Chapter 274 Summer Vacation Begins

"Alas, there is nothing I can do. They are all my acquaintances. They have repeatedly asked me to play a role, and I cannot refuse to give them face. They have helped me in the past.

Favors are the hardest thing to refuse."

In the Xingchen Film and Television Company, the post-production of "Lost on Journey" had already been completed, but even so, Xu Zheng would come and stroll around whenever he had time.

In his words, watching finished films often makes him feel at ease.

While chatting with Gu Wei, we talked about the movie "Xiyouji" which was released yesterday, produced by Mango TV and starring Xu Zheng.

As soon as the movie was released, it was attacked by netizens.

"I've seen bad movies, but it's rare to see one this bad."

"The plot is so confusing and forced to be funny that it gave me goosebumps."

Netizens first scolded the movie and then scolded the leading actor. As the leading actor, Xu Zheng was criticized a lot.

"So what are you going to do? Just stand there like this."

Gu Wei smiled and said that he could understand this situation. Whether a movie is good or not can’t be blamed entirely on the actors. The director should bear most of the responsibility.

"What else can I do? I'll post on Weibo, apologize, and try to win the fans' forgiveness."

When the time came, Xu Zheng finally thought it over. He talked to the producer last night, and the other party told him not to pay attention to it. There were a lot of things going on in the circle anyway, and netizens would soon forget about it.

But considering that he still has movies that have not been released, he can't ruin his reputation and affect his career as a director.

"Haha, I guess the producer will be unhappy with your post on Weibo."

"Whatever you want, I will never take this kind of crappy movie again. It's too damaging to my reputation."

Xu Zheng also took the risk and made up his mind.

The next day, Xu Zheng indeed responded on Weibo.

"I want to say sorry to everyone, I want to say sorry to all the friends who went to the theater to support me, this movie is really a bad movie..."

The leading actor apologized personally, and some netizens chose to forgive him, while others still mocked him.

Mango TV producer also responded and started a quarrel with Xu Zheng.

By late July, the filming of "Love Is Not Blind" came to an end, with daily box office revenue of only one or two million.

This movie, the biggest dark horse in the first half of the year, is about to be released. With a box office of over 2.5 million RMB, it is a typical low-budget movie.

Influenced by it, a large number of small and medium-sized film and television companies began to imitate it. According to data released by the General Administration, more than a dozen urban love comedy projects were launched during this period.

After seeing the profit from "Love Is Not Blind", everyone wanted to make a small profit with a big investment and cash in.

As the male and female protagonists of the film, Zhu Yawen and Su Chang's status in the circle has skyrocketed, and this film has become their representative work.

Among the latest commented young actresses born after 85, Su Chang surpassed Yang Mi and others and is catching up with the four Dans and two Bings.

Zhu Yawen also shows signs of becoming a first-tier actor.

Not to mention Lu Yang, a new member of the domestic 200 million box office club. At this stage, the figure of 200 million is still impressive.

...

The film industry is peaceful, but the television industry is becoming lively.

"Mimi, just focus on filming and don't worry too much about the comments online."

As one of the new rising young actresses, Yang Mi has not had an easy time recently. She once set Liu Yifei as her goal and thought she could surpass her in the future.

As a result, Liu Yifei became more and more popular, and now Yang Mi can't even compare to Su Chang.

"Yes, I know. I will work hard and try to surpass Su Chang."

The crew of "Palace" had just started working. After Yang Mi finished a day's filming, she felt a little sad after seeing the news, but she could only accept the comfort of her assistant.

As for reaching Liu Yifei's level, Yang Mi doesn't dare to think about it for the time being, as the gap is too big.

At the Tangren Film and Television Company, Cai Yinong’s face grew increasingly ugly as he read the report about “China’s first Qing Dynasty costume drama”.

As a giant in the field of TV dramas, Tangren got up early and arrived late this time.

I suffered a loss!
"Announce it to the public. The filming will start in December at the latest. Let's get the name out there first. Our TV series has a reader base. As long as the quality is good, we don't have to be afraid of them."

In 2006, the online novel "Startling by Each Step" was published as a book, which was praised as "the best production of Qing Dynasty" and has a large number of readers and fans.

"Also, please stop including Liu Yifei in external publicity."

Cai Yinong also read the comments of netizens. In the past two years, Tangren was still able to pull Liu Yifei along and promote Liu Shishi, but bringing Liu Yifei along again now can only leave a bad impression on netizens.

"Mr. Cai, I understand."

Not daring to offend Liu Yifei does not mean not daring to offend Yu Zheng. As soon as the filming of "Palace" started, Tangren Film and Television hired internet trolls to start attacking.

The fan groups of Liu Shishi and Yang Mi also started to criticize each other, making the scene quite lively.

The celebration party for "Love Is Not Blind" was organized by Xingchen Films, with Guangguang Films assisting and also making a lot of efforts. After all, the other party was responsible for the distribution and made a lot of money.

"How do you like this? Does it look good?"

In the villa, Liu Yifei was choosing clothes and gesturing constantly.

"You look good in anything you wear. If you don't go over now, you'll be late."

Gu Wei looked at his watch and it was almost time.

"It's annoying. It's all your fault. You never let me get up." Liu Yifei rolled her eyes and said angrily.

"Haha, blame me. I'm not in a hurry. I let them wait."

Gu Wei touched his nose and dared not urge him anymore.

Near noon, Gu Wei, Liu Yifei and other talents arrived at the scene.

Not many people were invited to this celebration party as several big directors were busy with movies and most other big names in the circle were busy rushing to schedule releases.

As for the film and television companies, only Wang Changtian was relatively active. Han Sanping and others were too busy to come.

Gu Wei was not familiar with the remaining small and medium-sized companies, and many of them were newly established and had almost no outstanding works.

In addition to the performers, the largest number of visitors are media reporters. They receive food, drinks, red envelopes, and can also shoot some footage, so it's a good job.

The celebration party was simple, just a simple cocktail party and smashing the ice cubes with the number 2.5 million on them.

As for some supporting actors, such as Zhang Jiayi, Wang Yaoqing and others, Gu Wei talked to them and they are all good actors. There might be a chance for them to work together in the future.

...

On the 22nd, "The Great Earthquake" was released as scheduled.

The first-day box office was 3620 million, breaking the single-day box office record of the imported film "Avatar".

Everyone who saw the movie shed tears in the cinema, and "Earthquake" has demonstrated a very high reputation.

The producer Huayi Brothers has set a box office goal of 6 million yuan.

“Is the box office really high or is it just inflated?”

7月22日《唐山大地震》首映，加上7月21日在部分院线举行的点映，华谊公布《唐山大地震》当天取得了3620万票房，宣称这一数字打破了《阿凡达》在年初创造的3600万首日票房纪录。

However, many media and audiences have expressed doubts about this. In the face of doubts, Huayi announced the 113 original statistical receipts of the first day box office of "Aftershock" on the Internet, welcoming netizens and media supervision. This is also the first time that the producer has announced the box office report of a movie.

Huayi head Wang Zhonglei, director Feng Xiaogang, and the head of the Film Bureau also made official responses to the questions.

"Director Gu, have you read the news online?"

As soon as Lu Yang entered the company office, he asked impatiently.

"Yeah, I just saw it."

Gu Wei said lightly.

"I don't know if what they said is true or not, can they still falsify the box office?"

What Lu Yang was talking about was the first-day box office incident of "Aftershock".

"First-day box office mystery: Aftershock announced its box office three times in one day."

Some reporters raised questions online, mainly after the premiere of "Aftershock".

There are several sets of statistics about the box office: At noon on July 7, Sina called the Film Bureau and obtained data on the box office of 23 million. At around 3300 pm, another media announced that the box office exceeded 3400 million. In the evening, Huayi Brothers released a press release stating that the first-day box office had reached 3620 million, and "the first-day box office exceeded that of Avatar."

It is these three numbers a day that have confused many netizens.

"Which one is true and which one is false?".

Among them, the statement of "surpassing Avatar" has aroused doubts among netizens, who believed that the film company added the box office on the 23rd to the box office on the first day, using a trick to create a prosperous scene.

"It's mainly because domestic blockbusters' false box office reports have scared everyone, and people no longer believe them. When faced with Aftershock's first-day box office exceeding Avatar's, it's hard not to be cautious. Who knows if it will be another Black Cat Sheriff?"

Many netizens have raised questions. It is undeniable that "Earthquake" has a good reputation, but this data is quite outrageous.

In addition, there is a lack of independent third-party box office statistics agencies in China, and the timely release of movie box office data can only rely on two channels:
One is a film producer (selling watermelons), and the other is a cinema chain (running a fruit stall), and both have a certain relationship with the product (watermelons).

In addition, the first-day box office of "Earthquake" was 3620 million, which was only 20 more than "Avatar", which made people wonder whether this number was released for hype.

"Huayi Films will release the original box office statistics for 113 tickets, and welcomes supervision from netizens and the media."

Faced with doubts, Wang Zhonglei responded immediately.

"Maybe. Whatever Huayi does is normal. It's not the first time they do these fancy things."

Gu Wei chuckled and didn't take it to heart.

The next day, in addition to box office doubts, many viewers also complained that the 15-minute interstitial ads in the movie were too long.

It was later revealed that "The Great Earthquake" had nearly 100 million yuan worth of advertising embedded in it. In the film, viewers could see advertisements for a certain brand of liquor, a certain bank, a certain car model, a certain insurance company, a certain down jacket, etc.

Some of the advertisements were a bit abrupt and affected the viewing experience of the movie.

Feng Xiaogang responded urgently: "There is no way for domestic films to make money, so product placement is a must."

Netizens would not tolerate him and started to criticize him online.

"I paid to watch a movie, and you show me ads?"

“If you don’t make money, I have to watch ads?”

“So if you make money, we have to watch ads too?”

Three hits in a row, seeing that the situation was getting out of control, Feng Xiaogang directly pushed the responsibility to the theater chain, accusing the theaters of dividing up most of the box office, saying that we must protect ourselves and that product placement is a last resort.

……

(End of this chapter)