Chapter 1129: Opening Week; Director Zhang

"From the 2nd to the 4th, the daily box office for *My People, My Country* saw a significant two-step jump: 365 million on the 2nd, 301 million on the 3rd, and 250 million on the 4th.

The decline for *The Captain* was significantly smaller, at 290 million, 260 million, and 250 million respectively.

So, we can now judge with great confidence that the box office potential of *The Captain* is in no way inferior to *My People, My Country*; it is more enduring than the latter.

Even if there is still a gap in the end, it definitely won't be by much; because this gap mainly stems from external objective factors, from the halo and momentum of the latter as an anniversary tribute film; and as time goes on, the influence of these factors will only grow weaker."

On the morning of the 5th, when Wang Changtian and Lin Nan were each working overtime at home on video conferences to discuss work, they both tacitly ignored Shanghai Film Group's *The Climbers*.

Because the daily box office for this film had completely dropped below 100 million since the 3rd, and it had fallen directly from 100 million on the 2nd to just over 80 million;

So it was no longer qualified to sit at the same table as *The Captain* and *My People, My Country* from the same release period, and was automatically relegated to the children's table.

"The National Day slot is no longer an issue; we can safely let the market run its course. What I am most concerned about now is *The Whistleblower*. How is the distribution situation for this film?"

Hearing Lin Nan's question, Wang Changtian opened his mouth, but no words came out; he only let out a sigh.

"Not optimistic?"

"Lin Nan, we invited quite a few cinema chain representatives and have already held internal screenings.

How should I put it? Too much content was cut from this film. Not only is the plot jumpy, but even many high-emotion scenes, just as they were about to reach their peak, were all, without exception, suddenly cut off—gone!

You know, under these circumstances, the audience's viewing experience will be very poor... so none of the cinema chains, including Wanda, nodded in agreement. The screening rate won't be high."

Lin Nan understood the meaning behind the other party's words. "The screening rate won't be high" was just a polite way of saying it; to put it bluntly, the screening rate would be very low, and it definitely wouldn't exceed 10 percent.

"I'll say something unpleasant, but you'd better be mentally prepared: based on my many years of experience in film distribution, this film has a high probability of losing money!"

After a few seconds of silence, Lin Nan spoke in a solemn tone: "I understand. I am prepared for that."

"I only took a two-hour nap, so why is the internet full of basketball news the moment I open my eyes? I can't even see any film information or those crowded National Day travel news stories?"

Liu Yifei's lazy voice suddenly came from afar. She appeared looking dazed, wearing maternity clothes as she slowly walked out of the room on the first floor.

Lin Nan hurried over, supporting her as he joked: "Are your eyes blurry from sleep?"

"Look, I'm talking about the trending searches on Weibo. I just took a dazed glance, and it's all basketball. I thought I hadn't woken up yet, thinking, isn't it the National Day holiday? Why are all the news headlines so wrong?"

Yawning, Liu Yifei lay back on the sofa, lazily rubbing against it to adjust to a comfortable position.

"Lin Nan, it seems something really happened outside?" At this moment, Wang Changtian on the other end of the video call also suddenly frowned and reminded him, "I see many official media outlets calling out the NBA?"

This wasn't just official media calling out and scolding the NBA; the entire internet was boycotting and cursing the NBA!

If you ask domestic fans, or rather, ordinary domestic people, which team from over there they are most familiar with and have the most affection for, it is undoubtedly the Houston Rockets, simply because of Yao.

Yet, on the afternoon of the 4th, overseas time—which is this morning, domestic time—the general manager of this team clearly and publicly took a stand on a social media platform...

Immediately following this, the NBA Commissioner, realizing the situation was spiraling out of control, chose to immediately find a way to make amends for his colleague.

As for how he made those amends? Well, that's a joke.

He was equally clear-cut... publicly supporting his colleague, and the reason he gave was even more perfunctory and flimsy—freedom of speech.

He even explicitly called out, hoping the Chinese market would understand and respect his colleague's "freedom of speech," and not let his colleague's "freedom of speech" affect the cooperation between the NBA and the Chinese market!

See, it was this attitude of wanting everything—to have his cake and eat it too—that instantly ignited the fury of the entire Chinese market. Whether it was the authorities, the fans, or ordinary people, the entire internet erupted in response.

Unlike the vast majority of ordinary people whose anger was limited by their perspective and thus focused only on the specific incident, in the eyes of those who understood, this was fundamentally not just a problem within the sports circle.

This was a problem where every aspect, every industry, and even the overall environment had completely reached a point of confrontation. The wind was strong, and the waves were even stronger.

Furthermore, there is a saying that culture and sports are inseparable; the "culture" here includes the film and entertainment industry!

The film circle could already foresee that there would likely be quite a few "twists and turns" regarding imported Hollywood films for next year.

For example, not giving import quotas to first-tier blockbusters, but giving them to second- or third-tier ones, or even letting in trash films.

Or perhaps plenty of unpopular release slots would be waiting for Hollywood blockbusters; one could even put them together to play mahjong and let them play by themselves during those unpopular slots...

Starting from the 5th, a large number of well-known domestic brands announced one after another the termination of their advertising partnerships with the NBA...

The sheer number and the severity of the boycott caused the Commissioner over there to fly to Shanghai overnight. But unfortunately, he remained stubborn and refused to apologize.

Fine, the authorities took direct action: from sports channels down to internet platforms, all broadcasts were terminated. The main point was: the fewer the words, the bigger the issue.

Wang Wei even reached out to several major shareholders, including Lin Nan, about this; Tudou would lose a large sum in copyright fees because of it. Of course, this was the right thing to do.

The 5th and 6th were spent amidst the sounds of boycotts; this time it was fast, accurate, and ruthless, with absolutely no room for maneuver. At the very least, it would be impossible to see those games domestically in the short term.

By the morning of the 7th, the National Day release period officially handed in its first-week box office results. That's right, because the 30th, the day of the release, was a Monday, the 6th was the last day of the first week of public screening.

"My People, My Country," holding the banner of a tribute film for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the nation, raked in a massive box office of 2.086 billion in one week. "The Captain" followed closely behind, grossing 1.866 billion.

As for that film "The Climbers" from Shanghai Film Group, tsk tsk tsk, they had shouted a box office slogan of 3 billion at the premiere.

But in reality, it only managed to get 700 million in the first week, and the daily box office on the 6th had already fallen below 60 million. With a daily drop of several million, how could it possibly reach 3 billion?

On the morning of the 8th, sure enough, the daily box office of "The Climbers" dropped by another 20 million... The industry was now certain that this film would likely stop at around 1 billion at most.

……

Shunyi, at home.

Liu Xiaoli was discussing with Liu Yifei whether they should move into the hospital early, while Lin Nan walked quickly outside with his phone.

"What? Are you sure?"

"I can guarantee the news is absolutely accurate; Dong Ping just heard it from that studio over there. 'Under the Light' has been directly cut; there isn't even a chance for a re-edit.

This is Zhang Yimou we're talking about; he's actually had problems with two films in a row. It's making me a bit panicked right now. Logically, shouldn't top-tier directors like you have some preferential treatment?"

"Bullshit, do you think it's still the same as before?" Lin Nan immediately retorted to Ning Hao. We are under the propaganda department now; it's not like before.

From the last time he was told to his face "not to let it happen again," he knew exactly what the situation would be like in the future.

"I'm very curious now, what's the situation with Enlight Media? I heard Director Zhang and his daughter have already gone there."

"What else could the situation be? They must all be pulling long faces. I had anticipated this result long ago; who told them to be so high-profile before, being so eye-catching at the Shanghai International Film Festival..."

Enlight Media.

Just as Lin Nan had accurately mocked, a group of people were indeed staring at each other with dark faces.

Although they had been warned before that this subject matter was high-risk, given that it was a Zhang Yimou film, Wang Changtian had thrown that concern to the back of his mind.

But now this high-risk problem had truly exploded, the film had really been sent back, and it was killed off... At this moment, Wang Changtian still felt it was somewhat unreal.

Zhang Yimou's film could also be banned? The film of the general director of the Olympic opening ceremony could also be banned?

"What did they say over there?" Wang Changtian asked Li Xiaoping with a blank expression. After receiving the notification, he immediately had Li Xiaoping go and inquire about the specific situation.

"They said not to submit it for review anymore; it's impossible to lift the ban for a very long time."

Hearing this, before Wang Changtian could react, Zhang Yimou spoke first, sighing:

"After two films, I finally have a sense of where I stand. I have a scale for what can be filmed and what cannot in the future; it really is different now. Chairman Wang..."

"Director Zhang, go ahead."

"Regarding the matter of 'Under the Light,' I still hope Enlight won't give up. Let's try again; at worst, we'll just wait a few years and see.

The loosening of restrictions is basically cyclical; if it can't pass in this cycle, then we'll just wait until the next cycle to try..."

"Of course, this is the first collaboration between Enlight and Director Zhang. We definitely won't give up on this film; you can rest assured on that point, Director Zhang."

Wang Changtian instantly revealed a smile. Because Zhang Yimou was able to take the initiative to speak up, it meant he acknowledged the favor he owed Enlight, and it was a favor he offered voluntarily.

Sure enough, the next second, everyone present heard the promise from the great Director Zhang.

"Later on, I still have quite a few film projects. When the time comes, I'll look for one with a relatively high cost and have Huanxi send an invitation to Enlight to co-invest..."

……

Half an hour later, a smiling Wang Changtian and Li Xiaoping sent Zhang Yimou and his daughter, along with their accompanying assistant, out of the Enlight building.

Watching the other party's business car merge into the traffic, the two turned around and walked back.

"The 150 million cost of 'Under the Light' being killed off, we don't lose. After all, I can always find a way to get this film out; at worst, it's just a matter of time.

And Zhang Yimou's promise is a huge profit, and it was he who specifically mentioned that he would pick projects with higher costs to invite us to..."

"Chairman Wang, I'm actually quite curious, what kind of high-cost films could Director Zhang have? He doesn't play with sci-fi like Director Lin." Li Xiaoping asked with a smile.

"You've really stumped me!" Wang Changtian mocked himself speechlessly. After the two walked into the elevator, he was still muttering in thought:

"Not playing with sci-fi, the cost of a film with a modern background is just like that...

War and military blockbusters? That doesn't seem to be a style he's good at either! Period costume themes?

Eh? The probability of this theme seems really quite high. Because looking back at all his films over the past years, the period costume themes really do have the highest costs!"

"That's right, 'Hero,' 'House of Flying Daggers,' and 'Curse of the Golden Flower,' these three films were all at the top of the industry's investment scale at the time.

Put into the present, the production cost would have to at least double several times over, or even tenfold." Li Xiaoping nodded in agreement, looking forward to Zhang Yimou's promise even more.