Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 393: Movie Release Schedule
In the afternoon, Pei Qian first went to the company to check on the development progress of GOG.
On Ma Yang's side, the beta client of IOI had already been sent over.
Dream Fulfillment Ventures owns shares in Finger Games and is also a domestic game publisher, so requesting a client was only natural.
Although it was an English version, Pei Qian, relying on his CET-4 level English and with the help of Qiandu Translation, could still understand the gist of it.
After comparing the IOI version with the current GOG build, he felt much more at ease.
The gap was still very obvious!
Previously, IOI had never been openly tested. They only occasionally sent over a few in-progress builds they were improving. Pei Qian had seen those, but he never had a clear sense of what stage the game was actually at.
Because in Pei Qian's memory, LoL was already in a very mature and well-polished state. Looking back at the prototype-stage IOI, everything naturally felt awkward to him, and it was hard to judge it objectively.
But after learning about players' reactions during the testing phase, Pei Qian could more or less make a call.
The game's quality itself was beyond doubt. At least for now, its competitiveness in the current field was indisputable.
By comparison, GOG was still far behind in terms of overall completion.
Pei Qian didn't know whether this was because IOI had been approved earlier and progressed faster in development, or because Li Yada and the entire project team had been slacking off.
Pei Qian hoped it was the latter.
To be honest, ever since the Tengda Spirit Compatibility Test came out, not only had new employees' attitudes changed dramatically, even veteran employees' work attitudes had improved greatly!
For example, the design team in Tengda Group's game department, long known as stubborn overtime regulars, had also clearly reduced how often they worked overtime recently.
It looked like Li Yada and the others were preparing to strategically give up on the first Zero Overtime Competition selection.
Between finishing their work tasks and getting the bonus, they chose the former, which made Pei Qian feel a little regretful.
However, Li Yada and the others didn't seem to be going all-in on overtime just because they thought they had no chance at the Zero Overtime Competition anyway.
Instead, they were making an effort to reduce both the number of overtime days and the amount of overtime hours each week.
This made President Pei very satisfied, giving him the happy feeling that "the stubborn ones have finally seen the light."
All in all, GOG's current condition looked good. If later on there was extra money with nowhere else to spend it, throwing a few million more into GOG probably wouldn't be a big problem.
After all, the gap between IOI and GOG, as it stood, didn't seem like something a few million yuan could make up for.
Thinking this way, Pei Qian felt a bit more at ease, reviewing his work while looking forward to the dinner gathering in the evening.
...
In the evening, at the Mingfu Family Banquet.
"President Pei! Long time no see!"
Zhang Zuting, Lu Zhiyao, and several other key members of the film crew greeted Pei Qian at the entrance of the restaurant.
"What are you all doing standing out here in the cold? Come in, come in," Pei Qian hurried everyone inside.
Before entering the restaurant, Pei Qian lowered his voice and said to them:
"I told you before, since you all came such a long way to help me shoot this film, I have to play the proper host."
"I've booked at the Nameless Restaurant for the 20th, which is three days from now. So three nights from now, we'll go have a big feast."
"These three days, feel free to look around Jingzhou, have some fun, and get some good rest."
"Tonight's meal is to celebrate wrapping up filming."
"The one three days from now is to see you all off, and also to wish the movie huge box office success in advance!"
"So today's meal might be a bit lower in terms of grade—don't mind it, just make do with it."
What Pei Qian said served two purposes. On the one hand, it was to set everyone's expectations in advance, giving them some mental preparation for tonight's meal. On the other hand, it was to come up with a perfectly legitimate excuse for having two dinners in a row.
Both reasons were entirely reasonable and airtight. Presumably, even the system would have no grounds to object.
Zhang Zuting smiled. "President Pei, you're being way too polite."
"We did come to support you partly out of respect for you, President Pei, but the quality of the script and the strength of the team were also very important factors."
"If President Pei's script turns into a box-office hit, then all of us will get to share in the glory. We won't even have time to thank you properly!"
Amid their pleasantries, everyone took their seats inside the Mingfu Family Banquet.
Li Shi wasn't present today; it seemed he had company matters to deal with.
However, he had already given notice in advance. The store manager here also knew Pei Qian, and since the place had been booked out this time, they naturally offered very attentive service.
Before long, dish after dish of fine food was served.
Probably because Tang Yishu wasn't with them today, the dishes came out quickly, there were no mid-meal mishaps, and everything went smoothly.
The members of the film crew tasted one exquisite dish after another, eating to their hearts' content.
They were just a little puzzled.
When President Pei said earlier, "Let's just make do with this meal," was he being modest—or did he genuinely think so?
If a place of this caliber was considered "just make do," then just how high-end must the Nameless Restaurant be?
The female lead, Lin Ruyi, couldn't help but raise this question to Lu Zhiyao beside her, since Lu Zhiyao had eaten at the Nameless Restaurant before.
Lu Zhiyao thought for a moment. "It's hard to describe, but… the Nameless Restaurant really is better than this place, and by a lot."
...
At another table, Pei Qian was discussing post-wrap arrangements with Zhu Xiaoce and Huang Sibo.
"The film has already entered the editing stage. In a few days, we can probably get a rough cut out to take a preliminary look."
"After that, besides editing, there's post-production effects and a whole bunch of miscellaneous work. In short, let's aim to get everything done within a month."
"But President Pei, I can't guarantee that timeline. I can only say we'll do it as quickly as possible."
Pei Qian was a little disappointed. "A month, huh… Then we definitely won't make it for a Spring Festival release."
"As for Valentine's Day… that'll probably be tough too."
"What a pity."
In 2011, the Spring Festival fell on February 3rd—there was less than half a month left.
Even if the post-production team worked themselves to death, there was no way the film could be released during the Spring Festival window.
Of course, Pei Qian never planned to rush the schedule, much less make everyone work overtime.
The reason he felt it was a pity was mainly because he thought those two release windows would be perfect for A Better Tomorrow.
The Spring Festival slot was dominated by comedies, when families gathered together.
Valentine's Day was dominated by romance films.
A movie like A Better Tomorrow, which was toxic and emotionally brutal, wrapped in the skin of a "sci-fi romance" and carrying such a highly misleading title—if released during either of those two windows, it would definitely get torn to shreds by audiences and be utterly crushed by the surrounding comedies and romance films.
Release timing was extremely important for a film.
Because movies released during the same window competed fiercely with one another. A strong blockbuster would enjoy higher attendance rates and more screenings, naturally squeezing out the survival space of other films.
Pei Qian was actually hoping that some massive hit would come along and squeeze his own film's screening slots into oblivion.
Zhu Xiaoce said, "The Spring Festival and Valentine's Day periods do have huge traffic, and they're indeed great release windows. But our film is a bit on the deep side in terms of themes, it might not be suitable for those two slots."
"In my opinion, we could set the release date for May Day. Good things are worth waiting for."
May Day?
Don't mess with me—settlement is on March 31. If you set the release date to May Day, by then the daylilies will be cold and wilted!
Sure, this cycle allows one project to delay settlement, but such a crucial mechanism is something Pei Qian was saving for Fright Hostel. How could he waste it on a lousy movie that was guaranteed to lose money?
In Pei Qian's view, the earlier this movie was released, the better. It was doomed to lose money anyway, dragging it out for even one extra day just meant more risk.
Pei Qian said, "May Day is way too late. Totally unnecessary. In my opinion, let's release it in a month—February 22 is a good date."
Zhu Xiaoce: "?"
He pulled out his phone and checked the calendar, only to find that February 22 fell on a Tuesday. It wasn't any kind of holiday, not even a weekend.
The confused look on Zhu Xiaoce's face lasted for two seconds before his brows relaxed.
Did President Pei have some other arrangement? Or was this some kind of auspicious date?
Judging by how serious President Pei looked, it didn't seem like he was joking.
Zhu Xiaoce nodded. "Alright, President Pei, we'll set it for February 22. But… choosing a date like this means the promotional pressure on our film will be pretty high."
Whatever.
Pei Qian couldn't care less. What was there to promote about a flop? Ideally, after it hit theaters, it wouldn't get any screenings at all, and nobody would even know this movie existed—that would be perfect.
"Anyway, let's do it that way. Eat up, eat up."
...
...
After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill.
Pei Qian personally saw each member of the film crew off.
The next three days of the crew's itinerary had already been arranged, with dedicated staff to take them sightseeing around Jingzhou. Pei Qian didn't need to worry about it.
Of course, this trip wasn't the roller-coaster–bungee-jumping–haunted-house combo package. It was just normal sightseeing.
After all, Pei Qian knew very well that you had to treat friends and enemies differently.
These people had worked hard to help him shoot a money-burning flop of a film, and might even end up shouldering some criticism because the movie was terrible. If Pei Qian then dragged them into some life-threatening "one-stop thrill package," would he even be human?
"President Pei, want to sit for a bit longer?" Li Shi said as he came over.
Seeing that Li Shi seemed to have something to say, Pei Qian nodded. "Sure."
The two of them returned to the restaurant, found an empty seat, and sat down. A waiter brought over a pot of tea.
"President Li, if you have something to say, just say it," Pei Qian said, wanting to skip the pleasantries. He was thinking of heading back early to sleep and getting up early to study the next day.
Li Shi sighed with emotion. "When President Pei said earlier that you'd take good care of our business, I thought it was just polite talk. I didn't expect you to actually be so sincere about it."
"I've only been open for a little over a week, and President Pei has already booked the place twice…"
Pei Qian took a sip of tea and found it was indeed pretty good. "President Li, I already told you not to overthink it. This is just a normal group dinner for me. You didn't call me back just to say this, did you?"
Li Shi smiled, as if he had finally made up his mind. "President Pei, I've decided."
"I'm going to invest some money in your haunted house project!"
"Even if the money goes down the drain, it's fine, just consider it a way of thanking you, President Pei!"
Pei Qian was sipping his tea when a question mark slowly floated over his head.
"?"