China Entertainment started from Nortel 2002

Chapter 760: When you are in the arena, you can’t have all your friends

"Us and Them" is the debut work of director Rene Liu. Although it is an artistic love movie, its box office was ahead of other movies in the May Day period during pre-sales.

After all, Rene Liu, who sang "Later", seems to have some kind of natural connection with this story. It can be said that the movie has attracted widespread attention since it began filming.

In addition, from inviting Eason Chan, Mayday, and Hebe Tien to sing the theme song of the movie, to the slogan "Don't listen to Eason Chan when you are sad, don't listen to Rene Liu when you break up";

From the highly provocative promotional video of "Later 2018"'s national college roadshow, to the photoshopped picture of "Where were you at 18" that went viral on WeChat Moments, "Us and Them" successfully broke Maoyan's record for the most popular youth films for many years, reaching 91 people who wanted to watch it.

Therefore, many industry insiders have predicted that "Us and Them" will definitely lead the May Day box office, and even surpass the 3 billion box office record of domestic romance films set by "Ex-Files 19.41".

However, it was unexpected that on the first day, the movie was caught up in the "ticket refund" controversy, which caused a sensation on the Internet and was widely discussed.

Some self-media have therefore questioned whether Maoyan, as the distributor and platform, may have violated regulations in this process, suspected of using false ticket purchases to build momentum for pre-sales, misleading theaters to increase screenings, and then refunding a large number of tickets.

This has pushed Maoyan and "Us and Them" to the forefront and caught in a whirlpool of public opinion.

"Have you found out what happened?"

Tian Zhuangzhuang also called Li Mu immediately. Based on his understanding of his disciple, there was no need to use such means. Moreover, based on the current information, the box office was at most over 10 million, which did not account for a large proportion of the total box office of "Us and Them".

Such operation is undoubtedly self-destructive and unnecessary.

"Teacher, not yet. At present, we can only package the data and submit it to the General Administration."

Li Mu rubbed his forehead. It wasn't a big deal, but there were too many people trying to stir up trouble.

"Maoyan involves a lot of interests, and it is inevitable that some people in the upstream, midstream and downstream will be jealous. Moreover, the theater chains must have had objections to the function of changing and refunding tickets." Tian Zhuangzhuang sighed.

"By the way, I specifically asked Ruoying, not her. Given how I treat her, she would never do such a thing."

"Teacher, I understand this. It's not worth it for such a small box office. Don't worry, this matter won't turn into a big deal. Maoyan will still be Maoyan." Li Mu said confidently.

"Well, I'll help you find out who is so wicked."

"Thank you, teacher"

Li Mu hung up the phone with a smile, and Liu Yifei also received non-stop video calls.

"It's okay, don't worry. It was just a call from Teacher Tian, ​​so you can't get in."

Li Mu saw the anxious look on Liu Yifei's face and couldn't help but comfort her.

"really?"

"Really, people in the industry probably know that Maoyan and the producers don't need to do this, it's just that public opinion has arisen for a while, and it takes some time to clarify."

"It's so hateful. These people who are trying to stir up trouble don't know anything and just start talking nonsense."

Liu Yifei was indignant.

"They only want to hear what they want to hear, and they only want to believe what they believe. As for the truth, no one cares except those who truly love it."

Li Mu had long seen through public opinion. In the Internet age, people's "memory" deteriorated too quickly. After a few days, many people had no impression of most hot topics. They just came to join in the fun.

“Dad, are you unhappy?” The little boy almost put his face against the camera of the mobile phone, and kept grabbing and catching Li Mu on the screen with his little hands.

"No, Dad is just worried about some small things." Li Mu said with a smile.

"Is that so? Dad, do you want to take a nap? Sleeping will make you happy."

The little bun made a gesture with his hands, as if to say that he was very happy when he slept.

"Okay, I'll go to sleep soon." The moment Li Mu saw the little bun, all his worries were thrown away.

"But you have to go to bed early, otherwise you won't grow taller."

"Mom, when we were sleeping, Dad said, if we want to grow small, our nest must not grow small, our nest must grow very tall."

The little boy didn't know how to describe how high it was. He then looked at the chandelier on the ceiling and pointed, "It's so high!"

"Who can grow so tall? Why do you grow so tall?" Liu Yifei asked, while supporting her little head and looking at the little bun swaying in front of her.

"Seven is good."

".So you want to get the snacks from the cabinet yourself, right?" Liu Yifei didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Snacks are probably every child’s favorite thing. In order to control the amount of snacks that little Baozi got, Liu Yifei hid some of them.

"."

After Liu Yifei, Ning Hao, Lu Yang and others also called and shared news.

Originally, there was no night shooting task, so I could have taken a break, but I was busy all night.

"As of 4:28 on April 23, after investigation, the Maoyan platform was suspected of being maliciously swiped and refunded about 38 tickets, involving a box office of about 1300 million yuan, accounting for 2.8% of the film's total box office of 4.6 million yuan on the day. Malicious ticket-swiping orders were concentrated on special discount tickets such as 19.9 yuan." Maoyan has submitted relevant detailed data and evidence to the competent authorities, and will cooperate with the competent authorities to conduct further detailed investigations. At the same time, it has sought data assistance from the National Film Special Fund Office."

"In order to protect the legitimate interests of users, cinemas and film producers, the Maoyan platform will temporarily close the ticket refund function."

“The refund and change functions of the ticketing e-commerce platform have been optimized, and the refund data viewing function will be launched on May 5.”

"A consultation meeting will be held on May 5. Maoyan platform has never and will never have such behavior that disrupts the market order, and will never condone or tolerate such incidents."

"."

Maoyan’s various statements were issued in the early morning of the 29th, explaining the abnormal data and the launch of new functions, followed by a consultation meeting on May 5nd.

Li Mu also saw the statement after he got up in the morning on the 29th. It was quite standard and at least there was nothing new.

The voice of public opinion has become a little smaller, after all, the data has been reported to the General Administration.

It was rare for the General Administration to issue a statement early in the morning and directly meet with Maoyan and "Us and Them" to gain in-depth understanding of the situation.

In the crew, everyone laughed less today. After all, everyone knew about this matter. Li Mu's current mood was unpredictable. If he happened to get caught in the crossfire, he would be in big trouble.

As a result, the shooting progress in the morning was much faster.

"Brother, I feel like some people in the industry are pretending to be confused. If you use your brains to think about it, you will know that the producers and distributors should not do this at all."

As a director, Guo Fan is naturally well aware that given the popularity of Us and Them, he would have been a big winner in the May Day period if he had not participated in any manipulation. However, he was shooting himself in the foot by participating in this box office fraud incident.

Furthermore, although 38 tickets may seem like a lot, the amount involved is only a few tens of millions, and the impact on the screening schedule is only between two or three percentage points. The current screening schedule of theaters is already close to 50%, and any higher rate will not make much sense for the film.

Moreover, if Maoyan, as a co-producer and distributor, engages in such fraudulent behavior, it would be too obvious and would cause a huge stain on its brand reputation.

On the other hand, for third-party ticket purchasing platforms such as Maoyan and Taopiaopiao, ticket refund operations do not bring any revenue.

"Not all of them are our friends. That's normal."

Li Mu smiled faintly and said, "By the way, let them relax a little and stop being so tense, as if I am so unkind."

"Haha, no one wants to trouble you at this critical moment."

"Relax a little, this is not a big deal."

"."

"Who could have done it?"

Wanda, Zeng Maojun looked at the data in front of the computer and couldn't help but guess that the ticket refund this time was indeed a bit strange.

"Mr. Zeng, I have found the data you requested. Cinemas such as Yangcheng Jinyi Cinema and UME Cinema, which do not allow third-party ticket refunds, have basically not been affected by the ticket refund storm.

However, several theaters, including UA Cinemas, which have opened up third-party ticket refunds, have not refunded tickets."

"Okay, I understand. You go down first." Zeng Maojun waved his hand, then looked at the new data, pondered for a long time, and finally sighed, "This water is really muddy!"

At the same time, Huace Film & TV CEO Fu Meicheng was also thinking about this matter.

"Huace and Mengying are currently considered partners. Although Maoyan is a layer away, it is okay to explain it for them."

Fu Meicheng thought to himself, and then publicly said on Weibo:

"For now, the people who break the 'rules of the trade' are most likely stakeholders, but not practitioners in the film 'industry'.

Precisely because it violates industry norms, such ticket refund tricks are unlikely to become a new trick to water down movie box office. In the past, Maoyan allowed movie tickets to be refunded or changed, which was actually for the audience's consideration. If you bought a movie ticket and something happened suddenly, you could refund or change it. But once such a malicious ticket refund situation occurs, I believe Maoyan will also introduce measures to change it.

I think the ticket refund incident is just a flash in the pan. It may have an impact on this film, but it will not have a big impact on the entire industry."

"."

As the chairman of Huace Film & TV, his status in the industry is naturally not low. This statement is also a reassurance to netizens who support Maoyan and believe that someone is maliciously muddying the waters.

After all, no matter how professional the big Vs in major media are, it is unlikely that they can be as professional as professionals in the industry.

"Mr. Fu, thank you." After seeing this, Li Mu also called back.

"That's not the case. I know Director Li well. Besides, Director Li doesn't care about this kind of box office."

"Mr. Fu, what you said is a bit ambiguous. Doesn't it mean that I am interested in it because the box office is higher?"

"Hahaha, it's my fault, it's my fault, I deserve to be punished, I'll drink three glasses of wine next time."

Fu Meicheng laughed.

Look, the situation that couldn't be formed last time has now been formed.
(End of this chapter)