The second day after the release of "The Death of a Mountain Village".
Box office revenue, 2.41112 million yuan.
Number of viewers, 120,556.
Compared to the premiere data the night before.
Although the number of viewers decreased by more than 80,000 on the second day, the data is still considered good in the niche horror film category.
Compared with other horror films of the same genre, "The Death of a Mountain Village" has not completely flopped yet.
Other horror films are basically ignored by the second day of their release.
Unless there are big-name actors or renowned directors, the data will not be too bad.
Guobin Hotel.
Upon receiving the box office data for the second day of the film's release, Gao Fei only glanced at it and was not very concerned.
He was mainly focused on whether the second batch of viewers would go to the hospital overnight, just like the first batch.
Since nine in the morning, he had been sitting in front of the computer, constantly refreshing the social media pages.
But until lunchtime, the internet was still calm.
"Could it be that the audience who watched the movie last night were all a bunch of incredibly brave and tough individuals?"
Gao Fei muttered to himself in front of the computer and refreshed the page again.
Seeing him seem possessed, Jin Qiqi couldn't help but roll her eyes.
Other film company bosses, as soon as their movies are released, are usually paying close attention to the box office.
But her boss was very unusual. At a time when he should be most concerned about the box office, he was instead watching to see if the movie would cause any more scandals.
"No offense, Boss, but can you be a bit more serious?
The box office revenue declined sharply on the second day of the film's release, and the number of viewers is also decreasing.
Yesterday, there was even a hot topic about netizens in Hong Kong jointly boycotting Gaoyue Film and Television's movies.
I think you should use the temporary buzz to help the company clarify the sensationalist news.
After all, this can also be a way to promote the film and boost the box office."
Jin Qiqi couldn't help but complain, then offered her proposed solution.
"Sister Jin, this is a critical period, we must not be too hasty!"
"What do you mean?"
Seeing the social media apps remain stagnant, Gao Fei turned around and explained, "If we were to use yesterday's buzz to clarify the sensationalist rumors now, it would only make Hong Kong netizens think that Gaoyue Film and Television is simply using the situation for hype.
What we need to do now is to not clarify, not promote the film, and wait and see."
"But what about the box office? It's already showing a decline. If it continues like this, we'll lose a fortune."
Jin Qiqi's main focus was on the box office.
Because Gao Fei wanted to conceal his identity, the new film company had to split the box office revenue normally with the cinemas, and also pay taxes in Hong Kong.
Moreover, due to the news of audiences seeking medical attention, Hong Kong netizens considered it a publicity stunt, and they united online to boycott the film, which was a very unfavorable situation.
Therefore, Jin Qiqi believed that if Gao Fei did not find a way to help the film overcome its difficulties,
the film would ultimately end in failure, and it would be a blessing if the invested money could at least break even.
Gao Fei could roughly guess Jin Qiqi's thoughts.
He stretched lazily and smiled calmly, "The current predicament is temporary. Just wait and see, within a week, 'The Death of a Mountain Village' will surely become a massive hit, and it might even become the box office champion."
"So confident?"
Jin Qiqi looked at him curiously.
Gao Fei did not reply, but turned around and refreshed the social media pages again.
Soon, news related to "The Death of a Mountain Village" reappeared.
He pointed at the computer and smiled, "Compared to clarifying sensationalist rumors, these news items are the top priority."
Jin Qiqi leaned closer with suspicion.
When she saw the latest news about the film, she was stunned.
On Hong Kong social media platforms.
Three news items with small flame icons quickly climbed the trending list.
"Due to watching the movie 'The Death of a Mountain Village,' another ten thousand people were admitted to the hospital today."
"True story: Last night, some viewers were sent to the hospital immediately after watching 'The Death of a Mountain Village,' diagnosed with 'heart disease.'"
"Big news: Someone imitated the 'summoning ritual' scene from 'The Death of a Mountain Village' and subsequently experienced frequent strange events around them."
Seeing these three news items, Jin Qiqi swallowed hard.
She hadn't expected that another ten thousand viewers who watched the movie last night were sent to the hospital, and some even suffered heart attacks.
As for the third news item about imitating the film's summoning ritual, it was likely just riding the wave of popularity for traffic.
At this moment, Jin Qiqi finally understood why the boss was not making a deliberate effort to clarify the sensationalist rumors.
Just as Gao Fei said, it was better to let the incident continue to ferment than to rush to clarify.
As long as there were more news reports about people going to the hospital after watching the movie, those so-called sensationalist rumors would naturally fall apart.
Moreover, given the public's morbid curiosity, the frequent appearance of such news would definitely attract some people to the cinemas.
The current decline in box office revenue did not mean it would remain low.
With these media reports, the box office would eventually return to its peak.
Jin Qiqi nodded as if suddenly enlightened, but then frowned and asked, "Boss, where does your confidence about becoming the box office champion come from?"
"In any case, this championship is mine. As for where the confidence comes from, you'll know later!"
Gao Fei replied, and casually clicked on the first news item.
He didn't read the content of the news but scrolled directly to the comment section.
[Flop, is 'The Death of a Mountain Village' really that scary? Another ten thousand people in hospital on the second day of release!]
[I'm starting to doubt now, is the news not hype, but real reporting.]
[No need to doubt, it's definitely hype. Think about it, after 12,000 people went to the hospital yesterday, another 10,000 sought medical attention today. Tens of thousands of people going to the hospital for two consecutive days, can this not be hype?]
[I agree with the above. Film companies have so many ways to create hype. Once the buzz of audience members going to the hospital is created, they will definitely continue to exploit it. These are all tricks.]
[I swear today, if anyone else goes to the hospital because they watched the movie tomorrow, I will bring a group of people to watch it.]
In the first news item, netizens were still questioning whether it was hype and not a real event.
There were also dozens of comments helping to clarify.
But as soon as they were posted, they were quickly drowned out by the skeptical comments.
Upon noticing this situation, Gao Fei couldn't help but look at the accounts that were frantically posting.
They were all level two or three small accounts, and upon clicking on them, they were all recently registered.
"Damn it, there are paid commenters on Hong Kong social media too!"
He muttered to himself.
The paid commenters were aggressively posting doubts and steering the narrative, likely hired by other film companies.
After all, this was a common tactic in the entertainment industry to suppress competition.
Gao Fei did not pay much attention to these level three small accounts. He exited the webpage and directly clicked on the second trending news.
The first news item, which had the highest popularity earlier, was reported by many private and gossip media.
The second news item, about people having 'heart attacks' from being scared by the movie, was still reported by the Hong Kong Daily.
The article mentioned that some viewers experienced discomfort after watching the movie last night and were sent to the hospital, where ten viewers were found to have symptoms like irregular heartbeat and persistent rapid heartbeat.
Two other viewers fainted while watching the movie.
'Heart disease' was a sensationalized term; the main point was the various discomforts experienced by viewers after watching the movie last night.
After a brief scan of the content, Gao Fei quickly scrolled to the comment section.
[The Hong Kong Daily reports a true event. The girl who fainted last night was in the same cinema as me. This is a photo I secretly took at the scene. (Photos from the scene)]
[One of the men sent to the hospital almost kicked the bucket right after walking out of the cinema. I was the one who called the ambulance for him.]
[Don't even mention it. The other one who fainted was my girlfriend. I dragged her to watch it, and after waking up today, she's my ex. What a flop!]
[I thought the news reported by the Hong Kong Daily yesterday was helping the film company with hype, but after watching the movie last night, I have only one thing to say: the faint-hearted should not watch it!]
[What's so scary about a movie? Anyone want to team up to go to the restroom? I feel a bit scared even during the day.]
Compared to the comment section of the first trending news.
The comment section of the news about people being sent to the hospital after witnessing the event was filled with genuine comments from netizens.
Many people were testifying that the news reported by the Hong Kong Daily was true and valid, and they were eyewitnesses.
After reading the comments, Gao Fei refreshed the page again.
Well, the entire comment section had been taken over by paid commenters again.
In just one minute, the real testimonies of firsthand witnesses were once again suppressed by the doubting crowd.
Seeing this, Gao Fei couldn't help but frown, lamenting that new film companies, whether in the mainland or Hong Kong, would face the suppression of capital in the entertainment industry.
As for the third trending news, imitating the summoning ritual scene from the movie and encountering strange events.
Gao Fei directly chose to ignore it.
This was purely following the trend and seeking attention.
As an atheist, he did not believe in so-called ghosts.
With the real testimonies of viewers being suppressed by paid commenters, Gao Fei stopped paying attention.
According to the usual practices of the entertainment industry, "The Death of a Mountain Village" had been trending for two consecutive days due to audiences seeking medical attention after watching the movie.
For some time to come, Hong Kong media and gossip outlets would surely continue to pay attention.
As long as news kept breaking, the movie would eventually become popular.
It's just that for this movie to become popular, it's quite taxing on people.
Gao Fei closed the social media webpage, opened his email inbox, and chose to accept a 3G file.
After the download was complete, he began to carefully watch the video in the file.
Meanwhile, on a Hong Kong horror forum.
Netizens who had been skeptical yesterday about the movie being able to scare people into hospitals, after watching it as a group and digesting it throughout the morning, began to log in to the forum and post their thoughts.
Everyone admitted that the movie was indeed terrifying, and the news online was not baseless; it was all real.
In an instant, the forum posts were flooded with netizens' comments.
The remaining horror enthusiasts, seeing that the second batch of their peers were all describing how terrifying the movie was,
finally, this last group of skeptical enthusiasts could no longer sit still.
On the third day of its release, the third "death squad", unable to resist the temptation of morbid curiosity, once again formed a group and headed to the cinema to watch "The Death of a Mountain Village."