Chapter 624 - A Complete Turnaround In Public Opinion!
Chapter 624: A Complete Turnaround In Public Opinion!
Actually, with so many celebrities and directors commenting that a movie was bad, under normal circumstances, that movie would most probably be given the death sentence.
After all, its reputation had already been confirmed by the mainstream, hence it was very difficult to reverse the situation.
But… The problem was that when Big Beard Liu posted on Weibo, he actually did not include the name of the movie.
This led to a problem. The entire internet knew that there was a movie that had a terrible reputation and was boycotted by the entire entertainment industry.
But, they did not know what movie it was.
As this was the first time such a large scale incident had happened on Weibo, countless netizens wanted to know more about the movie.
That alone practically helped to hype up the movie.
Other celebrities either followed the trend or reposted and commented out of respect for Liang Gang. In fact, most of them did not care about the development of the situation. However, Liang Gang and Big Beard Liu were different because they actually had a “grudge” with Su Yang and Wu Feng!
Due to the fact that they were on the same side, the two of them, who did not have much interaction before, started to get familiar with each other. They even called each other to discuss the matter.
As a seasoned veteran, Liang Gang had some understanding of Su Yang’s methods. He said, “”Wolf Warriors” is obviously trying to go cold so that they can use the pre-screening to increase their reputation. We can’t let them get what they want. Based on the momentum of their box office right now, something feels a little amiss. If this continues, our public opinion will become useless.”
Obviously, Big Beard Liu knew this as well. Over the past few days, the increased box office earnings of “Wolf Warriors” had made him worried that “Wolf Warriors” would explode in popularity.
So he asked, “In that cast, what do you think I should do, Director Liang?”
Liang Gang spoke in a Beijing dialect and said, “Why don’t you just expose this matter and tell everyone the name of the movie?”
Big Beard Liu looked troubled. “But I’ve already posted on Weibo about the bet. If we continue posting, people will think that we’re being aggressive.”
Liang Gang exclaimed, “Oh my, why are you so stubborn? You could just add in a statement, ‘If Mr. Su doesn’t accept the bet, then I’ll pretend that this never happened. I hope your movie, “Wolf Warriors”, sells well.’ Wouldn’t that do the trick?!”
After Liang Gang offered his idea, Big Beard Liu slapped his knee and said, “That’s great! Director Liang! That’s a brilliant idea!”
After saying that, the two of them prepared to hang up and return to Huaisheng.
At that moment, their phones suddenly rang.
Both of them took down their phones and took a look. They saw a Weibo notification that Su Yang had publicly accepted the bet and had also increased the bet by 10 million yuan. The loser would donate this 10 million yuan to a welfare organization that specializes in searching for lost children.
“F*ck!” Upon seeing the Weibo notification, Big Beard Liu could not help but swear.
It was not until Liang Gang’s cough rang in his ears that he stopped cursing.
He apologized to Liang Gang and clicked on the notification on Weibo. The first post was “Su Yang Response”.
After he clicked into the trending topic, Su Yang’s reply was at the top. ‘Director Liu, I accept your bet. However, one million yuan is a little boring. If we are to bet, we’ve got to have higher stakes. 10 million yuan!’
‘Also, I feel that making a bet in public is against social ethics and might even be against the law. Therefore, we shall not come into direct contact with this money at all. Instead, it will be directly donated to a welfare organization that specializes in searching for lost children.’
‘Finally, I would also explain the whole story to the netizens who are tuning in to this piece of news. Our company’s artist, Han Yi, had offered to cameo in Director Liu’s movie for free with the hopes of being able to learn from him. However, during the filming period, Director Liu purposely made things difficult for Han Yi. Even after NG-ing for 20 times, there was not once where he had guided her. Instead, he kept on filming and torturing her.’
‘Because I was unable to take it anymore, I requested to direct the script with Han Yi myself. Five minutes later, Han Yi perfectly got through with her cameo scenes. Hence, I questioned Director Liu’s ability to direct the movie and that’s how the bet that everyone is aware of has come about.’
‘Originally, this bet was just a private bet between the two of us. I didn’t expect it to take up public resources. Sorry.’
‘Lastly, the new movie I’ve invested in is called “Wolf Warriors”. I believe many viewers have already watched it. As for how its reputation is, all of you can ask either the cinemas or from your friends to find out.’
‘Also, on the second day of the pre-screening, where there were less than 30 showings throughout the country and 1,200 seats, there were so many of my celebrity friends and directors who had actually watched our movie and even said that it wasn’t filmed well. I really can’t understand this.’
‘Therefore, to conclude all of this, I just want to say, my movie is really good!!’
There were two exclamation marks at the end of the post. It seemed to represent Su Yang’s anger and confidence.
Following Su Yang’s Weibo post, Weibo’s hottest search instantly exploded. The data traffic of this topic dramatically increased.
This was like a mystery movie. After the riddle had been unanswered for four days, the answer to the mystery was suddenly revealed, causing everyone to be excited.
Be it fans or anti-fans, everyone immediately knew the name of a movie… “Wolf Warriors”!
Because of Su Yang’s orderly speech, the public opinion started to change. After all, when everyone was attacking Su Yang at the start, other than those celebrities who had made the first move against him, there was also the distortion of Big Beard Liu’s Weibo. They thought that Su Yang was the one who initiated the conflict.
However, when Su Yang came out and declared that the truth of the situation was not as it was, the netizens started to gossip.
After looking at Weibo, Liang Gang pointed out before Big Beard Liu could say anything, “I don’t know what happened, but… There’s no evidence anyway. Isn’t that right, Old Liu?”
Big Beard Liu hurriedly said, “That’s right, Director Liang.”
Liang Gang replied with an “En” and hung up.
After Liang Gang hung up, Big Beard Liu picked up his phone and typed a string of messages. He even mentioned Su Yang in it.
The gist of it was that Su Yang was spouting nonsense. He had been trying his best to teach Han Yi, but Han Yi kept acting like a big shot. Furthermore, her acting skills were bad and she had NG-ed time and time again. On the other hand, Su Yang was provoking himself within the production team, causing him to be embarrassed.
That Weibo post molded him into an aggrieved wife.
After posting on Weibo, Big Beard Liu immediately got a few members of the film crew to repost it and confirm the news.
There was nothing the film crew could do about it. They were all working for Big Beard Liu, so they could only repost against their conscience.
Therefore, the public opinion changed again.
That batch of netizens felt like they were watching a big show where there were actually twists and turns. For a moment, they did not know who to believe.
Right at that moment, Su Yang posted a video on Weibo. The title of the video read. “Even if you discard your conscience, are you able to discard your sight?”
Many people clicked on it and realized that it was a video of a third-person film crew standing outside the set.
The main character of the video was Han Yi. From the moment Han Yi arrived at the set and greeted them politely, she was repeatedly NG-ed by Big Beard Liu without any guidance. In the end, she had to apologize numbly, admit her mistake and bow repeatedly. She even had to endure Big Beard Liu’s angry roars.
The video was clear and complete with zero traces of editing.
The netizens who saw this video were furious.
‘This is the so-called ‘careful guidance’? This is his so-called acting like a big shot? Isn’t he just taking us for fools?!
‘Big Beard Liu is lying!
‘Since the beginning, he’s been using public opinion to deceive us!’
With this thought in mind, angry netizens attacked Big Beard Liu’s Weibo. Even some celebrities who reposted this topic were affected.
Because Su Yang took out the video, the whole situation had a complete turnover!
Initially, even if Su Yang’s actions were true and reasonable, most of the netizens would only be doubtful and not know who to believe, thus there was no way for the public opinion to turn around completely.
In the end, Big Beard Liu made himself an easy target and was directly caught by Su Yang before he was beaten to a pulp!
And so, the situation began to turn around. When the instigator of the matter was lying, then the following words of the celebrities and directors would obviously not be trustworthy anymore!
In addition, many netizens followed the clues provided by Su Yang and dug out the timeline when these celebrities posted on Weibo. There were only five pre-screening cities in the country and there were only 60 screenings in total. However, many celebrities were not in those five cities due to their work.
As such, the matter of the celebrities and directors working together to spread rumors about “Wolf Warriors” became a fact!
As a result, their original claim that the movie’s reputation was bad on Weibo which was one-sided ended up being completely overturned.
Countless people who were paying attention to this matter were furious that they had been tricked, but they were also curious about “Wolf Warriors”, a movie that had been besieged by half the entertainment industry.
At this time, “Wolf Warriors”‘s reputation had taken a decisive role. Many netizens who had seen “Wolf Warriors” posted their thoughts online or recommended it to their friends.
This made many people believe that “Wolf Warriors” was a good movie. That was why it was being suppressed by so many people in the entertainment industry!
That was why “Wolf Warriors” became a trending topic on Weibo.
The tables had turned so quickly that it was overwhelming. Therefore, the celebrities and directors did not know what to do. They could only discuss countermeasures and deal with the situation behind the scenes.
However, even though they were working behind the scenes, their fans did not stay idle. Instead, they started to argue with the netizens and cursed at each other.
One side claimed that the celebrities were creating false rumours, while the other side claimed that “Wolf Warriors” was a lousy movie.
Conversely, “Wolf Warriors” became more and more popular.
On the second day, which was also the day before the premiere, due to the incident on Weibo, the box office earnings for “Wolf Warriors” directly skyrocketed by a huge margin, surpassing 5 million yuan in one day!
To reiterate, this is only just from the pre-screening!
What was even terrifying was that even though the box office earnings had increased so much, the reputation for “Wolf Warriors” did not decrease at all.
So, everyone now knew that there was a possibility that a newly built rocket for the box office was actually about to lift off…
…
January 1st, New Year’s Day. The country’s legal holiday.
Li Runze woke up early.
He woke up to warm himself a glass of milk as per his routine. Then, he picked up an English book next to the microwave and read ten pages of it.
After he had read the ten pages, the milk was warmed.
Thus, he put down the book, picked up the milk and drained it in one gulp, which took him five seconds.
After that, he got up to wash up and took a shower which took a total of two minutes.
His life had always been orderly and meticulous like a machine.
Except… Today, he had decided to do something that would break his daily routine, watch a movie…