"Bro, what should I do, bro! Help me think of a way!" Hong Tianyi sat on the sofa in his brother Hong Tianjun’s office, holding his head in his hands, about to completely fall apart! This time he had lost too badly, so badly that he didn’t have the slightest chance to fight back!
War Wolf’s daily box office was almost equivalent to Three Lives of Love’s weekly revenue, and it was still explosively growing!
At such a time, even if he were a god, he would have run out of tricks.
So now, all he could do was to come and cry to his own brother.
"How can it be helped at this point?" Looking at the box office figures displayed on the website, Hong Tianjun, who had once faced the financial war with the United States unfazed, now felt a surge of helplessness.
The gap was just too big, far beyond Hong Tianjun’s expectations.
Originally he thought that Wang Hao might be capable of pulling in a billion in box office, but he never expected it to be this fierce!
Five hundred and eighty million in a single day, that was simply an unprecedented achievement in the history of Heavenly People’s Republic cinema!
Hong Tianjun was formidable, but that required having enough resources on his side, with such a huge gap between the two movies, how could a turnaround be possible?
"Bro, do you really have no solution?" Hong Tianyi looked at his brother and exclaimed, "If all else fails, let’s dig up his dirty history, let’s attack him! Let’s let the audience know this guy isn’t as good as he seems!"
"Nonsense!" As soon as he heard his brother’s words, Hong Tianjun immediately burst into anger!
"Think about it," Hong Tianjun frowned and said, "We are, after all, from one of the four great families, it was a fair bet, and he earned such a high box office fair and square. How could you just blacken his name like that?! If we do that, how could our Hong family ever hold our heads up in this circle again?!"
"But, but my company... that’s ten billion!" Hong Tianyi’s face showed his reluctance as he muttered, "Are we really just going to hand it over?"
"What else can we do?" Hong Tianjun shook his head and said, "We were the ones who made the bet, now we can only accept our loss gracefully! With the current momentum, this movie will make at least fifty billion at the box office!"
Fifty billion?! How could that be possible?!
The current global box office champion, converted into RMB, was only around sixty billion, could Wang Hao’s film bring in fifty billion?!
"That’s impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Hong Tianyi shook his head vigorously and exclaimed, "If you said thirty billion I might believe it, but fifty billion at the box office! That’s absolutely impossible! If he really achieves fifty billion, that would be one of the top three results globally! If that really happens, I’ll eat shit live on air!"
He had spoken casually, but, unfortunately, just at that moment, the office door was pushed open, and in came Wang Hao, Zhao Zhenhao, Wen Bin, and a group of people, all laughing and joking!
"I thought I just heard someone making a dare?" Wang Hao grinned at Hong Tianyi, "I heard that someone said... cough, cough, cough, yes, yes."
"Yeah, yeah, I heard it quite clearly," Zhao Zhenhao added, winking on the side, "Brother Tianyi, you can’t back out of your words, we all heard it."
"Exactly, exactly, I think with Brother Tianyi’s status, he obviously wouldn’t default on his promises, ha ha!" Wen Bin was visibly delighted, "Oh, I heard that Brother Tianyi has not been sleeping well these past few days..."
Seeing such a big group of people suddenly coming in, Hong Tianjun and Hong Tianyi were immediately stunned.
They hadn’t expected the other party to arrive so soon and even overheard their conversation!
Thus, Hong Tianyi felt even worse in an instant.
Words spoken are like water spilled—while it would have been okay if only they heard it, now Wang Hao and his group had heard everything...
"So what?!" Hong Tianyi gritted his teeth and shouted, "What if I said it? Do you really think your film could surpass fifty billion at the box office?! I’m telling you, even thirty billion would be impressive!"
Wang Hao and the others looked at each other...
"It seems like we came too early," Wang Hao said, stroking his chin, "I was just planning to discuss some business matters today, actually didn’t even plan to talk about merging or anything, but since you mention it, maybe we should wait a few more days. Let’s talk when the final box office figures are in?"
Now a staunch supporter of Wang Hao, Zhao Zhenhao nodded and said, "I think that makes sense, the total box office hasn’t come out yet, we indeed came a bit early."
"Shall we head back then?" Wen Bin took pleasure in misfortune, "Maybe next time we’ll get a chance to watch Brother Tianyi eat that... right?"
Then everyone nodded together, "Yes, yes, yes, that could be fun!"
"You guys!" Hong Tianyi yelled, "You will absolutely not exceed fifty billion in box office! Dare you bet on that?! If it doesn’t surpass fifty billion, don’t touch my company! But if it does, I’ll eat shit in public! Do you dare?!"
"Oh, this issue...," Wang Hao pondered for a while, "I think we can stir things up, then that’s settled!"
Upon hearing this, Hong Tianyi instantly felt exhilarated.
Kid, do you really think breaking fifty billion at the box office is that easy?! Your brain must be broken, I got you good with just a few words, huhu!"
Just as he was thinking this, he heard Wang Hao mutter as he walked out, "Actually, we initially didn’t want this company, but since Brother Tianyi you said so, it’s also good. If we lose, there’s no loss, and if we win, we can enjoy that ’what’s-it-called’ for free... Yeah, this deal is worthwhile!"
A group of people walked out laughing and jesting, and in an instant, Hong Tianyi’s face turned deathly pale, and he collapsed onto the sofa.
He was stunned for a while, and then suddenly slapped himself hard twice, "What the hell am I doing?! Damn it! Wang Hao, you wait!"
No wonder he was so upset. Initially, they were discussing resolving the bet peacefully, but now, well, he had gotten himself wrapped up in it!
Watching his brother’s frustrated expression, Hong Tianjun gently shook his head.
This brother was still too naive, too impulsive.
"Brother! Brother you can’t let me lose!" Hong Tianyi rushed to Hong Tianjun’s desk frantically, wailing, "If I lose this time, I really will have to eat shit! I’d rather die than lose face!"
Hong Tianjun took a deep breath—indeed, that was a problem. Losing some money was manageable, but losing face was the real trouble.
"I’ll think of something," Hong Tianjun opened a webpage and browsed randomly. However, when he saw the topic that had topped the hottest posts on Weibo, a wave of helplessness completely overwhelmed him!
"Unlocking the Highest Box Office Record in Global Cinema History: The Three Lives of Love Series Secures the Screen!"
Annual blockbuster: Locked Screen!
Director: Three Lives of Love Fans.
Leading Cinema Chains: All major theatres.
Starring: Various bystanders.
Movie Synopsis: This is yet another annual masterpiece from the Three Lives of Love fans, mainly telling the story of each fan of the Three Lives of Love movies buying a ticket to ensure cinemas cannot cancel their showings...
Statistics below— "After yesterday’s tally in major cities, on Saturday alone, Three Lives of Love fans locked almost twenty thousand screenings, successfully preventing War Wolf from breaking the global box office record for a single day. You guys rock!"
Then there were countless comments from netizens—
"It’s not unfair for idols to pay for their fans’ actions, stay hateful in one life!"
"Their promotions are so aggressive; such ticket locking isn’t surprising."
"Now we know how lousy films are made. Get a few young fresh actors, strike a few poses, act cute, fill two hours, and it’s ready for release. Then a bunch of rich idiots, rolling their eyes and sticking out their tongues, send their money over while loudly criticizing sincere works and secretly giving bad ratings. That’s how lousy films are born, pampered by these fools!"
"To secure screening schedules, fans buy one or two tickets per screening, like one person occupying a whole large table when dining; this group can do it."
"I actually thought they were ferocious! I even thought they’d bought out all the seats. Turns out it’s just one ticket per person. Disgusting!"
Everywhere, such messages filled the scene, and of course, more fans started intensively promoting War Wolf spontaneously to create a record-breaking viewer turnout—
"War Wolf can truly be described as a pioneering freak—when the missiles of the Heavenly People’s Liberation Army Navy crisscrossed the skies and landed on African soil, I knew instantly that achieving a box office of 5.8 billion on a single day wasn’t at all surprising."
"This is the first film where the armed forces of Heavenly People legally and rightfully deploy firepower to another country, filling a national essential void and satisfying the inner desires of the people—at a time when Heavenly People’s industry ranks first in the world, GDP second, and military power among the top three, while the world’s hegemony shows signs of decline, Russia is deeply mired, and Old Europe is in frequent turmoil, our filmmakers, media, and culture circles are still all damnably kneeling!"
"Have they never thought about opening their eyes and lifting their heads to see! See what we, the Heavenly Country people—their providers—want and wish to see? They offer nothing but shit! Yes, we know we were weak, we were poor; our country was invaded, divided; our ancestors faced uncertainties, died by the roadside, were oppressed and enslaved!"
"But that was all in the past!"
"Now, with the release of ’War Wolf,’ it has broken the single-day box office record, the opening weekend box office record, the first-week box office record, Chinese film box office record, viewer attendance record, Heavenly Country’s historical box office record one after another, just like a series of slaps across the faces of those who can’t stand up from kneeling, across the faces of the S.B directors who think they are so clever, across those from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and who come to the mainland to make a fortune while looking down on mainland viewers! PIA! PIA!! PIA!!! Electrifying, isn’t it!? Thrilling or what!? This is like a live-action version of YY fiction!"
"We need such films now! The country is strong, the people are wealthy! You still dare to bully us, missiles will bomb the crap out of you! Just these few missiles, worth a single-day box office of 5.8 billion!"
"The only pity was, yesterday we still fell 20 million short of breaking the record, damn brain-dead fans! Look what you’ve done!"
"Dear beloved spiritual shareholders, for that last global single-day box office record, brothers, let’s continue to charge tomorrow!"
Seeing post after post emerge, Hong Tianjun decisively shut down his computer, and then leaned back on the sofa.
"Tomorrow, audiences and fans will retaliate by watching the movie. There’s no saving it now."