Chapter 422 - Row Piece Rate (1/2)

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.