IPCFS: Chapter 91 Part 1

On the first day of the holiday, the battle over the New Year’s Day schedule kicked off.

Cai Yishu was the lead actor of ‘Night Detective’ and had a movie roadshow scheduled at night. So just after noon, his team arrived at the hotel to prepare his makeup.

Cai Yishu took a sip of coffee and asked with concern, “How is the box office now?”

“Brother Shu, the box office is already at 65 million. It will definitely have no problems breaking 100 million tonight.” The staff member handed over the electronic device in an excited manner.

Just half a day had passed since the movie was released, and the box office was already so good!

It had to be known that many people took advantage of the holidays to sleep in late. Evenings were usually the peak time for traffic explosions to occur. There would definitely be no problems with the box office breaking through 100 million.

Cai Yishu’s lips curled up proudly as he scanned the real-time box office updates on his device.

At this time, Director Xu Cheng’s ‘Flower Demon’ released one day earlier than them and had smoothly exceeded 200 million. By tonight, it would’ve reached 300 million.

The light comedy movie, ‘Great Lost Wealth in the World’ was also released at midnight and reached 63 million at the box office. It was biting them tightly.

A staff member said, “My guess is that the goal of ‘Great Lost Wealth in the World’ is to compete with us for second place.”

Cai Yishu scoffed disdainfully. “Second? That comedy? Compete with us? Director Song Yonghui’s comedy routine hasn’t changed for three or four years. The audience should’ve already been tired of watching it a long time ago.”

“My goal isn’t to compete with him, but to compete with Xu Cheng’s ‘Flower Demon’ for the championship! You should all do something! Do you understand?”

Cai Yishu had a smooth journey since his debut, and the biggest setback he encountered was losing the male protagonist position of ‘Time Lobbyist.’ This made the company suppress his exposure for a while.

However, Cai Yishu was lucky and he picked up the script of ‘Night Detective.’

Originally, Bian Jin had been cast as the male lead of this movie. He was actually close to signing the contract when there was the scandal regarding the ‘male lead position.’ This caused him to be decisively abandoned by the producer.

The production team of ‘Night Detective’ was good, and the momentum after their early publicity was also good.

Cai Yishu’s temperament was arrogant, and the pride in his heart couldn’t be hidden. He couldn’t wait to raise his head to the sky while living his life.

The staff members looked at each other and nodded silently.

Director Song Yonghui’s comedies were recognized as first-class in the industry, and the lead actor Chen Ming was also known to the general audience as the new generation ‘King of Comedy.’ The power of this pair was actually very great.

In addition, Xu Cheng was a famous director and the leading actors of ‘Flower Demon’ were all capable. How did this movie become a target that could be easily surpassed in Cai Yishu’s mouth?

It was okay to be outspoken in front of this team, but they were afraid that he would leak something one day and offend people he shouldn’t offend.

Cai Yishu obviously didn’t know what the others really thought. His gaze lowered and fell on the real-time box office of ‘Time Lobbyist.’

So far, the real-time box office hadn’t even reached 40 million? This amount also included the previous pre-sales.

Cai Yishu’s smile became even more obvious after seeing this. “Hey, trash is really trash.”

“Brother Shu, after the premiere of ‘Time Lobbyist’ last night, its reviews on the Internet are very good. In addition to ordinary audience members, almost all of the movie critics are praising it.”

The staff member thought about this and truthfully discussed the Internet trend.

“All praises?” Cai Yishu frowned and felt incredulous.

How could this be?

He asked You Meng to arrange a group of movie critics to criticize this movie and destroy the reputation of ‘Time Lobbyist’!

The staff member didn’t dare say anything more and quickly clicked on the comments of several movie critics. “Brother Shu, take a look?”

[@Old Cui Talks About Movies: In recent years, there have been endless movies about youth, but Time Lobbyist is definitely the TOP1 that I have seen in the past five years!

I heard that the screenwriter is a newcomer, but the overall plot is well controlled by Teacher Ji Mingyue.

The content of the movie is very cleverly conceived. Within the first 35 seconds, the script can inject people with a heart booster. The romance plotline isn’t bloody at all. It is so sweet that it is difficult to breathe. The friendship plotline of the five-person group is also unique.

Originally, I couldn’t figure out why Wang Zhang would come to direct a youth movie when he is a director of suspense movies. Now after watching the movie, I understand.

The time-space rebirth plotline is tightly arranged. It doesn’t make people feel that any part is redundant. You won’t know what reversal will occur until the last moment! I strongly recommend watching it!]

[@Poisonous Tongue Movie and Television Industry: I won’t say much about the plot. Good-looking isn’t enough to describe the degree of shock I experienced. The five main actors are too surprising. All of the role shaping performed by the actors is above the passing line, and no one holds anyone back.

If I have to name someone, I would name Ji Li. His ability to empathize in this movie is even better than his previous roles.

What is the saying? Use the least amount of money for the highest amount of output. Ji Li has the fewest number of scenes, but he has the most highlights. I am a big man, but all of my tears were spent on him.]

[@Lord Dapeng: After watching it, I can’t be picky about the plot or the actors for the time being. Therefore, I will just scold the movie for not handling its publicity well. There are so many big name actors who made cameos in the movie, but not a single word of them was mentioned? Rubbish.]

……

The movie critics sent out praises one after another, which was dizzying to watch. A few bad reviews were irrelevant and wouldn’t erase the audience’s good impression at all.

Looking at Weibo, Ji Li’s acting skills in the movie received almost exaggerated praise!

The movie critics had less than tens of millions of Weibo fans when added together. Driven by such good reviews, the influence of such ‘fan promotion’ was amazing.

There were many ordinary netizens who were successfully persuaded and already planned to find time to watch it.

“How can there be no bad reviews?” Cai Yishu threw away the electronic device with some irritation.

He couldn’t see how ‘Time Lobbyist’ could be a good movie so he complained, “The producers are really willing to spend money to sell false publicity. It is a pity that their box office is still bad.”

The staff member took back her electronic device in a distressed manner. She couldn’t help resisting for a moment. “Brother Shu, you are thinking too much. Their producer was too poor to even do the pre-publicity. How could they afford to spend money to ask film critics to give fake reviews after their release?”

“However, once the public’s word of mouth for a movie increases, the screening rate in theaters will increase, and the box office might rise.”

In the same time period, nine movie halls were playing ‘Night Detective’ while only one was playing ‘Time Lobbyist.’ Then in this round, the former would definitely have a higher box office.

In other words—

The current box office of ‘Time Lobbyist’ wasn’t strong, but it was actually because their scheduling rate in theaters was too low. It was only showing in small movie halls, so the box office didn’t seem to be strong.

However, the movie market changed rapidly, and it wasn’t certain who would win or lose.

As a human, it was better to stay low-key.

Cai Yishu looked at the staff member coldly. “Did I ask you for your opinion? If you are so optimistic about the opponent, you can just resign and go to their side to do publicity!”

The female staff member was so stunned by him that she couldn’t say anything. She could only lower her head silently.

The moment You Meng entered the door, she felt the gloominess of her own artist. “This young master, who offended you?”

Cai Yishu laughed angrily and asked back, “Sister You, I want to ask you something instead. Where are the provocative movie critics I asked you to find from two years ago?”

You Meng was puzzled. “What’s wrong?”

The staff member approached You Meng and explained the reason in a low voice.

The latter obviously hadn’t expected such a situation. She frowned and directly made a phone call.

Not long after, the movie and television company on the other end of the phone gave an explanation.

“Ms. You, it isn’t that I won’t help you. There are no places where we can find faults with ‘Time Lobbyist.’ If we insist on saying it isn’t good, then wouldn’t  this be hitting ourselves in the face?”

“I have also heard that the publicity rights for the movie have been handed over to Yuexing. The movie critics under our company have to eat and live. We can’t offend a real big shot for your money, right?”

“Well, we don’t want the rest of the final payment. As for the deposit, we will treat it as hush money that you gave us to keep this matter private.”

The person hung up abruptly and shamelessly.

A deposit of 100,000 yuan was given, and it suddenly became hush money?

The other person took the money and did nothing, but also threatened them in turn?

You Meng’s face froze with anger. However, she knew she was on the losing side and there was no way to recover this deposit.

After all, it wasn’t good to look for movie critics to deliberately criticize and damage the reputation of a competing movie… it wasn’t good if word of this was spread.

Cai Yishu also heard this through the speaker of the phone. He couldn’t bear it any longer and smashed his coffee cup on the ground. “Stupid thing!”

His chest heaved terribly, and the anger in his heart overshadowed everything.

Once again!

Why was it like this again?

He thought back to the opening photo of ‘Time Lobbyist’. He spent money to buy a press release to increase his popularity. As a result, netizens and passersby were deeply impressed by Ji Li in the group photo!

This time, he wanted to ruin the reputation of ‘Time Lobbyist’ and bring down their box office. Yet he accidentally promoted the movie and Ji Li again?

He spent money to make a wedding dress for this person twice in a row? Who was more wronged than him?

“Why don’t we just forget about it?” You Meng suppressed her depression and explained her thinking to Cai Yishu. “Let’s promote our own movie well. Why must we make life difficult for a group of weak people?”

Judging by the current situation, Time Lobbyist was destined to be defeated by them.

The moment she finished speaking, she heard the assistant speak out from the side. “Brother Shu, the latest ratings on the professional video website have come out. Our movie rating…”

“What are you hesitating for? Shut up if you can’t speak!” Cai Yishu roared impatiently and snatched the assistant’s phone.

He took a look and became completely dumbfounded.

The overall score of ‘Night Detective’ was only 7.3, and it was the lowest of the several movies released on New Year’s Day.

On the other hand, the movie with the highest rating was actually ‘Time Lobbyist’, which was least favored before its release?

The other movie scored a high quality score of 9.3 after it opened. Even ‘Flower Demon’ by Xu Cheng only ranked second with a score of 9.1.

Was the opponent defeated?

They were the defeated opponent!

Cai Yishu felt his face hurt. His breathing became unstable. “How can this be?”

You Meng stabilized her mind and gave him the most reasonable explanation. “The existing box office of ‘Time Lobbyist’ is so low that the number of scores isn’t very large. The current high scores are probably from fans.”

“Don’t worry. Let’s take a look at the reviews of our movie first.”

Previously, their team and the producer had conservatively estimated that the movie score after the release of ‘Night Detective’ would be above 8 points. How could their overall score be so low when it had only been released for half a day?

They clicked into the real-time comments under the movie ‘Night Detective.’

[@vik: What type of mess is this adaptation? The essence was all in the trailer! The male protagonist’s acting skills really make me feel angry. In the movie, God Mu is aloof and cold. He isn’t a greasy person who thinks he is handsome! [two stars].]

[@Silent Fire: I specially bought tickets for the first screening this morning but was disappointed after watching it for half an hour. Who can tell me why a good, suspenseful, case-solving movie became interspersed with the campus love story of the male and female protagonists? Something is wrong! I am only giving it three stars for the original novel [three stars].]

[@A Buddhist Temple Teacher: The most outstanding thing about the original novel was the two protagonists solving the case! God Mu is the main one and Captain Wei is the support. The movie has been changed to a suspense romance movie, right? Some people in the comments area are right. The essence is all in the trailer, and the movie is a piece of sh*t [one star].]

[@A True Gentleman Who Watches Chess Without Speaking: Cai Yishu has many scenes as the male protagonist. I have no objections, but why are there so few scenes for Teacher Song Qingfeng, who plays Captain Wei? His character only appeared for less than 20 minutes, right? The female protagonist was sidelined in the original novel, but now she has so many scenes in the movie that it is pretentious. It makes me sick [two stars].]

[@Brother Shu’s Little Fangirl: Don’t be so embarrassing. There is nothing wrong with the male protagonist’s acting skills. If there is a problem with the script, then find the screenwriter. Brother Shu is the best! [Five stars]]

[@Song Song is Very Firm: A warning for the fans of the original novel. The roles of the two male protagonists have been greatly reduced, and the emotional scenes between the male and female protagonists have increased. The essence of reasoning and analysis is brushed aside, and the pacing of the entire movie is very chaotic. Many plot points seem to be inserted suddenly. To sum it up, this movie isn’t worthy of your money [one star].]

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Proofreader: Azure