Chapter 237 Strong Crush
The day when the box office results of "A Chinese Odyssey" were released was the first day of the release of "Pacific Rim 2".

Cinemas in the commercial centers of major cities in the mainland are almost all packed with people coming to watch mechas fight monsters. Many cinemas have sold out all the tickets for the day early on.

Seeing this situation, most viewers usually decide to watch it again in two days.

But I was also a little anxious, so I took a taxi to a remote cinema to watch the movie.

As a result, some cinemas in poor locations had an attendance rate of over 23% on the rd, and some showtimes even had an attendance rate of %.

Seeing this, the manager of a cinema in the suburbs of Beijing couldn't help but sigh, "It has to be Director Jiang's film. The audience is so crowded, they are really enthusiastic!"

The finance lady at the side said with a smile: "That's right. Our cinema chose such a shabby location, almost to the Fifth Ring Road. Usually there are not many people coming. We rely on Director Jiang's films to make some money all year round!"

The manager sighed, "That's right. Without Director Jiang's film, we really can't make it! No, we have to make more money while there's more than a month of good times. We can just keep one show a day for Mad Monkey and schedule Pacific Rim 2 for the rest."

The finance lady said, "If it were you, I shouldn't have signed that distribution agreement. What a crappy movie! How dare it be released in the same schedule as Director Jiang's film!"

The manager was also puzzled. "You said Liu Zhenwei is a big director, and Xie Tingfeng and Cai Zhuoyan are also big stars. How could they come up with such a thing! There are too many bad movies made in Hong Kong!"

The finance lady said, "They are just impatient and only care about making quick money. Who would be willing to calm down and shoot a good movie? Only Director Jiang and Master Xing are willing to shoot a good movie."

"According to what you said, next year's Red Cliff is also on hold? I'm still looking forward to it!"

As for mainland male audiences, they find it hard to resist blockbusters based on the Three Kingdoms theme. The manager of this cinema is also a fan of the Three Kingdoms and is waiting to see a sneak peek of "Red Cliff" when it is released next year!
The finance lady said: "How would I know? Anyway, I want to watch Zhu Xian!"

The manager said, "I hope Director Wu Yusen can make this movie well and make it a classic Three Kingdoms blockbuster!"

……

At Huayi Company, Wang Zhonglei looked at the data report in front of him with a look of horror.

“Is the number above wrong?”

"I called to check, there's no mistake!"

"How is it possible? On the first day, it was 323 million, and on the second day, it dropped to 67. How can it drop so fast?"

"Boss, Pacific Rim 2 is so popular that all the prime and regular screenings of domestic cinemas are now showing Pacific Rim 2, pushing Crazy Monkey King into the garbage dump. In a couple of days, I'm afraid there will be even fewer screenings!"

Wang Zhonglei's expression became more serious when he heard this.

At this rate, it might drop to half a million tomorrow, which would be a joke.

No, I'm afraid it's already a joke now!
“What was the first-day box office of Pacific Rim 2?”

"There is no accurate information yet. Some say it is 53 million, and some say it is 590 million!"

Wang Zhonglei felt a little dizzy when he heard this. Damn, he can't even compare to a fraction of others!
But it's normal to think about it. The total investment of "Pacific Rim 2" is 1.2 million US dollars, which is nearly billion RMB. It needs to sell at least million US dollars worldwide to make a profit. "A Chinese Odyssey" only had a few dollars of investment!
Maybe if I change the schedule, I can make some money. I should never have chosen this schedule. I must be crazy!
"Okay, you go out first!"

After driving away the department manager, Wang Zhonglei paced for a few steps and called Yang Shoucheng of Yinghuang to tell him about yesterday's box office results and his suggestions.

"Pull it out of the schedule, wait until after the New Year and pick a date to put it back on!"

Yang Shoucheng was furious when he heard this. "Withdraw the movie? What a joke! Pirated discs are out now. Who would go to the cinema to watch it if it's withdrawn?"

Wang Zhonglei thought to himself, it was you who were causing trouble. You had to choose this time slot, which caused me to lose money. I haven’t settled the score with you yet! He asked, “What should I do?”

"Didn't you say that the current share of the screenings is very small? Hold a press conference and announce that Jiang Heng is suppressing competitors in terms of film scheduling!"

"and then?"

Wang Zhonglei asked, what he actually wanted to say was, what’s the use of this?

The largest cinema chain company in the mainland market is the "China Film Chihong" Cinema Chain, a joint venture between China Film and iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video. The second is United Cinemas, the third is Dadi Cinemas, the fourth is China Film South, and the fifth is the "Shanghai Film Chihong" Cinema Chain, a joint venture between iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video's "Chihong Pictures" and Shanghai Film Group.

Among the top five cinema companies in terms of market share in mainland China, three are owned by China Film, iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video.

If you say now that their cinema chains are suppressing you in scheduling films, it will only make people laugh!
Besides, given the quality of "A Chinese Odyssey", saying this will not gain any sympathy at all.

Only when good movies are suppressed will the audience have sympathy.

But Yang Shoucheng doesn't think so. He just feels that the films produced by the company are suppressed and bullied in the mainland.

However, he also knew that the mainland might not take him seriously, so he held a press conference in Hong Kong first.

They angrily denounced Jiang Heng as the biggest "cancer" in the Chinese-language film market, who monopolized the best Lunar New Year and summer movie seasons and squeezed out the living space of his competitors in scheduling. This situation is extremely rare in the global film market, and called for the healthy and benign development of the mainland market.

The media in Hong Kong were eager to see the excitement and reported the incident frantically, but as for public opinion, they all felt that there was nothing wrong with what the mainland cinemas did.

Because all the cinemas here have significantly reduced the number of screenings of "A Chinese Odyssey" and increased the number of screenings of "Love in the City 2".

And they themselves also felt that Liu Zhenwei's film this time was not very good.

It's been so many years, and you're still using the same old methods.

After learning the news, many mainland media outlets reprinted the report and wanted to interview Jiang Heng to ask him about his opinion on the matter.

Jiang Heng had no time to pay attention to this because he was being interviewed by the program crew of CCTV-7's Military and Agricultural Channel.

The program team invited the famous domestic military theorist and military commentator "Ju Zhang" to discuss the modern weapons that appear in "Pacific Rim 2".

What the "bureau chief" was more interested in were naturally the "drones" and "robot dogs" that appeared in the film.

He discussed with Jiang Heng the possibilities of the two weapons and the possible results that could be achieved when used on the battlefield.

Once this episode was aired, it quickly gained good ratings and was repeatedly rebroadcast by CCTV Channel 7.

Many military fans have heated debates on this issue on major Chinese forum websites.

The mainland box office of "Pacific Rim 2" has also soared under the influence of various popularity, quickly breaking through million, million, million, million...!
In the North American market, once "Pacific Rim 2" was released, it quickly ended the box office prospects of "King Kong" and won the box office championship of the week.

As for Japan, the main battlefield in the film, it also attracted a large number of moviegoers to watch the monsters wreak havoc in "Tokyo Bay".

Ayase Yao, who appeared for less than a minute at the beginning of the film, gained popularity due to her performance in Pacific Rim 2 and became a rising star in the Japanese film industry.

(End of this chapter)