Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 423: Screening Share
February 21st, another Monday no one felt like going to work.
Over the weekend, Pei Qian had been deeply wounded by the Moyu Internet Café complex in Lin City and spent two days lying at home like a corpse.
Of course, he hadn't done absolutely nothing during those two days—he had continued monitoring the situation of the Lin City Moyu Internet Café and the Top Student, Come Quickly app.
The more he observed, the less optimistic he became. Things were clearly heading in an increasingly uncontrollable direction!
The Moyu Internet Café in Lin City was even more booming over the weekend. ROF computer assembly and Moyu Delivery showed no signs of slowing down either. In short—profit!
And the Top Student, Come Quickly app was just as bizarre. Its popularity kept rising higher and higher, to the point that it made Pei Qian uneasy—he felt like it might go public any second.
Of course, he knew that a company needed to operate normally for three years before going public. But if the project kept expanding like this, it still wasn't a good sign…
Pei Qian felt despair. Over the weekend, he had already been thinking about where to spend all this unexpected money.
Open dozens more Against the Wind Logistics stations in Lin City?
Or maybe allocate more funds to Zhang Yuan's not-yet-established esports club?
Sigh, what a headache!
He had spent the entire weekend thinking about it but still couldn't come up with a good solution, so he could only set it aside for now.
Come Monday, he still had to get out of bed early, wipe away his tears, and move forward.
Because there were more important things to deal with today.
The movie would premiere tomorrow, yet President Pei had no confidence at all.
If only there had been advance screenings—if the early reviews were terrible, he could at least feel reassured.
But then again, he was worried: what if the early screenings were well received? That might boost first-day box office numbers, increase screening allocations, and trigger a positive feedback loop.
Wouldn't that turn into a catastrophic mistake?
So after weighing everything, it was better not to have advance screenings.
Since he had chosen the awkward release date of February 22, it meant he was aiming for a one-shot deal: poor reviews on opening day, followed by declining screening share and plummeting revenue…
That was the ideal script in President Pei's mind.
"I've been too busy lately to keep track of the movie's situation. I wonder how preparations are going."
"The ticketing apps should already have the movie details and screening schedules up, right?"
"I left everything to Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce. Not sure if they handled it the way I wanted."
"Logically speaking, they're both newcomers without many resources—they shouldn't be able to secure much screening share, and the promotion probably isn't strong either, right?"
"Yeah, that should be reassuring."
"Still, better take a look. I can also check the strength of competing films released at the same time."
After hesitating for a moment, Pei Qian decided to download the Gouyan ticketing app.
He mainly wanted to check three things:
How well the promotional materials for A Better Tomorrow were prepared.
What the screening share for A Better Tomorrow looked like.
What other films were releasing at the same time—and whether they were strong competitors.
Once he confirmed these three points, he could roughly judge whether the movie would flop.
He opened the professional version of the Gouyan app and clicked on the "Coming Soon" section. As expected, A Better Tomorrow appeared.
But Pei Qian paused for a moment, suddenly feeling that something was off.
A Better Tomorrow was actually ranked first in the "Coming Soon" list, with a small tag above it: 370,000 people want to watch!
In other words, among all the films releasing soon, A Better Tomorrow had attracted the most attention!
Pei Qian instantly felt that something was very wrong.
However, the battle-hardened President Pei quickly calmed down.
He hurriedly browsed through the other upcoming films and found that they all looked rather unimpressive.
Romance films, comedies, animated films, dramas… they were all there, but the kind that made you lose interest just from glancing at the poster and title.
Logically, films released during this period might have clashed with big Western blockbusters—but there were none.
"What a pity! Why aren't there any Hollywood blockbusters joining the competition?!"
Pei Qian practically beat his chest in frustration.
"On the bright side, being the most 'anticipated' movie on this app doesn't really mean much. After all, the competing films are all mediocre—beating them doesn't necessarily mean A Better Tomorrow will succeed…"
"Wait."
"If all the films releasing at the same time are mediocre… that might not be a good thing either…"
"Doesn't that mean A Better Tomorrow basically has no competition???"
"No, no—there are still movies currently in theaters."
Pei Qian quickly tapped on the "Now Showing" tab to check the films currently playing.
At the moment, movies from the Spring Festival and Valentine's Day—two major release windows—were still screening. Compared to those, A Better Tomorrow immediately seemed less outstanding.
Pei Qian quickly scanned through several of the currently showing films:
"Crazy for Love" — a romance film starring popular young idols, rating 7.1, in theaters for 8 days, first-day box office 18.4 million, total box office 127 million, projected total 190 million.
"Dangerous Partner" — a European action film, rating 7.5, in theaters for 10 days, first-day box office 14.46 million, total 87.77 million, projected total 135 million.
"Legend of the Dark Night" — rating 6.8, a domestic action film adapted from a well-known IP, in theaters for 15 days, first-day box office 17.68 million, total 124 million, projected total 138 million.
There was no need to look further—none of the remaining films could compare to these three.
Seeing these, Pei Qian felt slightly reassured.
One was an idol romance film, one was a Western blockbuster, and one was a domestic big-IP action film. Each had its own strengths, and all seemed far more reliable than A Better Tomorrow.
Although these films had already been showing for a while, their daily box office performance was still solid. They should pose significant competition for A Better Tomorrow, which satisfied Pei Qian somewhat.
Next, Pei Qian tapped into the promotional page for A Better Tomorrow to check how its marketing materials had been prepared.
. . . .
A Better Tomorrow
Film / Sci-Fi / Suspense / Drama / 2D
Lu Zhiyao / Zhang Zuting / Lin Ruyi / Zhu Xiaoce
Release Date: 2011-02-22 / Runtime: 93 minutes
Includes 2 post-credit scenes
Synopsis:
In a future world where technology is highly advanced, the living standards of ordinary people have sharply declined. Daily life consists only of fast food, three hours of outdoor freedom, and ubiquitous video advertisements. A loving couple (played by Lu Zhiyao and Lin Ruyi) refuses to accept such a life. They decide to resist this unjust fate and bravely pursue their dreams. However, they have no way of knowing what kind of destiny awaits them…
. . . .
Below that were the cast and crew list, trailers, stills, and so on.
Notably, Pei Qian actually found his own name listed among the credits—as the screenwriter—though without a profile picture.
"Hm… the synopsis isn't exactly what I wanted, but it's not too far off. Besides, probably not many people even read the synopsis anyway."
Originally, Pei Qian had planned to deliberately mislead audiences in the marketing—using tags like "epic sci-fi romance" or "healing masterpiece." Then, once viewers entered the theater and realized they had been tricked, they would surely lash out, causing the film's reputation to collapse.
But it didn't seem appropriate for him to personally micromanage such minor details—and in the end, he got busy and forgot about it.
However, judging from the current tags and synopsis, they didn't seem particularly appealing to audiences—and it was probably too late to change them now.
For the time being, this would have to do.
Pei Qian continued scrolling down the page to check audience comments.
"Lu Zhiyao is in it—one star reserved."
"Zhang Zuting has a good eye for picking films. This one should be good too, looking forward to it!"
"As a sci-fi fan, I remain cautiously optimistic about domestic sci-fi films."
"Second-rate director, box office poison, forced sci-fi theme—Zhang Zuting alone probably can't carry this. Flop confirmed!"
"A foreign-themed film made by Chinese creators, with English dialogue and Chinese subtitles? Excuse me? What kind of move is this?"
"The cast is decent. It won't explode at the box office, but it shouldn't do too badly either. 100 million should be safe."
"Hard to imagine what this film will be like. The marketing push is so aggressive—investors will probably lose everything…"
Reading these comments, Pei Qian felt a mix of joy and worry.
The movie hadn't been released yet, so the current ratings wouldn't count. However, everyone could already evaluate it based on the trailer, posters, cast, and crew.
At the moment, the most talked-about aspect of A Better Tomorrow was still Lu Zhiyao.
Although Zhang Zuting had once won Best Actor, he was already past his prime and not considered a major star among mainland audiences. Meanwhile, despite being labeled "box office poison," Lu Zhiyao was still undeniably a top-tier young actor.
But precisely because of Lu Zhiyao's reputation as "box office poison," many viewers didn't have high expectations for the film.
Some even wished for the investors to lose everything—which made Pei Qian secretly delighted.
Although these pre-release ratings didn't prove much, they did suggest that audiences weren't particularly optimistic about the film. That was good news.
"Good. As long as the word-of-mouth crashes, the box office definitely won't be good either."
Pei Qian finally felt a bit relieved.
He was just about to close the app when he suddenly remembered something crucial.
The screening share!
If the screening share was low, combined with the current reception, then things would truly be stable.
Pei Qian quickly tapped on "Real-Time Box Office" to check tomorrow's screening distribution.
But the moment he opened it, his expression froze.
A Better Tomorrow — 37.7% screening share!
Looking at the films below:
Crazy for Love — 24.6%
Dangerous Partner — 19.7%
Legend of the Dark Night — 9.2%
The rest were negligible.
Pei Qian refreshed the page to make sure—yes, that 37.7% wasn't a mistake. He hadn't misread the decimal point.
WTF???
Amid shock and confusion, Pei Qian suddenly seemed to realize something.
Why did A Better Tomorrow have 370,000 people marking "want to watch"?
Logically, it shouldn't.
Huang Sibo, Zhu Xiaoce, and even the entire Feihuang Studio shouldn't have had the resources to promote the film to this extent.
If they had hired an external marketing company, there would definitely have been strict conditions—and Huang Sibo wouldn't have hidden something like that.
Now, seeing this screening share, Pei Qian instantly understood:
The film's promotion was definitely not handled by Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce.
There was no way they could have secured such a high screening share!
Something had gone seriously wrong.
There must be an insider sabotaging things from within!!
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