I'm just trying to ride the wave of popularity!

Chapter 277 Pre-sale Tickets!
The evening of June 10.

The conference room at the Yanjing Toy Wholesale Market was filled with smoke.

More than a dozen provincial distributors stared at the two gold-embossed contracts on the table, the air thick with tension so that you could hear the ticking of a watch.

Xu Chunyang's ashtray was already piled up like a small mountain, but he forgot to flick the ash from his cigarette, letting it fall onto the authorization letter for "Deckertman"...

At this moment, his expression was somewhat complicated.

Do I really have to choose one of the two?

In the conference room, someone glanced at the agreement, and finally a hint of anger appeared on his face: "I've been the authorized distributor of Ultraman for three years! Now you want me to give up? Do you know how many transformation devices we sold in East China last year...?"

Xu Chunyang watched as a chubby boss suddenly slammed his hand on the table.

This person's name is Li Chunming, and he used to be the largest distributor of the official [AoTeman] brand in East China.

Last year, I used connections to get in touch with Xu Chunyang and eventually signed an agency agreement for the "Wu Hun" series, which made me a lot of money.

During the peak month of the "Wuhun" series last year, "Wuhun" merchandise sold a quarter of the sales of the "Ultraman" series that month...

It was a miracle in Chinese history and once shocked people. However, as the popularity of the "Wu Hun" movie series gradually faded, the sales of "Wu Hun" peripheral toys dropped significantly, even less than one-tenth of the sales of "Ultraman".

Ultraman entered China in the 1990s through various means such as discs and DVDs, and has long dominated the Chinese market. The foundation of the Wuhun series is obviously not enough.

Just then, a crisp sound of plastic boxes colliding came from the corner. Xiao Wang, a young agent who had just entered the market, was secretly stuffing the "Martial Soul" sample back into his briefcase.

Seeing everyone's gaze sweep over him, his ears turned bright red: "My shop is small, I always need to have a backup plan..."

"A way out?" Sister Chen from Guangzhou sneered, pointing at the "Ultraman" logo: "Isn't it clear now? It's a choice between two options! If you choose 'Martial Soul,' you can't choose 'Ultraman' anymore, otherwise, you won't get any of our discounts... Where are we supposed to make money?"

There was a lot of discussion in the meeting room, and suddenly an argument broke out.

Xu Chunyang watched them silently.

Having followed Zhou Yang since the era of pirated DVDs of "Sun Wukong vs. Superman 2", he is now the largest person in charge of Zhou Yang's "Martial Soul" series in East China.

The business covers the sales of Zhou Yang's DVDs and related merchandise, as well as Zhou Yang's posters...

The group of people in the conference room were his core partners whom he had accumulated over the past year or so.

[Xuan Shi Entertainment] never gave them a choice between the two, so when the sales of "Wu Hun" gradually declined, these people, including Xu Chunyang himself, all became agents for "Ultraman" peripheral toys...

Shockingly, Zhou Yang not only knew about the agency deal for "Ultraman," but he was even personally instructed to do so by Zhou Yang via phone call...

After all, even his Chunyang Toys Company was backed by an investment from President Zhou...

It was thought that this business model would continue indefinitely, but no one expected that today, they would suddenly receive a "choose one of two" message from [Huashang Brothers].

In the meeting room, opinions had now split into two camps.

"Signed an Ultraman contract? Why didn't you say anything when the 'Martial Soul' transformation device sold out last year!"

"Bullshit! Ultraman is a 20-year-old brand, how many more years can Martial Soul stay popular?"

"..."

One group consists of the "Martial Soul" series, and the other group consists of the "Ultraman" series...

One side wants to sign the agreement, the other side wants to refuse to sign...

Xu Chunyang looked at the barrage of insults and finally lowered his hand slightly.

"Everyone..."

"Whether you sign with 'Martial Soul' or 'Ultraman' is your choice..."

"I'm here this time as the distributor of 'Martial Soul,' and in a sense, I'm also conveying President Zhou's message..."

"What Mr. Zhou means is..."

"We won't force you to choose between two options, but after signing our contract, we also have licenses for other works... We don't just have the 'Martial Soul' series, there's also the 'Black Robe Alliance' series, and in addition, we will be developing more tokusatsu films in the future..."

"..."

"I know the influence of Ultraman in China, but we also know that in terms of cultural heritage, we may have a long way to go..."

"but……"

"Ladies and gentlemen, please remember that our company has only been established for a little over a year, and our movie 'Sun Wukong vs. Superman 2' has only been released for about a year!"

"..."

This sentence instantly silenced the entire conference room.

Some people looked at Xu Chunyang and were slightly startled!
Then, they saw Xu Chunyang take a deep breath and stand up: "President Zhou has never lost before! This time, he won't lose either!"

"Everyone!"

"Don't rush into a decision now. The agreement offered by [Huashang Brothers] is due tomorrow morning, and right now..."

"Advance tickets for 'Martial Soul' and 'Devilman' are already on sale. Why don't we take a look at the advance tickets and then make a decision?"

"..."

After Xu Chunyang finished speaking, the conference room fell into a long silence.

Immediately afterward, as one young man nodded, everyone else followed suit.

……

The October night wind swept through the streets of Yanjing, carrying withered leaves.

【Huashang Brothers】

Liu Jinghua sat in his office, silently staring at the pre-sale tickets on his computer.

"Wuhun 3" and "Dekker Ultraman" have jointly announced their release date as November 3, with pre-sale tickets going on sale around 8 p.m.

Despite the immense online buzz and influence of *Ultraman Deckard*, a tokusatsu film with a decade-long fanbase, the first tokusatsu movie to be released in China, and hailed as a strategic brand in Japan… Meanwhile, [XuanShi Entertainment], having just defeated *Catwoman*, is also riding high at this moment…

Liu Jinghua wasn't the only one watching this quietly unfolding pre-sale ticket war. Countless netizens and filmmakers on online platforms like [Movie Home] and [Wandou Movie Network] were also observing the pre-sale ticket prices for these two films. The [Movie Home] forum was already flooded with news about these two movies…

Furthermore, to more clearly present the box office data for these two films, both [Movie House] and major film platforms created a set of pre-sale ticket data charts, updating the data every half hour. The source of this information was real-time aggregation and statistics from major cinema platforms…

Of course, this battle is not just between two films, but also a battle between the three major cinema chains that occupy nearly 40% of the Chinese cinema market and the 12 core cinema chains in Zhou Yang's [Cinema Chain Alliance] that account for 25% of the market. As for the other 15 cinema chains that account for 35%, they remain relatively neutral...

7 points.

Liu Jinghua's phone rang.

"Mr. Liu, we just received feedback from the toy market..."

"Our 'choose one of two' policy only resulted in signing agreements representing about 25% of the market's total! That's significantly lower than expected..."

"Our new 'Dekker' series is great, but another group seems to be watching from the sidelines..."

"After all, the success of 'Catwoman' made Zhou Yang's influence in the Chinese film industry astonishing..."

"unless!"

"Someone can break his invincible record!"

"Or, the pre-sale tickets for 'Devilman' could significantly outsell 'Wuhun 3,' by at least double; otherwise... these distributors wouldn't have made such a decision so readily..."

"..."

A gust of wind blew.

Liu Jinghua hung up the phone.

At this moment, she keenly realized from the market that times had quietly changed.

Users value market feedback more than pressure from one or two companies.

Choosing between two options is never a rational decision!

The clock on the wall soon struck eight o'clock.

Liu Jinghua silently turned on his computer and then logged into various movie platforms.

Almost simultaneously, on major movie platforms, the pre-sale box office figures for "Wu Hun 3" and "Dekker Ultraman" instantly began to refresh the first page...

..............................

The meeting room in the toy wholesale market was still filled with smoke and silence.

Xu Chunyang stared at the pre-sale data on the computer screen, his fingertips already covered in a long layer of cigarette ash.

The pre-sale box office curves for "Wuhun 3" and "Dekker Ultraman" finally lit up after the 8 o'clock bell rang.

However, statistics take time, data aggregation takes time, and the final confirmation and verification of the website's statistics also takes time; it's impossible to update in real time immediately...

At this moment, Xu Chunyang actually felt a little nervous...

And at this moment!
Suddenly, Xu Chunyang received a phone call.

Immediately afterwards...

He quickly opened the [Zhou Yang's Home] forum under everyone's gaze!

The top pinned post on Tieba...

This is a message posted by the forum moderator!

"Dear sisters..."

"I just spoke with Yangyang on the phone..."

"On the phone, Yangyang was very calm and told us not to worry, saying that nothing was wrong..."

"But I know that Yangyang is under tremendous pressure right now..."

"This battle is crucial for Yangyang!"

"I earnestly request all my sisters to lend Yangyang a helping hand!"

"..."

After seeing the comment...

The website exploded instantly!
The homepage refreshes with hundreds of replies every second: "Sisters, let's pre-order! Let Yangyang see our power!"

"We've booked the first three rows of the Wanda IMAX theater!"

"I'm a poor student, but I saved up my breakfast money for three months to buy a ticket!"

"I'm on my way to the movie theater; I've already bought my tickets by phone!"

"..."

Just as Xu Chunyang finished reading these and logged back into [Movie Home] and [QuickBlog], he suddenly saw a series of discussion threads popping up.

Immediately afterwards...

[To all fans of "The Black Robe Alliance," please take a minute to watch this! It's very important! [XuanShi Entertainment] is on the verge of collapse!]

[To all the young fans of the "Wu Hun" series: I don't know if you're online, but if you see this, please help me share it on QGou or other platforms. This is the most important battle for the "Wu Hun" series!]

【…】

Xu Chunyang noticed that more and more similar posts were suddenly appearing on the internet and refreshing various forums...

(End of this chapter)