Depressive Screenwriter

In early July, major television stations successively began broadcasting their summer season dramas.

However, without the addition of Su Yan's new drama, the viewership ratings were lukewarm, with the highest-rated drama's premiere viewership rating being only 4.52%. In previous years, this would have been an excellent result, but now, everyone felt it was just so-so, like 'when the cat's away, the mice will play'.

On the other side, in the film sector, as primary and secondary school students, as well as university students, across the country successively began their holidays, Xia Country's daily box office also climbed steadily. Although there weren't any heavyweight films being released, the daily total box office soared from the previous average of thirty to fifty million to nearly one hundred million.

In this situation, the first blockbuster film of the summer season, the military-themed film "Assault", was released.

Although there weren't any strong competitors in the same period, the Xia Country populace didn't have the same level of enthusiasm for military-themed films as Su Yan's previous world.

Xia Country in this world was already a powerful nation, historically dominating its neighbors, so the public generally didn't like watching these types of works.

On the opening day of "Assault", the film accounted for 37% of screenings, but the premiere box office was only 61 million.

Furthermore, over the next two weekend days, the box office revenue declined to 53 million and 59 million respectively, with the total box office for the opening week being less than 180 million.

Although this result confirmed that the film could recoup its costs through box office revenue sharing, it was basically impossible for it to become a box office hit.

In fact, when a film is released alone at a time with little competition, the competition is indeed smaller, but this also means that there will be less media coverage, and the audience's desire to watch the film will also be reduced.

Joining in the fun is in the nature of Xia Country people.

Movie fans may only go to the cinema to watch one film, but they absolutely don't want to go to the cinema and only have one film worth watching!

Although four big-budget films were released together on July 16th, the media, cinemas, and the internet all focused their discussion on these four films: who would take the lead, who would become the box office champion of July, or even the champion of the entire July-August summer season.

Related topics would greatly stimulate movie fans' desire to watch the films.

Five days before the release of "5 Centimeters Per Second", Su Yan, who had long since returned to the Tokyo area, was also leading Shinozaki Ikumi in launching the final promotion for "5 Centimeters Per Second" in the Sakurajima area.

At the same time, the film industry was also experiencing undercurrents.

The efforts put into the publicity and distribution of the four big-budget films, and the movie fans' expectations for these four films, were directly reflected in the pre-screening arrangements of the four films by the theaters.

Although there were many inside stories and monetary transactions mixed in with the screening arrangements.

However, when everyone has money and is willing to spend it, the significance of spending this money is not very great.

In fact, the final decision on the screening ratio still depends on market expectations and film quality.

Movie fans in Xia Country can only see the content of the film on the day of release, but the heads of these theaters have already watched the finished films.

Honestly, among these four films, the one that impressed these film industry colleagues the most was undoubtedly "5 Centimeters Per Second".

The lingering impact of this film is not only targeted at young people, but also makes audiences of all ages feel depressed after watching it.

The comedy film "Sad Family" is quite mediocre.

"Black Mist" basically has a plot that starts off amazing, but later becomes a cliché monster-fighting plot.

The film "Windmill" is excellent, a standard commercial romance film, but it is too standard, so standard that it lacks a sense of surprise.

Every aspect is handled very well, but none of them exceed the audience's expectations.

Only "5 Centimeters Per Second", in the history of romance films in Xia Country, there is only this one work of this style.

The story it wants to express is also so sad that people feel a sense of sorrow after thinking about it.

However, what will be the box office performance of such a unique film?

Will the audience buy it?

Will a large number of negative reviews from fans after the premiere lead to a box office collapse?

After much consideration by relevant personnel, the screening arrangement for "Windmill", a film starring a movie queen and a movie king, and the largest investment in the period, was naturally given the highest.

21%

Although it is standard, it represents stability. Anyway, give it the screenings first, there will be no problem.

The first-day screening ratio of "5 Centimeters Per Second" and "Black Mist" ranked second, at 16%.

As for "Sad Family", the screening arrangement was only 12%.

The remaining 35% of screenings were shared by "Assault", which had a total box office of only 270 million in its first week of release, and a number of other small and medium-sized investment films.

On Thursday, when the relevant arrangement data of all Xia Country theaters came out, fans from all walks of life were scolding, especially Su Yan's fans, who were directly dissatisfied.

"Why? Before the release, the search popularity of "5 Centimeters Per Second" on various websites was completely comparable to that of the film "Windmill", so why is the screening arrangement so different?"

"They are reluctant to spend money on publicity, are you Su Yan fans going to be upset about this? A newcomer in the film industry, what else do you want with a 16% screening arrangement on the first day in this period? Have you not thought about what will happen if the first-day results are not good, on the second day? If that's the case, you won't be able to directly blacken and go crazy!"

"You fans of 'Windmill' don't be too happy too soon, don't let the first-day screening be the highest, and then the first-day box office champion is snatched away, that would be funny."

"Stop fantasizing, who can steal the first-day box office champion of 'Windmill'? That '5 Centimeters Per Second' without a clear protagonist? A film that has invited so many well-known movie stars to participate, but there is no absolute lead role, you don't need to watch it to know that the plot must be scattered."

"These are all comments made by people who haven't seen Old Thief's works."

"I never watch TV dramas, they are boring to the extreme. And don't think that movies are the same as TV dramas, what king of TV drama ratings, don't think that you were lucky last year and mixed up some results, so you think the film industry is his ATM. This year's summer season movie market will bring Su Yan back to reality. Just make TV dramas well, don't come to the film industry to embarrass yourself."

"You fans of Yu Jingyao don't be too happy too soon, what movie queen, but just an outdated female star who hasn't had a movie on the market for three years. Want to make a comeback with the movie 'Windmill', dream on."

"Whether it's a mule or a horse, we'll know tomorrow. I've already booked a ticket for 'Windmill' at 7 pm tomorrow. I'll sit and watch the first day of the release of this so-called '5 Centimeters Per Second', and see if the word-of-mouth collapses!"

Late at night, Qiao Yueling was still passionately arguing with fans from all walks of life online.

Because before the release of the film, with the support of the media and fans, the popularity of "5 Centimeters Per Second" was not inferior to that of "Windmill", which was also a romance film.

The two films were released in the same period, the same type of film, and the main creative teams of both sides, one was the traffic king of the TV drama circle, and the other was a big-budget work featuring the movie king and queen of the film circle, so the fans of both sides must not like each other.

In particular, the fans of the film "Windmill" looked down on Su Yan and "5 Centimeters Per Second".

A screenwriter from the TV drama circle also wants to win the summer season box office champion, how could it be so easy?

Where there is profit, there is struggle.

This kind of thing is normal.

It's just that for Qiao Yueling, a die-hard Su Yan fan who likes to be serious, she just doesn't accept it.

However, at two o'clock in the morning, she turned off the computer and gave up arguing.

After all, she still had to go to work tomorrow, and she had to watch the premiere of "5 Centimeters Per Second" at 7 pm, so she had to rest early and get enough energy.

The next morning, Qiao Yueling arrived at the company on time. After working listlessly for a day, she immediately perked up after getting off work at six in the afternoon.

She quickly came to the cinema near the company, took her reserved movie ticket, and then carefully observed the surrounding environment.

The cinema tonight was not crowded, but at least it was packed.

More than half of the people were students on vacation.

And in this large cinema in the Shanghai area, Qiao Yueling could also see a group of Su Yan's fans at a glance.

After all, people who would dress up as characters from "Puella Magi Madoka Magica", people who would wear Sakurajima's ethnic costumes and hold long swords to cosplay Kenshin Himura, could tell their components at a glance.

A group of people in the theater either gave each other an appreciative look, or silently waited for the release time to arrive.

Qiao Yueling casually bought some food from the mall to eat as dinner, and then looked at the time.

It was almost seven o'clock.

Under the arrangement of the staff, the 7 o'clock show of "5 Centimeters Per Second" began to enter the hall for ticket checking.

Qiao Yueling took a deep breath and walked into the theater with the movie ticket.

Not to say that the entire theater was full, but at least 80% to 90% of the seats were occupied, and most of them were couples.

This made Qiao Yueling a little embarrassed.

"What about the rumor that Old Thief's fans are all single? Letting you couples come to the cinema, what if Old Thief's film is really a depressing ending, how will you end up!"

Qiao Yueling thought to herself before the movie started.