Huayu: This producer has no bottom line.

Chapter 145 Keep Hungry

From June 1st to 3rd, over three days, more than 6 media articles were released in thirteen cities.

"The best mainland Chinese film so far this year. The first half is full of laughter, and the emotional ending leaves you with tears after the laughter."

"Exaggerated but not over-the-top, it's hilarious, and it brings tears to your eyes."

"A very nutritious low-budget comedy fast food, in the end it can't beat the line 'Just go home'."

Each headline is more eye-catching than the last.

The most widely circulated article came from a senior entertainment reporter in Beijing.

"If you're only going to watch one domestic comedy this year, this is it."

The reaction on the internet was even more exaggerated.

The invited film critics went back and almost unanimously gave it a five-star recommendation.

Some people analyze the chemistry between Xu Feng and Wang Baoqiang from the perspective of genre films, some interpret the Spring Festival travel anxiety from a sociological perspective, and some even compare it with the classic Hollywood road movie "Rain Man".

What truly convinced Ren Pingsheng that he had won this round was Zhang Xiaobei, a film critic known for only speaking the truth.

This person is known for his sharp tongue, and his words carry considerable weight among movie fans.

The production company usually had to be prepared to be criticized when they invited him to watch the film, so Huang Qunfei had deliberately crossed him out of the invitation list planned by Huaying Film Company, but Ren Pingsheng added him back.

That same evening after the screening, Zhang Xiaobei posted a short review on Douban.

"This comedy exceeded my expectations, making the audience laugh while also feeling some warmth. As a low-budget comedy, this heartwarming approach may create a new genre market. The script is good, with a very accurate grasp of the mainland context. Xu Zheng has once again proven that he is a genre film actor that is currently in short supply in the mainland market. It's a pity about 'No Man's Land,' otherwise he would have officially entered the A-list."

He gave it four stars, not five, because he felt the emotional ending felt a bit forced.

But this is already the highest praise Zhang Xiaobei has ever given to a domestic comedy film.

The discussion area below the short review exploded, with more than two hundred replies flooding in within half a day.

Moviegoers have a conditioned reflex of trust in Zhang Xiaobei's recommendations.

If someone says it looks good, then it really does look good.

This is the power of good content. When the product itself is excellent, marketing only needs to deliver it to the right people, and the rest will take care of itself.

On the afternoon of June 2nd, news came from Tencent.

The virtual badge redemption page has been fully operational. Users can enter the Tencent Weibo activity page, log in and activate their account, enter the CD-Key, and share a Weibo post with the hashtag to activate the badge.

The entire process takes no more than two minutes.

When He Chao from the Weibo business unit called, he couldn't hide his excitement.

"Mr. Ren, we conducted a gray-scale test and notified some Pengcheng Online users via pop-up. Within half an hour, the page views (PV) of the event page exceeded 50,000."

When will the official rollout begin?

"At 8 PM on June 3rd, a full push will be made to cover active users, providing a day's advance publicity so that users know about the event, and direct conversions will occur on the day of the release, June 4th."

"Okay, I've reviewed the push notification text, it's fine."

Eighty thousand is just half an hour's worth of data from one province.

Although the current Google push notifications are not as precise as they are in later years, even if only one in ten thousand users go to the cinema to buy tickets, collect cards, and redeem badges after the nationwide push is launched, that is still a terrifying number.

Not to mention those who come across Weibo topics, see media articles, or are recommended by friends on WeChat Moments.

Each layer of the funnel pours towards the same outlet—the movie theater.

On the evening of June 3, Ren Pingsheng sat in his studio with a preliminary list of screenings nationwide on the first day spread out in front of him.

Wanda Cinemas allocated 15% of its screenings on the first day, more than double the 6% previously coordinated by Huaying Cinemas.

The reason is simple: Wang Sicong's greeting caught the attention of Ye Ning, general manager of Wanda Cinemas. He had someone conduct a round of public opinion monitoring and found that the film's online buzz in the past week had surpassed that of "Prince of Persia" in the same period.

Ye Ning is a shrewd person. The data speaks for itself; allocating screenings to her is a way for her to make money.

Starlight Cinemas, United Cinemas, and Jinyi Cinemas followed suit to some extent, allocating 10% of their screenings on the first day.

Others are still observing, and have given a conservative figure of 6% to 8%.

Overall, the national average screening rate on the first day was approximately 8.5%.

It's not high, but it's much better than the 6% that Huaying initially estimated.

Ren Pingsheng knew that the real key to victory lay in the attendance on the first day.

It's a Friday, and only if the attendance rate is high enough can the film secure a good number of screenings during its opening weekend.

6 month 4 day.

The movie "Lost in Thailand" was released nationwide.

Ren Pingsheng didn't stake out any cinemas or create any special premiere ceremony.

He sat in his studio, waiting for real-time data feedback from PR teams across the country.

You can see the real-time ticket sales volume in the Gewara backend.

At 10 a.m., a weekday morning session, the attendance rate was 37%.

This number is already phenomenal for an early morning movie.

At noon, the attendance rate for the lunchtime show soared to 52%.

At 5 p.m., Wang Sicong called to say that the pre-sale for the 7:30 p.m. prime time slot was nearly 70% sold.

It's not just one cinema; it's all of Wanda's dozen or so key cinemas.

Ren Pingsheng's phone had been ringing non-stop since the afternoon.

The second call came from Huang Qunfei.

"President Ren, I've never seen a low-budget comedy with this kind of trend before," Huang Qunfei said with a hint of emotion. "I've already arranged for additional copies; we can cover all the second-tier cities in time."

The third call was from Zhang Wenbo.

"Director Ren, the Lost Journey Station has been packed with people since it opened. The 500 meal sets at Shanghai Global Harbor were all distributed in just one hour. Some audience members took photos in the lobby after receiving their items."

"Add more materials," Ren Pingsheng said decisively. "Pull out the spare inventory from Guangming and double the supply in all cities tomorrow."

"We've already called! Guangming is ecstatic. Their brand department said that Moslian's Baidu search index has increased by 400% today, and they're asking if we can extend the promotion period."

"Can."

The fourth phone call was from He Chao.

"Mr. Ren, guess how many new users Tencent Weibo added today?"

"Just tell me."

"Six hours after the QQ pop-up notification, the total page views (PV) of the event page exceeded one million, and Tencent Weibo saw a significant increase in registered users today."

He paused for a moment, as if confirming the data.

"Seven hundred and thirty thousand."

Ren Pingsheng tightened his grip on his phone.

730,000 new cases reported daily.

He Chao lowered his voice slightly, but couldn't suppress the excitement in his words, "President Ren, the higher-ups have been telling us to play it safe and not to go head-to-head with Xinlang, but with the domain name traffic redirection and this event, our daily active users have increased dramatically, and the sentiment in the team has changed now."

He didn't spell it out clearly, but Ren Pingsheng understood.

"So you want to replicate this model?"

"Yes," He Chao chuckled, "When I reported to my boss, he said we could try to make it a regular product. Mr. Ren, our collaboration this time has been excellent. Please feel free to contact me anytime for new projects. Tencent Weibo will fully cooperate."

"Okay, we'll talk later," Ren Pingsheng brought the conversation back on track, "By the way, have the first batch of 50,000 medals been distributed yet?"

"They were all sold out by 3 PM, and the topic page was full of users who hadn't managed to snag one."

"Okay, release the second batch at 8 PM tonight, keep the hunger going."