Chapter 570: Dying to Survive

The preview screenings for "Dying to Survive" were mostly in the afternoon.

The golden hours of the evening were still reserved for films in their official release.

On Blue Star, this was actually an unwritten rule.

Unless the films officially released during this period were all just nobodies, the cinema chains would slash their showtimes significantly.

It is currently the Shuji Dang, one of the most popular periods, so that is unlikely to happen.

As night fell, a vast majority of the 4,000-plus large-scale preview screenings had already concluded.

Shanghai, Xicheng.

Luo Mo sat on the sofa with a relaxed expression, eating fruit, which made Xu Chujing, who was sitting beside him, unable to help but glance at him a few times.

"What's wrong? Is there something on my face?" Luo Mo asked.

Then, he quickly answered his own question: "I know! It must be that I've got some handsomeness stuck to it!"

Xu Chujing was caught between laughter and tears, saying: "You really have a big heart, Director Luo. It's the first day of the large-scale preview for your very first live-action film, yet you look completely unconcerned and don't seem to care at all."

She continued: "If it were any other director, they would be afraid they wouldn't even be able to sleep tonight."

Upon hearing this, Luo Mo patted her full, rounded bottom, feeling the subtle tremor of the curves beneath her tight skirt, and said quite seriously: "I could actually go without sleep tonight."

Xu Chujing was speechless, wishing she could just sit on him and crush him to death.

Luo Mo shook his head and smiled, continuing to stuff fruit into his mouth. Only after chewing it up did he say: "The film is already finished; the next step is to hand the work over to the audience."

"Most of what could be done has already been done."

"What's more, as for 'Dying to Survive', I really don't have the slightest bit of worry."

Xu Chujing nodded. She had seen the finished film; she had been moved to tears and felt a profound shock deep within her soul.

But she still had some concerns, saying: "Films with this kind of realist subject matter that reflect social issues generally don't have very high box office returns in the country."

Luo Mo smiled and said: "So, don't you think the first part of 'Dying to Survive' is quite rich in commercial appeal?"

Xu Chujing looked at the young man before her and said: "So this was your clever trick, then?"

"You could say that." Luo Mo shrugged slightly.

On Earth, the director of "Dying to Survive" was a complete Newcomer named Wen Muye.

But the person standing behind him was Ning Hao.

Therefore, the first part of this film still had a very strong commercial flavor.

If it were depressing from beginning to end, the audience would feel a bit exhausted.

The contrast between the beginning and the end would not be this intense.

Xu Chujing took out her phone and said: "Let me see how much the box office is already."

"You've already checked at least ten times today!" Luo Mo said.

Xu Chujing glared at him, her beautiful and imposing face full of displeasure, and said: "Are you complaining that I'm checking too much?"

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare." Luo Mo immediately begged for mercy.

After glancing at the real-time box office data, Xu Chujing said to Luo Mo: "It just broke 9 million; it probably won't be able to break 10 million today."

Luo Mo nodded and said: "That's already very good."

On Earth, the first large-scale preview of "Dying to Survive" had 14,000 screenings, and the box office was only 14.52 million.

He only had 4,000 screenings, and reaching 9 million meant the attendance rate was already quite high; it was likely that a large number of fans had gone to support it during the afternoon.

The Shuji Dang is not as good as the Spring Festival period precisely because many people still have to work and go to their jobs.

But Luo Mo's influence among students was still very large, and his Box Office Appeal would not be low.

Of course, this also had to do with the support from Xindi Cinema Chain, which provided relatively large Cinema halls and did not stingily offer only small ones.

Xu Chujing shook her phone and said to Luo Mo: "Guess what rank 'Dying to Survive' is currently at in the daily box office."

"No need to guess, I can roughly estimate it; it's ranked fifth," Luo Mo said.

"You guessed right!"

In the last few days, several new films had just been released, and among these, two films still had decent daily box office numbers.

Then, the new film directed by Wang Rong was also stable at over 10 million in daily box office.

Tian Ou's was even higher, at around 30 million per day.

Director Feng Ji had already given up; those who wanted to see his mainstream war film had already seen it.

"You could say you've broken the record for the highest 【Preview】 box office, if... such a record even existed," Xu Chujing teased.

Before Luo Mo's "Dying to Survive", no one would play such a risky move as a large-scale preview; it was no different from courting death.

Therefore, naturally, there was no such thing as a preview box office ranking.

Everyone had such a tiny amount of box office during the preview period, what was there to compare?

After finishing the fruit, Luo Mo patted his bottom and stood up.

Well, he patted Xu Chujing's bottom.

"I'm going to take a shower then," Luo Mo said.

"Are you really not going to look at the reviews on the ticketing app? Or have you been holding on all day, pretending to be calm, and are planning to sneak into the bathroom to check?" Xu Chujing thought this man was truly outrageous; what kind of nerves did he have?

Luo Mo handed his phone directly to her and said: "I'm not looking."

After saying that, he added:

"Remember to remind me to check the news tomorrow."

I really don't need to laboriously read through them one by one.

Because...

The media will summarize all the sensations.

………

Night, Beijing.

Tian Ou returned to the hotel reeking of alcohol.

Today, Director Li Dongliang organized a gathering and invited many big shots from the Beijing circle, and also called over Tian Ou, whose film "Car King 2" is currently riding a wave of popularity.

This made Tian Ou ecstatic!

He is an up-and-coming director; although his box office is high and his films are blockbusters, his Seniority is not deep, and his background is not strong enough.

This is a circle he has dreamed of integrating into!

Sure enough, the explosive popularity of "Car King 2" has made me completely different!

Today's dinner party made much of the resentment Tian Ou previously held toward Li Dongliang dissipate.

Li Dongliang and Fang Jie used him as a pawn during "Director Show," and he originally felt quite uncomfortable about it, but tonight, he drank and chatted happily with Li Dongliang.

——Please, use me to your heart's content!

Forming cliques is always a very common phenomenon.

Tian Ou wants to integrate into the Beijing circle also because of the benefits, resources, and Connections within it.

Within the circle, people like Tian Ou are the majority.

Someone like Luo Mo, that is the oddest of the odd!

This invisibly actually ends up offending the Face of many big shots, who feel that this person is shameless.

Thinking of this, Tian Ou couldn't help but take out his phone and search for information related to "Dying to Survive."

After a hiccup, he first looked at the real-time box office of "Medicine God."

"Nine million?" Tian Ou frowned.

With 4,000 screenings for the preview, and mostly afternoon slots, nine million at the box office is truly not low.

Like his "Car King 2," today's screen share is much higher than "Medicine God," but today's box office is estimated to fall below 30 million.

But a box office of nine million certainly cannot affect Tian Ou's Dao heart.

With Luo Mo's popularity and personal influence, if it were a proper theatrical release, a first-day box office breaking 100 million would be a very normal thing.

He has too many die-hard fans, his public appeal is too good, and his National Popularity is ridiculously high.

In just a few short years, he has really almost achieved the Motto from his "Creating Idols" period: Do not worry that there are no soulmates on the road ahead, for who in the world does not know you?

——Who in the world does not know you!

Tian Ou shook his head, sprawled out on the hotel's large bed, and began checking film reviews for "Dying to Survive" on a ticketing app.

Under normal circumstances, one should actually look at the film's 【Rating】 on the ticketing app first.

On Blue Star, major ticketing apps allow you to rate a film after you finish watching it.

After watching, if you don't actively rate it, it will automatically give a positive review after 48 hours, directly giving it 10 points.

Once the total number of ratings for the film exceeds 10,000, it will officially 【Open Rating】 and display its score.

Even if the number of ratings doesn't reach 10,000, 48 hours after the film's official release, the ticketing app will still calculate and publish a rating based on the pitifully small number of ratings.

Luo Mo's "Medicine God" currently fits neither situation.

This is not because the number of viewers today is small, but because everyone bought tickets through different ticketing apps, which directly split the traffic, and some viewers won't manually rate it, or some people don't even have the concept of doing so.

But honestly, there really hasn't been a precedent for 【Opening Rating】 during the 【Preview】 period...

Therefore, Tian Ou began looking directly at the film reviews.

As he read, he couldn't help but rub his eyes.

"What are they talking about?" This thought popped up in his heart.

The reason is very simple: these reviews look very contradictory.

For example, these two comments below:

"So good! This movie is hilarious! I recommend everyone go see it, it's funny as hell! I was laughing until tears came out! Especially funny!"

This is a trick to lure dogs in to kill them; I can't be the only one crying!

"Damn, it cried me to death, I cried for at least half an hour, it's so shocking! Definitely a masterpiece among domestic films!"

This is an Honest Man; just praising it to death is enough!

But Tian Ou's brain was full of question marks.

He knows many Comedy films will have tear-jerking points at the end to elevate the theme.

But the guy before said he was laughing from beginning to end; listening to his tone, it sounded like he was laughing his head off.

But this one after, whose avatar looks like a young woman, says she cried for half an hour?

What kind of Comedy can make people cry for half an hour?

He kept reading down, and the more he read, the more confused he became.

"Realism?"

"Social phenomenon?"

"Tragic undertone?"

"Belly-aching laughter?"

"Changing society?"

Do these people even know what they are talking about?

Seeing the later ones, he even had a thought: "Is this damn thing being manipulated by Luo Mo's fans?"

This looks exactly like fan groups mobilizing to control the narrative, but they didn't agree on a direction at the start.

Similar situations often happen within the circle.

Wherever there are people, there is a Jianghu; among the fans of many traffic stars, there are also many factions, internal discord, and from time to time, there will be a massive internal brawl, tearing each other apart until it's dark and gloomy, even alarming the star's personal team.

"Heh, many passersby even say that Luo Mo's fans are quite unique; they never do the things in fandoms that people find disgusting, just busy roasting Luo Mo, busy being silly, and busy creating memes."

"Isn't that all the same?"

Tian Ou held his phone, scrolling through film reviews and ratings all the way, and looking out, they were almost all 10 points!

These numbers were actually quite shocking to look at.

If Tian Ou were to check the ratings for his own film, it wouldn't be a uniform row of 10s; the 1-star negative reviews that popped up from time to time would make his liver ache and his lungs explode with anger.

But for now, Tian Ou's Dao heart remained steady, firm as a rock.

The preview screenings were all attended by fans, so if they didn't give it a 10, what would they give it?

His line of thinking was indeed correct; the majority of the audience today were indeed Mo-born People.

However, the word-of-mouth for the film was already quietly fermenting.

There were already quite a few people, in various settings and on various platforms, Shouting for "Medicine"!

Among them, there was one special person.

At this moment, on a large bed in Xicheng, Shanghai.

Director Luo of "Medicine" had already entered a sage mode and was spacing out.

Xu Chujing was lying on her side, her smooth, fair back facing Luo Mo, the quilt just covering the junction of her hips and waist, hiding her long legs but revealing her eye-catching dimples of Venus and curves.

Her body was also feeling a bit numb, so she was lying there scrolling through her phone.

After a while, she turned over, shook Luo Mo, and then showed him her phone.

"Hmm? Who is this?" Luo Mo wondered.

Xu Chujing showed him a man's Weibo account; it was clearly a private account with few followers.

"This is my younger brother's Weibo," Xu Chujing said. "He thinks we don't know his Weibo handle, but actually, the whole family knows."

Xu Chujing was using her own alt account to sneak a peek; Luo Mo also had his own Weibo alt account.

When celebrities browse Weibo in their spare time, they rarely use their main accounts to avoid accidental clicks. Many celebrities who supposedly hit the Hot Search due to an "accidental click" are, at the very least, half not actually accidental; it's done to intentionally generate buzz and stir up trouble.

It's a bit better for those who are bosses themselves, like Luo Mo and Xu Chujing; many celebrities have no right to use their celebrity accounts at will, as they are entirely managed by their teams.

Many fans think their "big brother" has noticed them and replied to their private messages—good heavens, in reality, it's just someone on the team picking people to reply to; their "big brothers" don't even see these private messages at all.

At this moment, the reason Xu Chujing was showing this to Luo Mo was that this brat Xu Jinzhu had actually secretly written a short review for "Medicine" on Weibo, and he had clearly been conquered by the film.

After reading it, Luo Mo felt that what he wrote was quite interesting, fitting the style of a spirited youth, and the literary talent wasn't bad either.

"Didn't you tell me your brother's handwriting looked like chicken scratches? But his writing style is actually pretty good," Luo Mo said.

For those who had watched the preview screening, this short review of his would actually be quite poignant.

And for those who hadn't seen it, it was another smokescreen; they wouldn't be spoiled on key content, only having their curiosity piqued to go and find out for themselves.

"Should I use my main Weibo account to give him a like later?" Luo Mo laughed.

This short review read:

"【The Medicine peddler, the patient, the dancing girl, the believer, the butcher.

And the patrol officer and the fugitive.

Two paths traveled through clouds and moon, a heart of solitary courage to save the human world.

This is clearly a martial arts film!】"

(PS: Second update, 4000 words, asking for monthly tickets.

Today, while listening to "As Long As It's Ordinary", I actually saw in the comment section: A Mo-born Person was here.)

(End of this chapter)