Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

April 23rd, Monday…

Pei Qian sipped his coffee and checked the work reports from the various departments on his laptop in the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.

Things were still not looking good for Mission and Choice.

The first week of the movie's box office had already been released, reaching 170 million yuan. Even though the first day's box office was only 22 million yuan, the box office after that was constantly increasing.

The other movies had the highest box office on their first day before they dropped rapidly. However, Mission and Choice was the exact opposite. The momentum was still very shocking after cutting the box office of 20 million yuan on their first day!

Many cinemas were also constantly increasing the number of screenings for 'Mission and Choice'. However, the amazing thing was that no matter how much they increased the number of screenings, the number of seats for 'Mission and Choice' did not decrease significantly. Many people were even wondering where the new audience came from.

What made Pei Qian's heart ache even more was that even a professional viewing software like Gou Yan application could not predict the final box office of Mission and Choice.

When the 20 million yuan box office on the first day of Mission and Choice was released, Gou Yan application estimated that the total box office would only be 350 million yuan. It was a sure loss.

However, on the third day, the box office of Mission and Choice suddenly began to rise against the trend. Gou Yan application raised the estimated box office to 500 million yuan.

A week later, the daily box office of Mission and Choice increased instead of decreasing. This made the Gou Yan application's box office estimation algorithm completely confused. Obviously, 500 million yuan was not enough. Gou Yan application raised the estimated box office to 800 million yuan!

Many people on the internet were puzzled by this number. They thought that Gou Yan application might have underestimated the box office at the beginning and gave a very excessive number now that they were slapped in the face and felt a little embarrassed.

At the moment, the peak of domestic movies' box office was a very outstanding comedy film. The box office exploded under the right circumstances, making 11 billion yuan directly. The previous box office champion was basically around 6-800 million yuan.

Many film critics thought that a box office explosion of 11 billion yuan was something that could only be chanced upon by luck. The 800 million yuan that Gou Yan application had estimated for Mission and Choice had basically reached the level of the domestic box office champion this year. They would still be strong competitors even if they could not win this box office championship in the end.

In recent years, the box office of Hollywood blockbusters has been around 600 million to 1 billion yuan. The box office that Gou Yan application had estimated for Mission and Choice was even comparable to those popular Hollywood blockbusters.

This made many people feel that it was ridiculous. That was because even though they too felt that Mission and Choice's quality was too high, the key was that the first day's box office was too little. The publicity was also completely lacking. Relying on these to reach 800 million box office? That was a little too unreal.

That was because there did not seem to be any precedent for domestic movies to become box office winners with no publicity!

What's more, the true investment amount in the movie 'Mission and Choice' had sparked discussions online.

Someone revealed that 'Mission and Choice' had invested at least 200 million yuan. It could only be more. What's more, almost all of the money had been spent on film production. The actors' remuneration and publicity fees were almost negligible.

If the final box office earnings were 600 million yuan, it would mean that the movie had worked for nothing. It would not make losses nor profit. It would only make a small profit if it was 800 million yuan.

However, this number was not confirmed. Some people felt that it was bragging, while others felt that the number was probably true after seeing the special effects in the movie. They could not help but worry about Fei Huang Workspace, afraid that they would not be able to recoup their costs even if the movie was good.

On the other hand, the sales volume of the game for the first week had already reached 800,000 sets!

According to the calculation of 158 yuan per game, Tengda's total income had reached more than 80 million yuan.

This figure also surprised many professional media personnel in the country.

That was because it was indeed incomparable to the foreign market even though the domestic standalone game's sales had improved. Mission and Choice was a Real-time strategy game. There was already a limited group of target audience. It was already a pleasant surprise that they could obtain such sales.

Many people expressed that Boss Pei's godly marketing tactic before the game was released had a very good effect. Many sentimental local gamers bought 'Mission and Choice' without any hesitation to express their support for domestically-produced games even though they did not play RTS games at all. It was touching.

What's more, the game's lifespan was longer than the movie. The movie could only be released for a month. Most of the income would be generated within that month. The game's lifespan could be one or two years or even longer. After that, it could continue to generate income through discounts.

What's more, 'Mission and Choice' was a large production. It had the potential to become a hit in the overseas market. They could earn another sum when the movie was released overseas and the game was released on the overseas gaming platform.

All in all, based on the current situation, Mission and Choice's prospects were great!

Pei Qian sipped his coffee silently, feeling inexplicably melancholic.

How did things turn out like this…

He did not understand.

Pei Qian planned to review everything that had happened during the long period of research and development of Mission and Choice if he had the time. He wanted to find a mole and see what went wrong.

However, it was obviously not the time for revision. He had to first save the situation and think about reviewing it after its vital signs stabilized.

Pei Qian had already made a series of arrangements last week in order to spend money.

He had already found the person-in-charge for the sales team. Tian Mo was memorizing the rules that Boss Pei gave him every day. Liang Qingfan was also designing the experience shop.

The preliminary preparations for Slow Movement Studio had basically been finalized. Once the funds were in place, they would be able to develop it once Lin Wan's design plan and team recruitment were completed.

Of course, the most optimistic thing was still Bunny Tail Live-Stream. Ever since the "mandatory one hour" rule was released, the website's popularity was no longer as high as before. Pei Qian could spend money without worry again.

Pei Qian decided to make a trip to Bunny Tail Live-Stream to see how Old Ma and Chen Yufeng were doing after finishing his coffee. At the same time, he would give them a sum of money to spend and to delegate some pressure away.

…

Half an hour later, Pei Qian arrived at Bunny Tail live-stream.

Pei Qian could clearly feel that the atmosphere had changed the moment he entered Bunny Tail Live-Stream's office.

It seemed like everyone's morale had suffered a heavy blow.

In fact, the popularity of Bunny Tail's live-stream and the number of viewers would not affect everyone's salary. However, most employees had a strong sense of belonging to Tengda after all. They treated Bunny Tail live-stream as their own business. In such a situation, morale would definitely be affected.

Pei Qian could not help but feel a little guilty.

Thus, he went straight to Chen Yufeng's office and said, "I see that everyone has been working quite hard recently. I'll give everyone an additional 30% salary as a reward this month."

Chen Yufeng quickly said, "Thank you, Boss Pei!"

Ma Yang was not around today, but he wasn't here to look for him today, so Pei Qian did not ask too much.

It was enough for Chen Yufeng to be there.

Pei Qian sat down on the sofa and noticed that even though Chen Yufeng looked a little happy about the increase in salary, he still looked lonely.

Pei Qian asked, "How's the situation on the website now? Are there still many people cursing online?"

Chen Yufeng might be a little down but he would still take responsibility for his work. He immediately answered, "The current situation on the website… is still alright I guess."

"The 'mandatory one hour' rule has only been released two days ago. The website's popularity has indeed fallen drastically. Some live-streams had lost two-third of their audience while some live-streams with fewer people had been cleared to zero."

"Some live-streamers could not take it and ran away after cursing for a while. However, some stayed behind."

"Now, the situation has stabilized a little, and the data has increased slightly."

"Many old viewers have found a way to adapt to the 'mandatory one hour'. Some would open the webpage and let it hang it for an hour when they had nothing to do. Some would set up a learning plan to learn from a series of videos and watch them for an hour every day. Some would use their phones to hang the focus mode for an hour and focus on doing their own things."

"Not many people continued scolding after everyone started to get used to it."

"The other live-stream platforms are very happy. Basically, they don't view Bunny Tail Live-Stream as their main competitor. Previously, many live-stream platforms had plans to go against Bunny Tail Live-Stream. Those plans should have been abolished now. Some live-stream platforms also stopped imitating the functions of Bunny Tail Live-Stream. They did not continue developing it."