Chapter 155: Summer Competition

Shaw Brothers had only 36 mainstream theaters, while Wing Ka owned 37—31 of which were mainstream theaters after excluding 6 art houses. Cinema Circuit had 41 theaters, with 35 mainstream theaters left after removing 6 art houses.
A total of 102 theaters showed “Spy Conspiracy,” but Fang Ruohai was determined to include all the art houses as well; “Passion Unleashed” was shown in only 49 theaters. Jiahuo’s “Home Alone” had already earned 15 million in box office receipts after 10 days, while Depp’s “Love Quest” had only earned 8 million.
With the perfect coordination of the Phantom Marketing Department, various interesting advertisements were spread throughout every corner of Hong Kong. In terms of publicity, Phantom had a clear advantage. The trailer, edited personally by Xiao Ran, captured the essence of Hollywood trailers from over a decade later, greatly piquing the audience’s interest.
The grandeur of “Spy Conspiracy’s” premiere day was indescribable—pre-sales alone amounted to 8 million. This showed just how attractive the combination of Xiao Ran and Zhou Runfa was. In many magazines, newspapers, and film reviews, they were simply called the most box-office powerful duo of their time.
On premiere day, long queues formed outside the theaters showing “Spy Conspiracy” as people bought tickets. Fortunately, Cinema Circuit had already made extensive preparations, not only upgrading its equipment but also improving efficiency.
Xiao Ran had to admit that Liao Jingping was an excellent manager. Liao Jingping was one of the key figures behind the success of the Lei Ka Tai film era. After Hailuo fully acquired New Art City and Golden Princess, Liao Jingping resigned and was hired by Xiao Ran to manage Cinema Circuit. It turned out to be a wise decision.
Thanks to the efficient ticketing system, audiences didn’t complain. Yet Xiao Ran was deeply moved—such a scene, where almost all citizens of Hong Kong went to see the movie, might only be matched again in over a decade when “Kung Fu” was released.
That night, after the box office figures from each theater chain were compiled, they were sent to Phantom Company’s distribution department. Xiao Ran received a call from Ge Wenqiu. Calmly, he continued writing at his desk. Lin Qingxia, on the other hand, couldn’t wait to ask, “How was the box office?”
“Well…” Xiao Ran pretended to look sad for a moment before bursting into laughter. “The premiere-day box office was 3.8 million—far exceeding the previous record! Haha!”
“Really?! That’s great! How about Hailuo?” Lin Qingxia was so happy she almost jumped up. Nearly 4 million! Xiao Ran wanted to laugh wildly to express his joy at this success. At a current ticket price of 15 dollars, it meant all the seats in the three theater chains were sold out that day.
Hailuo? “Passion Unleashed” also had a solid premiere box office of 1.8 million. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse afterward. With its smooth plot and dynamic action scenes, “Spy Conspiracy” easily outperformed “Passion Unleashed,” which tried to imitate Ng Yu-sun’s style.

In the following time, word of mouth about “Spy Conspiracy” spread rapidly, and everyone was eager to watch this incredibly thrilling blockbuster. The common phrase among people recently became, “Have you seen it?” Of course, this referred to “Spy Conspiracy.”

Within three days, “Spy Conspiracy” surpassed 10 million in box office earnings, breaking the record for the fastest such achievement in history. By the eighth day, it further broke the record for the fastest time to reach 20 million. On the fifteenth day, under much attention, it officially crossed the 30 million mark.

After that, the number of theaters showing the film gradually decreased to 76. On the twenty-seventh day, it once again surpassed the 40 million mark. No one doubted that “Spy Conspiracy” could break historical box office records, as even with the number of theaters reduced to 54, its earnings still exceeded 600,000.

The reduction in theaters was inevitable—once half of the audience had seen the film, it became difficult to make better use of theater resources. Gradually reducing the number of theaters showed did not harm the film’s box office earnings. By the forty-fifth day, the earnings once again crossed 50 million.

It wasn’t until the sixtieth day that the film finally concluded, with daily earnings still ranging from 100,000 to 200,000. The total local box office earnings for “Spy Conspiracy” ultimately reached a staggering 56 million—a figure too impressive to ignore.

“Infinite Passion” managed to reach only 30 million thanks to Fang Ruohai’s efforts through his own theater chain, but a significant portion of those earnings seemed inflated. This will be discussed later…

It must be noted that “Spy Conspiracy” truly had the flavor of a Hollywood action blockbuster from over a decade later—fluid and extremely intense. Many viewers, in surveys conducted by the marketing department, said that just watching the building explosion at the end was definitely worth it.

After all, in that era, it seemed no one had created such grand scenes, as the government did not support the film industry as much as it would later. In essence, this film brought to the present what was technologically and stylistically advanced over a decade earlier.

However, its high box office success wasn’t only due to its being an ultra-modern action blockbuster with top-notch quality that left every viewer thrilled—it was also thanks to the marketing department’s aggressive promotional strategies. They continued to promote the film even after its release, striving to attract audiences who didn’t watch movies frequently.

Another reason was that media outlets and film critics’ statistics about the film piqued the interest of those who hadn’t intended to watch it. Thus, high box office earnings can indeed drive the market significantly.

In short, box office success depends not only on the quality of the film. Even the best film will fail if it lacks proper promotion and distribution. In this undoubtedly the most ambitious marketing campaign in Hong Kong’s film industry, every employee in the marketing department grew rapidly—experience that not everyone can gain.

The distribution department also faced severe efficiency challenges. Xiao Ran set extremely strict requirements for the era: the film had to be released in every region and country in Southeast Asia within ten days of its Hong Kong premiere.

For the distribution department, this was nothing short of a battle for honor. A victory would earn them the title of the most efficient distribution team in Hong Kong, as they were extremely jealous of the marketing department’s reputation as “Hong Kong’s most skilled professional marketing team.”

Due to its proximity to Hong Kong, Taiwan could almost release the film simultaneously without any time difference, so that wasn’t a concern. However, places like Thailand and the Philippines posed some difficulties, as just producing the copies took a considerable amount of time. As a result, under Ke Wenqiu’s personal leadership, the copies were sent to various parts of Southeast Asia as soon as they were ready. Once, due to a flight delay, Ke Wenqiu even considered chartering a plane to deliver them.

In any case, the distribution department succeeded. The last country to release the film was Thailand, a country known for its low efficiency, and it only took eight days in total. While the outside world marveled at how every department at Magic Shadow could work with such efficiency, Ke Wenqiu and his team were so exhausted that they could barely think of finding a place to sleep.

Ke Wenqiu and his team felt extremely ashamed at the praise from the media. After all, this distribution effort did not include Japan and South Korea, otherwise, they likely would not have been able to pull it off. Nevertheless, Xiao Ran was very satisfied with the results and personally met with all the employees who had worked hard for the company, giving each of them a large red envelope.

“Spy Change” earned a total box office of 120 million in Taiwan, becoming the second film after “The God of Gamblers” to exceed 100 million in Taiwan’s box office history, and it also set a new record there. In Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, the film’s total box office was 160 million. Although it didn’t break any records, it was the highest-grossing Hong Kong film in those regions.

Just as “Spy Change” reached a box office of 20 million, distributors from Japan and South Korea rushed to talk to Ke Wenqiu about purchasing the film without even taking a break. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize that Ke Wenqiu and his team, refreshed and motivated, with some staying behind while Ke Wenqiu led a team to Japan and South Korea to negotiate directly with the theater chains.

Leveraging the film’s strong box office performance in Southeast Asia, Ke Wenqiu successfully secured distribution rights for two theater chains in each country. In South Korea, the box office was quite good, reaching 150 million. (Unless otherwise specified, all amounts are in Hong Kong dollars. Since the exchange rate between Hong Kong dollars and US dollars in the text is unclear, the current rate is used.)

In Japan, given the size of the market, the box office performance was slightly weaker, at only 210 million Hong Kong dollars, far less than that of “The God of Gamblers.” Yet even so, the impact of “Spy Change” across Asia was still astonishing. In the Chinese mainland, however, the box office performance was less satisfactory, failing to reach even 100 million, with only over 80 million.

Since they negotiated directly with the theater chains, they didn’t get a one-time upfront payment for the initial release but instead a revenue share. Following the common practice of the production company, distribution company, and theater chain each taking one-third of the profits (though this varies by region), Magic Shadow, as both the producer and distributor, earned over 400 million.

Yet this was not easy to achieve either; just the promotional costs across various regions added up to at least forty million. Nevertheless, this still allowed Phantom Company to earn a net profit of over 350 million from this film—a profit that would make anyone jealous. What’s more, when the company released the videotape, it made another huge profit, further opening up the videotape sales market in every region and country in Southeast Asia, creating a seamless network.

Not only that, but evenKahera’s “Home Alone” was affected by Phantom Company’s pressure, with its box office earnings stopping at 24 million. Deppa’s “Love Quest” fared even worse, barely reaching 10 million before fading away… Everyone went to watch “Spy Change” instead.

This film completely shaped the trend of Hong Kong cinema, inspiring other film companies. It even prompted Pan Disheng to sell most of his other businesses to focus on distribution, leading him to pursue larger-scale productions—a story for another time, of course.

Let’s return to the passionate month of July, when “Spy Change” had been released for less than three days. Xiao Ran disappeared from sight. At the home of Wen Bowen, the chairman of the American Haisen Group, Xiao Ran was in conversation with him.

Although Wen Bowen could guess Xiao Ran’s purpose, he was still very interested in this young man who displayed a maturity far beyond his age. He watched Xiao Ran intently, trying to figure out the reason behind his success.

Gently setting down the cup with clear water, Xiao Ran knew Wen Bowen was sizing him up to make some judgment. Smiling lightly, he leaned back on the comfortable sofa—truly comfortable, though his poor eyesight prevented him from identifying the type of leather. “Mr. Wen, I think you’re quite aware of my purpose!”

“Maybe I know a little, but I think you might as well repeat it!” Wen Bowen smiled. Just from those words, he knew Xiao Ran wasn’t an easy opponent. He thought it was not worth getting entangled with such a rival.

“No problem…” Xiao Ran’s fingers tapped continuously on the sofa, seemingly testing what kind of animal leather it was made of, while also giving off an air of confidence. With a mysterious smile, he said, “Mr. Wen, what you’re doing now and what I want to do have the same goal. From my perspective, I hope you can use your position as chairman of Haisen Group to recover Hailue’s funds!”

“Do you think I’ll agree?” Wen Bowen’s heart skipped a beat; he was almost scared by Xiao Ran. He was indeed working to take down Fang Poli in order to seize his wealth. Just hearing Xiao Ran’s words made it seem as if he already knew everything, which shocked him despite thinking he had kept it secret. “Ah Hai is a very capable young man. He will surely earn a lot of money for Haisen. I have no reason to take back the funds!”

Xiao Ran smiled. Truly, he was a shrewd businessman, a famous Chinese entrepreneur on Forbes’ list of the top 500 richest people, speaking without any flaw. Unfortunately, through Guan Xin’s intelligence, Xiao Ran already knew that Wen Bowen had been preparing for a long time to deal with the Fang family.

So, obviously this was not enough to dissuade Xiao Ran, as he believed that in business, having more friends was always better than having more enemies. He didn’t want another Wen Bowen to appear after the Fang family left, even though he was well aware that Wen Bowen couldn’t get involved in the film industry. Yet, once his plan was put into action, it would be extremely difficult for the Haisen Group to recover all its invested money, and he couldn’t guarantee that Wen Bowen wouldn’t become enraged.

For Wen Bowen, getting Fang Ruohai, who was good at taking risks and financial investment, out of the way was a crucial part of his plan. If he recovered the Haile Group’s investment now, it would surely upset the Fang family, and Fang Ruohai might cause trouble after returning.

Thus, this negotiation was doomed to fail. Now, Xiao Ran could also vaguely guess some of Wen Bowen’s plans, so he knew there was no need to continue talking—they both understood it was completely unnecessary.

Xiao Ran stood up, smiling and extending his hand, “Since Mr. Wen isn’t willing to accept my offer, don’t regret it in the future!”

Wen Bowen narrowed his eyes and smiled, also extending his hand, “Of course not. I’m actually very eager to cooperate with such a talented young man as you!”

“There will always be an opportunity, right?” Xiao Ran was relieved. Now he felt at ease.

*****
Recommendations:
Dugu Tianhan’s new novel *Desire and the Universe*, http://www.feiku.com/showbook.asp?bl_id=38480
Beixi Canglang’s new novel *God Destroyer*, http://www.feiku.com/showbook.asp?bl_id=48699
A San Shou Ma’s famous novel *Bandits*, http://www.feiku.com/showbook.asp?bl_id=47832