July 2, the day after The Ocean Waves premiered!
This was the day the film received the most negative reviews online. The backers of several competing movies had hired large numbers of paid posters to smear The Ocean Waves!
The main reason was that The Ocean Waves had performed far too well on its opening day. If they didn't suppress it, the other companies wouldn't stand a chance in this summer slot!
The film industry was a winner-takes-all market. There could be several small-time winners, creating the appearance of a fierce contest between multiple companies, but there was usually only one true champion—the kind of film that raked in one or two hundred million a day, and kept doing so—in a market like the summer slot. After all, moviegoers only had so much time! Few people had nothing better to do than spend all day in a cinema, watching one film after another!
Across the internet and in the comment sections of ticketing apps, paid posters flooded the place with comments disparaging The Ocean Waves!
"What a piece of garbage. I wasted sixty yuan! This is the new film by Zhao Qinyin, the Dragon Kingdom box-office record holder everyone's been hyping up for so long? What a disappointment! Don't waste your money!"
"I came out of this movie completely stunned. My faith has been shattered! I never imagined Teacher Zhao Qinyin's standards could fall this far! How did this film get an 8.6 rating? How many paid reviewers did they hire?"
"Everyone saying The Ocean Waves is good is a liar! They're both romance films in the summer slot, but Flying Bird is ten times better. I cried my eyes out! If you're going to see a movie this summer, pick Flying Bird!"
"So the paid posters are crying foul