Chapter 262 Its name is Kun [4900 words]
[Updated, two chapters in one]
On Monday of the second week, "Unfortunately" reported box office receipts of 5.2 million.
Although this number is higher than many people expected, the mainstream media are not too surprised by this and just think that Ai Kun is still alive.
On Tuesday, "Unfortunately" reported box office receipts of 4.9 million.
This has left many people scratching their heads. It stands to reason that Tuesday to Thursday is the traditional "off season" for movie box office, and the box office should see a significant decline. However, the box office of "Unfortunate" only dropped by 300,000.
The optimists who were originally in the minority, like sharks that smelled blood, began to frantically advocate a box office goal of 80 million.
On Wednesday, "People on the Road" closed at 5.05 million, bucking the trend at the most unlikely time.
Now even the mainstream media, which were originally not so optimistic about "Journey to the Road", have gradually changed their tune and cautiously believe that 80 million is not out of reach.
On Thursday, "People on the Road" bucked the trend and rose again, with sales of 5.7 million.
By this time, almost no one has doubted that "Journey to the Road" will exceed the 80 million box office mark.
But precisely because the good news has come to an end, Friday's reports were filled with voices of regret.
Many media outlets feel sorry for "The Lost Road". If its average ticket price increased by another third, it would have entered the billion-dollar club.
In the current situation, if there is no need for outside moves, 80 million is already the limit.
Because of the current trend, all kinds of cheap pirated discs and online videos will hit you like a tsunami in the third week. By then, you can even buy a Blu-ray collection at a regular video store near the cinema for 10 yuan. version.
Blockbusters can still resist to a certain extent thanks to their special effects, but comedy feature films like "Journey to the Road" can only struggle in vain in the ocean of piracy until they are completely swallowed up.
Therefore, almost all the media have reached a unanimous conclusion on what will happen next in "A Man on the Road":
The box office in the second week should be around 45 million, and the total box office is close to 70 million. Then in the third, fourth and fifth weeks, relying on the long tail effect, it will successively gain another 5 to 8 million box office.
If it has exceeded 80 million by the time it is released, you can celebrate with great fanfare.
If it fails to exceed 80 million, the issuing company will quietly make up for it, and then celebrate with great fanfare.
Everyone is familiar with this set of rules. It is no longer a market forecast, but an operating law that no one can escape.
…………
Friday night.
Huayi high-rise conference room.
"As of 9 p.m., today's box office has exceeded 7 million. The box office for the whole day is expected to be around 8 million. The box office on Saturday and Sunday will be between 16 and 19 million."
After listening to the marketing department's report, Feng Xiaogang immediately gave the summary data: "In other words, it is conservatively estimated that the box office will be more than 4,500 in the second week. If you are more optimistic, the total box office should exceed 70 million."
The conference room was quiet for a moment, and then started to get noisy.
Although everyone had been mentally prepared for a long time, everyone could not help but be excited and commotion as they watched "Awkward" miraculously reach 70 million and go straight to the 8,000 mark.
You know, this is an achievement second only to "A World Without Thieves"!
The total investment of "A World Without Thieves" is more than three times that of "A World Without Thieves". In terms of pure profit alone, "A World Without Thieves" is even 10 million more than "A World Without Thieves"!
Of course, no one in the company's senior management would make such a comparison openly, because it would be equivalent to a slap in Feng Xiaogang's face.
Feng Xiaogang did feel a little awkward.
When he originally agreed to support Xu Kun, he thought it would be great if this young man could eventually break through 50 million box office, but who could have imagined...
However, Xu Kun saw that things were going wrong. At this time, he would not be stupid enough to go back on his promise and push Xu Kun into the arms of the second king.
"Cough~"
Feng Xiaogang coughed lightly, and after everyone stopped talking, he tapped his fingers on the table and said, "Zhong Lei, tell everyone what you think."
"good!"
Wang Zhonglei, who was opposite him, immediately stood up, held the conference table with both hands and said excitedly: "Thanks to our Director Xu to strategize and plan in advance, "Journey to the Road" has already moved towards 80 million yuan, not even breaking the 100 million yuan mark. Dream!"
Hearing that breaking through the 100 million yuan mark was not a dream, the executives were a little surprised at first, and then suddenly realized that the company was going to spend a lot of money to ensure that "The Journey" enters the 100 million yuan club!
After thinking through this section, many people cast their envious eyes on Xu Kun, who was sitting next to Feng Xiaogang.
Since the commercialization of domestic films, there have been only three domestic films with a box office of over 100 million, namely Zhang Yimou's "Hero", Feng Xiaogang's "A World Without Thieves", Chen Kaige's "The Promise" - and there is also "Life and Death" , because the box office is accumulated by public charter, so it is usually not included in the calculation.
Even if we count the joint venture films with Hong Kong and Taiwan, we can only add one more "Kung Fu".
If Huayi really decides to make up for the remaining 20 million at the box office, then Xu Kun will be China's fifth billionaire director!
What’s even more daunting is that the leading roles in the previous four 100-million-dollar movies were all mainly Hong Kong actors. Only Xu Kun’s “The Journey” has a purely mainland cast!
Moreover, Xu Kun is only 25 years old this year. He is a true born in the 1980s, and he even writes, directs and acts!
As soon as this achievement came out, not to mention no one born in the 80s could match it, even the directors and actors born in the 70s were overwhelmed by him. All the top four mainland students became a joke in front of Brother Kun!
At this time, Wang Zhongjun slowly said: "There is nothing to discuss about this matter, just vote."
After speaking, he was the first to raise his hand, followed by Wang Zhonglei and Feng Xiaogang.
The three giants expressed their opinions at the same time. How could other shareholders and senior executives have any opinions? At the moment, everyone except Xu Kun rushed to raise their arms.
"Very good, unanimous vote."
When Wang Zhongjun saw this, he nodded lightly with satisfaction, but in fact, he felt quite uneasy inside.
He was originally worried that Xu Kun would become too powerful in the company and become the second Wang Jinghua, but he didn't expect this day to come so fast and violently!
So much so that instead of daring to restrain him, he wanted to help Xu Kun's achievements.
Of course, putting aside these concerns, if Xu Kun becomes a new member of the billion-yuan club, it will also be of great benefit to Huayi. Not only can it wipe out the decline of losing a large number of artists, it may also speed up the progress of listing and financing. .
At that time, Huang Xiaoming alone will not be able to check and balance. It seems that we must figure out Xu Kun's trinity of TV, film, and Internet publicity model as soon as possible.
As long as Huayi can master this set of things and pair it with movies of high enough quality, he might be able to mass-produce hit movies in the future.
Of course, even if this pattern can be repeated, it is basically impossible to imagine Xu Kun becoming so popular. This requires the right time, place, people, and the courage and vision to be the first to eat crabs.
After calming down his complicated emotions, Wang Zhongjun spoke again: "In that case, let's discuss the specific details..."
Knock knock knock~
At this time, there was a knock on the door suddenly. Wang Zhongjun frowned in displeasure, but he still stopped talking and said, "Come in."
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw his secretary pushing the door open in fear, trotting closer and whispering a few words.
After hearing this, Wang Zhongjun's face darkened, but he breathed a sigh of relief. He waved his hand to signal the secretary to leave, then looked around at the crowd and said, "Director Chen, who has just returned to China, accepted an interview and denounced the chaos in the domestic film industry's announcements and box office divisions. I hope the relevant departments can strengthen supervision.”
Hearing this, everyone was in an uproar.
This is obviously for Huayi and "People on the Road to Misfortune".
Everyone expressed their indignant attitude, but in fact, they felt like they were aware that Director Chen must have known about Huayi's contribution to "Steamed Buns" a while ago, so he chose to attack at this juncture.
And with Chen Kaige's weight, there will definitely be some reaction from above. If Huayi still wants to inject water into the box office at this time, it will be committing a crime against the wind.
In fact, this kind of approach is like killing the enemy by one thousand and damaging oneself by eight hundred. Normally no big director would do this, but Director Chen had just been stimulated recently, so naturally he couldn't infer it with common sense.
After a chaotic discussion for a while, everyone turned their attention to Xu Kun, with regrets and regrets on their faces. Brothers Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei were no exception. They even sighed louder than anyone else - but they probably only knew what they really thought.
At this time, Xu Kun suddenly laughed. He put his hands on the conference table and performed Commander Ikari's classic movements. His tired face was full of relief: "Actually, the reason why I temporarily gave up the road show and flew back to the capital was because I wanted to I can persuade everyone not to flood the box office, but now it saves me a lot of money.”
The crowd was in an uproar again. Some people felt that Xu Kun was pretending to be calm in order to cover up his loss. Some people thought that Xu Kun was suffering from a common disease among directors, and felt that the box office filled with water was unclean and immoral.
Someone even asked bluntly: "Director Xu, don't you hope that the box office of "Unfortunately" will exceed 100 million?"
Xu Kun said: "Of course I hope this, but I also hope to achieve the goal of a box office of over 100 million in a way that others cannot doubt."
Some people disagreed: "As long as you don't put it on the table and others question it, is it that important?"
But more people, such as the Wang brothers and Feng Xiaogang, were curious about what new tricks Xu Kun had.
Xu Kun looked around first, and after the discussion subsided, he asked: "What is the main reason for the box office drop in the third week?"
"Piracy!"
"Of course it's a pirated copy!"
Everyone gave a unanimous opinion on this. Although there are many reasons for the box office drop in the third week, 'piracy' is definitely the one that hurt the box office the most.
Many potential consumers of movies will be blocked from theaters by pirated copies.
This phenomenon has become more serious after the popularity of online videos - this is why many mainstream film companies began to be full of resentment and prejudice against the Internet.
Without waiting for Xu Kun to give a solution, someone shook his head: "The piracy problem is not easy to solve. Even if "Heroes" had the protection from above, there were still many pirated copies in the third week. Not to mention our "People on the Road".
"Heroes" failed to prevent piracy despite all its precautions, but with the promotion of "big production, big scenes, and big special effects", it effectively recovered part of the losses.
This is also an important reason why everyone believes that "blockbusters are king".
“‘Heroes’ was created from the top down.”
Xu Kun smiled and said: "What we have to do now is to start from the bottom up - it is naturally impossible to completely eliminate piracy, but if we can make piracy less blatant, I believe that in the next three weeks, we should be able to improve A lot of box office.”
Wang Zhongjun thought of something when he heard this, and blurted out: "You want to..."
…………
On Friday, "People on the Road" reported 8.1 million.
On Saturday, "People on the Road" reported 9.6 million.
On Sunday, "People on the Road" reported 9.3 million.
In the second week, the total revenue was 47.85 million, and the total box office reached 71.55 million!
On Sunday, the news that Xu Kun went to a nursing home to perform a lion dance after announcing that the road show was over once again made the headlines.
The major media are talking about this and believe that Xu Kun's way of celebrating is very novel and positive, and it is worth learning from more directors and actors.
All the media unanimously sent their blessings to Xu Kun, and at the same time, they also acquiesced that the sales of "Awkward" is about to come to an end.
However, in places ignored by mainstream media, an undercurrent is quietly taking shape.
Only Ai Kun will win the chat group.
Group leader: Sisters, when reporting piracy, never go it alone. Post it to the group and let everyone report it together - when calling the reporting phone number, do not use your own mobile phone or landline at home, be sure to use a public one outside. For phone calls, it's best to make some disguises appropriately.
Group member A: Got it, although I used to watch pirated versions, but for Brother Kun, I am incompatible with piracy from now on!
Group friend B: There is a pirated store selling pirated copies near my home. I will send you the detailed address right now!
Group leader: If you are too close, you should not participate. Just let the sisters in the same city report it remotely - don’t worry, everyone, I and the group leaders of other fan groups have established a common reporting group, and we will report it when the time comes. Post everyone's reports in the group and gather enough people from the same city to love Kun!
Group leader: If one or two sisters report it, the relevant departments may be lazy, but with dozens of us sisters taking turns bombing, I don’t believe they will ignore it!
Group member C: I want to report my dad because he sells pirated copies in his video store!
Group leader: Well, you'd better advise your dad not to sell pirated copies of "The Lost Journey".
Group member D: Sister group leader, what should I do with those websites on the Internet?
Group leader: You can also report to me! Don't worry, everyone. Considering the place and situation some sisters are in, they simply don't have the conditions to support genuine products. Kun Ge specially applied for benefits for Ai Kun.
Group owner: After "Unfortunately" is released in theaters, members of the Ai Kun group can use the invitation code to watch online movies for free in advance on LeTV.
Group friend ABCDDEFG: Wow, long live Brother Kun!
at the same time.
LeTV self-media office.
Jia Yueting crossed his legs and ordered: "After Aikunqun reports the pirated website, you will send the address to Tudou, PPL, PPS, as well as the newly established Youku, Ku6, and Baofengyingyin - the video website track has already It’s enough, it’s better for those small websites to die early and be reincarnated!”
If Ai Kun alone wants to kill those small piracy websites, it will definitely be unable to do so.
But there is a saying that peers are enemies. Even video websites such as Tudou started their business by piracy, but this does not prevent everyone from working together to report small websites.
In this way, the battle to defend the box office of "On the Road" has officially begun.
Week three.
On Monday, "People on the Road" reported 2.9 million.
On Tuesday, "People on the Road" reported 1.75 million.
On Wednesday, "People on the Road" reported 1.8 million.
Although the decline is visible to the naked eye, it far exceeds most people's expectations.
Until news such as "scalpers from all over the country were frantically reported by Ai Kun", "Ai Kun established a piracy inspection team and spontaneously patrolled near the cinema", "pirate shop owners were exterminated by their own daughters" and other news were revealed one after another.
Everyone was shocked to discover that in addition to official supervision, there is also this model of relying on fans to fight against piracy!
And when "the major video websites joined forces to attack, and a total of 756 cases of pirated videos were reported and banned within five days," the major mainstream media became completely numb.
Forget about LeTV. It originally focuses on genuine videos, but other websites also started off by piracy, so they have the nerve to jump out and crack down on piracy?
In any case, the joint operation between Aikun and the video website can be said to have remarkable results.
In the third week, which everyone was not optimistic about, the total box office of "Awkward" was 14.28 million!
The box office continued to decline in the fourth week, with a total box office of 6.73 million.
The total box office has reached 92.56 million!
At this time, there was no need for the group leaders to deliberately provoke, Ai Kun had already started to make a commotion, and countless people spontaneously started the second and third brush mode, hoping to help Kun brother break 100 million.
Jiang Yiyan, Liu Shishi, Huo Siyan, Li Xiaolu, Ge You, Zhang Guoli, Sun Honglei, Deng Chao, Hu Ge...
Dozens of celebrities who are related to Xu Kun have come forward to help promote "The Journey".
Even the crew of "Wulin Gaiden" also publicly expressed their hope that everyone can support Yan Xiaoliu and Ping Gu's popularity.
On Monday, the box office revenue was 790,000!
On Tuesday, the box office revenue was 840,000!
On Wednesday, the box office revenue was 1.12 million!
On Thursday, the box office revenue was 1.27 million!
On Friday, the box office revenue was 1.74 million!
On Saturday, the box office revenue was 2.08 million!
On Sunday, the box office revenue was 1.42 million!
As of the release of "Unfortunate Journey", the total box office has accumulated to 101.82 million, exceeding the 100 million yuan mark!
Following Chen Kaige's "The Promise", Xu Kun becomes the fifth director in China to have a box office of over 100 million, and is also the first post-80s director in the Mainland to have a box office of over 100 million!
Among the three mainland directors in front of him, the youngest is Feng Xiaogang, who was born in 1958.
Post-60s, post-70s, post-80s...
Only this one person!
So the headlines on the front pages of countless media outlets that day were: "Director Xu Kun, the only one in thirty years"
(End of chapter)