However, Xiao He soon stopped being envious, because good fortune was about to come their way too—
After Liu Rulan came out of the hospital room, she hurriedly took Xiao He and left.
Of course, they weren't rushing back to catch up on sleep, but rather heading to the studio.
It was only then that Xiao He noticed the studio was already brightly lit, with their entire publicity department already at their workstations.
Seeing Liu Rulan and Xiao He enter, they all looked over, their faces no longer showing any sleepiness, only the excitement of soon receiving bonuses.
"Silent Search has already imploded. What we need to do now is divide up all their traffic, seize the entire Festival box office market, while continuing to market their heat, using them as a comparison group, stepping on them to rise up."
Liu Rulan had already composed herself and was commanding the publicity team with swift efficiency.
Everyone immediately sprang into action.
Then Liu Rulan also looked at Xiao He: "I've already contacted Director Ren. Soon he'll be bringing the investors of Law of the Jungle to meet with theater chain representatives."
Xiao He nodded, roughly guessing Liu Rulan's intention: "Snatching screening slots?"
"Exactly."
Liu Rulan nodded, a gleam of excitement appearing on her face: "Now that the Silent Search production team has gotten into such major trouble, the film definitely can't be released anymore. But the theater chains have already cleared screening slots in advance. If there's no film to fill those slots, this situation could become really problematic."
And currently, the only film in the same release window capable of replacing Silent Search was their Law of the Jungle!
"So now it's no longer us begging them for more screenings—it's them begging us to fill the slot early."
"But what about the fans if we move up our release? We shouldn't end up following in Silent Search's footsteps."
Silent Search had faced fan backlash because of their schedule change. If they also moved up their release, it might similarly provoke fan dissatisfaction...
"No problem, this responsibility naturally falls on the Silent Search production team and the theater chains. What does it have to do with us?"
Liu Rulan smiled confidently.
"Moreover, Law of the Jungle received excellent reviews after its preview screenings. Many fans have been eagerly waiting. As long as we negotiate compensation for the schedule change with the theater chains and provide rescheduling compensation to fans, this situation should pass smoothly."
They had many more advantages compared to Silent Search!
This was purely picking up the pieces!
So early in the morning, netizens who had just woken up from their dreams looked at the complete upheaval online and were utterly stunned.
[Huh? What happened? I just slept for one night, and the world has turned upside down?]
[Silent Search got pulled, and Law of the Jungle is being forced to replace it? What's going on?]
[The entire Silent Search crew is currently detained at the police station. Shouldn't the theaters pull it immediately? Are they waiting for more explosions?]
[Wait, then why are they serving up our Law of the Jungle? During the previous battle for screening slots, you weren't saying this. You said Silent Search had a better fanbase and would have higher attendance rates, so you gave the majority to Silent Search. Now you're getting slapped in the face, huh? Tsk tsk.]
[I want to say it too—several theater chains are being way too greedy. Before, Silent Search posters were directly displayed at theater entrances. What? Now quietly taking them down?]
[I think Law of the Jungle shouldn't replace it! They should learn their lesson—these things that only look at status without considering quality. Nowadays theaters occasionally screen several utterly terrible money-laundering films. Sometimes I really want to report them for fraud.]
Not only were netizens confused, but even the celebrities who had previously helped promote Silent Search were bewildered.
The promotional campaign had been massive before. Silent Search hadn't just used their own actors—they'd also invited other actors and celebrities from the industry to help promote. When this incident exploded, these promoting celebrities naturally got implicated too, forcing them to quickly delete their previous promotional posts.
Some simply took this opportunity to issue apology statements to distance themselves, while others directly went silent, planning to wait until this storm passed.
Meanwhile, Director Ren finally negotiated the terms, tearing off a large chunk of "meat" from the theater chains, unprecedentedly securing 54% of screening slots.
This meant that even before its official release, Law of the Jungle had already taken over more than half of the entire Qingming Festival market.
Moreover, the theater chains promised this was only the screening allocation during the advanced release period. When the actual Qingming holiday arrived, they would appropriately increase Law of the Jungle's screenings based on market response.
Given Law of the Jungle's current momentum, it might truly create a Qingming Festival box office miracle.
Of course, for now this was just some fans' fantasy.
Since the major changes several years ago, with the economic downturn, the previously somewhat prosperous Qingming Festival slot had declined into the worst movie release period, becoming dominated by imported films. For the past four years, foreign films had consecutively won the Qingming Festival box office championship four times.
This year there were also several imported foreign films that divided up the remaining screening slots. Whether Law of the Jungle could suddenly emerge victorious this year would depend on subsequent market response—
Thus Law of the Jungle ultimately chose to release early on April 1st!
Fans who had already purchased pre-sale tickets could reschedule or refund their tickets in advance. The theater chains would unconditionally process refunds and compensation, giving each person a free small box of popcorn.
On the day the schedule change was announced, Law of the Jungle's pre-sale box office actually increased instead of decreasing, officially breaking through twenty million.
With Silent Search's previous heat, Law of the Jungle perfectly absorbed all the traffic from their month-long marketing efforts. Building on the heat of the entire Silent Search crew's arrest, it also sparked curiosity among casual viewers, making more people pay attention to the Qingming Festival box office trends.
On opening day, Law of the Jungle's first-day box office broke seventy million.
Xiao He and Liu Zehang's character names trended on Hot Search, with multiple media outlets reporting.
[This morally ambiguous ending is so satisfying! This is exactly why I came to the cinema!]
[You must watch the extra scene—if you don't, it's like you haven't seen Law of the Jungle at all!]
[Who puts such amazing fight scenes in the extra scene? Director Ren, you've changed!]
[Ah He, pack your bags—time to level up your status.]
[Both male leads are excellent! They're the actors who truly deserve to blow up!]
[To be honest, Liu Zehang and Xiao He are indeed among the better actors in the new generation. I have no idea how Director Ren thought of pairing them together—he's truly a genius.]
[A little-known fact: this is Old Liu and Xiao He's second collaboration. Their previous film was as brothers in Killing Life, and now they're dual protagonists in Law of the Jungle. It's really quite moving.]
[Wow, that's a fact so obscure it's giving me goosebumps.]
[Then let me share another little-known fact: apparently Director Ren scooped up Liu Zehang and Xiao He at the Silent Search audition site. They didn't get selected for Silent Search back then, and got mocked online for quite a while. Who would have thought Director Ren would pick them up and take them to film Law of the Jungle.]
[What? That actually happened?]
[Oh my god, so Brother Xiao almost joined that crew full of villains?]
[Yes, thinking about it now is terrifying. Apparently almost all the Silent Search actors got investigated, all their work suspended, and they haven't been released yet. Their agencies are quietly staying silent now because they've been warned by the authorities above, afraid they'll be investigated too.]
[Oh my god, thank you for not selecting them, Silent Search!]
[Thank you, Director Feng, for not dragging them down with you.]
[Thank you, Director Ren, for recognizing their talent!]