Chapter 573: Reaching the Peak

At this moment, a certain director who wore his confidence on his face began to ponder the feasibility of 【Large-scale Preview】.

From Li Dongliang's performance in "Director Show," where he loved to hold forth and refused to accept criticism from others, one could already see a part of his character.

He truly felt, from the bottom of his Heart Eye, that the movies he directed were good movies, movies that deserved to be hits, deserved to be showered with praise, and deserved to sell well.

That he was relegated to below the Four Great Directors and became the so-called "Fifth Person" was merely a matter of bad luck, not a question of ability.

How could an old hand like Li Dongliang not know the risks of 【Large-scale Preview】?

Li Dongliang used Fang Jie as an example in his mind: "Director Fang's 'Puberty' raked in a fortune in the three days before its release due to the buzz from 'Director Show' and the inherent advantages of youth films."

"The box office from those three days accounted for nearly forty percent of the final total."

"Three days later, the 【Word-of-mouth Judgment】 arrived; because the word-of-mouth was truly terrible, the daily box office was cut in half immediately."

"But if she had chosen 【Large-scale Preview】 for this 'Puberty' of hers... that would have been equivalent to letting the word-of-mouth spread completely before the official premiere."

"The final result of that would be a massive drop in screenings on the day of the premiere, and this movie could forget about having a good box office—it would lose everything! The cumulative box office might not even reach half of what it is now!"

Li Dongliang even speculated: "For those movies with mediocre responses, where the word-of-mouth and all aspects are just above the passing line—neither good nor bad—【Large-scale Preview】 would likely be detrimental to the box office as well; it would be better to just honestly release it normally."

【Large-scale Preview】 requires immense confidence to play; one must firmly believe that this movie of theirs can explode in every aspect!

This is a perilous path.

On one side is a bottomless abyss, on the other is a path to the heavens!

This is also why very few movies on Earth choose to take the path of 【Large-scale Preview】.

At the same time, an even smaller number of movies here have successfully turned things around and tasted the sweetness.

And on Blue Star, the energy currently displayed by "I Am Not a Medicine God" is truly terrifying!

Who wouldn't be envious of this kind of heat, this new model of word-of-mouth fermentation!?

Li Dongliang felt: "Compared to the conventional frantic running of 【Roadshow】, the effect of 【Large-scale Preview】 is much better, and it is more worry-free and effortless."

"For a good movie, if the benefit brought by 【Roadshow】 is 1, then the benefit brought by 【Large-scale Preview】 is at least 10!"

Li Dongliang put down his phone and rubbed his brow.

He had been under a lot of pressure lately.

Originally, he had planned to release his new film around the same time as Luo Mo and the others. But after being delayed, he could only release it all alone, and he was the last director to release in the 【Hundred Billion Box Office Plan】.

Good grief, isn't this the same as running the last leg of a relay race?

If the previous runners had run fast enough and built a big enough lead, he would naturally be relaxed.

But look at these people—how pathetic their box office results are!

Recently, when he attended events or dinners, many people would say to him: "You are the last hope of the Hundred Billion Plan."

There was an element of flattery in this, but it was truly exhausting to hear.

But if he could really rely on his own strength to achieve this 100 billion milestone on his own... Li Dongliang felt excited and pumped just thinking about it!

This would give people the feeling that he alone claimed at least half the credit!

He might even have made a great contribution to the grand endeavor of Huaxia challenging the world's second-largest box office market!

My personal international influence might even skyrocket!

The benefits in this are just too many.

"Wait and see a bit more, look at the release results of 'Medicine God'," Li Dongliang said in his heart.

He was not in a hurry; he was happy to let Luo Mo, the pioneer, blaze the trail ahead.

He could just follow suit when the time came.

Moreover, even as a director, he couldn't make the decision for 【Large-scale Preview】 all by himself.

He still had to discuss it with the investors and the others on his team.

Right now, not just him, but most of the film industry was keeping an eye on "I Am Not a Medicine God."

Everyone wanted to see how much box office this weird movie would take on its premiere day after taking such a weird path!

……..

……..

In Shanghai, Xu Chujing finally understood why Luo Mo had said to her: "Remember to remind me to watch the news."

Because for the past few days, the news had truly been overwhelmingly about "Medicine God."

You didn't need to consolidate the data yourself at all; the media would desperately help you summarize it and help you promote it.

Because it was just too explosive—so explosive that you couldn't even grab tickets for the preview screenings—many media outlets even used a term: 【Hunger Marketing】.

Many people felt that Luo Mo taking this model that no one understood was actually just playing 【Hunger Marketing】!

But in reality, that was certainly not the case; most of the preview screenings were in the afternoon, the difficulty of filling them was ridiculously high, and the demand far exceeding supply was even harder than ascending to heaven.

But once this effect was achieved, it would be truly frightening.

On July 31st, the number of screenings had already reached 23,000, though most of the newly added Cinema halls were small or medium-sized because time was tight and there wasn't enough time to adjust.

Even so, the box office for the 31st reached 63 million!

This meant that "I Am Not a Medicine God" had successfully broken 100 million in total box office during the preview period, reaching 130 million!

The countdown to the official release was about to begin.

August 1st, the last day of previews for "Medicine God."

The number of screenings reached 30,000.

Although it was still mostly small and medium-sized Cinema halls being used as a temporary emergency measure, the box office was still soaring.

However, with so many afternoon screenings, the situation of demand exceeding supply had disappeared.

After all, August 1st was a Friday; the evening was the golden time, and everyone was busy working in the afternoon.

Therefore, the box office result was not a simple arithmetic problem; it involved factors like the size of the Cinema halls and the attendance rate.

Luo Mo was still quite looking forward to today's box office.

It was not just him; to be precise, the entire *Medicine* team was keeping a close eye on the data.

Wang Rong had already called Luo Mo three times by the afternoon.

Every time the daily box office broke 10 million, he would call over, his tone excited.

"We aren't going to break 200 million, are we?"

"Hahahaha, the cumulative total box office couldn't possibly break 200 million today, could it!"

On the phone, Wang Rong kept repeating the words "200 million."

A dignified Best Actor, who had himself filmed movies with box office earnings exceeding 1 billion, was at this moment as happy as a fool over 200 million in box office.

There was no helping it; who told Luo Mo to create a miracle!

A miracle of raking in 200 million before the movie had even officially premiered!

Listening to the voice on the other end of the phone, Luo Mo laughed: "Brother Rong, is your only expectation for today just breaking 200 million?"

"Hm?" Hearing this, Wang Rong was stunned: "What do you mean?"

He always felt there was some other meaning in Luo Mo's question.

"In any case, that is not my goal for today." Luo Mo began to play coy.

But no matter how Wang Rong pressed him, Luo Mo simply wouldn't say.

Don't forget, I am a professional at keeping people in suspense; if you don't believe me, go ask Wei Ge Wei Ran.

After ending the call, Wang Rong lay blankly on the sofa, looking up at the crystal chandelier in his living room.

"A cumulative box office breaking 200 million isn't his ultimate goal for today?" Wang Rong couldn't figure it out.

With today's screening schedule, even if every seat were filled, even if the aisles were packed with people, it would be impossible for the single-day box office to break 100 million.

Therefore, a cumulative box office breaking 200 million should be the most impressive thing, and the most suitable explosive point to use for promotion.

"Wait!" Wang Rong suddenly thought of something.

He immediately picked up his phone and began to check the box office data for all the movies from the past few days.

His own new film had already withered, with a single-day box office of only a few million.

Director Feng Ji continued to slack off, with more to see.

Tian Ou was also on a downward slope; the single-day box office for *Car King 2* had also fallen below 20 million, hovering at just over 10 million these past few days.

Only a few movies that had recently premiered had decent box office results, and among them was a special-effects blockbuster imported from overseas with very eye-catching results, called *Undersea Lost City*.

This was an undersea adventure special-effects blockbuster, which also performed very well at the overseas box office, with extremely high global popularity.

And for a film like *Car King 2* that had been out for nearly a month, it was certainly becoming increasingly sluggish; this was normal.

Wang Rong fixed his eyes on the box office for *Undersea Lost City* over the past three days.

"103 million, 93.12 million, 82.13 million." Wang Rong muttered to himself; this box office was sliding, and it would likely fall below 80 million today.

This imported overseas blockbuster had dominated the charts for 5 consecutive days; during these 5 days, it had remained at the top of the box office charts.

This was still due to the protection of the Hundred Billion Box Office Plan and the fact that summer movies were bunched together, which meant its screening rate wasn't very high and had been squeezed.

Of course, it was also because of Luo Mo "butting in."

His screening schedule for the Large-scale Preview was already in the thousands, and its share of the total screening rate was already very high, having long ago exceeded 10%.

This point was already consistent with the situation on Earth.

Wang Rong put down his phone and took a deep breath.

"I know!" He had guessed Luo Mo's greatest ambition for today.

"He wants to reach the top!!!" Wang Rong slapped the sofa hard.

It was too crazy; this thought was too crazy!

But looking at the data, it wasn't without a chance, it wasn't impossible!

Wang Rong began to send a WeChat to Luo Mo, proposing his guess: "Are you trying to take the single-day box office championship today?"

After asking, he didn't know why, but he felt a bit nervous and a bit apprehensive, feeling particularly pathetic.

Even though he had won the box office championship several times himself!

Luo Mo replied with just four characters:

"Why not?"

………

At dawn, the data closed.

On August 1st, *I Am Not Medicine God* had a single-day box office of 80.91 million, topping the charts and ranking first on the daily box office list, a narrow victory.

(PS: First update, asking for monthly votes.)

(End of this chapter)