My singer girlfriend is super fierce

When Zeng Shaohong asked about "The Dead End," the female assistant's eyes flashed with a "I knew it" look.

It's already rumored that Zeng Shaohong has a problem with Ye Zhi Qiu.

It is said that the two had a disagreement at a meeting of the State Administration of Radio and Television at the beginning of the year. Zeng Shaohong tried to act superior because of her seniority, but Ye Zhi Qiu did not buy it and even retorted, making her lose face.

The female assistant, who is actually a fan of Ye Zhi Qiu, couldn't understand this at all.

Ye Zhi Qiu, a perfect man who is handsome, talented, sexually stimulating, and devoted in relationships, actually has women who not only don't like him, but also hate him.

The only explanation is that Zeng Shaohong has entered menopause and no man can stand her.

Otherwise, the male lead in the movie "After the Rain" wouldn't have been portrayed as such a shrew...

But what you think in your heart is one thing, work is work, and working people can still distinguish between the two.

The female assistant glanced at the documents in her hand and quickly reported, "The pre-sales for 'The Dead End' are not very good. It currently only has 4000 million yuan, ranking sixth in the Spring Festival film season."

"Judging from the current market reaction, it's been quite lukewarm."

Upon hearing this news, Zeng Shaohong's expression softened slightly, and a mocking smile appeared on her lips.

"I've said it before: young people shouldn't be too proud of themselves if they succeed once or twice by luck, and they shouldn't mistake luck for their own ability."

“In the past two Spring Festival seasons, he only benefited from the ‘family-friendly’ genre and achieved some success. He then thought he could handle any genre.”

A look of satisfaction flashed across Zeng Shaohong's face, as if she could already foresee Ye Zhi Qiu's box office failure.

"One person, 100 billion? Aren't you afraid of exaggerating to the point of being ridiculous? I want to see how you get 100 billion!"

Beside her, the female assistant blinked rapidly, not daring to make a sound and disturb them, her mind racing.

To be honest, although she is a fan of Ye Zhi Qiu, she also thinks that it is a bit too unbelievable for a director to earn 100 billion yuan in box office revenue in a year.

Especially during the biggest film season of the year, the Spring Festival, it's even more difficult if the film flops at the very beginning.

Sigh, but as a fan, I'll still secretly go and support them when the time comes.

......

Ye Zhi Qiu was prepared for the lukewarm reception of "The Dead End" in pre-sales.

First of all, this "crime + suspense" genre is fundamentally different from "family-friendly" films like *Goodbye Mr. Loser* and *Detective Chinatown*, and therefore cannot be judged by the same standards.

Moreover, his initial goal for this film was to prioritize "word-of-mouth" over "box office."

The reason for not launching a large-scale publicity campaign is also related to the subject matter of the film.

As the plot unfolds and the suspense is gradually revealed, the film's soul lies in its exploration of the ambiguity surrounding "sin and redemption" in human nature.

If a trailer for a crime film were to simply and crudely use phrases like "who killed whom" or "the police catch the bad guys" as its selling point, it would completely destroy the psychological process of "doubt-empathy-shock-reflection" that viewers would experience while watching the film.

For suspense films, once the mystery is destroyed, if you watch the plot with the answers in mind, there is no experience to speak of.

Therefore, this film shouldn't be promoted too much before its release.

However, this does not mean that Ye Zhi Qiu has given up on box office success.

Since we can't advertise extensively, we'll take the "less is more" approach to word-of-mouth marketing.

So, three days before the Spring Festival film season, Ye Zhi Qiu did something that the industry couldn't understand.

— Advance screening of "The Dead End"!

Advance screenings are screenings of the full film for a limited number of theaters and specific audiences before its official release.

The essence of advance screenings is to generate word-of-mouth publicity. They are generally only done for films that are highly anticipated and whose quality is well-regarded.

However, for films like "The Dead End," almost no distributors would choose to hold early screenings.

After all, the film's pre-sale box office was already mediocre. If negative news about the film's quality were to surface during the preview screenings, the blow would be devastating...

It doesn't even need to wait until the Spring Festival season starts; it can be declared a flop in advance.

Industry insiders believe that Ye Zhi Qiu's actions are tantamount to "courting death".

The advance screenings of "The Dead End" were held in only a few theaters, and all the guests invited were well-known film critics, managers of major theater chains, and other professionals.

The first advance screening ended on February 15.

Almost simultaneously, these professionals released their reviews.

Surprisingly, all of these reviews were positive!

Moreover, it wasn't just polite praise like "mutual flattery," but rather "absolutely rave reviews"!

"I was fortunate enough to be invited to an advance screening of Ye Zhi Qiu's new film 'The Dead End.' Twelve hours have passed since I finished watching it, and I'm still deeply moved and unable to extricate myself from the profound impact. Due to confidentiality, I cannot reveal the plot in advance, but I only have one thing to say about this film—it's the pinnacle of domestic crime films! Without a doubt!"

"I went into the theater with doubts about the quality of the film, and I left with doubts about life itself—in a good way, how could anyone make and act in such a good movie?"

"Two sentences: I'm impressed, and Ye Zhi Qiu is awesome!"

"The performances of Ye Zhi Qiu, Luo Zhao Liang, and Duan Zhu in the film are textbook-level."

"I stand by the following viewpoint: This is the most daring, most daring, and most daring Chinese-language film in the last 10 years; it is a film worthy of being recorded in the history of Chinese cinema!"

Among the numerous rave reviews, the comments from Shu Shu, a well-known "Ye Zhi Qiu fan" and a mature female film critic, are particularly popular.

"After watching 'The Dead End,' I couldn't calm down for a long time. My only feeling was 'pain.' This is not a movie; it's a slow torture of the soul. My heart was both burning and chilling under the scorching sun."

"I also feel sorry for him. Actors are just doing their job, but I still feel sorry for Ye Zhi Qiu in this drama. His dedication goes beyond what an actor can or should do. He is using his life to portray the character Xin Xiao Feng..."

Shushu's "Big Tree Film Review" account has more than 1000 million followers, and this Weibo post immediately attracted a lot of attention.

"Given that this woman's previous favoritism towards Ye Zhi Qiu was so obvious, can anyone tell whether her words were an overflow of love influenced by ovulation hormones, or genuine words?"

"As a long-time fan, I must say, the sheer volume of reviews is real, but the sincerity is also genuine. Shu Shu's film reviews are generally very objective."

"I was originally indifferent to crime dramas, but after you mentioned it, I'm actually quite interested."

"Damn! What is this movie even about? Everyone who watched it is so anxious and restless, like they've lost their souls!"

"The key point is that it's not just her; all the professionals who watched it praised it highly, with zero negative reviews!"

"Could it be that it was faked, with some kind of tipping fee?"

"These professionals don't get small fees for their writing; bribing one might be possible, but no production team can bribe everyone, so the answer is very likely true..."

"Put conspiracy theories aside for now, all major cinemas have already increased the number of screenings of 'The Dead End'!"