Chapter 378: Lao Mouzi Wants to Start a Studio, the New Weibo King and Qu

Yan Li also bought a ticket for "Three Guns Shocking Surprise."

He knew this movie would surely be terrible, but since he hadn't seen the final product, he was curious just how bad it could be.

So Yan Li quietly went to one of his own cinema's screening rooms and watched a show.

Let's put it this way: Yan Li endured seventy minutes, couldn't hold out any longer, and left before the ending.

Afterwards, Yan Li specifically posted photos of the movie ticket and his actual viewing on Weibo, along with a caption.

【I went specifically to watch "Three Guns Shocking Surprise," didn't stick it out, and as expected, it's a terrible film—even worse than I thought.】

To be fair, I think I previously wronged Boss Zhang; we can't blame everything on him—this film is a complete, all-around failure.

【But what I still don't understand is, how did Boss Zhang have the confidence to release this trash in the New Year slot, and how did he dare accuse theaters of giving it too few showings?】

【Let me stress again: society isn't your mom, the Earth doesn't revolve around you—you can't think shit smells good and assume everyone else will love it too.】

【I suddenly feel a bit tragic, putting down my work to argue with a fool.】

【...】

This remark was too harsh—it even equated watching "Three Guns Shocking Surprise" with eating shit, causing some audiences who wanted to see just how bad it was to hesitate.

Curiosity and seeking out shit to eat are two different things; unintentionally, this also damaged the potential box office of "Three Guns Shocking Surprise."

In comparison to "Three Guns Shocking Surprise," which was trashed, the same-period film "October Siege" received fairly good reviews.

"Three Guns Shocking Surprise" had a Weibo score of 4.2, the lowest possible, lower even than "The Promise," which had 5.

Of course, "The Promise"'s score benefited somewhat from the sex photo scandal; combined with Director Chen's legendary prophecy, many netizens gave it some goodwill points.

"Three Guns Shocking Surprise"'s 4.2, while not yet at the level of the worst-rated film on Weibo, was just one step away.

Weibo scores are hard to get high or low because so many people vote.

No matter how bad a movie is, someone always likes it—or thinks it's not that bad—and gives it three stars, while the studio sometimes runs PR damage-control ops.

So far, no movie on Weibo has ever dropped below 3 stars.

If "Three Guns Shocking Surprise" keeps falling and trends toward 3 stars, it might actually compete for the title of Weibo's worst-rated film.

"October Siege" had a score of 7.1—not exceptionally high, but not bad either.

According to film critics, "October Siege" is a highly mature commercial blockbuster.

Its cast is stellar, the plot flows smoothly, multiple characters are vividly portrayed, its themes and scope are well-executed—it delivers both热血 and tears, leaving viewers with something to reflect on.

There's no pretentious design, no artificial expression, no melodramatic shocks; the most fitting description is 【clear】—a film that makes everyone understand.

This remark carries a certain pessimism toward today's film market, but it's also bluntly honest.

Leaving aside other factors, this year's New Year slot: "Three Guns Shocking Surprise" is utterly terrible, "Mulan" is mediocre and off-topic, "Fengyun 2" is just special effects.

Compared to the sudden emergence of "2012," and "Avatar," which hasn't even premiered yet but is already being raved about in North America and globally, the performance of domestic films is truly heartbreaking.

At this moment, "October Siege" is one of the few sources of comfort, even surprise, for audiences.

Many popular films succeed not just because of quality, but due to a variety of other factors—undoubtedly.

This time, "October Siege" faced a lineup of weak same-period films, gaining significant advantage in timing, and then there's location.

As "Three Guns Shocking Surprise"'s reputation collapsed, major theaters began adjusting their showings.

Some theaters still gave "Three Guns Shocking Surprise" a chance, since Sun Honglei, Xiao Shen Yang, and the old strategist still had drawing power.

Even terrible films have a market—"The Promise" and "Red Cliff" were that bad, yet still ranked among the top box office hits, even winning annual champion titles.

So if it were only about poor reviews, "Three Guns Shocking Surprise"'s box office would suffer, but not collapse.

But don't forget: "Three Guns Shocking Surprise" now has not just market problems, but two major enemies.

Yan Li's online ranting helped "October Siege" crush "Three Guns Shocking Surprise," with Weibo pushing the narrative and utterly trashing Boss Zhang, giving Yan Li real satisfaction.

He felt better, but Han Sanye was still seething.

As mentioned earlier, being called a bully had little impact on Yan Li, but the nickname "Mountain Demon" was deadly for Han Sanye.

Had Yan Li not stepped forward and drawn most of the fire, if that nickname had caught on, Han Sanye would've been finished.

Even now, it's had some impact on him.

China Film Group has been somewhat active these past two years, Han Sanye's fame is great, and he's indeed helped the industry—but he's also made mistakes, and many are watching him closely; Han has even heard rumors that people are reporting him to higher-ups.

All this has made Han Sanye so furious he's grinding his teeth.

He dares not directly target Yan Li now, but Yan Li's ongoing campaign to trash "Three Guns Shocking Surprise" has turned its reputation into ruins, causing widespread public revulsion—and that gives Han Sanye room to maneuver.

A bad movie doesn't make money, the public criticizes it, and it damages the industry's image—plenty of reasons to cut showings.

Cut showings, the movie makes less money, so cut more showings.

It's all market behavior, nothing to do with revenge—what's your excuse for making such a bad film?

Plus, the cut showings are directly reallocated to "October Siege," and China Film Group is one of its producers; higher box office means solid political achievements.

So starting the next day, "Three Guns Shocking Surprise"'s showings began to drop; after two consecutive days of cuts, its reputation fully erupted, and showings were halved.

In contrast, "October Siege"'s showings kept rising; the two films, which had only a few million yuan difference on opening day, rapidly widened their box office gap.

"October Siege" broke 100 million yuan in four days, 200 million in seven, while "Three Guns Shocking Surprise"'s box office remained under 120 million.

At this rate, the gap between them will only grow larger.

At this point, the momentum was fully established—the market and audience were all on the opposite side; Boss Zhang screaming and ranting publicly was useless, because no one believed him anymore.

Moreover, Boss Zhang now had little energy left to rant.

Yan Li's plan was both overt and covert: he attacked "Three Guns Shocking Surprise" head-on while simultaneously exposing Boss Zhang's scandals to annoy him.

Previously, when Yan Li exposed scandals, he hid his identity, leaked the info, then stirred up the storm to strike his opponent.

This was not only safer, but also allowed him to set up decoys and keep room to retreat.

But this time, Yan Li had personally stepped into the fray and openly targeted Boss Zhang, so many hidden tactics were no longer necessary.

Meanwhile, because Boss Zhang's conduct was truly abysmal, he had enemies everywhere; Yan Li didn't need to leak info secretly—he simply followed the system's suggestions and found suitable partners.

This time, Yan Li found a former executive from New Picture, who had deep grievances with Boss Zhang but had endured them for various reasons.

Now, Yan Li promised him corresponding benefits and pledged to be his backer, allowing him to seek revenge without restraint; the executive hesitated briefly, then charged forward bravely.

This direct attack from a former colleague was far more convincing than any obscure leak; everyone quickly fetched their small stools, waiting for the big revelations.

And this new video executive did not disappoint, exposing plenty of dirt about Boss Zhang.

Including the tricks behind past movie promotions, his conflicts with Old Master Mou and related stars, and various management issues, and so on.

In short, Boss Zhang was a shameless person of abysmal character who would stop at nothing.

Boss Zhang certainly objected and retaliated by exposing the executive's secrets, but the impact was far weaker; people preferred hearing about his feuds with Old Master Mou and the stars, and had little interest in the executive's personal grudges.

More crucially, Yan Li was behind the scenes steering the narrative, keeping negative heat constantly focused on Boss Zhang.

When the wall falls, everyone pushes; as Boss Zhang sank to such a low state, several parties who had clashed with him also released information, including some stars he had collaborated with, who publicly voiced their grievances.

For instance, Fatty and Gong Li, who had had a bitter experience on "The Golden Chicken," made veiled digs and complaints during interviews.

But for Boss Zhang, the most troubling issue was Old Master Mou's intense dissatisfaction—and Yan Li's actual efforts to poach Old Master Mou.

Yan Li understood perfectly: the box office failure of "The Golden Chicken" had crippled Boss Zhang, shattering his personal reputation and New Picture's standing—leaving him severely weakened.

But if Old Master Mou broke ties with Boss Zhang, it would be the ultimate move to cripple him.

This was not impossible!

In truth, tensions between the two Zhangs had long existed, merely concealed and suppressed for various reasons.

With "The Golden Chicken," Boss Zhang's reputation was ruined, while Old Master Mou also suffered greatly—his fame plummeted, and he had offended nearly everyone around him.

Though he hadn't directly offended them, everyone held a grudge against Boss Zhang; associating with him made you a target too.

Coupled with accumulated grievances from past film projects, everything finally erupted—Old Master Mou, rarely seen losing his temper, lashed out at Boss Zhang.

Even during interviews, he openly stated that during the filming of this movie, he had been interfered with, that it lacked cultural value, and was a product of commercial coercion.

Remember, this was during the film's release—when the director himself said this, it was equivalent to shooting himself in the temple.

This revealed just how deeply Old Master Mou despised Boss Zhang—so much so that he publicly voiced his contempt, slapping Boss Zhang across the face.

Faced with this situation, Boss Zhang's first reaction was not to soothe Old Master Mou, but to criticize him publicly for shifting blame.

This move even stunned Yan Li!

Yan Li used his system to examine Boss Zhang's psychology: the man genuinely believed Old Master Mou's success today was entirely due to his own support.

He himself was blameless; it was Yan Li who was evil, Old Master Mou who was naive, and netizens who couldn't tell right from wrong.

Seeing this, Yan Li immediately understood why Boss Zhang had pulled so many bizarre stunts.

He had been spoiled by sycophants for so long, trapped in his own information bubble, until he became so arrogant and deluded he had descended into stupidity.

This was not uncommon; don't place too strong a filter over successful people—they too can get drunk on power, lose reason, be deceived, or even deceive themselves.

There are too many examples of entrepreneurs, leaders, tycoons—even emperors, ministers, and generals in history books—who brought about their own downfall through their own recklessness.

Every time Yan Li saw such examples, he was grateful he had his system; otherwise, he might have fallen victim too.

But for now, Yan Li had not acted foolishly—it was his enemy who had. So he would strike while the iron was hot.

Thus, Yan Li began devising ways to poach Old Master Mou.