Chapter 968: May 1st Movie, Greyhound

Meng Chang was shocked by Boss Pei’s call. He decided on the spot to spend the money immediately!

The current him was very particular about taking out a bag for comfort.

The twenty million yuan had already been allocated to the advertising and marketing department for publicity. However, as long as he did not spend it, the actual authority of the money would still be in Boss Pei’s hands.

What if Boss Pei went back on his word?

For example, what if he took the money back under the guise of a cash flow?

While Meng Chang felt that Boss Pei would not do something so shameless, he had to guard against it for the sake of commission.

Therefore, Meng Chang took advantage of the fact that he was still working on Friday to hold a small meeting. He gathered all his subordinates and decided on the publicity plan for next week.

ALL IN and spend all the publicity funds directly without leaving a single cent!

In any case, success or failure would depend on this. They would just have to wait for the game to be released and the movie to be released on May 1st after spending it. The remaining half a month would be completely up to fate.

The employees of the Advertisement and marketing department followed Meng Chang’s instructions as usual. Soon, they went back to work.

The publicity budget this time was all spent on the promotion of the ‘classic domestically-produced gaming compilation’. There was no promotion of the game ‘Mission and Choice’, and no publicity film.

Logically speaking, the publicity of a movie was also a highlight. Many blockbusters’ publicity budgets were usually the same as the filming budget, easily reaching hundreds of millions of yuan.

These publicity funds included various online and offline resources, such as display boards, banners, posters, and so on in the major cinemas. These materials had to be spent.

However, Meng Chang obviously did not plan to spend a single cent there.

Wouldn’t advertising the movie be the same as advertising the game?

Players were not stupid. Once they saw the name of the movie, they would naturally think of that old game. They would definitely become suspicious.

Thus, the best way was not to publicize the movie.

In any case, he had already spent all the publicity funds. The more ineffective it was, the happier Meng Chang would be.

Of course, the movie could not be kept absolutely confidential. After the documentation, the name and specific content of the movie could be seen on the cinema screenings and various ticketing apps. That was unavoidable.

However, as long as the publicity budget was not enough, the popularity and attention of the movie would only be maintained at a relatively low level.

The publicity costs had to be paid by the company in charge of the publicity after all. The cinema chains could not possibly pay for the publicity, right?

What’s more, it was not just about the publicity. If there were not enough publicity resources, the cinema chains would definitely reduce the number of screenings.

In addition, the movie and game would be released on the same day. Meng Chang felt that it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to persist until May 1st.

It was not enough to affect the overall situation even with the support of some netizens. Mission and Choice was not a small production. If they invested too much money, they would have to earn at least three times the box office before they could recover.

Meng Chang would have already gotten the full commission in April by then even if it really became popular in the later stages!

Meng Chang closed his computer in satisfaction and prepared to get off work to enjoy this weekend after making all the arrangements.

Chief Editor Xia from the official platform would be coming for an exclusive interview next Tuesday. Meng Chang planned to come again on Monday to look at the publicity situation before disappearing on Tuesday.

He would get Chief Editor Xia to interview the others in the advertising and marketing department. Meng Chang would not show his face.

Meng Chang felt that as long as he did not appear on screen or speak, the interview would at most interview a few ordinary employees and ask some irrelevant questions. It would not cause much of a stir and should not be a big problem.

Yes, it looked very stable. There was no problem!

Meng Chang stood up and stretched. He had been busy with the publicity plan recently and was a little tired. He could finally rest and relax this weekend!

It was a pity that he did not have money and did not have any relaxing activities to choose from. He could only sleep at home, watch movies, and eat good food.

Meng Chang planned his weekend and left happily after work, taking the bus home.

…

…

April 9th, Monday…

Beijing, Vinci Media.

Vinci Media was a rather influential media entertainment company in the country. Its main business included film investment, production, publicity, television investment, distribution, artist management, and so on.

Vinci Media would also take on some publicity work for overseas films in the mainland apart from investing and distributing domestic movies.

Vinci Media was not small in scale and there were many successful publicity cases. Therefore, it had a good say in the domestic publicity problems when Fan Qi Media was working overseas.

Vice-President Lu Xiaoping heard a piece of good news on Monday.

The person-in-charge of the department in charge of the overseas movie, “Greyhound”, came to Lu Xiaoping’s office early in the morning. He said excitedly, “Boss Lu, there’s good news! The matter of ‘Mission and Choice’ has been decided. It’s going to be released on April 14th, which is this Saturday!”

Lu Xiaoping was stunned. He even doubted the authenticity of the news. “How is that possible?”

The person-in-charge said, “I also thought that it’s impossible. That’s why I thought it was fake news when I first heard about it! However, the source of the news is very reliable. I’ve asked around and confirmed that ‘Mission and Choice’ has indeed been promoted. It’s really going to be released on April 14th. It can’t be fake!”

Lu Xiaoping revealed an exaggerated expression. He was shocked and elated!

Greyhound was a standard Hollywood blockbuster with an investment of 200 million US dollars. It was known as the ‘biggest sci-fi blockbuster in Hollywood this year’.

From the production team’s perspective, there were famous directors and superstars joining even though there were a lot of restrictions to this statement and there was a certain amount of exaggeration. It could only be said to be a gathering of stars. Even the special effects production team was top-notch in the industry.

This film was shot in the Hawaiian waters. Many destroyers, battleships, and aircraft carriers were shot in real life. It even used the real material of the United States President’s speech to the navy.

All in all, this movie was of high quality from all aspects. Naturally, the producers had high hopes for it.

On the other hand, Vinci Media had taken a liking to this point. That was why they had signed on for the publicity of the Greyhound a long time ago, hoping to make a huge profit from this movie!

Vinci Media spared no expense in order to promote ‘Greyhound’.

First of all, this film invited famous local traffic actors to guest star in it for more than ten minutes and produced a special edition in order to cater to the mainland market. Moreover, this traffic actor would follow the film throughout when it was screening and acting in the mainland.

Secondly, this movie did not premiere later than in its premiere. Instead, it premiered almost a month earlier!

“Greyhound” was released on May 1st in China, and it would be released at the end of May in other parts of the world.

There were two main reasons for this situation. First, it was because the producers were increasingly paying attention to the non-military market because the domestic consumer capacity was especially strong and the market was vast. They could obtain a higher box office if they premiered in the mainland. Second, it was to avoid some blockbusters from premiering in the same period around the world.

Vinci Media knew that the May 1st Golden Week was one of the best times of the year in the country. Therefore, they had been communicating with the producer of the Greyhound and finally managed to get the current schedule.

At first, everyone was very happy after the schedule was set. They felt that it would definitely be a success this time. That was because even though there were many movies released on May 1st, none of them could directly threaten Greyhound.

Greyhound was a sci-fi movie with huge investments and excellent special effects. Most of the movies released on the May 1st screening were comedies and romance films. They were not in the same dimension at all. There was nothing to compare.

In the end, Lu Xiaoping realized that something was amiss after further investigation.

Where did this ‘Mission and Choice’ come from?

Lu Xiaoping immediately thought of it as a small production of a third-rate company as he had never seen the publicity of this film. However, after careful investigation, he realized that it was not a small production. It was a product of Tengda Corporation, which had previously filmed Tomorrow is Beautiful which Lu Zhiyao was starring in!

Thus, the entire Vinci Media was extremely worried as though they were facing a formidable enemy.

However, good news came not long after.

‘Mission and Choice’ was no longer in the May 1st slot. It had been released for half a month and was set to be released on April 14th!

Lu Xiaoping was overjoyed. He could only say that the ups and downs of life were too exciting!

He stood up excitedly and walked around the office twice.

“Does that mean Tengda is afraid?”

“They felt that the competition for the release of the movie was too strong and did not dare to face us head-on, so they moved it to the 14th?”

“It looks like the quality of Mission and Choice is not that good!”

The reason why Lu Xiaoping was so happy was not only because they had one less competitor, but also because it exposed the weak strength of Mission and Choice.

If Tengda was very confident in the movie ‘Mission and Choice’, they would definitely choose to fight it out with the other movies when it was released on May 1st. After all, the traffic during the Golden Week would definitely crush ordinary holidays.

However, Tengda would rather give up on the prime-time week’s traffic and move up the schedule. That meant that the producers did not have any confidence in this movie at all. They did not intend to go head to head with the other movies. They only wanted to choose an unpopular schedule to deceive as many viewers as possible.

This thought might be a little ridiculous but Lu Xiaoping could not think of any other possibilities.

Lu Xiaoping made a bold guess. ‘Mission and Choice’ must have made some major mistakes or setbacks during filming. The movie that was produced in the end could not satisfy Tengda at all. Thus, the project that he had high hopes for was given up. He only wanted to choose an unpopular screening period and barely recoup some of his costs.

The only film that might pose a threat to Greyhound was gone. Wouldn’t that be taking off on the spot?

He had to admit that this was good news!

Lu Xiaoping was very happy. He even felt that he could do something about this.