Yu Hao looked at his mobile phone, pursed his lips and said: "I can't say whether it's good or bad now. Anyway, the schedule is already very full, and we must fully meet the screening schedule of those blockbusters. It is estimated that there will be one or two screenings. Let’s test the waters, if anyone really likes to watch this type of movie!”
Tong Meng knew the identity of Li Li's second-generation ancestor, and her family was related to her own theater chain, so Chang'e Pictures usually took the lead in arranging films in the theaters affiliated to the New Film Alliance.
This is Lin Han's sentiment. There are really very few science fiction films in China, and the various films that claim to have used special effects of any amount are no more than that. This is indeed a shortcoming.
Chang'e Pictures contacted the theater chain. Judging from the presence of the theater managers at the scene, Chang'e Pictures' distribution capabilities are definitely not weak, otherwise it would not have been able to make "The Martian" box office break the 1 billion yuan mark!
"What do those people say now?"
…
At this time, he naturally had something to say, "Mr. Li, everyone thinks that "Immortal" is a good movie, but it is not very suitable for movie theaters, let alone the Spring Festival."
Li Li had a headache, and she asked: "How about one of these two games be put in prime time? You should give me this face, right?"
Xu Jiayan is now a hot actor. He has the best actor in Cannes and Golden Horse Awards, and he also has the high-grossing movie "The Martian". His popularity is unparalleled. During the Spring Festival, he can take advantage of "The Martian"'s Will Yu to attract a wave of viewers, but whether this popularity can be translated into box office needs to be tested in practice.
As the movie started to show, Lin Han also walked down low-key. He patted his chest and took a deep breath. He was so nervous that his palms were sweating just now.
"You're being direct, but I think this movie should be pretty good, at least it's not a bad movie as mentioned on the Internet, right?" Li Li, as a distributor, of course also wants to make money, and the cost of 100,000 yuan will be recovered soon. At that time, it was pure profit. She said: "People on the Internet thought this was a bad movie. When word of mouth increases, won't there be more viewers? Lin Han is the most popular writer in the country and even the world. You have to believe his fans quantity."
"Have you decided?"
"The movie is a good movie, but you don't know if it will be a hit or not!"
The fundamental factor that affects movie theater schedules is attendance. Movies that are well-received and well-received will naturally make more movies. But except for super blockbusters with excellent reputations, other films that want to compete with the films of the same period and win the favor of theaters have to use all kinds of martial arts!
It's just that "Immortality" was filmed and decided to be released only after the film's promotion meeting, so there was only one separate promotion meeting!
"A sci-fi movie without special effects?"
In fact, he is quite supportive of Hollywood science fiction blockbusters because they can bring revenue to theaters, but domestic science fiction films do not have much sense of honor or responsibility.
The current rules of the game in the film industry are to give priority to small films to blockbusters, and to large films to imported films. However, the Spring Festival movies include only domestic films, so the promotion plan is crucial.
Even if this number is not as good as "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" and "The Myth 2", which are the bosses of the Spring Festival, it is not much worse than "Bear Bears" and "Bear in India". This method of exposing one's shortcomings obviously has a very good effect!
However, Tong Meng is unwilling to back down. The Spring Festival is a money-grabbing time. It is impossible to put aside movies with a high probability of making money to screen this movie with an uncertain future. "Mr. Li, I have already scheduled two screenings to be extremely good." Big concessions have been made. Do you know other theater chains? Many of them don’t even want to schedule a show!"
Li Li, as the boss of the distributor, naturally came to the scene. She jokingly said: "Just with your and Xu Jiayan's names, there will be no shortage of films in this lineup!"
Lin Han straightened his tie. He would go on stage later to recommend movies. He would first sell the movies to these theater managers, and then the theaters would sell them to ordinary audiences.
The already crowded Spring Festival schedule has been squeezed into a science fiction film, and it is a filmmaker with no foundation like Lin Han, so it is normal for these companies to jointly expel it.
Don't underestimate the curiosity. The audience is very curious about what this science fiction film made with 100,000 yuan is like and how bad it can be!
Therefore, the number of people who want to watch Maoyan movies has soared from more than 6,000 to more than 80,000, and this is just one of the mobile APPs.
Many movies that have been abandoned by theaters are released at invalid screening times. This time it is "Immortal"'s turn!
Yu Hao found that everyone around him had this look. The shortcomings and advantages of "Immortal" were very clear, but the possibility of a box office hit was not high. The Spring Festival movies were all about light entertainment. Who would want to use their brains to overthrow themselves? Three views
"The format of this movie is a bit small, but the specific ideas are good and quite attractive. Those professors all played their true colors. No wonder it was shot so quickly. All the pressure was focused on Xu Jiayan alone."
But everyone knows that science fiction movies are not only about visual effects to bring special effects to the audience, but also about using plot to attract attention. This is where Chinese movies are not inferior to Hollywood movies!
"I hope the response will be better later. If only I could schedule more films!"
After listening to Lin Han's introduction, he couldn't help but shake his head. Although he didn't want to admit it, he had to say that the current audience just likes this. They only watch the special effects. Is the plot important
As a theater manager, he felt a little unsure for the first time, "No wonder the investment in this movie is so low. The actors don't need any money, and there is only one scene. People who like this genre will naturally like to watch it. People who don't like it will probably watch one." I wanted to quit after the hour didn’t change.”
Tong Meng was a little embarrassed, and he said: "Our cinema can now schedule 70 movies a day, but most of them have been allocated to movies of the same period. I can only schedule 2 movies a day for "Immortal". If If the attendance rate is high, we will adjust in time. If the show is not good, it will be taken offline the next day."
Once upon a time, Wang Xiaoshuai's new film "The Intruder" did not follow the unspoken rules. On the first day of its release, less than 1% of the film schedules were nationwide. Wang Xiaoshuai even angrily denounced it as a pre-publicized murder. The movie was announced in advance by the theater before it could see the audience. Death penalty!
The two of them were communicating in low voices while watching the movie on the big screen. Needless to say, Xu Jiayan's acting skills, but those professors also looked very natural!
…
For such a low-cost movie, so many viewers wanted to watch it, and the market became very popular all of a sudden.
Li Li stopped Tong Meng directly and said with a smile: "Manager Tong, what do you think of this movie?"
The 10 minutes passed quickly. Lin Han stood on the stage with a microphone and said: "I'm sorry to invite everyone to Beijing at this time, but you are not afraid of being late for a good meal. Being late does not mean that you will be late." It’s bad.”
"That's about right. Let's do more research when we go back. Anyway, this movie is not easy to lose money!"
Before the main movie begins, a 10-minute promotional material is played. The recommendation of the producer is what theater managers pay most attention to. What they care most about is the influence of the movie before it is released, and now "The Immortal" is obviously It did just that, turning it from an unknown science fiction movie with fly-level investment to a topic that netizens are eager to talk about!
Chen Jiaxuan patted him on the back and said, "The fact that so many people are here means that they are quite optimistic about the movie. Don't worry about it."
Many unfavorable factors have gathered together, which is a fatal threat to any movie, but "Immortal" is a bit strange. Not many people wanted to watch this science fiction film. After seeing Lin Han's After posting on Weibo, everyone was very curious, what kind of movie is this
But no one expected that the dirty water thrown out would actually become a boost for "Immortal" and help it appear in the eyes of more viewers. This is simply regrettable!
"This easter egg is quite interesting. The original open-ended ending directly gave the answer. Based on this easter egg, the whole movie should have a good reputation."
Film schedules are divided into prime screenings and invalid screenings. The prime screenings are usually on weekday evenings, and the afternoons and evenings on weekends or holidays; as for the invalid screenings, they are in the morning time period. Generally, few people come to watch movies during this time period.
"Seventy shows a day, only give us two? This is too exaggerated, how about seven or five?" Li Li started bargaining, how much box office can two shows a day bring
"Yes, there are many good movies these days, but we are not running a charity."
Tong Meng is a theater manager of Beijing New Film Alliance. New Film Alliance is not a strong theater chain. It is not even ranked in the top ten in the national film market and only accounts for less than 3% of the market.
In addition to the purposeful movie-watching crowd in the theater, the screening of movies greatly affects the audience's movie-watching choices.
In the bustling hall, more than a hundred theater chain executives came from all over the country, plus the producer Galaxy Films and the distributor Chang'e Pictures, a total of about two hundred people. They gathered here just for one thing, and that was the movie promotion meeting of "Immortality"!
No matter what the theater managers in the audience thought, polite applause still broke out at this time. These are businessmen, not pure movie lovers or science fiction lovers. The only thing that wants to impress them is the movie itself.
A movie costing RMB 100,000 has to be squeezed into the Spring Festival schedule. This is really overestimating its capabilities.
Chang'e Pictures has made objective estimates of target audiences, marketing plans, and attendance rates, and has different publicity strategies for different regions!
"Yeah, the story is pretty good. I almost believe what this person said. If there really is such a person hiding among us, how can we tell him apart?"
…
Lin Han didn't say anything else. He had no intention of watching the movie at this time. Instead, he focused on the theater managers watching the movie, trying to read something from their facial expressions.
"The main selling point of the movie "Immortal" is the storyline. It is a movie without any gorgeous special effects and returns to pure science fiction. People who are willing to think and use their brains will like this movie. Since we are in the visual effects It can’t compare to Hollywood, so why not work on the plot you’re best at?”
Box office success or failure is closely related to film schedule. In this case, finding a strong distribution company becomes particularly important.
"This is a film rich in the spirit of pure science fiction. There is no science fiction at all. Everything lies in chatting and dialogue. Of course, we can call the entire film a scientific experiment. When the protagonist puts forward theoretical hypotheses At that time, other scientists came up with various ways to prove that this was false. Make bold assumptions and verify carefully! I believe that after watching the movie, everyone will have various doubts. This is what we want to achieve. Let everyone exchange ideas, broaden their horizons, and deepen their thinking!”
Tong Meng turned around and discussed in a low voice with his colleagues who came all the way from Sichuan-Sichuan Pacific Film, "Yu Hao, do you think this movie has a clue?"
Gradually, Tong Meng frowned. The movie had been playing for more than an hour, but the scene was still in this room. No new characters were added, but the topics discussed became more and more in-depth.
This is the unspoken rule of the entire industry. Lin Han cannot and cannot break it. After all, the film market is worth tens of billions and indirectly affects all aspects. It is not something that he, a small director, can control!
"I think the same thing. I don't know what Lin Han thinks. This kind of low-cost movie has to go to the Spring Festival period to join in the fun. Maybe it's better to put it in the spring period when there is less competition. It should be released after the Lantern Festival. There aren’t many blockbusters left that are suitable for a movie that wants to be a hit.”
"It looks like there are quite a lot of people today. I thought none of them would show up." Miao Hong said with some surprise. He came to Beijing for a film. This is definitely the role of the distribution company.
Miao Hong shook his head, "These are all old friends. They won't express anything before watching the movie."
Attending the film promotion event of "Immortal" is just to see what kind of movie it will be, and it is also a way to support Chang'e Pictures!
After the movie ended, the theater managers did not express their opinions on the spot. They stood up on their own. Some familiar people greeted each other, and some said goodbye to the people from the distribution department of Chang'e Pictures. No one said directly. Give Lin Han the answer he wants.
In this context, the importance of theaters is naturally self-evident.
This year’s New Year’s Day is January 28th. It’s less than half a month since the Chinese New Year. It’s the most important time for all film companies to strive to schedule films. No matter how good a movie is, it can’t achieve good box office without a film schedule. The same goes for There are too many theater chains that don’t have good movies to attract audiences and can’t make money!
Originally, the movie promotion meeting was held once a quarter, and it was conducted by the distribution company. The Spring Festival movie promotion meeting had been completed a few months ago.