Chapter 475: Finding the Audience

"If the North American awards season schedule is used as the main promotion strategy for *Road to Glory*, will this movie be questioned for being too 'bootlicking' to foreign countries?"

"Forget it. If *Road to Glory* can always have a voice and presence in the North American awards season, this is a shining achievement for Chinese-language films. What 'bootlicking'?"

"We have been doing screening sessions without opening up, just to lengthen the release window of *Road to Glory*. We have calculated that once we release it on a large scale, given the current domestic reaction to this type of art film, even if it wins a big award, and even if it has two top stars like Shang Yongzhou and Lu Yan He, at best it will be a box office of one or two hundred million."

"For this film, you are still not satisfied with a box office of one or two hundred million?"

"If it has the possibility of creating a bigger miracle, would you be satisfied?"

"This is too difficult."

"It is very difficult, so our release must be combined with the schedule of *Road to Glory* in the North American awards season. In the whole world, only the North American awards season can last for several months, and the exposure is so great. If *Road to Glory* can be successfully lobbied by the American Green Valley Film Company to enter the awards season, it will usher in a continuous exposure of several months. For the domestic market, a movie that can continuously win awards or get nominations abroad, seeing it once or twice might not matter, but frequently seeing the name *Road to Glory*, the interest in this movie might come."

The month-long screening of *Road to Glory* finally began to reveal its claws and ambitions at this moment.

In fact, the Russell Film Critics Association Award belongs to the part of the North American awards season with the least influence.

But it is the first shot of the awards season, which has extraordinary significance.

The domestic producer and distributor of *Road to Glory*, Shandi Film Industry, did not intend to use individual award nominations as promotion points.

Their strategy was "impacting the North American awards season."

Therefore, the promotional slogan for the Russell Film Critics Association Award in China was: *Road to Glory* fires the first shot of the North American film awards season! The North American awards season journey of this year's strongest Chinese-language art film has begun!

Many people who understand movies, especially those who understand American movies, of course know that the core of the North American awards season lies in the final Oscar nominations.

However, for most of the audience, they don't have this concept. Seeing this promotional slogan, everyone will only realize, oh, *Road to Glory* is impacting the American awards season on behalf of Chinese-language films? And it got a nomination?

On the first day of the National Day holiday, *Road to Glory*, surrounded by blockbusters, only increased 6,000 screening sessions, with a scheduling rate of only 2%.

However, it led all the released films with an attendance rate of 27% and successfully took a daily box office of 12.37 million.

This number is not worth mentioning compared to the two blockbusters with a daily box office of over 100 million, but for every film company, this number shocked them so much that they couldn't speak for a long time.

What's the situation?!

An art film that had already received 60 million during the Mid-Autumn Festival period, after experiencing a month-long screening, could still get a box office of over 10 million on National Day with a 2% scheduling rate?

This does not conform to their understanding of the film market.

Something even more unexpected happened. In the next six days, *Road to Glory* had an almost zero-decline trend. In the screening sessions of 6,000 sessions per day, the daily box office remained stable at over 8 million.

After seven days, *Road to Glory* received a box office of over 70 million during the National Day holiday.

The total box office of this movie had already reached 130 million.

After ending the National Day holiday journey, *Road to Glory* returned to small-scale screening again.

At this moment, all major film distribution companies suddenly reacted.

*Road to Glory* completely changed the previous film distribution model. It created a new way of release, maintaining the market's attention to the movie through screening, and relying on increasing screening sessions during important periods to absorb the box office.

The most critical thing is that this time *Road to Glory* could get a box office of over 10 million with 6,000 sessions. This attendance rate and this average box office per session are enough to make any film company jealous.

There is no distribution company that hasn't started researching the distribution strategy of *Road to Glory*. The industry's evaluation of such a distribution strategy is "artistic courage," "extremely bold god-like operation."

On October 9th, Shang Yongzhou attended the event of an endorsed brand and was surrounded by the media at the scene.

This top male actor, who has appeared less and less in recent years, makes the media love and hate him.

You weren't such a reclusive person before, were you?

Weren't you very active before?

How come once your status went up, you slowly stopped appearing?

This also makes every appearance of Shang Yongzhou in public occasions precious, which will lead to the craziest siege by the media.

This time, Shang Yongzhou's performance in *Road to Glory* received unanimous praise. Almost every media outlet believed that he would be the strongest competitor for Best Actor in this year's Chinese-language film awards.

"Yongzhou, this time you brought *Road to Glory* and returned to art films after nearly five years. How many trophies are you preparing to take?" a familiar media outlet asked jokingly.

Shang Yongzhou said with a smile: "Of course, the more the better."

"Why does this sentence sound so familiar?"

"Doesn't Lu Yan He always say that too?"

Everyone smiled knowingly.

"This time Lu Yan He starred in *Road to Glory* with you. Do you think he will pose a threat to your Best Actor award?" a media outlet asked.

"Of course," Shang Yongzhou nodded. "Everyone has seen how outstanding his performance in the movie is."

"Then this time, will the competition between the two of you for the Best Actor award be very fierce? Will you feel embarrassed because of this fierce competition relationship?"

Shang Yongzhou said: "Embarrassed? Yan He and I won't be embarrassed. I'm happy if he wins, and he's happy if I win. Don't underestimate us. Instead of worrying about us being embarrassed, you'd better worry about the judges being embarrassed."

After hearing Shang Yongzhou say this, the media reporters showed shock and surprise on their faces.

What the hell?

—Instead of worrying about us being embarrassed, you'd better worry about the judges being embarrassed?

Is this something you, Shang Yongzhou, would say?

What happened to you?

You were a gentle and humble gentleman before, how come you are suddenly so... arrogant?

The words sound exactly like they came out of Lu Yan He's mouth.

"Then this time, *Road to Glory*'s special distribution method also achieved a miraculous box office. Before the release, in fact, many people were not optimistic about the box office of a film with such a subject matter, and even some of your individual fans were worried that the box office of this movie would flop and affect you. When you took this movie at that time, did you consider the box office factor?"

"Yes, but it didn't account for much. I took this movie for Director Fu Kai. Filming this movie is his dream, and I must support him," Shang Yongzhou said. "The box office of this movie is so good this time, just like many of you said, because an unprecedented distribution model was used. In fact, this should also be thanked to Yan He. This was an idea proposed by Yan He."

After Shang Yongzhou said these words, the media reporters widened their eyes one by one.

What the hell?

An idea proposed by Lu Yan He?

What kind of international joke is this?

Since when is the distribution model of a movie suggested by an actor?

When Shang Yongzhou said it, everyone's first reaction was that they didn't quite believe it.

However, Shang Yongzhou didn't mean it was a joke at all. He was very serious, and his eyes were bright.

The media reporters looked at each other, and a rare silence appeared.

The new distribution method of *Road to Glory* is a horn of change for the film industry.

The box office miracle of this movie, while triggering a big discussion in the industry, also triggered discussions in many media.

Everyone's focus is on whether the box office miracle of *Road to Glory* can be replicated.

Professionals, non-professionals, those who know the business, and those who don't, all have their say.

Under such a situation, the China Film Association immediately decided to hold an industry seminar.

"Yan He, this seminar must be attended. If you don't come, this seminar will have no meaning," Fu Kai said to Lu Yan He on the phone.

Lu Yan He asked with a smile: "What should I talk about?"

Fu Kai said: "Talk about whatever you want. No matter what you want to talk about, everyone will want to listen."

Lu Yan He scratched his head and said: "You say that, and I'm under a lot of pressure."

"You can do it," because of the box office success of *Road to Glory*, Fu Kai was also very happy recently. He told Lu Yan He, "If you are under pressure with this level, other people in the entertainment industry don't need to open their mouths."

Lu Yan He: "Director, don't praise me to death."

Fu Kai: "Haha, I'm not praising you to death. No matter who hears these words, they will only agree with me."

The box office success of a movie may attract others' envy and jealousy, and will make other film companies ponder and learn the subject matter of this movie, trying to replicate a successful movie. But the success of *Road to Glory* is obviously not that simple.

Why is the China Film Association so anxious to hold this seminar?

It is because this made them see that art films, which have always been known as unable to get box office, seem to have a path that can produce box office.

This is a good thing for the entire industry.

Then of course everyone wants to eat some meat and drink some soup.

Although Lu Yan He has always been very humble and said he has nothing to say, when it really came to this time, he still seriously organized it based on his own experience and his understanding of this industry.

Before the seminar started, after Lu Yan He entered, he was first taken to greet and get to know many people.

Some people were already curious about what Lu Yan He would talk about.

The success of *Road to Glory* made many people hope to hear some truly innovative content from Lu Yan He.

"Art films should also have box office."

Lu Yan He finally set his speech theme to this.

"In fact, since I entered the industry, I found that the entire industry actually has a consensus, that is, art films have no box office. For a long time, I also accepted this view. Before acting in these movies like *Sanshan*, *Twilight Spring*, and *Road to Glory*, I didn't consider the box office at all—to be honest, as an actor, expected box office performance is one of the most important factors I consider. But these movies, each one was successful at the box office, all achieved a box office of over 100 million. However, every box office success was hailed as an unrepeatable miracle. Even though many art films have had good box office performance in recent years, the overall impression that art films have no box office has not changed."

Lu Yan He summarized it according to what he saw and felt in this industry.

"The movie *Road to Glory* is even more so. Even though it won the Best Film award in the Horizons section at the Venice International Film Festival, from the director to us actors, from the production side to the distribution side, no one thought its box office could 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 later. This is because they have to compete with movies with larger volume and louder voices, and they can't get scheduling. The fundamental reason is that in those dozen days, there are not many effective audiences attracted to enter the cinema to watch the movie. However, if art films are really not liked by the audience, then there wouldn't be works with good box office performance from time to time."

Lu Yan He said: "At this time, I thought of the operation mode of foreign film festivals. Obviously, the audiences who watch those award-winning movies at film festivals every year are not many, but why are they still highly concerned every session? It's not a few years, it's ten years, decades, their influence has remained at a very high position. In my observation, it is because international film festivals attach great importance to media communication and promotional volume. The more top-tier the film festival, the more media from all over the world participate, and they attach great importance to these media, setting up special areas, doing advance special screenings, reflecting the importance attached to the media group from every link, connecting stars, media, and honor through film festivals, and creating such a model—maybe what I said is not accurate, but this is the most real feeling that major film festivals give me. Film festivals are actually a distribution model, allowing films that might not be watched by many people at ordinary times or only true die-hard film lovers can watch, to be widely spread in such an atmosphere, to be 'deified,' and to attract audiences."

"In China, our honor awards, stars, and box office are a bit fragmented. Honor is honor, box office is box office, and the promotion effect between them is very small, and there is even a posture of drawing a clear line, you play yours, I play mine," Lu Yan He said. "This actually makes our Chinese-language films lose the biggest position in the market—being both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. Those who make art films don't want to get box office, and those who want to get box office don't think they can win awards. The two lines are clearly distinguished. Therefore, this time *Road to Glory* formulated such a long-term screening model, and we could only rely on the North American awards season to use its promotional exposure window of several months to promote the box office sales of screening sessions. If there was such a window time in China, allowing art films to be known by the public with the help of the influence and promotional strength of the awards themselves, *Road to Glory* would definitely choose this window time in China, not the North American awards season."

"You mean, the number of our domestic awards is too small?" someone asked.

"Our domestic film awards are indeed relatively few," someone nodded immediately.

Lu Yan He: "..."

He hesitated for a moment, probably because many people looked at him with enthusiasm, so he continued to speak the truth.

"Compared to the problem of more or less, I think the bigger problem with our domestic awards lies in the unclear positioning. The awards that hope to be authoritative cannot be authoritative and convincing, and other awards are too 'pork-splitting,' even the fans of the winners think it's a joke. Many awards actually only need to have their own clear positioning, not to say that they all have to give awards to the height of art. Look at the Asian Television Awards, everyone knows that the awards of this television festival are for those dramas and creators who have great influence in the Asian region, looking at influence, not artistic height. Their attitude is clearly placed, and this does not affect the popularity of this award in our Asia, or even its authority. Everyone uses whether they have won this award to measure the influence of a work in Asia."

Lu Yan He said: "Our domestic awards, both film and television, are three-legged, unlike the Oscars for the United States, which occupy the leading position, or like the international four major film festivals, each occupying a time point and leading the way. I am not saying that we are not as good as them, I am just talking about the difference between them. The core of them is that they have not generated a strong connection with our own film industry and market, making it truly a pure honor-based thing, and this honor is not convincing enough. Many times, there is only recognition within our own industry, because to be honest, most audiences have not even seen the award-winning films. What I said is very vulgar, but industry is industry, and influence is not enough."

What Lu Yan He said today completely exceeded many people's expectations.

Originally, many people wanted to hear about how Lu Yan He operated the long-term screening of *Road to Glory* and whether it was replicable. No one expected that Lu Yan He would suddenly say a lot about awards and box office.

Lu Yan He smiled.

"Maybe the seniors and teachers here are very confused when they hear this, thinking what this has to do with our theme today. Saying so much, it is actually because what I think about usually made me think when the *Road to Glory* movie plan was released in China that maybe it could be combined with the North American awards season—at that time, it happened that a film critic I am very familiar with, Tom, told me that this movie is quite suitable for impacting the North American awards season."

"Commercial films are things that audiences like, filmed for everyone to see, while art films are going to the market to find audiences who like them."

"Art films have their audiences. You must try your best to find their audiences. As long as you find them, there will be box office."

"What I am showing off in front of you teachers today is actually just a little bit of my thoughts on how art films can find audiences." ===== CHAPTER 476 =====