$30,000, this is the box office on the first day of Toy Story's release, and on the morning of the second day of release, Disney's distribution manager Iger called Zhou Ming and told Zhou Ming the news.

"Mr. Zhou Ming, I know that there may be some discrepancies between the box office income of $30,000 a day and your estimate, but with all due respect, this is already a very good box office income for some low-budget movies, because there are $210,000 at the box office in a week, which can convince the theater chain to broadcast the next week, which is generally enough. ”

Egger then said to Zhou Ming: "But I think Mr. Zhou Ming, you must not be satisfied with this box office income, so are you still ready to continue to increase the scale of screenings? If so, I think the buyout fee will continue to increase, which has been written into the contract." ”

Zhou Ming could hear the hilarious banter in Egger's words, but what he said was also true, when the contract was signed before, there was a clause to continue to increase the scale of screenings.

The $30,000 a day box office is only about 10 to 15 percent of the average attendance rate, which is a decent attendance rate for a small-budget movie.

Generally speaking, if you can stabilize this attendance rate and increase the scale of screenings, you can also receive a good return, at least you can recover the cost and make a small profit. But the key is that under the box office sharing contract, as long as the scale of the screening is increased, the distribution company can also increase its income, of course he is willing to increase the distribution, but now Zhou Ming is signing a buyout contract, and the distributor has no incentive to increase the scale of the screening without continuing to increase the buyout fee.

Zhou Ming thought for a while and said to Egger: "The scale of the screening must be increased, after all, I said it as early as when I signed the contract, but the box office of 30,000 US dollars, this is only the first day, maybe there will be changes in the future?"

Egger said with a smile: "It seems that Mr. Zhou Ming is still very confident in his films, but as a senior animated film distributor, I need to remind you that animated films are not the most popular genre in the market, let alone made by individuals, so it is relatively good to have this box office income." ”

"By the way, I think I would like to remind Mr. Zhou Ming that since your movie was screened three days ago, strictly speaking, yesterday was not the first day of release, so if you want to continue to grow, in my opinion, unless a miracle happens. Iger added.

"I think there is still a little hope for people, after all, miracles can still happen!"

Zhou Ming ended the call with Iger after throwing out this point of view very optimistically, although Zhou Ming said that he was very confident, but in fact he was also very puzzled, after all, the box office of 30,000 US dollars a day was also very unexpected to him.

If this is really the first day of release, maybe Zhou Ming can still understand it, but the problem is that, as Iger said, there has been a screening before, so today is not the first day of release, there are only so few, which can't help but make people worry.

Is it really because he asked Jobs to release the film too early, which led to the decline in animation quality?

Zhou Ming felt a little skeptical, but although he didn't remember the specific plot and animation quality of Toy Story, he also went to the cinema in person, whether it was the film as a whole or the nostalgic emotion, it was still very expressive, and it shouldn't be so bad.

At this time, Tang Ran suddenly asked, "Brother Ming, is the box office statistics of yesterday's movie out?"

"It's only $30,000 a day, which isn't particularly good. ”

Zhou Ming did not hide it, and told Tang Ran the most authentic answer, and Tang Ran counted his fingers very seriously after listening to the answer: "If it is $30,000 a day, then it is $210,000 a week, and even if it is broadcast continuously for four weeks, it is only $840,000, and this money has to be divided among the theaters, so there is not much to stay!"

"That's exactly what it is. ”

Zhou Ming said with a wry smile, he then thought of something and asked Tang Ran: "Ranran, you go to Xiaoxue and ask her classmates what their classmates think of this movie." ”

"But I think this movie is very good, and I want to watch it a few more times! And yesterday on the first day of release, didn't we also go to the movie theater, and saw that there were not many people in the movie theater? Although it is not full, it is more than half of it!" Tang Ran said with some incomprehension.

Zhou Ming rubbed Tang Ran's little head and said: "But we think it's good-looking, but other Americans don't think it's good-looking, and in the same way, the movie theater we went to yesterday doesn't represent all movie theaters, so we need to know more to know what went wrong." ”

Tang Ran nodded ignorantly, but still muttered: "These Americans are really bad, they don't know how to appreciate at all!"

Then Zhou Ming and Tang Ran went to the café to find Xiaoxue, for Zhou Ming's question, Xiaoxue said that she had gone to the cinema to contribute her box office, but her classmates hadn't called yet, so they didn't know what the situation was.

At Zhou Ming's request, Xiaoxue called Li Tao, a young man who was chasing her, a major investor in the café, and the administrator of the Stanford community, who supported Zhou Ming's online promotion, so he must be the most reliable, and he will go to see it on the first day of release. It's just that what Zhou Ming and the others didn't expect was that Li Tao's news surprised them very much.

Li Tao said that he paid to take his friends to the cinema yesterday, but when they arrived at the door, someone would not let them in. And not only them, but also many other people at the door are also in this situation, and some people ask them what movie they are watching here, as long as they are watching Toy Story, they are not allowed to enter the movie theater, so many people just give up. Xiaoxue said to Zhou Ming.

Zhou Ming sighed and said that this was indeed the case, Tang Ran was a little surprised and asked: "Brother Ming, why is this really the case? Did you guess that someone would do this, right? It must be those people at Disney who did it, they just want Brother Ming to give you some more buyout money!"

Zhou Ming shook his head and said: "I don't think it should be them, because although I signed a buyout contract with them, but the box office of the movie is hot, I will also increase the scale of screenings, and they can also receive more buyout fees. ”

"Could it be other heirs?" Tang Ran himself denied his thoughts, "It shouldn't be them, after all, they have already formed an alliance with Brother Ming through Tang Lin, and this alliance is obviously beneficial to them, I don't think they should be so brainless to choose to calculate Brother Ming behind their backs, and Tang Lin won't agree to it." ”

"But if it weren't for them, who else would it be?" Tang Ran asked in a puzzled manner.

"Whether it's them or not, we can't guess here, we have to ask them. ”

Zhou Ming then went to Tang Lin with Tang Ran, at this time Tang Lin was still verifying the box office data of Toy Story yesterday, after all, the box office of $30,000 a day doesn't look like the posture of a blockbuster, and Zhou Ming swore to him so much before, he was also determined to invest so much money, he couldn't be so unclear.

It is for this reason that Tang Lin believes that Disney has falsely reported the box office, in order to make them mess up, and then continue to increase the number of screenings and give more buyout fees.

However, the result of Zhou Ming and Tang Ran coming over today surprised him: "Zhou Ming, you said that someone is maliciously obstructing those audiences from entering?"

Tang Ran nodded and said, "That's right, this is what Xiaoxue's friends told us personally, they were originally going to the cinema to watch the movie, but someone stopped everyone who wanted to watch Toy Story at the door, so they lost a lot of box office." ”

Zhou Ming took Tang Ran's words and continued: "We are very suspicious now that the other Tang heirs did it, but Tang Lin, you said it again last time, you have already formed an alliance with the other heirs, so it makes no sense for them to do this." ”

"No, there are still people who have not formed an alliance, that is, Tang Yu, the second heir of the family, he fell out with Tang Yi and Tang Wan'er that day, so I didn't wait for him, and we don't count as an alliance, and even if he comes, I don't think I can successfully form an alliance with him. Tang Lin said and was a little unsure, "But whether it's him or not, I think I still need to investigate." ”

Saying that, Tang Lin dialed out a phone call in front of Zhou Ming and Tang Ran, and the simple and clear thing was to check the people who were blocking the entrance to the theater at the door of the cinema.

Then Tang Lin made another call, which was directly to Tang Yi and Tang Wan'er, asking if they were involved in this matter. The result of this call is obvious, whether it is Tang Yi or Tang Wan'er, they all denied it, and in the end he can only wait for the results of the investigation over there.

And while Zhou Ming was waiting for the result from Tang Lin, in the luxurious box of San Francisco's private dining room, another thing was happening.

Tang Yu sat on the seat, but unlike in the past, when Tang Yi and Tang Wan'er were with him, he was sitting here alone, and he didn't have the elegant sitting posture he used to have, and his whole body exuded a hideous atmosphere.

Suddenly, the door of the box was opened, and a big man with a scar on his face walked in, he walked to Tang Yu and sat down, looked around and sighed: "I really deserve to be the second heir of the Tang family, the place I came to is good, I already knew about this private dining room, but I didn't expect that I would be able to dine here one day, but this is all thanks to Mr. Tang Yu's hospitality." ”

In the face of Dahan's compliment, Tang Yu frowned unhappily, he took out a suitcase and put it on the table, and then pushed it towards Dahan and said, "This is your reward, I hope to continue to do it well in the future." ”

Dahan didn't mind Tang Yu's slightly disgusted tone, but opened the suitcase in front of Tang Yu, and after carefully checking the money inside, he closed the suitcase again and thanked Tang Yu: "Don't worry, I will work hard to carry out your mission, all those who want to see Toy Story, me and my people will stop them outside the movie theater." ”

After saying that, Dahan left, but before leaving, he shook his head and muttered: "These rich people really don't know what they are thinking, and there are still people who don't let others watch movies, it's really perverted!"

After Dahan left, Tang Yu slapped the table hard, but he didn't curse Dahan, but showed a hideous smile on his face: "Damn Zhou Ming, I won't let you succeed, whether it's Jieke Company or Toy Story, as long as it's your project, I will do everything I can to stop it!"

"Everyone else, let me eat!" Tang Yu roared angrily.