Chapter 293: Viewing Craze

Internet tycoons favor *Three Body*, naturally not because they're attracted by the plot, and even less related to special effects.

The fundamental reason is still some ideas stated in the book, which align with Internet business laws.

As the later widely spread term "dimensionality reduction attack" goes, it uses one's absolute advantage to place competitors in an environment where they cannot survive at all, thereby achieving strategic goals—a devastating strike by the attacker against the defender.

In *Three Body*, the attack of four-dimensional beings on humans, three-dimensional beings, or humans on ants (quasi-two-dimensional beings) leaves the defender completely unable to resist, and the process is very short, instantly wiping them out.

Of course, this is from the third part, but it almost exactly mirrors the true state of Internet companies in competition.

Just as high-frequency applications can quickly crush low-frequency ones, because the former have high user activity, which the latter cannot match. A typical case is Penguin Company relying on QQ's high user numbers and high activity to dominate.

Furthermore, the "survival concept" placed in the Internet industry is practically a truth; the winner-takes-all Matthew effect is all too obvious—basically, in a niche sector, two or three giants can divide the entire market.

It's a pity this movie is so hot that tickets are never available.

"Why say that!"

That is, *Three Body* has only published two volumes so far; if one sees the bold line in *Three Body III*—"Destroy you, what's it to you?"—who knows how many Internet tycoons would clap and cheer, taking it as their motto.

Among these ideas, currently the most famous and widely praised by Internet tycoons as a classic is still the "dark forest law" depicted in the second part of *Three Body*.

With such a highly influential group of "organic supporters," *Three Body*'s box office naturally exploded, taking in 71.31 million on opening day, breaking the domestic single-day box office record and shocking the Chinese-language entertainment circle.

"Where do you work!"

Jingcheng, at the Wukesong store under China Film Red Cinema Line, an old man queues in the crowd, leisurely.

The reporter asked why she was buying tickets for her grandson; the grandmother replied that she'd heard the movie contains many cosmic and galactic scenes, hoping to expand her grandson's interest in astronomy!

It can be said that the film's super-high box office since release comes largely from parents bringing their children to watch.

"May I ask what you do for a living!"

The grandmother has come to buy tickets for the third day, yet each time she fails to get any.

And under such box-office dominance, the earlier released *The Warlords* was basically snuffed out instantly, unable to raise even a ripple.

This person also spoke at length, leaving the reporter wondering whether he really was a programmer from Ali…? Can programmers really talk like that?

Similar interview scenes have occurred in many cinemas across the mainland.

Hangzhou, local media went to a cinema near West Lake to interview, and the reporter randomly stopped a young man who looked refined and cultured.

"May I interview you for a moment!"

As the saying goes, business is like a battlefield; the competition among Internet companies can truly be described as "rise and fall in an instant."

And the universe depicted in *Three Body* is just such an extremely cruel and dark one, tinged with strong Darwinist hues.

This is still a first in domestic cinema.

In China, there were first the four major web portals, then Baidu rose.

A few days later, Shanghai reported news of a grandmother over sixty queuing to buy tickets for her grandson.

The reason is that her grandson is still in elementary school; he missed the opening weekend, and on weekdays he can only watch in the evening.

"Um, sure!"

"Then you came to watch *Three Body*—do you prefer Director Jiang Heng's works?"

The reporter asked the reason; the programmer said: "Because Director Jiang's films are consistently high in quality, very standard commercial movies, they don't include plots that are hard to understand—truly taking the audience into account. I think this is something many companies should learn from, and we must always consider customer needs!"

The reporter was stunned, not expecting the old man to both praise and criticize; if you keep talking like that, you'll be too topical.

Its basic theory is: "Any insignificant civilization can, on the cosmic scale, quickly surpass itself through a technological explosion."

"Ali Company!"

Media outlets all sent reporters to major cinemas to gather footage and report on this scene.

The ecosystem of Internet companies is actually basically the same, venerating "whoever has the harder fist sets the order."

In the US, giants like Yahoo were quickly overtaken by Google, and Google itself now faces a serious threat from Facebook.

At Huayi Company, Wang Zhonglei, Feng Xiaogang and others were both shocked and fortunate, because initially they had considered releasing *Assembly* in the New Year slot, and they had heatedly debated how many days to separate the film from *Three Body*.

The reporter asked why they came to watch; the programmer replied that he had made plans with his girlfriend to see a movie that evening, and of course the first choice was a big film by Director Jiang.

"Go ahead, you speak!"

After all, however you count it, the increase isn't much.

"Not that I dislike it much, really—it's mainly that other directors' films are also no good, being obscure; after watching for a while you don't know what to say, and then they keep scolding the audience, saying not understanding is our problem!"

"May I ask which film you're queuing for!"

Later on, I just got too lazy to do that.

But at one point, even though Baidu was China's largest by market cap, it quickly fell to the bottom of the BAT trio, its value even less than half of the top two.

With all these factors combined, *Three Body*'s box office surged like a wellspring, quickly breaking 300 million, 500 million, 700 million; looking at this momentum, breaking the billion mark is no problem.

The reason is naturally that the film features many scenes of celestial bodies such as Earth, Jupiter, the Sun, the solar system, comets, nebulae, etc.

"Directors from Xianggang don't make historical dramas either—they just make things up, I don't like them! Their actors keep recycling the same few faces, getting boring!"

The Jingcheng retiree opened up and could talk endlessly, occasionally dropping astonishing remarks that left the reporter stunned again and again.

"Oh, that's impressive!"

Having come this far, how could they not advocate *Three Body*?

This point can be said to resonate deeply with many Internet business tycoons.

China Film Corporation, a few days before *Three Body*'s release, still tallied *The Warlords*' box office and reported it to Chen Kaixin.

"Programmer!"

At this time, Ali had already been listed in Xianggang in 05, also counting as a well-known local enterprise.

Many parents believe this can cultivate children's scientific interest, and thus bring them to watch the film.

"Hey, saying this, it's obviously *Three Body*—could it be that you're watching *The Warlords* instead?"

The next day's reported content was basically that *Three Body* had sparked a viewing frenzy, with tickets hard to come by in cinemas.

Since humanity entered the Internet business era, in just twenty or thirty years, industry giants have changed hands several times.

The reporter stepped forward and said, "Sir, hello, may I interview you?"

In the end, Feng Xiaogang still felt the risk of a New Year release was too great, and finally set "Assembly" for the Spring Festival slot.

Now that I look at it, it really was a close call!

(End of chapter)