Therefore, while Wei Yang was busy with the promotion of the film and subsequent roadshows, he also had to squeeze out time to promote "Nirvana in Fire".
This year's summer movie season is relatively clear, with a large number of excellent films in July and "Operation Mekong" almost dominating August. The main suspense is how much market share there will be after the explosive July season.
As for TV dramas, things are relatively lively.
At the beginning of the summer season, "Legend of Dance and Music" starring Liu Shishi got off to a good start. Together with several other dramas in the Blue Whale series, it suppressed various platforms and crews badly.
In July of the following year, each company was able to recover a little.
But affected by the aftermath of "Legend of Dance and Music", overall, PPTV and Blue Whale are still the most successful.
According to website data for June and July calculated by relevant agencies, PPTV once surpassed Youku, which had a poor performance during the summer, and ranked among the top two in the industry, second only to iQiyi, and even topped the list for a few days.
This time, the websites are completely upset! Last year, PPTV's summer strategy became famous overnight, which made the websites embarrassed.
But homeless people also have their New Year's day. The new boss of PPTV has just taken charge and is spending money and resources like crazy, so it is normal for him to show up.
Although this face is exposed a bit too much, it even makes everyone feel scared to the point of being at the forefront of the industry in one breath.
But being popular for a while doesn’t mean being popular forever!
After all, PPTV still has a shallow foundation, and Wei Yang cannot continue to invest without regard to cost. As long as he keeps his hands off, after the initial boom of PPTV, the website should gradually stabilize and even begin to decline.
Then, several websites waited for half a year.
From "The Empress of China" in the second half of last year, to "The Disguiser" at the beginning of this year, followed by "Ode to Joy", "Dance Dance Legend" which kicked off the second summer strategy, and the upcoming "Nirvana in Fire".
Hot products come one after another, in an endless stream. There is no such thing as stability.
Sohu, Penguin, and LeTV have all been defeated, and Youku is on the verge of collapse. By the time the new king iQiyi is picked, it will be number one in the industry.
Keep your troops in place?
If you press it again, there’s no telling what will happen to PPTV. Their website traffic and popularity are almost all taken away.
In fact, as early as the beginning of the year when "The Disguiser" was broadcast, some websites tried to block PPTV. When "Ode to Joy" was broadcast, they had already reached a tacit understanding, and when "Legend of Dance and Music" was broadcast, the situation of being besieged was quite obvious.
Even the online media bluntly stated that "Legend of Dance and Music" is "breaking through the siege" or "overcoming the competition."
But unfortunately, these so-called blockades and targeting did not pose much threat, and even to some extent boosted PPTV and Blue Whale.
This also caused a lot of trouble for various websites, especially iQiyi and Youku.
Several other websites have been overtaken by PPTV. The situation is set and there is no need to fight to the death with PPTV unless there are special reasons. Therefore, it is best to act at the right time.
However, iQiyi and Youku are now facing a direct impact from PPTV, so the two companies are particularly concerned about dealing with PPTV and are eager to destroy its summer strategy.
Therefore, in the past, Wei Yang's new dramas were often shunned by many viewers, but this time when "Langya Bang" was aired, two popular works happened to "go against the trend".
The online broadcasting platforms behind these two works are Youku and iQiyi, as well as the Hunan TV Station which wants to attack Shanghai TV.
Wei Yang and "Nirvana in Fire", the potential winner of the annual drama, are not easy to deal with.
It is a recognized fact that this drama has been the most valued new drama in the circle since the project was launched. Just to grab the first-round broadcasting rights, various TV stations have been trying their best, and even CCTV could not help but join the competition.
The copyright fees offered by the five major first-tier TV stations are all no less than 300 million yuan. If you want exclusive rights, the price will be at least 320 million yuan.
The Zhejiang Provincial Satellite TV offered the highest price of 380 million RMB, setting a new record for the selling price of a domestic TV series.
Shanghai TV and Hunan TV both gave 350 million, but after adding in the advertising revenue, Hunan's advertising revenue was good and Shanghai TV gave a high share, so the comprehensive calculation showed that they made more money than Zhejiang TV's simple 380 million.
Add to that the advertising revenue of the crew itself, as well as copyright operations, such as online broadcasting, overseas, peripherals, second and third rounds, and so on.
The guaranteed direct revenue of "Nirvana in Fire" starts at 1 billion. If we are optimistic, 1.5 billion is possible.
If we add in some subsequent long-term and indirect benefits, the figure will be even more staggering.
The actual filming cost of "Nirvana in Fire" itself was less than 200 million yuan, and a considerable proportion of that was due to the starring roles of Wei Yang and Liu Shishi.
In the popular drama "The Legend of Mi Yue" during the same period, it was rumored online that Empress Sun's pay was more than 30 to 40 million yuan, and some rumored it was 60 million yuan.
Wei Yang and Liu Shishi's popularity and influence in the field of TV dramas are only higher than that of Sun Niangniang. The two of them together received less than 100 million yuan, which is definitely a friendship price.
However, for Wei Yang, this is just some "pocket money".
As the main investor, the profits from the project itself go without saying. The most valuable are the other business sectors leveraged by "Nirvana in Fire".
If he is willing to take the risk, this project can easily help him leverage a market worth tens of billions or even more.
However, Boss Wei is relatively conservative and cautious in this regard and is unwilling to take risks. But even so, safe operations can hopefully bring him double or even several times the profits of the project.
Really, when you don’t have money, you can’t make it no matter how hard you try. But when you have enough capital and strength, you can’t stop it…
Finally, Wei Yang chose Shanghai TV, a TV station with more sincerity and closer cooperation.
This also led to the Hunan Provincial TV station choosing to switch sides!
As mentioned before, the relationship between Wei Yang and the Hunan Provincial TV Station has been rather complicated in the past two years.
On the one hand, the two sides are still cooperating. Last year's "The Journey of Flower" and "The Empress of China", and this year's "Legend of Dance and Music" were all premiered on Hunan TV. Artists from Blue Whale and Coral Entertainment are also frequent guests on many variety shows on Hunan TV.
On the one hand, Mango TV, which is owned by Hunan Province, has also begun to enter the competition for video websites. Moreover, Blue Whale and Hunan TV are currently the two giants in the variety show field, and the competition is quite fierce.
This has resulted in the Hunan TV Station, Blue Whale and PPTV being like friends and enemies, often collaborating closely but also confronting each other at times.
For now, Wei Yang and Blue Whale have no intention of breaking up with Hunan Satellite TV, but their cooperation priorities are constantly being pushed back.
For example, in the case of "Langya Bang", the conditions of Hunan TV Station and Shanghai TV Station were similar, but Wei Yang still chose the latter. A very important reason for this is that Shanghai TV Station is now the first cooperative TV station of Blue Whale.
In the past, Blue Whale did not want to be too closely tied to a single TV station and wanted to place bets on multiple parties.
But now that we have PPTV and have established our own platform base, many strategies must also change accordingly.
The video website PPTV has enemies everywhere, and the TV station can no longer cast its nets too wide. Instead, it should select a few long-term partners, help each other, and form an offensive and defensive alliance.
The Hunan TV station has been excluded due to special reasons. If it were not for its platform advantages, Blue Whale would have severed cooperation with it.
There is no doubt that Shanghai TV has the highest priority among the three TV stations and is also the one that benefits the most.
The Hunan Provincial TV Station chose to turn against "Nirvana in Fire", which actually had little to do with Blue Whale.
After all, the confrontation between the two sides is mainly in the field of variety shows. Mango TV cannot pose a threat to PPTV now. TV series are actually the main form of cooperation between the two parties.
Therefore, the Hunan Provincial TV Station chose to take action mainly targeting Shanghai Satellite TV.
In recent years, Shanghai TV has developed well and with the support of Blue Whale, it has become the second largest local provincial TV station and posed a threat to Hunan TV station.
Youku and iQiyi cannot tolerate the rise of PPTV, and the Hunan Provincial TV Station naturally wants to suppress the powerful Shanghai TV.
It was a perfect match! Youku + Hunan TV took out their best drama, which was the costume love drama "Hua Xu Yin" shot by Liu Tianxian, a fairy who came down to earth.
This drama is also adapted from an online novel, and the author is Tang Qi Gongzi, the same person who wrote "Eternal Love".
Rumor has it that Liu Tianxian's initial projects were "Zhu Xian" and "Eternal Love".
Read the original text at Liu#9@书/吧!
Among them, "Zhu Xian" is a male-dominated drama with two female protagonists. Even though there was a lot of demand online for her to play Lu Xueqi, many people speculated that the possibility was not high. She might have just been exposed to it and it was leaked.
As for "Eternal Love", I heard that Liu Tianxian likes it very much and even read the entire novel.
But unfortunately, the copyrights of these two works belong to Wei Yang. The former was developed jointly with Huanrui, and the latter was reserved for someone else and could not be transferred. Therefore, no matter how much Liu Tianxian wanted to do it, he would return empty-handed.
Perhaps the author Mr. Tang Qi left too deep an impression on Liu Tianxian. Although "Eternal Love" was not good, she began to consider "The Legend of Hua Xu".
This work has a considerable influence on online literature and has won relevant awards. It is considered the author's representative work.
More importantly, a related company was already preparing to adapt and film the film, and Liu Tianxian was willing to take part in it, so it was a perfect match, and they quickly reached a collaboration.
The original main production company of "The Legend of Hua Xu" was Ciwen, but with the joining of Liu Tianxian, it attracted multiple platforms and film and television companies such as Youku and Xinli.
The investment cost of the entire project increased, and the performance lineup also changed accordingly.
It was said that the male lead was originally chosen to be Hong Kong actor Zheng Jiaying, who played the Eighth Master in "Scarlet Heart". Now that Liu Tianxian has descended to earth, there is no chance for him to play the role.
Just like everyone is scrambling to play the female lead in Boss Wei's film, although Liu Tianxian does not have as much influence as Wei Yang, she has her own popularity and traffic, plus there is the gimmick of filming a drama many years later, so the attention is huge.
As a result, young actors from all walks of life were scrambling to play the male lead in "The Legend of Hua Xu".
The temptation is just too great. Let’s not talk about the performance of the TV series for now. If I can have a scandal with Liu Tianxian, I will have no shortage of traffic for the whole year.
Moreover, the title of Fairy Sister is not a joke, and she still has a special place in the hearts of male stars born in the 80s and 90s.
If by chance you perform well and a beautiful woman falls in love with you, you will gain both fame and fortune, which is simply awesome.
You know, these young people have a hard life. Wei Yang, a jerk, has directly taken away the most popular 85 and 90 flowers. Not to mention thinking about them, they even don't care about the scandals with them.
As for other relatively inferior female stars, the male stars are also very realistic. Who doesn’t want to cling to them and become their “brother-in-law”?
So after all the searching, there are only a few top female stars who have not been touched by Boss Wei, and the one with the best overall conditions and the most attractive one is Liu Tianxian.
Therefore, whether it is the handsome men in the Hong Kong circle, the top returning stars, the newcomers in the domestic entertainment industry, or the popular young actors, they all actively contacted "The Legend of Hua Xu".
Just the list of confirmed people in the circle includes Huo Jianhua, Toothpick Brother, Yang Yang, Feng Shaofeng, Liu Kaiwei, Luo Jin, Zhang Han, and I heard that Da Hei Niu has also signed up.
Anyway, when Wei Yang saw the list of names that appeared online, his expression was indescribable. This list was almost becoming a recycling station for “rivals from past lives”…
After a series of confrontations, Huo Jianhua finally won the project.
The reason is simple, he has the best overall conditions!
Since these young actors have not handed over their agency contracts, Ciwen, Xinli and even Youku must be considering the cost-effectiveness.
There is no doubt that the most famous and influential person is Wallace Huo. Although Toothpick Brother has a large amount of traffic, he has no works to prove himself and is not trusted by all parties.
Huo Jianhua's side showed enough sincerity. Not only was he willing to play the second role, but the remuneration was also very suitable.
In addition, Liu Tianxian's opinions were also taken seriously by the film crew. Those greedy people did not hide their greedy manners. Huo Jianhua was relatively normal and got impression points from Liu Tianxian and her team.
"The Legend of Hua Xu" stars two top-tier actors, Liu Tianxian and Huo Jianhua, and has many other stars including Jiang Xin, Zheng Jiaying, Da Hei Niu, Guo Zhenni, Bao Jianfeng, etc. The luxurious lineup is not much inferior to "Nirvana in Fire".
Even if we put aside the male and female protagonists, "The Legend of Hua Xu" is even better in terms of supporting roles.
Coupled with the support of the Hunan TV and Youku platforms, it is bound to become the biggest competitor of "Nirvana in Fire".
iQiyi also invested heavily and paid extra money to snatch "The Young Marshal" from LeTV and started broadcasting it ahead of schedule to compete with Wei Yang.
The cast of the drama "The Young Marshal" is not bad at all, and it is also the most watched drama in the past two years.
The film is directed by Zhang Li, the director of "The Ming Dynasty" and "Towards the Republic", starring Wen Zhang, one of the most popular young actors born in the 1980s, with top veteran actor Li Xuejian as a supporting role. The female lead is the powerful actress Song Jia, and the other supporting roles are all powerful actors.
IQiyi knew that it might not be able to compete with Nirvana in Fire in terms of traffic, so it decided to take a different approach and compete on quality and reputation to produce a serious drama.
Therefore, the two dramas, "The Legend of Hua Xu" and "The Young Marshal", have gimmicks, traffic, word of mouth, and quality.
If it is viewed in the whole year, it has the potential to compete for the annual championship. It is really a "waste" to use it to compete with "Nirvana in Fire".
But there is no way, Wei Yang's strength is there, he is the king of ratings and has won the annual national ratings championship many times. If he doesn't take on tough opponents, he will not be able to hold on.
Even now, several platforms do not think they can defeat "Nirvana in Fire".
The advantages that Wei Yang has accumulated over the years are so great that they cannot be offset by one or two popular dramas unless he encounters a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.
Their plan is not to defeat Nirvana in Fire, but to effectively block it.
Their fundamental purpose is to differentiate and reduce the popularity and performance of "Nirvana in Fire", and do their utmost to prevent this drama from being the only one that stands out, thereby affecting the summer strategy and even the development of PPTV and Shanghai Satellite TV.
I can’t beat you, but I can still trip you up and hold you back…
(End of this chapter)