Mid-July is always the most intense period of competition for summer movies, and all blockbusters are released at this time, spanning the months of July and August.
Some movies that are not very confident will either be released early at the end of June or released in early August to avoid this most tragic period.
Starting from the 17th, the daily output of the summer season has exceeded 30 million, and "Now You See Me" even hit a super high box office of 25.5 million on Saturday.
"Red Cliff" also increased by another 2 million on this day, reaching 14 million.
In addition, "Hancock" earned another 1.5 million in a single day, and the single-day box office on Saturday, July 19th reached an unprecedented 40 million.
This is another new single-day box office record, far better than last year's summer war between "Transformers" and "Superman" and the New Year's war between "The Legend" and "Assembly".
The two films produced by both sides of the war have attracted worldwide attention and are known as the most brutal fighting in the history of Chinese-language films.
Many people even predict that this summer there will be two blockbusters worth $300 million.
Everyone's eyes are on these two movies, eager to know who will win in the championship battle between the big Hollywood directors and the big mainland directors.
More than a dozen theater chains across the country also burned a lot of brain cells for this, and both of the two blockbuster movies needed to provide a large number of film schedules.
2,700 copies has exceeded the capacity of the domestic film market. Theaters must make careful calculations to arrange screenings to ensure that not every minute is wasted.
Every time during prime time, movie theater owners are always sad and happy. Audiences are constantly coming to buy tickets after work, but they are told that tonight's tickets have been sold out, and they can only show up late at night before 12 o'clock.
In a cinema in Xidan, Beijing, the cinema owner’s forehead wrinkled into the Chinese character “Sichuan” after listening to the report from his manager.
"Boss, the audience outside is clamoring for an extra show, what should I do?"
This kind of thing happened in the first two days of the release of "The Golden Armor" the year before last and "The Promise" the year before last. Even last year's Lunar New Year and summer programs were not so popular.
"Extra shows, what the heck, my eight halls have been showing these two films since 4 p.m., and the intervals in between have been shortened to seven or eight minutes. Now I'm still worried about causing a stampede!"
The theater owner's fat face shook violently, he slapped his chair and shouted, obviously he was not in a calm mood.
In the past, summer movies were a time for counting money. Although there was more money this year, he felt heartbroken when he saw a large number of viewers leaving the theater disappointed.
The manager thought for a while and came up with an idea, "How about we sell standing tickets?"
"Okay, come find some stools..."
The boss hesitated for a while but nodded.
The manager just left and came back suddenly not long after.
"Boss, the regional president has sent someone here."
"What's the matter?"
"Sent me a copy, it's of "Red Cliff"!"
"I******"
Suddenly a foul language broke out.
"What's the use of sending copies now? They must be sick. They asked for copies last week, but now they can't get them!"
Similar things happened in various places across the country, with more than 4,000 screens producing 40 million box office in a single day, which was an unprecedented explosion.
The domestic film industry has taken another step forward. The leaders of the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Optoelectronics even held a research meeting specifically for this purpose.
...
Cinema is one front, and the other front is publicity.
Almost all relevant media across the country have been mobilized, trolls are all over the Internet, and billboards can be seen everywhere in reality.
Film reviews that were difficult to tell were true and false appeared in front of the audience. Due to financial reasons, Chengtian was unable to eliminate those negative reviews in time.
"The rhythm is a mess, the scenes are a mess, everything is a mess. I guess Wu Baige himself didn't understand how to fight Chibi."
"This is a successful comedy. At least I couldn't help but laugh out loud, but the war scenes made me fall asleep."
"The actors seemed to be sleepwalking. No one had any sense of tension before the battle. Some practiced calligraphy, some knitted straw sandals, some played the piano, and even played football!"
"The editing is very fucking, the lines are shocking, and the male-to-male relationship is very rotten!"
Negative comments like this abound, some are spontaneous comments from viewers, and some are malicious comments.
As for "Red Cliff", they could only send people to constantly improve the praise, barely giving it a 50-50 rating.
Compared to "Red Cliff" which has mixed reviews, "Now You See Me" is well-received wherever it is viewed. Douban and Time ratings are around 8 points.
As time goes by, it is inevitable that the score will fall below 8 points, but for a popcorn movie, this is already a quite high score.
In addition to negative marketing for "Red Cliff", its own publicity has not fallen behind at all.
"I just want to say that it looks so damn good! Everyone in the hall was dumbfounded and clapped excitedly in the end. Such special effects, such scenes, such music, plus those long, straight white legs, even the plot
There are a few flaws that can be ignored, okay!!"
"The editing and rhythm are so dazzling. Some flaws can be ignored directly. The whole movie can be used as a gorgeous cover-up. After watching it, although it is empty but extremely exciting, and Deng Chao's speaking speed is...
Do you want to break through the third dimension?"
"Who knows what I felt after watching this movie? I was shocked, surprised, and amazed. It is simply beyond words. The movie cleverly combines magic, crime, and plot development.
Magic can be so wonderful, it can accomplish a shocking movement in front of everyone, and the demon thieves can still escape if they use it correctly."
"This is one of those rare movies where I didn't have time to guess the plot and just followed it. It's even the only one."
...
Amid the applause of the audience, the first week of "Now You See Me" passed quickly.
After breaking through the 25 million mark on Saturday, although there was a slight decline on Sunday, it still achieved a super high box office of 24 million.
After 4 days of release, the total box office was as high as 93 million, making it the box office champion of the week.
Although it is not as good as the 100 million in four days of "Red Cliff", this is an achievement achieved in the face of such a strong enemy!
"Red Cliff" grossed nearly 12 million at the box office on its 11th day of release. Although a lot of negative marketing was done to target the other party, the increase in the market also boosted the box office of "Red Cliff".
In a variety show last night, the program team invited a well-known domestic magic team to participate in the show and showed the audience some of the magic tricks in the movie one by one.
Except for a few magic tricks that could not be performed due to the venue, all the small magic tricks, including the bank robbery scene and the hidden cash transport truck scene, were all replicated.
The piranha escape magic was copied exactly the same, and the bank robbery scene was a scaled-down version, with only a small rain of money falling in the center of the stage.
Of course, for the cash transport scene, we didn't bring a big truck, but a scaled-down version, a model the size of an ordinary car.
Tang An watched it for about ten minutes last night and it was quite interesting. I asked about the ratings when I woke up in the morning and it was pretty good.
"It seems that Wu Bo has already sent people to stir up this topic."
Xu Manyun handed the computer to Tang An, along with some entertainment newspapers from this morning.
"You see, both inside and outside the words are saying that the magic in the movie is simple, meaningless, and purely deceptive."
"Don't worry about it. Just find some people to speculate with him. I'm afraid he doesn't have that much money and won't become popular."