Chapter 173 173 Continued Data

Chapter 173: Continuing the Data

Box office fraud has become all too common in today's theaters, with studios pulling out all the stops to boost their numbers. Whether the box office gains are misreported or earned fairly, higher figures mean better prestige for the production team and more screenings.

In short, while rival studios suffer losses from such practices, the benefits for the perpetrators are substantial.

Like a thorn in your rival’s side.

This time, the *Boundless Ambition* team stepped forward, claiming to have ironclad proof that *Return Undecided* had engaged in ticket misreporting.

Their reasoning was simple: at certain theaters, screenings billed as *Boundless Ambition* had tickets printed with *Return Undecided* as the title.

"Our team worked hard for every bit of our box office. Skimming a bit here, a bit there—are you trying to kill the competition?"

This Spring Festival box office season, whether *Return Undecided* or *Fearless Life* took the box office crown, *Boundless Ambition* was already out of the race. Having already lost everything, the team decided to go all out.

Not only did *Boundless Ambition* expose *Return Undecided*’s theft of their sales, but they also threw *Fearless Life* a bone, revealing evidence of theater staff altering *Fearless Life*’s title on tickets.

"You’re already leading in screenings—do you have to be so shameless about it?"

On its third day, *Return Undecided* maintained a 28.9% screening share, while *Boundless Ambition* had dropped to 8.2%—not even close to the former’s share.

Unlike *Fearless Life*, which had an exceptionally loyal audience, *Boundless Ambition* had managed to pull in 80 million yuan in box office revenue with just 8.2% of screenings—a testament to the team’s hard work.

Yet none of this could stop *Boundless Ambition* from suffering massive losses.

The *Boundless Ambition* team suspected *Return Undecided* alone. Even setting aside Liu Rennong’s involvement, rumors had surfaced during the release of the *Return Undecided* director’s previous work about competitors suddenly collapsing.

Every time, it was the rivals who ran into trouble—was *Return Undecided* like the Cherry Bomb in *Plants vs. Zombies*?

*Boundless Ambition* laid out their evidence, but unfortunately, despite the team’s outrage and the director and screenwriters taking turns condemning *Return Undecided*, general audiences barely noticed the issue of ticket misreporting—it didn’t affect their choice of film.

Many viewers weren’t tuned into the issue.

The *Fearless Life* team stayed silent, as *Boundless Ambition*’s evidence only implicated a specific theater chain, which would conduct its own investigation.

Unless *Return Undecided* was bold enough to steal enough tickets to surpass *Fearless Life*.

Anyone could see that with a 10% screening gap, *Fearless Life* had trailed *Return Undecided* by just 3 million yuan. Now, with the screening difference reduced to under 10%, even maintaining the original share would ensure *Fearless Life* overtaking *Return Undecided*.

But the *Boundless Ambition* team didn’t give up their fight against *Return Undecided*.

Exposing ticket misreporting was just the beginning. Soon, netizens dug up evidence of *Return Undecided*’s lead actor treating domestic and international fans differently. Even the backroom arrangements where Miao Zhi repeatedly fought for more screenings for *Fearless Life*, only for theaters to allocate them to *Return Undecided*, were revealed.

The reason *Return Undecided* had so many screenings was simple: theaters made a bigger cut off them.

"Just wait. *Return Undecided* may act invincible now, but once the film’s run is over, however deep the discounts, the studio still needs to turn a profit."

No one knew what deal *Return Undecided* had struck with theaters, but clearly, there were sketchy dealings behind its screening share.

"Let me put it this way—Miao Zhi and Liu Rennong are archnemeses. Liu Rennong would never allow *Fearless Life*’s screenings to surpass *Return Undecided*’s."

On the third day of the Spring Festival season, the most pressing question for box office trackers was: When would *Fearless Life* overtake *Return Undecided*?

That day, scores started dropping for the holiday’s films.

*Fearless Life* was the first to be scored. As netizens put it, the film unflinchingly showed Bai Qianshan’s life, with the team telling his story so well that they could stand tall against any scrutiny.

*Fearless Life*’s opening score was a staggering 9.7.

The Boundless Ambition crew was the second to release their rating, scoring a 9.0—given Lü Ming's scandal involving infidelity and multiple relationships, achieving this score was remarkable.

"...Not that I want to support Lü Ming, but I feel sorry for the director, screenwriter, and other actors. Everyone is paying the price for Lü Ming's actions."

Return Undecided's rating came out later and wasn’t exactly stellar. Like Boundless Ambition, it initially scored a 9.0, though it soon dropped to 8.9.

The most upvoted comment for Return Undecided was—"This movie feels like it's trying to say something but ends up saying nothing. Watching it gives the same feeling as not watching it."

"Return Undecided's rating didn't even surpass Boundless Ambition?"

"No way."

"Huh?"

"Meh, who cares about ratings—they’ve got the screenings!"

"Exactly, high screenings are all that matter. What the audience thinks doesn’t matter, which movie they support doesn’t matter. The crew can just steamroll the competition with their screenings."

In a way, for the Return Undecided crew, rock-solid screenings are also a double-edged sword.

This time around, the quality and reputation of Fearless Life are clearly superior to Return Undecided—as everyone knows.

For fans of Fearless Life, its low screenings yet high box office earnings are proof they’ve got good taste.

Normally, you’d think—the film that earns more and has better reviews should get higher screenings. Audiences are rooting for Fearless Life to achieve higher box office and rankings.

Yet Return Undecided keeps hogging all the screenings.

The problem is, Return Undecided's quality is clearly inferior to Fearless Life.

Audiences are rooting for Fearless Life, and they also expect fairness.

How does Return Undecided keep getting more screenings?

By now, Return Undecided has clearly become the bad guy, while Fearless Life is the underdog taking it on.

The more Return Undecided holds onto its prime slots—or the possibility of skimming the box office—the more it drives audiences toward Fearless Life.

"After all, Return Undecided doesn’t need the audience—it’s got the theaters in its pocket."

↑By the time the Return Undecided crew realized how serious this statement was, it was too late to turn things around.

On the third day, at exactly 10 a.m., Fearless Life's daily box office had already surpassed Return Undecided's.

This was earlier than predicted, especially since Return Undecided had the advantage of higher screenings.

Not only did Fearless Life's screenings increase, but it also secured more prime-time slots compared to the second day.

After 10 a.m., Fearless Life left Return Undecided in the dust. Though there was no huge spike, at one point in the afternoon, when Fearless Life's box office hit 190 million, Return Undecided was only at 90 million.

A full 100 million difference.

"Damn! That’s insane!!"

"Unreal. On the first day, Fearless Life had half the screenings of Return Undecided, yet the latter barely scraped together 100 million more."

"Fearless Life's bang for your buck is unreal—already past 800 mil—crazy!"

The daily box office rankings shifted, and on the overall Spring Festival box office chart, Return Undecided, still in first place, had surpassed 900 million. But with Fearless Life catching up fast, they were now separated by just 100 mil.

"Seems like Fearless Life is about to become the box office champion of the Lunar New Year season."

"Lmao, the only thing wrong with Fearless Life is its low screen allocation. If it had the same screenings as Return Undecided, it might not hit $2 billion, but $1.5 billion would be a sure thing."

When the day's box office figures were revealed, even though marketing accounts had been providing live updates on each film's performance, the gap between Return Undecided and Fearless Life was still shocking.

1st place: Fearless Life, with a daily box office of $362 million.

2nd place: Return Undecided, with a daily box office of $169 million.

After the afternoon, Return Undecided's growth slowed even further compared to the morning, widening the gap with Fearless Life.

In terms of total box office, Fearless Life had actually surpassed Return Undecided, reaching $1 billion, while the latter had yet to break the $1-billion mark.

Three days! $1 billion at the box office!

Though Fearless Life was still far from the three-day opening record for Lunar New Year films, considering its opening-day and second-day screen allocations never exceeded 20%, this achievement was already remarkable.

"Before we knew it… it became the season champ!"

"Fearless Life's box office forecast has been raised again—the highest estimate from one platform is now $3 billion."

"Today's box office surpassed yesterday's. If screen allocations increase further, could it hit $400 million in a single day?"

"It all depends on how much theaters are willing to increase its screen allocations."

In the eyes of fans, Fearless Life getting 30% screen allocations wouldn’t be excessive at all. But this is the Lunar New Year season—getting 30% is next to impossible.

Fans could only wish.

Under normal circumstances, fans wouldn’t care much about a film’s screen allocation—after all, box office ultimately depends on quality. Even with high screen allocations, if the box office drops, allocations will be adjusted downward.

But this year’s Lunar New Year season, Return Undecided’s screen allocation was absolutely maddening.

...

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year season, Fearless Life finally secured its highest screen allocation since release—a massive 27.4%.

However, Return Undecided still had 25.6%.

This time, even before the Fearless Life crew could say anything, other production teams couldn’t help but voice their protests.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year season, Return Undecided and Boundless Ambition commanded 51% of screen allocations. Given their massive scale and star power, other teams had no choice but to accept it—they were outmatched.

But now, on the fourth day, Fearless Life and Return Undecided together took up a whopping 53% of screen allocations. Which means, after three days of hard work, the average screen allocation for other films had actually dropped?

Fearless Life earns its box office, with strong per-screen averages—it deserves more screens.

But Return Undecided?

On what merit?

Never mind Boundless Ambition—even the gap between 18 Countdown and Return Undecided isn’t that big.

Yet Return Undecided gets 25.6% screen allocations, while 18 Countdown?

A measly 11.7%!

The production teams could only laugh in frustration at the numbers.

After finally seeing some box office growth and improving buzz, they were hopeful screen allocations would increase—enough to recoup costs and maybe even turn a profit.

But Return Undecided screwed everyone over!

So only Return Undecided deserves to survive, huh?

The worst part is, Return Undecided is completely unworthy—hogging screens without performing. Who wouldn’t be furious?