"Zombie-Master" had only been released for 15 hours, but it had already earned 18.5 million US dollars at the box office on its first day. It immediately made headlines in the North American entertainment news, and the news quickly reached Hua Xia's ears.
18.5 million US dollars. Not only did it break the box office records of all Chinese films in North America, but it also broke the box office records of all foreign films in North America! This was definitely the strongest box office result for a Chinese film in the overseas market!
When the news reached Hua Xia, Hua Xia was still in the wee hours of the morning. After major TV stations and newspapers received the shocking news, they immediately began to work overtime to prepare for the next day's news. Television stations began to prepare material for the morning news. In contrast, the newspapers were in an awkward position. The newspapers had already completed the day's news layout and were now being printed at the printing plant. In another hour or two, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of newspapers would be sent out from the printing plant to all parts of the country. So, it was basically impossible to add this news to the newspapers of the day.
The news program editors of major radio stations also began to sort out the news overnight and write press releases. This way, they could be the first to broadcast the news on the traffic radio the next morning.
At the same time, Li Mu received the latest news from Lucas. All major North American cinemas had increased the number of screenings for "Zombie-Master" tomorrow. The total box office had increased from the original 20 million US dollars to 33 million US dollars. In other words, if the occupancy rate could reach 90% tomorrow, they could basically earn 30 million US dollars at the box office for a single day!
According to the current operating procedures of Muying's Ticketing System in North America, the cinemas had to upload the next day's screenings to the official server before 5: 30 p.m. on the same day. For example, my cinema has eight screening halls, and each screening hall has five to six screenings. I decide which films will be shown in each of the eight screening halls. Then, I upload this information to Muying's Ticketing System. Muying's Ticketing System will then release the screening schedule for the audience to purchase tickets.
After the cinemas uploaded the screening schedule for the next day, the officials had 30 minutes to confirm and modify it. During this time, the cinemas could still make adjustments. However, at 6 p.m. sharp, Muying's Ticketing System would lock the rights to modify the screening schedule for the next day. At the same time, the cinemas would be allowed to purchase seats. In this case, the cinemas could no longer make any changes to the screening schedule for the next day. If the cinemas changed the screening schedule without authorization, causing the users to be unable to watch the movie after they purchased the tickets, Muying's Ticketing System would punish the cinemas. If the cinemas changed the screening schedule without authorization, causing the users to be unable to watch the movie after they purchased the tickets, Muying's Ticketing System would punish the cinemas.
In the future, Hua Xia, when the Internet was developing rapidly, the cinemas could purchase tickets at least two days in advance. Some could even purchase tickets three days in advance. However, Muying's Ticketing System had just started not long ago, and there was no competition on the market. Therefore, Li Mu did not set too high a requirement for the advance purchase period. Once the cinemas were completely familiar with the online ticketing system, he would let them extend the pre-sale period.
In order to further increase the box office appeal, Li Mu specially called Zhao Kang late at night and assigned him a new task for the Internet Water Army.
Under Zhao Kang's unremitting efforts and training, the Internet Water Army had become an extremely powerful team of Internet Water Army. This team was not just a low-end Internet Water Army. More importantly, under Li Mu's instructions, Zhao Kang had built a truly high-end think tank. There were more than 20 top students who were well-versed in marketing, publicity, and consumer psychology. They helped Zhao Kang come up with ideas and execute the plan. With the help of these high-quality talents, Zhao Kang's Water Army could now easily advertise online in any country and in any language. They did not need to understand other countries' languages, they only needed to follow the step-by-step instructions.
This time, Li Mu planned to let Zhao Kang's Water Army play up such a story on the Internet. The core of the story was: An arrogant idiot who looked down on Zombie-Master, missed out on a huge fortune, and was slapped in the face.
This kind of story was very popular among the netizens. For example, some movies had been heavily advertised during the release stage: A star missed the opportunity to play a certain role in a certain movie because of a last-minute increase in the price. Now that the movie has become popular, the star must be regretting it.
Interestingly, when the Water Army publicized such news, they never stated who the star was. Therefore, the netizens began to use their imagination. Some people thought it was A, some thought it was B, and some thought it was C. Then, there was a large group of Water Army dedicated to the Internet. Therefore, a large group of netizens ridiculed A, B, and C online, saying that they had eyes but could not see. They did not pay attention to others in the past, and now they could not afford to associate with others …
No matter which country, netizens loved such face-slapping scenes. This was the case for Hua Xia netizens, and the North American netizens were no exception.
Therefore, this time, Li Mu planned to use the famous Harvey Weinstein to test the waters. He instructed Zhao Kang to let his Water Army fabricate such a story on the Internet.
In the beginning, Li Mu brought Zombie-Master to Harvey Weinstein, a famous Hollywood film and television mogul, in hopes that he could help distribute it in North America. In the end, Harvey Weinstein looked down on the movie. Before he had even seen the movie, he told Li Mu, "Based on my understanding of the North American market, I can tell you without watching this movie that this movie is a pile of sh * t, and a pile of sh * t that is more than a decade old. The North American audience will not pay for such sh * t!"
Here, Harvey Weinstein's arrogance was highlighted. Without even watching the movie, he self-righteously concluded that the movie was not good and was sh * t. Such a pretentious person would be the most annoying no matter which country he was in.
Then, the story was not over yet. Li Mu put down his net worth and asked Harvey Weinstein to watch the movie before making a decision. However, Harvey Weinstein still refused. He said to Li Mu, "I'm not as good as you in terms of the Internet, but in terms of movies, you're far worse than me. If I say this movie is not good, then it definitely won't do. If it can break 10 million US dollars in the North American box office, then God is blind!"
Therefore, Li Mu could only cooperate with Lucas and let Lucas be in charge of the North American distribution. And now, look at how popular this movie was! It had not even been 24 hours since it was released, and it had already earned 18.5 million US dollars at the box office. It had completely slapped Harvey Weinstein in the face. Presumably, Harvey Weinstein must be very depressed now, right? Serves you right! At first, you ignored this movie. Now, this movie is beyond your reach!
After listening to Li Mu's plan, Zhao Kang was shocked for a long time before he said, "I understand. I'll arrange for someone to prepare it."
After that, Zhao Kang asked carefully, "But Little Mu, I would like to ask, how did this Harvey Weinstein offend you?"
Li Mu laughed. "He didn't offend me."
Zhao Kang exclaimed, "He didn't offend you. Why did you mess with him like this … If this is over, I'm afraid his reputation will be ruined, right?"
Li Mu smiled and said, "Kang Zi, believe me, this guy is not a good person."
"Is that so?" Zhao Kang asked curiously, "What did this guy do?"
Li Mu said, "This person scammed Director Hua Xia and the film company. He offered millions of US dollars to buy the overseas distribution rights for Hua Xia's movie. After the other competitors withdrew, he immediately turned hostile and said he didn't want it anymore. Then, he wanted to buy it at one-tenth of the price. Because there were no competitors, in the end, the copyright of the movie could only admit that it was bad luck and sell the copyright to him at a low price."
"F * ck, such a bastard!"
Li Mu smiled and said, "This is still a light punishment. Let me tell you this, I have a rumor. It is said that this guy violated a lot of Hollywood actresses, but because he is influential and powerful in Hollywood, no one dared to stand up and say anything …"
"B * stard …"
Li Mu said, "So I decided to use him as an example. Who asked him to be so influential in Hollywood? In the future, if I want to have a say in Hollywood, all the influential oligarchs will be my targets! Because in the field I am involved in, other oligarchs are not allowed to appear! "
Most of the time, Li Mu was focused on development and rarely showed his fangs to the outside world. However, this did not mean that Li Mu was a novice who only knew how to work hard and did not know how to scheme.
He didn't have any enmity with Harvey. Logically speaking, he shouldn't harm others for his own interests. However, Harvey also didn't have any enmity with the Chinese film industry. Logically speaking, he shouldn't harm the Chinese film industry's people for his own interests. The crux of the problem was that there was no reason in a fight between capital.
In the years when Baojie, Lianhe and Lihua entered Hua Xia, they almost bought all the state-owned daily chemical brands. There were many unethical competitive methods behind this. Just the price war alone had forced many local daily chemical brands to death. They used the preferential policies given to foreign investors to squeeze the survival space of local brands, and even lowered the retail price to lower than the cost price of similar products of local brands. After the local brands were dragged into the quagmire, they took the opportunity to buy them. In this way, they destroyed the local brands one by one, and finally formed their own absolute monopoly position. In front of them, every local brand that refused to accept the acquisition was constantly subjected to all kinds of attacks from them.
There were many more unethical things behind this. For example, they bought the local laundry detergent brand "Panda" and promised to promote this local brand after the acquisition. However, after the acquisition was completed, the brand was immediately frozen. The originally famous local brand disappeared in an instant, and the original market space was immediately divided by their own products.
Although such a thing was immoral, it was a true portrayal of the competition of capital. The essence of the competition of capital was four words: kill the opponent. If one were to add a scope to these four words, it would be: kill all opponents.
If Li Mu wanted to improve his influence in Hollywood and even become an oligarch in Hollywood, the first thing he had to do was to kill all the oligarchs in Hollywood at this stage. If he could not even figure this out, how could he become an oligarch?
Li Mu was not a punisher who enforced justice on behalf of heaven, nor was he a simple and kind little boy. He just felt that after jumping out of the country, he did not need to be so upright. On the contrary, he must have enough oligarchic thinking.
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