How did this star become more popular after his scandal?

Chapter 337 Something is wrong

At this moment, with the release of Jiang Yu's movie, many viewers who bought tickets in advance, as well as Jiang Yu's fans, have expressed great appreciation for Jiang Yu's film, "The Secret That Cannot Be Told."

Many even believe that Jiang Yu's fantasy romance film isn't lacking in market appeal. Rather, it's because previous directors simply haven't produced good films, leading to a decline in the number of films in this niche genre, and even their failure to sell at the box office.

But now, with Jiang Yu, after watching his film, everyone has discovered that although the subject matter is niche, the quality of Jiang Yu's production is excellent.

Often, it's not that movies lack a market, but rather that there simply aren't good movies. This is why many viewers don't watch films of this genre. However, Jiang Yu's film released today, "The Secret That Cannot Be Told," a fantasy film in a niche genre, has refreshed everyone's understanding.

No one expected that this would be Jiang Yu's directorial debut. However, the result was outstanding, leaving everyone in awe.

In particular, the encounter between the male and female leads in the film, connected by Jiang Yu's forte of music, sparked a love story and dialogue that transcended time and space. The female lead's departure at the end left many viewers who saw the film today with tears in their eyes and a lump in their throat.

The movie has just been released, and the audience is mainly Jiang Yu's fans; everyone bought tickets in advance to support him. So, the number of viewers is still relatively small, limited to Jiang Yu's fans.

However, after returning home, Lin Qianqian felt that the film was of such high quality. She estimated that once the word-of-mouth spread after its first day of release, it would boost box office revenue. But the only thing that surprised Lin Qianqian was the limited number of screenings she saw in theaters. Jiang Yu's film had significantly fewer screenings compared to other movies.

He checked the screening schedules of several cinemas around his home, and Jiang Yu's film, "Secret That Cannot Be Told," was being shown in extremely poor condition. The time slots were also very unfavorable, as if the cinemas didn't care about Jiang Yu's film at all and didn't think it could make money.

Lin Qianqian could understand it, though; capitalists are all about pursuing profits. But this was the first time she'd ever seen such a low number of screenings right from the start.

Is it because the cinema owners don't think Jia Yu's movie can make money, and want to give more screenings to movies that perform well and can bring them revenue?
Or is there something else going on behind this?
Even if Jiang Yu's movie isn't very good, it shouldn't have so few screenings on its first day of release. Cinema owners should assess the situation before adjusting screening schedules; this kind of drastically reduced screenings on the very first day is something Lin Qianqian has never seen before.

This made Lin Qianqian somewhat suspicious, and she even felt that something was amiss.

Logically speaking, even if one is not optimistic about Jiang Yu's film's performance on its first day of release, the number of screenings shouldn't be this low. Some savvy film producers would adjust their schedules after assessing the situation. If Jiang Yu's film performs poorly on the first day, reducing the number of screenings would be normal. However, reducing the number of screenings so drastically on the first day is clearly not a good thing.

"Could someone be targeting Jiang Yu?"

Lin Qianqian thought to herself, but this was just her guess; she didn't know the specifics. However, she felt that something was definitely amiss.

But what she needs to do now is go back and make a video to promote Jiang Yu's movie. A good film shouldn't be buried; it needs to be seen by more people. If she hadn't thought Jiang Yu's movie was good after watching it today, Lin Qianqian wouldn't have bothered to promote it.

Good works should not be buried; they should be seen by everyone. This will encourage more excellent directors and producers to create, thus forming a virtuous cycle.

Meanwhile, on Jiang Yu's side...

Chu Jingya was on the phone with Jiang Yu, telling him about the current situation since the movie's release. She even reported on the screening schedule to Jiang Yu. Chu Jingya's tone was somewhat anxious, even a little cold.

"President Jiang, I think there's something fishy about this. The screening schedule is so low, and I even saw that some cinemas aren't showing our film at all. They're buying our movie tickets but issuing tickets for other movies. There seems to be something wrong with this."

Chu Jingya has been in the entertainment industry for many years. After the movie was released today, she checked the screening schedule and noticed something was wrong.

If you were to say that cinemas, for profit, felt that this niche film wouldn't make money and reduced its screenings, I could understand. But on the very first day, screenings were reduced, and some cinemas didn't even show it to them. People bought tickets online for their film, but the actual screenings were for other movies.

This situation made Chu Jingya realize that perhaps someone was behind their movie.

Jiang Yu frowned slightly upon hearing Chu Jingya's words. He glanced at the information Chu Jingya had sent him; the relevant department in the company had discussed this matter with him earlier that day. Now, Chu Jingya had sent him even more detailed data reports, which made Jiang Yu realize something.

From the start of the film's promotion to pre-sales, everything seemed normal. At that time, the film hadn't been released yet, and they couldn't see the screening schedules in some cinemas. Now that the film is online, those screening schedules are available. Looking back now, it's clear that their film was indeed maliciously sabotaged.

Are there really people who can't see him establish himself in the film industry? He doesn't even know if his first film will be successful, yet they're already trying to stop him? Are these people afraid?
However, Jiang Yu now knew that saying all this was pointless. The cinema owners were definitely in cahoots, determined to sabotage the film. The only way now was to contact some cinema owners with whom he had good relations and ask them to increase screenings. Once the film gained positive word-of-mouth, those cinema owners who were united in boycotting him wouldn't turn down any money.

He took a look. There were quite a few fans and viewers online who had seen his movie. Judging from the comments posted online, the overall impression of the film was quite positive, which gave Jiang Yu some confidence.

"Jingya, don't rush things here. First, contact the cinemas you have good relationships with and ask them to keep filming going. I'll contact General Manager Yang and his team again to see what's going on." Who exactly is behind this, working together to sabotage and obstruct them?
Jiang Yu was unaware of this and needed to start investigating. Seeing the positive reviews online for his film gave him confidence.

"Okay, I'll contact them again."

After ending the call with Chu Jingya, Jiang Yu relayed their situation to President Yang. President Yang had also noticed something amiss with Jiang Yu's film production, and expressed some doubts during the call.

"Xiao Jiang, I checked the screening schedule for your movie, and many theaters seem to be acting strangely. Logically, there shouldn't be so few screenings on the first day of release. Some theaters even bought your movie tickets but issued tickets for other theaters, which is clearly box office fraud. I think someone is definitely pulling strings behind the scenes. Wait here, I'll go and investigate for you."

Tencent Video has invested in Jiang Yu's film, although Jiang Yu owns the majority stake. It's a Tencent-funded film project, and Jiang Yu has a deep partnership with the Tencent ecosystem. He's also a close friend of President Yang. Now that Jiang Yu's film is facing some targeting, Tencent certainly won't stand idly by. While they are relatively weak in the physical film industry, they're not entirely unconnected. Investigating who's behind this shouldn't be too difficult for President Yang.

"Okay, Mr. Yang, I'll wait for your news. I'll focus on stabilizing the film's promotion first. I checked some movie fans' reviews online yesterday, and they were all pretty good. The word-of-mouth shouldn't be bad. I'll do some more promotion later to try and boost the buzz and improve the box office."

Jiang Yu was aware of the current situation. Only by boosting the film's performance and achieving good results would the theaters resume showing it. Even though the theater owners were resisting and trying to stop it, he didn't believe they could still collude when faced with tangible benefits.

"Okay, Xiao Jiang, leave this to me."

Jiang Yu also chatted with Su Muwan and Yang Xue. They also noticed that there was something wrong with the screening schedule of Jiang Yu's movie, and they kept asking Jiang Yu about it in the group chat.

"How's it going? I notice something's off about the screening schedule for your movie. Is someone sabotaging it behind the scenes? Do you need any help?"

"Yes, brother, I noticed that many cinemas in Beijing are only showing a few films. I was planning to take some people from the company to see a movie today, but there were only two screenings, and both were at inconvenient times."

"If you need anything, just let us know, and we've already started promoting it for you."

Jiang Yu smiled as he read the messages from Su Muwan, Yang Xue, and Song Yuqing in the group chat. These three were quite concerned about him, and he noticed they were all helping with promotion. Today, the movie was released, and all three posted on Weibo, even sharing pictures of themselves taking their company employees to rent out theaters to support him and promote his film.

Now that his film is facing screening issues, the three women noticed and immediately came to check on him, which warmed Jiang Yu's heart. Thankfully, he wasn't alone in this world; he had many people supporting him.

Besides Yang Xue and her friends, even Xu Ya and her friends sent her many messages asking about her, and many friends in the industry also helped promote her.

“Something is definitely not right. I’ve already contacted Mr. Yang and his team to help investigate and find out who’s behind this. But I’ve also seen some comments from moviegoers online, and the reviews are pretty good. As long as we stay calm, I’ll work on getting the movie to perform well. Once the buzz and word-of-mouth pick up, things will be fine.”

Jiang Yu knew that being anxious wouldn't help in this situation. Right now, the only thing to do was to make a good film and do a good job with the promotion. Once the film gained positive word-of-mouth, it would boost its box office performance. Only when the theater owners saw the potential profits would a solution be found.

Although he couldn't guarantee that these business owners would completely change their minds, he felt that with such huge profits to be made, most people would be tempted, especially the capitalists.

They're all profit-driven people. They're now united against me because they're afraid I'll threaten their interests. But whether they'll change their ways when they see the huge profits my film will bring is anyone's guess.

At that moment, after finishing his chat with Su Muwan and the others, Jiang Yu also received news from President Yang.

"Xiao Jiang, I'll have someone check. Basically, most of these cinema owners have connections with Warner Bros. Entertainment. This time, Warner Bros. is leading the charge in boycotting you in the film industry. As you know, the film industry is all about real money. Nowadays, film companies in the industry have formed a fixed relationship. The pie is only so big. If you want to enter the film industry, want to get a piece of the pie, they won't be happy about it."

Upon hearing this, a cold glint flashed in Jiang Yu's eyes. It was Warner Entertainment again, and it was Chu Shaoyang again. It seemed that the pain he had suffered last time had not taught him a lesson.

"Mr. Yang, I understand. Let's focus on promoting the film first, and then we'll see how things go once the word gets around to it."

General Manager Yang agreed with Jiang Yu's assessment. Their influence in the offline cinema industry was limited; they had some connections, but not significant ones. Now, with the film being boycotted and cinema owners uniting to reduce screenings—some screenings were never even in the current situation—the only hope was for the film to gain positive word-of-mouth and boost box office revenue. Faced with such enormous profits, he doubted these people could collude and unite to boycott the film.

When the time comes, that will be their time to retaliate. At that time, he will see if these cinema owners can still remain calm and continue to unite in boycotting them and Jiang Yu's movie.

(End of this chapter)