More and more audience members came to the ticket office, and they all looked anxious.

"Boss, why can't I buy tickets for 'The Lotus Lantern'?"

The theater manager wiped the sweat from his head and gave a helpless and pale explanation: "I know you want to see this movie, but there really aren't any showings today. Why don't you come back tomorrow, or you can watch something else."

Some young people pouted and walked away helplessly.

They have no interest in other movies because Douyin is flooded with short videos praising "The Lotus Lantern", which makes them feel that they will fall behind the times if they don't watch this movie.

However, there are still some audience members with stronger personalities who stay here and seem unwilling to leave no matter what.

"What's wrong with your cinemas? Shouldn't you give more screenings to good movies? Look at those other movies, half of the seats are empty. You might as well use them for 'The Lotus Lantern'!"

The theater manager could only shrug his shoulders and look helpless.

To be honest, they do regret it.

Who would have thought that a cartoon could have such a good reputation, and no one would have thought that its popularity would soar through word of mouth among the audience.

Seeing the popularity of "The Lotus Lantern" on the Internet, these theater managers felt like they were bleeding.

But they really couldn't do anything today, the screening schedule had already been decided long ago.

After they had exhausted themselves in dealing with these audiences, the managers began to arrange tomorrow's performances with a look of helplessness but a hint of anticipation.

It is naturally impossible to give "The Lotus Lantern" a daytime show like that.

They are all looking forward to tomorrow's "The Lotus Lantern" giving them a surprise.

"Tsk tsk tsk!" After walking out of the theater, Tang Yue was finally able to speak. Judging from her expression, she must be quite happy now:

"These theater managers deserve it. They gave us so few screenings on the first day. They just looked down on animation! Now that they realize the reputation and popularity are off, they're trying to make amends."

The friend next to her nodded. After putting herself in Tang Yue's shoes, she immediately felt a sense of sourness:

"Of course! Cinemas want to make more money! But during the Spring Festival period, the first day's performance is unpredictable. I've seen many movies have high box office on the first day, but as word of mouth gradually declines, their box office is overtaken."

Tang Yue hummed and said softly, "Have you seen other movies? Are they good?"

"Are you talking about 'Whale Sea Chronicle'?" My bestie shook her head and said seriously, "No matter what app I open now, I see news related to this movie. I'm starting to wonder if this movie has too much marketing money to spend."

My bestie paused, then complained, "I haven't seen the movie, though. It's mainly because I saw the trailer and felt the special effects were cheap. Anyway, after watching 'The Lotus Lantern,' I've lost interest in these kinds of special effects."

After listening to her best friend's words, Tang Yue said "oh" and opened Huaban.com to take a look.

As the largest rating website in China, Huaban’s score is quite important for a movie.

With a high rating, the movie can be promoted and become a tool to attract passers-by.

If the score is low, people will naturally use it to avoid risks.

As expected, the rating of "The Lotus Lantern" ranked first, and it still maintains an extremely high score of 9.2.

At this moment, Tang Yue curled up the corners of her mouth and couldn't wait to open the film reviews and take a closer look, wanting to know how these comrades praised this movie.

"Unparalleled special effects are the most impressive in this Spring Festival movie season. My suggestion is that all future movies should be held to this standard. Thank you!"

"A big complainer who watched a certain marketing blockbuster and then watched 'The Lotus Lantern' said that the special effects of the animation beat the former by a mile! I can only say that this Spring Festival movie will have another dark horse!"

"Director Zhou Yiyang, combined with the actors in Moonlight Girl, this combination is almost a universal formula for box office success. And this time, Zhou Yiyang once again did not disappoint me. The plot of The Lotus Lantern is tight, the visuals are stunning, and even the soundtrack is world-class."

"Five-star reviews, needless to say, 'The Lotus Lantern' will definitely be a milestone. From youth films, art films, to science fiction, animation... Zhou Yiyang is truly motivated to enter various fields and continuously raise the box office ceiling in these fields. It's amazing!"

"This is a rare good movie. After watching it, I just want to say that if I can only choose one movie for the Spring Festival, it should be "The Lotus Lantern"!"

Tang Yue read all the comments with an extremely shocked attitude. Finally, she slapped her cheeks hard with her hands, and her mood was very complicated:

"Isn't this review a little too good? I almost thought all these people who came to review were just trolls hired by President Zhou. Their words are so exaggerated!"

My friend beside me suddenly laughed and said seriously, "They're not really a scam. In fact, after watching it, I felt the same way as they do now. I can only say that the quality of 'The Lotus Lantern' is well-deserved of its reputation. By the way, how are your two competitors doing?"

Tang Yue then remembered her original intention, and she quickly found "Whale Sea Chronicle".

This movie is also very popular, but everyone is calling it a scam.

The petals' score has reached 6.5, which is at risk of failing.

"What's going on?" Tang Yue was a little surprised. "Isn't this score too low?"

"I guessed it," my best friend whispered, "Movies like this, with huge investments, lots of stars, and marketed as family-friendly, are actually the most dangerous."

"That's true," Tang Yue recalled. In her opinion, almost all fantasy movies were bad. "Looks like we'll have one less competitor this time."

The Spring Festival box office is a winner-takes-all period. If a film's reputation is clearly poor, then regardless of its previous popularity or impressive marketing, its box office will gradually decline, and it may even face the risk of losing money.

Tang Yue held back her laughter and opened the ticket purchasing app.

After all, there are still commercial films that don’t get good ratings on Huaban but receive good reviews from passersby.

Unfortunately, the score of "Whale Sea Chronicle" on several ticket purchasing apps is already 9 points.

"The Lotus Lantern" maintained an extremely high level of 9.8 points. After watching it, people will only feel that the gap between the two movies is too big.

But when Tang Yue saw the box office, she fell silent again.