Chapter 366: Industry Earthquake: A Hit Upon Release

Receiving the call from Zhao Feng, Wei Jin was truly a bit surprised; he had absolutely not expected that Zhang Weiping would actually stir up such a huge mess at the media screening for *The Flowers of War*.

Perhaps the pressure to recoup costs was truly too great, as the guy spent the entire screening complaining.

He stated that the film industry is a high-risk industry, yet the production side, which clearly puts in the most effort, is the vulnerable group.

Not only do they spend money and labor on filming, but they also have to bear the huge risks after the film is released, yet the lion's share of the box office profits is taken by the theater chains.

Compared to Western countries, the domestic production side is truly too miserable.

Then, Zhang Dapao changed his tone, forcefully demanding that theater chains nationwide raise the revenue-sharing ratio for *The Flowers of War* from 43% to 45%, and also demanding that the minimum ticket price be raised by 5 yuan.

What is the minimum ticket price? Generally speaking, domestic theater chains designate Tuesday as half-price day, and the ticket price on this day is the minimum ticket price.

Zhang Weiping demanded an increase of 5 yuan to the low ticket price, which meant that the full-price ticket would have to increase by 10 yuan.

If the minimum ticket price in first-tier cities is raised to 40 yuan, second-tier to 35 yuan, and third-tier to 30 yuan, then the full ticket prices would be 80 yuan, 70 yuan, and 60 yuan.

Some theater chains would even raise it a little more based on their own renovation grade and geographical location, so calculating it this way, the ticket price might approach one hundred.

I have to say, in order to recoup his costs, this guy really stops at nothing.

The result was also as expected; as the terminal of the film industry, how could the powerful theater chains possibly agree to Zhang Weiping's demands?

Led by the eight major theater chains, a large number of theater chain representatives left in anger and reached a private agreement to unite and boycott New Picture and Zhang Weiping.

Hanging up the phone, Wei Jin fell into silence. Regarding this person Zhang Weiping, it is actually not easy to evaluate him; although he has been in the film industry for over a decade, it would be better to say he is a businessman than a producer.

Perhaps precisely because he is a businessman, Zhang Weiping keeps his eyes on every point that can make money, right? Wei Jin does not approve of Zhang Weiping's approach.

The reason why production companies in Western countries can get a high box office share is that their theater chain infrastructure is already very perfect.

And the domestic market is currently in a stage of vigorously developing theater chains; without the infrastructure of theater chains, film box office is just empty talk.

Under these circumstances, let alone the theater chains not agreeing, even the General Administration could not possibly raise the box office share at this stage.

Only after the theater chain construction is initially perfected will it be possible to push this matter forward from the overall situation.

Withdrawing his thoughts, Wei Jin was just about to start filming the next scene when the phone rang again.

"Hello, Lao Chen?"

"President Wei, the matter with New Picture has blown up. All the production companies have already stood up to express their support for Zhang Weiping. What do we say?"

"We are a production company, so of course we support them."

Wei Jin said this with extreme frankness. Although Shanhe Media has theater chains under its umbrella, its core business has always been content manufacturing. Regardless of whether he is optimistic about this incident or not, he must have the proper stance.

"By the way, did you not receive news beforehand?"

The reaction of the other production companies was too fast, which made Wei Jin have to suspect that they had a tacit understanding with New Picture long ago.

"No. Looking at it this way, I'm afraid Zhang Weiping was guarding against us because we have theater chains."

"Heh, this guy underestimates me too much."

Hanging up the phone, Wei Jin began to browse the relevant information online.

Sure enough, major production companies like Huayi, Enlight, Orange Sky, Bona, Pony, and Emperor had already expressed their stance on their official Weibo accounts, and even some small and medium-sized production companies followed suit with announcements.

Even directors and producers in the circle stood up to express their stance. Feng Dapao was the first to call out on Weibo.

"Support New Picture and Producer Zhang. The existing sharing ratio is indeed too unfriendly to the production side. Now is the time when it must change."

Others such as Chen Shiren, Zhang Yimou, Jiang Wen, and other well-known Mainland China directors, including Hong Kong directors like Wu Baige, Chen Kexin, and Wilson Yip, all followed suit.

This is the first time that Mainland China and Hong Kong filmmakers have supported the same thing so uniformly.

The entire industry seems to have ushered in a great battle. The warring parties are the theater chains and the production companies, including some big directors; even the so-called super-first-line stars and big names are simply not qualified to speak.

However, seeing that no company-signed directors had expressed their stance, Wei Jin still felt a bit relieved.

Soon, Wei Jin saw that Shanhe Media's official Weibo had also posted a message expressing its stance.

Subsequently, Ning Hao, Lu Yang, and Wu Ershan also began to follow up.

Seeing this, Wei Jin also edited a Weibo post and sent it out, then handed his phone to his Assistant and stopped paying attention.

Wei Jin knew very well in his heart that there would be no result for this matter in the short term.

Arriving behind the monitor, Wei Jin composed himself, picked up the megaphone, and shouted.

"Action!"

Film shooting is not simply conducted according to the plot, but rather the scenes are divided according to scene elements, character elements, climate and environmental elements, etc.

*Bottom-Tier Girl* has quite a few night scenes, so Wei Jin arranged to shoot them all together these days.

The scene at this moment is after the female lead participates in a mock exam, her grades are not ideal, and she develops the thought of wanting to give up.

Despite the persuasion of her tutor, she still has no confidence in herself.

In a fit of despair, she leaves the tutoring center, comes to the place where her mother works, and has an emotional breakdown in the rain.

What is being filmed now is the scene in the rain; the water truck is already in position.

Wei Jin sat behind the monitor and took out the walkie-talkie.

"All units pay attention, 30-second countdown preparation."

"Actors in position."

"Lights in position."

"Camera one, camera two in position."

"..."

After a series of signals, the floor manager quickly came out to clap the slate.

"*Bottom-Tier Girl*, scene 82, take one, action!"

In the frame, Jing Tian, with shoulder-length short hair and wearing a school uniform, stood in the rain, blankly watching Jiang Shan, who was working the night shift, her eyes welling up with mist.

Jiang Shan put down her work and pulled Jing Tian into her arms.

"Cut."

Wei Jin carefully checked the image in the frame, then raised his head and shouted.

"This take is good, prepare for the next scene."

The struggle between the production companies and the cinema chains continued.

The cinema chains, which had previously fought their own battles, united this time and held a joint meeting in Beijing.

As the person in charge of the second-largest cinema chain in the country, Zhao Feng naturally participated in this meeting.

According to Zhao Feng's report, at the meeting, led by the eight major cinema chains, many chains reached a consensus.

If Zhang Weiping insisted on raising ticket prices and revenue-sharing ratios, the cinema chains would refuse to screen *The Flowers of War*.

However, a small portion of the cinema chains did not state their position on the spot, maintaining a rather ambiguous attitude.

Wei Jin could understand this; the deterrent power of Zhang Yimou was too great, and the cinema chains all relied on his films to make money, which was also the reason why Zhang Weiping dared to challenge the cinema chains repeatedly.

In Zhang Weiping's own words, this was called "With Yimou in hand, the world is mine!" Honestly, Wei Jin did not take this conflict of interests between the cinema chains and the production companies to heart.

Currently, Shanhe Cinema Line has a market share of over 16%, owning more than 300 cinemas and over 1,400 large screens, second only to Wanda Cinema Line.

Last year, the domestic box office was 12.4 billion, and Shanhe Cinema Line alone produced over 2 billion in box office revenue, with a total operating income exceeding 3.5 billion.

Therefore, whether it is the production business or the cinema chain business, Wei Jin can obtain benefits.

Wei Jin's previous statement was merely expressing his own position as a production company.

After instructing Zhao Feng to make his own decisions, Wei Jin began a new shoot; just as the entire film industry was in chaos, in the television drama market, *Zhen Huan Zhuan* produced by Shanhe Media was about to be broadcast on three channels simultaneously.

The official Weibo of Shanhe Media, including its artists and many participating stars, forwarded the news one after another.

Fan Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, Zhou Xun, Deng Chao, and other top domestic stars also successively called on their fans to support it.

With the premise that the early promotion was already hot enough, they helped add the final spark.

Nowadays, the promotional power of the internet cannot be ignored, especially with so many stars in the industry promoting such a drama at the same time, which truly attracted great attention.

"A drama jointly created by Shanhe Media and Zheng Xiaolong is definitely worth watching!"

"If I remember correctly, according to the news released earlier, the price per episode of this drama is 2.6 million, which truly refreshes the price per episode for domestic TV dramas, even higher than *Snow Sword Stride*."

"A large-scale costume drama with an investment of over 100 million and a production cycle of over a year is rare in the country, support!"

"Although the pacing is a bit slow, the costumes, makeup, props, and visuals are all really attractive."

As soon as the first episode of the TV drama aired, the online popularity was already very high, and many viewers began to leave comments and reviews; overall, there were more positive reviews.

After all, over these years, Shanhe Media has established a golden reputation, and many casual viewers, as long as they see that it is a TV drama produced by Shanhe Media, will give a positive review without a word before watching the show.

Of course, no drama can satisfy all viewers, and some viewers felt that the pacing of *Zhen Huan Zhuan* was too slow, or they were not interested in Qing dynasty dramas, and gave negative reviews.

This made a group of experts extremely excited, jumping out to point fingers and criticize everything.

"According to the market laws of TV dramas, most hit dramas are around 40 episodes; this 76-episode *Zhen Huan Zhuan* is not viewer-friendly."

"A sky-high priced TV drama at 2.6 million per episode, the first-day ratings are not optimistic."

"The king of domestic ratings might be about to meet its Waterloo."

"."

Unfortunately, the slap in the face came very quickly; the next day, when the ratings came out, these experts quickly shut their mouths.

At this point in 2011, if a TV drama's ratings could break 1, it could be called qualified, and breaking 2 would definitely count as a boutique.

The industry originally expected that the premiere of *Zhen Huan Zhuan* would probably just break 1.

Unexpectedly, the premiere ratings directly broke 2!

"Boss, 2.58!"

Taking advantage of a break in filming, Huang Mengying ran over excitedly to report: "The premiere ratings for *Zhen Huan Zhuan* are 2.58!"

"Oh? Not bad."

Wei Jin nodded and continued to chat with several actors about the subsequent scenes.

"Is it just 'not bad'?"

"As expected of the helmsman of Shanhe Media."

Xu Yajun, Jiang Shan, Zhou Yiwei, and others looked at Wei Jin's calm and composed appearance and clicked their tongues in secret.

You have to know that a premiere rating of 2.58 basically confirms that this is a hit work, yet in Wei Jin's mouth, it's just "not bad"?

However, once they thought of the glorious track record of Shanhe Media, everyone quickly felt relieved.

After some conversation, Wei Jin was about to start a new shoot when the phone rang.

"Lao Chen?"

"President Wei, New Picture sent an invitation, asking major production companies to go over and, following the cinema chains' agreement, sign a joint agreement to advance and retreat together; whichever cinema chain does not raise the revenue-sharing ratio, the production companies will refuse to let their films enter that cinema chain in the future."

Hearing this, Wei Jin smiled; Zhang Weiping really had a good plan, not only wanting to "hold the national master hostage to command the cinema chains," but actually wanting to coerce the entire production industry?

Are you kidding me! "President Wei, are we following this time?"

"Follow? Follow what? Expressing our position was already supporting him; he still wants to drag us to the front line?"

Speaking of this, Wei Jin lit a cigarette, took a long drag, and continued to add.

"Besides, think about it, for such a big matter concerning the industry, the authorities haven't even stated their position yet; are we in such a hurry to be cannon fodder?"

Across the phone, Lao Chen smiled and agreed with Wei Jin's reasoning.

"Okay, President Wei, I will decline it now."

"Hmm, that's it, our position is already clear, don't get involved in the rest."

Hanging up the phone, Wei Jin withdrew his thoughts, came behind the monitor, and picked up the megaphone.

"Attention all units, 30-second countdown."

"Action!"

I have to say, this guy Zhang Weiping still has some ability to swindle.

In the situation where major production companies like Shanhe Media, Huayi, and Fiber Optics did not participate, he actually managed to pull in quite a few small and medium-sized production companies to sign a joint agreement with him and pressure the cinema chains together.

The cinema chains, led by the industry leader Wanda, did not give an inch.

You say I am "splitting the loot on the spot," and I say you are "insatiably greedy."

Both sides began to bombard each other in such an open and brazen manner.

This made the media incredibly excited; they had an inexhaustible supply of material every day and were too busy to keep up, truly suffering while being happy.

"President Wei, that fellow Zhang Weiping really has no good intentions; many of the films from production companies that signed agreements with him have been used by him as bargaining chips in the game against our cinema chain."

Zhao Feng had participated in several negotiation meetings and called to report the situation to Wei Jin.

"And the result?"

"We have talked many times, but it always ends in discord; the cinema chain's attitude is very clear: if we can't reach an agreement, we refuse to screen 'The Flowers of War', but Zhang Weiping is also adamant that if we don't increase the revenue share and ticket prices, he won't let us screen it."

Wei Jin smoked a cigarette while listening to Zhao Feng's report.

"What about the other small and medium-sized cinema chains that didn't sign the agreement?"

Hearing Wei Jin's words, Zhao Feng felt somewhat helpless.

"President Wei, these fence-sitters have an ambiguous attitude; I'm afraid we can't count on them this time."

Wei Jin was not surprised to hear this; in any alliance of interests, as long as there are many participants, there will always be a small portion dragging their feet, unable to be of one mind.

"Alright, don't worry too much about this; with both sides playing this game until now, I'm afraid the authorities will have to step in soon, just wait quietly for mediation."

"Understood, I know, President Wei."

Hanging up the phone, Wei Jin started filming again. (End of this chapter)