Tokyo: The evil god doesn't want to be the top star

Chapter 68 Theme Song Difference
"Within 72 hours of its release, the cumulative box office of Cursed Blade has reached 46.2 billion yen! This figure has broken the 'fastest box office record' created by Spirited Away ten years ago!"

"46.2 billion! It's nearly five times ours! Five times! What the hell is this publicity for?!"

Without waiting for the theater representative to answer, Masada Hizuka had already given the comparative data, knocked on the table in grief, and looked at a man across the conference table.

"Director Masada, did you make a mistake? We are strictly following the publicity plan."

The man being stared at by Masada Hizuka was the representative of Company S who was in charge of publicity and promotion within the production committee.

"Whether it's advertising, self-media, program announcements, cross-industry collaborations, previews, voice actor meet-and-greets, or cosplay, our promotion budget is three times that of Curse of the Darkness."

Seeing that the attack was directed at him, the representative of Company S launched a counterattack without hesitation.

"Even if the reviews and word-of-mouth of Cursed Blade are slightly better than ours, Attack of Dwarfs has a wider audience and a higher audience base. How is it possible that with five times the publicity and promotion budget, it only achieves one-fifth of the effect?"

"Are you trying to say that I, who am better at embracing the market, am so much worse at production than Tsuchiya Haruo, who only thinks about 'art'?"

Masada Hizuka shrugged off his words.

"No, we have no doubts about the production level of Director Hizuka. With the same doubts, in order to better adjust the subsequent publicity and promotion plan, we conducted an in-depth analysis and investigation..."

"Let me start with the conclusion... We believe that the huge difference in box office this time is mainly due to the difference in the movie theme songs."

The representative of Company S was obviously well prepared and continued his statement in a neither humble nor arrogant manner.

"What, the difference in movie theme songs? There has never been a saying that a theme song can make such a big difference in box office sales. If you want to find someone to take the blame, your logic should be more reasonable."

Upon hearing this, the representative of J Company, who was in charge of music production, flew into a rage.

"Don't worry, please take a look at our investigation report first."

The representative of Company S smiled crookedly, took out his laptop, connected it to the conference room projector, and displayed a large number of data tables.

"From the premiere to the next morning, our box office data was always slightly higher than that of Cursed Blade. The point at which our box office was surpassed was 14 hours after the premiere, which was the morning show of the next day."

"According to our data analysis, some of the moviegoers in the morning show were fans of the original novel who didn't get to watch the premiere, while others were influenced by the premiere's reputation and followed the trend to watch Cursed Blade..."

“This also coincides with the time when Yinghua released its official subjective film reviews.”

In the candlestick chart that looks back at the box office growth trend, the "red line" representing the box office of "Cursed Blade" was slightly lower than the "blue line" of "Attack of Dwarfs" at the beginning, but it rose and surpassed it in the 14-hour position...

"That only proves that Cursed Blade had a better impression and reputation, which boosted the box office. The film review in Yinghua did praise the theme song for its "finishing touch", but the movie is a whole, so how can the responsibility for the box office difference be attributed to a single song?"

The J company representative sneered coldly.

"After the box office surpassed, the gap between the two was actually only about double. The real gap was widened after the official release of the theme song "Gurenge" and the full version of the song MV of "Cursed Blade"..."

The scene changed, and the projector played the music video for "Gurenge". "Although this music video was edited with 'old footage', the overall effect was quite explosive, thanks to the excellent quality of the song itself, the voice actor Kurokawa Tsubasa's singing skills, and the theme and mood that perfectly matched "Cursed Blade".

"So far, the paid download volume of the song and MV of Gurenhua has exceeded 10, and it has received a huge response online. The publicity effect far exceeds that of the initial trailer, and netizens call it a 'real movie trailer.'"

"From that time on, a large number of potential viewers who had no strong desire to watch the film chose to go to the cinema after listening to "Red Lotus" on the Internet or watching the MV."

On the K-line chart, since the online release of "Gurenge", the box office growth trend of "Cursed Spirit Blade" has risen again.

“Perhaps, the movie Cursed Blade and the theme song are well combined, and the new MV also plays a role in secondary publicity and diversion. But if the content of the movie itself is bad, no matter how good the theme song is, it will not create such a chain effect.”

This data still failed to convince the J company representative.

"That's exactly what I'm going to say next... The turning point when the box office gap widened to five times occurred 12 hours after Guren Hua was released..."

"Like Attack of the Dwarves, Cursed Blade is a long-running anime, and its largest fan base and audience are naturally on the ACG bullet commentary websites."

“As usual, after the film is released and the theme song is released, video hosts will release animation re-creations and song covers out of love for the film or to attract traffic…”

"Although there was a tilt in the amount of money spent on publicity and promotion, the theme song of Attack of the Dwarves, Donate Your Kidney, received only average response from the audience."

The representative of S Company clicked on "NICNIC", the largest 2D bullet commentary website in District 11.

The "hot recommendations" on the homepage of the website are all secondary creation videos about "Gurenge" and "Cursed Spirit Blade".

"On the other hand, the song "Red Lotus" unexpectedly caused a lot of discussion in terms of song cover... because this song is too difficult to sing."

"Several top singers on N Station publicly stated after releasing their covers that they made some mistakes and were unable to fully present the song."

"But this situation has attracted more video hosts to take part in the 'cover challenge', and even many artists who have opened accounts have joined in."

"In a short period of time, hundreds of 'Red Lotus Cover Challenge' videos were updated on N Station, and netizens joked that it was 'Red Lotus Large Car Accident Scene'."

In these cover videos, those who "succeed in the challenge" will naturally receive a lot of praise. But for those who fail in the challenge, the cover singers will also make ruthless self-deprecation and receive sharp comments from the onlookers.

The challenge to cover the song "Gurenge", whether successful or not, has become a way to gain popularity, no longer limited to the fan circle of "Cursed Blade"...

"In just one day, the popularity of the cover of the song 'Red Lotus' spread from N Station to other social media and websites... In other words, this song has created a 'breakthrough effect'."

"The breakthrough of "Gurenge" has further attracted audiences who had previously "abandoned" or had never watched "Cursed Blade" to watch the film in theaters."

As the representative of S company said, after the cover craze began, the "red line" of "Damn It" seemed to have some kind of physiological reaction, and it stood like a pillar, leaving the "blue line" of "Attack of Dwarfs" to a place where even the taillights could not see it.

(End of this chapter)