This director is vindictive.

Chapter 477 Capital Covering the Mouth? No, it's bad movies covering the audience's mouths!
January 29, 2025, is also the first day of the Lunar New Year this year!

The battle for box office supremacy during the Spring Festival has officially begun.

This year's Spring Festival film season is exceptionally lively compared to previous years, both in terms of the number of films and the buzz generated by the pre-release promotions.

Chen Mo is also looking forward to this year's Spring Festival film season.

After all, he had done so much, and he wanted to see how much change it would bring.

In his previous life, during the Spring Festival of 2025, the highest single-day box office record in Chinese film history was set on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Chen Mo still remembers that the total box office revenue for that day was as high as 18 billion yuan.

The first day of the Lunar New Year quickly passed amidst the hustle and bustle.

Thanks to today's digital age, box office statistics are almost real-time.

Therefore, Chen Mo was able to obtain first-hand data.

When Chen Mo saw the box office figures, he was somewhat surprised, but then he couldn't help but smile.

Because the total box office revenue in China on the first day of the Lunar New Year this year exceeded that of the previous life, reaching 20 billion!
It also broke the record for the highest single-day box office in Chinese film history, and increased by 200 million yuan.

With a staggering 3606 million viewers, it broke the record for the highest number of moviegoers in a single day in film history! Even in terms of box office revenue, it truly is the "strongest Spring Festival film season" in history!
At the same time, "Ne Zha" achieved even more outrageous box office results than its predecessor.

It raked in a whopping 6.86 million yuan at the box office on the first day of the Lunar New Year! It also received a rating of 8.6!
This figure is quite exaggerated, because Chen Mo remembers that the movie's opening day box office in his previous life was less than 500 million.

However, thinking about it, it's understandable. After all, Chen Mo didn't do as much in this movie in his previous life.

The second place goes to "Detective Chinatown 1900"!
This movie is, after all, part of the Detective Chinatown series, and boasts a star-studded cast, so it was least affected by Chen Mo's previous harsh film reviews.

On the contrary, because of Chen Mo's antics, all the films scheduled for this year's Spring Festival were given a lot of exposure, so "Detective Chinatown 1900" also exceeded expectations at the box office on the first day of the Lunar New Year, reaching a staggering 5.61 million yuan and ranking second.

Even Chen Mo was somewhat surprised by this data.

It has to be said that the other party really has to thank Xu Ke and Wu Er Shan. After all, if it weren't for their insistence on having the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television mediate, "Detective Chinatown 1900" would probably have also fallen victim to Chen Mo's sharp tongue.

However, even so, the reviews for "Detective Chinatown 1900" are still not very good, with a score of only 6.6 and a total box office of around 36 billion yuan as predicted by the industry.
"The second part of Fengshen: The Battle of Xiqi actually grossed 2.82 million yuan and ranked third!" Fan Binbin said with some surprise.

Chen Mo wasn't too surprised by this.

“It’s not hard to understand. After all, ‘The First Part of Fengshen’ has garnered quite a few fans for the series. However, its reputation probably won’t be very good,” Chen Mo said with a smile.

"That's right, the rating is less than 6 points!"

"With 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' ranked fourth, director Tsui Hark can finally stop being beaten by Bald Qiang!" Chen Mo said with a smile.

The box office of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" reached 1.57 million yuan!
"Boonie Bears: Reboot" ranked fifth with a box office of 1.56 million yuan on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

The most pitiful thing is that "Operation Jiaolong" did not gross more than 100 million yuan on its opening day, which is far behind "Operation Red Sea" back then.

This is the box office ranking for this year's Spring Festival film season.

Early morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year!

#Box office on the first day of the Spring Festival holiday breaks historical record, exceeding 20 billion yuan#
#Ne Zha 2 breaks the daily box office record for domestic films#
#Strongest Spring Festival Film Season Ever#
This trending topic has swept across the entire internet.

The media also went wild! They reported on the spectacle, and of course, they also took the opportunity to criticize the situation.

"Ne Zha: The Demon Child Conquers the Dragon King raked in nearly 700 million yuan on its opening day; Chen Mo's prediction of 10 billion yuan in box office revenue may come true again!" — Film Weekly

"Is 'Operation Jiaolong' the biggest victim of Chen Mo's scathing film reviews?" — Tencent Entertainment

"Ne Zha: Conquering the Dragon King has topped both the critical and commercial reviews, essentially securing its place as the 2025 Spring Festival box office champion! A 10 billion yuan box office figure may not be an exaggeration!" — Southern Weekly

As Chen Mo scrolled through the real-time box office report, he suddenly raised an eyebrow—yesterday, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was leading "Boonie Bears" by 0.01 billion, but this morning at eight o'clock, it had been overtaken!
"Has Director Xu's self-deprecating marketing strategy worked?" Yang Mi asked curiously.

Chen Mo tapped on the screen, which displayed the newly released schedule adjustment: the cinemas had increased the screening rate of "Boonie Bears" from 8% to 12% overnight, while "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" had fallen below 10%.

Chen Mo shook his head and said, "Not entirely."

He scrolled through his phone and analyzed, "The occupancy rate of family screenings during prime time was 98%, but the late-night screenings of 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' had a lot of empty seats, and the occupancy rate was disappointing. The discussion attracted by Director Xu's use of memes ultimately couldn't compete with the real demand for family-friendly entertainment."

Meanwhile, with the film's official release and the increase in viewership, his two harsh film reviews from before have once again become the focus of attention.

One netizen commented after watching "Fengshen 2": "Chen Mo said that 'Fengshen 2' is a Smurfs cosplay, which is as gentle as coaxing a child! Although it ranked third in the box office on the first day, its reputation was at the bottom. I suggest that next time it should be rated as 'Teletubbies vs. Calabash Brothers', and the accuracy will be 200% higher!"

"Xu Ke and Wuershan should kowtow to Chen Mo! If he hadn't given them a heads-up with his sharp tongue beforehand, the scene of them getting their faces stomped on by Xiong Da and Xiong Er would have been even more embarrassing—they can't even beat a children's film, yet they have the nerve to shift the blame? I suggest Teacher Chen start a class on 'How to Elegantly Criticize Bad Movies'!"

"Chen Mo is still too shameless! Does a PowerPoint-style martial arts film like 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' even deserve to be called 'The Greatest Hero'? If you ask me, he should learn from netizens and Photoshop his new film—director Tsui Hark should just rename it 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Legend of Bald Qiang,' at least he can ride this wave of popularity! Even self-deprecating marketing can't escape the fact that the movie is bad!"

However, both movies still have quite a few fans.

Therefore, some netizens still believe that Chen Mo's harsh film reviews are too critical.

"Chen Mo's film review smeared 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' to utter rubbish, but Director Xu's self-deprecating rewrite of the synopsis actually won over fans! This proves that audiences dislike condescending criticism more than flawed works. The talented Chen should learn from Director Xu's vision!"

"Being sarcastic might feel good for a moment, but it's a death knell for the industry! Chen Mo led the way in denigrating blockbusters as garbage, and what was the result? Two of the top three films in pre-sales for the Spring Festival season are animated films!"
However, the eyes of the masses are discerning, and at least the box office on the first day proved that "Fengshen 2" and "Legend of the Condor Heroes" were not that bad!
If this continues, who will dare to invest in big-budget productions? Will they be happy with just Bald Qiang and Nezha fighting in the end?

"Chen Mo's film reviews are like machine gun fire, but the success of 'Boonie Bears' proves that audiences will vote with their feet. Instead of criticizing the director, think about why 5 million yuan in special effects couldn't beat 6500 million yuan in animation. Harsh criticism only creates division and offers no constructive benefit!"

The two sides were arguing fiercely.

However, when the box office figures for the second day of the Lunar New Year were released, those netizens who thought Chen Mo was harsh suddenly fell silent.

Whether Chen Mo's sharp-tongued comments are truly harsh is hard to say.

But box office figures don't lie.

After all, Chen Mo's comments can only affect the box office on the first day at most, but the box office on the second day is basically determined by word of mouth.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, "Ne Zha" continued its meteoric rise, once again raking in over 700 million yuan at the daily box office, while its ratings remained stable.

However, "Detective Chinatown 1900" began to fall behind, with a significant drop in daily box office revenue and a similar decline in ratings.

However, the most dramatic thing is that both "Fengshen II" and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" have turned downwards. Due to poor attendance on the first day, the screenings of the two films were cut. "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" suffered the most, and was directly overtaken by a children's animated film like "Boonie Bears: Days of Future Past".

Of course, the opponent will not sit idly by and wait to be defeated.

As "Ne Zha" began to completely dominate other films released in the same period, its box office exceeded 3 billion yuan on February 2nd, seemingly poised to set a new box office record.

Many nitpicking and negative reviews began to appear.

"The high ratings of 'Ne Zha 2' are nothing but a marketing bubble!"

"That's right, the signs of paid review manipulation are too obvious! The 8.6 rating on the first day is ridiculously inflated! Click on the rating details, and all the five-star reviews are templated: 'The light of Chinese animation,' 'Explosive special effects,' even the typos are copied and pasted. The real audience reviews are squeezed to the back three pages, and the actual word-of-mouth is at most a 7 out of 10—the plot logic is full of flaws, Nezha relies on shouting the whole time, and the villain's motivations are childish like playing house. This kind of script doesn't deserve the title of 'masterpiece'!"

"Look at those rave reviews—Southern Weekly's headline directly proclaims 'Securing the Spring Festival Box Office Champion,' and Film Weekly goes even further, declaring '10 Billion Yuan is Not a Dream' after only three days of release. With over 40% of theater screenings allocated, and all other films' prime-time slots being cut for 'Ne Zha 2,' this isn't market choice; it's capital silencing us!"

"In the early stages, Chen Mo used his sharp film reviews to discredit all competitors, calling 'Investiture of the Gods' and 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' garbage, indirectly paving the way for his own works. Now the whole internet is playing the 'Bald Qiang beats up Xu Ke' meme, who remembers that 'Boonie Bears' is also an animated film? He's playing the double standard like crazy!"

"It wasn't the audience who chose 'Ne Zha 2,' it was capital that made the choice for them. When marketing costs exceed production costs, and when rating sections become battlegrounds for paid commenters, the so-called 'film history record' is nothing but another emperor's new clothes—I suggest renaming it 'Ne Zha: The Marketing Havoc in the Sea'!"

However, these negative reviews were quickly overwhelmed by the sea of ​​supporters.

The main problem is that it's untenable.

One netizen quipped: "Saying it's all about capital's choice is ridiculous. Detective Chinatown 1900 is backed by Wanda Group, and the other films all had investments of over 500 million. You're just saying it's all capital's fault? These days, if you want to criticize, at least use your brain, okay?"

"No problem, fame brings trouble. Although the marketing of 'Ne Zha 2' was indeed superior, and the film itself wasn't perfect, everything is subject to comparison! It's not that Ne Zha is too awesome, but that its competitors are all idiots!"

"Goodness, now everyone's blaming the marketing team. If good marketing can make a movie a box office champion, does that mean all the teams behind other movies are terrible?"

However, these comments are just the first wave.

In fact, fame brings trouble. Once a movie becomes popular, all sorts of negative comments will follow.

This wasn't just the work of competitors behind the scenes; it was also the work of some people who simply wanted to show off their superiority or that they were the only ones who were truly enlightened.

(End of this chapter)