I am a Big Player
Chapter 583 - 577, Ban (Second Update)_1

Chapter 583: 577, Ban (Second Update)_1

Hearing Ren He say that, the people around her gasped in surprise. Wasn’t that statement too domineering? What did he mean by saying that investing money in promotion wouldn’t work?

For a big-budget film, it’s essential to promote it well before its release, to prepare trailers, get Weibo influencers to share the news, publish media articles, and flood websites and forums with comments. Only with adequate promotion can you pique the audience’s curiosity enough to get them into the theaters.

What’s the situation with the audience now? They see the film they want to watch and purchase the session and seats they prefer from Qinghe Group Purchase, then go to the cinema to watch it.

It’s rare these days for someone to just go to a cinema to see what’s playing and then pick a movie to watch.

People who visit cinemas usually have a clear idea of what they want to watch from the beginning, hence the battle for box office revenues has always been a struggle for public opinion, not within the movie theaters themselves.

Under normal circumstances, cinemas tend to give more screenings to films with good sales. If you have a full house on the opening day and it’s still full a week later, the cinema will certainly increase your screening frequency. Who would turn down money?

In general, for a blockbuster with a budget of 200 million, spending tens of millions on marketing and promotional efforts is standard—it’s all for marketing.

So far, this movie had already spent over ten million on promotion. And at this moment, they were suddenly told not to bother promoting anymore because it would be futile.

Xu Xiaowen’s expression changed twice, "That kind of bold claim, I reckon even Elder Jiang wouldn’t dare to make. What gives you the right to say that? You’re still so young, don’t think that having your family’s power means you can do whatever you want. Reality will prove that you can’t influence the whole entertainment industry."

In Xu Xiaowen’s opinion, she thought this person might be a rich second-generation or someone of even higher status, hence the confidence to make such a statement. But no matter how powerful they were outside of the circle, they couldn’t just monopolize the industry, right?

She was also confused about why Chen Da suddenly showed up, as if he had landed a new role, then made a comeback.

Elder Jiang was the very magnate who had blacklisted Chen Da back in the day. Xu Xiaowen felt that she should report today’s incident to Elder Jiang.

She had been busy shooting recently and had just wrapped up and returned to downtown Chongqing, so she was unaware that Zhang Ming had been recruited by Qinghe. If she had known, with the reputations of Qinghe and Luohe, she would not have spoken as she did.

The ignorance of the fearless could probably be summed up just like that.

Ren He laughed, putting an arm around Chen Da’s shoulder, "Let’s go, first come up to my place for a bit. Wait for the staff to get the room ready and bring the key card up to me."

Then he led Zhang Ming, Chen Da, and the other core members upstairs without showing the slightest intention of arguing with the others. How things truly stood would become clear soon enough; there was no need for bickering.

In the elevator, Chen Da said softly, "Sorry, I didn’t expect to run into them."

Up to now, he and Zhang Ming still had no idea what Ren He was really planning to do. Their understanding of Qinghe Group was too limited, and Qinghe’s acquisition of media shares had been very low-profile; they didn’t want too many people to know about it.

"It’s fine. Find the time to come over to my Courtyard House for a meal with Director Zhang," Ren He said with a smile. Chen Da’s ability to see the bigger picture was not bad; at least he didn’t stir up trouble, right?

Chen Da was momentarily shocked. Was this an official invitation to join that circle... Had he finally made it in?

The joy that rose with this thought nearly made Chen Da laugh out loud, but he held back. He now understood that his chance to turn fortunes around had truly arrived!

On their way out, the beautiful woman in her early thirties was somewhat restless: "Who is that person, do you know him?"

"No idea. Does anyone in your circle know who Director Zhang has been close with lately? Ask around," said the man beside her.

Xu Xiaowen made a call, and as soon as the other party picked up, she asked directly, "Has Director Zhang found a new investor recently?"

The person on the other end sounded surprised, "You don’t know? Director Zhang has been taken over by Qinghe Group. He’s now one of the shareholders of Qinghe Film and Television, with Qinghe Group holding a controlling stake, and Liu Erbao’s team is also one of the shareholders. What? You don’t know about Qinghe? The TQ you’re using, Qinghe Search, mobile beauty apps, Weibo, Qinghe Pay, aren’t they all from Qinghe Group? And their big boss is also the Crown Prince of Luohe Group..."

The term Crown Prince sounds somewhat feudal and clichéd, and Ren He himself would absolutely refuse to be referred to as such—it sounded quite silly...

But these three words straightforwardly highlighted the relationship between Qinghe and Luohe...

Xu Xiaowen gasped. The man listening to the phone next to her flickered with incomprehensible implications. He had little association with Qinghe, but how could he not know about Luohe?!

Xu Xiaowen was shocked because, indeed, her phone seemed to have a plethora of apps that belonged to Qinghe Group, and the mention of Weibo and Qinghe Search made her suddenly realize where the other party’s confidence came from—Qinghe Weibo was currently the largest social media platform in the country. The early promotion investment of over ten million yuan had all been spent on more than thirty Weibo influencers for pre-heating!

Back at the Qinghe annual conference, Ren He had said that Qinghe’s goal was to change the way people live, and indeed, Qinghe was doing exactly that.

People had started to realize that their daily needs, from food and clothing to travel and information, were progressively being enveloped by Qinghe. You could order food through group purchases, dine in at a discount, select clothes at whim on Qinghe Mall, plan travel with Qinghe Trip, find out anything on Qinghe Search, and if you wanted to follow celebrities, use Qinghe Weibo!

At that moment, Xu Xiaowen suddenly opened her Weibo to find that her verified identity on the platform had disappeared in such a short time—meaning Weibo would no longer recognize her public persona...

She went to check the comments that had been paid for by the big Vs; all had a message saying the content was not yet reviewed and was temporarily blocked.

This news hit like a bolt from the blue. Who could know how long that "review" would take? It was within the platform’s rights to conduct such a review, and the duration was entirely up to them, implying that the previously spent ten million yuan had gone down the drain!

Xu Xiaowen then opened Qinghe Search and typed in the three characters of her name, only to find a message saying there was no such entry! She searched for the name of their movie "Lost City", and still, there were no entries!

Qinghe Group had effectively blacklisted everything!

Still harboring some hope, Xu Xiaowen thought to herself, "Although Qinghe can ban us on its turf, it can’t censor the media, right? We’ll contact the media, invest all subsequent marketing budgets there. I’ll also speak to Elder Jiang about this situation."