I want to be emperor

Chapter 1183 Movie Release

September 26th, the 54th year of Chengshun, was a day that meant nothing to the entire Great Chu Empire, but it was a very important day to the film industry of the Great Chu Empire.

At least in the future history of film, this day will be very important!

Because today is the day when the first commercial film in the history of film, 'City Trip', is released.

At the same time, it is also a very important day for Shi Tiancheng personally, because this movie in which he has invested nearly a thousand Chu Yuan is about to be released, and whether he can recover his investment depends on how many people watch it after it is released!

In order to sell the movie better, even though his funds were limited, he still spent money to publish a small article on the movie release news in several local newspapers such as Hangzhou Daily and West Lake Business News. Such release news was not uncommon. When many stage plays had new plays performed, theater owners would also place a small advertisement in the newspaper.

Don't worry that no one will see this kind of advertisement. Modern people have very limited channels to obtain information, especially timely information... Moreover, modern people are accustomed to reading newspapers to learn about major events as well as some small and interesting things in their local area.

In addition, people also rely on information in newspapers when looking for jobs and doing business.

For those who like to watch opera or plan to watch opera to kill time, it is also very necessary to look up relevant performance information in the newspaper... Otherwise, you don’t know what play is being performed in the theater. You should know that there is not just one theater, but many. The performance teams in different theaters are different, and the operas performed are also different.

If you know nothing and just go to a theater at random, you may find that the theater hasn't opened for official performances yet, or the type of drama being performed may not be what you like.

For example, if you want to watch a play, but find a theater that mainly performs traditional opera, wouldn’t that be embarrassing?

Therefore, once you decide to watch a stage play, it is still necessary to look for performance information in the newspaper.

In recent days, many people have noticed that a commercial story movie was screened in a theater, which attracted the attention of many people.

Although movies are still new, they are not unfamiliar. Many people, especially parents, have taken their children to watch documentaries published by Chao Bao. The adults watch them for novelty and the children gain new knowledge.

But they also know that these documentaries shot by the morning newspapers are really boring... They are either pictures of mountains and rivers or cities, or the lives of indigenous people in some foreign countries.

Except for the initial novelty, I lost interest in watching it later...

After all, few people really care about how the indigenous people thousands of miles away live... As for the scenery, it actually looks just so-so. After all, it is not some modern special effects film of later generations that can make the scenery particularly shocking. The quality of cameras these days is just like that, and the so-called scenery captured is actually just a rough idea.

But now, some people say that they have shot a feature film with a story and plot, and it is not about the indigenous people thousands of miles away who no one cares about, but about the lives of the Chu people themselves.

This aroused the interest of many people, who noted down the release time and location, preparing to go and see it when the time comes.

In addition to some people who got the information from newspapers, some others got the information about the screening of City Tour outside the Chao Bao Theater.

Because Shi Tiancheng was distributing flyers outside the Chaobao Theater with two apprentice employees and a bunch of printed flyers.

Another part of the information was obtained through small advertising flyers on the streets.

In short, Shi Tiancheng used all the publicity methods he could, but he himself couldn't say for sure how many people would come to see it.

In the afternoon of September 26, Shi Tiancheng brought two apprentices, carrying a projector and film copies to the theater.

There are no performances in the theater today, and the morning rehearsal has ended. The next time is when they will show the movie.

After getting the projector ready and hanging up the large screen I brought, I tried a test screening and the effect was pretty good.

After everything was ready, Shi Tiancheng arrived at the theater entrance.

Seeing that there were already hundreds of people queuing outside, Shi Tiancheng couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief... He was actually very worried that no one would come to see the movie when it was released. Not only would that mean he would lose all his investment, but more importantly, it would mean that he had made a wrong judgment on the commercialization of the movie.

  He would rather the audience leave the movie because it’s not good than not come at all because no one is interested in the movie!

Because the former means that there are still some people willing to spend money to watch movies, which proves that the market exists, but you just haven't seized this market.

But the latter...means that the market is not mature, and if the market is not mature, then there is no way to do it.

Now that there are more than a hundred people outside, Shi Tiancheng feels a lot more at ease.

In fact, Shi Tiancheng was too worried, or underestimated the appeal of a new form of entertainment to the public.

  As mentioned earlier, ordinary people today actually have very limited entertainment options. Rich people have plenty of things to play with, but what can ordinary people do?

Reading books and newspapers is the most common activity, followed by playing chess, cards, etc.

If you want to go out for entertainment, you can either go to watch a Cuju game, a stage play, or visit nearby attractions or shopping streets.

  And then...then it was gone!

Otherwise, no one would watch such a boring documentary!

Now, suddenly someone says there is an interesting story to watch, and many people are willing to give it a try even if it is just for fun.

After all, the ticket price is not expensive, it only costs 300 cents (one Chu Yuan is equal to 1,000 cents)

This price is naturally considered expensive compared to some more mature entertainment activities, but movies are still a new thing and the overall cost is relatively high, so the price is actually considered relatively cheap.

Its price is roughly equivalent to a regular season ticket for the A-level team in the more popular Cuju League today.

Tickets for a modern football match can cost anywhere from tens to hundreds of cents. In some amateur Cuju matches, the ticket price is around tens of cents.

  If it is a low-level professional league, then it will probably take more than a hundred points. If it is a Class A league, then it will basically take two to three hundred points!

This is still talking about the regular season. If it is a championship game of a well-known team, the price of the ticket will increase significantly to 700-800% or even one or two Chu Yuan... Many teams fight hard in the regular season just for the high ticket income in the championship game, just to be able to make it to the championship game and then get the generous ticket income.

  As for the final championship prize and the like, they don't even count on it!

They would be satisfied if they could play a few home championship games and earn generous ticket revenue, which would greatly improve the team's operations.

The above tickets refer to ordinary seats and do not include VIP seats.

The ticket prices for Cuju matches in the Great Chu Empire ranged from tens of cents to one or two Chu Yuan, but the regular season tickets for the mainstream A-level league were still in the price range of two to three hundred cents.

The ticket price set by Shi Tiancheng is actually comparable to the price of ordinary seat tickets for the regular season of the A-level teams in the Cuju tournament.

If you say it’s cheap, it’s definitely not cheap, but if you say it’s expensive, it’s not expensive either.

At least many people are willing to spend the money to try out a commercial feature film.

In addition, this is also closely related to the fact that the income of Chu people has generally increased over the past decade.

In the past ten years, not to mention places like Songjiang, even in provincial cities like Hangzhou, the salary level has risen rapidly. An ordinary worker in an ordinary industry can earn about 100 Chu yuan a year.

If it is some relatively new or more difficult industries, such as the automobile industry, the salary of ordinary automobile workers can basically reach about 200 Chu Yuan per year, coal miners are probably at this level, and steel workers are lower, about 150 Chu Yuan.

The salary of some ordinary civil servants is probably around 150 Chu Yuan.

These are all basic income levels for ordinary people. Technicians, managers, shop owners, and lawyers earn higher incomes.

For example, in Songjiang City, an ordinary mechanic probably has an annual income of more than 300 Chu Yuan, a lawyer's income is often at least 500 Chu Yuan, and the same is true for doctors.

As for teachers and doctors, their salaries are similar to those of other officials. Taking those who have just entered the industry and are around 30 years old as a reference, their annual income is about 300 to 500 Chu Yuan. Note that this only refers to ordinary clerks, and does not include officials of the seventh rank and above who have already entered the management sequence.

Moreover, these government officials enjoy better welfare benefits, and their actual income will be further increased.

In general, the income level of the Chu people has increased significantly in the past decade. The increase in income is due to the continuous improvement of Chu's own industrial technology, the continuous improvement of production efficiency, and the further increase in domestic material output.

  The more important reason is the continued development of numerous economic colonies!

In India, West Asia, Europe, Africa, hundreds of millions of indigenous people from various countries worked hard to farm and mine for the Chu people... and then exchanged the various materials they produced for a few cheap industrial consumer goods from the Chu people.

  The Chu people lived a good life with the materials produced by the indigenous people, or the surplus value of their labor!

The substantial increase in Chu people's wages over the past decade is inseparable from the hard work of the 500 million to 600 million or even more indigenous population.

Without the hard work of the vast number of indigenous people, the Chu people would not have been able to live such a good life.

You have to know that the Great Chu Empire is still implementing the gold standard system. It is almost impossible for the currency to have inflation, and there will even be some deflation from time to time. In this case, wages can still increase to this extent, which is really due to the economic colonization policy that has been implemented in the past ten years.

Why did the Chu people continue to expand their foreign legions, why did they still maintain a large regular army, and stationed large numbers of troops in India, West Asia and Europe!

  that's why!

Because there aren’t so many free things in the world!

Since the natives didn't mine, the Chu people had to do it.

Since the natives didn't pick cotton, the Chu people had to do it.

  Since the natives don’t grow watermelons, the Chu people have to grow watermelons!

In the global economic system constructed by the Great Chu Empire, the indigenous people were engaged in low-end agriculture and mining, while the Chu people were engaged in industry, technical and clerical work. It seemed that each of them was doing their own thing, but in fact the Chu people got the greater advantage.

Otherwise, the average income of Chu people would not have grown so fast in the past decade.

This income increased, but the prices of necessities such as food did not rise accordingly, so the Chu people had more money to spend on non-essential expenses such as housing, education, travel, and entertainment.

It is also in the past decade that the Cuju League has risen and become popular on a large scale, becoming a new form of entertainment for people.

At the same time, various stage plays also appeared frequently. Many theaters appeared in cities, and even in rural areas, many troupes would travel to perform.

Because people have spare money in their pockets that can be used for entertainment!

Even if it is just a middle-class group, people at the bottom are still struggling for life and cannot afford much money for entertainment consumption. However, even the size of the middle-class group is very large.

Because the Great Chu Empire is a huge empire with a population exceeding 800 million!

Even though the middle- and high-income groups only account for a small part of the total population, it is still a very large number given such a huge base.

Such huge numbers are enough to stimulate popular entertainment forms such as Cuju League and stage plays.

  This law also exists in the film industry today!

Even though movie tickets are not very cheap, many people are willing to pay to try it out.

  So Shi Tiancheng saw more than a hundred spectators outside the theater!

What made him even more delighted was that in addition to the more than one hundred people, more people continued to arrive, because according to the original advertisement, the movie would be shown every hour, from two in the afternoon to eight in the evening.

Therefore, people do not all arrive in the afternoon, but arrive according to their own schedule.

  Looking at the crowds arriving in a steady stream, Shi Tiancheng was completely relieved. After instructing the theater staff to sell tickets, Shi Tiancheng returned to the theater and watched the first screening with his apprentices!

The first batch of more than one hundred spectators have entered the venue. Shi Tiancheng asked the staff to use the loudspeaker microphone to remind the audience to sit down and keep quiet!

After people quieted down, the lights in the theater dimmed.

In the darkness, the movie projector suddenly projected a bright beam of light, projecting a black and white picture onto the large screen in front.

That was the silent film with narration at the beginning, introducing the names of the director, actors and other staff members, and then the prompt "Produced by Shi Tiancheng Photo Studio".

Then the title "City Tour" appeared

After the opening introduction, the scene changes to show a train slowly approaching from a distance in the wilderness. The scene continues to change to show a train station scene, and then a young man comes down from the train station carrying large and small bags.

Young people who came to the big city for the first time looked at the huge train station and the tall buildings outside the train station square with surprised and exaggerated expressions, their mouths opened so wide that they seemed to be able to fit three eggs...

The film begins here, depicting a young man from the countryside who comes to the big city to make a living, and a series of ridiculous stories that happen afterwards. On the way, he meets a female textile worker and falls in love with her.

From coming to the big city, to looking for a job, to meeting the heroine, and finally when the protagonist and the heroine seemed to be together and living a happy life, the heroine was arranged by her parents to go on a blind date. Even though the heroine didn't want to, she still succumbed and chose to marry a stranger for the sake of her parents.

The male protagonist was left alone wandering around the city like a zombie for a few days. On the day of the female protagonist's wedding, he boarded a train and left the big city. Before the wedding, the female protagonist happened to see the male protagonist's back leaving, and finally mustered up the courage to run away from the marriage. When she chased him to the train station, she saw a train in the distance...

The video ends here!

Well, Shi Tiancheng calls himself an artist. Although he shoots comedies, he believes that the core of comedy is tragedy.

The audience laughed in the first thirty minutes of the film, and Shi Tiancheng boasted that he had paid enough for the ticket price. In the last few minutes, he would film his own story...

So just before the hero and heroine were about to live happily together, reality hits!

A silly country boy runs to a big city to make a living and hopes to gain career and love?

What a beautiful thought!

Then the movie ended, the heroine married someone else and then ran away from the marriage, and in the end, only the hero was seen leaving the big city on a train. Many audience members stood up in anger, and some even ignored their dignity: "Whoever made this movie, stand up here, I promise, I will never beat you to death!"

  Seeing this scene, Shi Tiancheng frowned!

Today's audiences are really bad and can't appreciate art at all!