Chapter 622: Reputation For The Screening Has Exploded
As someone who had experienced it personally, even though Su Yang knew what was going on, he was still excited to receive Wu Feng’s affirmation. “Really? You’ve gotten the data?”
Wu Feng quickly said, “I got it! The investigation organization I sent out investigated a lot of movie-goers and they all gave a rating of more than 9 points! I reckon that tomorrow, Maoyan and Tao Piao Piao’s ratings would be updated!”
“Our pre-screening is a success this time!”
Su Yang was relieved. Although he had gone to watch the pre-screening in the afternoon and knew that the movie had a pretty good reputation, he was afraid that he might have just coincidentally met an audience who liked such movies.
Now that Wu Feng’s investigation had come to a conclusion, Su Yang was relieved.
After that, Wu Feng started to talk to Su Yang about the movie. Su Yang understood how Wu Feng felt. His previous movie failed and he was under a lot of pressure. This time, based on the movie’s reputation, his results were going to be pretty good, so it was only natural that he was happy. Hence, Su Yang accompanied him and chatted for a while. After all, the two of them still had to work together later on.
After chatting with Wu Feng, Su Yang hung up the phone and went online to look at the review for “Wolf Warriors”. Although there were not many viewers, there were already one or two reviews and they were pretty good ones.
Su Yang read through the reviews happily before falling asleep.
He slept well, but in the girls’ dormitory at Shanghai University, a girl kept tossing and turning...
The girl thought about her date with a certain someone. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She turned around on the bed until her roommate could not take it anymore.
Her roommate looked up and said helplessly, “Grandaunt, what’s wrong with you? Did you go out for a date and learn to be a spinning top?”
The girl blushed. Luckily, she could not see her in the dark. She quickly whispered, “No, no. I just couldn’t sleep. I’ll try again.”
“Okay.” Her roommate yawned and fell asleep again.
The girl pouted and blamed this on that certain someone. ‘Hmph! I’m not going to be bothered with you anymore!
‘Unless... Unless you buy me coffee. Plus, it has to be at my mom’s café!’
At the thought of this, the girl was so beautiful that her eyes curved into crescents.
If other people saw her expression, or if they saw the complicated thoughts running through her mind, they would probably think she was mentally ill.
Then again, how many girls are there that aren’t mentally ill when they’re in love?
Love itself is a “disease”. It makes people both happy and worried.
Over the next few days, the pre-screening for “Wolf Warriors” continued and its reputation gradually began to grow. Not only did they score 9.9 points on several mainstream ticket booking platforms, which was close to a perfect score, they also scored more than 8 points on a more strict and professional platform like Douban.
Even though the ratings would definitely decline as the movie was released on a large scale, getting such high ratings during the pre-screening period meant that the audience approved of it.
And in the audience’s evaluation, “Wolf Warriors” itself represented the Chinese peoples’ spirit. It had a tempo of the movie that was different from other domestically-produced movies and its outstanding special effects had won many of the audience’s praise.
Especially the tempo of the movie and its special effects, which were simply full of praises.
Many viewers thought that such a refreshing pace was something that domestic movies lacked.
The vivid special effects, especially the scene of the wolves attacking, looked real. It was like a special effect made in Hollywood.
Of course, the good reputation of the movie did not bring about high box office sales. Because the movie did not have many showings, it only earned 170,000 yuan in three days. It did not even break the 200,000 yuan mark yet.
This also made a lot of people in the entertainment industry laugh at them.
After all, even though the pre-screening depended on reputation, it also depended on the audience.
There were many movies in the entertainment industry that had a good reputation but failed at the box office. When they were screening, they would have a good reputation, but when they were released on a large scale, there were not many viewers.
This was because pre-screening was the easiest way to attract the target audience, so it was easy for small movies to have a high reputation. However, because this kind of movie was not mainstream, it had a limited audience, so once it was released on a large scale, it would fail.
“Wolf Warriors” had a tendency to develop in that very direction. A locally-produced movie placed a lot of emphasis on content and culture. Up until that moment, there had not been a single popular popcorn movie that was similar to Hollywood’s movie tempo.
Other than a small audience, most of the audience did not seem to be convinced by this type of domestic movie.
In the Imperial Capital, on the set of “Beautiful Working Class”, Yi Wei and the male lead were having a scene. Both of them were actors at the level of Best Actor and Best Actress. The moment they started acting, everyone’s emotions were stirred.
After the scene ended, the bearded director shouted, “Cut! That was good!” Then, he said, “We’ll take a 30 minutes break.”
After he finished shouting, the assistants rushed forward to help the celebrities put on their jackets and poured tea for the director. The rest of the crew once again started working again.
Big Beard Liu laid on his director’s chair, drinking the tea that his assistant had poured for him. There was an unconcealable smile on his face.
The assistant director next to him smiled obsequiously and said, “Director Liu, has something good happened today?”
Big Beard Liu took a sip of tea and crossed his legs leisurely. “In fact, there is. Do you still remember the producer of the drama team that caused a ruckus from a few days ago?”
The assistant director quickly said, “I do remember that.”
Big Beard Liu put down his teacup and said complacently, “The movie he bet with me has been screened.”
The assistant director thought for a moment and said, “Are you referring to “Wolf Warriors” or something like that?”
Big Beard Liu nodded. “That’s right, it’s “Wolf Warriors”. The reviews for the pre-screening are pretty good. Or rather, there’s a stream of positive reviews.”
The assistant director was a little confused. “Then why are you still so happy?”
Big Beard Liu smiled and said, “However, during the pre-screening, I watched that movie immediately. It’s completely different from the mainstream movies in our country. Instead, it’s similar to those popcorn movies in Hollywood.”
“This kind of movie has no content, no depth, no emotions, no cultural core and the characters aren’t solid. It’s a more straightforward kind of movie where it will be forgotten after it’s watched, so the audience won’t like it.”
The assistant director pondered for a moment and felt that it was a little incomprehensible. “But a Hollywood movie’s box office earnings are quite good in our country.”
Big Beard Liu chuckled. “That’s because they’re Hollywood blockbusters!”
“Who were the ones who filmed it? America! That’s the Statue of Liberty. How can that be the same as what we have domestically?”
“Haven’t you heard about the fact that the grass is always greener on the other side? This is how our country’s viewers love to watch American blockbusters. A boring movie will instantly earn a few hundred million yuan the moment they slap on Hollywood’s name onto it.”
“This kind of uncultured and depthless movie has been filmed in our country before, but it’s box office was just bad.”
“Our market has already stated that we are only suitable for movies that have some depth, cultural core, or are close to the audience.
“A popcorn movie like “Wolf Warriors”. Hehe... Trash.”
“Did they actually think that it’s a Hollywood blockbuster?”
The assistant director listened from the side. He did not know if Big Beard Liu was belittling domestic movies or “domestic audiences”, so he did not dare to speak.
On the other hand, Big Beard Liu chuckled and said, “So, their reputation might be good, but that’s because the audiences in the pre-screening movies like this kind of movie. After the movie gets screened on a larger scale, the audience will teach him a lesson.”
“Therefore, I plan to publicize my bet with them!”
The assistant director was stunned for a moment. “You’re going to publicize your bet?”
Big Beard Liu said firmly, “That’s right! I’m going to mention that producer’s name on Weibo and make our bet public.”
The assistant director tried to dissuade him, “Director Liu, isn’t this too risky? After all, they have a good reputation right now.”
Big Beard Liu said with a smile, “We have to make a bet when their reputation is good. If their reputation is bad, or if the premiere’s box office results come out, won’t everyone know that I know the results ahead of time and that I’m bullying the weak?”
“Now that they have a good reputation, publicizing the bet will make me seem open and honest.”
The assistant director silently thought to himself. ‘You secretly went to watch the movie first. After you’ve gotten your own evaluation, you decide to make a big deal out of it, so how is that fair and square...’
Big Beard Liu did not know what the assistant director was thinking. He directly instructed, “Go find out what that producer’s Weibo account is. I’m going to work on the post’s content.”
The assistant director said, “Alright.”
Not long after, the assistant director found Su Yang’s Weibo account. It was mainly because Su Yang had fought with the Internet ghostwriters before and was considered a celebrity. Hence, it was easy to check his private account.
Very soon, Big Beard Liu sent a Weibo message, mentioning Su Yang in the post.
‘Mr. Su, the other day, you caused a ruckus in my production team and said that I don’t know how to direct a movie and I don’t have the basic ability to judge a movie. Also, you’ve doubted my professionalism.’
‘After that, you said that the new movie you invested in would definitely surpass 500 million yuan at the box office. Hence, you asked me to study it properly.’
‘That’s why I went to watch your new movie as soon as it was shown. The content was vague and did not have any connotations, nor did it have any depth. The box office earnings can’t possibly exceed 500 million yuan.’
‘That’s why I just want to say this, I accept your bet and I would like to raise the stakes! If your movie’s box office exceeds 500 million yuan, then I’m willing to give you 1 million yuan. If your box office doesn’t exceed 500 million yuan, I won’t be needing your money, but you have to apologize to me in public.’
‘Lastly, your movie is really bad.’
The post by Big Beard Liu immediately attracted the attention of many netizens.
In this day and age, most people on Weibo were still coexisting in harmony. There were very few people who directly criticized others like how he had done, especially since Big Beard Liu was quite famous both inside and outside the circle.
After all, he had also filmed two or three films that were popular among the public and he was more or less a well-known figure. Su Yang, on the other hand, was even more impressive. He was the “internet celebrity” who fought the Internet ghostwriters back then.
As soon as the two of them met, countless netizens started to dig for more information while waiting for Su Yang’s response.
At that moment, things suddenly changed again!

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