February 21st, another Monday, when he didn’t want to work.
Last weekend, Pei Qian was deeply wounded by the Slackin’ Internet Café complex in Lin City and spent two days lying around at home like a corpse.
Of course, during those two days of being a corpse, he wasn’t doing anything. He continued to monitor the situation with the Slackin’ Internet Café in Lin City and the Academic Express APP.
The more he observed, the less optimistic he became. Things were heading in a direction that seemed somewhat out of control!
The Slackin’ Internet Café in Lin City was even more popular on the weekend. ROF computer assembly and Slackin’ Takeout also showed no signs of slowing down. In one word: profit!
The Academic Express APP project was also strange—its popularity kept increasing, increasing to the point that Pei Qian felt anxious, feeling that it could go public at any moment.
Of course, Pei Qian knew that a company needed to operate normally for three years before going public, but if this project continued to expand like this, it wouldn’t be a solution either…
Pei Qian felt desperate. Over the weekend, he had been considering where to spend this unexpected money.
Open dozens more Headwind Stations in Lin City?
Or perhaps give more money to Zhang Yuan’s yet-to-be-established esports club?
Ah, so worrying!
Pei Qian spent the entire weekend pondering this issue, but ultimately couldn’t come up with a good solution, so he had to temporarily set it aside.
Come Monday, he still had to get up early, wipe away his tears, and continue moving forward.
Because there were more important things to do today.
The movie would be released tomorrow, and right now, Mr. Pei had absolutely no confidence.
If there had been a preview screening, it would have been good. If the preview reception was terrible, Pei Qian could have taken an early reassurance pill.
But he was also worried that if the preview reception was good, and consequently the first day’s box office exploded, the movie’s screen share would keep increasing, entering a vicious cycle—what then?
Wouldn’t that be a mistake with eternal regrets?
So, after comprehensive consideration, it was better not to have a preview.
Since he had already chosen the awkward release date of February 22nd, it meant he was prepared for a one-shot deal—poor reception and box office on the release day, followed by decreasing screen share and plummeting box office…
That was the script in Mr. Pei’s ideal world.
“I’ve been too busy lately and haven’t had time to pay attention to the movie situation. I wonder how the preparations are going.”
“The movie introduction and screening schedule should already be on the ticket-purchasing app, right?”
“I’ve left all these matters to Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaocai. I wonder if they’ve handled things according to my wishes.”
“Logically speaking, these two are newcomers without many resources, so they probably couldn’t secure much screen share, and the promotion shouldn’t be very effective, right?”
“Hmm, that should be reassuring.”
“Let me have a look anyway, and also check the strength of other movies being released at the same time, to see if they can compete.”
After some hesitation, Pei Qian decided to download the Dog Eye APP ticket-purchasing software.
He mainly wanted to check three points:
How well were the promotional materials for “Beautiful Tomorrow” prepared?
What was the screen share rate for “Beautiful Tomorrow” like?
Which other films were being released at the same time, and could they compete?
Once these three points were confirmed, he could roughly see whether this movie would flop.
Opening the Dog Eye APP professional version, he clicked on the “Coming Soon” section, and sure enough, “Beautiful Tomorrow” appeared.
But Pei Qian paused slightly, suddenly feeling that something wasn’t quite right.
“Beautiful Tomorrow” was ranked first in the “Coming Soon” section, and it had a small tag: 37,000 people want to see it!
In other words, among all the movies coming out soon, “Beautiful Tomorrow” has received the most attention!
Pei Qian immediately felt that something was wrong!
But the battle-hardened Mr. Pei quickly calmed down.
He hurriedly flipped through the other movies and found they were all films that didn’t look particularly appealing.
Romance films, comedies, animated films, dramas… they were all there, but they were the type where you wouldn’t want to watch after just glancing at the poster and title.
Logically, there should have been the possibility of clashing with major Western films during this time slot, but there weren’t any.
“What a pity, why aren’t there any Western blockbusters joining in!”
Pei Qian was practically beating his chest and stamping his feet.
“Looking on the bright side, getting the most ‘want to see’ numbers on this APP doesn’t mean anything. After all, these competing films are all oddballs. Defeating them doesn’t necessarily mean ‘Beautiful Tomorrow’ will succeed…”
“Wait.”
“All the films being released at the same time are oddballs, which doesn’t seem like a good thing either…”
“Doesn’t this mean ‘Beautiful Tomorrow’ has no competition???”
“No, no, there are still films currently being screened.”
Pei Qian quickly clicked on the “Currently Showing” tab to check the films that were already in theaters.
Currently, movies from the popular Spring Festival and Valentine’s Day slots are still being screened. Compared to these films, “Beautiful Tomorrow” immediately seemed less prominent.
Pei Qian quickly scanned through the few films currently showing.
“Crazy for Love,” a young idol romance film, rated 7.1, showing for 8 days, first-day box office 18.4 million, cumulative box office 127 million, estimated total box office 190 million.
“Dangerous Companion,” a European action film, rated 7.5, showing for 10 days, first-day box office 14.46 million, cumulative box office 87.77 million, estimated total box office 135 million.
“Legend of the Dark Night,” rated 6.8, a domestically produced action film adapted from a well-known IP, showing for 15 days, first-day box office 17.68 million, cumulative box office 124 million, estimated total box office 138 million.
There was no need to look at the ones further down; they weren’t comparable to these three films.
Seeing these three films, Pei Qian felt slightly relieved.
A young idol film, a Western blockbuster, and an action film adapted from a major domestic IP—each had its strengths, and all seemed much more reliable than “Beautiful Tomorrow.”
These films had already been screening for some time, but today’s box office was still doing well. It seemed they should create significant difficulties for “Beautiful Tomorrow,” which satisfied Pei Qian.
Pei Qian then clicked into the promotional page for “Beautiful Tomorrow” to see how the film’s promotional materials were prepared.
“Beautiful Tomorrow”
“Tomorrow is beautiful.”
Film/Sci-Fi/Suspense/Drama/2D
Lu Zhiyao/Zhang Zuting/Lin Ruyi/Zhu Xiaocai
2011-2-22 Release/93 minutes
Has 2 easter eggs, appearing at the end credits
Synopsis:
In a future world, technology is highly advanced, but the living standards of ordinary people have declined sharply. Life consists only of fast food, 3 hours of outdoor freedom, and ubiquitous video advertisements. A pair of lovers (played by Lu Zhiyao and Lin Ruyi) refuse to accept such a life. They decide to rebel against this unfair fate and bravely pursue their dreams. However, they have no way of knowing what kind of destiny awaits them…
Below were cast and crew lists, trailers, stills, and more.
It’s worth mentioning that Pei Qian actually found his own name in the cast and crew list—as the screenwriter for this film—though without a profile picture.
“Hmm… the film’s synopsis doesn’t quite meet my requirements, but it’s not too far off. Not many people would read the synopsis anyway, right?”
Pei Qian had originally thought that when promoting the film, they should mislead as much as possible, using decoys like “sci-fi romance blockbuster” or “healing system.” Then, when the film was released, audiences would enter the theater to find they’d been deceived, would certainly curse loudly, and cause the film’s reputation to collapse.
But it seemed somewhat inappropriate for Mr. Pei to personally attend to such small matters, and as he got busy, he forgot about it.
However, looking at the current tags and synopsis, they probably wouldn’t create a strong attraction for audiences anyway, and it seemed too late to change them now.
For now, it would have to remain as is.
Pei Qian continued scrolling down the page to check audience reviews.
“With Lu Zhiyao, one star guaranteed.”
“Fried Pork Trotter is good at picking movies, this one should be good too, looking forward to it!”
“Sci-fi fans hold cautiously optimistic attitudes toward domestic sci-fi films.”
“Second-rate director, box office poison, forcibly latching onto the sci-fi genre—I guess Zhang Zuting alone can’t carry it. Destined to flop!”
“A film made by Chinese people about a foreign theme, and with English audio and Chinese subtitles? Excuse me? What kind of operation is this?”
“The cast’s star power is decent. The box office won’t explode, but it shouldn’t be too bad either. One hundred million should be stable.”
“Hard to imagine what this movie will be like. With such an aggressive promotional campaign, the investors will probably lose their entire investment…”
Looking at these reviews, Pei Qian felt alternately delighted and worried.
The film hadn’t been released yet, so the current ratings wouldn’t count, but everyone could evaluate the film based on trailers, posters, cast and crew lineups, and other content.
The most talked-about aspect of “Beautiful Tomorrow” was still Lu Zhiyao.
Although Zhang Zuting had won Best Actor before, he was already past his prime and wasn’t considered a big name in the hearts of mainland audiences. While Lu Zhiyao was known as “box office poison,” his status as a first-tier young actor was solid.
However, it was precisely because of Lu Zhiyao’s notorious reputation as “box office poison” that many viewers didn’t have high expectations for this film.
There were even some wishing the investors would lose their entire investment, which filled Pei Qian with joy when he saw it.
These pre-release ratings didn’t mean much, but they roughly showed that audiences weren’t particularly optimistic about this film, which was good news.
“That’s good. For this kind of film, as long as the reception flops, the box office can’t be good either.”
“With a three-million investment, the box office would need to exceed 100 million just to break even, which is simply impossible.”
Pei Qian felt slightly relieved.
He was about to close the APP when he suddenly remembered there was a crucial matter.
Check the screen share!
If the screen share was low, combined with the current reviews, then it would truly be stable.
Pei Qian hurriedly clicked on “Real-time Box Office” to check tomorrow’s screen share percentage.
However, upon opening it, Pei Qian’s expression instantly froze.
“Beautiful Tomorrow,” screen share: 37.7%!
Looking at the next few films, “Crazy for Love” had a screen share of 24.6%, “Dangerous Companion” had 19.7%, “Legend of the Dark Night” had 9.2%, and the rest were just small percentages.
Pei Qian refreshed the page to confirm that the 37.7% screen share was correct and that he hadn’t misread the decimal point position due to blurry vision.
WTF???
Amid shock and confusion, Pei Qian seemed to understand the issue.
Why did “Beautiful Tomorrow” have 37,000 people wanting to see it?
Logically, it shouldn’t have.
Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaocai, and even the entire Fei Huang Studio, shouldn’t have had so many resources to promote the film to this extent.
If they had found other companies for distribution and promotion, those companies would certainly have proposed various harsh conditions, and Huang Sibo and the others were unlikely not to report it.
Now, seeing this screen share rate, Pei Qian instantly realized that the promotional work for this film was definitely not done by Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaocai—they could never have secured such a high screen share!
There was a big problem.
There must be a mole causing trouble from within!!