Chapter 189 Key Extension and Roadshow End

When you are in the circle of fame and fortune, there are some things that even if you don’t want to do, someone will push you to do them.

Just when Yang Hao, Lu Yang and others were still in the third week of their roadshow.

A phone call came to Yang Hao.

The caller ID showed that it was the head of China Film Group, Ci Peikang.

"Brother, I'm going to take a call. It's from President Ci of China Film Group. I guess he's calling about the extension of the key for "Knife Assassin 2"." Ci Peikang usually wouldn't call in person unless it was something important. At this juncture, Yang Hao couldn't think of any other reason for him to call except for the extension of the key for "Knife Assassin 2".

"Well, go quickly, this is a big deal," Senior Brother Lu Yang nodded to show his understanding.

After saying hello to Lu Yang, Yang Hao walked away, found a secluded corner, and prepared to answer the phone.

"Yang Hao! You really gave me a surprise." The call was connected. Just as Yang Hao was about to say hello, Ci Peikang spoke first. It could be heard that Ci Peikang was in a really good mood.

"No, no, Mr. Ci, "Blade Identity 2" is also possible thanks to your support." Yang Hao debuted for more than two years, and many of his skills were given by the system, but this communication ability, flattery and saying nice things, were definitely the result of his own hard work.

"The key extension for "Knife of the Assassin 2" has been approved. You will need to worry about the follow-up matters and strive to break the box office record of the martial arts film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" this time." When Ci Peikang said this, he emphasized the word "worry".

Ci Peikang's speech is still as artistic as ever.

You still need to worry about the follow-up matters and try to break the box office record of the martial arts film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" this time.

In particular, he emphasized the word "worry", which is exactly the same as what he said when he required "The Richest Tomato" to break the 20 billion box office.

Yang Hao understood what Ci Peikang meant. If "Knife of the Assassin 2" fell short of breaking the box office record, he would privately buy some box office revenue.

In fact, things like ghost soldiers borrowing the road are very normal in the entertainment industry. Yang Hao dares to say that all film and television companies have done it, it’s just a matter of how much they do it.

Generally speaking, as long as you don't go too far, no one will take it too seriously.

Last time, Yang Hao was somewhat reluctant to buy box office tickets for "The Richest Tomato", but this time for "Knife of the Assassin 2", Yang Hao was willing.

The main reason is that "Knife of the Assassin 2" broke the box office record of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which is good for him.

Yang Hao could see that Senior Brother Lu Yang was planning to make "The Blade of the Assassin" into a series of movies. "The Blade of the Assassin 2" broke the box office record and won the title of the number one martial arts film, which would be of great benefit to the subsequent "The Blade of the Assassin 3".

"Okay, Mr. Ci, I will try my best to make 'Knife Identity 2' break the box office record of 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'," Yang Hao also emphasized the word "try to", and his meaning could not be more obvious.

"Haha, Yang Hao, you're very good." An old hand in the system like Ci Peikang understood Yang Hao's words immediately, so he laughed happily on the other end of the phone.

Ci Peikang is now more and more satisfied with Yang Hao. When he first took office, the box office of "The Richest Tomato" directed by Yang Hao reached 20 billion, directly breaking the box office record and pushing Chinese films from the era of more than one billion box office to the era of billion box office.

Now, a martial arts film "Knife of the Assassin 2" is about to break the record of martial arts films that has been dormant for 14 years.

Although the total box office of "Knife of the Assassin 2" is definitely not as good as "The Richest Tomato", breaking the box office record of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is of extraordinary significance.

This significance is more important than "The Richest Tomato" breaking the Chinese film box office record.

Although "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" had high box office, the box office revenue of this Chinese-language film mainly came from overseas.

In the past, Chinese people were always proud of being abroad, and it seemed that as long as they achieved success in something overseas, it would be a great honor.

In that era, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" achieved great success in both box office and awards overseas, which definitely made the Chinese people proud.

But times have changed, and with the rise of China's economy, the Chinese people's sense of pride has grown stronger.

It would be inappropriate to let a movie that relies mainly on overseas box office weigh down the martial arts film like a mountain.

This doesn't feel like an honor so much as a shame.

"Knife of the Assassin 2" broke the box office record of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" which had remained untouched for 14 years. For Ci Peikang, this is definitely a political achievement.

When Yang Hao returned to the group of Liu Shishi, Lei Jiayin and others, Senior Brother Lu Yang immediately walked up to them and asked nervously,

"Has the key extension for "Blade Identity 2" been decided?"

It can be seen that Lu Yang is very concerned about whether "Knife Assassin 2" can get the key extension. After all, getting the key extension means that "Knife Assassin 2" has a chance to break the box office record of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

If this record is broken and we only look at the movie box office, Lu Yang will be the best martial arts film director.

With this honor, his status and reputation in the film industry will be completely different in the future.

"Don't worry, brother. The key extension for "Assassin's Blade 2" has been obtained. Director Ci also needs this honor. He may care about this matter more than us," Yang Hao patted Lu Yang's arm, signaling him to rest assured.

After hearing Yang Hao's answer, Lu Yang thought about it for a moment and understood the logic.

He, Lu Yang, needs this honor, and Ci Peikang needs this political achievement even more.

Compared to him, Ci Peikang should be more anxious.

Thinking of this, Lu Yang breathed a sigh of relief and put his heart back in his stomach.

As the roadshow progresses, the third week box office figures for "Knife of the Assassin 2" have also been released.

At this time, Yang Hao also felt the benefits of cooperating with an industry giant like China Film.

According to past experience, the screening rate of a movie will often drop significantly by the third week, but this time China Film Group was very considerate and even in the third week, the screening rate did not drop below 20 percent.

Despite the relatively high budget, "Knife Identity 2" still achieved a box office of 2.47 million yuan in its third week.

So far, the total box office of "Assassin's Blade 2" in three weeks has reached 13.41 billion.

It is only 16 million yuan away from the 2.59 billion yuan box office record of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

Yang Hao silently calculated in his mind. Considering the fourth week of the movie's release and the one month of key extension, it shouldn't be a problem for the box office to break 16 billion. Even if it's a little short, it won't hurt to use Yin Bing to buy some box office revenue.

In short, "Knife of the Assassin 2" is sure to break the box office record of martial arts films set by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
-
After three weeks of roadshow, it finally ended.

Yang Hao, Lu Yang, Liu Shishi, Lei Jiayin, Xin Zhilei and Zhang Yi had a farewell dinner together before going their separate ways.

Seeing Lu Yang, Lei Jiayin, Xin Zhilei, and Zhang Yi finish their meal and head straight to the airport, Yang Hao couldn't help but sigh: "My former boss was better, there weren't so many restrictions."

Because the roadshow of "Assassin's Blade 2" was delayed by a week, Lei Jiayin, Xin Zhilei, and Zhang Yi have turned down many work invitations and are now anxious to go back and join the crew overnight.

"Why are you still here?" Yang Hao was very confused when he saw that Liu Shishi did not go to the airport. Among these people, Liu Shishi should be the most popular and she should have the most announcements.

"Hmph! Are you starting to dislike me now? If Sister K hadn't told me to spend more time with you and that there was no rush for work, I would have left long ago." Hearing Yang Hao's question, Liu Shishi rolled her eyes at Yang Hao and snorted in dissatisfaction.

Yang Hao was happy to hear Liu Shishi say this.

When Nazha was with her before, Sister K protected her like a chick, fearing that she would kidnap Nazha away.

Every time Nazha came to see her secretly, within a few days, Sister K would come and take Nazha away.

You know, Nazha is only a small artist in Tangren, while Liu Shishi is the real number one artist in Tangren.

When she was weak, Sister K was reluctant to let go even of Nazha, but now that she is gradually becoming more powerful, she is even willing to let go of the company's top sister Liu Shishi.

This made Yang Hao think: "This Sister K is so realistic. I have heard about Sister K giving away her daughter before. According to her personality, this may really be true."

"No, I don't dislike you. I like you so much! How could I dislike you?" Seeing that Liu Shishi looked angry, Yang Hao quickly coaxed her.

"Hmph! Do you think I will believe you?" With a cold snort, Liu Shishi walked straight towards the hotel.

Yang Hao quickly caught up with him.
-
On the big bed in the hotel, Liu Shishi no longer looked angry at all.

Between good friends with deep relationships, there is nothing that cannot be solved on the ship. No matter how angry you are, as long as you take some imported medicine, the illness will be cured.

Liu Shishi was like this at the moment. After taking the imported medicine, she had no time to be angry.

When everything returned to calm, Liu Shishi only felt sore and weak all over. She lay in a big cross position and didn't want to move at all. She lay on her back and looked at the ceiling of the hotel.

After being taken care of by Yang Hao, Liu Shishi's complexion became rosy and her beautiful eyes were watery as she looked at the ceiling.

There was some unkemptness between her brows, and her skin seemed so delicate that water could be squeezed out of it. Liu Shishi looked quite charming in this state.

Half a moment later, Liu Shishi came back to her senses and felt as if her body had regained consciousness and was full of energy.

Now she was like a little kitten, snuggling obediently in Yang Hao's arms.

"My dear, these days of roadshows are really tiring. Fortunately, you are here, otherwise I'm afraid I really can't hold on," Liu Shishi said softly.

"Do you think roadshows are really helpful for movie box office?" Liu Shishi looked at Yang Hao with sparkling eyes, waiting for an answer.

Before "Assassins 2", Liu Shishi had been playing around in TV dramas and had participated in a few movies, but they were all low-budget films that didn't have many screenings. The crew was extremely poor and had no money to hold roadshows. This was her first time to participate in a roadshow.

In fact, Liu Shishi found it difficult to understand the roadshow. The roadshow, which lasted for about 20 days, only covered a dozen cities and a hundred theaters. She only stayed in each theater for one or two hours. She couldn't understand how much impact such a small coverage rate could have on the movie box office.

After hearing what Liu Shishi said, Yang Hao fell into deep thought, thinking about how to answer this question.

Roadshows actually just serve to add icing on the cake, but ultimately it all comes down to the quality of the film.

When a film crew has well-known stars, if they go on a roadshow in theaters, they will definitely attract a certain amount of traffic during this time period, and the theater manager will also increase the screening schedule of the film on that day, which will definitely help the box office.

Roadshows are actually just a means of promoting a movie. If the movie has been promoted very well in other forms, the roadshow is actually not very meaningful.

But for movies with average publicity and promotion, roadshows are very meaningful and can accelerate the spread of word-of-mouth in the early stages of the movie.

The most classic case is "Wolf Warrior 2".

The promotion and marketing of "Wolf Warrior 2" was mediocre, and theaters were not very optimistic about it.

On the first day of the movie’s release, Wolf Warrior’s screenings accounted for only 14.4 percent.

But surprisingly, with only 2% of the screenings, "Wolf Warrior 14.4" actually took 58% of the box office and earned million yuan.

The box office was three times the screening schedule. Such a horrific result directly prompted the theater to adjust the screening schedule of "Wolf Warrior 2" to more than % the next day.

"Wolf Warrior 2" is always just an exception. There are more movies in the industry like "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Strikes Back", which is bound to fail no matter how it is promoted and marketed, or even if it is withdrawn or postponed.

Because "Wolf Warrior 2" has not yet been filmed and released, Yang Hao did not mention "Wolf Warrior 2" to Liu Shishi. He just explained his understanding of the roadshow to Liu Shishi in detail.

"Oh!" After listening to Yang Hao's explanation, Liu Shishi suddenly realized.

"Honey, was the promotion of "The Richest Tomato" so successful that you didn't organize a roadshow?" Liu Shishi asked curiously, burying her head in Yang Hao's chest.

"Uh!" After hearing Liu Shishi's question, Yang Hao really didn't know how to answer.

Of course, the publicity and promotion of "The Richest Tomato" was very good. It was the system that did the publicity and promotion for itself, and directly returned funds to attract fans to watch the movie.

You can’t tell Liu Shishi about this system.

"Well, the publicity and promotion of "The Richest Tomato" is indeed very good," Yang Hao could only say vaguely.

"It's very late now, let's do some serious work and then go to bed!" Yang Hao was afraid that she would continue to ask about how "The Richest Tomato" was promoted, so he pretended to be lustful and changed the topic to the story of Adam and Eve.

……

Yang Hao also discovered that Liu Shishi was usually a very difficult person to be charming, but after taking the imported medicine, Liu Shishi's eyes not only had a gleam of light, as if they could speak, but her whole temperament also became lazy and charming.

Yang Hao took out Liu Shishi's makeup mirror from her bag and asked her to look in the mirror.

"Shishi, the filming of 'Detective Chinatown 3' will start soon. The heroine A Xiang, played by you, is a charming woman, the kind that makes men feel like they are electrocuted when they look at her."

Having said this, Yang Hao paused and asked Liu Shishi to look in the mirror and remember her current appearance.

"Shishi, you look very charming now. When the crew starts filming, I need you to be in this state."

(End of this chapter)