Chapter 262 His Name is Kun [4900 words]
[Added, two chapters in one]
On Monday of the second week, "Lost on Journey" grossed 520 million.
Although this number is higher than many people expected, the mainstream media is not too surprised by it, and simply regards it as the lingering influence of Aikun.
On Tuesday, "Lost on Journey" took in $490 million.
This has left many people scratching their heads. Normally, Tuesday to Thursday is the traditional 'off-season' for movie box office, and the box office should have seen a significant decline, but the box office for "Lost on Journey" only dropped by 30.
The optimists, who were originally a minority, began to frantically advocate the box office target of 8000 million, like sharks that smelled blood.
On Wednesday, "Lost on Journey" closed at 505 million, bucking the market trend at the most unlikely time.
Now even the mainstream media, which were originally not so optimistic about "Lost on Journey", have gradually changed their tone and cautiously believe that 8000 million is not out of reach.
On Thursday, "Lost on Journey" once again bucked the trend and closed at 570 million.
At this point, almost no one doubted that Lost on Journey would break the 8000 million box office.
But precisely because all the good news has come to an end, Friday's reports were filled with voices of regret.
Many media outlets felt sorry for "Lost on Journey". If its average ticket price had increased by one-third, it would have definitely entered the 100 million yuan club.
In the current situation, if no tricks are used, 8000 million is already the limit.
Because of the current trend, by the third week all kinds of cheap pirated CDs and online videos will be flooding in. By then, you can even buy the Blu-ray collector's edition for 10 yuan in a regular audio-visual store near the cinema.
Blockbuster movies still have a certain degree of resistance thanks to special effects, but comedy feature films like "Lost on Journey" can only struggle in vain in the ocean of piracy until they are completely swallowed up.
Therefore, almost all media have reached a unanimous verdict on what happened to Lost on Journey:
The box office in the second week should be around 4500 million, and the total box office will be close to 7000 million. Then in the third, fourth, and fifth weeks, relying on the long-tail effect, the box office will continue to reach 500 to 800 million.
If it has exceeded 8000 million by the time it is taken off the screen, we can celebrate it in a big way.
If it fails to break 8000 million, the distribution company will quietly make up the difference and then celebrate with great fanfare.
Everyone is familiar with this set of rules. It is no longer a market forecast, but an operating rule that no one can escape.
…………
Friday night.
Huayi high-level conference room.
"As of 9 ., today's box office has exceeded 700 million. It is expected that the full-day box office will be around 800 million. The box office on Saturday and Sunday will be between 1600 million and 1900 million."
After listening to the report from the marketing department, Feng Xiaogang immediately gave a summary of the data: "That is to say, conservatively estimated, the box office in the second week will be more than 4500. If we are optimistic, the total box office should be able to exceed 7000 million."
The conference room was quiet for a moment, and then it became noisy.
Although everyone had already prepared themselves mentally, they still couldn't help but get excited when they saw "Lost on Journey" miraculously reach 7000 million and head straight for the 8000 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 "Lost on Journey". In terms of pure profit alone, Lost on Journey even made 10 million more than "A World Without Thieves"!
Of course, no one in the company's senior management would openly make such a comparison, because it would be tantamount to slapping Feng Xiaogang in the face.
Feng Xiaogang did feel a little uncomfortable.
When he agreed to support Xu Kun, he thought it would be good enough if this young man could eventually break through 5000 million box office, but who would have thought that...
However, seeing that Xu Kun had become a powerful figure, he naturally would not be so stupid as to go back on his word and force Xu Kun into the arms of the Second King.
"cough~"
Feng Xiaogang coughed lightly, and after everyone stopped talking, he tapped the table with his fingers and said, "Zhonglei, tell us your thoughts."
"it is good!"
Wang Zhonglei, who was sitting opposite him, immediately stood up, propped up his hands on the conference table and said excitedly, "Thanks to our Director Xu's planning and early arrangements, Lost on Journey has already made great strides towards the 8000 million mark, and even breaking the million mark is not a dream!"
Hearing that breaking the 100 million yuan mark was not a dream, the executives were a little surprised at first, and then they realized that it seemed that the company was going to spend a huge amount of money to ensure that "Lost on Journey" entered the 100 million yuan club!
After figuring this out, many people cast envious glances at Xu Kun, who was sitting below Feng Xiaogang.
Since the commercialization of domestic films, there have been only three domestic films with box office revenue exceeding 100 million yuan, namely Zhang Yimou's "Hero", Feng Xiaogang's "A World Without Thieves" and Chen Kaige's "The Promise" - there is also another film, "Life and Death Decision", which is usually not included because its box office revenue was increased by public bookings.
Even if we include the co-production films with Hong Kong and Taiwan, we can only add "Kung Fu".
If Huayi really decides to make up the remaining 2000 million in box office revenue, Xu Kun will be China's fifth billionaire director!
What is even more daunting is that the leading actors of the first four movies that grossed over 100 million yuan were all mainly actors from Hong Kong Island, and only Xu Kun's "Lost on Journey" has a pure mainland cast!
Moreover, Xu Kun is only 25 years old this year. He is a genuine post-80s generation and he even wrote, directed and acted in the film himself!
Once this result came out, not only was no one born in the 80s able to match him, even directors and actors born in the 70s were surpassed by him. The four most handsome young actors in mainland China all became jokes in front of Brother Kun!
At this time, Wang Zhongjun slowly said: "There is nothing to discuss about this matter, let's just vote."
After saying this, he was the first to raise his hand, followed by Wang Zhonglei and Feng Xiaogang.
Since these three giants expressed their opinions at the same time, how could other shareholders and senior executives have any objections? Except for Xu Kun, everyone rushed to raise their arms.
"Very good, passed unanimously."
Seeing this, Wang Zhongjun nodded slightly with satisfaction, but in fact he was quite uneasy inside.
He was originally worried that Xu Kun had too much power in the company and would become the second Wang Jinghua, but he didn't expect that this day would come so soon and so violently!
So much so that he not only did not dare to hinder, but instead wanted to contribute to Xu Kun's achievements.
Of course, putting this concern aside, if Xu Kun becomes a new member of the billion-yuan club, it will be of great benefit to Huayi. Not only will it be able to wipe out the decline of losing a large number of artists, it may also speed up the progress of listing financing.
By then, Huang Xiaoming alone will not be able to provide checks and balances. It seems that we must quickly figure out Xu Kun's three-in-one promotion and marketing model of television, film and the Internet.
As long as Huayi can master this system and pair it with high-quality movies, it may be able to mass-produce blockbuster movies in the future.
Of course, even if this model can be repeated, it is basically unlikely to become as popular as Xu Kun. This requires the right time, place and people, as well as the courage and vision to be the first to try something new.
After calming down his complicated emotions, Wang Zhongjun spoke again: "In that case, let's discuss the specific details..."
Knock knock knock~
At this moment, there was a sudden knock on the door. Wang Zhongjun frowned unhappily, but stopped talking and said, "Come in."
Just as he finished speaking, his secretary pushed the door open with trepidation, trotted over and whispered a few words to him.
After Wang Zhongjun heard this, his face darkened, but he actually felt relieved. He waved his hand to signal the secretary to leave, then looked around at everyone and said, "Director Chen, who just returned to China, accepted an interview and denounced the chaos in the domestic film industry's publicity and box office revenue sharing. He hopes that the relevant departments can strengthen supervision."
Hearing this, everyone was shocked.
This is clearly aimed at Huayi and "Lost on Journey".
Everyone expressed their indignation, but in fact they knew clearly in their hearts that Director Chen must have known about Huayi's promotion of "Mantou" a while ago, so he chose to attack at this critical juncture.
Given Chen Kaige's weight, there will definitely be some reaction from the higher-ups. If Huayi still wants to inflate the box office at this time, it would be acting against the wind.
In fact, this approach is like killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred of your own. Normally, no big director would do this, but Director Chen has just been traumatized recently, so he naturally cannot make common sense inferences.
After a while of chaotic discussion, everyone turned their eyes to Xu Kun, and everyone's face was filled with regret and sorrow. Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei were no exception, and they even sighed louder than anyone else - but what they really thought, probably only they knew it.
At this time, Xu Kun suddenly laughed. He propped his hands on the conference table and made a classic move of Commander Ikari. His tired face was full of relaxation. "In fact, the reason why I temporarily gave up the road show and flew back to Beijing was that I hoped to persuade everyone not to inflate the box office. Now I don't have to waste my breath."
The crowd was shocked again. Some people thought that Xu Kun was pretending to be calm in order to hide his disappointment; some people thought that Xu Kun had suffered from the common literary and artistic disease among directors and felt that the inflated box office was unclean and unethical.
Some even asked bluntly: "Director Xu, don't you want Lost on Journey to make over 100 million yuan?"
Xu Kun said: "Of course I hope so, but I hope to achieve the goal of breaking the 100 million box office target by a method that others cannot question."
Some people disagree: "As long as it is not put on the table, does it matter whether others question it or not?"
But more people, such as the Wang brothers and Feng Xiaogang, are curious about what new tricks Xu Kun has yet to use.
Xu Kun looked around first, and when the discussion died down, he asked, "What is the main reason for the sharp drop in box office in the third week?"
“Pirated!”
"Of course it's pirated!"
Everyone agreed that although there were many reasons for the sharp drop in box office in the third week, piracy was definitely the one that caused the greatest damage to the box office.
Many potential movie consumers are blocked from theaters by piracy.
This phenomenon has become more serious after the popularization of online videos - this is also the reason why many mainstream film companies were full of resentment and prejudice towards the Internet at the beginning.
Before Xu Kun could come up with a solution, someone shook his head and said, "The piracy problem is not so easy to solve. Even though Hero was protected by the authorities, many pirated copies still appeared in the third week, not to mention our Lost on Journey."
Initially, "Hero" failed to prevent piracy despite all possible measures, but with the publicity of "big production, big scenes, big special effects", it effectively recovered some of the losses.
This is also an important reason why everyone believes that "blockbuster is king".
“Hero was from the top down.”
Xu Kun smiled and said, "What we need to do now is to work from the bottom up. It is 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 increase the box office a lot."
Wang Zhongjun thought of something when he heard this, and blurted out, "You want to..."
…………
On Friday, "Lost on Journey" closed at 810 million.
On Saturday, "Lost on Journey" closed at 960 million.
On Sunday, "Lost on Journey" closed at 930 million.
The second week's total closed at 4785 million, and the total box office reached 7155 million!
On Sunday, the news that Xu Kun went to a nursing home to perform lion dance after announcing the end of his roadshow once again made headlines.
All major media outlets talked about this with great relish, believing that Xu Kun's way of celebration was very novel and full of positive energy, and worthy of learning from by more directors and actors.
Many media outlets unanimously sent their blessings to Xu Kun, while also tacitly acknowledging that the hot sales of "Lost on Journey" were about to come to an end.
However, in places ignored by the mainstream media, an undercurrent is quietly taking shape.
Only Aikun can win the chat group.
Group owner: Sisters, when reporting piracy, don’t do it alone, post it in the group and let everyone report it together - when making the reporting call, don’t use your own mobile phone or home landline, be sure to use a public phone outside, and it’s best to do some disguise.
Group member A: Got it. Although I used to watch pirated movies, for Brother Kun’s sake I will never reconcile with piracy from now on!
Group member B: There is a pirated goods store near my home. I will send the detailed address to everyone right now!
Group owner: If you are too close, then don’t participate. Just let your sisters in the same city report remotely. Don’t worry, I and the group owners of other fan groups have established a common reporting group. When the time comes, we will post everyone’s reports in the group and gather enough Aikun from the same city!
Group leader: If one or two sisters report it, the relevant departments may be lazy in their administration, but if dozens of us sisters take turns to bombard it, I don’t believe that they will just ignore it!
Group member C: I want to report my father because his video store sells pirated products!
Group leader: Well, you’d better persuade your father not to sell pirated copies of Lost on Journey.
Group member D: Sister group leader, what should we do with those websites on the Internet?
Group leader: You can also report to me! Don't worry, considering the places and situations where some sisters are located, there is no condition to support genuine products, so Brother Kun specially applied for benefits for our Aikun.
Group owner: After Lost on Journey is released in theaters, members of the Aikun group can use the invitation code to go to LeTV to watch the online movie for free in advance.
Group member ABCDDEFG: Wow, long live Brother Kun!
at the same time.
LeTV’s self-media office.
Jia Yueting crossed his legs and ordered: "After Aikun Group reports the pirated website, you will send the address to Tudou, PPL, PPS, and the newly established Youku, Ku6, and Baofengyingyin - the video website track is already competitive enough, it is better for those small websites to die early and reincarnate!"
It would be beyond the capability of Aikun to eliminate those small pirated websites on its own.
But there is a saying that competitors are enemies. Even video websites led by Tudou started out by relying on piracy, but it does not prevent everyone from joining forces to report small websites.
In this way, the battle to defend the box office of "Lost on Journey" officially began.
Week 3.
On Monday, "Lost on Journey" closed at 290 million.
On Tuesday, "Lost on Journey" closed at 175 million.
On Wednesday, "Lost on Journey" closed at 180 million.
Although the decline was visible to the naked eye, it far exceeded most people's expectations.
Until the news such as 'scalpers from all over the country were frantically reported by Aikun', 'Aikun set up a piracy inspection team and spontaneously patrolled near the cinema', 'the owner of the pirated store was killed by his own daughter for the sake of justice' were disclosed one after another.
Everyone was surprised to find that in addition to official supervision, there is also this model of relying on fans to fight piracy!
And when 'all major video websites joined forces to report and ban 756 cases of pirated videos within five days', major mainstream media were completely paralyzed.
Let’s forget about LeTV, which mainly focuses on legitimate videos. But those other websites also started out by relying on piracy. How dare they jump out to crack down on piracy?
In any case, the joint efforts of Aikun and the video website can be said to be effective.
In the third week, which no one was optimistic about, the total box office of "Lost on Journey" was 1428 million!
The box office continued to decline in the fourth week, with a total of 673 million.
The total box office has reached 9256 million!
At this time, there is no need for the group leaders to deliberately tease, the fans who love Kun have already started to stir, and countless people have spontaneously started the second and third viewing mode, hoping to help Brother Kun break the 100 million mark.
Jiang Yiyan, Liu Shishi, Huo Siyan, Li Xiaolu, Ge You, Zhang Guoli, Sun Honglei, Deng Chao, Hu Ge...
Dozens of celebrities related to Xu Kun have come forward to promote "Lost on Journey".
Even the crew of "Wulin Waijia" made a public statement, hoping that everyone would support Yan Xiaoliu and Pinggu Yidianhong.
On Monday, the box office closed at 79!
On Tuesday, the box office closed at 84!
On Wednesday, the box office closed at 112 million!
On Thursday, the box office closed at 127 million!
On Friday, the box office closed at 174 million!
On Saturday, the box office closed at 208 million!
On Sunday, the box office closed at 142 million!
As of the time when Lost on Journey was taken off the screen, the total box office had accumulated to 10182 million, breaking the million yuan mark!
Following Chen Kaige's "The Promise", Xu Kun became the fifth director in China to have a box office of over 80 million yuan, and the first post-s director in mainland China to have a box office of over million yuan!
Among the three mainland directors before him, the youngest is Feng Xiaogang, who was born in 1958.
People born in the 60s, 70s, 80s…
Only one person!
So the headlines on the front pages of countless media that day were all titled: "Director Xu Kun, a one-of-a-kind film in 30 years"
(End of this chapter)
