sinovels Chapter 106 Writing is really good
Chapter 106 Writing is really good
When Zhao Bo sent the word "爽" (shuang, meaning awesome/satisfying), Luo Jinnian was standing in the cold wind at the entrance of the movie theater.
The night wind on the first day of the Lunar New Year made him shrink his neck. He put his phone back in his pocket and walked home along the old street lit up by streetlights.
The next morning, Luo Jinnian was woken up by her phone vibrating.
A screenshot popped up in the group chat, showing the initial rating on Douban. "Crazy Stone" received an 8.2 rating, which was quite rare for a domestic comedy film to open with a score above 8, especially considering that many people still held prejudices against domestic films at the time (which they deserved).
Luo Jinnian stared at the number for two seconds, then put his phone away, turned over, and went back to sleep. He knew the score would rise further as more people watched and discussed it more deeply. As more viewers unearthed the hidden meanings beneath the humor, word-of-mouth spread, and the rating naturally increased from 8.2 little by little.
When I woke up at noon, the group chat was already buzzing. Zhao Bo posted a screenshot of the real-time box office rankings, with "Crazy Stone" in fourth place.
The top three are two Lunar New Year blockbusters and one Hollywood import, with costs more than ten times higher, screenings several times more, and marketing budgets many times larger.
But Zhao Bo posted the message "Fourth." Lao Yan replied in the group, "What's wrong with fourth? Fourth is already very good." Director Qin added, "This is only the first day." Luo Jinnian looked at these messages but didn't reply because he knew Zhao Bo wasn't complaining; he was just making empty promises.
What a great employee!
You can run by tying a radish to yourself.
Actually, Zhao Bo had a reason for doing this. Ever since he got the script, there had been rumors in the industry that "Early Spring Tea's script could get good results even if you tied a donkey to it." Zhao Bo did this partly to prove himself, and partly because he was afraid of delaying the boss's good script.
The box office of "Crazy Stone" tripled on the third day of the Lunar New Year.
Word of mouth started to spread.
Many viewers posted on the forum after watching the movie, saying, "I watched 'Crazy Stone' yesterday and brought my whole family to see it again today."
Someone commented below, "My friend said it was good, but I didn't believe him. After watching it, I was really impressed." They also posted a screenshot of a live video from the movie theater entrance: people leaving the theater were laughing, and someone was imitating the line from the movie, "I'll fuck you up." Someone next to them said, "Your plan is flawless," and then everyone burst into laughter.
On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the number of screenings increased.
It started at less than 10 percent and has now risen to nearly 20 percent.
Ideally, it's because the cinemas had a change of heart; realistically, it's because the occupancy rate was too high.
The same theater can be full when "Crazy Stone" is shown, but only half full when another blockbuster is shown. Anyone would choose to watch the other movie.
Zhao Bo posted a picture on his WeChat Moments that day: on the screening schedule of a movie theater in Chongqing, "Crazy Stone" was scheduled for seven screenings from morning to night, and each screening was marked "sold out".
This is a military achievement.
On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, the last day of the Spring Festival holiday, "Crazy Stone" surpassed the Hollywood import film in daily box office revenue, climbing to third place.
Someone calculated that, based on a cost of over three million, the film broke even on the day of its release, and the rest was pure profit.
Zhao Bo did not forward the data. Instead, he posted a message on his WeChat Moments that seemed completely unrelated to the box office: "When you reach the summit, you can see all the mountains below."
He went crazy for Nima.
He's really taking advantage of his master's power; his colleagues are furious at his smug attitude.
"Even with the script of early spring tea, I can still play a winning hand."
"Yes, so is Early Spring Culture Company still hiring?"
On the first day back to work after the holiday, a whiteboard appeared in the office of Early Spring Culture. Meng Zhaoming had it hung up, and on it, written in red pen, were the latest box office data and Douban rating for "Crazy Stone." Zhao Bo stood in front of the whiteboard, looking up at the row of numbers, and laughed triumphantly with satisfaction.
Jiabei walked over and glanced at him, patting him on the shoulder. "Don't look anymore, there will be even higher ones later." Director Qin chimed in from the side, "Old Meng, don't make wild predictions and scare the kid." Zhao Bo snapped out of his daze. "I'm not a kid, I'm thirty." Director Qin shrugged. "Here, thirty can be a kid, and thirteen can be an adult."
Luo Jinnian didn't go to the company for those few days. He took personal leave and flew from home to Beijing. He stayed in the office for two hours and talked with Zhao Bo about some follow-up arrangements.
Zhao Bo still has a few projects in talks, but he hasn't decided what to film next, and Luo Jinnian isn't in a hurry to arrange anything for him. "Take a break first," Luo Jinnian said. "The Spring Festival film season is over, and there are still promotional tours to do. Finish this first, and we'll talk about the next project in the spring." Zhao Bo didn't ask any more questions and nodded.
Anyway, I'll do whatever the boss tells me to do from now on.
During the first week of school, some students in the class were talking about "Crazy Stone".
The boys in the front row were imitating Dao Ge's line, "Your plan is flawless," while the girls in the back row were discussing whether Bao Shihong was the unluckiest person in the whole film.
Gu Yanxi listened for a while, then closed her book, turned to look at Luo Jinnian, and said, "Aren't you going to discuss this? It's getting uncomfortable to keep it bottled up for so long."
Luo Jinnian smiled and said, "I feel better after talking to you guys. Talking to them will only make me more annoyed."
We're all the same age; I didn't intend to use my limited abilities to defeat them.
Chu Qingning leaned over from the back row and whispered, "Brother, Dad asked at the dinner table yesterday if we wanted to see 'Crazy Stone'." Luo Jinnian's pen paused again. "What did you say?" Chu Qingning blinked. "Did you recommend watching it?" Luo Jinnian: "Of course! The more you watch, the more movie tickets you earn."
In early March, "Crazy Stone" finished its box office run at around 25 million yuan. This wasn't the highest figure among the Spring Festival films, with several others ahead of it. But for a film with a budget of just over three million yuan and a director who was virtually unknown beforehand, this number exceeded everyone's expectations. Zhao Bo drank two beers at the celebration banquet, his expression unchanged, and he talked much more than usual.
Director Qin poured Zhao Bo a glass of juice. "The road ahead is long, take it slow." Zhao Bo tilted his head back and finished the juice. "I know."
Luo Jinnian didn't attend the celebration banquet. He returned to Zhanjiang and was working on his article for the March issue of "Story Club" in his rented room. His phone sat on the corner of the table, the screen occasionally lighting up—it was a group chat posting photos of the celebration banquet. Zhao Bo stood in the middle of the crowd, holding a drink.
He had just bought a car he had wanted for a long time. After years of hard work in the industry, he had finally gotten his chance.
A motorcycle passed by outside the window, its engine sound growing louder and then fading away at the street corner.
The night breeze in Langya City in March was no longer so cool. Luo Jinnian finished writing the manuscript, leaned back in his chair to rest for a while, picked up his phone, and scrolled to the post Zhao Bo had made on WeChat Moments: "My mom called me yesterday after watching a movie and praised my photos for being particularly good."
Luo Jinnian looked at the message, smiled, and thought:
Zhao Bo's mother may only understand what her son is doing this year.
Not everyone needs to be seen by the whole world, but at least, being seen by the people you care about most is enough.
The sunk costs in the film industry are too high; it's better to write your own articles.