Chapter 51: Box Office Third Place, the Arrival of the Internet Movie Era?

As for box office performance, the seventy-two-hour trajectory of Mr. Vampire from December 3rd to December 6th was nothing short of astonishing. It surged all the way, raking in 5.08 million, 6.22 million, and 7.10 million respectively, leading to an opening-week box office of a staggering 18.40 million. Although it fell short of the expected 20 million and even trailed behind the daily earnings of Laughing Workers or The Orphan of Zhao, let's not forget—this is a bloody internet movie!

With nearly four million effective views, this was a result that even Chen Mo could never have fully anticipated.

Although he knew he had the advantage of the right time, the right place, and the right people—current domestic film production was not particularly high, theatrical releases varied wildly in quality, and audiences had very few new releases to choose from; on top of that, as the very first internet movie, it garnered unprecedented attention, while the three major video platforms poured in massive promotional resources to pave the way for the internet cinema model, and finally, Mr. Vampire itself was undeniably a rare masterpiece—all these factors combined, compounded by the mediocre word-of-mouth of concurrent blockbusters Laughing Workers and The Orphan of Zhao, resulted in such jaw-dropping figures.

Among the theatrical releases in the same period, the self-proclaimed auteur Director Chen found himself in an awkward position. The weekly box office of The Orphan of Zhao actually lagged behind Laughing Workers, pulling in a mere 51 million, while Laughing Workers secured an opening-week gross of 60.34 million.

It might seem that Mr. Vampire only ranked third, trailing far behind the other two, but it still successfully propelled this internet film far beyond its niche!

One must remember that a single ticket for Mr. Vampire cost a mere five yuan.

Meanwhile, theatrical releases like The Orphan of Zhao and Laughing Workers commanded an average ticket price of at least thirty yuan or more.

Moreover, in terms of all conventional metrics, The Orphan of Zhao and Laughing Workers completely crushed Mr. Vampire, or else Mr. Vampire wouldn't have needed to leverage their names for hype.

Yet no one expected that despite such a massive disparity in ticket prices, Mr. Vampire would end up as the box office runner-up for the first week of December.

While internet movies and theatrical films are fundamentally different, and box office earnings cannot truly be calculated using identical ticket pricing, sensationalist media loves to stir the pot. According to the calculations of opportunistic reporters, if the viewership numbers of Mr. Vampire were converted into theatrical ticket prices, its gross would have bloody well exceeded one hundred million!

Did it count as news that The Orphan of Zhao and Laughing Workers vastly outperformed a little-known internet movie? Of course not.

However, if an internet movie became a dark horse and upset two major productions, that was real news!

Consequently, several media outlets boldly declared that Mr. Vampire was the true box office champion and the darkest horse of this New Year holiday season.

While their reasoning might sound a bit absurd, they nonetheless presented a self-consistent logic, however far-fetched.

Still, one had to admit that many people were genuinely shocked by the media's recalculated figures.

For a time, this created a false illusion in the market, making it seem as though the internet movie market was not the least bit inferior to traditional theatrical releases.

Even though the actual box office earnings of Mr. Vampire couldn't possibly hold a candle to The Orphan of Zhao and Laughing Workers, a pure box office tally of nearly twenty million was solid and indisputable.

Twenty million—that is genuinely a substantial sum, isn't it?

Naturally, the three major video platforms were not about to let such a golden opportunity slip by. They eagerly began exploiting the success of Mr. Vampire, the pioneering internet film, to trumpet the boundless prospects of the internet movie industry.

This was entirely understandable. After all, they were essentially crossing the river by feeling the stones, and beforehand, none of them had imagined that an internet movie could make such a massive splash.

Even less did they anticipate that Mr. Vampire would claw its way into the top three at the box office.

What more was there to say? Hype it up to the fullest!

"The inaugural internet movie Mr. Vampire rakes in nearly twenty million at the box office within three days, with nearly four million effective views. The era of internet cinema is arriving!"

"Mr. Vampire hits an opening-week box office of nearly twenty million, ranking third right behind The Orphan of Zhao and Laughing Workers!"

"Mr. Vampire emerges as the ultimate disruptor; the internet miracle repeats itself as internet movies are poised to become the new darlings of investors and filmmakers!"

"Mr. Vampire triumphs in its debut battle, prompting multiple film and television companies to express bullish sentiment on the internet movie market and initiate dedicated internet movie projects!"

Indeed, these figures and box office receipts compelled many film and television companies to turn their attention toward internet movies. Not just production companies—arguably the entire entertainment industry could no longer ignore the achievements of Mr. Vampire.

Chen Mo, however, remained exceptionally clear-headed. As someone who had lived through it all, although the emergence of Mr. Vampire, propelled by various favorable winds, had achieved results that shocked even him, he did not let it inflate his ego.

The limitations inherent to internet movies remained quite substantial. Furthermore, while the three-day opening box office of Mr. Vampire looked undeniably impressive, Chen Mo knew that, barring accidents, starting Monday, the drop in box office revenue would likely exceed all imagination.

Sure enough, merely on the fourth day of its release, the box office of Mr. Vampire suffered a steep decline, pulling in a meager three million for the entire twenty-four-hour period of Monday.

Word-of-mouth had not dropped; on the contrary, it had risen rather than fallen. Yet the box office plummeted all the same.

The reason was simple: the concentrated, explosive promotional campaign during the first three days had exhausted a massive portion of the box office potential. Moreover, the proportion of paid online subscribers during this era was relatively low. Thus, it wasn't that the movie had suddenly gotten bad, but rather that the purchasing power of the audience was nearly depleted.

After all, watching an internet movie required no queuing, no ticket booking, no scheduling constraints, and no waiting—anyone could watch it anytime, anywhere simply by having internet access and opening a computer.

Even so, these results were only achieved because Mr. Vampire single-handedly devoured the combined explosive traffic of all three major video platforms.

It was impossible for these rival video companies to maintain such harmony and continue collaborating indefinitely.

Having spent years navigating the internet film industry in his past life, Chen Mo knew that while Mr. Vampire might accelerate the advent of internet movies and grant them a higher starting point, expecting the entire sector to undergo a substantive transformation purely because of a single Mr. Vampire was utterly impossible.

After a full week in release, the box office of Mr. Vampire fell far short of the projections made by the three major video platforms and the industry at large. Grossing just under thirty million left many people somewhat caught off guard—it was a textbook case of starting strong and fading fast.

Because the subsequent box office drop was so severe, by the ninth day, it broke below the million-mark milestone. Although it pushed the total box office past the thirty-million mark, it essentially stalled there, leaving the remainder to be accumulated slowly through long-tail screenings.

Conversely, looking at the second-week box office figures for Laughing Workers and The Orphan of Zhao, their cumulative earnings both crossed the one-hundred-million threshold, with The Orphan of Zhao pulling in a staggering 95 million in its second week alone.

Director Chen swaggered back to life with renewed vigor.

However, he was no longer stubborn enough to spout nonsense about "stray cats and dogs" again.

After all, even though the box office of Mr. Vampire was indeed significantly lower, its sheer viewership numbers were right there for everyone to see, causing even him to click his tongue in reluctant respect.

As a result, Chen Mo became the most sought-after darling of the entire film industry.

Although the three major video platforms didn't actually turn a massive profit from Mr. Vampire—whether the promotional resources and funds they poured in even broke even remained questionable—they gladly embraced the outcome. One had to realize that a single Mr. Vampire helped each of the three video platforms gain an average of over one million new registered members.

More importantly, this was merely a single internet movie. What if there were ten, twenty, or a hundred? The screens in traditional brick-and-mortar theaters were limited, making it impossible to release so many films all at once, but internet movies had no such worries whatsoever!

The success of Mr. Vampire officially proclaimed the birth of internet cinema, proving that it held immense promise.

Naturally, eager to strike while the iron was hot, they rushed to contact Chen Mo at the earliest opportunity, hoping he would continue directing sequels in the Mr. Vampire franchise.

Of course, they were far from idle themselves, individually stepping up their investments and support for internet movies, with several new projects already underway.