China Entertainment Mythology 2004

Chapter 172 The New Movie Starts Up, Latent Premiere
Beijing TV still attaches great importance to "Latent". In recent years, TV series with military themes and spy wars have performed well in ratings, especially "Bright Sword", "Soldier Assault", and "Assassination", which performed well in the ratings across the country, especially in the northern region. The cast of "Latent" is good, especially Li Mu's reputation is too famous recently, so "Latent" is a key follow-up play in Taiwan.

Director Zhao Haiquan's favorite spy war drama in recent years is undoubtedly "The Conspiracy" directed by Liu Yunlong. The whole drama is divided into three parts, "Listening to the Wind", "Watching the Wind" and "Catching the Wind", among which "Catching the Wind" is the most Absolutely brilliant, it's thrilling to watch.

"Assassination" has pushed the ratings of spy war dramas to a new height, and as the biggest pusher to introduce "Assassination", director Zhao Haiquan has also gained a lot from it.

"If "Latent" can have [-]% of the potential of "Assassination"—"

Thinking of this, Director Zhao Haiquan shook his head secretly.

It's true that Li Mu is a genius, no one can deny this. Director Zhao still remembers the grand event last year when a ticket for "Gravity" cost thousands of yuan. Without exception, they were stunned by shock.

However, if you carefully observe director Li Mu's famous experience, it is very obvious that he is best at action and science fiction themes.

Director Li Mu's imagination is unparalleled, but the kind of spy war drama that walks on thin ice like walking on the tip of a knife, the fierce collision of thoughts and beliefs of the protagonists and supporting actors, and the description of the social landscape and the current state of the country during the Republic of China are obviously not Li Mu at all. area of ​​expertise.

"The story should be good, and the ratings are likely to be correct. Li Mu is indeed a genius in terms of market sense, but I'm afraid this "Latent" will not be able to produce the taste of that era after all."

"That's right, it's the 'taste'!" Zhao Haiquan thought, "It's true that Li Mu has never shown the taste of tradition and age, but as long as the ratings are good, that's enough."

When a TV station selects a drama, they usually look at the script first, the appeal of the actors second, and the production team third. Under normal circumstances, no one will really watch the entire movie carefully before deciding whether to buy it. Watching a few episodes properly is enough to make a decision.

Zhao Haiquan originally planned this way, but after watching the first two episodes, he found that he couldn't stop at all.

Let’s just talk about the first episode, the welcome banquet where Yu Zecheng first arrived in Nanjing. Ingeniously, if the protagonist Yu Zecheng says something wrong, his life will be in danger immediately.

It seems to be an ordinary dinner, but behind the scenes, there are strange turmoil and traps everywhere, which is amazing.

After watching the episodes prepared in advance by Hua Shang, Zhao Haiquan asked to watch a few more episodes, Hua Shang naturally would not refuse, and as a result, he saw 9 o'clock in the evening.

After returning home, Zhao Haiquan immediately called the director.

"Director, we must take down this "Latent", it feels like it will explode."

The other end of the phone smiled and said, "Old Zhao, you just got home, right?"

Zhao Haiquan said: "Well, I watched the samples in Huashang for a day."

The voice on the other end of the phone became surprised: "Have you been watching the sample for a day?"

Zhao Haiquan said solemnly: "Director, I have a strong premonition that this "Latent" will be a phenomenon-level hit drama."

……

Recently, Li Mu is busy with the preparations for two new films. According to the plan, the filming of "The Hunger Games" and "The Martian" will be linked together. Most of the staff of the two film crews are from the same group. After "The Hunger Games", "The Martian" can be shot seamlessly.

In addition to this, there is the issue of the first-round broadcast rights of the TV series "Latent". At present, more than a dozen satellite TVs, terrestrial stations, and CCTV have expressed their interest in the first-round broadcast rights of "Latent" to Huashang Media.

Li Mu himself is more inclined to sell to provincial satellite TV. The reason is simple. Local satellite TV is more willing to spend money and the requirements are far less demanding than CCTV.

When a play is sold to CCTV, it is often required to sell the first broadcast right, the second round broadcast right and the audio-visual product rights in a package. In most cases, it has nothing to do with the producer if the play is sold to CCTV. Doing so is the risk of maximizing the interests of CCTV. minimize.

Moreover, since 07, CCTV has fully implemented the policy of "point-based pricing", which means that after CCTV buys your TV series, it will require that the TV series must reach a certain rating base point after it is broadcast, and if it fails to reach it, it will be fined. The ratings base point will not be set very low.

Even the hit drama "Kangxi Weifu Private Interview 3" was fined for failing to reach the ratings in some areas.If a certain region meets the standard and wins an award, a certain region will be fined if it fails to meet the standard. The same drama will have different fates when it is broadcast in different regions. Obviously, it is not because your TV series are of high quality that you can ignore CCTV’s ratings base.

As a result, popular dramas such as "Golden Wedding", "New Shanghai Beach", and "Three Kingdoms" turned to local TV stations one after another.

At present, Beijing TV, Zhejiang TV, Dongfang, and Liao TV intend to jointly invest in the purchase of the first-round broadcast rights of "Latent", each investing 50 yuan per episode. In this way, the price of the first-round broadcast rights of "Latent" will be Reached 6000 million yuan.

"Latent" has a total investment of 2000 million yuan, and so far only the first round has earned back 4000 million yuan in profits for the company.

……

In early April, Li Mu flew to the United States together with the lead actor and other film creators, and "The Hunger Games" officially started.

Zhao Jinmai is still young, so her parents put aside their work to accompany their daughter to the United States. The little girl has very few roles, and she can return to China within three days under normal circumstances. Tao Huimin, who plays the mother, also has very few roles.

Li Mu did not increase the number of Chinese actors in this play. Whether it is the leading actor Peeta or the heroine's childhood sweetheart Gail, they are still white in Li Mu's script this time.

The main market of "The Hunger Games" is in Europe and the United States, and its domestic box office share is very low. There is no need for Li Mu to take the risk of replacing the male lead with a Chinese actor.

In mid-April, the large-scale publicity of the new "Three Kingdoms" in China was in full swing. Domestic netizens felt that the boss "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" could hardly be surpassed, and at the same time were full of curiosity and anticipation for the new "Three Kingdoms".

At the same time, the news about the upcoming release of director Li Mu's first TV series "Latent" also began to spread widely on the Internet. No matter whether it is netizens or related parties of various TV stations, no one thinks that "Latent" "Can compete with the new "Three Kingdoms".

This can be seen from the program arrangements of the four satellite TVs including Beijing TV, Zhejiang TV, Dongfang TV, and Liao TV. " premiered, but they agreed with each other very tacitly to set the premiere date of "Latent" in July.

On April 4, the premiere of the new "Three Kingdoms" kicked off in Beijing. Director Gao Xixi led dozens of actors and actresses who starred in the play, including Chen Jianbin, Lu Yi, He Rundong, Huang Weide, etc., to congratulate. Backstage, the director talked about "Latent" deliberately avoiding the schedule of the new "Three Kingdoms".

"Director, there are rumors on the Internet that Beijing TV and other channels have tacitly suppressed the premiere of "Latent" for a month in order to avoid our new "Three Kingdoms". Is this true?"

After the staff member finished speaking, a large number of stars in the backstage all looked at the director Gao Xixi.From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, Li Mu made a lot of noise.

"Gravity" first opened the 3D era of global movies and caused a sensation in the whole world. "Gravity" won five consecutive championships and "Avatar" seven consecutive championships. The two epoch-making 3D movies directly dominated the North American box office for 13 weeks.

In a market where the country's best box office results are at most three or four billion yuan, "Gravity" scored nearly 16 billion yuan in box office in one fell swoop. "Gravity" has a global box office of 17 billion US dollars, "Avatar" has a global box office of 27 billion US dollars, and the total global box office of the two epoch-making 3D movies exceeds 44 billion US dollars. From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, the name Li Mu has caused a sensation not only in China ?
Not to mention that last month, Li Mu's movie won six Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Actor in one fell swoop.

Now there are rumors that director Li Mu's first TV series will avoid the schedule of the new "Three Kingdoms", which makes the entire "Three Kingdoms" crew become a little excited.

That's Li Mu!Even avoided our new "Three Kingdoms"?
At this moment, director Gao Xixi's face was full of smiles, he smiled reservedly, and said in a rather serious tone: "Director Li Mu is a world-class director, and he is a director with Spielberg, James Cameron's eponymous director, Li Mu's director level is absolutely top-notch, his "Gravity" has opened up a new era, and in terms of movies, he has made all the directors in the country far behind."

"However, human energy is limited after all, and director Li Mu's main energy is on movies. I heard that the quality of "Latent" is still very good, and Beijing and Taiwan are also very optimistic about this drama, but Our new "Three Kingdoms" is a remake of the Four Great Masterpieces. I think everyone understands the status of the Four Great Masterpieces in the hearts of Chinese people. The old version of the Four Great Masterpieces has been in the past for more than ten or twenty years, and has been talked about by audiences all over the country. "

"I believe "Latent" will definitely be a good drama, but our new "Three Kingdoms" is actually the old version of the four classics."

How did the other main creators of the crew feel after hearing what Director Gao Xixi said?
We discussed it in private.

"Fuck, awesome! We heard that Beijing TV and others suppressed the release of "Latent" for more than a month in order to avoid us, and we felt very happy. It was a work written by director Li Mu himself! What happened? Let’s say it’s still a high-level director, in the eyes of others, don’t care about how Li Mu is an international director, our high-level directors only have classic old versions of the four classics in their eyes!”

"What is pattern? What is tolerance? Gao Dao is really high!"

"And the most admirable thing is that Director Gao didn't say a bad word about Director Li from the beginning to the end. Such a heart, awesome!"

"In fact, it is definitely a wise choice for Beijing and Taiwan to avoid the new "Three Kingdoms". The investment of "Three Kingdoms" is 1.55 million, and the investment of "Latent" is 2000 million. This is not at the same level! Why is Li Mu's movie so good? "Inception" "Invested 1.2 million U.S. dollars, "Gravity" and "Doomsday Collapse" invested 1 million U.S. dollars, the secret is actually in the money!"

……

Time flies to May 5, and on this day, the long-awaited new "Three Kingdoms" finally premiered.

Suzhou Satellite TV, Huizhou Satellite TV, Jinmen Satellite TV, and Chongqing Satellite TV have all launched large-scale publicity campaigns, and they have tried their best to compete for the ratings of the new "Three Kingdoms".

The most exaggerated one is Huizhou Satellite TV, which officially changed the name of the station to "Three Kingdoms Satellite TV" from 2:18 on the 5nd, and went shopping for [-] hours to broadcast the new "Three Kingdoms" supporting program.At the same time, the advertising period after "News Network" was abandoned, and the new "Three Kingdoms" was broadcast [-] minutes earlier.

Suzhou Satellite TV will broadcast the new "Three Kingdoms" and "If You Are the One" in a bundle. Jinmen Satellite TV has a countdown card on the top of the screen, and Chongqing Satellite TV is also broadcasting the promotional video of the new "Three Kingdoms" in a loop.

At the same time, CCTV also came to join in the fun. CCTV 5 will broadcast the old version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" on May 2, "competing on the same stage" with Gao Xixi's version!
As a result, the ratings were released on the second day. According to Sofrey’s ratings statistics for 34 cities, after the launch of the new "Three Kingdoms", the ratings of Suzhou, Hui, Jinmen, and Chongqing’s four satellite TVs were 1.36% and 1.06% respectively. %, 0.55%, 0.35% - it can be said that the ratings are far lower than the previous expectations of all parties.

Immediately afterwards, Beijing TV, Zhejiang TV, Dongfang TV, and Liao TV suddenly announced that the work "Latent" written by director Li Mu would officially premiere on May 5, and at the same time, all channels invariably increased their publicity efforts to the maximum.

After receiving the call from the TV station, Li Mu and Liu Yifei promptly posted the relevant information on their Weibo.Sina Weibo was officially launched in July last year, and it has been 7 months so far. Although Li Mu and Liu Yifei opened Weibo together as early as the first time, compared to Liu Yifei who occasionally posts a post, Li Mu's Weibo is much quieter, except that he will post some related news when the new movie is released, he basically only updates Weibo at ordinary times.

However, the number of his fans is not small at all. He currently has more than 700 million fans, ranking third in the total fan list.

The first is Liu Yifei. In this life, Liu Yifei's popularity has completely exploded.

After seeing the relevant information, many fans were very surprised. Everyone was very curious. How could a director like Li Mu still have time to write TV drama scripts?

"I'm not too interested in the theme of spy wars, but I choose to believe in Director Li's level, and I will watch it after the broadcast."

"Didn't you say it will be broadcast in June? Why is it brought forward? Is it because of the new "Three Kingdoms"? Laugh!"

"I am very interested in the theme of spy wars. I said that the pinnacle of domestic spy war dramas in recent years is "The Assassination". No one will object, right?"

The time soon came to May 5th. At this time, the ratings of the new "Three Kingdoms" increased slightly, but it was still far below expectations, and "Latent", which is known as the first TV series directed by Li Mu, officially premiered.

　Thanks to "Book Friend 20230209070726329" for the reward.

　　In the future, I will end the TV drama plot as soon as possible and return to the movie. Recently, there is a problem with the rhythm, and I am adjusting.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)