Chapter 122: The Battle of the New Year Slot

On the set of the film *The Invisible Guest*, just after finishing a scene, Wei Jin let everyone take a break. As he was preparing to head to his van to rest, he saw his Assistant, Bai Bin, running over excitedly, holding a thermos and a mobile phone:

"Boss Wei, the opening day box office is out: 12.76 million, and the online word-of-mouth is also very good."

Wei Jin took the phone to check the briefing sent by the company, feeling a sense of relief in his heart.

For this year's New Year Slot, everyone in the company had been holding their breath. That fellow Zhang Weiping had spoken rudely and insulted the boss, which was an insult to the entire company; he had to be taught a lesson.

Thanks to the theater chain's scheduling and the early promotion, this box office result basically exceeded Wei Jin's expectations.

Following this trend, even though they had sacrificed some box office potential to intercept *Curse of the Golden Flower*, it was certain that the final box office would break 100 million.

In his past life, this film wasn't released until 2008, and including the Hong Kong box office, the total was only 120 million. It seems Wei Jin's brand effect truly had powerful appeal now.

One must know that there were still a large number of competitors at the moment, and there wasn't much of an advantage in terms of scheduling.

The film *The Knot*, released in early December, was both a romance film and had the color of a mainstream melody film; it had strong support from above.

China Film Group had invested nearly 10 million in promotional expenses for this film, and CCTV-1 and CCTV-3 had even taken turns broadcasting the trailer on a loop; the promotional methods were simply luxurious.

Wei Jin had never seen any film receive such special treatment before, and he pondered whether he should shoot some mainstream melody films to enjoy such treatment as well.

But once he thought about the current international situation and the status quo of the domestic film market, he dismissed this thought. Only when national strength is powerful and the film market has developed will there be a market for mainstream melody themes.

The film *The Knot* had an opening day box office of 3 million, and by now it was only at 16 million, completely failing to live up to such powerful promotional intensity.

Additionally, *A Battle of Wits* had been released for half a month, and the Mainland China box office was only just over 50 million; its box office potential was almost exhausted, and it had run into the aggressive *Ip Man*. It was hard to say how much box office it would eventually reap, and the producers would likely lose quite a bit.

The only thing that made people feel it was a pity about Liu Tianwang was this point; he seemed unable to drive the box office, yet he was indeed a good actor, his acting skills were fine, and his popularity was very high. This was something Wei Jin could not figure out no matter how he thought about it.

These two films did not bring much resistance to *Ip Man*, which also made Wei Jin heave a sigh of relief.

"Very good, Xiaobai, there's a reward tonight. Remember to report in time every day from now on."

Patting his little Assistant's perky buttocks, Wei Jin entered the set again, preparing for the next scene.

Watching the boss walk away, Bai Bin stuck out her tongue and secretly thought, "That was close."

In fact, the box office text message had been sent last night; after all, there was a time difference between North America and the country. However, the two were in the heat of battle at that time and didn't notice it, and Bai Bin, who couldn't handle the exertion, didn't get up until late in the morning, only seeing the message at this moment.

Thinking of the reward the boss mentioned, there was a blush on Bai Bin's face. At this time, she was a young girl in love, having just tasted the forbidden fruit, and with Wei Jin's superb technique and strong physique, the pleasure he brought her was simply unimaginable. For a moment, she was actually looking forward to it. The subsequent box office momentum for *Ip Man* was very strong, raking in 48 million at the box office over the first three days of the weekend.

As of December 14, having been released for 6 days, the cumulative box office was 71 million, and the theater attendance rate was also good. It was estimated that when *Curse of the Golden Flower* was released, the theater chains would reduce the scheduling for *A Battle of Wits* and *The Knot*; this was also standard procedure.

Sure enough, on December 14, *Curse of the Golden Flower* was officially released, with a theater scheduling rate as high as 50%. The remaining 35% was given to *Ip Man*, and other films shared the pathetic 15% of the schedule. The jungle law of the survival of the fittest was vividly reflected in the theater scheduling. However, the box office performance of *Curse of the Golden Flower* was worthy of its scheduling; in the first four days of the weekend, the cumulative box office was 84 million, while *Ip Man* withstood the pressure and, under such circumstances, still hacked out about 27 million at the box office in four days, with a cumulative box office of 98 million.

Without a doubt, every point of box office growth for *Ip Man* was hacked off from *Curse of the Golden Flower*.

For this reason, that fellow Zhang Weiping cursed Wei Jin in the media for not observing martial ethics, manipulating theater scheduling, and hindering the development of the domestic film market, calling him a bandit and a bully, almost pinning the title of Han Sanping's Zuoshandiao onto Wei Jin.

The domestic turmoil did not affect Wei Jin; he was currently attending a preview screening of *Room*.

Competing for an Oscar is not a simple matter. Since he was participating, Wei Jin intended to give it his all; otherwise, wouldn't he be a laughingstock to those two idiots, Zhang Weiping and Lu Chuan? It would also waste the painstaking efforts of his mentor and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Since confirming the nomination quota for the Oscars, *Room* had begun its path of sweeping awards at global films. It had participated in almost every international A-list film festival, such as the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Locarno International Film Festival, San Sebastián International Film Festival, Mar del Plata International Film Festival, and Tokyo International Film Festival. Anyway, that was what the public relations team was for.

The reason for doing so was to increase the film's gold content and influence. One must know that the Oscars have over 6,000 judges; if they haven't even heard of your film, how can they vote for you? Although the Oscar Best Foreign Language Film is a separate award and the competition is not that fierce, it is ultimately competing against excellent films from various countries, so one cannot be too careful.

Seeing that the nomination voting time for the Golden Globe Awards was approaching, Wei Jin began small-scale preview screenings to let more voting judges know about this film.

The Golden Globe Awards are also known as the weather vane for the Oscars. If one can gain something at the Golden Globe Awards, it is a great help for competing for an Oscar.

Zhang Yimou, Chen Shiren, and Li An had all been nominated for the Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film many times. Among them, *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* and *Farewell My Concubine* even won this award, and Li An himself won the Golden Globe Best Director for *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*, which was an important node in his career taking off.

In addition, some actors had also been nominated for Golden Globe Awards, such as Zhang Ziyi for Golden Globe Best Actress, and Zun Long for Golden Globe Best Actor and Golden Horse Best Supporting Actor.

The promotion for *Curse of the Golden Flower* was very well done. When Wei Jin was attending the preview screening of *Room*, he saw a large poster for the film on the street. If it weren't for the surrounding buildings and foreigners, he would have almost thought he was still in the country.

When *Curse of the Golden Flower* was released, Zhang Yimou said a few home truths when interviewed by reporters: "Foreigners only recognize costume films. Today's domestic commercial blockbusters will definitely lose money if they rely solely on the domestic market."

Wei Jin also admitted that there was some truth to this. The current box office ceiling for a single film in the country is only 400 million; films with costs exceeding 150 million must seek overseas markets.

However, in a few more years, domestic films would no longer need to look at the faces of overseas film distributors.

Soon, Wei Jin arrived at the preview screening site. Unlike the domestic ones, which were purely for promotion before release and box office after release, the preview screenings in North America were mainly for the judges and filmmakers in attendance to see, in order to expand influence and compete for awards. As for the box office, this was not in the scope of consideration at all.

Therefore, the scale of the preview screening was not large, mainly covering the vicinity of Los Angeles, because the vast majority of Oscar judges lived in Los Angeles; it was enough for them to see it.

Wei Jin was not worried about this preview screening at all. The public relations team he paid for would work until the end of the Oscar awards. This was a long-term and tiring job, but their commission was also very high. Wei Jin estimated that half of the film's overseas revenue would likely be given to them.

The effect of *Room*'s preview screening in North America was very good, expanding from the initial 100 screens to more than 300, and every screening was packed. The audience showed extreme pursuit of this film, and IMDB once reached 8.8 points.

However, with the increase in the number of viewers, the rating gradually decreased, maintaining at around 8.3 points. Even so, it could still show the film's word-of-mouth and popularity in North America.

One must know that there were only a little over a hundred films with higher ratings than *Room*, and these hundred-plus films were all classic films at the world film history level.

At this point, the first shot of competing for the Oscar was officially fired. Today's first update, I earnestly request all book friends to reward with a subscription, follow-up reading, and collection. You must turn to the last page for follow-up reading, thank you everyone! (End of this chapter)