Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 204 They fight, Zhou Mo makes money

Wang Changtian gave the answer.

"Hua Yi, I found out that the big and small Wang brothers thought you were too aggressive this time, so they took you down."

Xu Zheng frowned.

He knew that "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" was invested by Huayi.

Therefore, when dealing with Wen Zhang, he specifically instructed that he should only deal with people, not movies, in order to avoid the big and small kings.

Although he has a lot of seniority, it is only relative to Wen Zhang.

There is no comparison with the big and small kings.

"Hasn't our propaganda always been aimed at Wen Zhang? Why would the big and small kings take action?"

Wang Changtian pointed out that Xu Zheng was just trying to cover up his mistake: "You are targeting Wen Zhang, how can Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons not be affected?

"Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is a film that has been infused with a lot of effort from the two Wang brothers. They said they would use this film to make up for the loss of "1942", so it's not normal to lead you along at such a fast pace... But this time I suggest you stay calm. Even if you want to fight back, you have to wait until the movie is released. No matter how strong the propaganda is, everything will eventually come down to the box office of the movie. It will not be good for the movie to spend money on this before the movie is released."

Xu Zheng looked very unhappy.

Anyone who gets led astray by a wave of rhythm will feel bad.

Besides, he couldn't fight back.

Fortunately, one thing that makes him better than Wen Zhang is that his resources do not come from the person next to him.

Moreover, his relationship with his wife is more... open than that of Wen and Ma.

"In that case, let's fight it out!"

Xu Zheng became furious.

But I haven't lost my mind yet.

"Even so, we can't compete directly with Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons at the box office. That's irrational."

Wang Changtian: "So what are you going to fight for?"

Xu Zheng thought about it and said something to Wang Changtian.

The two of them discussed and decided to continue to increase publicity efforts.

The main promotional battlefield for "Lost in Thailand" has always been Lizhan.

Zhou Mo suddenly discovered that his investment share of "Lost in Thailand" had changed from 50-50 with Guangxian at the beginning to 70-30 as the scope of publicity expanded.

Mountains and rivers seven.

Bright three.

It was early February.

The premiere of "Lost in Thailand" was held as scheduled.

The day of the premiere.

The atmosphere on the set was pretty good.

While the movie was playing, Da Tiantian suddenly tickled Zhou Mo's palm.

"No, I noticed something was wrong."

wrong?

What's wrong?
Zhou Mo looked at Da Tiantian wearing sunglasses on the screen, with a face full of collagen and youthful cheeks. "What's wrong? Xu Zheng did a good job this time and took a beautiful picture of you. Do you think you didn't take this scene well?"

Da Tiantian patted Zhou Mo lightly.

"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the competition between Lost in Thailand and Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons. I always feel it's a bit strange. Logically, these two movies shouldn't compete with each other at all. How come it has developed to the point where it feels like a life-and-death struggle?"

Zhou Mo raised his eyebrows.

This girl seems to have become smarter recently.

He spread his hands and said, "You're overthinking it. With Xu Zheng's personality, he's easy to get tough once he gets angry. You know what happened later."

Da Tiantian still feels a little confused.

"right?"

She thought about it and found that there seemed to be nothing wrong: "Maybe I am overthinking it."

The movie screening ends.

The main creators came on stage to be interviewed.

It was Zhou Mo's turn: "I think Lost in Thailand does one thing very well, that is, it really makes people laugh. I think this is the most basic and the most important thing a comedy movie should do. If a comedy movie is not enjoyable, then what kind of comedy movie is it?"

So during the Spring Festival period, I feel that Lost in Thailand has a chance to take the top spot.”

As soon as these words came out.

Not only the audience was stunned.

Even the main creators of "Lost in Thailand" were stunned.

In fact, they had already known that Zhou Mo was very optimistic about "Lost in Thailand".

Otherwise, why would Zhou Mo invest in "Lost in Thailand" for no reason?

But he didn't expect Zhou Mo to be so optimistic about "Lost in Thailand".

Although it had been decided to compete with "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" before, Xu Zheng's promotion during this period has not been to compete with "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" in box office.

It's about rate of return.

So far, the total investment cost of "Lost in Thailand" is less than 60 million.

The investment cost of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is conservatively estimated to be 150 million yuan.

Anyone with a discerning eye knows which movie is more likely to have a higher return on investment.

To give himself an extra layer of insurance, Xu Zheng added after Zhou Mo: "Director Zhou is too polite. I will be thankful if Lost in Thailand can achieve 500 million yuan."

Even if the movie only makes more than 400 million in the end.

The rate of return is also 700 to 800 percent.

He just doesn't believe that the final box office of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" can exceed 1 billion!
Obviously, Xu Zheng's somewhat "cowardly" words were far less shocking than Zhou Mo's.

Five hundred million is actually not a small amount.

But ranking first during the Spring Festival sounds obviously much more exaggerated.

as predicted.

After the premiere.

The media began publishing articles.

"Director Zhou Mo: Lost in Thailand is very funny, which is what a comedy movie should be like." "Zhou Mo: Lost in Thailand is expected to be the biggest winner of the Spring Festival."

“Zhou Mo: Lost in Thailand is bound to win the first place in the Spring Festival box office.”

Xu Zheng went to Zhou Mo and said, "Director Zhou, your predictions are really scary."

Zhou Mo waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, Brother Zheng. Trust me. I will never make mistakes. Don't forget my reputation as a fortune teller."

Xu Zheng actually still felt a little bothered.

Zhou Mo hadn't told him about this speech, and this move obviously caught him off guard.

Even if Zhou Mo used the title of "magician" as a guarantee, if the box office of "Lost in Thailand" did not meet expectations, he, the director, would still be the one to bear the burden in the end.

In fact, half a day after the media announced the news, there were already voices mocking "Lost in Thailand" on the Internet.

Some people mocked Zhou Mo for being unrealistic.

Some people mocked Xu Zheng for his wild ideas.

Some people even mocked the two as birds of a feather, calling them hype dogs.

But it turns out.

Zhou Mo is Zhou Mo after all.

The god of calculation is not just talking.

The box office of "Lost in Thailand" on the first day was 60 million, which not only sent back all the ridicule.

Even Xu Zheng was not spared.

Xu Zheng found Zhou Mo again and said, "Director Zhou, you are really awesome. When you predict the future of movies, the number you say for each single release is what you say. That's it. I have absolutely no other opinions."

Faced with the first-day box office of 60 million, let alone Xu Zheng’s previous little emotions, now it would be no problem even for him to call Zhou Mo brother.

What's wrong with the younger brother having some emotions towards his older brother?
Is it possible that my brother will still be angry?

Zhou Mo waved his hand, indicating that it was all in the past. It was just a few words, and it was no big deal... But there was something that Xu Zheng needed to pay attention to.

"Our movie is gaining momentum. What do you think about the subsequent promotion? Do we need to continue to increase investment?"

"Yes, of course!"

Xu Zheng nodded without hesitation: "As long as Lost in Thailand plays normally, it will definitely make over 700 million yuan at the box office, so we will definitely have to make additional investments."

Zhou Mo reminded: "But if you want to make additional investments, the subsequent share will definitely need to be adjusted."

Xu Zheng was in high spirits and didn't notice Zhou Mo's expression at all.

"No problem, Director Zhou. I'll tell President Wang about this, and you just need to step up the promotion efforts later on."

When Zhou Mo heard this, he nodded with satisfaction.

Seven days later.

The total box office of "Lost in Thailand" exceeded 300 million.

At the same time, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" was officially released.

Zhou Mo and Da Tiantian went to attend the premiere of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons".

To be honest, Zhou Mo himself has no bad feelings towards "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons".

Both the content of the script and the style design are actually quite good.

In particular, the image design of Sun Wukong is a subversion of the previous "Monkey King".

After all, anyone who first sees the lifeless, bald and rambling character played by Huang Bo would think he is the legendary Monkey King.

But Zhou Xingxing designed it this way.

"The dark style is indeed a new style, but I don't know if Teacher Liu can accept it." Zhou Mo suddenly said.

"What?" Da Tiantian was a little confused.

She heard "Teacher Six", but didn't react immediately.

"It's Mr. Zhang. Ever since the filming of A Chinese Odyssey, he has been very dissatisfied with Zhou Xingxing. He thinks that the latter's Sun Wukong is an insult to the Monkey King and he should apologize."

Zhou Mo explained to Da Tiantian the meaning of "adaptation is not random editing, and parody is not nonsense".

Da Tiantian has a very conflicted expression.

I don't know whether to laugh or remain serious.

"So what you mean is that Teacher Liu might attack Zhou Xingxing after today?"

“It’s not a possibility, it’s a necessity.”

Zhou Mo recalled Teacher Liu's imitation of the scene where Zhizunbao carried the golden cudgel.

That's never absent.

"And not only Zhou Xingxing, even Huang Bo may not be able to escape."

Things turned out just as Zhou Mo expected.

It was the day after "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" was released.

The Sixth Sensei attacked.

"Change..., play... Do you know what the Monkey King is? Do you know what it means to seek Buddhist scriptures? I wonder if you can buy a few copies of Journey to the West and read them at home. I happen to have some here... Apologize."

In 2013, Teacher Liu had not yet reached the point where he later fell from grace.

The appeal is okay.

The reputation is also good.

The reputation of veteran artists is also relatively stable.

So, when he gave a bad review to "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons", many viewers really gave up their plans to buy movie tickets.

And they began to attack "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" on the Internet.

“I don’t understand the movie.”

“This is horrible, is this really a comedy?”

"It's far worse than 'Kung Fu'. I said that since 'CJ7', Stephen Chow's level has been declining. Now you can see it."

It was amidst this kind of evaluation.

The first day box office of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is released.

Seventy-three million.