Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 422 Row Piece Rate

February 21st, another Monday of not wanting to go to work...

Last weekend, Pei Qian got deeply hurt by Lincheng’s Fish-Catching Complex. He had lied in bed like a corpse for two full days after that.

Of course, it was not that he had done nothing during those two days. He continued to observe Lincheng’s Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and the ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ application.

In the end, the more he saw, the worse things looked. The situation was spiraling out of control!

Lincheng’s Fish-Catching Internet Cafe had seen an overwhelming number of customers over the weekend. ROF Computer-Installation and Fish-Catching Take-Out’s orders also showed no signs of slowing down. There was only one word to describe the situation: profit!

Strange things were happening for ‘Top Student, Come Quick’s application as well. It was becoming more and more popular, to the point that Pei Qian was beginning to panic. He kept feeling like the company was going to be listed at any second. Of course, Pei Qian knew that a company could only be listed after three years of operations. However, he could not possibly let the project continue growing at that pace. Pei Qian felt hopeless. There were only two days in the weekend, but he was already starting to think about ways to spend the unexpected earnings. What if he opened tens more Upwind Courier stations in Lincheng?

What if he increased the budget Zhang Yuan had for the yet-to-be-built E-Sports Club?

W

Ai, how worrying! Pei Qian had spent the entire weekend thinking about this, but he could not come up with a good-enough resolution. Thus, he had had no choice but to cast those thoughts aside.

When Monday came around, he could only roll out of bed early in the morning, wipe his tears, and keep working. He had important things to do today.

The movie was going to premiere tomorrow. Boss Pei was completely unsure about how it would turn out. If only there had been a pre-screening... If the pre-screening went badly, at least Pei Qian would be able to relax.

However, he had been worried that the pre-screening would turn out well and that they would end up selling out their tickets on the first day. What if there was a long line at the cinema on the day of the premiere and he got stuck in a vicious cycle?

That single misstep would bring him everlasting grief.

Thus, after much consideration, Pei Qian decided against a pre-screening. Since he had already chosen an awkward date like February 22nd, that meant he was ready to skin the sheep. On the day of its premiere, the film’s sales and reputation would drastically fall short. Then, the situation would steadily deteriorate until its sales died completely.

That was the ideal scenario for Boss Pei.

“I’ve been too busy recently. I haven’t had the time to check out the film’s progress. I wonder how preparations are going. The film’s summary and timings should already have been released on the ticketing software, right?

“I left all of those things to Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce. I wonder if what they did would match my expectations.

“Logically, both of them are new, and they lacked resources. They should not have been able to get good timings. They didn’t put much effort into advertising either, did they? Hmm, I can relax, then.

“I’ll wait and see. While I’m at it, I’ll check out how good the films that would be premiering on the same day are and whether they would be better than Tomorrow is Beautiful or not.”

After some thought, Pei Qian decided to download a ticketing application on his mobile phone, Gou Yan.

There were three main things he wanted to see:

Tomorrow is Beautiful’s publicity...

Tomorrow is Beautiful’s row piece rate[1]..

Lastly, other films that would premiere on the same day as Tomorrow is Beautiful and whether they would be better or not...

He only had to verify those three main points to tell if the film would fail or not.

He accessed the pro version of the Gou Yan application and then navigated to the ‘coming soon’ section. Indeed, Tomorrow is Beautiful was there.

Pei Qian was stunned. Something seemed out of place.

Tomorrow is Beautiful was in first place on the ‘coming soon’ section. What’s more, the little label attached to the film said that 37 thousand people were waiting to watch it!

In other words, among all the films that were going to premiere during this period, Tomorrow is Beautiful was the most anticipated!

Pei Qian immediately felt like something was wrong. However, as a veteran of a hundred battles, Boss Pei quickly calmed himself down.

He quickly looked through the other films but discovered that none of them looked impressive. There were romance films, comedy films, action films, and drama films. However, they were the type that one wouldn’t feel interested in watching after seeing their titles and posters.

Logically, some Western films should have been premiering at this time as well, but there weren’t any.

“What a pity. Why aren’t there any Western films joining in the fun?!”

Pei Qian wanted to beat his chest and stomp his feet.

“Look on the bright side. It doesn’t mean anything that Tomorrow is Beautiful is the most anticipated film on this application. After all, the other films in the running look repulsive. Just because Tomorrow is Beautiful won them, it doesn’t mean the film would suc

—

“Wait.

“All the films that would be premiering at the same time look repulsive. It doesn’t sound like a good thing either...

“Doesn’t that mean Tomorrow is Beautiful won’t have competition?

“That’s not right. Other films have already premiered as well.”

Pei Qian navigated to the ‘now showing’ section to see what films were screening.

At the moment, films that had been released for the Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day were still screening. Compared to those, Tomorrow is Beautiful no longer looked that outstanding

Pei Qian quickly scanned the more popular films.

‘Party for Love’ was a romance film starring young, hot actors. It had a rating of 7.1 and had been screening for eight days. It earned 18.4 million yuan on its first day and had made a combined total of 127 million yuan so far. It was expected to generate a total revenue of 190 million yuan.

‘Dangerous Partner’ was a European action film. It had a rating of 7.5 and had been screening for 10 days. It earned 14.46 million yuan on its first day and had made a combined total of 87.77 million yuan so far. It was expected to generate a total revenue of 135 million yuan.

‘Legends of the Night’ was a domestically-produced action film, based on a well-known novel. It had a rating of 6.8 and had been screening for 15 days. It earned 17.68 million yuan on its first day and had made a total of 124 million yuan so far. It was expected to generate a total revenue of 138 million yuan.

There was no need to read about the other movies because they could not compare to the first three.

After browsing those three films, Pei Qian relaxed slightly.

There was one movie with young, hot actors, one European film, and one domestically-produced action film based on a well-known novel. They all shone in their respective genres and looked much more enjoyable than Tomorrow is Beautiful.

All of those movies had already been screening for some time, but they were still selling tickets. That meant they would create quite an obstacle for Tomorrow is Beautiful. Pei Qian could not help but feel satisfied.

Once again, Pei Qian accessed Tomorrow is Beautiful’s page, wanting to see what kind of materials had been prepared for publicity.

Tomorrow is Beautiful

There were both Mandarin and English titles.

Film / Sci-fi / Suspense / Drama / 2D

Lu Zhiyao / Zhang Zuting / Lin Ruyi / Zhu Xiaoce

Premiering on February 22, 2011 / 93 minutes There will be two post-credits scenes.

Description:

In a world set in the future, the advancement of technology has caused the ordinary person’s standard of living to deteriorate. People live on fast food and snacks, have three hours to wander around outside, and are forced to watch omnipresent advertisements. A couple in love (played by Lu Zhiyao and Lin Ruyi) become unhappy with this way of living. They set their minds on fighting their unfair state and courageously pursue their own dreams. However, they have no idea what kind of fate awaits them...

Underneath that were the cast list, the trailer, and some screenshots.

It was worth mentioning that Pei Qian had found his own name on the cast list. He was listed as the film’s scriptwriter, but there was no picture.

“Hm... the description doesn’t match my expectations, but it’s about right. Few people would read films’ descriptions anyway.”

At first, Pei Qian had considered using dishonest advertising to publicize the film. For instance, he had thought about giving it high accolades like ‘a sci-fi and romance film’ or ‘a soothing movie’. That way, once the movie premiered, and the audience found out that they had been lied to, they would definitely curse the film to no end. The film’s reputation would then crumble.

However, Boss Pei could not possibly have gotten involved in such minor matters. What’s more, he had been so busy that he had forgotten about his idea altogether.

Still, reading the current labels and description, Pei Qian guessed that the film would probably not attract too many people. In any case, it was far too late for him to change anything now.

He had no choice but to leave things as they were.

Pei Qian scrolled down, wanting to read people’s comments.

“Lu Zhiyao stars in this film. I expect it to get one star.”

“Zha Zhuti is very good at choosing films to star in. I’m guessing this won’t be bad. I can’t wait!”

“Sci-fi fans are remaining cautiously optimistic towards domestically-produced sci-fi films.”

“A second-tier director and the toxicity in the box office are forcing their way into the sci-fi genre. I don’t think Zhang Zuting alone would be able to carry this film. I think it’ll fail!”

“Local citizens filming a movie set overseas... even the voices would be in English and the subtitles would be in Mandarin? Excuse me? What kind of crazy piece of work is this?!”

“The cast is not bad. I don’t think it will sell out, but I don’t think it will be that bad either. It should be able to make a hundred million yuan.”

“I can’t tell what this movie would be like. Its advertising strategy was so aggressive, but I wonder if the investors would lose all their money...”

Reading the comments gave Pei Qian mixed feelings of joy interspersed with melancholy.

The movie had not even premiered. That was why the comments did not stand for anything yet. Still, people could voice their opinions based on the trailer, posters, cast list, and other content.

Lu Zhiyao was still the most talked-about part of Tomorrow is Beautiful.

Zhang Zuting had been a movie king before, but he was considered an outdated actor by now. In the eyes of the local audience, he was no big shot. On the other hand, while Lu Zhiyao had been named the toxicity of the box office, he still had a solid place as one of the top few young men in the industry.

However, it was precisely Lu Zhiyao’s bad name that caused the audience to harbor little hope for this film.

Some people were even hoping that the investors would lose all their money. This was comforting to Pei Qian.

Pre-screening comments did not count for much, but one could vaguely tell from those comments whether the audience would support the film or not. So far, Pei Qian was happy with what he was reading.

“This is good. As long as the film’s reputation crumbles, its tickets wouldn’t sell.

“I invested thirty million yuan into this film. I would have to generate a hundred million in revenue before I can recover my capital. That’s almost impossible.”

Pei Qian heaved a sigh of relief.

He was just about to exit the application when he remembered another important

thing.

He had to see the film schedule!

Few time slots, taken together with the comments at the moment, would assure Pei Qian that the film would fail.

Pei Qian quickly clicked on the ‘real-time box office’ section to see the film’s row piece rate for the next day.

Once the page loaded, he became dumbfounded.

Tomorrow is Beautiful’s row piece rate was 37.7%!

He checked the next few films. Party for Love’s row piece rate was 24.6%; Dangerous Partner’s was 19.7%; Legends of the Night was 9.2%. The others were zero percent.

Pei Qian refreshed the page to confirm Tomorrow is Beautiful’s row piece rate of 37.7%. He had thought that something was wrong with his eyes, so that he had seen the decimal point in the wrong place.

What the f*ck?!

Pei Qian was shocked and confused as if he had just understood the situation.

Why were there 37 thousand people waiting to see Tomorrow is Beautiful?

It hadn’t made sense at first. Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce, and the rest of Fei Huang Workspace should not have had the resources to advertise the movie to such an extent.

They could have found other companies to advertise the movie, but they would have made various harsh demands. Huang Sibo and the others would not have left Boss Pei out of the picture.

Now, looking at the row piece rate, Pei Qian finally understood that neither Huang Sibo nor Zhu Xiaoce had been responsible for the movie’s advertising. Neither of them could have asked for such a high row piece rate!

Something was very wrong. There must have been a mole in the works!

[1] A film’s row piece rate shows the rate of screening of the film within a specified period.