Chapter 538: As expected, the Spring Festival movie season officially begins
"The Wandering Earth" did not choose to be screened on the 25th and 26th.
Because it is no longer necessary.
For "The Wandering Earth", the word-of-mouth from the two preview screenings has been thoroughly fermented. In addition, film critics, industry insiders and audiences have all given extremely high praise to this film, especially theater managers, who are also quite recognized for this film.
At this point, whether it is a small-scale preview or a large-scale release, it no longer makes much sense.
What is the most important thing now???
Promote, promote, and keep on promoting.
Science fiction revival, this is the title given to "The Wandering Earth". At the same time, it is not only given to "The Wandering Earth", but also to "The Rescue".
However, the difference is that "The Wandering Earth" had a preview, but "The Rescue" only had its premiere and no preview.
But that doesn't matter.
The two films currently have high expectations among the audience, and are basically included in the viewing expectations.
There are a total of 10 movies in this year's Spring Festival. Currently, three movies, "Old Li's New Year", "Maomao's Fantasy of Time Travel", and "Da Hu's Friendship with Snakes", are almost out.
That leaves 7 movies left.
Among these 7 movies, "Blind Date" does not need to be considered for the time being. The remaining "The Wandering Earth" has already had two previews. As for "Rescue", it also had its premiere. "One World" also had its premiere, and the word of mouth was quite good. In this way, if 4 movies are subtracted from 7, there will be only 3 movies left.
Among these three movies, Chen Feng's "The Number One Under Heaven" still has no intention of premiering, while Chen Yi's "My Fair Husband" will premiere tomorrow.
The last movie actually has a pretty good promotion and publicity. It is Hu Jing’s "Integrity", a Hong Kong film and also Hu Jing’s first film directed in the north.
In recent years, more and more directors from Hong Kong have moved north, and many of them go to the mainland to shoot films. Some directors cannot adapt to the local climate and fail miserably in the mainland, but some directors have gradually found the way from being unable to adapt.
As for Hu Jing, she is considered a backbone of the Hong Kong director community and a leading figure among female directors.
Hu Jing used to be a singer. She won numerous trophies in Hong Kong when she was young. At that time, Hong Kong could be said to be a flourishing music scene with countless superstars competing with each other. The competition between Hu Jing and another superstar, Xia Qing, was the most fierce.
It even got to the point where fans of both sides challenged each other to a fight.
You have to know that the Internet was not well developed at that time.
Finally, Hu Jing announced her retirement from the music industry, and Xia Qing married and moved to the United States the following year, thus ending the five-year battle for supremacy in the music industry.
After retiring from the music industry, Hu Jing started acting.
She first worked as an actress, then as a screenwriter, and finally she simply wrote, directed, and acted in her own films.
It can be said that Hu Jing is a rare talent not only in Hong Kong, but also in China and even in Yuanxing.
This time, Hu Jing chose to go north and chose the anti-corruption theme. In Hong Kong films, there are generally many black gangs, anti-corruption, and undercover films. In recent years, the "anti-corruption" theme has been extremely popular.
Hu Jing's "Anti-Corruption Bureau Mid-Game" can be regarded as a fusion of various genres.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption, the Police Force, the Criminal Intelligence Bureau, Counter-Terrorism and so on were all on display.
At the same time, there are undercover battles and street racing.
You can say that.
All the explosive scenes from previous Hong Kong movies can be found here.
The 2-minute trailer attracted many people's admiration.
But there is not too much publicity about "Integrity Zone". Apparently, the director from Hong Kong has gone to the north and is not yet used to the movie. The same problem exists in terms of publicity.
But it is also possible that the publicity and promotion is reluctant to spend money.
This is normal.
What's more, just like the movies Yao Qing shot before, they all used movie stars to boost sentiment and do publicity. Not only did it save money, but the more important thing is that there are people who really buy into these artists' sentimental appeal.
At the same time, not to mention Hu Jing.
You should know that Hu Jing's status in Hong Kong is extremely high. It can be said that in the whole of China, Hu Jing is definitely not as good as Yao Qing, but in China, Hu Jing's status is much higher than Yao Qing.
After all, Hu Jing is a native of Hong Kong and the most successful cross-border artist. In addition, Hu Jing is now carrying the last glory of Hong Kong films in Hong Kong.
That's right.
In recent years, the news has basically been about XX being dead.
For example, science fiction is dead, Chinese animation is dead, and Hong Kong films are also dead.
By the way, the death of Hong Kong films has not only happened in recent years, but people have been shouting about it since around 2017. At that time, basically in 2017, some directors from Hong Kong began to move north, and they gradually began to come to the mainland.
However, only Hu Jing is still insisting on Hong Kong films, and she does not agree that Hong Kong films are dead. She thinks that this is just the completion of Hong Kong films' historical mission.
There is always a movie suitable for every era.
It was inevitable that Hong Kong films went from prosperity to decline.
Regarding "Anti-Corruption Bureau Midstream", Hu Jing said that this was an attempt on her part. She always felt that whether it was a Hong Kong film or not, in her heart there was only one name for it, and that was Chinese films.
For Hu Jing, this time when she came to the mainland, she hoped to use everything she had accumulated to make a multi-genre and multi-element movie.
This is "Anti-Corruption Bureau Mid-Game".
Basically, all the elements you like are in this movie.
Although not much publicity was done, "Integrity" won many Best Actor and Best Actress awards. At the same time, the theme song of this movie was sung by Hu Jing and Xia Qing.
Ye Qing is back.
For many netizens, this can indeed be called a return to their youth.
You know, it's been almost 28 years since Hu Jing and Xia Qing actually worked together, and it is said that Xia Qing also performed in "Anti-Corruption Bureau Mid-Game".
Look, look, this kind of sentiment is extremely strong.
For this reason, even though the publicity and promotion was insufficient, the sentiment was still conveyed.
Many times, sentimentality can really boost the box office.
So, today everyone thinks that the Lunar New Year box office will be selected from these movies.
Not to mention the two science fiction films, Guo Han’s "One Life" is also quite popular.
The second is Chen Feng’s "The World’s Number One". There is no other way, since Chen Feng’s premiere has not been held yet.
Hu Jing’s “Anti-Corruption Bureau Mid-Game” is one of them.
At the same time, there is Chen Yi's "The Fairy Husband at Home". Because this movie is a comedy, it is basically quite competitive.
After all, strictly speaking, this is the only comedy film available during this year's Lunar New Year holiday.
Now, because of the first elimination of three animated films, the remaining seven films have begun to increase their publicity, if for no other reason, just to grab a screening spot.
Next Monday will be the premiere of "The Fairy Husband".
At the same time, next Monday, the pre-sale war for the Lunar New Year period will officially begin.
This year's Lunar New Year pre-sales started relatively late.
Originally, if it followed the habits of the previous Lunar New Year period, pre-sales would basically start half a month in advance. However, due to some unexpected circumstances this year, the Lunar New Year period finally chose to start pre-sales two days in advance.
The 29th is the Spring Festival holiday, and on the 27th, after midnight, pre-sales officially start.
Among the pre-sales of the 10 films, except for the three animated films that have already been released and the two previews of "The Wandering Earth", the remaining 6 films are basically kept confidential.
Of course, the premiere of "My Fair Husband" was held today.
After all, next Monday is actually tomorrow.
Time still goes by quickly.
The advance screening of "The Wandering Earth" has forced everyone to prepare for the final battle in advance, and the real outcome of the final battle will be decided on the first day of the Spring Festival.
On this day, basically any so-called nonsense will be invalid.
For theater managers, they only look at one thing, and that is attendance.
The cinema will schedule screenings for whoever has the highest attendance rate.
Even if word of mouth is good, it is useless if the attendance is terrible.
At this time, because the pre-sale is about to start, the screening schedules of the 10 movies have almost all been released.
The first place is neither "The Rescue" nor "The Wandering Earth". On the contrary, the first place is Chen Feng's movie "The Second Under Heaven" which did not even have a premiere.
As I said, Chen Feng has a huge influence. Many of his fans are often said to be niche, but the fans are very cohesive. Yes, these fans don’t like Chen Feng as a person, they like Chen Feng’s works.
Over the years, even though Chen Feng's movie has never been made, Chen Feng's fans and audiences who like Chen Feng's works have not given up.
This is Chen Feng’s influence.
Secondly, this film "No. 1 in the World" was produced and invested by Dongyi Film and Television. It can be said that Dongyi Film and Television's distribution of this film was fully mobilized. In this way, it is natural that it got 20 screenings on the first day.
There is no way.
That’s the power of distribution.
At the same time, Dongyi Film and Television should have negotiated terms with these cinemas, so the cinemas are also willing to make concessions.
Next, let’s take a look at the film schedule.
First place: "The Second Under Heaven", accounting for 20% of the screenings.
Second place: "The Rescue", accounting for 17 screenings.
Third place: "The Wandering Earth", with 16 screenings.
Fourth place: "One Life", accounting for 14 screenings.
Fifth place: "My Fair Husband", accounting for 8 screenings.
Sixth place: "Anti-Corruption Bureau Mid-Game", 7 screenings.
Seventh place: "Cat's Great Fantasy of Traveling Through Time", with 6 screenings.
Eighth place: "Old Li Celebrates the New Year", screening 5.
Ninth place: "Big Tiger and Snake" with screening time 3.
Tenth place: "Blind Date", screening time 3.
…
The current screening schedules for the ten films have almost all been released. It can be seen that in terms of the current screening schedule, the top four are basically the only ones that can be considered the best.
This is the cruel reality.
Even though "Integrity" is a film starring a bunch of sentimental movie stars, and even though the film is directed by Hu Jing, it is still useless because the market has decided so.
After all, this film "Integrity Zone" was not screened in advance, so theaters were relatively less confident in it.
The most direct example in this regard is "The Wandering Earth".
If it had been according to the previous plan, Yu Xiaoshu originally wanted Zhang Haotian to get 20% of the screenings at all costs, but later he realized that it was indeed difficult.
After all, in this regard, there is really no comparison between Zhang Haotian's company and Dongyi.
There are often big problems with distribution, especially since Dongyi has been independently distributing for so many years, its channels are extremely strong.
But Zhang Haotian also has his own opinion.
That is, this time, Dongyi Film and Television's promotion of "The World's Number One" is a bit weird. The weirdness lies in the fact that all the publicity and promotion of this movie are supplemented by publicity and mainly focused on distribution.
Obviously, in the past, Dongyi Film and Television's distribution and publicity went hand in hand, but this time, Dongyi Film and Television has neglected publicity and emphasized distribution. If it is really strict, there is no problem, but if it is combined with the situation of "The World's Number One", then it is not normal.
Obviously, everyone thinks that the quality of "The World's Number One" is not very good.
You know, Chen Feng's film style has always been quite strong, and most of the time, Chen Feng's films are art films, and art films often don't have very high box office.
But now it seems through everyone's discussion that "The World's Number One" is not an art film at all, it is a martial arts film, and for Chen Feng, shooting martial arts films is often the type of film he is best at.
The expertise here refers to Chen Feng's ability to make martial arts movies brilliantly. In the field of martial arts movies, the several films shot by Chen Feng have hardly ever failed.
It is precisely because of this that the theaters’ trust in Chen Feng, the audience’s trust in Chen Feng, and the strong distribution capabilities of Dongyi Film and Television, it is reasonable for "The World's Number One" to be ranked first on the first day of screening.
In this regard, Yu Xiaoshu's mentality is indeed very relaxed.
The first day’s screening schedule does indeed determine life or death.
But "The Wandering Earth" has already proved its reputation through two waves of previews, not to mention that theater managers also have a certain degree of confidence in "The Wandering Earth", so it is normal to schedule it this way.
As long as "The Wandering Earth" can continue to maintain its strength after the first day of release, that will be fine.
Whether it is Yu Xiaoshu or Bai Susu, they are basically relatively satisfied with their respective screenings. Guo Han said in an interview: "This year's Lunar New Year period will definitely be the strongest Lunar New Year period. I hope everyone can support it more, not only "One Life", but also other movies."
Not to mention other directors, Chen Yi did make some appeals for the film scheduling and expressed some dissatisfaction at the premiere.
This is not important.
The same thing.
What we really need to look at is the performance on the first day of the Spring Festival.
For two consecutive days, the pre-sale ranking first is, as expected, Chen Feng's "The World's Number One".
The pre-sale results that followed were also proportional to the screening schedule.
Well, it depends on today.
On January 29th, the Spring Festival movie season officially opens.
…
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(End of this chapter)
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