Chapter Thirty-Two: A New Record

The film screening concluded successfully. The heads of China Film Group were very pleased, as were the officials from the regulatory bureau. The approval came swiftly, and the official release license was obtained. With years of experience in film distribution, China Film's distribution department sprang into action as soon as the approval was granted, sending teams across the country to negotiate with cinema chains.

Now, the cast and crew of "Butterfly Effect" had only one task: to cooperate with the publicity department for an endless round of promotional activities. The day after the screening, the main creative team was taken to shoot promotional posters for the film.

The photo shoot focused on Liu Ye and Tang Wei, a handsome leading man and a beautiful leading lady—one of the film’s main attractions. As the film’s stars, China Film was determined to spotlight them in the public eye. The main angle for promoting Liu Ye was his nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Rooster Awards. When designing Liu Ye’s poster, China Film made sure to highlight this with bold lettering, while making the word “nomination” as small as possible.

The reason for this promotional angle was to leave audiences with the impression: “This is a film with outstanding performances from its leads.” For a film yet to premiere, public perception is crucial. Whether it’s commercial or art-house, no one wants to see a bad film. Even if someone hasn’t watched it, if the impression sticks that “it’s a terrible movie,” chances are they’ll never give it a chance. Once a film gets labeled as bad by viewers, that label becomes deeply entrenched and nearly impossible to shake.

For example: films starring “pretty boys” are all brainless cash-grabs, movies directed by “Guo Xiaosi” are guaranteed flops, domestic films are all trash, and so on. Once such stereotypes take root, even a genuinely good film can be dismissed by many before it’s ever seen.

The clearest example is the 2009 release “Night Club.” The film starred Xu Zheng, Qiao Renliang, and Li Xiaolu. At the time, Xu Zheng’s only notable film credit was “Call for Love.” He hadn’t yet made “Lost on Journey” or “Lost in Thailand”—he was just a newcomer transitioning from television to film. Li Xiaolu and Qiao Renliang were even less established: she had won awards early in her film career but later switched to TV, while he was a singer from a talent show, not even a major figure in music, let alone movies. With a cast of middling actors and a somewhat crass title, it was inevitable that audiences would assume “this probably isn’t a good movie.”

In the end, “Night Club” grossed only 11.9 million yuan at the box office, despite a production budget of 2.5 million. More than half the earnings went to theaters, and after factoring in marketing, salaries, and production costs, the investors lost everything. Yet the film itself was actually quite good: it had a solid story, tight pacing, and in just 90 minutes, each main character experienced significant growth—moving from resentment to sympathy, understanding, and ultimately forging emotional bonds. It was a low-budget comedy that blended humor, warmth, and suspense—a genuinely decent film. But the box office reflected only the audience’s first impression.

That’s why hyping Liu Ye’s Best Supporting Actor nomination was so necessary. By contrast, Tang Wei had less to offer in terms of accolades, so the publicity team focused on emphasizing her beauty, ensuring her photos appeared in as many outlets as possible.

Apart from the two leads, Gu Zhi was also asked to pose for the poster. He was merely the screenwriter and a nominal producer for “Butterfly Effect.” Normally, behind-the-scenes creatives wouldn’t feature on a film poster. But his fame was simply too great. With three best-selling novels—including the recently published “Those Years”—Gu Zhi had amassed countless fans. Of the entire crew, he was by far the most famous, and his striking looks made him an ideal fit for the promotional material. As a result, he became one of the film’s major selling points.

Director Ning Hao, naturally, couldn’t escape the photo shoot either. Compared to the other three, however, his session was much simpler and over in a flash.

Once the posters were done, they were handed over to the publicity department, along with a trailer that Ning Hao had edited earlier. These materials would soon be distributed to major cinema chains and played on entertainment programs across television channels.

With that task finished, the main cast’s publicity work was only just beginning. During this period, Gu Zhi was run ragged, bombarded daily with interviews from all sorts of media—traditional outlets, emerging online news sites, gossip magazines, film journals, and more. Every member of the cast, including Zhang Yishan and Yang Zi, faced a mountain of interviews each day, all arranged by China Film to maximize the movie’s exposure.

It was only after nearly twenty days of such interviews that Gu Zhi realized just how many film-related magazines existed in China in those years. Famous ones included “Watching Movies,” “Popular Cinema,” and “Global Screen,” while lesser-known titles included “Contemporary Cinema,” “World Cinema,” and “Iris.” Without exception, these magazines only came to interview the “Butterfly Effect” team at the direct invitation of China Film.

At that time, people had very few channels through which to access information. If you were interested in something, you typically had to buy different magazines to learn about it. Whether it was science fiction (“Science Fiction World”), computer games (“Popular Software”), or sentimental, brainwashing literature (“Reader,” “Yilin”), all were long-standing, popular magazines.

While “Butterfly Effect” was enjoying a wave of publicity, “A Sigh” was not to be outdone. Feng Xiaogang frequently managed to make headlines. On September 17th, when Gu Zhi opened the Beijing Morning News, he saw that “A Sigh” had claimed the top spot on the entertainment page.

“Six cinemas have acquired eight days of advance premiere rights for Feng Xiaogang’s new film ‘A Sigh’ at a total price of 1.765 million yuan.”

“Yesterday, at the auction for the advance premiere rights from September 20 to 27, six cinemas—Capital, Auhua, Youth Palace, Dongsi Cultural Palace, Red Mansion, and Ziguang—successfully bid for the exclusive first screenings in Beijing, with a combined price of 1.765 million yuan.”

Advance premiere rights refer to special screenings before a film’s official release, usually reserved for major directors or imported blockbusters. Feng Xiaogang’s move was proactive: making money and headlines even before release.

Gu Zhi couldn’t hope to match that yet, and could only watch with envy.

Continuing to scan the paper, another report caught his attention.

“The anti-corruption blockbuster ‘Life and Death Decision,’ released on July 18, has become the first mainland Chinese film to surpass 100 million yuan at the box office, with a total of around 120 million. It broke the five-year record held by ‘Red Zone’ and is now the new box office champion for Chinese-language films.”

“…”

“Damn! 120 million!”

“How could I have never heard of this film in my previous life, despite such a high box office?”