The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 554 Confidence
July 7st, Party Founding Day.

It’s the fourth day since Painted Skin 2 was released, and there are still two days left before Lost in Thailand is officially released.

Beijing, Zhaoyang Road, Huayi Building.

"Hahaha."

The reporter followed Yang Zhenjian, publicity director of "Painted Skin 2", to the office door and heard Wang Zhonglei's laughter coming from inside the room.

He understood and turned to congratulate, "Boss Yang, congratulations."

Yang Zhenjian grinned, knocked on the door, and when he heard the "come in" sound, he pushed it open.

Wang Zhonglei was seen sitting behind his desk, with his feet leisurely resting on the table, his chair leaning back, and his whole body swaying slightly back and forth.

"You are here." He put his foot down.

Yang Zhenjian led the reporter to the sofa and asked Wang Zhonglei who was walking over, "Boss Wang, has the box office figure come out?"

Wang Zhonglei laughed heartily, and after a while, he said, "I just received a notice from the cinema chain that the box office in three days is 1.5 million!"

"Hiss!" The reporter took a breath, this result.

Yang Zhenjian was also a little dazed. Initially, they estimated the box office of "Painted Skin 2" to be around 3 to 4 million yuan.

Now it seems that this movie is aiming for the box office record of 8.73 million yuan set by "Time Raiders", and it may even have a chance to become the box office champion this year.

After a brief greeting, the interview officially began.

The reporter asked: "Mr. Wang, congratulations on the success of Painted Skin 2. There are also films like Lost in Thailand and Searching that will be released soon. Do you think Painted Skin 2 has a chance to win the box office championship this year?"

Wang Zhonglei crossed his legs and said with great pride: "Let's not talk about the box office champion for now. After all, there are Xiaogang's "2" and Cheng Long's "The Chinese Zodiac" at the end of the year. But judging from the current box office trend, I think "Painted Skin " is the most likely to win the box office championship during the summer vacation."

This is a complete disregard for "Lost in Thailand", "Search" and "The Four". The reporter listened carefully and secretly complained in his heart.

Wang Zhonglei analyzed with a smile: "Director Chen Kaiquan's "Searching" focuses on cyber violence, which I personally appreciate, but this kind of subject matter involving reality and human nature is often relatively dull, requiring the audience to have a certain level of thinking ability to understand, and lacks interest.

Moreover, his films are relatively conservative in their promotion. In comparison, the fantasy theme of Painted Skin 2 is more attractive to the audience, which is also where my confidence lies.”

Based on Chen Kaican's past achievements, Wang Zhonglei obviously did not take him seriously.

The reporter asked: "What about Lost in Thailand starring Lu Yuan? What do you think of this comedy movie?"

"Hmm." Wang Zhonglei frowned and tapped his temple with his index finger in a pretentious manner.

"Xu Zheng is a new director. Although there is the example of Out of Time, Lu Yuan's success is accidental and the result of multiple factors. It is hard for me to imagine how high the box office can be for Xu Zheng's first directorial debut.

This is not the case with Wuer Eel. He was originally an advertising director and has filmed "Swordsman". His choice of film genres tends to be fantasy, and his pictures are very expressive. He is the best interpreter of "Painted Skin 2".

To be honest, I don’t think the appeal of a low-budget Thailand travel film can compare to a fantasy blockbuster.”

When talking about "Lost in Thailand", Wang Zhonglei revealed a hint of disdain in his words.

With the current box office of "Painted Skin 2", can you, Lu Yuan, replicate the success of "Out of Time"?

He hasn't forgotten about "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons". There are some things that are not convenient to talk about before "Painted Skin 2" is released.

But the current start is a natural one, how can we lose?

“As for The Four.”

The reporter listened, nodded from time to time, and knew what to write for today's headline.

During the summer vacation of 2012, more than 20 domestic films were released.

But the most anticipated ones are "Lost in Thailand", "Painted Skin 2", "Search", and "The Four".

Before "Painted Skin 2" was released, fans of the four movies argued on social platforms such as Weibo, Tieba, Zhihu, etc.

Basically, Zhou Xun, Chen Kun, Zhao Wei PK Lu Yuan, Xu Zheng, Wang Baoqiang PK Chen Kaican, Liu Shishi PK Deng Chao, Liu Yifei.

From production cost, director ability, cast, publicity and promotion effect
At noon on the Party Founding Day.

Zhao Siyu finished her lunch in the cafeteria and was on her way back to class to rest, wondering which account she should wear to support Weibo today.

As a fan of Lu Yuan and Liu Shishi, and a veteran of the original Shiheyuanfang forum, she has been a little confused recently.

When she first learned that Lost in Thailand and Searching were being released at the same time and were competitors, she became anxious about who to support.

After careful consideration, we finally decided to put on the identities of both companies and switch back and forth.

When she was a little lion, "Lost in Thailand" was garbage, director Chen Kaikan was talented, Liu Shishi was extremely popular, and "Search" beat everything.

And when she turned into a fan of Lu Yuan, her words became: Chen Kaikan is not good, "The Promise" is a bad movie, and the box office of "Search" will definitely not exceed 100 million yuan, and Lu Yuan is awesome, and "Lost in Thailand" was a big hit at the box office!
Zhao Siyu was struggling over which side to stand on today.

Suddenly, a classmate next to me exclaimed in a low voice: "Wow, Search is over."

"What's the matter?" She turned her head quickly to look.

The short-haired student held the phone and said, "Wang Zhonglei said in an interview with Sina that the box office of Painted Skin 2 reached 1.5 million in three days, and the goal is to be the champion of this summer's box office."

"If he says it's the champion, then it's the champion. This movie is not good at all. The special effects are weird and the story is incomprehensible." Another round-faced girl who was eating spicy strips looked indignant.

"Huh?" Zhao Siyu frowned and thought for a few seconds: "Okay, you traitor, didn't we agree before that we wouldn't contribute to their box office?"

"You actually doubt me?" The round-faced girl raised her eyebrows and said angrily, "My brother went to see the movie with a female colleague yesterday. He wanted to take the opportunity to confess his love, but the female colleague kept complaining about the plot, so he didn't even have the chance to say what he had prepared."

"Ah, that's it, brother. Forget it, it was me who misunderstood you. I'll treat you to milk tea after school."

"Big cup or small cup?" "Small cup."

"I want a large cup."

"I don't have money, so I don't care whether I want love or not." Zhao Siyu curled her lips.

"OK then."

"."

As the two of them were making a fuss, the short-haired classmate said, "I saw a theater manager post an article estimating that the box office for this movie will start at 8 million yuan, and it has a chance to become the box office champion for the whole year."

"You're overthinking. The reputation of the film is not as good as that of Time Travel. Now people have no movies to watch, and there are still many people waiting. When Lost in Thailand is released, the market will definitely plummet."

Zhao Siyu was full of confidence. She blinked as if she remembered something and said, "So there is really no hope for Searching. I remember that the movie directed by Chen Kaige, The Orphan of Zhao, had the highest box office, but it didn't make 200 million."

“Ah!” the short-haired girl exclaimed, “Then we don’t need to switch accounts back and forth, we can just support Lost in Thailand directly.”

"What are you waiting for? Send it now!"

At this point, the little lions that originally belonged to Liu Shishi collectively rebelled and turned around to join their brother-in-law's camp and shout.

On the other side, Lu Yuan and others finished the promotion and returned to Beijing to prepare for the official release of the movie.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Huayi has been so popular these days, and its stock price has risen a lot. How about making a sequel to "Time and Space" to continue the development of this IP?"

As he walked out of the airport, Xu Zheng flipped through the messages on his phone and sighed.

Lu Yuan waved his hands in protest: "Forcing a sequel for the sake of a sequel is just a poor imitation. You can make money, but the interests of the audience will be harmed. It's not worth it."

He set up a company, so naturally he likes to make money and needs money, but asking him to force some low-quality works on the audience for the sake of profit goes against his original intention.

Xu Zheng glanced at him. He had different ideas from Lu Yuan.

He has ambitions and pursuits in movies, but in his opinion, movies are more of a commodity.

If "Lost in Thailand" can perform well this time, he will definitely make a sequel until the potential of this IP is exhausted.

He sighed: "Now that I think about it, it was not a good choice to release Lost in Thailand during the summer vacation."

"It's hindsight." Wang Baoqiang, wearing sunglasses, said to him unhappily, "Why, do you want to compete with Feng Xiaogang, Cheng Long and Wong Kar-wai in the Lunar New Year movie?"

"Oh." Xu Zheng scratched his scalp.

They initially chose the summer vacation time slot after careful consideration, and did not just randomly set a time on a whim.

"The Four" directed by Chen Jiashang is not to be feared. Lu Yuan once told a joke that the play was inherently flawed because of the presence of classmate Liu Yifei.

Well, the truth is that in recent years, the market for costume dramas has been sluggish.

The only ones left are "Painted Skin 2" and "Search".

The latter is a realistic theme with a literary edge, and coupled with director Chen Kaiquan's style, after much thought, only "Painted Skin 2" is a strong rival.

On the other hand, during the Lunar New Year holiday, although Feng Xiaogang likes to talk big, the box office is never bad.

"1942" is a disaster film, but the performance of the same type of film "Aftershock" is still fresh in our memory.

"The Chinese Zodiac" is starred by Cheng Long, and his appeal is unquestionable.

The same is true of Wong Kar-wai's "The Grandmaster".

Although Lu Yuan joined "Lost in Thailand", it was a low-budget film after all, and Xu Zheng was a new director. After careful consideration, he decided that the summer vacation was more appropriate.

Who knew that the performance of "Painted Skin 2" would be so unexpected?

Xu Zheng sighed, saying that transformation is risky and it was a bad start.

Lu Yuan looked at the employee sent by the company to pick him up at the airport, and was also thinking about "Painted Skin 2".

While promoting "Lost in Thailand", he kept receiving emails from Wu Lang, Zhang Bowen and others.

After the release of "Painted Skin 6" on June 28, the word of mouth was not very good. Why was the result so bad?

It is undeniable that the 2008 "Painted Skin" laid a broad audience base for this drama.

The reputation of Chen Kun, Zhou Xun and Zhao Wei is one of the factors that attract audiences to the cinema, and the "star effect" of the three cannot be underestimated.

Moreover, most of the films released at the same time as "Painted Skin 2" are animations, such as "Seeler" and "Pig Man". It is really lucky for a film to have no competitors.

Also, after "Out of Time", the domestic film market was sluggish in May and June, and there were almost no good films for audiences to watch. The accumulated purchasing power exploded when "Painted Skin 5" was released.

All these factors led to the huge box office success of Painted Skin 2 after its release.

He is not as pessimistic as Xu Zheng. Early publicity is one aspect, and publicity can only determine the box office in the first few days of release.

Word of mouth is the key factor that determines whether a play can go far.

If there were no other competitors, this movie might really have a chance to create another box office myth after "Out of Time".

But he thinks "Lost in Thailand" is not bad either, and its plot is obviously better than the other one.

Seeing Xu Zheng's gloomy face, Lu Yuan patted him on the shoulder and said, "I have added 1500 million yuan in publicity expenses. Be more confident!"

(End of this chapter)