Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 426: Damage Control
After returning home from the cinema, Pei Qian collapsed straight onto his bed and buried himself in sleep.
What? The movie is a huge hit?
What? The premiere got great reactions?
Hallucinations—this is all just hallucinations!
Pei Qian kept telling himself that as long as he got some sleep, everything would be fine!
He slept all the way until noon the next day before reluctantly opening his eyes.
He picked up his phone to check the time—and sure enough, there were tons of unread messages.
Huang Sibo, Zhu Xiaoce, Lin Chang… all sorts of people had sent him messages.
He didn't even need to guess what they were about.
Pei Qian didn't dare to look. He carefully ignored them, afraid he might accidentally tap one and have it pop open.
Then, he ordered some food from Moyu Delivery.
Sitting in front of his computer, he felt a deep sense of melancholy, as if life had suddenly lost its meaning.
After struggling internally for quite a while, Pei Qian finally picked up his phone with a complicated expression and opened the Gouyan app.
He tapped on "Today's Box Office," and right at the top was A Better Tomorrow.
Today's box office: 7.84 million. Estimated total box office: 210 million!
"…Damn it."
Pei Qian felt his vision go dark, nearly smashing his phone on the spot.
This was too hopeless—far too hopeless!
The movie had only been out for half a day, and it had already rushed close to 8 million in box office!
Originally, Pei Qian had thought that with a production cost of 30 million, it would need at least 100 million at the box office just to break even.
How could a movie like this possibly make over 100 million?!
Yet the Gouyan app's prediction slapped him in the face in real time—an estimated total of 210 million!
The producers' estimated share: 75.347 million!
This prediction was calculated based on factors like screening allocation, attendance rates, and box office trends. While there would be some fluctuations due to uncertainties, it was generally quite accurate.
Looking at the other three films, their current daily box office numbers were only hovering between one to two million.
Pei Qian was furious.
Useless! All of them are useless!
Each of you looked so promising—there's a romance film, a Hollywood action movie, and even a big domestic IP—so why did you all suddenly flop?!
Step it up! Take away A Better Tomorrow's screening slots!
Spend some money hiring trolls to trash A Better Tomorrow! It wouldn't even cost that much!
Pei Qian practically wished he could track down the investors of those three films and personally jump in to help them.
Finally, trembling, he tapped open the rating for A Better Tomorrow.
88 points!
Pei Qian quickly threw his phone aside.
Hallucinations—this must be a hallucination!
No, he needed a moment.
His poor heart couldn't handle this level of shock…
On the Gouyan app, a score of 88 wasn't extraordinarily high. Many blockbuster hits and classics could score 95 or even 97.
But the problem was, A Better Tomorrow wasn't some flashy blockbuster. It didn't have thrilling large-scale action scenes, and while the plot had depth, many ordinary viewers might not fully understand it.
Under those circumstances, it would be normal for viewers to give it lower scores—not higher ones!
Yet now it had an 88, which meant that even for general audiences, the movie wasn't dull or boring. Even if they didn't fully understand parts of it, it still managed to engage their emotions and hold their attention strongly.
Pei Qian felt utterly miserable.
Bad news kept coming one after another, constantly battering his mental defenses.
And judging by the current situation, hoping that theaters would reduce A Better Tomorrow's screening allocation was probably unrealistic.
The currently showing films were all collapsing at the slightest touch—none of them could compete. And the upcoming releases didn't seem capable of posing any real threat either.
In this situation, every additional screening given to A Better Tomorrow meant more money for the theaters…
Pei Qian was at a complete loss for words.
Before long, the Moyu Delivery arrived.
Pei Qian grabbed the takeout and took a couple of bites. After eating a bit, he seemed to regain some energy.
"The more adversity I face, the calmer I need to be."
"The situation probably hasn't reached the point of no return yet…"
He stuffed another mouthful of food in and began thinking of countermeasures.
"From the current situation, it seems the audience has been misled by Zhu Xiaoce's techniques."
"This special editing style makes viewers temporarily overlook the 'toxicity' of the film—like a sugar-coated pill, tricking them into swallowing the poisonous core whole without realizing its bitterness."
"So I need to find a way to expose the true nature of this movie. There's nothing that complicated about it—it's just a toxic film at its core!"
"So… who should I get to reveal this truth…"
"And how exactly should I do it…"
He had found a direction, but when it came to choosing the right person, he fell into hesitation.
Hire online trolls?
The troll farm on Hu Xiao's side was fairly competent, but if Pei Qian wanted to reimburse the expense using system funds, he could only give hints—he couldn't be too explicit.
And he couldn't be sure whether the message might get distorted along the way. If something went wrong, it would be extremely awkward…
Besides, trolls couldn't carry the whole operation. Without an opinion leader, they could only follow trends and amplify noise.
Pei Qian felt that he needed to find a film critic with significant influence—someone to criticize the movie, expose its "truth," and then let the trolls swarm in afterward. That would get the job done.
Of course, completely turning things around was impossible.
Still… convincing even one viewer to stay away was worth it.
As for the exact execution, that was another challenge.
Pei Qian thought back to the lessons from last time with Turn Back Before It's Too Late, when he had hired trolls. He couldn't let them run wild again.
This time, he had to give them a very clear direction.
But directly telling them to attack A Better Tomorrow didn't seem feasible. On one hand, the system wouldn't reimburse it; on the other, if the criticism felt too forced, it might trigger a backlash.
Besides, this film wasn't easy to criticize in the first place.
"Wait… backlash?"
"I've got it—pay people to excessively praise the movie! Overpraise it to death!"
"Even the most far-fetched elements—just forcefully hype everything up. That way, it'll give people the impression that all the positive reviews were bought!"
"At the same time, this kind of brainless overpraising will definitely annoy some people. Naturally, they'll start tearing the movie apart."
"If both sides start arguing and insulting each other, wouldn't that achieve exactly what I want?"
"Yeah, that's the plan!"
Having made up his mind, Pei Qian began searching online for well-known film critics—especially those who had already reviewed A Better Tomorrow and given it a lower rating.
Then he could simply pay them to revise their reviews!
That way, wouldn't it be obvious to everyone that they had been paid—and naturally lead people to suspect that A Better Tomorrow had hired trolls?
"Let's see… which lucky critic will it be?"
Feeling much more energized, Pei Qian began patiently hunting for his target across Weibo and various film websites.
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