Chapter 475: 《Monkey King: Hero is Back》, Reaching the Top!

Major cinema chains have been incredibly headache-ridden these past two days.

Scheduling is a technical job for cinema chains.

But no one has the power of foresight; they can only rely on various data, early-stage buzz, and the like to make an estimate and decide on the preliminary schedule.

This is actually not a problem; after all, those high-buzz trash films also have very strong box office numbers in the first few days, and only when word-of-mouth plummets do they show signs of decline.

On Earth, it is not strange for a large number of trash films that everyone curses at to break 100 million or even 200 million in opening-day box office.

Regarding the scheduling for the Spring Festival slot, the days from the first to the third day of the Lunar New Year had already been arranged.

In Blue Star, the scheduling for the first three days must be set in advance, and some large cinema chains will even sign a Contract due to some interest-swapping reasons.

This is a bit of a headache.

Monkey King: Hero is Back is too fierce; whether it is word-of-mouth or seat occupancy rate, it is too explosive.

Judging from the gradually rising enthusiasm of the audience to watch the film, it has now steadily surpassed Crossing the Future.

The departments responsible for scheduling at major cinema chains wish they could reduce the scheduling for Crossing the Future right now and put it onto Monkey King: Hero is Back instead.

You must know that the seat occupancy rate of Monkey King: Hero is Back is nearly 20% higher than that of Crossing the Future!

Yes, some might say that is because Monkey King: Hero is Back has fewer scheduled slots and fewer screenings, so everyone crowds together to watch it, and the seat occupancy rate is naturally higher.

This is a fact, and it is also one of the reasons why the seat occupancy rate has become the number one in the Spring Festival slot.

However, the Pre-sale Box Office results for Monkey King: Hero is Back are simply too good.

Because they cannot buy tickets, many people will purchase tickets for tomorrow or the day after for sessions that have already been opened.

Friends who have experienced the situation of not being able to buy tickets should know that cinema pre-sales do not confirm all sessions several days in advance.

For example, if you buy a ticket for the day after tomorrow now, you can only see a few sessions, but after a few hours, a few new ones will open up.

This involves changes in scheduling.

The word-of-mouth for Crossing the Future is average; because people's Requirement for Comedy films is getting higher and higher, once they feel the punchlines are just so-so, they will feel the film is very awkward.

Its pre-sale results are not even half of Monkey King: Hero is Back!

Many Film Critic stated that there are not many deliberately funny plots in Monkey King: Hero is Back, but many places are witty and humorous, which will make people smile knowingly.

This kind of natural humor is much more sophisticated than many of the forced, awkward scenes in Crossing the Future.

"It's annoying. I should have followed the Xindi Cinema Chain back then and given Monkey King: Hero is Back a bit more scheduling."

And it wasn't until the afternoon of the third day of the Lunar New Year that the major cinema chains encountered an even more shocking matter.

That is, the Review Department directly contacted the relevant persons in charge of the major cinema chains.

Although they did not explicitly state their position, they implicitly indicated that they should strongly support excellent domestic Animation works like Monkey King: Hero is Back!

This allowed the major cinema chains to receive a signal.

They guessed that many media outlets with special characteristics were already prepared to build momentum for Monkey King: Hero is Back!

"Is it because of the subject matter?"

"Or is it because of Huang Lun?"

"Or... Luo Mo just has this kind of magic!"

………

………

On the Hot Song Chart of major music platforms, "Wukong" quietly climbed to the top of the Hot Song Chart, dominating the list once again.

This is nothing strange; Luo Mo himself said he is used to it.

Sometimes, his songs will inexplicably become popular again, and the staff at the studio cannot even react; they still have to check the internet for clues and study for half a day to figure out why the heck it became popular again!

Luo Mo: I am also very confused myself.

Strictly speaking, the Hot Song Chart itself is already half-occupied by him; a large number of his songs hang on the chart all year round, as if he bought a stall, and they just won't fall off.

However, the fact that "Wukong" has reached the top again can still reflect the current heat of Monkey King: Hero is Back.

As for those media outlets with special characteristics, they are actually waiting.

The articles to build momentum for Monkey King: Hero is Back have already been written.

Now, they are just waiting for a good opportunity.

Fortunately, this good opportunity arrived soon.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the opening-day box office of Monkey King: Hero is Back was just a little short of 60 million.

On the second day, it reached 61.5 million.

This means that this work has once again broken the single-day box office record for domestic animated films that it created itself.

This is still because the scheduling is limited, so there is a ceiling for the box office.

In this way, adding the box office of the two days together, not counting those Pre-sale Box Office, the cumulative box office has already broken 120 million!

If this momentum is maintained, it is very likely that on the third day of the Lunar New Year, it will break the total box office record of the domestic animated film Legend of the Red Dragon!

And Legend of the Red Dragon had been released for a full month, with a cumulative box office of 169 million.

But what about Monkey King: Hero is Back?

This is only the third day!

Luo Mo is also waiting; his studio and Tongguang Studio are also waiting.

As soon as the box office record is broken, they will immediately build momentum and promote it.

These media outlets with special characteristics are also preparing to praise Monkey King: Hero is Back properly at this stage.

There is no way around it; who told it to be the pinnacle of visual achievement for domestic animated films in Blue Star Huaxia?

Who told its subject matter to be the traditional Myth subject matter of Huaxia?

Who told its protagonist to be the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal?

Who told it to incorporate a large number of traditional Huaxia cultural elements?

There are too, too many reasons.

This film has too many aspects that hit the nail on the head for these media outlets!

If a film like this isn't promoted, then what should be promoted?

What's more, they had also received instructions and been assigned a task!

Before this film was produced, Luo Mo and He Yuanguang had a conversation about it.

He Yuanguang asked him why he chose the Journey to the West theme, and why he chose the character of the Great Sage.

Luo Mo provided him with a triple analysis from the perspectives of sentiment and reality.

There is no need to say much about sentiment; this household name has extraordinary significance for the people of Huaxia.

"From a realistic level, this theme has too many advantages; it can garner a lot of support!"

"I won't talk about anything else; I will just talk about one aspect." Luo Mo began to speak eloquently.

"Cultural Output has always been a matter that Huaxia attaches great importance to. To be precise, this is something that every country attaches extreme importance to."

"And our Monkey Brother has international popularity; this should be something many people are aware of."

"This point alone has a different kind of significance," Luo Mo said.

He Yuanguang nodded repeatedly upon hearing this.

He looked up at the young man before him, only to feel that beneath his calm expression lay an incredibly powerful self-confidence.

Others are all single-mindedly considering breaking even, considering how much they can earn.

Yet he seems to never consider the issue of breaking even, never feels that he will lose money, and never thinks about whether the word-of-mouth will be bad.

He simply determined that he could break even, make money, and that the word-of-mouth would explode!

Then, he bypassed these issues to think about something more profound!

And facts proved that he was not pointlessly arrogant.

Because by three o'clock in the afternoon, the cumulative box office of Monkey King: Hero is Back had already surpassed 170 million!

Those who wanted to see the film had bought their tickets early; by the evening, it would be impossible to grab a ticket at all!

This meant that a new cumulative box office record for domestic Animation films had officially been born!

At 3:30 in the afternoon, five media outlets with special status acted as if they had made an appointment.

Well, they actually had made an appointment.

Within half an hour, they successively issued articles on major platforms specifically praising Monkey King: Hero is Back.

In an instant, the entire Animation industry was stirred once again.

Have we stood up?

Are we about to stand up!

One must know that on all major ticketing apps, there are so-called "experts" who provide final total box office predictions for films currently in theaters.

The predicted data for Monkey King: Hero is Back currently displayed on major apps has already reached over 500 million!

This caused many people in the Animation industry to focus their attention on one film.

It is called Dragon Castle, a foreign Animation film that was released last year, triggered a global sensation, and also raked in 630 million at the box office in Huaxia.

When this figure appeared, many people in the Animation industry fell into a long silence.

Their hearts were filled with mixed feelings that could not be expressed in a few words.

Especially since Legend of the Red Dragon and Dragon Castle both have the word "dragon" in them, the themes were somewhat similar.

But what about the box office gap?

One holds the honor of being the domestic number one, yet only has 160 million.

The other is a full 630 million, a figure that can rank on the Huaxia box office charts among all films in cinema history.

However...

However!

Judging from the current momentum, Monkey King: Hero is Back and Dragon Castle are not without the strength to fight!

If the collective action of the five special media outlets stirred up a great wind.

Then, what truly allowed this wind to sweep across the entire country was CCTV.

At seven o'clock in the evening, Xinwen Lianbo—began broadcasting.

(PS: Second update, asking for monthly votes!)

(End of this chapter)