Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 469 The Ship Has Capsized
When the publicity director saw that the two bosses had clenched their fists, he quickly explained:

"Director Wu, the negative reviews of the movie on the Internet don't show any signs of large-scale cyber-troll operations. We have also contacted several familiar companies, but they haven't started any action yet."

Wu Baige suddenly turned around and stared at the person in charge of publicity.

There was no trace of the navy.

Several companies have yet to take action.

Doesn’t this mean that the audience’s negative reviews of him are sincere?
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" Wu Baige said angrily, "If they didn't find anything, it means that the other party is hiding very well, maybe they took advantage of the convenience of the platform.

Look at that Lizhan Entertainment and Little Blue Book. These two platforms are the main bases for smearing me and my movies. Isn't this ready-made?

Could it be that you have also checked these platforms?"

The person in charge said that Wu Baige was right.

They really can't easily set the pace on Little Blue Book like Weibo.

But the problem is that there are negative reviews all over Weibo now, and these are all real negative reviews, with few of them being led by internet trolls.

The person in charge was somewhat dissatisfied with Wu Baige's suspicion of them, and said with great effort, "Director Wu, I know you mean to suspect that Shanhe Company and Director Zhou Mo deliberately discredited The Crossing online, but please also believe in our ability, there is indeed no such thing."

Although they cannot easily buy rhythm on Lizhan Entertainment and Little Blue Book, they are still very clear about which accounts on Little Blue Book can bring big rhythm.

Some of them were obviously insiders of the entertainment industry, and had specially cultivated small accounts on the Little Blue Book. They did not deliberately set any rhythm this time.

Some people even gave "The Crossing" three or even four stars.

This evaluation surprised the person in charge.

In his opinion, this movie deserves two stars at best, but one star is not a bad idea.

The movie lasted more than two hours, but they only had one appetizer.

Who will die if you don’t die?
Those disguised accounts of people in the circle are, on the contrary, a little gentle.

Wu Baige was hit neither lightly nor heavily, and his face looked grim. But when he saw that the faces of the two Wangs were even uglier than his, he calmed down a little.

But admitting your mistakes is definitely not okay.

After thinking for a long time, I came up with a new reason:

"If it wasn't Shanhe Company's deliberate smear campaign, could it be Jiang Wen?"

The other three were stunned when they heard this.

How did this idea come about?
On the contrary, the more Wu Baige spoke, the more he felt that it made sense: "Yes, it must be Jiang Wen. His movie flopped and he was embarrassed, so he wanted to drag me down with him. After all, my achievements are much better than his in the past. As long as he discredits my movie, his reputation can be restored a little.

Yes, he must be using me as a cushion to prepare for his next movie, The Taking of Tiger Mountain. "

The person in charge was helpless, thinking that the old man must be crazy.

Jiang Wen has been busy as hell with two movies recently. The last time he appeared, he had shrunk in size. His younger brother Jiang Wu is almost twice his size.

This is something that the entire circle knows, so how could they be busy dragging you into this?

"Director Wu, Director Jiang can't possibly..."

Wu Baige interrupted directly: "Just tell me whether you have investigated Jiang Wen."

Person in charge: You’re an idiot.

Even if they do investigate, they will search backwards from the water army. After all, the water army lists are real. Since there are no such people, why should they specifically investigate them?

He also confessed directly: "What's the point of investigating? If the quality of the movie is not up to standard, the audience will not watch it even if the truth is found out."

Wu Baige was furious: "How dare you say my movie is of poor quality."

“Why would this happen if the quality is good?” the person in charge asked.

"That's enough." The king interrupted their quarrel.

Wu Baige felt a little uneasy when he saw the king getting angry.

"Mr. Wang, the quality of the movie is guaranteed."

The king stared at Wu Baige and said, "What's the use of guarantees? If the audience doesn't want to buy tickets, what good will it do even if your quality is sky-high? What I want is the box office."

"It's meaningless to argue about whether it's a troll army or who is leading the trend. What's important is the box office. Without the box office, nothing you say will work."

All he wanted from beginning to end was box office success.

As long as the box office is there, nothing negative about it matters.

When "Lost in Thailand" came out, were there fewer negative reviews online?

not at all.

Instead, there is an overwhelming number of people who think that Xu Zheng, an out-of-date actor, has no qualifications to be compared with Stephen Chow.

But they are popular and have high box office.

After the box office is high, even the negative reviews on the Internet can be said to be deliberately posted by someone out of jealousy, and can also be used for black-and-red publicity to attract more audiences to watch the movie.

In contrast, "The Crossing" had no box office success. In five days, it barely grossed 80 million.

There are no positive reviews either, only criticism online.

It's even worse than the original "1942".

He even has trouble doing black and red propaganda.

Xiao Wang stood up and said, "I think there is still a chance."

The other three looked up instantly.

“I’ve seen a major negative review of The Crossing online, which is that the first half of The Crossing is just a warm-up game, with no climax and no focus at all.

The audience waited for more than two hours, only to watch a complete quibble. The Oriental Titanic that we had previously promoted did not happen at all, and the ship did not sink at all.

In other words, their biggest dissatisfaction is actually the unreasonable plot setting of the movie. The things they hoped to see did not appear in the first half of the movie, so they are so angry.

Movies are not TV series. It usually takes one or two years between two movies. The audience naturally doesn't like the feeling of waiting too long. "The king perked up a little.

"Then you mean..."

Xiao Wang nodded and said, "Yes, I think a big part of the reason why audiences don't watch movies is that they are waiting for the second part. It's like eating. Half a bowl of rice is not enough, so why not wait for a full bowl before eating.

In addition, a large part of our investment is reserved for the second half, special effects, real-life ships, etc. The audience is really looking forward to it.”

The king felt a little relieved.

The audience is waiting for the second half.

If that's the case, it means there's still a chance.

"Ultimately, the current situation is still related to the plot design of 'The Crossing'. The first half is too dragged out." Xiao Wang gave his verdict on the film.

Wu Baige wanted to get angry but didn't dare to.

The ratio in the room was now three to one, so he had no advantage.

The only explanation is: "This is to keep the suspense and accumulate audience for the second half."

This kind of plot foreshadowing is very common in movies and TV dramas.

He even felt a little unconvinced. Why did Zhou Mo leave a scene of Zhao Shan waking up at the end when filming "Chu and Han" as a suspense?

Why can "Chu and Han" break the box office record?

Trash audience.

Garbage market.

What Wu Baige didn't realize was that, unknowingly, he had gradually turned into Zhou Mo's shape.

Many plans will follow Zhou Mo's steps and try to replicate Zhou Mo's operations.

The king asked back, "What about the second half of your movie?"

Wu Baige lowered his head: "Counting some subsequent additional shots and some new ideas, I will need about a year and a half..."

When the king heard this, he almost laughed out of anger.

A year and a half.

The day lilies are cold.

"Three months. I'll give you three months at most. This movie must be produced."

"No." Wu Baige refused immediately.

"Three months is too short. If the special effects are not finished, the box office will be damaged in the end. We can't afford to lose the big picture for the small."

He knew that the other party would definitely not be happy if he talked about the completeness of the movie.

Therefore, if you insist on not giving enough time, it will affect the box office.

"A year and a half is enough time to make another movie."

"But three months is too short."

After a moment, the king let out a long breath and took a step back.

Staring at Wu Baige, he said, "Half a year. I'll give you another half a year. The second half of The Crossing must be released during the summer. After that, I'd rather not rely on this movie and get my investment back. As for your props, I'll auction them all off. There will definitely be people who want them."

Wu Baige wanted to pull it again, but when he noticed the king's gaze, he knew that the other party had reached the limit of his patience, so he nodded and promised:

"Don't worry, Mr. Wang. There won't be any problems this time. The second half of the movie will be a climax from beginning to end and will satisfy the audience."

Da Wang continued, "Also, since The Crossing has come to this, let's reduce the publicity for it, let the platform reduce the popularity of the movie, let the audience forget about it as soon as possible, and minimize the negative impact."

The publicity director nodded and left.

These are basic operations and he is very experienced.

After the person in charge and Wu Baige left, only the two brothers were left in the office.

The two looked at each other, both still looking worried.

The problem with the movie itself has been solved, but the subsequent impact is not over yet.

What about the movie town?

What should we do about the company’s current funding gap?
The two brothers discussed the idea for a long time, but in the end the king made the final decision.

"Sell it, sell it to a whole town."

Xiao Wang's eyes widened: "Sell the town. We have invested so much money here. If we sell it now, won't all the things we have before be wasted?"

The king glanced at him and then looked away.

"What can we do if we don't sell? How can we fill the gap?"

Xiao Wang was speechless.

The king continued, "In fact, selling one or two is not a big problem. When we decided to do this a few years ago, we didn't think that development would be hindered in the next few years. Now selling one or two can make the capital flow easier and shrink the stall a little, which will be easier for us."

Xiao Wang nodded, that's true.

Around 2010, their company launched the film town plan, which was very popular at the time.

As a result, so many things have happened in the company in just a few years.

"Who are you going to sell the town to?"

The king suddenly smiled.

“We’ll sell it to whoever has money.”

(End of this chapter)