Meng Chang was quite frightened by Mr. Pei’s call and immediately decided to spend all the money right away!
At this point, he believed in the principle of “money spent is money safe.”
Although the 20 million yuan had already been allocated to the Advertising and Marketing Department as promotional funds, as long as it wasn’t spent, the actual control of the money remained in Mr. Pei’s hands.
What if Mr. Pei changed his mind?
For instance, what if he used the excuse of cash flow issues to temporarily reclaim the money?
Although Meng Chang didn’t think Mr. Pei would do something so shameless, he couldn’t take any chances when it came to his commission.
So, before Friday’s workday ended, Meng Chang immediately called a small meeting, gathered all his subordinates, and finalized the promotional plan for next week.
He would go ALL IN, spending every bit of the promotional budget without leaving a single yuan!
After all, everything hinged on this one move. Once the money was spent, they just needed to wait for the game’s release and the movie’s premiere during the May Day holiday. For the remaining half-month, they would leave everything to fate.
The Advertising and Marketing Department employees, as usual, followed Meng Chang’s instructions obediently and quickly went about their assigned tasks.
This time, the promotional budget was again entirely spent on promoting the “Classic Chinese Game Collection,” without advertising either the “Mission and Choice” game or the movie.
Logically, movie promotion should have been a major part of the effort. Many blockbusters often have promotional budgets equal to their production costs, easily reaching hundreds of millions.
These promotional expenses include various online and offline resources, such as displays, banners, and posters in movie theaters—all of which cost money.
But Meng Chang clearly didn’t plan to spend a penny in that direction.
If they promoted the movie, wouldn’t that essentially promote the game as well?
Players weren’t stupid. Seeing the movie’s name, they would naturally associate it with the old game and become suspicious.
Therefore, the best approach was to not promote the movie at all.
After all, the promotional budget had already been spent entirely—the less effective it was, the happier Meng Chang would be.
Of course, it was impossible to keep the movie completely secret. After its release date was set, both theater screening schedules and “Coming Soon” sections on various ticket-buying apps would show the movie’s name and details. This was unavoidable.
But as long as the promotional budget was inadequate, the movie’s fame and attention would remain at a relatively low level.
After all, the promotional costs had to be covered by the company responsible for marketing. Theaters certainly wouldn’t dig into their own pockets for promotion.
Moreover, beyond just promotion issues, with insufficient promotional resources, theaters would naturally allocate fewer screenings.
Plus, with the movie and game being released on the same day, Meng Chang felt that holding out until May 1st shouldn’t be too problematic.
Even if some netizens supported it, it wouldn’t be enough to affect the overall situation. “Mission and Choice” wasn’t some small production—with so much money invested, the box office would need to earn at least three times that amount to break even.
Even if the popularity rose later on, by then Meng Chang would have already received his full commission for April!
After arranging everything, Meng Chang closed his computer with satisfaction and prepared to leave work, looking forward to enjoying his weekend.
The editor Ms. Xia from the official platform was coming for an interview next Tuesday. Meng Chang planned to check on the promotional situation on Monday, then simply disappear on Tuesday.
It would be fine for Ms. Xia to interview other staff in the Advertising and Marketing Department—Meng Chang himself wouldn’t make an appearance.
Meng Chang figured that as long as he didn’t appear on camera or make any statements, this interview would at most involve questioning a few regular employees about non-sensitive issues. It wouldn’t create much sensation, so there shouldn’t be any significant problems.
Yes, everything seemed stable with no major issues!
Meng Chang stood up and stretched. He had been busy with promotional plans for quite some time and was feeling a bit tired. Finally, this weekend he could get some good rest and relaxation!
Unfortunately, without money, there weren’t many relaxation options available. He could only sleep in, watch some movies, and enjoy some good food at home.
While planning his weekend, Meng Chang happily left work and took the bus home.
……
……
April 9th, Monday.
Beijing, Fanqi Media.
Fanqi Media was a media and entertainment group with considerable influence in China. Their main business included film investment, production, promotion, TV drama investment, distribution, and talent management.
Besides investing in and distributing domestic films, Fanqi Media also handled the promotion and distribution of some foreign blockbusters in the mainland.
Because of Fanqi Media’s substantial size and many successful promotion cases, they had significant leverage when negotiating with overseas film studios about domestic promotion.
It was only Monday morning when Vice President Lu Xiaoping heard good news.
The department head responsible for promoting the foreign film “Sea Fortress” came to Lu Xiaoping’s office early, excitedly saying, “Mr. Lu, great news! It seems ‘Mission and Choice’ has officially changed its release date, moving from the May Day holiday to April 14th—this coming Saturday!”
Lu Xiaoping was stunned, even doubting the authenticity of this information. “How is that possible?”
The department head replied, “I thought it was impossible too, so when I first heard this news, I assumed it was false! But the source is highly reliable. I’ve checked from multiple angles and confirmed that ‘Mission and Choice’ is indeed moving up its release date to April 14th. There’s absolutely no doubt!”
Lu Xiaoping showed an exaggerated expression, both surprised and delighted!
“Sea Fortress” was a standard Hollywood blockbuster with a $200 million investment, touted as “Hollywood’s biggest sci-fi blockbuster investment this year.”
Though this claim had quite a few qualifiers and some exaggeration, looking at the production team, it featured a renowned director and major stars—truly star-studded—and even the special effects team was industry-leading.
The film was shot on location in Hawaiian waters with many destroyers, battleships, and aircraft carriers making real appearances. It even used authentic footage of the U.S. President addressing the Navy.
In short, this film was top-quality from every aspect, and the producers naturally had high expectations.
Fanqi Media recognized this potential, which is why they had signed on for “Sea Fortress” domestic promotion and distribution work very early on, hoping to make a fortune with this film!
To promote “Sea Fortress,” Fanqi Media spared no expense.
First, to cater to the mainland market, they invited a famous Chinese celebrity for a fifteen-minute cameo, creating a special version. This celebrity would also attend all preview screenings and roadshows for the film in the mainland.
Second, compared to other foreign films, this movie wasn’t releasing later than its overseas premiere—it was actually releasing nearly a month earlier!
“Sea Fortress” would be released in China on May 1st, while the global release in other regions wouldn’t be until late May.
This situation arose mainly for two reasons: first, filmmakers increasingly valued non-U.S. markets, especially the mainland’s strong consumption power and vast market—releasing earlier in the mainland could generate higher box office returns; second, to avoid competing with other simultaneous global blockbusters.
Fanqi Media knew that the May Day golden week was one of the best release windows of the year, so they had been communicating with “Sea Fortress” producers and finally secured the current release date.
Originally after the release date was set, everyone was happy, feeling confident because although many films were releasing during the May Day period, none posed a direct threat to “Sea Fortress.”
“Sea Fortress” was a massive investment, special effects-laden sci-fi film, while most domestic films releasing during the May Day period were comedies and romance films—they weren’t even in the same category, with no basis for comparison.
But upon closer investigation, Lu Xiaoping found something concerning.
Where did this “Mission and Choice” come from?
Having never seen any promotion for this film, Lu Xiaoping initially dismissed it as a small production from a third-rate company. But after careful investigation, he discovered this was no small production—it was produced by Tenda Group, which had previously made “Beautiful Tomorrow,” and even had Lu Zhiyao in the cast!
Thus, the entire Fanqi Media became extremely wary and concerned.
However, they hadn’t been worried for long before today’s good news arrived.
“Mission and Choice” would no longer be in the May Day slot—it had moved up its release by half a month to April 14th!
This truly delighted Lu Xiaoping. The dramatic ups and downs of life were truly exhilarating!
He excitedly stood up and paced around his office.
“So, Tenda got scared?”
“They felt the competition pressure during the May Day period was too intense, didn’t dare face us directly, so they moved to the 14th?”
“Looking at it this way, the quality of ‘Mission and Choice’ must not be very good!”
The reason Lu Xiaoping was so happy wasn’t just because there was one less competitor in the May Day period, but also because this move exposed the weakness of “Mission and Choice.”
If Tenda had been truly confident in “Mission and Choice,” they would have chosen to release it during the May Day period to compete fiercely with other films. After all, the traffic during the golden week absolutely dwarfed that of regular holidays.
But Tenda would rather give up the golden week traffic and release early, which indicated the producers had absolutely no confidence in this film and didn’t plan to go head-to-head with other movies. They just wanted to choose an off-peak release window to trick whatever audience they could.
Although this thinking seemed somewhat far-fetched, Lu Xiaoping couldn’t think of any other possibilities.
Lu Xiaoping boldly speculated that “Mission and Choice” must have encountered some major mistakes or setbacks during production, resulting in a film that completely failed to satisfy Tenda. Thus, a project once filled with hope had been abandoned, and they just wanted to release it during an off-peak period to recoup some costs.
The only film that could potentially threaten “Sea Fortress” had faltered—wasn’t this an immediate win?
This was truly good news!
Lu Xiaoping was very pleased and even felt he could capitalize on this situation.