Entertainment Era: Starting with Teaching Sister Meng to Sing

The internet has been so lively these days...

This is the recent thought of many netizens.

Although the Spring Festival film season is over, a second wave of movies is about to be released, including three big-budget films, two medium-budget dramas, and countless smaller films that may not even make it to theaters.

Speaking of just five movies that I can name, their official Weibo accounts have recently been attacked by a personal Weibo account with the username "爷傲爷有理" (I'm Arrogant, I'm Justified).

Yes, an impact.

This guy used one account to leave over a hundred comments on the official Weibo accounts of various upcoming movies in just two days, with over a hundred comments on each movie!

Now, you can hardly see any normal comments; all you see are arrogant, self-righteous comments.

The overall content is roughly as follows.

[What kind of director is this? Making movies? He can't even edit a trailer properly. What good content can he possibly produce? It's not even as good as one line from my film, *Out of the Dark*...]

[What kind of cast is this? Are they all just putting on the same face? Did I pay tens of dollars for a ticket just to see your grumpy face? Welcome to "The Return of the Souls," streaming on Tencent Video, completely free with no gimmicks.]

[I'm tired of using the word "garbage." What kind of promotional video is this? Did you even invest over a million? You dare to release this in theaters? Maybe I should talk to my brother and have him talk to the head of Tencent's business department and get your movie released on Tencent Video alongside "Out of the Dark."]

......

Anyway, no matter what this guy says, he always includes "Return of the Soul" in the comments, which is obviously a sign that he's done for.

However, their GG (Goblin) strategy did have an effect, and even made "Out of the Dark" a minor trending topic a couple of days ago.

When other movie official accounts saw this was not working, they quickly hired a team of online trolls to flood his comments.

But this guy is not afraid at all. Whoever challenges him, he will attack and curse them. In his peak battle, he even fought against a hundred-person team all night by himself. No matter how much they fight, you can always find his ghost night in some corner.

Although the entertainment companies were helpless, they didn't want him to continue riding on their coattails, so they simply ignored him.

But the more we ignored him, the more arrogant he became, acting like he lived on Weibo all day, doing nothing but posting comments to pick fights.

Finally, several entertainment companies couldn't stand it anymore and jointly reported him to Weibo, resulting in his personal account being banned for 365 days. As a result, this guy started to let loose even more, directly posting selfie videos on his own short video platform.

His blond hair and arrogant, cocky image instantly garnered him a large following, now approaching 200,000. People have even affectionately nicknamed him "Flathead Bro"...

The day before the release of the movie "Out of the Dark," Huang Mao had just finished arguing with the enemy on a short video platform, closed the video software, and called Wang Xiaozhou.

"Bro, our follower count has officially surpassed 200,000 today. The movie ends tomorrow, should I continue to criticize them?"

Wang Xiaozhou wanted to laugh at the thought of the mess he had made, but upon hearing Huang Mao's question, he immediately replied:

"Go ahead and criticize! Why not? You have to capitalize on this wave of traffic. After 'The Return of the Condor Heroes' goes live tomorrow, it'll definitely receive rave reviews. If you go out and criticize then, you'll have a more legitimate reason to do so. Try to get your fan base to 500,000. From now on, your persona will be that of a fighting character. I'll rely on you for all my movie promotions."

Upon hearing his older brother directly label him, Huang Mao didn't waste any words, hung up the phone and continued the online battle, making the opposing team's online army suffer terribly.

Meanwhile, after hanging up with Huang Mao, Wang Xiaozhou immediately received a call from the head of Tencent's business department, whose voice carried a hint of admiration.

"Brother Xiaozhou, I've been working in the video platform industry for so many years, and this is the first time I've ever seen such a blatant publicity tactic. You're really something! The number of people who have pre-registered to watch 'The Return of the Soul' on our platform has already exceeded one million. It even made it onto a minor trending topic recently, so I estimate the actual number of viewers is even higher."

Wang Xiaozhou replied with a laugh over the phone: "My expectations for this film are not in the millions, nor in the tens of millions."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a tentative reply: "You mean this movie has a chance to break 100 million in viewership? That's a bit of an exaggeration, our total investment is only a few million."

Based on current market prices for software user acquisition, the average cost per user is around thirty-something yuan, which isn't much cheaper than a movie ticket. Chang Ping's expectation is that the number of views exceeds ten million, with one-tenth being new or returning users. If that's enough, the investment will be worthwhile. But judging from Wang Xiaozhou's tone, his expectations seem to be ten times higher than his own...

Wang Xiaozhou sensed Chang Ping's skepticism and replied with a smile, "Shall we make a bet?"

"What are we betting on?" Chang Ping asked curiously from the other end of the line.

"Let's bet on my next project. You'll invest in it all and be responsible for its marketing and distribution, but you'll only get 40% of the profits."

Chang Ping hesitated for a moment on the other end of the line, then added, "You have to give me an investment amount. If the next movie is a big production, involving hundreds of millions, I can't make the decision myself."

Wang Xiaozhou smiled and shook his head: "No, no, after this movie is a success, I'll be worth a lot of money. How could I let you invest in me so easily? The work I'm talking about isn't a movie. I want to make a variety show next."

Upon hearing this, Chang Ping immediately felt relieved: "Alright, let's make the bet. As long as your movie gets over 100 million views, I'll fully invest in your next variety show. As long as the amount is under 10 million, it's a small matter."

Wang Xiaozhou hung up the phone with a smile. How should I put it? He secured the investment for his next project without lifting a finger.

But then again, Changping wouldn't actually lose out. If the betting agreement goes through, he could make a fortune just by attracting new users, and investments under ten million wouldn't be a problem for him at all.

After settling things with Chang Ping, all that was left was to wait for the movie to be released tomorrow. Just as Wang Xiaozhou was about to call his brothers out for a late-night snack, his phone rang again. It was Meng Ziyi calling.

"Great news, fantastic news! I passed both rounds of the art exams, and I can go back to Songbei tomorrow."

Forehead...?

Is the art exam process really that efficient? Wang Xiaozhou has been busy with publicity these days and hasn't really paid attention to Meng Ziyi's situation. Upon hearing this, he quickly offered his congratulations.

"Great! From now on, Sister Meng will have two legs to walk on. Not only can she sing, but she can also act in good movies."

Meng Ziyi chuckled on the other end of the phone, her tone playful and cute, but what she said sent a chill down Wang Xiaozhou's spine:

"Yes, I can act now. When you make your next movie, I'll see who you cast as the leading lady."