyone that now is the era of young directors."
The reporter who was doing the interview seemed to be a "Lan fan" as well, and he was praising the company with all his might.
After reading this, Wei Mingjie couldn't help but shake his head and complained to Wei Sijia: "The media is such a mouth... In the past, when our Wei's film collided with Chengguang, we lost money and Chengguang made a profit, they also said it was a transition between the old and the new, but we are the old and Chengguang is the new."
Wei Sijia looked at her father's grinning mouth that was almost stretched to the back of his head and rolled her eyes speechlessly: "At least they are saying good things about us now."
"Hehe...that's true, these media have always been like this." Wei Mingjie said with a smile.
As the two chatted, there was a knock on the door and the secretary's voice rang out: "Boss Wei, the PR department said that Minister Wang still wants to see you..."
"Oh no." Wei Mingjie shook his head and said to Wei Sijia, "Jia Jia, wait for me here for a while. It shouldn't take long."
"Well, Dad, you go ahead. I'll play with my phone for a while."
After Wei Mingjie left, Wei Sijia sat on the sofa playing with her phone waiting for him.
After a while, a phone rang suddenly somewhere on Wei Mingjie's desk.
Wei Sijia ignored it, fearing it was a call from her father for work. She couldn't answer it casually. She would just call back when her father came.
But after the phone rang once, it kept ringing. Wei Sijia couldn't stand it anymore, so she walked to the table and saw that it was Wei Mingjie's personal phone that was ringing.
It was an unfamiliar number.
Wei Sijia frowned. She knew that her father had two phone numbers, and his personal number was not for many people he knew at work.
After the phone stopped ringing once, it continued to ring. Wei Sijia thought about it and finally picked up the phone.
"Hello?" It was a man's voice on the phone.
Wei Sijia: "Hello, my father is not here now, who are you? I will tell him later if there is anything."
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a while, and then the voice suddenly became excited:
"Scarlett? Wei Sijia? I, I am your uncle, your dear uncle!"
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