Chapter 48 (Movie Release)
At 5:30 pm, just like last time before waiting for Xinghan Short Drama to go live, Peng Ya packed up a large table of snacks, planning to log into the Juyu Short Drama APP at the exact moment.
Ever since she was lucky enough to win a spot at the Juyu offline meet-and-greet, she felt like she was floating for a whole week after she got back.
Her classmates and fellow fans were so envious they could hardly believe their eyes. That whole week, Peng Ya spent all her time showing off the photos she took on the cruise ship to everyone, feeling like she was the chosen one.
In the following days, she became obsessed with learning about every aspect of Giant Entertainment's business.
Not only does she watch every single episode of the group's broadcast without missing a single one, but she also bought several collector's edition magazines featuring the main actors. She even watched the entire live stream of the fashion magazine awards ceremony that the main actors attended recently.
Peng Ya believes in Juyu's review mechanism, and that the quality of dramas that can be launched on their own short drama platform must be pretty good.
She hasn't seen a decent short drama in a long time.
She opened the app right on time, and was startled as soon as she entered.
The opening screen was actually made with a holographic effect, with animated opening screen ads for six new dramas surrounding her.
After she clicked on a business simulation drama that interested her the most and watched the first few episodes for free, the system not only popped up a recharge pop-up, but also offered a VIP option.
The VIP price wasn't expensive; it was just enough to buy a short drama series of about 1.5 terabytes. Moreover, accounts that had previously purchased the dramas "Grandma Taizu" and "Card Making" received an additional large recharge discount. Peng Ya didn't think much and directly recharged for VIP.
After successfully topping up, she noticed a small block-shaped object pop up on the screen, indicating that it had been added to her personal backpack in the app.
[Congratulations on successfully recharging your membership for the 10.15-11.15 period. You have received a free Z-series random module, which you can check on the event page.]
An event? What event?
Is it like the last time, a card-drawing event with an opening screen?
She might scoff at the stingy little interactions on other platforms, but she'll definitely take a look at any event that Juyu mentions, just in case she finds herself getting a windfall.
Peng Ya was surprised to find that even the interface was holographic when she clicked on the UI icon at the bottom of the app to enter the event page.
A three-dimensional villa built from different building blocks appeared before her eyes. It had a cartoonish style, and she could freely change the appearance of the house by dragging the icons.
The modules are labeled with various options such as "[Unlocked after posting a comment]", "[Unlocked after watching the first ten episodes of 'Ancient Famine Year, I Have a General Store'" and "[Unlocked after purchasing VIP membership]"...
Once inside the villa, there are hundreds of pieces of furniture with various themes, and the conditions for obtaining these pieces are all related to watching the show and interacting with the characters.
The bonus description below details the rewards you'll receive for collecting a certain series of modules—including actor-exclusive photocard blind boxes, unreleased Polaroid photos, large stills from the show, and various other merchandise.
These small items aren't difficult to obtain. Peng Ya had already collected a small series in less than half an hour after clicking in, which is incredibly friendly to collectors.
Furthermore, Juyu promises to host an offline gala every six months, with the main actors of the short dramas launched on the platform being invited. Collecting all three series modules will earn a chance to win a prize at the offline gala.
Even if you don't win the lottery, you're guaranteed to get a commemorative deluxe card album of over twenty pages.
She couldn't help but pat her chest in shock; the scale of this activity was practically like the imperial court distributing disaster relief grain.
Other platforms are still stingily giving away one day of membership, while Juyu seems to want to give away its entire warehouse to its viewers. I suggest other platforms should follow this level of reward generosity.
Not only are the rewards generous, but the interface is also quite adorable.
Next to the building modules are bush modules with growth rates marked. As the number of blocks in the same series increases, the growth rate of the bushes also increases. Once the bushes mature, they can produce other blocks, giving a sense of harvest like in a management simulation game.
Not only that, while watching the show, you can also put the holographic villa aside, and occasionally a selected comment will pop up from the chimney on the top of the villa.
Peng Ya is completely charmed.
The event planner was so authoritative that she announced that Giant Entertainment would win without following any procedures.
With the little villa as her companion, she watched two dramas in one afternoon and one evening: "In an Ancient Famine Year, I Had a Grocery Store" and "The Whole Family Exiled? All the Officials Could Hear the Child's Heartfelt Words."
Peng Ya accumulated more than four hours of watching time on the app, and Xiao Guanshu generated two building block modules for her. Before going to bed, Peng Ya didn't even want to close the app and simply left it running in the background.
Every five minutes, she couldn't help but click in to see if any new furniture had been unlocked. To her surprise, she discovered that each short drama's details page was accompanied by online character cards of the main actors. Viewers could choose the corresponding character to vote for, and if they voted for a certain amount, they had a chance to win the actor's exclusive background.
Since she drew a red back card in the opening screen gacha last time, Peng Ya has been extremely confident in her luck.
She immediately opened Tao Mi's character card and happily put in ten yuan.
After using two lottery chances, a holographic effect flashed, and two new notifications appeared on the screen—
[Congratulations on receiving the exclusive opening animation for actress [Taomi]*1]
[Congratulations on receiving the [Taomi] homepage dynamic background*1]
The holographic opening animation was incredibly lifelike; it was as if Tao Mi was truly lying next to her, and a gentle voice sounded: "It's eleven o'clock, why aren't you asleep yet?"
Is it really that comforting? Peng Ya felt like she could almost smell the goddess's fragrance.
Giant Entertainment's official account shouldn't pander to its fans too much!
She couldn't even remember the last time she clicked into Ranran's supertopic to post her daily life. If this continued, she would soon be switching allegiances.
Lying in bed, the soft light from the computer screen illuminated her face. As expected, several related topics on the StarNet homepage, such as #JuYuShortDramaAPP# and #SixShortDramasLaunchedSimultaneously#, topped the trending searches.
Today, the platform released a total of six short dramas. Discussions about the plots were mixed with a lot of praise for the app. Peng Ya enthusiastically scrolled through the top comments on the forum, and sure enough, many people were just as engrossed in the mini-events as she was.
[Juyu, did you specifically develop a mini-game and embed it in the app? You're telling me this complex game design was just for an event??]
[I hereby declare that we can now begin our routine mockery of Xinghan. Who still remembers that blank mini-program?^^]
[By the way, that blank mini-program has improved a lot now; it can even select sets!]
[The reward system for this event is so addictive! I spent half an hour building houses this afternoon and got two sets of postcards and four or five small cards as rewards, but I guess it will take a few more days to collect all three modules to draw an offline spot QAQ, I don't even want to log out of the event when I go to sleep]
[Can other platforms follow Juyu's example? I'd like to see some farming-themed interactive mini-games next time.]
[A little-known fact: designing games and giving out rewards both incur costs.]
Other platforms only give out thirty or forty rewards each time, and the odds of winning aren't much higher than winning a five million lottery prize. [Juyu is practically giving back the VIP price.]
[It seems like Juyu's operating capital is more than those major video platforms... Can anyone calculate how much Juyu earned today?]
[Do the math yourself. This is probably the only app in the app store to top the download charts in just eight hours. It feels like anyone who downloads it will find it hard not to subscribe to a membership.]
[Wait, the app store operator has released a report! Juyu Short Drama App has broken the record for download growth rate. Fang Ge should finally break even this time.]
[Given the overwhelming amount of advertising these days, it's quite possible that every app I open today will be greeted with a short drama clip. Who knows the feeling of salvation that comes from suddenly watching a short drama while scrolling through short videos?]
[+1, No one can resist a sudden two-minute short drama.]
I watched the free episodes at double speed on the Yinxi platform, and then for some reason, an app appeared in my computer, and a VIP recharge record appeared in my spending history.
[I get it!! I originally came to see my favorite character, but after clicking into the event, I was only one building module away from unlocking the small card. I saw the price wasn't too high, so I immediately recharged for VIP. Now I've watched two short dramas in one night, and my head is buzzing. I feel like the folds of my cerebral cortex have become shallower.]
[Wait, does anyone know what that voting ranking is? What's it for? Why is my favorite's ranking so low??]
[According to the description, the top-ranked players will receive special screen time at the gala hosted by Juyu Entertainment, and the number one player will even be the final performer on the red carpet. Brother Fang, you really know how to make money; a real-time ranking with real cash rewards has appeared.]
[Haha, I spent 100 yuan and still haven't gotten my favorite character's splash screen. I'm really envious of other people's holographic animated sleep companions. Fang Ge, can you give me one?]
[I'm a little envious of Fang Ge's business acumen. Our Star Federation has produced an operational genius. You can have all my money!]
In less than a week after the six short dramas were released, Fang Zhuo received a return far exceeding his initial expectations.
This time, in addition to revenue from purchasing individual episodes, the introduction of the VIP system has multiplied the overall revenue several times over.
The new user acquisition effect brought by the six new dramas also extended to the two short dramas that Juyu had previously produced, with the viewership and purchase volume of "Grandma Taizu" and "Card Making," which had been airing for several months, also rising sharply.
The comments section on the trending topic were indeed correct; even without considering the rebates, he still made a small profit this time.
The event planning, reward materials, and platform promotion only cost a little over 80 million yuan. After splitting the revenue with the production companies on a 20/80 basis, Juyu received a little over 100 million yuan after tax.
He's done a really good job with this campaign; he originally only planned to earn some system rebates, but the platform's profits were just too high.
He didn't plan to earn that much, but it's really hard for the platform to lose money.
The entertainment market in the Star Federation is much larger than that on Earth, and the short drama sector was previously almost entirely untapped. Even with the successful precedents of Giant Entertainment's two previous short dramas, several major video platforms felt that the revenue from short dramas was not as substantial as the investment, and thus hesitated to enter the market.
Now, Juyu Short Drama APP has successfully paved this way, and other platforms have lost their first-mover advantage.
Thanks to the advertising effect brought by the previous two short dramas, he has successfully carved out a piece of the pie in this huge market.
From then on, Giant Entertainment was not only an entertainment agency, but also the undisputed leading platform in the short drama category, and could even leverage this to access a vast pool of artist resources and expand into more business areas.
In just one week, Fang Zhuo's personal computer was constantly filled with greetings from the presidents of various entertainment companies.
Not only him, but the producers of the six short dramas that were launched at the same time also made a fortune.
Fang Zhuo had reviewed the content of these dramas long before they were released online.
Judging from the visuals and cast, their production costs per series are significantly lower than those of Giant Entertainment. The themes they choose don't require much special effects, and they primarily use their own new actors.
Most people's investments were mainly for testing the waters, and they were playing it safe.
However, these short dramas achieved tremendous success in terms of viewership after their release, generating revenue far exceeding expectations even after deducting the streaming fees.
Juyu Short Drama APP has perfectly demonstrated to them what it means for a platform to have its own traffic. Now, seeing that the previous entertainment companies have made a fortune, other production companies are rushing to enter the market. In the past few days, there has been a constant stream of inquiries from Fang Zhuo about the review conditions for short dramas.
Fang Zhuo opened the system interface. His balance had increased from 6.9 billion after he bought up the survival days to 12.3 billion. His current cash reserves were healthier than those of many top brokerage firms.
The system had already displayed a reputation value notification—
[Company's current reputation value: 50, matching the title 'Renowned']
[Your reputation points are over halfway through, meeting the requirements. The investment slots have been unlocked for you, increasing your initial three to four investment slots. Keep up the good work!]
[This update unlocks 1 achievement and title, and includes one unnamed blind box, which has been added to your inventory.]
[You currently have six blind boxes in your inventory. You only need three more to open a 10-pull!]
Given the current growth momentum of short drama platforms, there will be a continuous stream of new dramas launched. The value has already reached nearly double the initial value, and it's only a matter of time before this slot can be freely unbound.
After finishing his work on the short drama platform, with only a little over a month left before the movie's release, he now needs to contact a special effects company in advance.
Having already collaborated with FlowlineIC twice, Fang Zhuo did not proactively contact their business department this time. Instead, he had Jiang Yu compile a new list of top special effects companies in the Star Federation.
Unlike FlowlineIC's expertise in fluid effects such as water mist, smoke, and explosions, Shadows features a lot of biological effects and natural environment rendering.
Unlike short dramas that cover everything, he wanted every different shot in the film to achieve the best special effects.
A little after 10 a.m., FlowlineIC’s contact person, Colin, and WikuDigital’s business team leader sat in the conference room at the same time, the heads of the two competing visual effects companies looking at each other in bewilderment.
Colin coughed twice, breaking the awkward silence first: "Mr. Fang, are you suggesting we bid against each other?"
He had heard the rumors circulating online and knew that Giant Entertainment's film project was on a tight schedule and had a heavy workload. At the same time, the company had no experience in filmmaking, and there were widespread rumors online that the film would be a flop.
Movies are indeed expensive. I never thought that a company that could afford tens of millions in expedited fees just a few months ago would have to resort to bidding.
"It's not a bidding process." Fang Zhu sent the storyboard requirements to two companies respectively:
"The different storyboard shots will be post-production handled separately by your two companies, while WikuDigital will be mainly responsible for the plant rendering."
As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of the two people immediately relaxed.
This kind of special effects process, where multiple companies are responsible for parts of the effects, is often used in large-scale productions with extremely high requirements for the finished product. This also means that their clients are probably not short of money.
"The original negatives should be available around mid-to-late November. I hope you can complete all the special effects within a week."
Colin's heart pounded again—the production cycle for short dramas is longer than that for movies, but the client had given them more time this time, which meant that the requirements for the final product would be higher.
Meanwhile, the head of WikuDigital was still staring at the list of requirements on his computer, reviewing it over and over again—he had never seen a movie with such detailed requirements before.
Given the number of special effects shots, this will most likely be an astronomical price...
The heads of the two visual effects companies exchanged a brief glance. Colin, being more familiar with the other manager's style, proactively offered a reasonable price:
"Mr. Fang, the total number of special effects shots assigned to me is more than two thousand, which is more than the special effects shots required for your previous short drama. FlowlineIC's total post-production quote is 205 million."
“Your current needs only include reducing the waiting time, not shortening the production cycle. The express fee is only around one million. We’ve cooperated so many times before, so I won’t charge you the express fee this time.” Colin winked.
“Okay.” Fang Zhuo turned his gaze to the other person at the negotiating table: “What about your side?”
The person in charge of WikuDigital is still daydreaming.
Two hundred and fifty million? Is that possible? How are these two words connected?
They agreed so readily, are these two putting on an act, trying to test his professional abilities?
Having figured this out, he immediately snapped back to reality, continued staring at the requirement sheet in his hand, and said sincerely:
"Mr. Fang, you need quite a few plant rendering effects shots. We may need to review the negatives before deciding on the final quote, but the total package price will not be less than 190 million."
"This request list is a bit too detailed. The person who wrote it may not be very familiar with the film post-production process. I suggest you reconsider and remove some of the requested shots."
"For example, in this section, the mutated plant only occupies one-tenth of the frame. A slight blurring would suffice; there's no need for a separate special effect..."
While he was still talking non-stop, he had already received a contract in his personal terminal.
The cost section clearly states 190 million, with an additional clause stating that costs may be supplemented at any time based on actual expenses.
That doesn't seem right.
This deal was closed way too easily. It seems like the other party had already prepared the contract and was just waiting for a symbolic number to be filled in.
He hesitated, as if he wanted to speak but then stopped, extending his right hand several times, only to be misunderstood by President Fang as wanting to shake hands.
After a brief, polite handshake, President Fang simply turned around and walked out of the conference room, spending hundreds of millions of yuan as easily as buying a few pounds of meat at the market.
He remained silent for a long time before grabbing Colin, who was still there, and asking, "Isn't everyone online saying this movie is going to have a bad ending?"
"A failed project? Where would it be a failed project?" Colin's tone was so matter-of-fact, as if he wasn't the one who had just questioned whether Mr. Fang had ordered them to bid.
"Don't talk nonsense, I'm looking forward to watching it after it's released."
Colin patted the other person on the back: "If you don't meet Mr. Fang's expectations, then it will really be a disaster. Anyway, FlowlineIC's technical capabilities are always up to par. As for your company... I don't know much about it."
The head of WikuDigital made a fist gesture towards Colin, then sneered twice:
"Then you can come and watch it after it's released. Maybe someone else will take over the Giant Entertainment business in the future."
The two were secretly competing here, while Fang Zhuo received a message from Jiang Yu as he left the conference room:
[Mr. Fang, we've met with the heads of all eight major cinema chains. They all agree that the competition during this prime time is too fierce. To get the number of screenings we want, we need to give them at least 4%-5% of the box office revenue as a rebate.]
Fang Zhuo was not surprised by this news.
Every year, prime-time slots are fiercely contested by distributors, and the importance of the first week's screenings for a film is second only to its production quality.
If major cinemas allocate less than 10% of their screenings to "Shadow" on its opening day, even if it makes a strong comeback later through word of mouth, its recovery will be much slower than that of films with a high number of screenings.
It's common practice for film distributors to use box office rebates in exchange for theater screenings. He believes that theaters have made this request not only to them, but also to other distributors of films released around the same time.
In addition to box office rebates, signing a tiered revenue-sharing agreement with cinemas can also guarantee the number of screenings in the first week.
Generally, theaters receive about 52%-57% of the revenue from a film. However, if the distributor is willing to increase this percentage to 60% in the first week, theaters will naturally increase the number of screenings for the film during its first week of release.
However, Fang Zhuo was reluctant to use either of these methods.
Compared to sacrificing box office revenue sharing to guarantee screenings, he prefers to pay theaters a fixed fee upfront.
Assuming he has absolute confidence in the film's quality, the latter would save him hundreds of millions in losses.
He sent Jiang Yu a message: "[Negotiations for a minimum screening guarantee agreement with them. The screening share in the first week should be at least 30%, with a budget cap of 200 million yuan.]"
The message was quickly marked as read, and nearly an hour later, Jiang Yu returned to provide feedback on the final negotiation results:
[That's fine, Mr. Fang. We've reached an agreement. We've paid a total of 120 million, and the eight major cinema chains have promised to allocate 30% of the screenings to each cinema in the first week.]
Despite the overwhelmingly positive reviews of the short drama series on Xingwang Entertainment, the day before the film's release, a chaotic online battle erupted between various production companies and investors. The die-hard fans of each film's lead actors clearly identified their fandoms, making "Shadow" appear somewhat isolated and vulnerable under their attacks.
A large screen in the center of the office floor was displaying a lot of comments, and the main creators of the film sat in front of the screen with their heads slightly propped up.
The mood of everyone was not affected by the chaotic online comments, but it was not much better. The atmosphere was unusually silent, except for Fang Zhuo, who was still looking through the feedback reports related to the offline venue setup without being affected.
"Mr. Fang, how about we hire some online trolls too?"
Upon hearing the suggestion from the employee in charge of data collection, Fang Zhuo glanced at the screen and said, "No need, let them say whatever they want."
"But that's going too far, and there are even those who confidently claim we've abandoned the project..."
On the big screen, comments about this release date were scrolling continuously—
[Wait, why is "Shadow" getting so many screenings? Its pre-sales are so much lower than "About Love," less than half of "About Love's." That's so shady...]
[Perhaps it's because people in the industry think it's promising.]
[What's so great about it? "The Vanishing Portrait" received unanimous praise from industry insiders during its preview screenings. "Shadow" didn't even dare to hold preview screenings. Is it because the special effects aren't finished yet and it's inconvenient to show it to everyone?]
[Can Juyu please be pulled from the release schedule? I really can't stand seeing such a terrible film taking up so many screenings. I bet it'll lose money on the first day. Ugh!]
[Forget about being called the number one marketer, from now on he'll be the number one person to rush out a movie in 100 days and leave it unfinished, haha]
[It hasn't even been released yet, why are the comments so harsh? At least "Shadow" is something to look forward to, but the trailer for "About Love" was already of such low quality, it feels like "About Love" is the one that should be taken down immediately.]
[I suggest ignoring the comments section. It's common knowledge that there are never any genuine casual users under the hashtags in the three days leading up to the anniversary celebration... Look at that person's profile; they still have Ruan Zihan's hashtag tag on it.]
[Don't ask, it's all about Blackwater]
[The 399 Star Cinema is opening tomorrow! They'll be showing "Shadow" all day long, and I heard there will be surprise events. Anyone want to see the opening night together?]
[Count me in! I'm not a fan, I just want to be among the first to experience the defense process^^]
At 9:30 a.m., the highly anticipated prime time for the National Day celebrations finally began.
Fang Zhuo sat on the second floor of the backstage area of his own cinema. The walls of this circular control room were all inlaid with ring screens, and he was completely enveloped in them from all 360 degrees.
Sitting right in the center of the screen, he said those words again:
[Please, could you please enable the system live stream for me?]
[Okay, host. We plan to enable the live streaming function for you. The live stream will be viewed from your first-person perspective.]
[You will have a chance to earn points or virtual gifts during the live stream. Your live stream level will increase once the number of viewers reaches a certain level.]
[3, 2, 1, System live stream has started]
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