"If we use the North American awards season schedule as the main promotional strategy for Glory Road, will the film be questioned for being too patronizing?""Come on, if Glory Road can continue to have a presence in the North American awards season, it will be a shining achievement for Chinese-language films. What are you licking about?"
"We have been holding preview screenings and not letting them go, just to extend the release window of Road to Glory. We have calculated that once we release it on a large scale, given the current domestic response to this type of art film, even if it wins a big award and even if there are two top stars, Shang Yongzhou and Lu Yanhe, the box office will at best be 100 to 200 million yuan."
"Are you not satisfied with a box office of 100 to 200 million for this movie?"
"If it had the potential to create a greater miracle, would you be satisfied?"
"This is so difficult."
"It is difficult, so our release must be combined with the schedule of "Road to Glory" during the North American awards season. The North American awards season is the only one in the world that can last for several months and has such a large exposure. If "Road to Glory" can be successfully promoted by the American Green Valley Films to enter the awards season, it will usher in a continuous exposure for several months. For the domestic market, a movie that can continue to win awards or nominations abroad may not be noticed once or twice, but seeing the name "Road to Glory" frequently may arouse interest in this movie."
……
After a month-long preview, "Road to Glory" finally began to reveal its claws and intentions at this moment.
In fact, the Roselle Society of Film Critics Awards are among the least influential awards in the North American awards season.
But it is the first shot of the award season, which has extraordinary significance.
Mountain Pictures, the domestic producer and distributor of "Road to Glory", does not intend to use award nominations as publicity points.
Their strategy is to "attack the North American awards season."
Therefore, the slogan of the Roselle Film Critics Association Awards in China is: "Glory Road" is the first shot of the North American film awards season! The North American awards season journey of the strongest Chinese art film of the year has begun!
Many people who know about movies, especially American movies, of course know that the core of the North American awards season lies in the final Oscar nominations.
However, for most audiences, they have no such concept. When they see this slogan, they will only realize that, oh, "Glory Road" is representing Chinese-language films in the American awards season? And it has even been nominated?
-
On the first day of the National Day, amidst a period of many blockbusters, "Road to Glory" only added 2 screenings, with a screening rate of only %.
However, with an attendance rate of 27%, it led all the released films by a wide margin and successfully won a daily box office of 1237 million.
Compared with the two blockbusters that grossed over 100 million yuan a day, this number is insignificant, but for every film company, this number shocked them so much that they were speechless for a long time.
what's the situation? !
An art film that has already earned 2 million during the Mid-Autumn Festival period, after a month-long preview, can still earn more than million at the National Day with a % screening rate?
This does not fit their perception of the film market.
Something even more unexpected happened. In the following six days, "Road to Glory" showed almost no downward trend. Among the 6,000 preview screenings per day, the daily box office remained above 8 million.
Seven days later, "Road to Glory" earned more than 70 million yuan at the box office during the National Day holiday.
The film's total box office has reached million.
After ending its National Day journey, "Road to Glory" once again returned to small-scale screenings.
At this moment, all major film distribution companies suddenly reacted.
"Road to Glory" completely changed the previous film distribution model. It pioneered a new way of releasing movies, maintaining market attention on the movie through advance screenings, and increasing the number of screenings to attract box office revenue during important periods.
The most important thing is that this time "Road to Glory" was able to earn more than 10 million yuan at the box office with only 6,000 screenings. This attendance rate and average box office per screening are enough to make any film company jealous.
There is no distribution company that has not started researching the distribution strategy for Glory Road. The industry commented on this distribution strategy as "skillful and daring" and "extremely bold and godly operation".
-
On October 9, Shang Yongzhou attended an event for the brand he endorsed and was surrounded by the media.
This top actor, who has appeared less and less in recent years, has been loved and hated by the media.
Weren’t you such a reclusive person before?
Weren't you very active before?
How come once your status rises, you gradually become less visible?
This also makes Shang Yongzhou's every public appearance precious and will attract the most crazy media attention.
This time, Shang Yongzhou's performance in "Road to Glory" received unanimous praise, and almost every media believed that he would be the strongest contender for the Best Actor award at this year's Chinese Film Awards.
"Yong Zhou, this time with "Road to Glory", you are returning to art films after nearly five years. How many trophies are you going to win?" a familiar media asked jokingly.
Shang Yongzhou smiled and said, "Of course the more the better."
"Why does this sentence sound so familiar?"
"Doesn't Lu Yanhe always say that?"
Everyone smiled knowingly.
"This time Lu Yanhe is starring with you in 'Road to Glory'. Do you think he will pose a threat to your Best Actor award?" a media asked.
"Of course." Shang Yongzhou nodded. "Everyone has seen how great his performance was in the movie."
"Will the competition between you two for the Best Actor award be fierce this time? Will you feel embarrassed by this fierce competition?"
Shang Yongzhou said: "Embarrassment? There will be no embarrassment between Yan He and me. He is happy to make fun of me, and I am happy to make fun of him. There is no need to underestimate us. Instead of worrying about us being embarrassed, you should worry about the judges being embarrassed."
When the media reporters heard Shang Yongzhou say this, they all showed expressions of shock and surprise on their faces.
WTF?
——Instead of worrying about us being embarrassed, why don’t you worry about the judges being embarrassed?
Is this something you, Shang Yongzhou, would say?
What's wrong with you?
You used to be a gentle and modest gentleman, how come you suddenly become so... arrogant?
The words sounded like they came from Lu Yanhe's mouth.
"The special distribution method of "Road to Glory" also achieved miraculous box office results. Before it was released, many people were not optimistic about the box office results of a film with such a theme. Some of your fans even worried that the film would flop and affect you. When you took on this film, did you consider the box office factor?" "Yes, but not a large percentage. I took this film because of Director Fu Kai. It was his dream to make this film, and I had to support him." Shang Yongzhou said, "The box office was so good this time, as many of you said, because it used an unprecedented distribution model. In fact, we have to thank Yan He for this, because this was the idea proposed by Yan He."
After Shang Yongzhou said this, the media reporters all widened their eyes.
WTF?
The idea proposed by Lu Yanhe?
What kind of international joke are you kidding?
Since when has the distribution model of a film been suggested by an actor?
When Shang Yongzhou said this, everyone's first reaction was disbelief.
However, Shang Yongzhou didn't mean to be joking at all, he was very serious and his eyes were bright.
The media reporters looked at each other in surprise and there was a rare silence.
-
The new distribution method of "Paths of Glory" is a clarion call for change for the film industry.
The box office miracle of this movie not only sparked heated discussions in the industry, but also triggered discussions in many media.
What everyone is most focused on is whether the box office miracle of "Road to Glory" can be replicated.
Professionals, non-professionals, knowledgeable and uninformed, all spoke out.
Under such circumstances, the China Film Association immediately decided to hold an industry seminar.
"Yan He, you must come to this seminar. If you don't come, this seminar will be meaningless." Fu Kai said to Lu Yan He on the phone.
Lu Yanhe smiled and asked, "What should I say?"
Fu Kai said: "Say whatever you want to say. No matter what you want to say, everyone will want to listen."
Lu Yanhe grabbed his head and said, "Now that you say that, I feel a lot of pressure."
"You can do it." Fu Kai has been in high spirits recently because of the box office success of "Road to Glory". He told Lu Yanhe, "You are under a lot of pressure at your level. Others in the entertainment industry should stop talking."
Lu Yanhe: "Director, please don't flatter me."
Fu Kai: "Haha, I'm not flattering you. Whoever hears these words will only agree with me."
The box office success of a movie may arouse the envy and jealousy of others, and make other film companies study and learn the subject matter of the movie, trying to copy a successful movie. But the success of "Glory Road" is obviously not that simple.
Why is the China Film Association so anxious to hold this seminar?
This is because it allows them to see that art films, which have always been hailed as having no box office success, seem to have a path to generate box office revenue.
This is good for the entire industry.
Of course everyone wants to have some meat and some soup.
Although Lu Yanhe had always been very modest and said that he had nothing much to say, when it really came to this, he still carefully combined his own experience and his understanding of the industry and sorted it out.
Before the seminar started, after Lu Yanhe entered, he was taken to greet and get to know many people.
Some people have already begun to wonder what Lu Yanhe will say.
The success of "Road to Glory" has made many people hope to hear something truly innovative from Lu Yanhe.
“Art films should also have box office success.”
Lu Yanhe finally decided on this as the topic of his speech.
"In fact, since I entered the industry, I have found that there is a consensus in the entire industry that art films have no box office. For a long time, I also accepted this point of view. Before I acted in "Three Mountains", "Late Spring" and "Road to Glory", I never considered the box office at all - to be honest, as an actor, expected box office performance is one of the most important factors I consider. Each of these films was a box office success, and they all made hundreds of millions of box office. However, each box office success was hailed as a miracle that could not be replicated. Even though many art films have had good box office in recent years, the overall impression that art films have no box office has not changed."
Lu Yanhe summarized what he saw and felt in this industry.
"This is especially true for the movie 'Road to Glory'. Even though it won the Best Film Award in the Horizons section of the Venice International Film Festival, no one, from the director to our actors, from the producers to the distributors, thought that its box office would reach a good number. The effective release period of an art film in China is actually only a dozen days, and it is difficult to collect box office revenue afterwards. This is because they have to compete with larger and more popular movies on the same stage and cannot get screenings. The fundamental reason is that in those dozen days, there are not many effective audiences who are attracted to go to the cinema to watch movies. However, if art films are really not popular with the audience, there will not be good box office performances from time to time."
Lu Yanhe said: "At this time, I thought of the operation mode of foreign film festivals. Obviously, the award-winning films at the film festivals every year are not watched by many audiences in China, but why are they still so popular every time? It's not a few years, but more than ten years, or even decades, and their influence has remained at a very high level. In my observation, it is because international film festivals attach great importance to media communication and publicity. The more top-level film festivals are, the more media from all over the world will participate. They also attach great importance to these media, set up special areas, and do special screenings in advance. They reflect the importance of the media group from all aspects, connect stars, media and honors through film festivals, and create such a model - maybe what I said is not accurate, but this is the most real feeling I get from major film festivals. Film festivals are actually a distribution model, which allows films that may not be watched by many people or only true hardcore movie lovers to be widely circulated in such an atmosphere, and be "deified" to attract audiences."
"In China, our honorary awards, stars and box office are a bit separated. Honor is honor, box office is box office, and the promotion effect on each other is very small. There is even a tendency to draw a clear line and let you play yours and I play mine." Lu Yanhe said, "This actually makes our Chinese-language films lose the biggest position in the market - both critical acclaim and box office success. Those who make art films don't want to get box office success, and those who want to get box office success don't think they can win awards. The two lines are clearly distinguished. Therefore, this time "Road to Glory" has formulated such a long-term preview mode, and we can only rely on the North American awards season to use its months-long publicity and exposure window to promote the box office sales of the preview sessions. If there is such a window time in China, so that art films can use the influence and publicity of the awards themselves to be known to the public, "Road to Glory" will definitely choose this domestic window time instead of the North American awards season."
"Do you mean that there are too few awards in our country?" someone asked.
"We do have relatively few film awards in our country." Someone nodded immediately.
Lu Yanhe: "..."
He hesitated for a moment, probably because many people were looking at him with enthusiasm, so he continued to tell the truth.
"Compared to the issue of more or less, I think the bigger problem with our domestic awards is that they are not clearly positioned. The awards that we hope to be authoritative are not authoritative and convincing, and other awards are too fragmented, even the fans of the winners think it is a joke. In fact, as long as many awards have their own clear positioning, it does not mean that they have to be awarded at the level of art. For example, if you look at the Asian Television Awards, everyone knows that the awards of this television festival are given to those dramas and creators with great influence in Asia. It looks at influence, not artistic level. Their attitude is very clear, and this does not affect the popularity of this award in Asia, or even its authority. Everyone uses whether or not a work wins this award to measure its influence in Asia."
Lu Yanhe said: "In our country, awards for movies and TV series are all in a three-way competition. They are not like the Oscars in the United States, which occupy the leading position, nor are they like the four major international film festivals, which each occupy a time point and dominate the trend. I am not saying that we are inferior to them, I am just talking about the difference. The core of them is that they do not have a strong connection with our own film industry and market, making it really a pure honor. And this honor is not enough to convince the public. In many cases, it is only recognized by our own industry, because to be honest, most of the audience have not even seen the award-winning films. What I said is very vulgar, but the industry is the industry, and insufficient influence is not enough."
What Lu Yanhe said today completely exceeded many people's expectations.
Many people originally wanted to hear Lu Yanhe talk about how the long-term preview of "Road to Glory" was operated and whether it was replicable. No one expected that Lu Yanhe suddenly talked a lot about awards and box office.
Lu Yanhe smiled.
"Maybe all the seniors and teachers are confused after hearing this, wondering what this has to do with our topic today. I've said so much because of what I usually think about. When the movie "Road to Glory" was scheduled to be released in China, I thought that it might be combined with the North American awards season. At that time, a film critic I was very familiar with, Tom, told me that this movie was quite suitable for the North American awards season."
"Commercial films are made for the audience to watch because they like it, while art films go to the market to find audiences who like it."
"Art films have their audiences, and we must do our best to find them. Once we find them, they will still be box office hits."
"What I am talking about today in front of all the teachers is actually my thoughts on how art films can find audiences." (End of this chapter)
