It's reasonable for me, a stuntman, to live a crazy life, right?

Chapter 998 Accept your fate... There is no coincidence in the world! Destroying the job of film critics? Good news for Baoqiang!

"Yesterday, the Sino-US co-production of the adventure fantasy blockbuster "The Great Wall", produced by Universal Pictures, Legendary Pictures, China Film Group, and LeTV, directed by Zhang Yimou, closed at 2.12 million yuan on the first day of box office... The word of mouth is very divided!"

"The movie "The Last Romance" produced by Huayi Investment only grossed 1093 million yuan on its first day of release, and its overall screening rate fell again today."

"The movie Operation Red Sea directed by Chen Fei, due to the scheduling of the film, the new box office yesterday has fallen below the 1 million mark, closing at 8423 million. The film has been released for 15 days and the total box office has reached 34 billion!"

……

On the morning of the 17th, new movie box office data came out.

Thanks to large-scale screenings and advance screenings in nearly 500 lMAX theaters, the box office of "The Great Wall" unsurprisingly exceeded 2 million.

However, even though they achieved excellent results, neither Zhang Yimou, nor La Peikang, Zhang Qi, nor even the directors in charge of "The Great Wall" project at Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures were in a good mood.

Because after a whole day of screening yesterday, the reputation score of "The Great Wall" did not increase but decreased, and has fallen below 8 points.

The reputation of 7.4 is clearly there, and it looks very dazzling!

The most important thing is that not only the movie was criticized, but even the director and investors were criticized by netizens and film critics!

What La Peikang found hard to accept was that the letters reporting him had already been sent to the General Administration.

And remarks calling him a "traitor" are rampant on Weibo, which is very eye-catching!

There are even many netizens who called on the film company to immediately change the title of the movie "The Great Wall", otherwise they would strongly boycott the movie.

The heated public opinion and chaos that flooded the Internet gave him a huge headache.

"We must first control public opinion!"

Zhang Zhao took the initiative to bring up this topic, preventing La Peikang from personally exposing his own wounds.

"What do you think, Mr. Zhang?"

In the huge conference room, Zhang Yimou and the heads of the publicity and marketing departments of China Film Group and LeTV were all present.

Hearing La Peikang's question, everyone turned their eyes to Zhang Zhao.

"The criticism and abuse from netizens are easy to deal with. LeEco will use the company's public relations strength to try to turn the public opinion in a positive direction..."

The meaning of this statement is very clear, which is to buy water army and set the tone, and the operation is also very simple.

"It's just that the film critics may be a little difficult to deal with..."

"Let China Film Corporation arrange this." La Peikang's face was extremely gloomy. Those people actually called him a "sitting in office without doing any work". This was absolutely intolerable!

"Li Mingsheng, go to Weibo and tell them to quiet down those people who are talking without thinking."

"Okay, La Dong."

The deputy general manager of the public relations department of China Film responded, stood up and left the meeting room to communicate with Weibo.

“Does the scheduling have a big impact?”

"It's quite big..." The head of the distribution department said somewhat awkwardly, "Because of the impact of word of mouth, major theaters are adjusting their film schedules. The box office of The Great Wall may drop significantly tomorrow."

Hearing this, Zhang Zhao subconsciously looked at La Peikang and asked tentatively: "Mr. La, regarding the key extension, do you have any advice..."

"It will happen, you don't have to worry about it."

La Peikang interrupted him irritably and reminded him, "What we are going to discuss today is the topic of film reputation and public opinion."

The conference room suddenly fell into silence, because this problem had no solution at all!

Given the current state of "The Great Wall", it is already very good to be able to curb the online abuse. It is simply impossible to reach the level of "Operation Red Sea"!

"Ugh!"

In the corner of the conference room, Zhang Yimou let out a long sigh, his heart filled with deep helplessness.

He actually discovered some problems in the script at the beginning, but the key issue was that this was a Sino-US co-production, and his task was only to shoot the film smoothly according to the script, and he had no right to modify the script at all.

And now that he has encountered such consequences, as a director, he must bear the corresponding price.

The atmosphere in the conference room was very dull. While no one was paying attention, Zhang Yimou took out his phone and sent a WeChat message to Dong Ping of Huanxi Media:
"Boss Dong, let's make an appointment and have a chat."

Not long after the message was sent, a reply came: "Okay! But it will take a few days. I am currently discussing the contract details with directors Gu Changwei and Chen Kexin."

By this time, Dong Ping had already secured victory.

In order to dampen Zhang Yimou's fighting spirit and put some pressure on him, it would naturally take a few days.

"Okay, then you go ahead and we'll talk in detail later."

After sending the message, Zhang Yimou turned off his phone and pretended to be a nobody, just like everyone else around him.

Although in the eyes of outsiders, the reason why this movie is so "bad" is all the responsibility of director Zhang Yimou.

But as practitioners in the industry, we all know very well that the main reason for this problem now is the script.

The main person in charge on the domestic side is naturally La Peikang!
……

"Dad, Uncle La must be having a headache in his office right now, just like you did after your failed investments in Red Cliff and The Crossing."

In the crew of "Dying to Survive", Han Jianu's words almost made Han Sanping collapse.

"Which pot should not be opened?"

The Third Master's face darkened and he glared at the leaky cotton jacket in front of him.

"Hurry up and carry your camera. What are you talking about here?" Chen Fei patted Han Jianu's shoulder and sent her aside.

"I didn't lie..." The little vulture pouted and ran away.

"His problem this time is much bigger than when I invested in The Crossing. He invested a huge amount of US$1.5 million, but in return he was criticized as 'worshiping foreigners', 'working for nothing', and 'deserving to be punished'. This has a huge impact."

Chen Fei shrugged. "The bad thing is the name 'The Great Wall'. If the name is changed, even if the plot is still about foreigners saving Chinese people, it won't be so bad."

"By the way, you refused to direct this project at the time. Did you see the problem here?"

Han Sanping suddenly changed the subject and asked Chen Fei.

"That may be the reason. I wanted to change the script, but Universal Pictures was reluctant. I happened to have other things to do, so I refused."

"Ah, it's unlucky enough to have such a plan."

Chen Fei didn't want to talk to him about The Great Wall, so he asked about something else: "By the way, Mr. Han, you went to the bureau yesterday... How was the situation?"

"It's done."

A smile flashed across Han Sanping's face.

Starting from next year, he will be the person in charge of the review department and will be directly under the jurisdiction of Zhang Hong. In the Film Bureau, he is second only to Zhang Hong!
"Oh, congratulations! It's really not easy. Those old guys didn't object this time?"

"Haha, they wanted to object, but they no longer have the qualifications to do so."

"Hmm?" Fade Chen raised his eyebrows, quite surprised: "What do you mean by that?"

Han Sanping looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to this side, so she lowered her voice and said, "You know about Railroad Tigers, right? Ren Zhonglun found a group of old men in the review department and took on this responsibility together.

Now the bureau knows about it, and has ordered those old men to retire immediately, which just vacates the position for me."

"Hey? What a coincidence?"

"Haha, come to think of it I have to thank Ren Zhonglun. If it weren't for him, it would be hard for me to go to work."

"Huh? That's not right!" Chen Fei suddenly realized, "Since the bureau already knows that there is something wrong with Railroad Tigers, why haven't they ordered it to be withdrawn from theaters?"

"According to my analysis, it should be..."

Han Sanping had just said half of his words when suddenly, there was a commotion outside the set.

The two of them subconsciously turned their heads and saw Ren Zhonglun leading Chen Long in with a smile.

These two people who have made "outstanding contributions" to the development of the history of Chinese-language films naturally received respectful greetings from many people in the crew. Along the way, they were constantly addressed as "Brother Chen Long".

Upon seeing this, Fade Chen and Han Sanping looked at each other, and a look of understanding emerged on their faces!
“Heroes” all enjoy certain privileges.

……

The next day, as expected, the box office of "The Great Wall" experienced a "tragic" plunge, from 2.12 million to 1.6 million.

"Operation Red Sea" turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Yesterday's new box office returned to the 1 million mark, and the total box office successfully broke the box office record of "The Mermaid", and began to charge towards "Detective Chinatown 2" and "Operation Mekong".

As for The Last Romance, it was a bit miserable. When the box office data of 821 million the next day came out, the industry suddenly had a new understanding of Wanda’s “ruthless” methods!
"Don't offend anyone but the cinema chain! If they make a slight adjustment to the schedule, the box office will collapse."

On the Alibaba Pictures side, Zhang Qi murmured to himself, and suddenly lost confidence in the box office competition between the film versions of "Eternal Love" and "Zhu Xian".

By the time the movie is released, if there is a slight "adjustment" over there, wouldn't our movie be ruined?

"We have to come up with a foolproof plan..."

"Boom boom boom!"

A sudden knock on the door interrupted Zhang Qi's thoughts.

"Enter!"

The secretary pushed the door open and came in, placing a document in front of him.

"What is this?" Zhang Qi asked curiously.

"It was sent by some companies of Longwei Culture Media."

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

"Oh?" Zhang Qi raised his eyebrows and opened the file to read it.

It describes in detail Zhao Yanzi's subsequent operations and arrangements. Starting from the 23rd, Longwei Media will officially announce that it will pay 30.59 billion yuan in four installments to acquire 29.135% of Wanjia Culture's equity.

Of course, announcement does not mean it will be implemented. Subsequent acquisition plans will be changed successively until... the transaction is completely terminated!

In this acquisition, Alibaba can make early arrangements and obtain huge profits!
After reading the document, Zhang Qi put it away solemnly and instructed: "Go and tell Ms. Zhao that I have received the document and let her do it."

"Okay, Mr. Zhang."

The secretary turned around and left.

When the office was empty, Zhang Qie could no longer suppress his laughter.

"Female Buffett? Haha, I've trained you for so long, and now you can finally be put to use. I hope you can succeed this time and open up a new profit channel for Alibaba..."

……

2.12 million, 1.6 million, 1.05 million.

Three days passed in a flash, and "The Great Wall" delivered a box office result of 4.77 million in the first three days of the weekend.

If this was the result of "The Wasted Time", the two Wang brothers could have prepared a celebration banquet by now.

However, this is the result achieved by "The Great Wall", which had an investment cost of US$1.5 million, equivalent to RMB 9.96 million.

Regardless of how the film performs in North America after it is released on February 2 next year, if we only look at the domestic market, if this movie wants to make a good profit, the total box office must reach at least 17 billion.

But now?

Based on the latest box office result of 1.05 million, let alone 30 billion, whether it can break 10 billion depends on whether it has the key extension.

Perhaps because they were extremely angry, China Film Group and LeTV have been making a lot of noise online in the past two days.

Hiring internet trolls and manipulating public opinion are child's play and not worth mentioning at all.

What is truly shocking is the way LeTV and China Film Group joined forces to target those film critics who gave bad reviews to "The Great Wall"!

"Weibo has blocked a number of film critics' accounts, but it seems that a number of new accounts have been successfully registered, and both sides are still attacking each other..."

While listening to the secretary's report, Chen Fei looked at the warning letter issued by China Film Group, LeTV, and the official Weibo account of The Great Wall to several film critics:
To the film critics of "blasphemous movies"
Subject: Warning on deleting infringing Weibo posts and issuing a public apology.

“Recently, we noticed that several Weibo users, film critics, and influencers have posted a number of Weibo posts involving our artistic director Zhang Yimou and our film The Great Wall.

The Weibo post not only photoshopped the characters on the film poster to make fun of them, but also included the extreme statement "Zhang Yimou is dead!" and an emoji of three candles. This move seriously violated director Zhang Yimou's right to reputation and was close to defamation and cursing.

Subsequently, several users published long articles on Weibo, continuing to belittle and criticize "The Great Wall" in harsh and irresponsible terms.

We believe that the above-mentioned behavior has constituted malicious slander and defamation of our company and director Zhang Yimou, and has seriously damaged the good reputation and image of our company and director Zhang Yimou.

In view of this, we hereby issue this warning letter to you, requiring you to take the following measures immediately:

1. Immediately delete the relevant Weibo content involving infringement;

30. Post an apology statement on the top of the Weibo homepage, publicly apologizing to us and director Zhang Yimou for this infringement. The apology statement must be kept for at least days;
3. You shall guarantee that you will not publish any remarks or content that infringes upon the rights of us and Director Zhang Yimou in the future;

If you fail to complete the above requirements within [specific time, such as 'within three days'] after receiving this warning letter, our company will be forced to take further legal measures, including but not limited to filing a lawsuit in court, pursuing your legal responsibilities in accordance with the law, and demanding compensation for all economic losses and mental damages caused to us and Director Zhang Yimou.

We hereby solemnly declare that we will resolutely safeguard our own and director Zhang Yimou's legitimate rights and interests, and any infringement of these rights and interests will be subject to legal sanctions.

At the same time, we also call on all netizens to jointly resist online violence and maintain a healthy and harmonious online environment! "

As soon as this warning letter came out, those film critics and Weibo celebrities suddenly became silent.

After all, it is not possible for "individual users" like them to compete with giants like LeTV and China Film.

However, the ridicule from netizens was everywhere below this warning letter, it was so glaring!
"Haha, it's wrong to scold Zhang Yimou, but it's a bit too overbearing to not even allow a review of this movie to be published, isn't it?"

"Your own movie sucks, but you refuse to admit it, refuse to apologize, and even ask others to keep quiet. You are so awesome!"

"Sending a warning letter? Haha, just wait and see, the box office will drop again tomorrow."

"LeEco is almost finished, why is it still so arrogant?"

"Why don't you change the name? The name 'The Great Wall' seems to be getting more and more inappropriate to me."

"You guys sent a warning letter, so we'll send a report letter. Let's compare and see who has more family members."

Film critics are afraid of losing their jobs, but netizens don’t tolerate that.

For a time, the amount of online abuse increased!

Chen Fei saw it very clearly. The reason why LeTV and China Film warned those film critics and did not allow them to continue speaking out was simply because they were afraid of causing greater negative impact.

The dissatisfaction of movie fans can be covered up by using the Internet army.

But the dissatisfaction of professionals cannot be covered up by a group of internet trolls.

Therefore, the most reasonable arrangement is to let them keep silent.

"Mr. Chen, the premiere of The Ferryman will start at 7 o'clock tomorrow night. Do you want to attend?"

The secretary's sudden question interrupted Chen Fei's enjoyment of the show.

Without even looking up, he asked casually, "The Ferryman? Where was the premiere held?"

"Hong Kong."

"Haha." Chen Fei was immediately amused: "Eating food from the mainland and going to Hong Kong to work hard, it's really interesting."

"Then I will delete this itinerary for you?"

"Well, delete it. I don't have time to go that far." He also reminded: "Tell President Su that he doesn't need to go. Just find someone from the branch in Hong Kong to show up. Don't bother with them."

"Mmm Good."

The secretary responded and walked to the other side to make a phone call.

The contempt on Fade Chen's face had not yet disappeared, but had become even stronger.

He wanted to see what kind of tricks this "The Ferryman" could come up with.

The King of Sunglasses "produced" a comedy film, and vowed that it would definitely give moviegoers a unique and novel viewing experience...

I don’t know how “unique” this film will be!
"Jingle Bell!"

The sudden ringing of the phone interrupted Chen Fei's thoughts again.

After taking a look at the caller ID, he pressed the answer button: "Hello? Baoqiang?"

The next second, Wang Baoqiang's simple laughter came from the other end of the phone: "Haha, Director Chen, we lived up to your expectations. Lost in Hong Kong has been successfully completed!"

After three and a half months of hard work, "Lost in Hong Kong" was finally successfully completed, and Wang Baoqiang's nervous and anxious mood was finally relieved a little.

So, he couldn't wait to call Chen Fei and inform him of the good news.

"Haha! Great! When will you be back? I'll hold a wrap party for you!"

On the phone, Fade Chen couldn't hide his excitement!
……

(ps: Second update, please vote for me!!!)
(End of this chapter)