Reborn in the Hong Kong entertainment industry in the 1980s

Movies without screening details are usually small films, meaning they are shown a few times as a trial, and if the market response is not good, they are canceled.

The second installment of "The Inspector Wears Skirts" is a popular movie, so normally some details would be revealed beforehand, such as the allocation of screening slots during prime time and the resource allocation of theaters.

However, the three major cinema chains didn't give them anything, while some smaller cinema chains provided details, which is highly illogical.

Hu Xiaoxiao looked through the screening schedules of her competitors. Compared to the abstract screening schedule of "Baogang Inspector Wears Skirts Part 2", the competitors' screening schedules were much more detailed.

Have you contacted the three major cinema chains?

"I contacted them, and they said the theaters were busy and short-staffed, but they would give it to us before the film's release."

"Before the release? One minute or one second before the release?" Hu Xiaoxiao checked the time. There were only two days left until the release date. If she couldn't get the details now, did she have to wait until tickets went on sale before she would receive them?

Her gaze fell on the documents in her hand, and she handed them to Yuan Jiaqiang. "Go and compile the data immediately! If the three major cinema chains won't give us the data, we'll compile it ourselves! Calculate the screening schedule for 'The Inspector Wears Skirts 2' based on the screening schedules of other films..."

Based on the known information, the screening details of "Baogang Inspector Wears Skirts 2" were found.

Each cinema chain has a number of cinemas, each cinema has a number of screening rooms, and each screening room has a number of screenings per day. All of this data is available.

Knowing the screening schedules of other films makes it easy to determine the screening schedules of your own film.

Yuan Jiaqiang understood Hu Xiaoxiao's meaning and immediately gathered his colleagues in the distribution department to calculate the film schedule.

The distribution department staff, who were familiar with the operations of major cinema chains, quickly uncovered the irregularities.

All prime-time slots in the cinemas of the three major theater chains were fully booked, including the best and largest screening rooms.

What about the screening schedule for "The Inspector Wears Skirts 2"?

Where are the matches scheduled for them?

Upon further investigation, it was discovered that only the morning and late-night screenings met the requirements for scheduling "The Inspector Wears Skirts 2". Only these time slots had enough remaining screenings available for "The Inspector Wears Skirts 2".

In other words, during prime time, even the best theaters didn't give "The Inspector Wears Skirts 2" screenings; they only allocated some leftover slots to it.

Movie theaters usually open at 10 a.m., when everyone is getting ready for lunch. Who has time to watch a movie? Some people who stay up late are still asleep at that time!

And after midnight, everyone goes home, and the movie theater is about to close. Who will still come to watch movies?

When Yuan Jiaqiang saw the data, he was so angry that his face turned pale.

He treats those people to meals and drinks every day, and they just fool him like this? They made a good promise, and then they set a trap for him to fall into?

It was like a violent slap across his face. "I'm going to settle the score with them!"

"Wait a minute." Hu Xiaoxiao's gaze swept over the data of the three major cinema chains. "If it were just one chain doing this, it might be a personal grudge, but the fact that all three chains are cheating us at the same time suggests there's more to this than meets the eye."

"Are we being targeted?" Yuan Jiaqiang calmed down, his mind racing. "Are the three families teaming up to trick us?"

He checked over a dozen films scheduled for release during the Spring Festival. Qilin Film Company, which is part of the Shanhai Cinema Line, had a new film in its portfolio. Jincan Film, in which Baoguang Cinema Line holds a stake, also had a film in the lineup. Film companies under the Jishi Cinema Line also had films to be released.

He already knew this information a long time ago.

Every year during the Spring Festival film season, the three major cinema chains have their own films to release. After allocating a portion of their screenings to their own films, they release another portion for other films to compete for. The screenings that Yuen Ka-keung was vying for were this portion that was released.

If a movie does well at the box office, its screenings will gradually increase.

Movie theaters need to make a living too. No matter how close they are to their own films, if the box office is poor, they have to give up screenings to more popular movies. They won't go against anyone else's money.

He knew early on that he couldn't compete with the three major theater chains' own cinemas in the previous days, so he was fighting for the limited number of screenings he could get, and then using the quality of his films to help secure more screenings later on.

The same applies to other film companies; initially, they compete on screen time, but in the end, they compete on quality.

But now, the three major cinema chains aren't even giving it a chance to compete; they're just giving "The Inspector Wears Skirts 2" the cold shoulder, or rather, they're trying to kill it off.

Yuen Ka-keung called the manager of Po Kwong Cinemas, his closest friend, and questioned why he had been tricked. He also asked whose idea it was.

"Your release date is too high, and many big shots don't like it. As friends, we advise you to change the release date. If you release it during the off-season, you'll definitely get plenty of screenings."

Yuen Ka-keung said with a stern face, "Off-season? Who comes to the movies during the off-season?"

"Don't you have Hu Xiaoxiao? Hu Xiaoxiao is so popular, you can release the film whenever you want. Jiaqiang, it's not that I don't want to help you, but Shengshi is being boycotted by a group of people, and you don't have your own theaters, so of course you can release it however others schedule it. So what if you don't like it? Unless you stop making movies."

Yuan Jiaqiang hung up the phone and told Hu Xiaoxiao the truth about the situation.

Hu Xiaoxiao felt a strong sense of familiarity with this style, so she first had someone investigate who initiated the boycott of Shengshi Films.

With the three major cinema chains working together, it's impossible that they didn't coordinate with each other; there must be a leader behind it.

This investigation also revealed a connection to the Changxing gang.

One of the leaders of the Changxing Gang, Fang Jing, owns a film company called Hongguang Film Company. This film company used to be very famous in Baogang, but it has declined in the last two years. But its strength is still there, and Fang Jing is a big shot; if he wanted to cause trouble, he could actually succeed.

"It's the Changxing gang again!"

The Changxing gang was locked in a fierce battle with Huang Yuliang and Luo Cheng. After learning about the struggle in the underworld, Hu Xiaoxiao said to Yuan Jiaqiang, "Withdraw the file first. The Changxing gang won't be able to cause trouble for long."

"Are we supposed to wait until the Changxing Society is defeated before we release the film?" Yuan Jiaqiang asked.

If a film is shelved, it's likely to flop. Nobody knows when this genre will become outdated, or what genre will be popular next year.

Hu Xiaoxiao thought for a moment, "Wait for my notification."

Shengshi doesn't have its own cinemas. Even if they weather this crisis, what about the future? They can block Shengshi's films at any time.

To solve this problem once and for all, Shengshi must have its own cinema chain.

However, building a cinema chain is not something that can be accomplished in one or two years, and the investment is huge. Even though Huang Yuliang has now seized a lot of land from the Changxing gang, it is not easy to build a cinema chain that can rival the three major cinema chains in one go.

Moreover, the Hong Kong film market is showing signs of fatigue, and some film companies that see the situation is not good have begun to withdraw from the film market.

At this point, if Shengshi were to invest in building cinemas, the investment would be too large and the risk too high, making it an unwise choice.

However, the issue of the cinema chain must be resolved as soon as possible. Otherwise, Shengshi Entertainment's development will be cut short.