Chapter 172: Lively
The crew of Soaring Ambition was actually somewhat innocent in this situation because what collapsed was not the movie’s plot.
As a purely commercial film, objectively speaking, Soaring Ambition wasn’t as good as the trailer had suggested, but it wasn’t terrible either.
However, right at the critical moment of its release, the lead actor of Soaring Ambition was caught in a scandalous affair.
The media coverage was intense, and as soon as the news broke, it went viral, even more sensational than a gala show. The two women involved in the scandal both spoke out one after another, presenting undeniable evidence, leaving the male lead with no chance of recovery.
The lead actor of Soaring Ambition was indeed a scumbag—on this point, Lu Xu, Zheng Xiao, and the others all agreed. However, his philandering ways hadn’t occurred during the Spring Festival film season or even in winter; they had happened six months prior.
In other words, this scandal could have surfaced earlier or later, yet it exploded precisely when Soaring Ambition premiered during the Spring Festival season. The timing was too convenient to be a coincidence.
“Lu Ming took on Soaring Ambition before this,” Xu Wen said to Lu Xu. “It was probably suppressed until now before being exposed.”
Lu Ming, the lead actor of Soaring Ambition, was a well-regarded rising star in the industry. The film was meant to elevate his career. According to his agency’s plan, if the movie performed well at the box office, they would continue securing good opportunities for him. Unfortunately, Lu Ming failed to keep his image intact.
“In any case, this couldn’t have been orchestrated by Soaring Ambition’s production team,” Xu Wen said. “As for who did it, well, only heaven and earth know.”
The only thing Lu Xu was certain of was that Fearless Life’s crew had nothing to do with it.
Lu Ming had a number of die-hard fans. Even with solid evidence laid out before them, they were still willing to defend him, arguing that the timing of the exposé—right during the Spring Festival film season—clearly indicated that someone behind the scenes wanted to take Soaring Ambition down.
The production team of Soaring Ambition clearly thought the same.
As soon as Lu Ming’s scandal was exposed, the crew tried to silence the two whistleblowers. However, not only did the women refuse to comply, but they also publicly stated that Soaring Ambition’s production team was attempting to threaten them.
In addition, the crew claimed that the timing of the exposé was a deliberate attack meant to smear their film, accusing “certain industry competitors” of engaging in malicious sabotage.
But since the evidence of Lu Ming’s scandal was undeniable, the crew’s statements did little to stop the tide of public opinion—Soaring Ambition’s box office performance took a massive hit.
“The Spring Festival film season is really intense,” Lu Xu remarked.
His agent shot him a glance. “Good thing you don’t have any skeletons in your closet. Otherwise, at this rate, you wouldn’t be able to escape either.”
In truth, both Lu Xu and his agent—as well as the Fearless Life crew—suspected that the so-called “malicious competitor” Soaring Ambition accused was a production team whose name ended with “Return.”
Fearless Life had no reason to resort to such tactics.
Given its current box office trajectory, surpassing Soaring Ambition was only a matter of time. Once their screening schedule improved, they could overtake Soaring Ambition in just two or three days. There was no need to actively crush the competition.
Besides, neither director Miao Zhi nor lead actor Lu Xu was the type to engage in dirty tricks. Their promotional style revolved around the film’s plot rather than attacking competitors.
If Miao Zhi had been the kind of person to play dirty, he wouldn’t have repeatedly lost awards to Liu Rennong.
As for Lu Xu, he had even less reason to get involved. Fearless Life’s box office was steadily climbing, and he himself was a Contention Award Best Actor. His future was bright.
He was already ranked first in his “class”—why would he bother sabotaging the second-place contender?
Of course, this was just a metaphor. Fearless Life wasn’t actually in first place yet.
The reason why Uncertain Return’s production team faced so much suspicion wasn’t just because of Liu Rennong and his disciples’ well-known tactics. There was another key factor—
Although Uncertain Return had surpassed Soaring Ambition in opening-day box office earnings, it had also started with higher pre-sale numbers. More importantly, if broken down by time slots, Soaring Ambition’s box office growth actually exceeded Uncertain Return’s after 4 PM on the first day of the Spring Festival period.
If this trend had continued, Soaring Ambition had a strong chance of overtaking Uncertain Return.
However, as soon as Soaring Ambition released its statement, Uncertain Return immediately responded with an even more righteously worded one. They declared that, throughout the Spring Festival season, they had maintained a fair and just attitude while competing with other films. Their shared goal with all production teams was to expand and strengthen the Spring Festival film market, and they hoped everyone would work together to foster a positive environment rather than let “one bad apple ruin the barrel” and spoil the thriving holiday season.
The implication was clear—Uncertain Return was calling Lu Ming that “bad apple.”
This infuriated the Soaring Ambition production team.
Lu Ming’s scandal exploded on New Year’s Eve, overshadowing even the most viral jokes from the Spring Festival Gala. Due to the impact of the trending controversy, Soaring Ambition, which had previously been on track to outperform Uncertain Return, saw its box office numbers plummet the next day. Its real-time ranking dropped to fourth place, falling behind Uncertain Return and Fearless Life—and even losing to that children’s movie that made an appearance every single year.
That children’s movie was usually not considered part of the Spring Festival box office competition since its audience was highly specific, with little overlap with other films.
However, it was often referred to as the “Wall of Prestige”—in other words, any film that surpassed its box office was considered a true success, while those that failed to outperform it were somewhat unworthy of their hype.
Soaring Ambition was already miserable enough, but on top of that, it had to endure Uncertain Return’s mockery.
“Lu Ming’s film career is basically over,” Xu Wen said with certainty. “The production team had a very detailed contract with him. Since Soaring Ambition’s box office collapse is largely his fault as the lead actor, he’ll probably have to pay a hefty amount in damages.”
“But he brought this upon himself. He has no one else to blame.”
In short, with Lu Ming’s scandal out in the open, Soaring Ambition was unlikely to recover during the Spring Festival season. No matter how hard the production team tried to salvage his reputation or attract more viewers, the competing films in the same release window would not make things easy for them.
Spring Festival screening slots were too valuable—one Soaring Ambition falling meant the other films could grab a larger share of the schedule.
—
On the second day of release, due to the previous day’s box office results, Fearless Life received a small boost in screenings, increasing to 19.6%.
A nearly 5% increase—it wasn’t a small number by any means.
Initially, Lu Xu’s fans were pleased. But when they checked the actual screening ratio, they were left speechless.
The additional screenings for Fearless Life had mostly come from Soaring Ambition’s losses. Meanwhile, Uncertain Return, which held the number one spot in screening share, remained at 29%—practically untouched.
While Soaring Ambition’s screening percentage plummeted, another film, Countdown 18, which focused on rescue missions, also saw a 2% drop. The shifting screening allocations had affected every other film—except Uncertain Return, which remained completely unaffected.
[…Was Uncertain Return’s per-theater box office really that strong? Why did it get such a high screening share?]
[Right now, Fearless Life has 19% of the screenings, but who’s ever seen a Spring Festival release where the first-place film gets 29% while the second-place one only has 19%? Screenings are as valuable as gold during this season!]
[What if Fearless Life ends up surpassing Uncertain Return at the box office? Wouldn’t that be pretty awkward?]
[I’ve watched both Uncertain Return and Fearless Life, and honestly, Fearless Life was the better film. Actually… if you ignore Lu Ming being a total scumbag, Soaring Ambition was better than Uncertain Return too.]
Fearless Life told the story of Bai Qianshan, while Uncertain Return was a heartwarming family drama. Structurally, it resembled How Much Do You Know, a type of film that had always been popular during the Spring Festival season. However, Uncertain Return’s lead actor delivered a somewhat immature performance—his emotional expressions weren’t very stable, making it harder for the audience to feel fully immersed in the story.
[With such a high screening percentage, Uncertain Return needs to make at least 500 million a day, or it just wouldn’t make sense.]
Lu Xu hadn’t gone to the theater to watch Uncertain Return this time. The promotional campaign for Fearless Life was packed—after earning strong word-of-mouth on its opening day, the roadshow expanded further.
The film’s roadshow wasn’t limited to major cities like C City; it also included university campuses, Bai Qianshan’s hometown, and even his former high school. The team invited Bai Qianshan’s childhood friends to share stories about him.
One of them, now an elderly man, still vividly recalled Bai Qianshan’s natural talent for science and his own shock when he saw Bai Qianshan’s name in the news.
“Everyone thought he would never return… that he had stayed overseas for good.”
“But his parents did mention that he had returned. The problem was, where did he go? No one knew. Back then, people around here said his parents were just saving face, unwilling to admit that they had ‘sold’ their son overseas, so they lied about his return. It wasn’t until many years later that everyone realized how incredible he had become.”
“It wasn’t easy—not just for Bai Qianshan himself, but also for his parents. Gossip was inevitable. At the time, there were even some sneaky people trying to dig into his whereabouts, but they found nothing.”
In Bai Qianshan’s hometown, Fearless Life had the highest screening share in local theaters. The feedback from cinemas was equally surprising—nearly every screening was sold out, and many viewers watched it more than once to show their support.
After finishing a roadshow event in one city, Lu Xu didn’t even have time to sleep before rushing to the airport for the next day’s roadshow.
During the roadshow period, Lu Xu didn’t really grasp how well Fearless Life was being received—he only noticed that the theaters were packed and that every screening was met with enthusiastic applause from the audience.
After wrapping up the second day of roadshows, the production team gathered at the hotel to track the day’s box office numbers. Lu Xu was completely exhausted, but he still picked up his phone to check the data.
Fearless Life’s opening-day box office had not only exceeded audience expectations but had also shocked the entire team.
It was the best first-day box office performance of director Miao Zhi’s career and the best opening for a film starring Lu Xu.
Strong box office numbers fueled motivation—seeing such success, the production team put even more effort into promoting the film during the roadshow.
That day, although Soaring Ambition continued to suffer a steep decline, Miao Zhi and Lu Xu weren’t expecting Fearless Life to surpass Uncertain Return at the box office, given the latter’s 10% lead in screenings.
And in the end—Fearless Life indeed didn’t surpass Uncertain Return.
But…
The box office rankings for that day were as follows:
1st place: Uncertain Return, with a total box office of 357 million.
2nd place: Fearless Life, with a box office of 354 million.
The two were only about 3 million apart, almost neck-and-neck.
The problem was, Uncertain Return had a 10% higher screening share than Fearless Life. Based on Fearless Life’s 19.6% share, if that 10% had been added to Fearless Life’s screenings, its box office would have increased by 178 million.
Meanwhile, Uncertain Return used its additional 10% in screenings to achieve a delightful box office result of over 3 million more.
[…Actually, Uncertain Return had better screening times than Fearless Life. I really want to say, Uncertain Return got a lot of prime time slots. If those had gone to Fearless Life, it could’ve flown even higher.]
[+1. Those were trash slots. Even non-fans would have felt sorry for the movie watching those.]
[Seriously, Uncertain Return really lucked out with its screening slots. I said it yesterday, is the production team somehow the cinema’s real father?]
[Maybe not the ‘real father,’ but they definitely signed some secret agreements.]
[Having 10% more screenings and only being 3 million ahead of the competition—how embarrassing. Doesn’t the production team feel awkward watching that?]
The team behind Fearless Life, including Lu Xu, felt that this was a good opportunity to push for even more screenings for their film.
As expected, Fearless Life’s screenings did increase, while Uncertain Return’s screenings were slightly reduced.
The specific numbers showed that Uncertain Return had 28.9% of the screenings on the new day, while Fearless Life had 22.9%.
Netizens: “……”
[They couldn’t even lower it by 1%?!]
[…So why didn’t the cinemas just give Uncertain Return 99% of the screenings? It’s clearly making so much money, it should have 99% of the screens!]
The cinemas ignored the online criticisms.
At this point, Soaring Ambition’s team, which was thought to have exited the Spring Festival race, came back into the spotlight. They claimed that their box office had been sabotaged, despite still managing to pull in over 80 million on the day.
