Chapter 549 "Little Broken Ball" vs "Red River"

Although he was once a top star, Li Yifeng's arrest has no impact on the industry except providing netizens with something to talk about during their boring life at the end of the year.

Traffic stars are fast-moving consumer goods. As soon as they leave, new candidates will immediately take over this ecological niche.

And even if it was just fodder for gossip, the matter was only hot for a few days before dying down, because something more serious overshadowed all the entertainment news.

Just a few days before the end of the year, the authorities suddenly announced the cancellation of various influenza control policies and their comprehensive relaxation at the social level.

As soon as the news came out, it immediately overshadowed all other news. This was truly a hot topic among the entire nation, and no one was not talking about it online or offline.

Most people were delighted by this and celebrated that these difficult days were finally over.

In fact, in the later stages of the flu, the threat posed by the virus itself is already very low, but various prevention and control policies are increasingly restricting everyone's actions.

Now that everything has been relaxed, there is still a certain possibility of infection, but compared to the threat of the virus, the fact of having no money in your pocket is more terrifying.

For the entertainment industry, the full opening up is also of great significance. Celebrities are no longer subject to quarantine requirements and can fly around, film and television crews can start work as usual, and various music festivals and concerts have been arranged one after another.

The most excited people here are the film industry, especially cinema chains and theaters. First of all, they no longer have to worry about closing down, and secondly, the previous 50% seating limit can be lifted.

The stock prices of several major film companies have rebounded to a significant extent, including Wanda Film, which has been in the red for more than half a year. The downward trend has also slowed down during this period, and the stock price has turned red after a long time.

Many people in the industry couldn't help but joke that Ruyi had picked a good time to take over Wanda. Although Wanda would have to sell it even if it waited two more months, the price would have to be higher.

But surprisingly, Ruyi had no comment on this, and Wanda didn't care much about it either.

They sold their assets to solve urgent problems, and the final price they reached was satisfactory to both parties. There was no need to worry too much about the difference of 300 million or 200 million.

Chen Zhixi was quite excited, as she would soon become the new president of Wanda Films. This was a huge wave of good news at a time when it sounded like a good sign even without considering the actual benefits.

It is precisely based on this point that she is quite confident in taking charge of Wanda Films and has made a bold statement that she will turn Wanda's financial situation from loss to profit within three years.

"You're dreaming too big." Meng Bai said on the phone.

"New people, new atmosphere. After all, I am the new president of Wanda Films. I have to give investors and shareholders something to look forward to." Chen Zhixi said with a smile, "Besides, the policies have been relaxed now. The days of cinema chains will not be any worse than in the past two years."

"That's not necessarily the case. The key to whether a cinema's revenue is high or low is how many high-quality movies it can produce."

Meng Bai was not as optimistic as Chen Zhixi. As he had said before, a large number of crews had stopped working for three years due to the flu, and the output of film projects was not large. Even if work resumed now, it would take at least a year or two to return to normal.

After all, a movie is not a short drama, and any project can take at least a year to complete. The next two years will definitely not be as easy as imagined.

But these are all things of the past. The most important thing right now is the upcoming Spring Festival.

……

Compared with the past few years, the 2023 Spring Festival came a little early, starting in late January. Similarly, the number of movies released during this year's Spring Festival has also been greatly reduced. In addition to the early scheduled "The Wandering Earth 2" and the annual "Boonie Bears", there are also "Man Jiang Hong", "Wu Ming", "Swap Life", "Deep Sea" and other seven films.

Here, "Man Jiang Hong" is a costume suspense comedy shot by Zhang Yimou, Zhang Yi, Shen Teng, and Yi Yang Qianxi. Just looking at this lineup, you can tell that this is the most competitive movie in this year's Spring Festival.

The director of "Unknown" is Cheng Er, whose last famous work was the high-end "The Last Romance". This time is the same, although the leading actors include the movie emperor Liang Chaowei and the current hottest Wang Yibo, it is still an art film, and the upper limit of the box office is estimated to be no more than 1 billion.

So to be honest, the only films that can compete for the championship during this year's Spring Festival are "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Man Jiang Hong".

This can also be seen from the pre-sale box office.

According to Maoyan's statistics, as of 2 p.m. on New Year's Eve, the pre-sale box office of "The Wandering Earth 2.22" was 2.14 million yuan and "Man Jiang Hong" was million yuan, which can be said to be on par with each other.

Behind "The Wandering Earth 2" is China Film Group and Ruyi Film Group, while the main controller of "Man Jiang Hong" is Huanxi Media, which has attracted a large number of directors in recent years.

Both parties knew that the other would be their next most important opponent, so the two capitals began to make efforts behind the scenes long before the movie was officially released.

The advantages of "Man Jiang Hong" lie in the cast and subject matter, which are very important for the main audience groups of the Spring Festival. Huanxi Media also mainly started from these two points, and the trailer is almost entirely Shen Teng.

As for "The Wandering Earth 2", it builds on the excellent quality of its predecessor and the title of "China's No. Science Fiction Film".

Ruyi knew that the audience was keen on Guo Fan’s “cyber succubus” character and the story behind the crew, so it also emphasized these two parts during the promotion.

For example, they "tricked" XCMG into supporting the film through private messages on Weibo, various major engineering groups promoted the film, and they got Wang Zhi, who only appeared once in the first film, to play the female lead.

Anyway, these things are true, so it’s not excessive to publicize them.

The competition in publicity and promotion is fierce. On the other hand, the two companies are also fighting fiercely for theater scheduling.

Theoretically, "The Wandering Earth 2" is a blockbuster with special effects as its selling point, and it has a greater demand for IMAX giant screens. But in actual scheduling, most of the IMAX screens in China are occupied by "Red River", a drama with few special effects.

The reason is very simple. IMAX China's new CEO Meng Danqing happens to be Zhang Yimou's son-in-law. He is both the father-in-law and the big brother. How can he not help when he needs help?

This is a bit uncomfortable for "The Wandering Earth 2". After all, the feeling of a special effects masterpiece on an IMAX screen is better than that on an ordinary screen.

But they couldn’t get any help from their own family members, and could only rely on China Film’s own domestically produced giant screen theater to barely meet the needs.

However, in terms of scheduling for ordinary screens, The Wandering Earth 2 has more advantages. In addition to the China Film Group's cinema chains, Wanda and Evergrande's previous several top cinema chains are all in the hands of Ruyi. Although it will still be based on revenue in general, it will definitely prefer its own projects.

As one grew, the other grew smaller, and in the end, the two films' screening rates on the first day of the Spring Festival were actually tied, both at 25.2%.

These two movies account for half of the entire market's resources. Anyone can see that this year's Spring Festival champion must be between these two.

In this atmosphere of confrontation, the 2023 Spring Festival movie season finally opened.

(End of this chapter)