Don't Call Me Master, Call Me Director

"Sounds good, doesn't it? How about we go see it this weekend?"

"Why wait until the weekend? I don't have class this afternoon, we can go right now."

"What about soccer?"

"We can play soccer anytime, but if we don't see the movie now, we'll miss it!"

Similar scenes played out all over Japan. After watching the movie, young Mages enthusiastically recommended FSN to everyone around them.

Their thinking was simple: since it was a movie made by fellow Mages, they had to help promote it.

Even if the movie wasn't so brilliant, they would still help out and do their part.

As for the old relics of the Mage world, while they didn't recommend FSN to others, they still contributed to the movie's box office.

There was no other way. After their juniors confirmed it and they read Azu's paper, these old guys were ultimately defeated by their desire for high-level new Magecraft and obediently walked into the cinema.

Of course, besides the various Mages, ordinary people also actively recommended FSN to people they knew after watching it.

People like to show off. I watched a great movie, but you don't know about it? Then I have to brag to you, right?

These reactions translated into the movie's word-of-mouth slowly brewing among the audience.

Although Bandai's promotion hadn't changed much, as the number of people who saw the film increased, the box office revenue also continued to rise.

Even though there wasn't an explosive surge in ticket sales during these weekdays, the box office showed a steady upward trend every day.

The latest film data summary was promptly reported to Shinji by Udagawa Nao.

After nearly a week of preview screenings on weekdays, FSN grossed 9.47 million yen across 25 theaters before the first weekend.

Don't let the fact that it didn't break 10 million yen fool you; given the limited screenings and promotional efforts, this was already an incredible achievement.

"A very good box office performance!"

On Friday morning, Matou Shinji received a call from his Tokyo agent, his uncle Matou Kariya.

"Our movie has huge box office potential. I'll put some pressure on Bandai to invest more resources."

Kariya knew full well that Mages accounted for at least two-thirds of this box office revenue, but that didn't stop him from using the data to his advantage.

"It's best if they can achieve nationwide distribution next week," Shinji instructed Kariya over the phone. "The Cannes Film Festival is in mid-May, and I've already signed Waver up. I need leverage to negotiate with European distributors!"

Kariya chuckled, "Don't worry, Shinji. As long as the weekend box office continues to grow, Bandai will have no reason not to go for a large-scale release."

"Hey, Uncle, don't jinx it!!"

Shinji immediately retorted.

Fortunately, Matou Kariya's surname was Matou, not Huang or Zhang. His words didn't carry any special power, nor did they have the effect of a curse.

As Friday arrived, the Japanese film market entered its busiest time of the week.

Shinji sincerely thanked his luck that it was 2003 and not the 1990s.

Although Japanese companies introduced the two-day weekend system in the 1980s, it wasn't widely adopted until after 1992.

Even better, the two-day weekend system for elementary and middle schools began in 2002.

For industries like film, rest days naturally became peak box office periods.

After days of simmering anticipation, FSN's extraordinary audience reception finally paid off.

Starting Friday evening, the attendance rate per screening in the 25 preview theaters across Japan was almost double or even triple that of weekdays.

Many young people even came to the theaters in groups, specifically asking to see FSN!

This situation was quickly reported to Bandai. Although a final decision would require a meeting, Kazunori Ueno already had the idea of investing more resources into FSN.

"A single-day box office of 8 million yen on Friday… we've really struck gold."

Kazunori Ueno happily looked at the data on his desk – it was the best proof of FSN's market potential!

With this evidence, even the most conservative Kazunori Ueno decided to go all in.

After all, who wouldn't want to make money?

So, before the weekend was even over, Bandai's executives made a unanimous decision in a meeting to expand promotional efforts and screening scale!

Bandai not only provided FSN with a more substantial advertising budget, ensuring its commercials appeared in prime time on top newspapers and movie channels.

At the same time, they also expanded FSN's screening scale, preparing to increase the number of theaters from 25 to 270.

However, before Bandai could implement its ambitious screening plan, bad news came from the theater chains.

Toho Cinemas and Shochiku Cinemas refused to screen FSN!

Chapter 30: The White Bone Demon Teases Sima Yi, Wu Dalang Takes Over Lin Daiyu

If Friday's soaring box office finally showed Bandai FSN's potential, then Saturday's skyrocketing ticket sales further convinced Bandai that their decision was correct.

Although due to time constraints, FSN was still only shown in 25 theaters on Saturday, the movie's box office revenue for the day surged to 19.46 million yen, with per-theater revenue approaching 800,000 yen!

Looking at the per-theater performance alone, these were data typically seen for blockbuster hits.

Shinji, who had rushed from Fuyuki City to Tokyo, learned the good news about the expanded release before heading to Bandai headquarters.

It was a pity that Second Master's joyous mood didn't last long before it was extinguished by the refusal to screen from the cinema chains under Toho and Shochiku, even causing him to throw a tantrum over it.

"Toho Cinemas is TMD refusing to screen FSN! Why??"

Shinji had reason to be so angry and anxious.

Of the two cinema chains that explicitly refused to distribute the film, Shochiku Cinemas only had a little over 20 locations, which was considered small fry. However, Toho Cinemas had over 50 movie theaters under its banner!

Even if this number wasn't large, and couldn't compare to the likes of Wanda and Dadi cinema chains in China in the future, it was already the second-largest cinema chain in Japan, which only had 400 theaters at the time.

Not to mention, Toho's movie theaters were all located in bustling urban areas with huge foot traffic.

Therefore, as soon as he entered the Bandai company conference room, Shinji shouted.

"Toho refusing to distribute my film is too overbearing?! Do they mean they won't show a film if it's not distributed by them? Toho rejected me in the first place!"

"No, it has nothing to do with the distributor."

Udagawa Nao shook her head, denying Shinji's guess. Judging from her furrowed brows, her mood wasn't good either.

"According to the information I obtained, this matter is related to film critics?"

"Huh?"

Shinji almost twisted his back from the outrageous answer. He looked at Udagawa with disbelief.

Udagawa Nao explained, "It seems a film critic named Kouichi Ippei mobilized a team of film critics to pressure Toho and Shochiku, demanding that Toho refuse to screen your film."

"Meddling busybody."

Recalling the film critic who always looked at him with displeasure, Shinji snorted coldly, very displeased.

Although he knew that film critics had more influence than he had initially thought, the fact that these people could instigate the cinema chains to make a decision to refuse screening was something Shinji had never expected.

"The cinema chains actually did as they were told as soon as those film critics spoke up?"

To Shinji's question, Udagawa Nao was also quite helpless. "It's because Kouichi Ippei has a close relationship with Toho and Shochiku. In the words of their employees, they can't abandon the forest for a single tree."

It was clear that Toho and Shochiku saw the value brought by the film critics led by Kouichi Ippei as far greater than Shinji alone.

After all, a director's box office success is limited to a few films, but a high-level film critic can influence the box office of tens of millions of films.

"Tsk."

Shinji clicked his tongue and asked, "Why would that critic, Heji, try to stop my film? It couldn't be for the pursuit of Art, right? To prohibit the dissemination of my un-Artistic film?"

"It's Kouichi," Udagawa Nao shrugged her shoulders, correcting him. "I think they're probably afraid. Your film was specifically targeted by him. If it really achieves a high box office, their mouths as film critics will be worthless."

The most important thing for film critics was their word that could decide life or death.

When they praised a film and it achieved a high box office, and when they criticized a film and it flopped, this was the ideal film market in the eyes of film critics, and the film market where they could earn the most profit.

All along, film critics had been shaping a "truth": only the films they praised were good films.

But if a film they criticized as bad actually achieved a terrifyingly high box office, their "truth" would be shattered, and the transcendent status of film critics could not be maintained.

It was like the line from Iron Man 2: As long as you can make a god bleed, people will stop believing in him.

In fact, if the situation in this Type-Moon parallel world wasn't special, with artistic films dominating, the influence of film critics should have been weakened long ago.

"Then what reason did Toho Cinemas give?" Master Shinji asked, clasping his hands.

Refusing to screen a film because of film critics wasn't a reason that could be brought out in the open.

Hearing Shinji ask this question, Udagawa Nao's expression became somewhat strange, as if she was amused to the point of being angry.

"Because the theatrical version of Crayon Shin-chan for this year is opening next week, and Toho is clearing screens for their own film."

Shinji let out a heavy breath through his nostrils. "What a ridiculous excuse."

It wasn't the first time Toho had shown favoritism to films they produced, but this was clearly a blatant lie.

Although Crayon Shin-chan was also a nationally popular animated film, its theatrical versions consistently grossed between 1 billion and 1.5 billion yen annually.

If Shinji's memory wasn't mistaken, this stable box office performance of Shin-chan would continue for another 20 years.

For a film that was like an annual staple, Shinji didn't believe that Toho wouldn't have pre-allocated the corresponding number of screens.

Although this was clearly an excuse to brush him off, Toho had truly gone too far this time.

"Tch, if only there weren't so few movie theaters..."

The root cause of this incident was ultimately the small number of movie theaters in Japan. If it could expand to 1,000 theaters, would Toho still be able to act so brazenly?

Thinking of this, Master Shinji suddenly had the urge to open his own cinema chain.

But it was just a fleeting thought. His goal was the global film market, not to toil away in a small place like Japan.

"Besides these two cinema chains, the other ones should be fine, right?"

Shinji rested his chin on his hands and confirmed with Udagawa Nao.

"No problem. Although it's fewer theaters than we expected, we still managed to secure 210 theaters and 812 screens."

"That's enough. That's enough to make FSN a hit all over Japan."

Master Shinji flashed a devilishly charming smile.

At this moment, there was a restless urge stirring within him.

Making those high-and-mighty old men eat dirt has always been Master Shinji's greatest desire.

"I didn't come looking for you film critics, but since you've come to my doorstep, don't blame me for being rude."

Master Shinji, with a "warm" smile, began to introduce his envisioned movie promotion plan to Udagawa Nao.

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As the new week began, Bandai's attitude towards FSN changed from indifference to great care.

In addition to expanding the screening scale to 210 theaters, Bandai also allocated 20 million yen specifically for promotional funds.

While this amount might not seem like much, considering the current state of Japan's entertainment industry, it couldn't be considered small.

In an era where the internet was not yet developed, Master Shinji truly didn't know how he would use a promotional budget of over 100 million yen.

Soon, FSN began appearing in top newspapers and prime time slots on major television networks. The movie's exquisite character designs and exciting fight scene edits quickly captured the attention of countless people.

Bandai's potential as Japan's number one animation distributor erupted at this moment. Under Shinji's direction, Bandai precisely targeted advertising and promotions to the youth audience aged 12 to 25.

At the same time, the film crew remaining in Fuyuki City began building momentum in coordination with Bandai's promotional plan.

Although they couldn't leave Fuyuki City for promotions, Shirou and the others still accepted interviews, took photos, and produced television programs as requested.

The most crucial aspect of the promotion was the lead actress, Artoria.

Bandai even sent people to Fuyuki City to have Artoria film several commercials for FSN merchandise, including a promotional ad for the toy Excalibur.

With such large-scale, intensive promotion, coupled with the consistently high audience reviews, FSN's box office numbers finally saw a significant increase.

In the first four weekdays of the new week alone, the box office revenue reached 248.94 million yen, and the following three weekend days raked in an impressive 383.74 million yen.

Ultimately, FSN secured the top spot on the Japanese box office charts for the week with a total gross of 630 million yen.

This was FSN's first box office championship, and also Master Shinji's first box office championship in his life.

As a result, the Monday entertainment section headline of Kinema Junpo naturally featured a poster of FSN, with the tagline "[Miracle Underdog]" displayed below.