Who said this top flow is crazy! This top flow is awesome!

Chapter 215 Box Office, Boom Boom Boom

"8.2, holy crap, that's so high?!"

"Didn't you...buy it?"

"...Is it really that good-looking?"

At the roadshow for "The Fortress of Shanghai", Director Yang was surprised to see the Douban score for "The Boss" and was both astonished by the confidence of the "The Boss" production team for releasing the score so early and bewildered by the score itself.

8.2... and starring Ikeno...

It seems they really misjudged "The Boss".

"No rush, let's see. Today's box office is not bad, only 1.6 million. Excluding pre-sales, today's box office is only 6000 million. Let's see how much it increases in the next few days."

Finally, Director Lu realized what was happening, waved his hand and said, while secretly feeling a little jealous of the initial ratings for "The Boss".

8.2 Ah!
When has any of Lu's directorial works ever received this kind of acclaim?

So, in the era of commercial box office, if the box office is bad, even the best word-of-mouth is useless.

However, others were not as "optimistic" as him. "The Boss" is a commercial film, and it also has the "traffic star" Chi Ye... More importantly, the current online opinion and atmosphere... the popularity of "The Boss" seems to be gaining momentum.

Will the box office of "The Boss" also see a surge, just like its critical acclaim?

Everyone inexplicably became tense.

And indeed, things turned out exactly as they "expected".

That night, the hashtag #TheBig Boss's Douban rating of 8.2# surged to the top of the trending list and immediately became a "hot" topic, with over 2000 million views.

The lead actors all posted on Weibo to "celebrate".

Meanwhile, just as its word-of-mouth soared, "The Boss" also experienced a "poor" box office performance on its opening day.

Unlike TV series, in the era of commercial films, a good reputation, especially an 8-point rating for a commercial film, can generate a huge promotional effect.

Just as four-character films were like this in the past, so too are films by Ikeno at this moment.

Even before the first day of the release of "Big Boss" had ended, with the spread of positive word-of-mouth online and heated discussions among moviegoers, the pre-sales for the second and even third days began to rise visibly.

In fact, "The Boss" performed very well at the box office on its opening day, reaching 1.6 million yuan including pre-sales, which is already among the top three in this genre.

However, precisely because the pre-sales were so strong, the box office on the first day was only 60 million yuan, failing to even break 100 million yuan, which is indeed a bit lacking in the current film industry.

……

Wanda Cinema in the capital.

The premiere manager didn't sleep a wink last night, spending almost the entire day watching the data for "The Boss" on its opening day, as the online word-of-mouth spread and gradually changed.

"How many? How many today?"

As midnight passed, the box office for "Big Boss" began to close on its second day of release.

The manager got up in the break room without even brushing his teeth or washing his face, and groggily found the data staff, asking them nervously.

"It's already... 8000 million."

The assistant looked down at the Maoyan data: "It's just past midnight. These are all pre-purchases from viewers this afternoon and evening."

Yesterday was the first day of its release, and the total box office was only 6000 million yuan. But just after midnight this morning, it had already reached 8000 million yuan!
"Holy crap! What kind of speed is that?"

The manager was completely bewildered.

Even if it's due to word-of-mouth that many movie fans bought tickets in advance at night... isn't that a bit too fast?
Based on commercial factors such as investment, subject matter, and cast, "The Boss" was previously predicted by their internal cinema rating system to have a minimum guarantee of 5 million yuan and a maximum box office of around 7 to 8 million yuan. Even this figure was only achieved with the "hard work" of Chi Ye's fans and the film's decent quality in the Hong Kong film industry.

The producers of "The Boss" will also make a fortune.

But looking at it now... 5 million? 7 or 8 million?
Making 10 billion feels effortless!
15 billion is not out of the question.

The manager's face broke into a wide grin, and he couldn't help but exclaim, "This decision to separate them was so decisive! The production team of 'The Boss' is truly amazing!"

"That's true..."

The data analyst nodded and added, "However, it's normal for box office numbers to be high during holidays and after the film's promotion. This is the summer movie season. 'The Magic Fortress' will have a preview screening in three days, 'The Great Shanghai' will be released tomorrow, and there are other big films... 'The Boss' will have a lot of screenings taken away, so 15 billion seems a bit difficult."

"...You're right."

The manager realized what was happening.

The summer movie season is different from other movie seasons. With the current momentum of "The Big Boss", if it were released during a season with weaker competitors, it would have a good chance of grossing 20 billion yuan, because they would have enough screenings and the whole market would be sucked dry by them.

It's like the whole nation is only watching this one movie.

But the summer movie season is different.

The Spring Festival, summer, and National Day film seasons have always been the hottest periods for the film industry.

With countless blockbusters crammed into these release windows, the competition is fierce, and the scheduling is a cutthroat competition where only the strong survive. It's not simply a matter of good word-of-mouth to beat those special effects blockbusters and big-budget productions.

"Never mind, let's make money for a few days first. Anyway, whoever stars, it's all profit for our cinema."

He was very optimistic, but clearly, he underestimated the captivating power of Ikeno's "subversive acting skills," and even more so, he underestimated how explosive the character Zhao Tai in "The Boss" would be with Ikeno's support.

On its second day of release, "The Boss" grossed 1.8 million yuan, failing to break the 2 million yuan mark, which was quite a pity.

But by the third day, with the increase in the number of viewers, the trending topics of "The Boss" dominating the charts, and the involvement of Douyin (TikTok) short videos—yes, Chi Ye's marketing campaign had begun.

His short video promotion strategy is terrifying; it's modeled after the Earth-based "Gone Girl." Chen Zha Nan's short video promotion techniques are extremely exaggerated, but they haven't appeared in this world yet.

This kind of viral marketing loses its effectiveness if used too often, but if it's the first time... The fact that "The Vanished" had an investment of only 1-2 million yuan but ultimately raked in over 35 billion yuan at the box office, becoming a phenomenal blockbuster, is enough to prove everything.

At this moment, the time, place, and background of "The Boss" are all coincidentally the same as the Dragon Boat Festival, and coincidentally, the Chinese film industry has just emerged from a "winter period." Furthermore, "The Boss" is remarkably similar to "The Vanished" in terms of subject matter and investment, but its quality is superior...

So, starting from that day, various promotional videos for "The Big Boss" appeared on Douyin, among which there were countless crazy edits of Zhao Tai himself.

Examples include smashing a mirror in an elevator, playing golf, and a seemingly refined but actually depraved person at a charity gala… and the explosive scene before going to court, with the line "This expense is on Mr. Zhao's plate," followed by screams, and then the iconic moment after leaving the courtroom, "That's what innocence looks like…"

Too many of Zhao Tai's iconic scenes have almost exploded in the past two days, starting a viral "brainwashing propaganda" on everyone.

The number of views for individual videos on Douyin with hashtags such as #ZhaoTai#, #ChiYeZhaoTai#, and #ChiYeActing# has exceeded 10 billion in a short period of time, with each edited video receiving anywhere from five to six million likes to hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands of likes.

Ikeno's "subversive" and explosive acting skills have completely ignited streaming platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou!
Similarly, Ikeno's terrifying personal popularity is also evident—if his acting skills were terrible and unremarkable, relying solely on his looks, then the general public would certainly not buy it.

But if his acting skills are good enough, even explosive when he played Zhao Tai, coupled with his face, the crazy character of Zhao Tai, and the contrast with Professor Chi's past...

It exploded, completely exploded. An explosion that no one could have imagined beforehand.

6 month 23 number.

On the third day of its release, at 6:00 AM, in less than six hours, "The Boss" saw its box office revenue surge for the first time, exceeding 100 million yuan.

At noon, the box office exceeded 200 million.

By the early morning of the third day, the premiere of "The Great Shanghai," starring Sheng Ning and a certain film emperor, had begun, and the film's box office reached an outrageous 2.3 million yuan on its third day.

At the same time, this single-day box office directly broke the record for the highest single-day box office for a Chinese crime film, exceeding it by nearly 100 million yuan. Furthermore, after three days of release, "The Boss" officially surpassed 500 million yuan in total box office revenue, reaching a staggering 570 million yuan.

It's rebounded! It's rebounded dramatically!

The manager of Wanda Cinemas was stunned. He watched helplessly as "The Boss," which he had predicted would struggle to reach 15 billion yuan, achieved a box office of nearly 6 million yuan in just three days...

Three days, nearly 6 million. If we round it up, doesn't that mean "The Big Boss" averaged 2 million per day?
Its total investment was less than 1.5 million!
What is this classic example of a low-budget, high-return business?

The cinema manager was in a daze; he felt that this might be the first major addition to his professional resume.

at the same time.

The Beijing entertainment circle was stunned by the phenomenal performance of "Big Boss" on its third day.

"No way, buddy, an average of 2 million per day is something only a combination like Shen Bin and Ma Li, or a top-tier big-budget production, can achieve. Your movie... your total investment is less than a day's box office... how could you possibly do that?!"
They were stunned. They knew there would be a surge in popularity after "The Big Boss" was released, but they didn't expect it to be so fierce...

No, that's not right, this isn't an explosion at all, this is an "ascension"!

"No, it's just a low-budget crime film, how could it have such high box office? Have domestic audiences never had a decent meal before?"

Director Lu is no longer jealous, but extremely shocked and bewildered.

"I've said it before, it's normal for trashy audiences to watch trashy movies."

Director Feng, on the other hand, remained relatively calm, simply shaking his head and lamenting the tragedy and dark future of Chinese cinema.

Director Yang, of "The Fortress of Shanghai," was the calmest, even subtly excited.

If a film like "The Boss" can achieve this level of success, it means that the film market is really recovering... no, it's exploded!
With such a hot box office, once his "Shanghai Fortress" is released, won't it surpass "Wolf Warrior 2" and become the number one film in Chinese film history?!
Holy crap, just thinking about it gets me excited!

"Let's broaden our perspective. We should thank 'The Big Boss' for generating buzz for us. Chi Ye is actually quite pleasing to the eye."

Director Yang waved his hand, and everyone remained silent.

"By the way, how did the premiere of 'The Great Shanghai' go today?"

Seeing that no one was talking, Ling Bingbing suddenly remembered Sheng Ning's movie.

"How was it? Not so good." Xu Yingying pouted, "His 'male lead' has drained the market dry."

……

"The Great Shanghai" has been drained dry.

Although both are "Shanghai-style" films, "The Great Shanghai" received less audience attention than "Shanghai Fortress" because it is a spy thriller.

Of course, it is far superior to "The Boss" in terms of both investment and production.

嗏

On this day, Sheng Ning stood at the premiere. The film had ended, and they were being interviewed by the media, but she seemed dazed, as if she had drifted offstage—the box office performance of "The Great Shanghai" was not ideal.

Excluding pre-sales, it hasn't even broken 20 million yet...

Because of the phenomenal success of "The Boss," cinemas across the country have drastically reduced the number of screenings they can get... so they probably won't even be able to break 100 million yuan at the box office on their opening day...

Sheng Ning's mood is complicated right now. She's in a bad mood and a little tired. The quality of "The Great Shanghai" is just so-so, not particularly good or bad. If it didn't have any competitors, it might have been better, but if it did have competitors...

Are they considered rivals of "The Big Boss"?
Alas, it seems that this only "path" that could challenge the Beijing elite has also been temporarily blocked.

He was ultimately sealed off by his "younger brother".

Thinking about this, Sheng Ning wanted to laugh, and her face naturally didn't look very good.

"Sister Ning, I'd like to ask, as one of the creators of 'The Great Shanghai,' have you been paying attention to the competitors in the same release window recently? For example, the very popular 'The Boss'... What's your opinion on Chi Ye's acting skills? What about the upcoming sci-fi blockbuster 'The Magic Fortress'? Will they be a competitor you're wary of?"

In the audience, a media person who had previously eaten at #IkenoBorrowingShengningBorrowingWorkStopped# started causing trouble.

Sheng Ning glanced at him indifferently before saying, "Chi Ye's acting... is just like him."

"Wow!"

The scene erupted in an uproar.

The director and lead actor of "The Great Shanghai" looked at him in surprise—people usually don't answer these kinds of questions; offline, it's best to pretend you don't know.

You... not only answered, but also praised Ikeno like that?

Is it a compliment?
Sheng Ning emphasized: "Playing myself."

Then, she paused, thinking of a private screening of "The Fortress of Shanghai" that she had attended, and said, "I won't comment on 'The Fortress of Shanghai'. I personally like science fiction movies, but... I don't really like this movie."

"???"

The scene instantly erupted again, leaving the director and the male host speechless—"Girl, have you lost your mind?"
How could you say that? Isn't that just asking for trouble?!
I know you've been getting really into trouble with the Beijing elites lately, but... aren't you just making things worse by doing this? You're going to offend them to the point of no return!
Not only did Sheng Ning offend the Beijing entertainment circle to the extreme, but her words also offended movie fans who hoped that "The Magic City Fortress" would open the door to Chinese science fiction films. That very night, she was trending on social media for all the wrong reasons.

Even with the backlash from the Beijing entertainment circle, a wave of boycotts against "The Great Shanghai" was sparked.

On the day of its release, "The Last Tycoon" did indeed perform poorly at the box office. On that day, the total box office revenue of films in mainland China was 3 million yuan, and "The Last Tycoon" alone accounted for 2.4 million yuan of that revenue.

"The Big Boss" dominated 80% of the market.

The tragedy of "The Great Shanghai" goes far beyond just being a tragedy.

On the fifth day, the miracle of "2 million yuan per day" for "Big Boss" slowed down slightly, but it still earned 1.9 million yuan at the box office.

With this, after 5 days of release, "The Boss" has officially surpassed 10 billion yuan in total box office revenue. According to predictions from institutions such as Maoyan Movies, the cumulative box office revenue has increased from 5 million to 7 million yuan, to 15 billion yuan, to 20 billion yuan, and now it is heading towards 25 billion yuan.

The domestic entertainment industry was shaken, and the film industry was completely awakened by this "storm," with everyone watching "The Boss" like a runaway horse in utter shock.

—Will Hong Kong's entertainment circle rise again after this battle?!

(End of this chapter)