Chapter 352: Know Your Enemy, Never Be Defeated

1.3 million is barely enough to fill a tooth gap, but it's still pretty good—many companies just starting out can't even turn a profit.

Games are the hot trend right now; any mobile game can make money, and the number of people with mobile phones will only keep growing, so the market will too.

It's an undeveloped wilderness—anyone can compete.

As things develop step by step, Chang'e Technology won't lack traffic; what it lacks is a way to monetize, and games will definitely be an important monetization channel.

Without a monetization channel, no matter how much traffic a company has, it's hard to hold on—at the end of the day, it just doesn't make the cut.

Fang Hong casually inspected miHoYo—checking how the company was developing—had a meal with a few founders, then headed back to Beijing.

As for the Shanghai Film Festival, it ended on June 23.

During this period, Now You See Me has been in its Propaganda Department phase, and the release date has been set: July 4, during the summer slot.

That day is the same as Blind Detective.

Right after Now You See Me announced its release date, Shen Du Long Wang also announced it would release on July 4.

One wave after another—films from the three major film companies, Jade Rabbit, Huayi, and Emperor, all collided on the same day.

Anyone with eyes in the industry knows Jade Rabbit is gunning for Emperor, Huayi is gunning for Jade Rabbit—the three sides are locked in a standoff.

But is it possible that the two strong sides clash and Emperor gets wiped out? It's possible—those two companies are local, while Emperor is an outsider with no real foundation.

Their Propaganda Department isn't looking very strong either—just gimmicks like Liu Tianwang and Du Qifeng, and it's a pure Hong Kong film to boot.

Hong Kong films already have less and less market these days.

Yet when Huayi announced the same day as Now You See Me, Jade Rabbit didn't make a single move—no talk of giving theaters rebates, no talk of increasing ticket subsidies.

Not a single action—just normal Propaganda Department work.

When reporters asked Jade Rabbit's General Manager Chen Zhixi if she felt pressure from Shen Du Long Wang, she said: "How others set their release dates is their freedom; we have no right to interfere. Our Jade Rabbit fears no challenge."

That was truly full of confidence.

The reason was that Fang Hong had done some quick calculations and figured Huayi's move was just copying his tactic of firing blanks.

Don't think just anyone has his strength and confidence—to go against money.

When he fires blanks and fights people, any lost or lost money he bears himself, no need to answer to anyone. Huayi isn't necessarily the same—they have Shareholders and need to keep their stock price stable.

Otherwise, how would they harvest the leeks?

Shen Du Long Wang's investment cost was 130 million, plus tens of millions in distribution—total no less than 170 million. They can't afford to lose; if they do, their other film investments will be affected.

No matter how high the stock market value, it can't take this kind of thrashing. One big film's failure could send them back to square one, finished for good.

"How do you know Shen Du Long Wang's production cost is 130 million?" Chen Zhixi asked him—that should be confidential.

"I have an inside source," Fang Hong said casually.

"Oh my god, do you really need to go this far?" Chen Zhixi was exasperated—at their size, playing games like this.

It's like the business wars of those top-tier companies!

"The old ancestors said: know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles," Fang Hong said.

Actually, there was no inside source—Huayi later published the production amount, and he remembered it. Plus, whether it was over 100 million could be judged from the film's quality.

The scenes were indeed grand, and the Best Special Effects scenes were massive!

You ask why Fang Hong didn't take Now You See Me to fight Shen Du Long Wang head-on? Essentially, he was also avoiding a clash of two heavyweights.

A big film like that has too large an investment—Now You See Me's production plus Propaganda Department cost about 180 million, and it took a whole year.

With that much money and such a long cycle, how much the domestic market would bring in was unknown, and how much the foreign market would bring in was also unknown. Without a reference point, what if it really lost money?

A small-budget film losing money is no big deal—it's fine, they can afford it. A big-budget film still needs to be careful. Jade Rabbit at this stage is in the capital-accumulation phase.

That means value has to be maximized—otherwise, the later Gravity won't be easy to make.

If even Now You See Me failed, others would have no confidence in Gravity.

So one still has to be a bit cautious.

Of course, for a film like Blind Detective, it's a dimensionality-reduction attack—no big deal.

But if the other side really wants to go all out, a head-on clash, then Fang Hong will take it on too. If others aren't afraid of losing money, he's not afraid either—at worst, it just drags things out a bit!

Fang Hong's thinking aligned with Chen Zhixi's—she also felt Huayi wouldn't go that far. Last time when Curse of the Demon was released, they said they'd take him on, and were scared half to death, scrambling to give theaters rebates.

This time a head-on clash could easily hurt both sides, like two years ago—not a single 500-million film, all losses.

Two years ago the fighting made the entire Chinese-language film market slump; last year was slightly better; this year the fighting has started again.

"How do we play this?"

Huayi's Xiao Wang General Manager saw Jade Rabbit making no move and even dropping tough words—"bring it on"—and had no temper left at all.

Damn—when the other side used this move on him, he was scared to death; when he used this move on the other side, they just said "bring it on," not afraid of him.

"Can't play it—the other side simply isn't reacting," Big Wang General Manager said.

"We'll smear Liu Tianxian—after all, she's the female lead. Let's dig up more scandals about her to bury this wave of heat, push it past. Smearing her is smearing the film." Xiao Wang General Manager just didn't want the Principal to make money.

"Then you have to be prepared to completely tear faces. Not a single one of our artists will have an easy time. Think about it—next time, when Shen Du Long Wang is really about to release, how will you respond?" Big Wang General Manager said.

No matter what the Principal does now, he hasn't targeted their stars, and he's even casting their artists in his films.

Last time he also stopped at the right point—no mutual smearing and it just passed.

If they really go after Liu Tianxian, the Principal won't do the same indiscriminate attack as last time. Back then he didn't know the target; this time he knows the target and can be targeted. If the Principal gets really angry, he could expose some moral issue with a Shen Du Long Wang actor, and the film might not even get released.

The Principal really could do something like that—he's never played by the rules.

No matter how they fight now, it's limited to the film stage—no personal attacks. When both sides really get to the personal attack stage, without a few artists being ruined, there's no way to wrap it up.

But that also draws public outrage—which other artist would dare work with you.

"Then bro, what do you say we do?" Xiao Wang General Manager also knew this logic—he didn't want to go after Liu Tianxian either; the cost was a bit too high, not worth it.

"Wait and see. His film isn't releasing today, and it's not only showing for one day—let's see if there's any opening," Big Wang General Manager planned to check the situation first.

Thinking he'd wait for the other side to make a mistake, or see the film's quality before making plans—he didn't even know what was going on with this film right now.

The outside world didn't know Huayi was firing blanks; everyone was preparing to watch the show, to see the two heavyweights fight. This put enormous pressure on Boss Yang.

When two heavyweights clash, they might just fight him to death!

Damn it, he really wanted to talk back to the Principal, but in the end he shut his mouth—whatever he said would be useless talk; circumstances are stronger than people.

He still has the Hong Kong market; even if it doesn't make money, it's at least a safety net.

But the Principal even hit him in his home turf of Hong Kong—Now You See Me was throwing money around on publicity in Hong Kong, and the distributor wasn't Yindu but Universal.

Hollywood blockbusters already had a market in Hong Kong to begin with.

Three hundred thousand a day on publicity in Hong Kong—posters plastered all over the Hong Kong subway, elevators, buses, every street and alley, and even the outdoor LED giant screens were all Now You See Me promotional ads.

Round-the-clock, non-stop, 24-hour bombardment.

Small place, publicity costs are dirt cheap—even the most expensive Victoria Harbour giant screen only costs 28,000 a day, so half a month is 420,000.

Not even worth one Weibo trending search; a single Weibo splash-screen trending topic costs five or six hundred thousand.

Small population base, small territory—that's just how it is.

On the mainland there's also money to trash Blind Detective, saying this film is garbage, is a load of crap.

That's easy to trash—just link this film with Switch, both starring Liu Tianwang, and this film is still in theaters right now.

This film opened on June 9th.

"Did you eat Liu Tianwang's shit once? Still want to eat it a second time?"—topics like this spread everywhere online.

This dragged Liu Tianwang's image down too, but there was nothing to be done—who told him to be the lead.

Capital struggles are this cruel; collateral damage is unavoidable.

But then again, feeding the audience crap during this time slot—who can you blame?

Of course there were no personal attacks on Liu Tianxian.

Fang Hong always felt that going after them was a bit like bullying—casually messing around and he'd already taken down Emperor's stock price.

Originally with a market cap of 8.3 billion HKD, it got hammered down to 7.4 billion—everyone knew Jade Rabbit was going after Emperor, not even trying to hide it.

This put the pressure on Liu Tianwang, who had to double his efforts running publicity.

He originally wanted to rely on this Du Qifeng film to win back his reputation, but he didn't expect the Principal to deliberately target him, and Huayi also joined in.

But he also knew it wasn't targeting him—it was targeting Boss Yang.

Jade Rabbit hit Boss Yang's home base, spreading on the mainland that Liu Tianwang's performance was crap, and Boss Yang could only play defense, publicizing everywhere how dedicated Liu Tianwang was.

Liu Tianwang himself also said he had no choice, that it was to repay a favor.

"Do you owe that many favors?" some Wangyi asked him.

He went silent—indeed, he owed a lot of favors, nothing to be done about it, just tough it out, folks!

Even if he can't swallow it down, nothing to be done—he already acted, already took the pay, what can you do? He has a family to feed!

No matter what, Liu Tianwang's reputation is still pretty good—many Wangyi spoke up for him, saying he's very good and dedicated, and repaying favors is perfectly understandable, that sort of thing.

In this matter Boss Yang could only adopt a defensive strategy; he himself couldn't generate too much buzz, afraid of getting posts deleted and suppressed, so he could only rely on Liu Tianwang's own popularity.

The strength just isn't equal.

Emperor, Jade Rabbit, and Huayi all had films releasing on the same day, clashing and competing—the media had a field day, and other films had no choice but to steer clear, not daring to compete.

Fundamentally, making movies is all about making money.

Guo Xiaosi's Tiny Times was moved up to June 27th; this film's screening share was about half, and rebates were given to theaters.

It was the same playbook as giving theaters rebates for Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons before, but exactly how much was given is unknown.

They're also afraid of failing.

Enlight's The Chef, The Actor, The Scoundrel had already been moved up to June 21st—just not wanting to fight with the Principal and his crew, lying low to develop first.

If this fighting keeps up, he'll probably be fought into oblivion; this year he only has one film that broke a hundred million—Chef Actor Rascal—and his other films only made tens of millions.

Still no foundation, no badass director.

Huayi and Bona both have their own base camps, but he doesn't—Bona leans on Hong Kong films, and these days it's all Hong Kong films, and basically all of them have his involvement.

(End of chapter)