Chapter 193: The box office has reached 600 million?
Tiandu, Xu Brothers Pictures, Chairman’s Office.
Xu Zhaorong sat behind the boss's desk, while his brother and Director Zhang sat on the sofa.
He pondered for a long time, then leaned forward and said, "Second brother, get me a list of the production staff of Love Is Not Blind."
He paused, then added, "And buy me a copy of the original book of this movie."
After hearing what his brother said, Xu Zhaoqing didn't dare to ask and hurriedly went to find his subordinates to prepare what his brother wanted.
Half an hour later, the list and the original manuscript were delivered to the chairman's office.
After handing the information and the original book to his brother, Xu Zhaoqing sat back on the sofa.
Director Zhang looked at him, then asked Xu Zhaorong in a low voice, "Boss Rong, you don't have to be so careful, right?"
Xu Zhaorong raised his hand slightly and said seriously, "Never underestimate the enemy."
"Song Chuang and Yang Rou are not fools. Since they dare to give such a high box office guarantee, there must be a reason."
After saying that, he opened the package and started reading the original novel of "23 Days of Broken Love".
The whole book was not long. There were only about 100,000 words in total. Xu Zhaorong read it very quickly. In less than an hour, he had finished reading it roughly.
After reading it, he frowned, closed his eyes and began to ponder.
After a while, he opened his eyes, without frowning, and picked up the crew list.
This time he looked much more carefully, and sometimes he would stop and think for a while.
After reading both documents, Xu Zhaorong's frown was completely unfurled.
At the beginning, when he was flipping through the book, Xu Zhaoqing and Director Zhang were chatting about other things in a low voice beside him.
But gradually, seeing that Xu Zhaorong's brows were becoming more and more furrowed, they dared not speak anymore and instead looked at Xu Zhaorong cautiously.
Xu Zhaorong had books and materials on his legs, one hand under his nose, and the fingers of the other hand tapping lightly on the table, looking like he was thinking about a critical moment.
After a moment, his brows relaxed and he exclaimed, "It turns out that the entertainment industry is full of talented people."
Hearing Xu Zhaorong speaking, Director Zhang and Xu Zhaoqing looked over quickly.
Xu Zhaoqing asked his brother carefully, "Brother. What do you mean...?"
Xu Zhaorong patted the book on the table and said, "This book is very good. It is very suitable for film and television adaptation. Although it is a chick flick, the approach is very unique and very innovative."
“Plus, the cast of this film is very good, and I feel that this film has the potential to be a big hit.”
Xu Zhaoqing looked at his brother in surprise.
Xu Zhaorong continued, "If I were to make an estimate, I feel the box office of this movie would not be low. Two or three hundred million is possible. The only X factor is their leading actors and directors."
"That actor's name is... Lu Man, right?"
"She seems to be a new generation actress and may not be able to capture the feeling of this movie. It may lower the effect of the whole movie."
“Also, the choice of director for this movie…I don’t understand it either.”
"but……"
"We are just guessing blindly, but they have seen the finished film."
“So, since they dare to call out such a high guarantee, the final product should be good.”
At this point, he smiled and looked at the two of them, saying, "It seems that we have met our match."
Director Zhang sat on the sofa, tilted his head slightly, and asked, "You mean, this movie might have a higher box office than Overheard 3?"
Xu Zhaorong nodded, "It's possible."
"Even...even if it's not as good as "Overheard 3", it won't be much lower."
He continued to tap his fingers on the table and analyzed,
"Besides, don't forget it."
"The film's production company and distribution company are all their own. So, they can share 60%-65% of the profits from this film."
"Assuming the final box office of the movie is 200 million yuan, their income will be 100-200 million to 100-300 million yuan. After deducting their production and promotion costs, they can still make a net profit of 60-70 million yuan."
"When the time comes, they can use the money to support the cinemas, right?"
I saw Director Zhang and my brother looking surprised and puzzled.
Xu Zhaorong shook his head slightly and explained, "You have to understand the purpose of their making this movie."
"They want to fight their way out of our blockade."
"What we need to do is to win a good battle and then gain a foothold in the circle."
"In this case, whether they make money or not is not that important to them. The most important thing for them is to win this crucial battle."
"So even if they don't make money, they have achieved their goal by winning this battle."
After hearing Xu Zhaorong's words, Director Zhang and Xu Zhaoqing finally understood everything.
Xu Zhaoqing asked, "Then...what should we do? Keep up? Negotiate a guaranteed minimum with the theaters? Squeeze them out?"
Xu Zhaorong smiled and shook his head. "They may not make money, but we must make money. We can't spend tens of millions of profits to compete with them. It's not worth it."
Xu Zhaoqing said unwillingly, "So, are we just going to admit defeat?"
"Give up?" Xu Zhaorong shook his head slightly, "How is that possible?"
Xu Zhaoqing was puzzled, "Then..."
Xu Zhaorong stood up and walked to the window.
His chairman's office is located on the 16th floor of the Xu Brothers Film Building. Looking out, he can see the prosperity of the imperial capital.
He said slowly, "Since they dare to fight so hard, then as opponents, we should also respect them. For example, we can build momentum for them..."
As he spoke, he called out, "Zhao Qing."
Xu Zhaoqing stepped forward quickly, "Brother."
Xu Zhaorong said , "You arrange for someone to spread the word about Chenlu Pictures' 600 million box office. And promote it vigorously. And say that this was the news from the cinema chain, and Chenlu Pictures directly negotiated a 600 million guarantee with them."
Hearing his brother say this, Xu Zhaoqing asked in surprise, "Six hundred million?"
Xu Zhaorong glanced at him from the side, a little disappointed in his eyes, "Yes. What else? Should we advertise as much as they say?"
"Praise to death, understand?"
"Since we can't suppress them, we'll just praise them to death."
"Normally speaking, if their first movie gets 200 million or 300 million at the box office, it's already an outstanding achievement."
"But let's set a goal for them first: 600 million. When everyone accepts it, if they only have 200 million or 300 million, they will still be embarrassed in the circle. They will be considered as having inflated self-confidence."
“By then, it will still be difficult for them to gain a foothold.”
After hearing what his brother said, Xu Zhaoqing was still a little confused. He asked, "In that case, why don't we... set a higher price? For example, 800 million? 1 billion?"
Xu Zhaorong: …
Xu Zhaorong didn't say anything, but Director Zhang understood.
He explained, "It's probably because if the price is set too high, Morning Dew Pictures and the cinema chain will come out to refute the rumor."
"We advertised 600 million to them, which was just a little bit more, but it just hit their psychological bottom line."
"Since they didn't refute the rumor, it was assumed to be 600 million."
"If we dispel the rumor, it would be equivalent to proving the 500 million guarantee."
"The rumor of 600 million is just a rumor after all, but once they prove it is 500 million, it will become a fact. The impact will be even worse."
“So, they will most likely not refute the rumor and just ignore it.”
Xu Zhaorong nodded slightly and glared at his brother with a bit of disappointment.
Seeing that Director Zhang and his brother had said so, Xu Zhaoqing finally stopped asking questions, and then he hurried out of the office and started to deal with the "overpraising" issue.
Looking at his back, Xu Zhaorong shook his head slightly.
Oh. My younger brother...
Sighing inwardly, Xu Zhaorong looked at Director Zhang and asked calmly, "How is the preparation for Lao Zhang's new play going?"
That play was the one that Lu Man was going to star in before.
Director Zhang smiled and said, "Not bad, I just happened to have some new ideas and wanted to talk to you about them..."
"Yes." Xu Zhaorong agreed, "Come, let's sit down and talk slowly..."
…
With the Xu brothers' help, within a few days, the entire entertainment and film circles knew that the first film of Morning Dew Pictures, Love Is Not Blind, was very well made. In order to schedule the film, the cinema was directly given a box office guarantee of 600 million yuan!
After learning the news, everyone who had been following Morning Dew Pictures was stunned.
Every group and every crew that knew about this matter was discussing it...
"Have you heard? The film produced by the company founded by Lu Man has been completed. It will be released next month."
"I heard about it. I heard that they are extremely confident and think the box office can reach 600 million."
"Haha. I heard that too. Do you think Lu Man has lost her mind? Does she think she has such a strong fan appeal?"
"I don't know. I guess it's just expanded."...
…
"Have you heard? The movie produced by Morning Dew Pictures actually gave the theaters a guarantee of 600 million yuan."
"Six hundred million!? Is Morning Dew Pictures crazy?"
"I think it's crazy, too. It's too much. They said they were just making a chick flick."
"Chick movie? I remember the highest box office was only 1...300 million? Who gave them the confidence?"
"I don't know. I feel like they're going to lose a lot this time."
…
The entertainment industry is very small, and these rumors soon reached the ears of Song Chuang, Yang Rou, Meilijie and Lu Man.
The first three people were fine, after all, they were people who had seen a lot of storms, but Lu Man was a little impatient.
She called Sister Meili to her villa again, then held up the group chat on her phone and said anxiously, "Sister! What should we do? Look, rumors about us are spreading everywhere!"
Sister Meili, who knew something about this matter, coughed and said, "Actually... although they exaggerated a bit, they were not wrong. We did give the theaters a guaranteed minimum."
When Lu Man heard this, his eyes widened in surprise, " Did you really give it to me? How much?"
Sister Meili whispered, "I heard from Mr. Yang that it was five hundred million."
"Five hundred million?!" Lu Man's voice trembled.
She looked at Sister Meili and swallowed her saliva, "Who gave the guarantee?"
Sister Meili said helplessly, "What do you think?"
Lu Man: ...
She said in disbelief, "Chen Yan?"
Sister Meili nodded.
Lu Man: ...
Lu Man felt mixed emotions.
Should I say that Chen Yan is stupid, or should I say that he... trusts himself too much.
Lu Man couldn't help but think of the promise she and Chen Yan made at the door of the villa.
It turns out he has always kept it in mind?
But... I didn't think about making it happen when I said that. He actually took it seriously...
For a moment, Lu Man felt that his mood was strange.
…
At the same time, Chen Yan was also on the phone with Song Chuang, "Six hundred million? Are they trying to flatter us?"
Chen Yan frowned, then took out the photo paper with the picture of "23 Days of Broken Love" from the drawer and took a look at it.
Upon seeing it, Chen Yan exclaimed "Huh".
"Eh? I remember last time the estimated box office was 4...500-5...600 million, how come it has become 4...900-6...100 million this time?"
