One night later, Zhou Yiyang made an appointment with Ning Mang and booked a newly opened cinema to watch "Dying to Survive" which was released today.
"Why are you alone this time?" Ning Mang walked into the cinema and glanced around as usual, expecting to see the four Moonlight Girls. But no one was there. "Didn't they come with you?"
"They met up with their friends separately," Zhou Yiyang smiled. "Young people definitely like to hang out with people their own age."
"Come on," Ning Mang found a seat in the middle and sat down, whistling. It was obvious that he was in a good mood. "You're not old! After all, you invested in this movie, so why is there so little publicity?"
"If we use a lot of things in the movie for marketing, the effect will be greatly reduced." Zhou Yiyang said seriously, "Besides, this movie is not a popcorn-type commercial film. Too much marketing will affect its reputation."
Zhou Yiyang's words were so logical that Ning Mang couldn't find any words to refute him.
"That's right," he scratched his head. "Director Chang's films haven't always been very entertaining, but I really like his films. So, this movie still belongs to your Logic Film and Television studio?"
"Yes," Zhou Yiyang adjusted his buttons. "Netizens have been saying that the films produced by my Logic Film and Television Studio are incomprehensible. I'll just keep filming until they can understand it."
"This..." Ning Mang was amused. "Don't worry about what netizens say. 'Léon: The Professional' was also produced by Logic Pictures, and it's grossed over 1 billion! Honestly, the fact that you've kept this movie so secretive this time makes me even more curious about what the finished film will be like."
"You'll know later." Zhou Yiyang said with a smile.
Yue Shao and his three companions also walked into the cinema. They went to a cinema in the villa area, which was basically attended by local residents. This made them feel more at ease while watching the movie, as at least they would not easily run into crazy fans.
Another reason is that none of them wanted to go too far.
"It's a pity that Sister Zishan and Brother Bei can't come." Luo Chen changed his clothes and went downstairs, only to find that everyone was waiting for him. "By the way, is Xiao Li unable to come either?"
"Right," Ling Hu urged, "Brother, let's get going quickly. If we don't leave now, the movie will start soon. They're the main actors, and they're watching the premiere with the media!"
Guan Fei and Bai Yangyu were already standing trembling at the entrance of the cinema waiting. It was their first time here and they found that this cinema was built like a palace, so luxurious.
"This ticket should be very expensive, right?" Guan Fei asked immediately after they arrived.
"It's a bit expensive," Wang Xingrui murmured, "over a hundred dollars a ticket, but we've been there once, and the audiovisual effects are indeed better than those in ordinary cinemas."
"Privacy is the most important thing," Tang Yue said excitedly, checking the tickets and leading the group forward. "Unless you're personally brought in by the owner, non-residents can't get in. Sister Fei, what we're most curious about is how the pre-sale is going."
"Well," Guan Fei's expression revealed her inner thoughts: "I haven't seen it yet, but I just took a look at the schedule of this cinema, and I don't think it's very optimistic."
"Boss Zhou actually said that," Bai Yangyu and Guan Fei were wearing matching outfits today, looking quite well-matched. "Because there wasn't much marketing, the box office figures for the first two days might not be very good. But Boss Zhou also said that as long as word of mouth improves, both pre-sales and screenings will go up."
"Indeed," Lin Xuan'er nodded. "Our film market is much better now than it was before. As long as your film is truly good, the box office won't be too bad. There are countless examples of films that have made a comeback thanks to word-of-mouth."
"Haven't you noticed?" Ling Hu joked, "Several movies that have made a comeback thanks to word-of-mouth were almost all made by you."
At this time, Guan Fei had already checked the data through the professional version of the box office software and told everyone:
"In the past three days of pre-sales, 'Dying to Survive' is ranked third, which is considered a decent result! As for the real-time box office, since our first show starts at 6 o'clock, which is our time slot, the current box office is still zero."
"So what's the top-grossing movie right now?" Luo Chen asked curiously.
"This," Guan Fei said immediately, "is the romantic science fiction film 'Tomorrow's Sonata' that was extremely popular on TikTok and Weibo."
"Don't say that," Su Yin commented very objectively, "If I were just an ordinary audience member who doesn't use the internet much and simply wants to watch a movie during the holidays, I would probably choose to watch Tomorrow Sonata."
"It's mainly because this movie is so disgusting for riding on the hype," Tang Yue said, frowning. "They deliberately brought out our own 'Magic City Fortress' to boost its profile, and then they went with the gimmick of being the first domestic science fiction film. It's everywhere, on TikTok, Weibo, and the splash screen ads!"
"Yeah," Lin Xuan'er sighed. "Brother Yang has long proven that marketing tactics are effective, but I didn't expect someone to be so unkind. Speaking of which, has word of mouth for this movie come out yet?"
"That's weird," Guan Fei shook his head. "The ticket purchasing software hasn't even displayed the score yet, and several movies with worse box office results than this one have already released their scores!"
At the same time, the director and investors of "Tomorrow Sonata" are now planning to open champagne to celebrate.
"You're really smart," the investor toasted the director. "If this had been shot as a romance from the start, it definitely wouldn't have been as popular as it is now. But now it's been transformed into a sci-fi film, and expectations have skyrocketed. I've taken a look, and there's absolutely no competition during this Spring Festival period; we're the only one dominating!"
"We have to thank Zhou Yiyang for that," the director said sarcastically. "If he had urgently moved up the release date of his science fiction film to National Day, we might have been in trouble. Who knew he would actually get a weird art film into this schedule? Sure enough, after going around in Cannes, everyone has become confused."
"Indeed," another investor said with a smile, "That 'Dying to Survive' movie has a pretty gloomy poster. Who wants to go to the cinema and get pissed off? Can our box office break 200 million today? Hahaha, Mr. Zhou will be furious if he sees this!"
"Come on, everyone," the director raised his glass, "Let's wish 'Tomorrow Sonata' a huge box office success and become the box office champion of this year's National Day holiday!"
As for word of mouth, the director is not worried. As long as it scores around 8 points, there will still be young people who have been brainwashed by marketing and will go to watch it.
So what if it’s a bad movie? They would rather watch a bad movie and be moved to death by other people’s love stories on their WeChat Moments than spend money to watch an art film with content and plot but no melodramatic love.
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