Chapter 175

He cursed those bastards at the theater chain, saying that despite the agreement to stay neutral, Tang Tan ended up with ten percent more screenings than his own film.

The language he used was truly foul.

He was one step away from insulting their ancestors.

……

Seeing this post on Weibo, Director Feng’s fans were incensed and began their counterattack.

They claimed Qin Yu won unfairly and had played dirty.

They insisted that if If You Are the One had received 0.1% more screenings than Tang Tan, it would have won for sure.

The commotion was quite something.

But Qin Yu’s fans were no pushovers either.

They went straight for Feng Xiaogang’s jugular.

"Who told you that you couldn't make it to the Spring Festival Gala?"

"Who told you that you didn't have a good mother?"

"Who told you that you were born looking so ugly?"

"Qin Yu is handsome, so what can you do if the Gala invites him?"

"Blame yourself for not being born better."

The damage from these words was explosive.

It nearly broke Feng Xiaogang’s composure.

He started arguing directly with Qin Yu’s fans, and Weibo was in total chaos.

Meanwhile, people in the industry naturally saw it, but none of them made a move.

That’s right.

They didn't move; even if they were to promote something, they would promote everything together.

They wouldn't lean toward one side.

The outcome was still too hard to predict.

Let’s just watch the show.

Both are big shots we can't afford to offend.

The next day.

The power of the Spring Festival release window exploded; actually, not that many people watch movies on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

After all, everyone has to visit relatives and drop by their homes.

Some even have to return to their hometowns to pay respects to their ancestors.

They are incredibly busy.

But after the second day of the Lunar New Year, everyone had much more free time.

Going out together to watch a movie naturally became a very good choice.

Moreover, this year's Spring Festival window was hyped up to be extremely hot, with a genius director facing off against the veteran Feng Xiaogang.

There were many highlights.

With the online buzz, many young people wanted to see what these two movies were really like.

To see if they were truly as good as people said.

And so, the cinemas exploded.

An instant explosion.

"Please give me two tickets for Tang Tan."

"Sir, the next showing is already sold out."

"What about the one after that?"

"There are two tickets left for the one after that, but they aren't sitting together."

"……That’s fine, give them to me."

……

"Miss, two tickets for Tang Tan, please."

"They're gone, Miss."

"What about for If You Are the One?"

"There's only one ticket left."

"What kind of cinema are you running? How can you have no tickets at all?"

"I am truly sorry, Miss."

……

"Give me five tickets for Tang Tan at seven tonight."

"I'm sorry, sir, they have already been booked."

"Damn it, what's going on? It's only noon, are you trying to fool me?"

"It's true, sir."

……

A huge wave of audience members gathered in the lobby.

The young lady selling tickets was almost fainting.

Everyone was arguing incessantly, all demanding to see the movie.

But it was truly useless; the tickets had long since sold out.

"Go find the manager quickly!"

"Manager, you have to go take a look; there are too many people, and we don't have enough tickets at all."

The staff was incredibly anxious.

They were almost scolded to tears.

"It's no use finding me either." The manager spread his hands, looking helpless.

"This isn't like the last time with Now You See Me, where we had other screens we could use; Tang Tan and If You Are the One have already booked all the screens."

"I can't conjure up any more screens."

To be honest, as a manager, it pained him to see so many people.

This was all money.

It’s a pity his pot wasn't big enough; it couldn't hold them, it simply couldn't hold them.

He could only watch helplessly.

"Then what should we do? Sister Huang is almost being scolded to tears; should we, should we just sell some standing tickets?"

Hearing this, the manager was somewhat tempted, but he still shook his head.

"No, the risk of doing that is too high."

As a manager, he wasn't stupid; opening extra screens before was one thing, that didn't matter.

At worst, he’d just get scolded.

It wasn't a matter of principle.

But if he sold standing tickets, that would be a violation of the law; if someone reported it, the fire department would be at the door the next day.

Paying a fine would be fine, but if they were forced to suspend operations for rectification, that would be a disaster.

"Then what do we do?"

"Should we go apply to squeeze in one more showing?"

Hearing this, the manager’s eyes lit up; that was something they could try.

"Alright, I'll go ask."

……

Twenty minutes later.

"Alright everyone, there is one more midnight showing, does anyone need to book tickets?"

"Here."

"I need four."

"Me too~"

"……"

The audience rushed forward one after another.

The 2013 Spring Festival release window could simply be called explosive.

Even cinemas in less-than-ideal locations were basically packed, let alone those in the city center or places with high foot traffic.

There were basically no tickets left at all.

The audience's enthusiasm was extremely high.

This scene irritated the other directors in the industry to no end.

Looking at so many people, their eyes turned red with envy.

If their own movies could be released at this time, they would make a killing.

Absolutely make a killing.

But then they thought about it, and it seemed that wouldn't work either; the 2013 Spring Festival window was the result of the joint efforts of Qin Yu and Feng Xiaogang.

The two of them had staged several public spats on Weibo alone.

The promotion was even more outrageous; if they dared to try and reap the rewards,

don't look at how Qin Yu and Feng Xiaogang seem to have a bad relationship.

But if you dared to try, they would dare to join forces to destroy you.

……

Actually, the ones who felt the most pain were the theater chains.

As owners of the theater chains, they had many regrets.

In fact, as early as half a year ago, they knew that both Qin Yu and Feng Xiaogang would be releasing new movies during the New Year period.

No one knew better than the theater chains.

But they had miscalculated the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies.

They thought it would be about the same as last year, so the theater chains hadn't expanded much over the past six months.

Who could have imagined that the 2013 Spring Festival window would be this hot?

It was all money.

Many theater chain owners flew into a rage.

They pointed their fingers directly at the market development department.

More than twenty theater chains basically made a unified decision.

They fired the managers of the market development departments; if it weren't for them being too conservative,

who knows how much more money the theater chains could have made if they had expanded.

That wasn't all; many theater chains fired their vice presidents and CEOs as well.

The board of directors held them accountable, and they were all kicked out.

And the first thing the newly appointed big shots did was to expand the theater chain’s footprint.

After this lesson, they saw it clearly.

China's film industry was truly about to explode, and this was an excellent opportunity for expansion.

On the other side.

Qin Yu took everyone to finish the day's roadshow in the capital, then boarded a plane and arrived in Hangcheng in the evening.

Preparing for the next day's roadshow schedule.

Arrived at the hotel.

They ate something casually, rested in their rooms for two hours, and then all came to Qin Yu's room.

Although the group had fatigue on their faces, their spirits were quite good.

"Hey, Director Qin, have you heard? There's a big move on the theater chain side."

"Yeah, I heard the boss of the Dadi theater chain was even fired."

"……"

"Brother Chao, is that for real?"

"Why would I lie to you?" Deng Chao said quietly.

"It seems they miscalculated the market; it's not like you haven't seen it, basically every theater chain we go to for roadshows is packed."

"The theater chains' capacity simply isn't enough."

Hearing this, everyone nodded; it seemed this year's Spring Festival window was exceptionally hot.

The audience's enthusiasm for watching movies was very high.

But when they thought about how this was all caused by Qin Yu and Feng Xiaogang, everyone’s expressions became a bit strange.

Those who were fired probably hated Qin Yu to death.

Their performance was clearly good, yet they were fired; what kind of situation is this?

"Why are you looking at me?" Qin Yu rolled his eyes.

"Do you really think it's my and Feng the Cannon's fault?"

"Isn't it?" Xiao Yang asked curiously.

Everyone nodded; didn't you guys cause this?

"Bullshit, have you forgotten what I said before? China's film potential is huge, and the number of screens is simply not enough."

"Do you believe that even without me and Feng Xiaogang, this year's Spring Festival window would still be very hot?"

"This is the result of the development of the times; after the public's standard of living improves, watching movies will become a daily consumption."

Qin Yu looked serious.

"Director Feng and I just happened to be at the right time, and only accelerated this process."

Qin Yu's words were deafening to everyone present.

Some of the people present wanted to refute, but didn't know how to say it.

It seemed that it really was like that.

In the past, many people would struggle for a long time before watching a movie, but now?

Basically, they go to watch one every two weeks.

Although it hasn't reached the level of daily consumption, the movie-going population has expanded quite a bit.

"Director Qin, do these theater chains understand this?"

"……"

"They might be a bit unclear about it now, but after analyzing the data later, they will definitely reach this conclusion."

Qin Yu wouldn't underestimate those elite individuals either.

Suddenly, Xiao Yang thought of something and said excitedly.

"Then Director Qin, what you said before about our Chinese box office breaking two billion, three billion, you really weren't joking!!"

"What do you think?" Qin Yu looked at Xiao Yang with a smile.

"……"

"Hiss!!!!"

Hearing this, everyone felt a bit of a toothache.

When Qin Yu said this during an interview last year, not many people believed him.

But now, if it really continues to develop according to this situation, it's not necessarily impossible.

Qin Yu’s vision is just too good.

To be able to see so far ahead.

The group was incredibly shocked.

It turns out the clown was actually us.

"Alright, the time is about right, you'll know once you look at the box office."

Hearing this, Guo Fan quickly brought over the computer.

"Here, Director Qin."

Instantly, everyone gathered around, not caring about anything else for now.

What they cared about most was the first-day box office.

"Brother Chao, what do you think it can be?"

"Twenty million shouldn't be much of a problem."

"I think it's more than that, around twenty-three million."