535 Did He Fake This
"Sure." Lu Man smiled as she agreed.
Now that the results were out, a great weight was lifted off everyone's shoulder and finally, everyone was in a jolly mood and started joking around.
Liu Chuanhui had a playful smile as he teased. "You have to give Lu Man more money! Not only did she act as your female lead, but she is also in charge of your publicity. I think that you really benefited a lot from getting Lu Man to act in your movie."
Even Zhang Jian laughed and joined in their banter. "That's right, with such a box office, you can't be stingy, Brother Ji!"
"I won't, I won't!" Ji Cheng chuckled and said, "I'm treating you all to takeaway lunch!"
Everybody: "…"
Even upon achieving such a feat, they were still eating takeaway food?
"Don't we have to strike the iron while it's hot? Right now, we need to focus on publicity. But once everything is settled, I'll treat you guys to an even bigger, lavish meal," Ji Cheng hurriedly added, trying to appease them.
***
Meanwhile, at Zhang Lun's studio.
Zhang Lun snatched the datasheet from Wang Qiu's hands. Seeing 'Red Tiger's First Day Box Office Collection' written on it, his eyes widened tremendously, but he still couldn't believe his eyes.
Scrutinizing the piece of paper himself, he looked at each line and counted.
"Impossible!" Zhang Lun lost control and roared. "It must have been a calculation error! They must have added another zero behind!"
How could Red Tiger's box office be this high!
598 million!
According to him, Fighting Hero's 295 million box office collection was already high enough!
Moreover, it was just a normal weekend, not the Chinese New Year. Why would the box office be so huge?
"Did he fake this and cheat?" Zhang Lun roared in anger.
Seeing Zhang Lun's furious expression, CEO Wang knew that something was amiss.
CEO Wang grabbed the datasheet from Zhang Lun's hand hastily and was left stunned upon seeing the first-day box office collection of Red Tiger.
Compared to Red Tiger's 598 million, what was Fighting Hero's box office collection even worth?
Previously they even smugly publicized it all over the internet. But now, they had made a fool out of themselves!
They had the same number of screenings, yet Fighting Hero's box office collection was just half of Red Tiger's!
Extremely furious, CEO Wang's eyes immediately darkened.
"Go and check it. Confirm it immediately. Is this box office data really correct?" Zhang Lun instructed Wang Qiu's assistant.
"I… I will go and check it now," the assistant said as he dashed towards the door.
"Stop," CEO Wang called him. "There's no need to check it."
With the spread of the good reviews online, this box office was rather accurate.
"Checking this would be too embarrassing," CEO Wang said solemnly.
It would be like they couldn't accept their loss.
"Red Tiger… Red Tiger also released this news," Wang Qiu's said weakly.
Trying to calm himself down, Zhang Lun took in a deep breath and took out his phone to check it online.
On Red Tiger's official Weibo, "Thank you, everyone, for your support. With your support, Red Tiger's first-day box office collection hit 598 million!"
Once this news was released, some of the media accounts which were on good terms with Lu Man immediately reposted it too.
Several official media accounts blew up too.
"Shocking news! Red Tiger's first-day box office collection is 598 million! Setting a new record for locally-produced movies!"
"Even all those super-popular Hollywood superhero movies have never achieved such a huge box office!"
"Red Tiger's first-day box office collection hits 598 million! The rise of locally-produced movies!"
"How did Red Tiger became such a big hit? By word of mouth!"
"Red Tiger has high ratings and high box office as well! Perhaps it can break Greedy Wolf Operation's record."
At that instant, Sun Yiwu even reposted Red Tiger's official Weibo post. "Congratulations, Brother Ji! You are the pride of Chinese movies!"
Ji Cheng also replied to Sun Yiwu's post. "Thank you, Brother Sun. Since the day I decided to make a movie, you always supported me and had my back. Moreover, when the original female lead refused to act at the last moment, you introduced me to Lu Man. Thank you, Teacher Liu Chuanhui, Thank you, Zhang Jian…"
In his post, Ji Cheng thanked each and every single person. All of his words came from the bottom of his heart and were very heart moving and touching.
