Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 361 Ten million in two days!

"As of noon yesterday, Soul Ferry: Huangquan had been online for 48 hours and had a total of 436 million valid viewers, of which nearly 1000 chose 'single-film purchase'. According to the unit price of viewing for us and Qiyi TV, the total box office revenue has exceeded million!"

In the Arc Light conference room, the head of the film and television department reported on the latest achievements of the film.

Everyone in the room looked at each other, not knowing whether to celebrate or not. After all, they were familiar with online dramas and movies, but this was their first time making an online movie. They didn't really have much experience in whether this result was good or bad.

"What did Qiyi TV say about this result?" asked Meng Bai, who was sitting in the first seat.

"I just met with them at noon, and their evaluation of this data is - far beyond expectations!"

The head of the film and television department said excitedly, "Qiyi TV said that before this, the fastest record for breaking the 10 million yuan box office share was one week. Now it has been shortened to two days, which is far beyond their expectations before the broadcast."

This contrast sounds easy to understand. Suddenly, everyone in the conference room became lively and the atmosphere became cheerful.

"It sounds like the results are pretty good." Bai Shan, who was sitting next to Meng Bai, said with a smile.

The "Pendulum" series is Arc Light's first work, and the two previous web drama versions were called the "ceiling of supernatural web dramas" by many drama fans, and have accumulated a large number of fans.

Therefore, although Soul Ferry: Huangquan is just an online movie, Bai Shan has been under a lot of pressure since he took over. It was not until he saw the concrete results today that he finally relaxed.

"Well, it's not bad." Meng Bai nodded. Compared with the people around him, his expression was calmer.

Although Qiyi TV said it was "far beyond expectations", for him, the current result can only be considered to have met the requirements.

After all, whether in terms of team, cost, IP popularity or publicity and promotion efforts, "Soul Ferry: Huangquan" is a complete dimensionality reduction attack compared to other online movies.

It has popularity, fans, and publicity, but if it still can't set a record for its launch, it would be a failure.

After a pause, when the room was quieter, Meng Bai spoke up: "Thanks to everyone's hard work, we have achieved a good start. But I also want to remind everyone that the reason we can achieve such a fast record is mainly due to the fan base accumulated by the web series. Now the fans who should have watched it have basically already watched it. The future results will truly prove the quality of this movie."

After saying that, he gestured to the manager of the film and television department and asked him to continue his report.

"That's right, just like what Mr. Meng said. Most of the traffic from the premiere was concentrated in the first 30 hours. Since last night, the data growth rate is still higher than the average data, but it has slowed down compared to the previous two days."

Hearing this, the creators and executives present immediately calmed down.

The fans' energy has basically reached its limit so far. Next, it depends on the quality of the film itself and whether it can attract more passers-by.

"What are the word-of-mouth reviews of the movie?" Bai Shan asked.

The person in charge flipped through his own documents and said, "Qiyi TV's own rating is 9.7. Of course, everyone knows that this is a bit exaggerated, but the overall comments are still positive. And Douban's rating is 7.8, with more than people rating it, and it's still increasing."

7.8 point?
Meng Bai frowned. The two previous web dramas were both aiming for a score of 9.

“What are the negative reviews?”

"Well, we did some statistics and found that the main focus is on two aspects. One is that many viewers thought the main plot of the film was Zhao Li, but they found out that it was just a side plot, which was a bit unsatisfactory." The person in charge said: "Another point that has been reflected a lot is that many fans feel that the supernatural thriller level of the movie version is not as good as the web drama version, and it feels 'not that good'."

When someone heard this, they immediately said, "This second point cannot be considered our problem. The censorship requirements are here, so there must be changes."

"That's right. What year was the web series from? What were the censorship standards back then? What are the standards now?"

"Indeed, all projects cannot get rid of this..."

Many people echoed in agreement.

"Alright." Meng Bai stopped everyone. "The censorship requirements are something we producers have to consider. They have nothing to do with the audience. We can't simply say it's one side's fault. Douban users only account for a small part of the entire audience group. The ratings are mainly for reference and don't represent the whole picture."

After a pause, he continued, "In the coming period, the publicity and material release will proceed as planned. We at Arclight have always been known as the 'No. 1 online drama team', and I believe everyone is very proud of this honor. This time we are switching to online movies, and we must win the box office championship to be worthy of it."

"Mr. Meng is right. How can we live up to the name of Arc Light if we don't win the championship?"

Upon hearing this, everyone present responded loudly, and then excitedly continued their work.

Meng Bai sent Bai Shan away and then returned to the office. He put aside the information he had just reported, turned on his computer and started browsing the online reviews of Soul Ferry: Huangquan.

The department only summarizes data and proportions, and it is easy to fall into the "statistical trap" by just looking at those. So no matter which work of Arc Light is broadcast, he will personally search the Internet for the audience's comments.

[Although it has been several years, the leading actors and the plot have changed, but the moment the narration sounded, the familiar feeling came back. 】

[Compared to the web drama version, the plot of the movie version is a bit vulgar and a bit melodramatic. But Meng Bai wrote it really well, and he made such an ordinary story so interesting.]

[I have never watched online dramas. In the past, online movies have always been synonymous with "cheap and marginal" to me. I never thought that I could see such a high-quality movie, which is not inferior to those theater blockbusters at all. ]

[Fuck, friends, I found the "easter egg" that Meng Bai mentioned at the press conference. At the end of the film, the blessing lantern with a name written on it in the lower right corner, let's see who it is.]

[Oh my god, it's true, isn't this our Dongqing's name? So, the last shot means that Changsheng has been waiting for Sanqi until the modern times? ]

[I watched it with my girlfriend. After watching it, she said that it is not good for girls to be in love. I said that Changsheng was a wisp of Sanqi's soul, so wasn't she in love with herself? ]

[The girl who plays Sanqi is quite cute. But why do I always feel that she looks like my wife? ]

[First of all, why did you want to steal my wife? Secondly, is there a possibility that she also played the role of Yi Shao? ]

【…】

Meng Bai browsed the comments in the comment section. He had to admit that the fans were quite careful in watching the show. Judging from the time the comments were posted, the film had been online for less than an hour, and all the Easter eggs buried in the plot had been found.

In addition to the evaluation of the film, there is also criticism of Zhu Xudan. After all, in this film, her role as "Sanqi" is definitely the first leading role, even ahead of "Zhao Li".

It can also be seen from the reviews that most of the audience are quite satisfied with her image and performance.

This cheap junior sister is also quite lucky. Last year, although it was a small production, the popularity of "Chef Fang" was very good. She played the role of "Fang Yishao" and the character was likable, which attracted a large number of fans.

Although this year's "Soul Ferry: Huangquan" is an online movie, it has a big IP and many fans, and she is the leading actor with the most roles, so her popularity will increase again.

But when it comes to "luck", Meng Bai thought of the "real mascot" again.

Last time, I promised Meng Ziyi that I would ask about Yang Chaoyue's situation, but I forgot about it the moment I turned around.

I looked at the date and the first round of rankings should have been aired by now.

Meng Bai opened Tencent Video, and the big picture on the homepage was the poster of "Produce 101". After clicking on it, he was directly entered into an exclusive channel.

By the way, this show seems to be quite popular recently. The "idol audition" craze brought about by "Idol Producer" at the beginning of the year has not yet ended, and Tencent's show just happened to fill the female group market.

Not to mention ordinary audiences, just in his circle of friends over the past month, he has seen many artists, celebrities and industry insiders discussing this program, and some even sharing their votes.

However, this was the first time Meng Bai himself saw it.

He glanced at the schedule and saw that the latest episode had the title "First Round Ranking Announced". He didn't think about catching up on the previous episodes and just started watching from the latest episode.

Meng Bai skipped the opening part of the show and fast-forwarded directly to the ranking stage. "...Next, whoever's name I read will sit on the pyramid over here according to the ranking."

The host, or as the program calls it, the "girl group initiator" is Huang Zitao, who, holding an inscription card in his hand, looked at the more than one hundred girls opposite him and said.

The show is called "Produce 101", so there are 101 contestants. According to the first round ranking rules, only 55 people can advance.

Tsk, Meng Bai sighed in his heart, with a direct elimination rate of half, the competition system of this show is quite cruel.

"Now let's start announcing the first ranking list. No. 54, Xu Jingyun... No. 53, Liu Dexi... No. 52, Jiang Jinger..."

Every time a girl's name was called out, the crowd would burst into laughter of joy, disappointment, or inexplicable noise. The camera passed through their faces one by one, showing the reactions of different contestants.

After watching for less than two minutes, Meng Bai actually became interested. Although he didn't know any of these girls, it didn't stop him from watching the fun.

"…No. 42, Zhao Xiaotang."

Meng Bai's heart moved. Finally, there was a girl he knew. Zhao Xiaotang was one of the four members of the TCG team. She looked a little cold, but after having dinner with her, he found that she was quite talkative, second only to Yang Chaoyue in the team.

Come to think of it, I don’t know how many of the four girls will be able to stay until the end.

Meng Bai thinks that the girl named Hanikzi is the best. Her exotic face is a plus. Last time when I watched them practice, I remember that she was good at singing and dancing. I think she will be ranked well.

Sure enough, not long after, I heard Huang Zitao read out in the program: "No. 26, Hanikzi..."

Meng Bai just took a moment to look at the competition system. The next ranking will be "55 choose 36". If he can maintain his popularity, he should be able to advance to another round.

But then again, Meng Bai was a little confused as to why he heard Yang Chaoyue's name again.

Although Meng Ziyi told him last time that this girl was very popular and ranked well, he always felt that she was probably ranked around 30 or 40 at most.

After all, no matter how bad the other contestants are, can they be lower than the “Basics of Radio Gymnastics”?
But as the list was read out to the top ten, she was not on the list yet.

Now there are only two possibilities, either she was eliminated, or her ranking is a bit outrageous.

If she was eliminated, Meng Ziyi would have called her long ago. Since she didn't answer the call now, it could only be the latter.

Meng Bai held his breath and turned the video speed up to twice.

"...5th place, Qiang Dongyue...4th place, Meng Meiqi...3rd place - Yang Chaoyue!"

"Fuck!"

Looking at Yang Chaoyue who had a confused look on her face in the camera, Meng Bai burst out in exclamation.

This girl can be ranked third? Are you sure this is the girl group talent show that claims to be the "strongest in the country"?

The power of luck is so terrifying!
"Beep!"

There was a knock on the door and he casually called out "Come in". Then Hua Yan walked in with a pile of documents.

"Boss, this is the last audition list left by Director Wang Wei. He said he wants you to take another look at it."

"Okay...just put it there first."

Hua Yan put the information on Meng Bai's desk and looked up to see him staring at the computer screen, looking deep in thought.

"Hey, Boss, are you also following Produce 101?"

"No, I just suddenly remembered it and looked at it for a while." Meng Bai's mind was still immersed in the thought "Could Xiao Yang really be a genius?"

Hua Yan didn't notice that her boss looked a little unhappy now, and said cheerfully: "In fact, I just wanted to see Chao Yue at the beginning, after all, she is one of our Arc Light's ex-partners. I didn't expect that after watching two episodes, I found it quite interesting."

At this point, her voice suddenly rose again: "By the way, Boss, do you know that Chao Yue is really very popular? In the latest ranking, she ranks third."

"Yes, I just found out..."

"Well, come to think of it, it's my contribution that she got such a high ranking. After she finishes recording her show, I have to let her treat me to a meal."

"Is it your contribution?" Meng Bai looked at his assistant in confusion.

"Yes." Hua Yan nodded. "I asked our company to give her likes every day. We have to support our own people anyway."

Meng Bai curled his lips. Even if all the employees of Arc Light were divided into ten parts, they still couldn't collect 60 or 70 million likes.

"So, how did Xiao Yang get ranked third?"

"She's pretty." Hua Yan said as if it was a matter of course, "She's also quite cute. The show was very good, so she got a lot of screen time. Although her ability is average, her personality is very attractive. Oh, and by the way, she has a lot of male fans, almost two or three times as many as other contestants."

Pretty, cute, attractive personality... Meng Bai recalled it and couldn't say it was wrong, but it always felt weird.

"but……"

"But what?"

Hua Yan hesitated for a moment and said, "Some people also said that the production team wanted to take advantage of her popularity, so they assigned her the 'Sacrifice to Heaven' script."

"Sacrifice to heaven?"

"Oh, they deliberately used the difference between her popularity and ability to stir up controversy and increase the popularity of the show. When the show is over, they put her at the back to prevent her from making her debut."

"Ha, it can still be operated this way."

Meng Bai snorted and laughed. But don't say that, it's not impossible. After all, the program team and the platform only want traffic and attention. All the contestants are just pawns that can be used by them.

"Boss..." Hua Yan whispered, "Can you help Chao Yue?"

"how?"

"I just feel that if she is just not very popular, then she will be eliminated. But if she is given hope and opportunities, and is finally eliminated for some other reason, then that would be a shame."

Meng Bai tapped the table lightly, thought for a few seconds and said, "Don't worry, there won't be any 'sacrifice to the heaven'."

"Hehe, I knew you're the best, boss! I'll be out first then."

"Okay. Oh, by the way, talk to the administration department and ask them to replace the door god on the main door with a photo of Xiao Yang."

"what?"

(End of this chapter)