I just want to sell products, but you're forcing me to perform talents.

Chapter 523 How dare they steal my box office revenue!?

Sitting next to Best Actor Li Fenghua was investor Huada. Huada had not expected that today's box office would be so much lower than that of "Hello Mr. Billionaire," and that the reviews would not be very good either.

Even though they bought a lot of online trolls to boost the show's reputation, the ratings for "The Legend of Tang Dynasty" were still not high among viewers.

Moreover, the crime film "The Great Tang Dynasty" unexpectedly rose to prominence, surpassing "The Great Tang Dynasty," which was something they had not anticipated.

"How about we steal box office revenue?"

Huada has handled film distribution many times and is very familiar with certain distribution methods.

Li Fenghua was stunned upon hearing this. As a movie star, he was extremely confident in his acting skills. Now, his partner was telling him to use box office fraud to defeat his competitors, which he found hard to accept.

"You're the investor now!"

Seeing Li Fenghua's reluctance, Hua Da sternly reminded him, "This film needs to gross over 10 billion yuan to barely break even, and over 15 billion yuan for both of us to make a profit. The Spring Festival film season is only 7 days long. If tomorrow's figures are the same, it will be very difficult for the total box office over 7 days to reach 10 billion yuan!"

Back then, we lost everything!

Li Fenghua hesitated.

I've invested most of my wealth in this film; if it fails at the box office, I'll be in big trouble.

Seeing that Li Fenghua didn't say anything more, Hua Da immediately picked up the phone and started contacting people from the theater chain.

……

The following day was the second day of the Lunar New Year.

6.27 billion!

It accounted for 31% of the box office!

30% screening rate!

An average occupancy rate of 41.67%!

Early this morning, the entire internet was abuzz with the news of "Hello Mr. Billionaire's" box office performance on its opening day of the Spring Festival season. Even though everyone was busy celebrating the New Year, they still noticed the trending topics.

"Ye Xian's film debut sweeps the daily box office! Who says Ye Xian is just a popular idol?"

"Ye Xian and Li Xin's splendid transformation from the small screen to the big screen!"

"Li Xin was actually a comedian? Let's uncover Li Xin's path to fame!"

"The mutual success of Li Xin and Ye Xian, and the ambiguous relationship between them that is not known to outsiders!"

……

"Hello Mr. Billionaire has a high rating of 9.2 on Gouyan.com, with over 80 million people expressing their anticipation for watching!"

"DouDou.com's rating for 'Hello Mr. Billionaire' is 7.2, with polarized reviews ranging from five stars to one star. Even after DouDou.com underwent rectification, it still cannot escape suspicion of being manipulated by paid commenters!"

"Dogeye.com estimates that the total box office of 'Hello Mr. Billionaire' will reach 60 billion yuan, which is expected to break the box office record of the Spring Festival in China."

"The hashtag for 'Hello Mr. Billionaire' has surpassed 50 billion views across the internet, with many saying they'll watch it two or three times!"

……

Press releases were flooding social media, and praise for "Hello Mr. Billionaire" was everywhere on Kuaishou. In just one day, the word-of-mouth for "Hello Mr. Billionaire" was exploding. Coupled with the halo of being the box office champion on the first day, many young people immediately chose to watch the critically acclaimed "Hello Mr. Billionaire".

The girl group Sound5 became popular again because of their background music "Calorie". Short videos of this background music appeared all over the internet, especially during the Chinese New Year, when everyone was eating and drinking while shouting "Burn my calories!"

With background music and buzz, almost all cinemas immediately increased the screenings of "Hello Mr. Billionaire".

The screening rate reached 35% throughout the day on the second day of the Lunar New Year.

Meanwhile, some news is also circulating online.

What's going on? I went to see "Hello Mr. Billionaire," but it told me there was a problem with the equipment and gave me a ticket for "The Legend of Tang Dynasty" instead?

【I encountered the same thing! I wanted to watch "The Legend of Tang Dynasty," but it told me there was a problem with the equipment and it showed me "The Rise and Fall of the Tang Dynasty" instead!】

Can you believe it? The screening schedule for "The Legend of Tang Dynasty" is every half hour, all in the same theater!

Could they be stealing box office revenue? I just checked, and there were practically no people in the theaters showing "The Legend of Tang Dynasty"!

……

Ye Xian received the news immediately. Seeing the posts from fans online, he exclaimed in disbelief, "Damn, these unscrupulous capitalists will stop at nothing for box office success! They even dared to steal my box office revenue!"

Qiu Qing looked at Ye Xian with some worry: "What should we do? Won't this have a big impact on the box office?"

"Don't worry, at most they'll only do this in certain theaters and outlets. If they dare to steal box office revenue across the board, they're doomed."

Ye Xian didn't pay much attention to these little tricks.

Theater owners aren't stupid. The attendance and word-of-mouth of "Hello Mr. Billionaire" speak for themselves. Only a fool would turn down a good film and let "The Great Tang Dynasty" steal box office revenue. At most, they might let it steal some screenings from other movies.

If "The Legend of Tang Dynasty" dares to spend money like this, how many screenings can they buy? Such marketing expenses are harmful to others and not beneficial to themselves; in the end, they will only fail miserably.

Moreover, even if someone is capable, it will only take half a day or a day at most, because the ratings and reputation of "The Legend of Tang Dynasty" are also declining rapidly.

Not everyone accepts cinemas stealing box office revenue in this way.

You didn't buy me the movie tickets, so why should I indulge you?

I'll just skip watching it today.

Modern young people are characterized by a rebellious spirit!

Moreover, Brother Xin and Brother Fei have already taken the initiative and went to the cinema to expose the fake products!

Many marketing accounts and anti-counterfeiting accounts have also sprung into action.

Things are different now than they were a few years ago. Ever since Brother Xin and Brother Fei started the anti-counterfeiting movement, topics related to anti-counterfeiting that are relevant to young people have become the most popular.

Times are different!

If the fake accounts are exposed, not only will the exposed cinema suffer, but the reputation of "The Legend of Tang Dynasty" will immediately collapse.

Stealing box office revenue used to work, but using this old trick now is clearly an outdated method.

……

By noon, some anti-fake accounts had already posted short videos, and Xin Ge and Fei Ge also updated their short videos immediately.

"Hello everyone, this is Xin Ge!"

"I'm Fei Ge!"

"I've been busy filming a movie lately, so I haven't had a chance to join everyone in exposing frauds in a while. Today I heard that someone stole my movie's box office revenue, how could I tolerate that? So I contacted Brother Fei immediately, and we went to the cinema together to see if it was true or not!"

The short video immediately garnered countless likes upon its release. At this time, Li Xin was in the eye of the storm, so her exposé excited many fans.

[Hahaha, Brother Xin and Brother Fei have made their move! "The Legend of Tang Dynasty" wants to steal the box office revenue of "Hello Mr. Billionaire"? Don't they even know what Brother Xin and Brother Fei come from?!]

To be precise, Xin Ge and Fei Ge only became incredibly popular after they started exposing fake news! Whenever they take action, they're never wrong!

[This time, Xin-ge clearly came prepared! She brought her own Golden Guards directly to the studio, haha, didn't you say your equipment was broken? The Golden Guards scared the broadcaster to tears!]

[Wouldn't you cry if this happened to you? This isn't the projectionist's fault; it's clearly the cinema's doing something wrong, yet they're making an ordinary employee take the blame. If you ask me, they should fine the cinema directly and see who dares to pull such shady tricks again!]

……

P.S.: Today's Recap

Haizhou aged liquor inventory: 3934 bottles

(End of this chapter)