stjorthotic Chapter 501: Has Dawan Cinema been acquired by Chen Jincheng?
Chapter 501: Has Dawan Cinema been acquired by Chen Jincheng?
Chapter 501: Has Dawan Cinema been acquired by Chen Jincheng?
Seeing the discussion about screening schedules for "The Wandering Earth" in the group chat, Tian Xiwei was also drawn in.
"The screenings of 'The Wandering Earth' are so low in other theaters, but the screenings at Wan Cinemas are so high." Li Mingde sent the message with a look of surprise.
You Haoran also posted a series of screenshots, showing the screening schedules of other cinemas and Dawan Cinema.
Based on the screening schedules of other cinemas, on average, "The Wandering Earth" should only have about 15% of the screenings, but Wan Cinemas directly gave "The Wandering Earth" 55% of the screenings.
This is definitely not a normal situation.
Tian Xiwei also saw it and felt that something was wrong.
Under normal circumstances, after conducting market research, major cinemas tend to have similar screening schedules because they have basically the same research and information, and they also refer to the decisions of their competitors to some extent.
Other cinemas are only allocating around 15% of their screenings to Dawan Cinema, which is very strange, as Dawan Cinema is giving it 55%.
That doesn't make sense.
"It seems that Dawan Cinemas withdrew its investment from 'The Wandering Earth' before," Li Yingying posted.
Everyone felt something was even more wrong.
Online, with the start of pre-sales for May Day movies, many people have noticed the unusual screening schedule for "The Wandering Earth," with Dawan Cinemas allocating too many screenings to the film.
Everyone knows that Dawan withdrew its investment from "The Wandering Earth". Since it was a withdrawal, it must have been because they were not optimistic about it. Even if the promotional trailers for "The Wandering Earth" showed amazing special effects, it was impossible to change their opinion of "The Wandering Earth" and give it such a screening schedule.
It's worth noting that other cinemas originally planned to allocate around 10% of their screenings to "The Wandering Earth," but because of this promotional trailer, the allocation was eventually increased to 15%.
They still favor "Crazy Alien" more, after all, it stars Shen Teng and Huang Bo.
There's also "Pegasus," which also stars Shen Teng and is packed with his talent.
Moreover, there's also "The New King of Comedy".
That's a Stephen Chow movie.
The other party's influence is undeniable.
Therefore, it's impossible for the promotional trailers to boost the box office of "The Wandering Earth" by that much.
For a time, everyone was very confused, but the high number of screenings of "The Wandering Earth" at Dawan Cinemas immediately made it to the top of the trending searches.
Chen Jincheng naturally learned of this news immediately.
At this moment, he was already waiting at the airport with Tian Xiwei, preparing to go to Beijing to attend the premiere of "Wandering Blue Star".
He was well aware that this matter would become a trending topic.
The first film in the previous life, "The Wandering Earth," didn't have a high number of screenings, only 11%. The main reason was that Shen Teng, a box office draw, starred in the other two films, "Pegasus" and "Crazy Alien."
The creative team is very capable, so it's normal to give these two dramas more screen time.
Another one is "The New King of Comedy".
This film, a nostalgic work by Stephen Chow, was predicted by countless people to be a box office phenomenon even before its release.
In the end, of course, he pooped a big one.
Honestly, I'll get yelled at for saying this, but this show seems to be following the same path as "The Mermaid"—it's all about making money.
The movie "The Mermaid" appealed to nostalgia, and the phrase "I'll buy Stephen Chow a movie ticket" got everyone hooked.
So, this movie was trying to make a splash again, but people weren't buying it. Otherwise, why were so many people hyping it up before its release, only to have it flop afterward?
It's not that Stephen Chow wanted to cash in, after all, there was more than one production company involved in the film. Some people wanted to take advantage of the situation, but they didn't succeed.
The key issue is that some people continued to exploit Stephen Chow's reputation, which triggered a backlash from many people.
Basically, it's all marketing rhetoric like "You won't understand this show," "You'll understand it in the future," and "A truly good movie needs a good audience; your experience isn't enough to understand this show."
Chen Jincheng remembers that after watching this movie in another world, out of respect for his idol Stephen Chow, he refrained from commenting or giving it a bad review, because he genuinely found it unwatchable.
But seeing these marketing efforts done in this way makes me feel uncomfortable.
This one is really not good, what else can you say?
Moreover, everyone understands what this movie is trying to express, but it's worlds apart from the original.
He took a look and realized that this movie, priced at 5, was released in the same time slot as another movie, "The Wandering Earth." Why was that?
These movies from another world should have been released during the Spring Festival.
The release of "The Wandering Earth" was postponed because it had more funding and was better produced. Why were the releases of these other movies postponed?
if it is like this.
In the end, "The Wandering Earth" and "Pegasus" will definitely have the last laugh.
As for "Crazy Alien," it performed very well, but its reputation will ultimately not be as good as the other two films.
As the boarding announcement sounded, Chen Jincheng and Tian Meizi boarded the plane together. They boarded from the VIP lounge and could directly board the plane. Before boarding, they both put on masks and baseball caps.
"Boss, you said you'd let me play the female lead in the second big drama, is that okay?"
"So, are you going to act or not?"
"play."
...
The online buzz surrounding Dawan Cinema's high screening rate for "The Wandering Earth" is growing.
As more and more people are trying to figure out what's going on, how could a company that initially withdrew its investment from "The Wandering Earth" possibly give the movie such a high number of screenings?
Something must have happened.
Sun Ji has been overseeing operations at the headquarters of Dawan Cinemas since the May Day holiday.
Due to confidentiality reasons, the outside world is currently unaware that Second Star has completed the takeover of the operating rights of Dawan Cinemas, and even the people at Second Star are unaware of it.
So, now that we're all in this together, it's not surprising that "The Wandering Earth" got so many screenings this time.
As for Dawan's senior executives, the new big boss has already spoken, so who would dare to say anything more?
Previously, a senior executive was fired by the new boss without warning.
Sun Ji had been keeping a close eye on the online situation. Seeing that the hype had died down, he instructed a senior executive at Dawan Cinemas: "You can release the news that Dawan Cinemas has been acquired by Ershixingchen."
The reason for announcing it at this time is to make a splash among the public, create momentum for the second generation of Starry Sky, and also to boost the popularity of "Wandering Blue Star".
Moreover, one reason why this matter has become so popular online is because he had someone secretly spreading the news.
Since this bombshell news is about to be released, the higher the buzz, the better.
"Understood, I'll take care of it right away." The executive nodded, immediately went outside, found the public relations team, and gave them instructions.
The announcement regarding the change of ownership of Dawan Cinemas had been written long ago and was ready to be released at any time. Therefore, after receiving the order, the announcement was released immediately.
On the other hand, Guo Fan himself was also surprised by the high number of screenings.
He didn't know why Dawan Cinemas was giving him so many screenings; it didn't make sense.
If the other party had such high hopes for his film, they wouldn't have withdrawn their investment in the first place.
Could it be because of that young master Wang? Is the other party doing this out of respect for President Chen?
That shouldn't be the case; the other party doesn't have that much influence.
So when Wu Jing first received the screening data, he didn't know how to answer when Wu Jing asked him questions.
Seeing the huge buzz online, Wu Jing asked again, and he could only say, "I really don't know."
Wu Jing was incredulous: "I don't know, why would they give you such a high number of screenings for no reason?"
After guessing for a long time, Guo Fan could only say, "It might be related to President Chen? I can't think of any other reason besides that."
Wu Jing nodded, also feeling that this was the only possibility, and only that President Chen had the power to get Dawan Cinemas to provide box office revenue.
After realizing this was a possibility, the two secretly began to observe the situation online again, trying to find any clues.
Then, not long after, the two saw a shocking news story.
"Second Generation Stars has officially acquired Dawan Cinemas and has begun operating it..."
"My God!" Wu Jing exclaimed immediately.
Guo Fan was also shocked when he saw the news. They had always thought that President Chen had influenced Dawan Cinemas, but who knew that the other party had directly acquired Dawan? That made sense.
The news caused an uproar online.
(End of this chapter)