Shadow Empire

Chapter 588 Hunger, Stealing Box Office and an Opportunity

Watching the young man put as much leftover food as possible into the brown paper bag, Lance's smiling face seemed to have a hint of anticipation.

"Are you optimistic about this young man?" Erwin asked.

Considering their current age, it is not strange to call this boy "young man".

Lance nodded, then shook his head. “Once the federal government reaches a military alliance with Slade, more refugees will pour in.”

He turned to look at Erwin, then at the others behind him, "Why did we 'stand up' in the first place?"

Erwin replied, "Because they're going to deal with Ethan."

Lance nodded, "It's a reason, our reason, what about Hiram?"

Hiram shrugged and said nothing.

Lance didn't ask him to answer, because he had already given the answer himself, "Because I'm poor, and I can't survive if I don't change."

"Look at all the refugees in Xingang District. How many of them can fill their stomachs, and how many are struggling on the border of life and death?"

"It won't be long before this city is overrun with refugee gangs."

"At first, they may just want to huddle together for warmth and obtain more resources to keep themselves and the people around them alive."

“But you see, once you set foot on this road, except for reaching the end, only halfway will become history.”

"Instead of waiting for these challengers to grow quickly and grow to the point where they can challenge us, why don't we support a few of them first, give them hope of survival, and let this power be in our hands!"

Erwin could understand a little, but only a little, not much.

He still nodded and kept Lance's words in mind. He believed that one day, he would understand!

Lance raised his chin towards the young man, "He's lucky to have met us at this time."

"Arrange someone to follow him and see how he distributes the food and how he deals with troubles."

It is not a smart choice to bring so much food back. If Lance were in his position, he would not bring so much food.

He would stack the breads on top of each other and press them against each other with a plate, using gravity to compact the soft bread into "biscuits."

This way is convenient to carry and can resist hunger. Then you can consider bringing some meat, but don’t bring too much. It’s best if it’s just enough for yourself.

In this way, although the refugees may be a little envious, they will not snatch food from a child until they completely lose their minds.

But if he brings too much, there will always be people who think he can't eat so much, so it's okay to take some away from him.

Then there would be conflict between them and in the end he might be left with nothing.

"Don't interfere, just watch and record everything."

Lance looked at the boy holding two large paper bags with an expectant expression on his face. He was looking forward to a good story.

The young man didn't know that he had become the "protagonist" in Lance's story. He took two paper bags of various meats, said goodbye to Lance, and ran towards the New Port District with his younger brothers and sisters.

He ran very fast, eager to get back to where they lived, to tell his mother that he had a job and that they could put food on the table.

When he was running in the Empire District, people only looked at him occasionally, but when he entered the New Port District, people's eyes were fixed on the two brown paper bags he was holding.

The fat seeped through the brown paper bag and released the aroma, which made many people stand up.

Many of them have not yet been able to let go of their pride, but under the continued impact of hunger, some have begun to lose their reason and morals.

"Hey, what are you holding?"

A very thin man in his thirties walked towards the young man. After a brief moment of surprise, the looks of the others became dangerous.

Some people who were sitting on the ground enduring hunger glanced at the two greasy paper bags and couldn't help but stand up.

Driven by the desire to survive, he walked towards the boy.

The boy was stunned for a moment. He looked at the people who gathered around him and immediately realized what had happened. "Nothing!" he shouted and sped up towards where they lived.

But how could the people, who were now extremely hungry, let him leave?
Without anyone shouting, someone stretched out his leg and tripped him to the ground. He fell heavily, the paper bag burst, and the greasy meat fell out. He rolled on the ground and then lay quietly motionless.

Everyone around was stunned for a moment, but then they ran towards the piece of meat on the ground.

No matter if there is sand on the meat or if it is dirty, just put it in your mouth as long as you can catch it!
The guy who was running first kept shouting "All of this is mine" and trying to hold all the food under him.

But soon he felt someone kicking him hard on the head. He held his head and was unwilling to leave, but was still dragged and thrown aside.

People frantically scrambled for the pieces of meat on the ground. In less than two minutes, all the meat the young man brought back was gone.

Even the two brown paper bags were snatched away, torn into pieces, and eaten in strips!

People are going crazy!
The young man stared at all this in amazement, unable to come back to his senses for a long time.

He returned to his "home" in frustration, which was actually just a small tent made of some branches and rags, with his mother inside.

Because she has two younger brothers and sisters, she stays here all day.

"What's wrong with you?" She looked at the boy, "Didn't you get any food today?"

The two children behind him took out the seven cents they had snatched, and the woman breathed a sigh of relief.

Seven cents was enough for them to buy something to eat.

"You look depressed."

"Yes, mother, I have lost some food which a gentleman gave me, two large bags of meat."

His mother was stunned for a moment, then waved to him and asked him to sit next to her and lean on her lap.

She stroked the boy's hair gently, "It's lost, so be it. At least we still have seven cents and food to eat."

The young man rested his head on his mother's lap. "That gentleman said he would like me to work for him."

The woman asked, "Would you like that?"

The young man nodded, "Yes."

He wanted to change his life. People cannot, or at least should not, lose their minds and live like vicious dogs.

He wants to make money and take his family away from here. He wants to protect this family and mother like a man!
This was his promise to his father!

Later, they bought a pound of whole wheat bread for seven cents, and followed his mother's instructions, tore it into small pieces outside the bakery, put them in their pockets and took them back.

Although it tastes a bit harsh on the throat, its aroma is intoxicating.

The bread should be divided into two days.

He ate very carefully, even finding the crumbs between his fingernails and eating them.

Although he didn't get to eat meat today, he hopes to change all this through his own efforts.

At night, there would occasionally be screams of miserable crying, and someone had starved to death.

This place is completely different from the world they imagined. They have more or less heard rumors about the Federation. This place seems like another paradise.

But when they really got here, they realized that no one would give you food just because you were hungry.

If you want to eat, you have to pay.

He clenched his fists, letting the saliva flow fully in his mouth. After feeling the aroma of the whole wheat bread again, he swore that he must be able to fill his stomach every day in the future!

Early the next morning, he arrived outside Lance's company according to the address on the business card.

The huge door and luxurious decoration made him a little overwhelmed, but fortunately the lady at the front desk was very gentle and asked him why he came here.

He handed over his business card, and soon the lady told him how to get to where he wanted to go.

Lance was frowning in his office when the director called.

"…Someone is stealing our wealth, Mr. Lance."

"Angel Lake Mystery received very good response from all quarters and most of the theaters made good box office revenue, but here at 'Korgan Cinema', our film hardly generated any worthwhile box office revenue."

"If they either didn't play our movie, then they deceived us." Lance had them use a box office revenue-sharing system for the movie they released this time. He didn't know much about it, but there was indeed a revenue-sharing system in place.

From the beginning, the cinemas almost got everything, with a 90% share.

Then, as the showing time increases and the number of times it is shown increases, the cinema's share of the box office will drop to the final 5 percent.

This profit-sharing method is obviously not very scientific, but from the current market perspective, it is the most accepted and most in line with the wishes of theaters.

Many theaters have accepted this profit-sharing plan. First of all, the movie "Angel Lake" does not provide a buyout service, only a profit-sharing contract.

That means if they don't accept the profit sharing, their cinemas will not be able to play the movie.

Secondly, because it is a profit-sharing arrangement, they can account for depreciation and electricity costs, and there are no additional expenses.

If it is a buyout system, it may cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars or more to buy the movie film, and whether you can get your money back in the end depends entirely on fate.

At this time, a very strange phenomenon often occurs: a cinema in a certain area buys a movie and it is packed with people when it is showing.

But after a cinema in another area bought it, few people watched it.

Even for a hit movie, not everyone can guarantee that it will make money. The current profit-sharing model reduces the possibility of their losses, so the acceptance is higher.

After all, as long as the movie is good, the most profitable part is the early stage, not the middle and late stages.

So they all agreed to split the profits.

The box office performance was generally good, and some film review magazines have created a new genre for this movie - the thriller horror genre.

No matter what the future holds, it will always have a place in film history.

Amid all the hype, people also want to see what this movie that is said to have created a new genre is like.

The continuous increase in box office revenue makes everyone satisfied, but some of the box office revenue is obviously ridiculous, which obviously makes something wrong.

Box office stealing exists, both now and in the past.

"Is this cinema a company or a corporation?" Lance asked.

"It's a company with 14 cinemas in total, but the box office revenue we got was less than 100 yuan."

Lance found the number funny, "One hundred dollars?"

Nowadays, the number of people in movie theaters is basically around one hundred to two hundred. Taking an average value and calculating based on a 60% attendance rate, ninety people watch a movie.

Movie tickets have moved away from the early loss-making price of five cents a ticket. Twenty-five cents is now more common, and there are also thirty-five cents and fifty cents, depending on the time.

Assuming the cheapest ticket price of 25 cents a ticket, ninety people would cost twenty-two dollars and fifty cents.

They can get 10 percent of it, which is 2.25 points per game.

On average, the fourteen cinemas can earn thirty yuan from the box office for each screening.

As long as the show is played evenly, you can get about a hundred yuan.

It has been playing for so many days now, but it is only worth less than 100 yuan...

"Where are they?"

The director vaguely knew that Lance was going to cause trouble for them, and then said, "Lidom."

Lidom is a city in Jinzhou, not too far from Xinjin City. It can be said to be a satellite city outlying Xinjin City.

"I will solve this problem. Are there any other problems you encounter?" Lance asked.

After hesitating for a while, the director asked, "Are the box office of our own cinemas... a little too high?"

“Is this a publicity tactic?”

The cinemas under the company's name almost all maintain a 100% occupancy rate, which is simply out of the ordinary!
He thought this was Lance's way of promotion, because many cinema operators would not purchase the films at the first time. They would observe the ticket sales in cinemas elsewhere and then decide whether to show these movies.

He believes that Lance did this to make people think that the movie is very good, and that some producers have done this in the past to deceive theater owners.

Lance laughed twice when he heard this, "These are just some accidents, just ignore them."

"Do you have any other questions?"

The director couldn't figure it out, so he simply stopped thinking about it, "There are no other questions."

"Great, so how much money have we made from the box office now?"

A good news after bad news can keep him in a good mood.

The director's tone was slightly excited. "According to the data they reported now, our revenue will probably be more than 800,000 to 1 million, and the profit will be between 600,000 and 700,000."

"And the screening hasn't ended yet. Most of the money from the shows now will be ours. In the end, our revenue may be around a million."

This income was not much compared to Lance's criminal business, but it was clean money and not bad in the film industry.

Maybe from other people's point of view it may not be as good as selling film directly, but people's habits are always formed slowly.

As long as the movie is good enough, they will definitely obey.

"Don't stop the filming plan, continue to select good scripts, we won't consider the cost issue, we can talk about it later when we have time."

"If you have any other questions, please contact me. If not..." He glanced at the person standing outside the door, "I have other things to do here."

Although the director did not attend Lance's engagement ceremony, mainly because he was not qualified, he heard about the grand occasion that day!

He now firmly believes that his future will be bright if he follows Lance!
"Boss, there's nothing else to say. You can hang up now."

After Lance put down the phone, he looked at the door and said "Come in". The young man walked into the room somewhat restrainedly.

He felt a little uncomfortable from the moment he entered the building because the decoration here was too luxurious!
The mirrored marble floor made him look like he was walking in a palace. He couldn't imagine that the Federals' buildings were so beautiful, and that they were so rich!
In fact, he had already seen how wealthy the federal people were yesterday.

During the day, there were piles of food on the table that no one ate. He asked about it and the food was thrown into the trash and disposed of.

In the New Port area, people starve to death every day because of lack of food, or die from injuries and diseases.

There is no difference between people in terms of species, but there are huge differences between people, so huge that they may not be able to bridge the gap in their entire lives!
"Is your family satisfied with the food you brought back?" Lance asked.

In fact, he already knew that the young man had not eaten any of the food, and neither had his family.

An indescribable expression appeared on the boy's face. He shook his head and said, "The food was taken away."

"Do you hate them?", Lance asked.

The young man still shook his head, "I hated it at first, because they knocked over my food and took my food."

"But later on I stopped hating them because they just wanted to live."

Lance said in agreement, "Yes, people just want to live, but living is the biggest challenge for humans in this world!"

He paused, "I have two jobs for you, you can choose."

"Be a dog or a wolf?"

The young man thought for a while. In fact, he didn't know anything about being a dog or a wolf, but he instinctively answered, "I want to be a wolf."

Lance nodded, "What's your name?"

"Boni, sir."

"Very good, Bonnie, I will send someone to help you set up a gang in the New Port area."

"You can select a group of people you know, or people you think are suitable, mainly those who have fled here."

"I'll give you some jobs that can make money, and you have to run the gang."

"I hope you can grow as big as possible in the New Port District and control the order of the entire New Port District. Do you understand what I am saying?"

Bonnie was actually a little confused, but he tried his best to understand in his own way, "Order, sir."

"You are a smart person, I believe you can do it well, this is an opportunity, seize it!"

(End of this chapter)