Chapter 275: The Continental Battle

Putting aside his work and pondering for a moment, Xiao Ran quickly realized that this strategy could not achieve its goals in the short term; instead, it aimed to gradually erode the foundations of Shadow’s future through incremental tactics.
“Really cunning—such long-term vision, impressive!” Xiao Ran couldn’t help but laugh in admiration. Of course, he had no idea that this weakness was suggested by Tie Long, while the conspiracy built upon it was Turner’s creation.
Just as he often did when thinking, he tapped his fingers, producing a soft, rhythmic sound. What amused Xiao Ran the most was that once, during an inspection in Tianlai, he had also tapped rhythmically while deep in thought—unconsciously.
He never expected this habit to catch someone’s attention, get adapted into a piece of music, and even become popular for a while. Uncle Zhan was quite satisfied with this outcome, as it proved that what Xiao Ran had learned from him hadn’t been wasted.
Xiao Ran didn’t think Turner and his crew’s plan would work. At least he was willing to bet that they had no idea the Ministry of Culture was preparing to introduce policies to protect domestic films—essentially, policies to protect Hong Kong movies. If Turner had known, he surely wouldn’t have made such a foolish mistake.
After these policies were implemented, the number of foreign films shown in China would be restricted, and domestic films would be required to have a minimum number of screening days—much like South Korea’s policies. As long as these policies existed, even the four major companies might collapse, but the sophisticated business system Xiao Ran had built over the years could still function, ensuring that Hong Kong movies continued to produce high-quality films.
The most important point was that if Hong Kong movies couldn’t even compete with Hollywood at home, then Xiao Ran could just give up everything and return to his hometown to sell sweet potatoes. After all, if they couldn’t compete in the mainland market, they surely wouldn’t be able to hold on in the Asian or European markets either. So, this strategy was completely ineffective—merely a possible setup that might work someday.
Turner must not have investigated that, in order to develop today’s market, Xiao Ran had spared no expense smuggling large quantities of videotapes to the mainland. Thanks to these videotapes, video rental shops across the mainland flourished.
To put it bluntly, an entire generation grew up immersed in Hong Kong movies. As long as this generation of Hong Kong movies established a foothold in the mainland market, they could enter a virtuous cycle and continue to influence generation after generation.
“Without investigation, there’s no right to speak,” Xiao Ran strongly agreed with this saying. He even tweaked it slightly to “without investigation, there’s no targeted strategy.” Thus, Shadow’s thorough investigations were one of the key factors guiding its success. Under such circumstances, Hollywood was already defeated even before the battle began.

Yet Xiao Ran didn’t take it lightly. If he lost this battle against “Desperate Journey,” Hollywood films would surely dominate the mainland market in the future. He was absolutely confident he could win, as this was on his home turf, and no one knew better than him how to appeal to Eastern audiences. This seemingly ordinary summer blockbuster battle would determine market share in the mainland, and Xiao Ran would never allow Hollywood to gain a significant foothold there.

Not long after July arrived, films produced by China Film Group were released. Hearing this news from afar in Hong Kong, Xiao Ran smiled dismissively. What could those theaters controlled by China Film Group do? After all, the four major companies had acquired or built over 2,200 theaters on the mainland, half of which were still the old-style theaters people had visited as children, as the companies hadn’t had time to fully renovate them.

Since theaters weren’t as densely located as in Hong Kong, everyone cooperated by showing films alternately—his films in their theaters and theirs in his theaters—to maximize box office revenue.

Hong Kong first released “The Legend of the Racing God 2,” “Spy Change 3,” and “Super Cop,” all intended to compete with “Desperate Journey.” Despite low ticket prices, on the first day of “The Legend of the Racing God 2”’s release, preliminary box office figures showed earnings of 12 million.

This figure wasn’t easy to achieve. A significant portion of the 1,100 theaters the four major companies initially announced they would invest in hadn’t even been completed. Moreover, the theaters acquired later were mostly old ones with 600 to 1,000 seats each. If all 2,000+ theaters were fully renovated, there would be 6 million seats. But currently, there were only 2 million seats—a figure achieved only through the combined efforts of the four major companies, and that too only with every show selling out. In contrast, although China Film Group had arranged screenings in around 800 theaters, they were all old-fashioned, and with poor film quality, box office results were naturally dismal.

According to film company estimates, the mainland market would need at least 30,000 screens within three years (with 300 viewers per screen, meaning each screen is a single theater) to barely meet demand. The United States, with a population less than a quarter of China’s, has over 10 million seats, yet the enthusiasm for watching movies on the mainland is already comparable to that in the U.S.

This means that even excluding the 800 million people in rural areas, the urban population is large enough to rival the U.S. With proper strategy, a market similar to that of the U.S. could be achieved. Therefore, 10 million seats is a fairly reasonable figure—it can largely satisfy the current audience demand and avoid losses if future enthusiasm wanes.

Based on an average of six screening halls per theater, this means 5,000 theaters would be needed across the country. This clearly proves a lot—at least it shows that “Speed 2” wasn’t a failure due to poor box office performance but rather insufficient number of theaters showing it. If there had been enough theaters, it would have certainly attracted even more viewers. Calculated at Hong Kong’s ticket prices, the box office revenue on its opening day would have equaled that of a major Hollywood film in Hong Kong alone.

In ten days, “Speed 2” earned over 100 million yuan in the Chinese mainland and over 20 million yuan in Hong Kong. By the 15th day, the number of theaters showing it decreased, and at the same time, a Dean Brothers romantic comedy was released. While “Speed 2” still generated 5 million yuan in revenue each day, it was forced to withdraw from theaters due to the release of “Desperado,” which forced “Spy 3” to compete with it until the end.

“Desperado” was shown in over 800 theaters, with an opening-day box office of 4 million yuan. “Spy 3” did an excellent job in marketing, but due to fewer theaters than “Speed 2,” its box office was only 9 million yuan. The next day, “Desperado’s” box office dropped sharply to around 2 million yuan, while “Spy 3” maintained the same figure for ten days, showing strong market demand.

It’s worth mentioning that when “Desperado” was released, Hollywood paid far more attention than Xiao Ran had imagined. Reporters from many famous TV networks came to cover it. The funniest was the reporter sent by Warner Bros.; he was extremely confident that “Desperado” would be a huge success in China.

As it turned out, while interviewing passersby on the street, he asked if they knew about the movie or would go to see it. The responses were that they knew about it but wouldn’t go see it. When interviewing a CIFF official about the box office figures and hearing that the opening-day revenue was 4 million yuan, he thought he heard wrong: “Did you mean 40 million?”

He immediately became the subject of ridicule among his peers. Nevertheless, Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling could see from Hollywood’s extensive efforts the unprecedented attention being paid to Hong Kong films. Xiao Ran even instructed that there should always be at least two A-grade films in development to ensure they could compete with Hollywood anywhere in the world and make it pay.

In the end, “Desperado” ended with a box office of less than 20 million yuan. Its direct competitor, “Spy 3,” was released for 40 days before finally withdrawing due to the release of “The Legend of the Condor Heroes,” with a box office of 230 million yuan.

The task of competing with another CIFF film fell to Tian Luo and Tai Xing, two companies that produced action movies. CIFF’s film was fairly decent but ultimately ended with a box office of 30 million yuan under the pressure from these two strong competitors. Overall, the summer box office reached nearly 700 million yuan, with “Shadow” accounting for 30% of that—testifying to the huge market potential in the Chinese mainland.

Ironically, since the mainland market gradually opened up, of the nearly 4 billion yuan in total box office revenue in 1993, at least 2 billion yuan came from Hong Kong films. The rest was mainly achieved through a quantity-driven approach, as evidenced by the fact that the top ten box office films each year in the mainland were all Hong Kong films.

What scared Xiao Ran even more was that, according to the survey results from both the planning department and the marketing department, 90% of the audience watched the movies only once due to issues with the theaters. When asked if they wanted to go back to the theaters to watch the films again, over half of the audience said yes, especially for “Spy Change 3” and “Legend of the Racing God 2,” with 60% saying yes for the former and even 80% for the latter.

The director of “Spy Change 3” wasn’t a newcomer, nor was he a veteran director; rather, he was a young director with great potential. To ensure the film’s quality, it was co-produced by Chen Musheng and Wu Yusen. Under their guidance, the talented director Wu Anran managed to create outstanding action scenes and effectively conveyed themes of patriotism.

It can be said to be the best in the “Spy Change” series in terms of balancing action and drama, though its action sequences still fell short of the first installment. Nevertheless, both the first “Spy Change” film and “Legend of the Racing God” have been regarded as textbooks for modern action movies worldwide, just as “Legend of the Racing God” is considered a classic in the racing film genre—so it’s only natural that it can’t surpass them.

“Legend of the Racing God 2” was personally supervised by Xiao Ran, so there weren’t many issues. However, its dramatic aspects were slightly weaker. It was precisely because Shadow Studios emphasized quality that these two films achieved such a high rate of repeat viewings.

“Spy Change 3” earned only over 2 billion in global box office revenue, while “Legend of the Racing God 2” reached nearly 5 billion. Although their box office performance in North America was far inferior to that of “Desperado,” outside North America, these two films outperformed it significantly, leaving it with almost no earnings.

Throughout the year, Shadow Studios had four films on the global top ten box office lists, and Tai Hing’s “Super Cop” was also fortunate enough to make the list. It was clear that Hong Kong movies were gradually gaining more spots on the global box office charts, from having none at first to appearing occasionally and then more frequently.

This was a clear repetition of how Xiao Ran, along with the newly established Shadow Studios, had defeated three major companies to dominate the local top ten box office lists. The only unknown was whether Xiao Ran could continue to lead Hong Kong movies to defeat Hollywood, just as he had done before.

Xiao Ran didn’t have the mood to delve into these matters. These days, he had been busy with two other things, which were also his ultimate goals. He felt his mind was about to break; to put it exaggeratively, he felt he might explode from overusing his brain.

Perhaps this was the price to pay for being good at strategy. Xiao Ran felt that if he continued to use his brain like this, he would surely live a few years shorter. But even if he wanted to rest or retire, he first had to resolve these two matters.

While Xiao Ran and his team were busy, 1995 arrived. Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling invited all the company employees to have a meal, with each person receiving a large red envelope. The next day, they received news from Huang Qun—there was a plan to introduce a rating system, to be implemented in May 1995.

This resolved Xiao Ran’s long-standing concerns, but it was achieved through his own efforts and pressure on the Chinese government—after all, the richest man of the Chinese community is no pushover. More importantly, the Ministry of Culture realized that the lack of a rating system not only restricted Hong Kong films but also their own productions, a lesson that China Film Group understood all too well.

On that day, both Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling took time off and went out to sea by yacht alone. Though it appeared to be a leisurely trip, they were there to discuss a matter of great importance. Once at sea, they checked for hidden microphones using Guan Xinjiao’s method before finally relaxing.

Wei Dongling and Xiao Ran each brought drinks, water, and food to the deck, lying quietly on chairs to enjoy the sunlight and sea breeze. Wei Dongling couldn’t help but praise, “It’s even more comfortable than I imagined. I really wish I could retire and keep sailing around the world like this!”

Xiao Ran felt so comfortable lying there that he didn’t even want to get up. “You kid, if you really want to go out to sea, you can buy the biggest cruise ship in the world and do whatever you want.”