"Our cinema has received complaints from audiences because there are too few screenings of The Rural Teacher."
The cinema manager was on the phone, and said to the person on the other end: "The reputation of our cinema chain is also very important. A cinema standard has ten theaters. In the first week, nine theaters were showing "Star Wars". This is enough to give you face for the film, and it's just adding one theater. This is what our boss said. If you still think it's not okay, go talk to our boss...beep..."
"He's dead."
On this side, it was the distribution department of Chengguang Pictures. The manager in charge of contacting theater chains for film distribution put down the phone, looked at the publicity director beside him, and shrugged his shoulders.
"Let's report this matter." He said: "According to our previous predictions and the feedback from the theaters, our film should be able to occupy more than 95% of the theater screening resources, but now, the other party has begun to dilute our 5% to 10% of the theater resources."
Soon Chen Yuanhang received feedback from the publicity department.
Hasn’t Chen Yuanhang noticed the news about "Rural Teachers" these days?
Of course not, but he is no longer the young director who was just starting out and used the Guangying.com ratings as the main criterion for judging the quality of a film.
Ratings cannot tell everything. The box office and real-life influence of "Star Wars" are far beyond the reach of "The Rural Teacher".
However, he also thinks that netizens are looking for trouble, and there is a bit of gunpowder in the fan confrontation on Guangying.com. Even if they watch the movie with a negative perspective and brush up the score, it is also an act of taking advantage of the popularity of "Rural Teacher".
He originally thought that after the movie was released, it would crush the whole movie to pieces, but he didn't expect that the quality of the movie was still good. In addition to the popularity it gained in the early stage, she has now taken advantage of the box office again.
However, the ultimate reason is because of the promotion and publicity backed by Wei's. If it weren't for this prerequisite, this movie wouldn't even have the chance to appear on the same stage with "Star Wars". Now that the theaters have proposed to increase the number of screenings, in addition to audience demand, it is also partly due to the support of Wei's reputation. Otherwise, even if the number of screenings is increased, it will not increase so quickly.
Thinking of this, Chen Yuanhang lit a cigarette: "With a good reputation, it is normal to add more shows. When we eat the meat, there must be someone to drink the soup."
"It's been almost a week since our movie was released. There must be other types of movies coming out as well, right?" He looked at the publicity director.
"Yes, there are two movies that will be released next Wednesday and Friday, one is a romance and the other is a suspense movie," the supervisor replied.
"It doesn't matter if we give away a little more cinema share. The market is so big that it will eventually become saturated. Let's reduce our cinema share to 85% and tell the cinemas that this is our bottom line. Otherwise, we will withdraw the film from the schedule." Chen Yuanhang smiled and said, "You can ask the PR department to contact the other two film producers and tell them that we have given them 10% of the cinema share..."
The publicity director understood it as soon as he heard it. This was a retreat in order to advance. The seemingly generous giving up of 10% of the market share was actually just a bait to define the scope of competition and let the newly released movies compete with "Rural Teacher".
All movies are released to make money. The other two movies know that "Star Wars" is a behemoth, so they will naturally choose to take advantage of the weaker ones.
——But is the publicity for “Rural Teachers” really a soft persimmon?
In the early stages of the film, Wei Lan attracted negative publicity and appeared on variety shows. It seemed that he used all his publicity tricks in an unorthodox way. Apart from basic cinema posters, there was basically no formal promotion in theaters.
But it seems reasonable. After all, if a movie with an investment of 8 million yuan spends a lot of money on publicity, the movie will really be unbearable to watch.
But what Chen Yuanhang didn't know was that Wei Lan's real propaganda method had just been launched.
Let’s go back to a week ago, when the movie was first released.
h City, Municipal Education Bureau.
"Xiao Liu, what's this bag in your hand?"
Section Chief Xie looked at the clerk holding a bag with the Wei's Pictures logo on it.
The clerk named Xiao Liu quickly took the bag and brought it to the section chief. "These are the movie tickets that the PR of Wei's Film Company brought over. They said they made a movie about education and gave it to our department for evaluation. They have an event to invite teachers to watch the movie. All teachers with a teacher's certificate can watch the movie at a 40% discount."
"They said the Municipal Propaganda Department also has some." Xiao Liu was still a little worried that he couldn't accept this kind of movie ticket: "How about I return it?"
Section Chief Xie smiled and said, "Don't make such a fuss. Wei's is a major taxpayer in the city. Various departments often receive similar donations during festivals, but usually the Propaganda Department receives more. I didn't expect it to be sent to us this time..."
Although it is rare, it is not impossible to happen. Their bureau once invested in and co-produced an educational promotional video with Wei's company, and had dealings with their public relations department.
Section Chief Xie picked up the movie ticket and looked at the name - "Rural Teacher"? No wonder it had to be sent to the Education Bureau.
"If you have time, please send it to everyone in the bureau."
"OK."
The next day, the Education Bureau held a meeting to discuss the welfare rewards to teachers in various schools on Teachers' Day this year.
The old things include bonuses, vacations, rice, flour, grain, oil, etc. However, with the increase in the number of students enrolled in the past two years, the number of teachers has also increased, and the city has sufficient funding for education, so they are more willing to make some additions and changes.
"I think the movie 'Rural Teachers' that we received that day is good and very educational." The speaker was Xiao Liu, who happened to go to see the movie with his girlfriend after get off work that day. He was deeply touched after watching the movie and couldn't help but bring it up during the meeting.
Section Chief Xie hesitated: "Movie tickets? Not very affordable, right?"
"Because this movie also has a teacher discount, if we use watching the movie as an activity, it will also have cultural and educational significance." Xiao Liu added that when he recalled the plot of the movie, he felt that it was both appropriate and meaningful as a Teacher's Day benefit.
"Okay, as a backup plan, since it's a side event, the Finance Office should first process the bonuses and distribute them on the holiday." The silver-haired director at the top made the decision, "Everyone go back and think about the plan this week. You can also take time to go see a movie. We'll vote then."
It wasn't until Tuesday that the director suddenly organized a meeting.
"What do you think about the Teachers' Day activities?"
The staff members below looked at each other in confusion. Didn’t they say that we would have a week to discuss this?
The director looked at Xiao Liu: "Xiao Liu, what do you think?"
Xiao Liu, who was called by the director, was a little flustered: "Ah? I think..."
Seeing the young man's hesitation, the director frowned. Section Chief Xie next to him saw this and thought for a moment. Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind: "I think Xiao Liu's suggestion of watching a movie last time is very good. That movie is very educational. I vote for this activity to watch a movie."
After saying this, Section Chief Xie looked at the director nervously.
The director's brows relaxed.
Guessed it right! I should go see that movie tonight. The movie ticket seems to be in the office drawer? I'll look for it later... Section Chief Xie thought.
"I think it's good too!" "Me too."
With Section Chief Xie taking the lead, the old hands in the bureau immediately understood and all voted to watch a movie.
The director showed a satisfied smile and looked at the administrative officer: "Then prepare to notify all primary and secondary schools. Organize school teachers to watch a movie together this Saturday. The cinema chain must also be contacted before the event day. There must be enough theaters. When I went to the movies, the theaters were full..."
That night, Section Chief Xie went to see this movie with his family after work.
After coming back from watching the movie, he calmed his chest which was a little excited by the plot of the movie, and remembered that the director often mentioned in casual conversation that he had lived in a remote mountain village since he was a child and almost dropped out of school because his family was poor. It was his teacher at the time who persuaded his parents and paid part of the tuition, which allowed him to continue his studies and have the opportunity to leave the mountain village.
The power of the system cannot be countered by capital.
H City is a big city. After the content of the Teacher's Day activities was announced soon, other surrounding cities followed suit. There is no need to bother planning any activities and then worry about being a thankless task. Watching a movie is inexpensive and meaningful, so learn it.
This chain reaction affected the federal ticket base near the entire H city. The second golden box office period for the movie was on Saturday, because teachers from the entire H city and several nearby cities participated in the movie-watching event. Not to mention the other two new movies that wanted to compete with "Rural Teachers", even the current theater overlord "Star Wars" had to take a detour on this day.
On the theater statistics table that day, "Rural Teacher" emerged as a dark horse at the box office, surpassing and crushing other movies for the first time.
It directly reached a terrifying result of 120 million. "Star Wars" only earned less than 10 million at the box office on that day, and the other two newly released movies were squeezed to a pitiful box office of only tens of thousands.
Whatever the reason, a low-budget movie with an investment of eight million has surpassed the "Star Wars" with an investment of hundreds of millions. This is a record that is enough to be reported in financial newspapers.
This time, "Rural Teachers" finally did not just rely on word of mouth on the Internet, but went completely viral.
Film and television information, financial information... were all reported because of this incident.
Teachers are also a group with a wide range of influence. After being touched by the movie, they will recommend the movie to their students, and the students will mention the movie to their parents... The influence spreads out like this. Compared with online and offline promotions, parents are obviously more willing to listen to teachers. This is the same as the tutoring materials recommended by teachers, which parents will basically buy...
After it went viral, the positive impact it brought was immeasurable. The box office of "Rural Teacher" directly showed a blowout-like explosion in a short period of time.
In addition to the Teachers’ Day event on Saturday, the box office on Sunday also reached 40 million. Monday was slightly weaker, but it still reached 30 million…
On Wednesday, Chen Yuanhang received the latest feedback. The current situation is that "Rural Teachers" has a 46% share of theater resources, "Star Wars" has 51%, and the remaining 3% share is almost like only one theater in a cinema playing the other two movies in batches.
At the box office on that day, "Star Wars" ranked first with 50 million, but "Rural Teacher" had 45 million. This box office gap was not even as high as the investment of "Rural Teacher"!
That night, Chen Yuanhang finally couldn't help but go to the cinema to watch "Rural Teacher".
When he came out, his face was so gloomy that water could drip out of it.
What’s worse is that this scene was captured by an entertainment reporter, and there was a news report the next day:
'Star Wars director Chen Yuanhang appeared in a low-key manner in the cinema, looking heavy-hearted, and was suspected to be watching the rival film "Rural Teacher".'
After seeing the news, Chen Yuanhang dropped his expensive cell phone heavily on the carpet, making a dull sound.
"opponent?!"
When did "Rural Teacher" become worthy of being a rival to "Star Wars"? !
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