Super Zoo-Chapter 558 - 553: 60 Million Box Office

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On the second day of the release of Terror Animal City, the nationwide box office was revealed to have reached 2.627 million, with a strong upward trend.

The third day of Terror Animal City's release was also, as per the original plan, the last day of its screening.

The scheduling adjustments by various cinema chains hadn't officially started yet, except for Poly, which had advanced it by one day; Animal City was still being shown normally according to the original schedule for the most part.

The box office on that day neared the 4 million mark. Among this, 30% was attributed to the adjustments made by the Poly cinema chain;

With a screening duration of three days, and facing extremely unfavorable scheduling, the nationwide box office neared 9 million!

Mr. Ling, who was following I Am a Passerby closely, noticed that, within the three days, the film had earned 22 million, more than double the amount of Animal City, but he was alert to the fact that in the box-office battle between the two, I Am a Passerby only secured 75% of Animal City's earnings.

In this confrontation, I Am a Passerby lost.

Moreover, I Am a Passerby had already had a three-day run in the prime time slots. Usually, it's difficult for a film's box office to surpass previous figures afterward, unless it's a film that could maintain a balance through word-of-mouth fermentation;

Animal City, on the other hand, was different; the film had mostly been screened during off-peak hours with fewer showtimes, which indicated a large potential for a breakout later on.

If one considered the screening rate and factored in the different screening times, even during off-peak hours, Animal City's revenue far surpassed that of I Am a Passerby.

Mr. Ling once again called his assistant, and this time he gave an unequivocal order: by any means necessary, the screening share of Animal City must be increased to 10%, and it should be given better time slots as much as possible.

The national box office data was quickly placed on the desks of cinema chain managers across the country. Following Mr. Ling of Poly, many other cinema chains took similar measures and adjusted the scheduling of Terror Animal City or changed the screening times, freeing up relatively popular prime time slots and, without exception, extended the screening period.

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And there arose an interesting 'tacit understanding'; all the major cinema chains adopted the tactic of pitting Terror Animal City against I Am a Passerby, scheduling them in different theatres but at the same time.

The most exaggerated chain even seemed to intentionally stir up rivalry between the two films, aligning all their screenings in identical time slots; whenever this theatre was showing I Am a Passerby, the one next door would inevitably be screening Animal City.

Wanda Cinema Line's shares rose from 2.5% to 5%, with the screening period extended by a week;

New Earth Cinema Line's shares rose from 4% to 8.5%, with the screening period extended by ten days;

China Film International's shares went from 3% to 6%, with the screening period extended by two weeks;

Poly cinema chain, under Mr. Ling's keen instincts and decisive actions, achieved a screening share of 10%;

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The average screening share for Terror Animal City across the nation reached 7.5%. While not high, this figure was already quite remarkable for a small-production film with an unknown director and new actors without celebrity involvement. It even surpassed the local film invested by Li Bingbing and Ren Quan, and was nearly on par with the overall screening share of I Am a Passerby.

"Terror Animal City? What movie is that, never heard of it?"

"Directed by Guo Zijian, starring Nangong Huang? Who are they, I don't recognize any of them."

"The producer is Long Wu, oh, probably a new co-production between two places, right?"

"Eh? Why is it labeled as a horror film? The poster doesn't look scary at all, there are lots of animals, and that rabbit looks funny with one ear half broken off, all bandaged up..."

"Feels more like a comedy."

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"Let's see it, since we've watched all the other films anyway."

Audiences suddenly found that there was a horror film in the theaters they hadn't noticed before, its poster displayed alongside those of many blockbusters. Almost every cinema had one or two showings of it during prime time.

On the first day of the new schedule, ticket sales for Crazy Animal City surged dramatically, sweeping up 9 million at the box office in just one day;

However, relative to popular blockbusters, a single-day box office of 9 million was hardly worth mentioning—it was inconspicuous and unremarkable among the summer season's popular movies.

But it all depends on what you compare it with. If compared to average films, this performance would be considered mediocre, or even quite good. After all, the box office for I am Just an Audience Member was only 8 million on its opening day.

However, this was just the beginning. The explosion happened over the following days, with even stronger momentum.

Four days later, a new round of box office statistics was released.

Second week of the summer season, this week's box office statistics.

I am Just an Audience Member had a weekly total revenue of 40 million. The income showed a steady upward trend. Excluding the effect of later scheduling, the income in the latter half of the week actually increased slightly, indicating that the film's reputation was gradually taking effect and that it had the potential for sustained box office performance. Therefore, the major cinema chains didn't really make way for Animal City but still arranged a good number of screenings;

On Douban, the rating for I am Just an Audience Member didn't change much, holding steady at 7.4;

For Tiny Times, an initial three-day concentrated surge raked in 300 million at the box office. The growth in the following four days significantly slowed down, with a weekly total of 440 million. This was very much in line with the characteristics of fan-driven movies: a massive influx of fans rushed to theaters in the first few days, but once the fan fever subsided, without the accumulation of favorable reviews, the follow-up appeal was weak. Non-fan audiences were unwilling to pay for the cinema experience, resulting in a rapid decline in ticket sales.

On Douban, the rating for Tiny Times also didn't change much, hovering around 4.4;

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Monk Comes Down the Mountain had a total box office of 400 million in one week, showing a steady, albeit unspectacular, downward trend.

Although this film was almost unanimously tagged as a flop, driven by the fame of the director and actors, as well as the seemingly profound worldview the film attempted to convey, there were still quite a few people willing to check it out;

Moreover, there seems to be a rather peculiar phenomenon in the mainland market: the worse a film is, the more people go to see it. It's as if they're spending money to criticize and see just how bad a movie can be—how, where, and to what extent it fails.

On Douban, its rating, like its box office, maintained a steady downward trend, having reached 4.8. Gay themes have been one of the blockbuster appeals in the film industry in recent years, but this movie managed to make even that annoying—it's quite an odd case.

Though Douban's ratings might not be 100% accurate, one thing is for sure: a film rated at 4.8 is certainly not a good film.

For several other domestic films, the most pitiful one was only screened for two days, showed three or four times and then was taken off, with a total box office of just over 300,000—not worth considering in statistics; the others generally ranged from several million to over ten million.

Terror Animal City had a total box office close to 9 million for the first three days and started gaining momentum from the fourth day.

On the fourth day, affected by scheduling adjustments, the national total box office exceeded the sum of the first three days, reaching 9.2 million;

This was just the beginning.

On the fifth day, 12 million;

On the sixth day, 15 million;

On the seventh day, 20 million!

Over the course of the week, Terror Animal City's nationwide total box office hit the major milestone of 65 million.