Super Zoo

Douban reviews can’t all be taken seriously, still, when arranging films for theaters, one has to consider the bigger picture. But at the very least, the reviews indicate certain issues from a particular angle, providing some reference for the scheduling of screenings.

After exiting Douban, Mr. Ling pondered for a few seconds, shut down his computer, left his office, and went to the small screening room next door.

"Li, find the film print of Terror Animal City for me, I want to watch it," Mr. Ling said to the projectionist.

The movie, lasting a little over eighty minutes, quickly came to an end. Perhaps it was the preconceived ideas, but this time, Mr. Ling’s viewing experience felt different from before.

He left the screening room, returned to his office, and made a phone call to summon his assistant.

"Mr. Ling, what can I do for you?" the assistant asked as she knocked and entered.

Mr. Ling asked, "Have today’s box office numbers been reported yet?"

The assistant hesitated, instinctively glanced at the wall clock, it was only four-thirty in the afternoon, after all, box office numbers were usually tallied the next morning and reported in the afternoon, meaning today’s box office results would not be available until noon the following day at the earliest.

"You mean, yesterday’s box office...?" the assistant asked, somewhat uncertain.

"Here’s the thing, check the box office for this morning’s screening of Terror Animal City. If the performance is still decent, I’m considering increasing its number of screenings," Mr. Ling said.

"Okay, I’ll take care of it right away," the assistant said as she turned to leave. It wouldn’t be feasible to compile the whole day’s box office stats now, but checking the figures for just one movie wasn’t difficult, especially since Terror Animal City only had a showing at nine in the morning today. The box office information from the theaters under the cinema chain was all networked with the headquarters, so a separate report could simply be done upon return.

It wasn’t long before the assistant knocked and returned to Mr. Ling’s office.

"Mr. Ling, I’ve got the numbers," the assistant said.

"How much?" Mr. Ling, busy with something else, didn’t even bother to look up as he asked.

The assistant hesitated, seemingly unsure, she glanced down at the printed box office data in her arms before saying, "This morning, the box office for our cinema chain was 112,000."

"Oh..."

Hearing this figure, Mr. Ling put down his work and looked up, thoughtful.

As expected, the box office for Terror Animal City was climbing, even under extremely unfavorable scheduling conditions, and the speed of its rise was quite fast.

The 112,000 box office wasn’t nationwide, it was just for Poly, which accounted for about 10% of the national market. In other words, this morning’s screening of Terror Animal City had a national box office of roughly one million.

According to common industry experience, audiences for morning and late-night screenings are quite sparse, with morning showings having even fewer attendees than night ones.

Consequently, it was foreseeable that, without a change in the number of screenings, today’s nationwide box office for Terror Animal City could exceed 2.5 million, and it might even reach more than 3 million, more than double that of yesterday’s.

On Douban, the film had received high praise; and now, in the market test, it also achieved good results.

Bearing this in mind, Mr. Ling decisively said, "From tomorrow, let’s increase the number of screenings for Crazy Animal City by 10%; in addition, extend the screening period to ten days."

"Mr. Ling, extending the screening period is manageable, but raising the number of screenings to 10% all at once is very difficult!" The assistant showed a distressed face, saying, "Our current schedule is packed, and giving Animal City an additional 7% means compressing other films."

"Right," Mr. Ling said. "So, which films can we compress right now?"

It wouldn’t make sense for the cinema to compress hot-selling movies like Monk Comes Down the Mountain and Tiny Times in favor of Animal City. Currently, although Animal City has shown some commercial value, it is merely ’valuable’ and not comparable to blockbuster films.

For the same screening, Tiny Times and Monk Comes Down the Mountain could probably hit a 70% occupancy rate, whereas Animal City might only reach 50%. Taking into account the price difference between movie tickets, it surely wouldn’t be profitable to free up space for a niche film by compressing blockbusters.

Even Mr. Ling himself didn’t believe that Terror Animal City could rival these two hit films. If compressions were necessary, it would have to come from the screenings of other less popular films. Stay updated via NovelBin.Côm

Screening schedules are like water in a sponge; squeeze and something will always come out. The assistant racked his brains and managed to free up a small number of screenings from other films of the same period that had average box offices. The three films that were squeezed out were all low-grade domestic films, which already had minimal screenings to begin with. Squeezed in this manner, they were nearly ousted from screening altogether, with the most pitiful one, ’Pool Spooky Night’, having been shown only four times before being completely pulled.

However, much like squeezing an A-cup, no matter how hard one tries, inherent limitations stand firm, and one can’t expect to produce much.

They could only manage to free up 3%, raising Terror Animal City from a 3% scheduling rate to 6%, still a considerable distance from the 10% Mr. Ling had initially set.

"This is already the limit of what we can achieve. We have contracts with all distributors, and if we compress too much, it’s difficult to explain it to the distributors of other films," the assistant said, clearly troubled.

Mr. Ling understood the assistant’s difficulties. How films were scheduled had already been agreed upon with all stakeholders. Unless there was a significant change, it was inconvenient for the theaters to make major adjustments to their scheduling easily.

"Let’s work with this 6%, then," Mr. Ling said, "and swap the screening slots. I’m Mr. Nobody has one showing at 9:30 pm, right? Schedule a showing for Terror Animal City at 9:30 pm too; let them compete for a couple of days, and we’ll see how it goes."

"You mean if I’m Mr. Nobody doesn’t perform well at the box office, let it make way for Animal City?" The assistant gasped, Mr. Ling’s decision seemed a bit too radical. After all, I’m Mr. Nobody was a work by director Er Dongsheng and was not performing as well as other blockbusters at the box office, but it wasn’t doing poorly either, and it should easily net forty or fifty million in the end.

This Terror Animal City, even with its merits, surely couldn’t reach a total box office of forty or fifty million, could it?

Moreover, I’m Mr. Nobody had an excellent reputation. If it really had to make way for Animal City, it might cause an uproar.

Mr. Ling glanced at the still-standing assistant and said, "Wang, you need to understand that we are businessmen, not litterateurs. Art and sentimentality to us are merely tools for making money. The greatest ethic for a businessman is to make money. Just do as I said: if Animal City wins over Mr. Nobody, let Mr. Nobody step aside and continue being nobody; if not, then Animal City will become nobody. It’s that simple; I don’t want to have to say it again."

"Got it, I understand," the assistant nodded hastily.