Chapter 325 Changes in film schedule, box office champion status

There are many factors that affect movie scheduling.

The box office appeal of the film studio, the strength of the distributor, audience feedback and other factors will all affect the film schedule.

However, the most important factor is actually attendance.

When a movie is released in theaters, it has only one original purpose, and that is to make money.

If you want to make money, you have to let the audience go to the cinema to watch it.

A high attendance rate means that the audience wants to watch.

It is impossible for theaters to show movies that have high attendance and not show movies that are not watched.

Therefore, as long as the attendance rate is high, the film schedule will definitely increase.

Even if the film studio does not make a request, the theater will ask for more films to be scheduled.

Of course, the strength and attitude of the film producers and distributors will still affect the increase in film schedule.

In addition, the attitude of theaters will also affect film schedules.

Because there are more than 50 theater chains in China, the largest of which is Dadi and China Film.

Each theater chain has its own operation and management model, and the film schedule will also be different.

If the film studio or distributor has a strong influence on a certain theater line, it will naturally be able to get more films arranged in this theater line.

Of course, generally speaking, theater chains and movie theaters want to make money, and the general direction of making money will not change.

…

After Ark Culture and Penguin Pictures obtained the box office data of "Spirited Away" on the first day, they immediately began to communicate with theaters, hoping to increase the number of films.

However, the number of cinemas is fixed, and there are only so many screenings that can be shown every day.

To increase the schedule of a movie, there will inevitably be a decrease in the schedule of movies.

Competition is coming.

"Spirited Away" wants to increase its film schedule.

The three movies "The Legend of God of War", "Rock Detective 2" and "The Hero" also want to increase their film schedule.

Moreover, the top three major productions at the box office all had box office sales of over 100 million on the first day, so they are very confident.

The distributors of these three movies may even point their fingers at the theater managers and scold them: "The box office on the first day exceeded 100 million, and the attendance rate exceeded the average. Why should we reduce our film schedule?"

Similar quarrels have occurred in various film distribution companies.

…

Since "The Legend of God of War" is the highlight of Penguin Pictures' eleventh schedule, the promotion team of "The Legend of God of War" is personally led by Zhang Changfeng.

"Spirited Away" was handled by another manager.

On the morning of October 2, Zhang Changfeng personally led two teams to communicate with multiple theaters online and offline.

"Manager Li, the film schedule of "The Legend of God of War" cannot be reduced. It opened with a box office of 150 million. There is no reason to reduce it. The film schedule of "Spirited Away" must be increased, with an attendance rate of 76% and a box office share of 11%.

Not to mention increasing the film schedule to 11%, it is necessary to increase it to 10%." Zhang Changfeng personally called the manager of Dadi Cinemas.

"Mr. Zhang, it is difficult to increase the film schedule of "Spirited Away" to 10%. Do you know how many people called me today and want to increase the film schedule? How can I add it?" The theater manager was very helpless.

"Given the attendance rate of "Spirited Away", 10% of the film schedule is not excessive." Zhang Changfeng knew very well that even if he did not mention it, the film schedule of "Spirited Away" would increase, but it is hard to say how much the increase would occur.

, so we must fight for it.

"Doubling the film schedule is too much. An increase in film schedule means that the attendance rate will decrease." Manager Li explained.

"I've looked at the movie ticket reservations for the next three days, and all the tickets for the middle seats of "Spirited Away" have been booked. As the film schedule increases, the attendance rate will not drop much." Zhang Changfeng held the movie tickets in his hand for pre-sale.

Reports are all about data.

"We are all in this business. The attendance rate of "Spirited Away" was high on the first day. A large part of the reason was that there was enough publicity and less filming. This will naturally create the illusion of high attendance. The second day

It may not be this high again." Theater managers have been in this business for so many years and are relatively confident about the changes in movie box office data.

This is indeed the case.

On the first day of a movie's release, the biggest factor affecting the box office is not word-of-mouth, but the publicity and box office appeal of the director and starring actors.

This is easy to understand.

On the first day the movie was released, word of mouth had not yet formed at all.

Whether the audience chooses to watch this movie mainly depends on the cast and director of the movie, as well as the intensity of the movie's publicity.

Word of mouth affects the number of subsequent moviegoers.

Therefore, a high attendance rate on the first day does not prove a good reputation.

The extremely high publicity and distribution expenses in the early stage and the low proportion of film schedules will indeed lead to high attendance rates.

This situation has happened to movies before, but starting from the second day, the movie's reputation was mediocre, the attendance rate dropped all the way, and the final performance was mediocre.

Of course Zhang Changfeng knew about this case, so he made preparations in advance and said: "As for audience feedback, our company has collected audience feedback in more than 100 theaters across the country. The audience's evaluation of "Spirited Away" is very high. I can guarantee that

, the film schedule is increased to 10%, and the attendance rate of "Spirited Away" will not be lower than 60%."

The theater manager was somewhat persuaded and proposed a plan: "If the film schedule of "Spirited Away" should be increased to 10%, the film schedule of "God of War" should be reduced to 30%."

"Absolutely not!" Zhang Changfeng flatly refused.

The film schedule of "God of War" on the first day was 35%, making it the highest-scheduled movie in the eleventh period.

The second-ranked film is "Rock Detective 2" with 25%.

The third ranked film is "The Greatest Hero" with 21%.

The three movies’ schedules add up to a total of 81%.

When he heard that the theater manager wanted to reduce the film schedule of "The Legend of God of War", Zhang Changfeng immediately expressed his opposition.

"The Legend of God of War" is the highlight of Penguin Pictures' eleventh schedule.

The filming schedule of "Spirited Away" must be striven for, but the filming schedule of "God of War" must also be stable.

"Mr. Zhang, the attendance rate on the first day of "The Legend of God of War" was lower than the other two films, so the film schedule must be lowered. You want to increase the film schedule of "Spirited Away", where will the film schedule come from?" The theater manager

Not only did I receive calls from Zhang Changfeng, other film producers have also been asking for more films.

But there are only so many films in the schedule. If someone adds more, someone will definitely reduce it.

"You should be clear about the starring cast of "The Legend of God of War". It will definitely be the box office champion in the eleventh period. It is impossible to lower the film schedule, absolutely not." Zhang Changfeng's attitude is very determined.

The theater manager sighed and said frankly: "Mr. Zhang, let me tell you the truth. The first-day attendance rates of "Rock Detective 2" and "The Hero" were both higher than those of "The Legend of God of War". I won't give it to you.

It’s already difficult to schedule these two movies more.

"In short, if you want to increase the film schedule of "Spirited Away", you can only get it from "The Legend of God of War". Just think about how much it will cost."

Zhang Changfeng looked very serious and began to think about the allocation of films.

Penguin Pictures is still very powerful in film distribution and has a certain say.

After deliberation, in order to maintain the position of "The Legend of God of War" as the box office champion in the eleventh period, the film schedule was only reduced by 3 points.

The film schedule of "Spirited Away" increased from 5% to 8%.

…

After the increase in film schedule, "Spirited Away" will have several new film schedules on October 2.

Many viewers couldn't buy the movie online, so they went to the theater and finally bought tickets for the new screenings, and posted the movie tickets on Weibo to express their luck.

Each theater chain has a unified brand.

For example, Dadi Cinemas will have its own cinema membership card.

In order to protect the rights and interests of its members, theaters will reserve a portion of movie screenings for members when popular movies are released.

Of course, this situation usually only occurs when it is difficult to get tickets for popular movies.

If the movie screening hall is not full during normal times, there is no need to make a reservation.

The current situation of "Spirited Away" is that it is a popular show within three days, and the tickets are all sold out.

The newly added shows in the cinema will be given priority to its own members.

This allows screenings that can be seen in movie theaters but cannot be seen on online channels.

Audiences who bought tickets posted their movie tickets on major online platforms.

Immediately attracted many netizens to complain:

[Why can’t I see the tickets for this movie on the blue APP? I can’t find them even by searching.]

[Obviously this is a new show, and theaters will give priority to selling to customers on site.]

This is not unusual when a popular movie is released.

Because when customers go to the movie theater to buy tickets, the ticket seller usually recommends popcorn and drink packages.
To be continued...