China Entertainment's whatever you want

Chapter 760: Withdrawal and Suspension

This year's Spring Festival, 9 movies were originally scheduled to be released on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

"Lost in Russia", "Detective Chinatown 3", "Leap" and "The Rescue" are considered to be the seed players in the first tier of the box office, and "Lost in Russia" ranked third in the number of people who marked that they wanted to watch it on ticket purchasing apps such as Tao Piaopiao.

"Detective Chinatown 3" was originally the favorite to win the Spring Festival box office, and "Legend of Lost Love" was seen as the film with the greatest hope of surpassing "Detective Chinatown 3" at the box office. However, "Lost in Russia", which has received relatively less attention, is seen by many film critics in the industry as a potential dark horse, and is predicted to achieve a box office of at least 20 billion yuan.

However, the pre-sale box office opened a week before the Spring Festival release showed that "Detective Chinatown 3" was far ahead, occupying nearly 60% of the market share, and the other 8 movies shared the remaining 40% of the box office. Although the pre-sale box office of "Lost in Russia" ranked third, it was only 4642 million.

Judging from the current situation, Lost in Russia will not be able to become the dark horse, and the 24 billion bet agreement will be even more difficult to complete.

Xu Zheng was under a lot of pressure because the bet on "Crazy Alien" last year was not completed. He was also one of the investors of that movie.

The "囧" series has always been his trump card. The third film, "Hong Kong囧", received disappointing reviews. If "Lost in Russia" fails again, the "囧" series will most likely end with this one.

A week before New Year's Eve, when various movie studios were working hard to promote their films, Xu Zheng suddenly posted on Weibo announcing that the release date of Lost in Russia would be advanced by one day and would meet audiences across the country on New Year's Eve.

Subsequently, "Boonie Bears" and "Leap" followed in the footsteps of "Lost in Russia" and announced that they would be released on New Year's Eve.

As for the remaining films, "Detective Chinatown 3", "The Rescue" and "The Vanguard" have not made any moves and will be released on the first day of the Lunar New Year as originally planned.

Audiences across the country are generally supportive of the fact that the release dates of three films, led by Lost in Russia, were advanced by one day. After all, everyone has a holiday on New Year's Eve and has time to go to the cinema to watch movies.

However, front-line cinema workers expressed dissatisfaction because according to the rules of previous years, Spring Festival movies are released on the first day of the new year, so they can leave work early on New Year's Eve to rest and reunite with their families.

As a result of Xu Zheng's actions, the cinema had to be open 24 hours a day on New Year's Eve, and the front-line staff naturally complained constantly.

Just as the controversy over the advance release date was still brewing, some self-media people were taking advantage of the situation to criticize "Lost in Russia", and the impact of the advance release date was gradually turning negative, the public opinion surged, and "Lost in Russia", which was the first to be advanced, was "suddenly" withdrawn.

On January 1, after all the Spring Festival movies were withdrawn, everyone thought that there would be no new movies during this year's Spring Festival.

Unexpectedly, on the morning of January 1, New Year’s Eve, the official account of Toutiao first announced that "Lost in Russia" would be available for free viewing on the "Toutiao" APP. This news shocked everyone.

An hour later, Xu Zheng posted on Weibo to confirm the online release.

Later, inside information broke out on the Internet that ByteDance "offered 6.3 million yuan to acquire the copyright of "Lost in Russia"."

A stone stirred up a thousand waves.

From Xu Zheng's perspective, at this critical moment he sold the copyright of "Lost in Russia" to ByteDance in a package, eliminating the risk of delayed release. ByteDance's acquisition price of 6.3 million yuan is equivalent to nearly 20 billion yuan in box office revenue. Avoiding losses, recovering funds in time, and making a fortune is a smart choice.

For ByteDance, spending 6 million yuan to invite people across the country to watch "Lost in Russia" for free has the potential to attract more new users, increase the number of users in the lower-tier markets, and improve its market share.

For ordinary audiences, it enriches their lives during the Spring Festival holiday when they cannot go out, and they can also watch "Lost in Russia" for free.

It seems to be a win-win situation, the only one who is unhappy is the cinema.

Shortly after Toutiao officially announced that "Lost in Russia" would be broadcast online for free on the first day of the Lunar New Year, 23 cinema chains jointly wrote a letter trying to stop the free Internet premiere of "Lost in Russia". These include leading cinema chains such as Wanda Film and Bona Film, which can be said to include half of the domestic cinema chains.

The so-called stop will definitely not succeed. Neither the producer of "Lost in Russia", Huanshi Media, nor Bytedance, which bought the copyright, violated any laws and regulations. They just failed to abide by the unspoken rules of the film industry.

The reaction from theaters was intense, which was not surprising.

After all, Xu Zheng's behavior affected their fundamental interests.

After a movie is made, it is released in theaters, and the producers and theaters share the profits. This is a long-standing "rule" in the film industry. Now "Lost in Russia" has broken this "rule". Not making money from a movie is a small matter, but I am afraid that this is just the beginning. In the future, more movies will be played on streaming media instead of in theaters.

"Director Xu is really bold and daring. He is challenging the bottom line of the cinema."

The crew of "Zhou Chu" started filming as usual on the first day of the Chinese New Year. During the lunch break, Wen Mu also chatted with Gu Wei about the recent series of cool operations of "Lost in Russia".

"Lost in Russia" is not very good. Fortunately, ByteDance, a wealthy company, helped Xu to compete with it. Otherwise, if it was really released, I doubt whether the box office of this movie could exceed 10 billion."

Gu Wei is not optimistic about "Lost in Russia" at all.

At its core, this movie is still a road comedy like the "囧" series, but this time Xu Zheng made a different attempt, talking about the reconciliation of parent-child relationships in a Chinese family, trying to use the mother-child relationship to create a series of laughs.

In terms of depth of expression, "Lost in Lost in Russia" surpasses "Lost in Thailand" and "Lost in Hong Kong", but as a movie in the "Lost in Russia" series, it has one biggest shortcoming, which is that it is not funny enough.

A comedy movie is hilarious if it's not funny.

The Lost series started with "Lost on Journey" and reached its peak in comedy with the second part "Lost in Thailand". The story seems nonsensical, but it is full of jokes from beginning to end. The collision between Xu Zheng, Wang Baoqiang and Huang Bo made countless audiences laugh in the cinema.

By the time of Lost in Hong Kong, Xu Zheng started to suffer from literary youth syndrome and wanted to explore the ideals and realities of middle-aged men, his former sweetheart and his current wife and family.

In addition, the film chose Bao Bei'er and Zhao Wei, two actors who were not very popular with the audience, and the reputation of "Lost in Hong Kong" was a disastrous failure.

The themes explored in Lost in Russia are more profound, but this is a comedy, not an art film.

Moreover, there is no actor like Huang Bo or Wang Baoqiang in the movie to clash with Xu Zheng, so many of the jokes are not funny.

The movie has no hit points and is relatively mediocre. In the Spring Festival period, which is the most competitive period of the year, mediocrity means failure.

“I feel like he’s a little too eager for quick success. There are so many movies during the Spring Festival, and although it’s difficult, it’s the same for everyone.

His actions not only violated the industry rules, but also completely offended the cinema."

From a director's perspective, Wen Mu could understand Xu Zheng's behavior, but he also knew the consequences of his actions.

"I have worked with Xu Zheng before. He is a typical Shanghai man, greedy, money-loving, literary, and a sophisticated egoist.

When "Lost in Thailand" was filmed, there was no copyright, so the copyright holder of "Lost on Journey", Wuhan Huaqi Film and Television, sued the film and paid 500 million yuan in compensation.

Later, when preparing for "Lost in Hong Kong", he had a falling out with Bao Qiang and made Bao Bei'er, which ruined the reputation of the series.

There is no doubt that Xu Zheng is very talented, but he loves money too much, does things very independently, and is unwilling to share profits.

Can't he see the disadvantages of selling movies to streaming media? Compared with the money, some boycotts from the same industry are nothing."

It turned out that when filming "Time Raiders", Gu Wei had contact with Xu Zheng for a period of time and had a certain understanding of him.

“However, he probably didn’t expect the reaction from the theaters to be so intense.

Looking at the current situation, it will definitely have an impact on the release schedule of the movies he stars in in the future."

If you watch the future movies "Love Myth" and "Reverse Life" starring Xu Zheng, you will know that the theaters do hold grudges, it's not that they don't want to take revenge, it's just that the time has not come yet.

"Mr. Gu, do you think it's possible for streaming media to replace cinemas in the future?"

"How can it be!

Apart from anything else, there is a huge gap between the viewing experience of streaming media and theaters.

Moreover, this year's timing is special. ByteDance spent so much money to buy the copyright of "Lost in Russia" in order to attract users. This is an exception.

If you look at Netflix's current position in the American film industry, you will know that in the future, streaming media will only be a supplement to movie broadcasting channels, and it will never replace movie theaters."

Gu Wei is a shareholder of ByteDance and has always maintained a good cooperative relationship with several major video platforms. He thinks he has a more thorough understanding of the situation. Wen Mu also nodded and agreed with this point of view.

Going to the cinema to watch movies is not just a habit, but also an audiovisual enjoyment that cannot be achieved on a mobile phone or computer.

“However, although streaming media is not working at the moment, if a certain technology achieves a breakthrough and matures, it will only take a few minutes for it to replace movie theaters.”

"What does Mr. Gu mean?" Wen Mu also looked curious after hearing this.

Gu Wei smiled and said: "VR is virtual reality technology. Once this technology has a breakthrough, it will have a dimensionality reduction impact on cinemas.

Can you imagine that everyone can enter the world of movies by wearing a helmet, and watch movies in a completely immersive way, which cannot be compared with 3D and IMAX?"

"Isn't that The Matrix, the second world of virtual reality." Wen Mu also laughed and didn't take what Gu Wei said seriously.

Gu Wei shrugged: "It looks sci-fi, but technology is developing rapidly. Who would have thought 20 years ago that our country would be able to develop to this level today?

Smartphones, online shopping, electronic payments, new energy vehicles, and space exploration.
Perhaps we will really be able to see breakthroughs and applications of virtual reality technology in our lifetime, and at that time the film and television industry and the gaming industry will undergo unprecedented changes.

As a relic of the old times, cinemas will naturally die out."

“Haha, I am really looking forward to the day that Mr. Gu mentioned. I hope I can see it before I die.

The second world of The Matrix is ​​too far away. If we can achieve the level of Gamer, it will be amazing!"

Because of the epidemic, Da Mimi, who was originally scheduled to visit the set, is unable to come.

".Is your filming over there not affected?"

"No, there is nothing wrong in Taiwan. The government doesn't care too much. They just encourage everyone to wear masks and everyone should go to work."

"My film 'Thank You Doctor' was stopped just over ten days after it started. Hengdian is now closed and I don't know when it will resume."

"I remember you told me last time that it was [ICU 48 hours], right?"

"The original novel is called this, and the adapted version is called "Thank You Doctor"."

“It feels less famous than the original.

Are you at home in Beijing now?" Gu Wei asked, looking at Yang Mi's background.

"Yes, I can't do any work now. I can only wait for notification~"

Gu Wei smiled and said, "Don't worry, the first period is the most stringent, but it won't be long before things get better. At least the filming should be fine."

"I hope so. For me, it just means a little more rest. But with Hengdian closed, the daily expenses for the dozens of crews currently filming are astronomical.

I don’t know how long it will take for the film and television industry to recover from this impact.”

Yang Mi on the other side of the camera sighed, looking a little sad.

"With your fame and status, even this kind of force majeure will not have much impact on you.

Apart from the major film and television companies, the biggest impact this time should be the actors and other staff at the bottom of the industry, whose job opportunities have been greatly reduced."

Yang Mi raised an eyebrow: "Is it not okay for me to worry about Jiaxing's artists?"

"Yes, of course.

Everyone knows that you are a very responsible boss!"

As the two were chatting, Gu Wei received a WeChat message on his phone. He clicked it and replied using the nine-square grid.

"Are you okay?" Yang Mi could also see Gu Wei's actions.

"There is WeChat, reply."

"Okay, go ahead and get busy. I'll talk to you later~"

"byebye~"

After hanging up the video, Gu Wei replied to Nazha’s WeChat, and then the other party made another video call.

These days, Gu Wei shoots during the day and returns to his room at night. He either chats with this person on WeChat or receives a call from that person.

The reality is that everyone is unemployed, so when they have free time, they will naturally think of contacting him.

But everyone knew that Gu Wei was filming in Taiwan and there was no need to disturb him during the day.

Zhao Liying is also filming in Hengdian and has taken a break like Yang Mi.

She was filming the martial arts drama "Legend of Fei" that I talked about with Gu Wei last time.

Because of Gu Wei's words, Zhao Liying communicated with Huace to replace Wu Yifan, and the crew found Zhu Yilong to play the male lead.

Huace chose him to play the male lead, on the one hand because Zhu Yilong is quite popular now, and on the other hand, they probably thought that the CP of the young master and Minglan is a big gimmick and will attract a certain amount of traffic.

“Are you still in Hengdian now?”

“Yes, although the filming is stopped, the entire crew is here.

On the one hand, there is isolation, and on the other hand, there is waiting for news.

The crew said that filming will gradually resume in about half a month at most."

The crew was also shut down, Yang Mi had already run back home, while Zhao Liying was still waiting to resume work in the crew. There was indeed a gap between the two in terms of work attitude.

"This is a good opportunity to take a break."

“Haha, I’d rather not take a break. There are more than 200 people in the crew and the daily expenses are hundreds of thousands.

I have invested in this drama, and I also have a share of the money I spend every day."

Zhao Liying curled her lips, looking unhappy.

It is normal for her to get a share of the profits from filming with her current status, because the salary cap makes it impossible to pay actors too much, and big stars like Zhao Liying can only get a share of the investment.

"When will you finish filming your scene?"

“It’s almost the end of this month.

I feel that when I return, the situation in China will be much better.”

"hope so."

(End of this chapter)