Chapter 61: It Was All the Haters!
Zhang Zhuofeng followed into another office, only to find that Zhao Wenliang was already there.
Zhang Zhuofeng asked, "What do you mean it's wrong?"
A bald youth sat in front of a computer screen, also sweating profusely.
The bald youth pushed his glasses up his nose and said, "The box office of *No More Bets* is surging crazily at an average speed of 210,000 per minute. If this pace keeps up for the whole day, that's a 300 million box office! Of course, that's impossible, because it's daytime now, specifically ten o'clock in the morning, and ten hours have already passed since—"
He was about to ramble on, but Zhang Zhuofeng had already lost his patience and barked, "Get to the point."
Startled, the bald youth swallowed hard and blurted out quickly, "Okay! In short, the box office of *No More Bets* might reach 150 million today!"
Zhang Zhuofeng and Zhao Wenliang exchanged glances, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.
Although 150 million was far inferior to their numbers, it was still enough to command their attention.
The question was, how could this possibly happen?!
It only made 60 million yesterday, and that was partly because they took advantage of the other three films failing to screen in certain theaters. Logically speaking, shouldn't its box office drop today? Why didn't it drop; instead, it surged, tripling its previous figures?
Zhang Zhuofeng frowned and asked in a deep voice, "Are you sure you didn't calculate it wrong?"
The bald youth hurriedly shook his head and explained, "No, there's no calculation error. I've double-checked it multiple times."
An indescribable sense of absurdity welled up in the hearts of Zhang Zhuofeng and Zhao Wenliang.
How could a disgraced artist turned director, along with a group of actors lingering on the fringes of the entertainment industry, achieve such an astonishing box office? And that too under circumstances where everyone expected them to fail?
Before they could fully digest this, the bald youth continued, "And that's not even the most exaggerated part. The most exaggerated thing is that the screen allocation for *No More Bets* is only 4%! That's one-eighth of ours! To pull in 150 million with just a 4% screen share is simply—"
"What?!"
Before the bald youth could finish, Zhang Zhuofeng and Zhao Wenliang knew something had gone terribly wrong!
They hadn't factored this in before!
150 million at the box office was far behind them, but that was achieved with a mere 4% screen allocation!
If *No More Bets* managed to secure a screen share comparable to theirs, wouldn't it far surpass them?
The bald youth continued, "Furthermore, all its metrics are absurdly high: an average of 84.3 viewers per screening, a 65% seat occupancy rate, and a refund rate of only 2%! If this continues, theater chains will likely adjust its screen allocation upward!"
Zhang Zhuofeng and Zhao Wenliang naturally knew what these metrics signified, and it was precisely because they knew that they found it so hard to believe!
You had to know that a 50% occupancy rate for a movie was already considered the absolute peak! A 65% occupancy rate was a rare, special occurrence!
Yesterday, the occupancy rate for *Glory Era* had barely reached 52%, and he had even been smug about it, preparing to release promotional pieces stepping on the other two films, and even using it to lobby theater chains for more screenings of *Glory Era*.
Yet *No More Bets* had actually hit 65%?
How could he possibly have the nerve to ask for more screen allocations now?
Zhang Zhuofeng demanded, "What on earth is the reason! Hurry up and find out!"
***
Meanwhile, the other two camps had also abruptly perceived the terrifying upward-defying curve of *No More Bets*!
That soaring curve was like a sharp sickle, whetted and ready to harvest their market share.
***
Ma Qibin felt like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. He could accept being crushed by *Glory Era* and *Comedic Route*, but he would never accept being overtaken by *No More Bets*! This was humiliation—naked, blatant humiliation.
He hurriedly issued orders:
"Immediately order the marketing department to step up promotional efforts! Also, investigate what is going on with *No More Bets*. Have they gone completely insane?!"
***
Over at *Comedic Route*, Ning Shan was also finding it somewhat unbelievable.
He said, "That's impossible. Didn't Cheng Cheng fall from grace? And what about Wen Lian and Li Yang—how long has it been since we heard anything from them? With a lineup like that, who would even go watch their movie?"
Someone beside him replied, "Brother Shan, how long have you been offline? That whole incident involving Cheng Cheng has already been overturned. And as for Wen Lian and Li Yang, they didn't actually commit anything major."
Ning Shan countered, "Even so, do they have that kind of box office drawing power?"
"That, I wouldn't know."
***
Aside from the core creators of those three films, Vance Pictures and All-Continent Pictures were similarly shocked by the box office trajectory of *No More Bets*. They swiftly initiated investigations to find out how *No More Bets* had managed to pull this off!
How on earth had it bucked the trend and surged amidst the pincer attack of three major films?!
Then, they uncovered a staggering fact!
Aside from Weibo, *No More Bets* had completely exploded across Zhihu, Bilibili, and Tieba!
Zhihu:
The topic "How to evaluate the movie *No More Bets*?" ranked third on Zhihu's trending list, with 574 answers under the thread, and the top-voted comment garnering 3,657 likes.
[They actually dared to film this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheng Cheng, Wen Lian, Li Yang, Yan Gou'er, Qi Hao, Meng Cai!
Let me tell you guys, making this movie is an act of accumulating immense virtue!
......]
The topic "How to evaluate Cheng Cheng's performance in *No More Bets*?" ranked sixth on Zhihu's trending list, with 298 answers, and the top-voted comment receiving 1,783 likes.
[Highest rating: Doesn't look like acting; strict investigation is recommended.]
Meanwhile, because Zhihu's film review section was not traditionally prominent and Douban had not yet opened its ratings, *No More Bets* had already established its score on Zhihu:
85% of Zhihu users recommended it, rated by 1,876 people, which equated to 8.5 out of 10 points.
In comparison, *Glory Era* had only a 73% user recommendation rate, *Comedic Route* had 79%, and *The Flames of War* had 82%.
*Glory Era* was actually the lowest of them all!
Bilibili:
["Premier Review" No More Bets: The Biggest Dark Horse of the National Day Holiday! A Movie Worth 5 billion at the Box Office!!!]—1.67 million views!
[30 Minutes to Completely Explain Why You Must Never Gamble! Essential Knowledge Needed Before Watching No More Bets]—1.09 million views!
[Why Did Ah Cai Let Him Go? You Definitely Missed the Ending! A Ten-Thousand-Word Deconstruction of the Core Metaphors and Ultimate Details Behind No More Bets!]—890,000 views!
[Cheng Cheng: That Inarticulate, Straight-Faced Bro from the Days of Yore—Now He Has Truly Changed!]—800,000 views!
[No More Bets is Going to Explode! I Strongly Advise You to Go Watch It with Your Entire Family!]—570,000 views!
[No More Bets: Two Hours to Keep Parents Away from the Dangers of Online Fraud? First Time Feeling Ticket Prices Were So Worth It!]—300,000 views!
Overnight, countless film reviews for *No More Bets* emerged.
Basically, all the anti-fan bloggers had covered it!
Even UP hosts outside the film and television sector—from the dance sector to the *kichiku* (remix/parody) sector—stepped forward one after another to urge everyone to watch *No More Bets*!
Lu Chen also posted a dynamic update, displaying his movie ticket and reviewing it in four words:
Good! Go watch it!
Baidu Tieba:
Thread: [Shouldn't the best movie of the 2021 National Day holiday be *No More Bets*?], 165 replies.
Floor 1: "Indeed, damn it, who would have thought!"
Floor 2: "*The Flames of War* is all right too, but as an anti-fraud propaganda film, *No More Bets* is way too strong!"
Thread: [*Tieba Film Ratings* Dedicated Thread for Baidu Users to Rate the Movie No More Bets], 90 replies.
Floor 1: "10/10, must watch!"
Floor 2: "9, I suppose. High completion, tight pacing, and no need to worry about the acting of the main leads. After watching it, I can only say it's very powerful, and the acting of the supporting villains is entirely on point!"
Floor 3: "10! Haven't seen it yet, but for the sake of what Frog Bro did, I must unconditionally support it!"
Floor 4: "9.0 points. It still lacks a touch of realism, but the movie is indeed exceptionally well-made. Meng Cai was better than expected; his helplessness and despair felt very authentic. Cheng Cheng is flawless—Frog Bro has undergone Nirvana and been reborn. Nuff said, he's already attained god status in my heart! Li Yang and Wen Lian did well in conveying pain and fear, but there is still room for improvement in the naturalness of their ordinary dialogue."
Floor 5: "9 points ~ The more meaningful films, the better ~"
Floor 6: "8 points. I originally didn't want to give it a high score because the ending felt too rushed and carried a sense of forced sublimation. But compared to *Comedic Route* and *Glory Era*, it's way better—at least they didn't make a bad movie and then blame the audience for not understanding it!"
Floor 7: "10 points. Frog Bro showed utmost sincerity! Strongly hope everyone goes to watch it!"
***
Anti-fans!
Anti-fans!
Everything pointed straight to the anti-fans!