There's a popular joke online about The Misty Journey 2.
Someone asked, "When will The Misty Journey 2 be released?" The answer was, "Next year."
Then they asked, "Can you be more specific?" The answer was, "It will be released in a couple of days."
This was pretty much how the audience, as of December 29, 2004, felt when they saw this latest news.
At first, many people didn't believe it. Zuckerberg, for instance, was convinced it was an April Fools' Day prank, even though it wasn't April 1st. But when he specifically went to the cinema to check, he found that all the cinemas were indeed displaying promotional posters for The Misty Journey 2, with the release date listed as January 1st... He even consulted a ticket seller and learned that the second installment was indeed showing in two days. Zuckerberg felt like he was floating.
The news immediately became one of the hottest topics on the entire internet. After all, the interval between the releases of two brand-new films was only 22 days, which was an unprecedented first. All audiences who had seen the first part praised the decision and couldn't wait to see the latest film.
For those who had seen the first part, like Zuckerberg, who had watched it less than 20 days ago, the memory of the first installment was still fresh in their minds. With the news of the upcoming release of the second part, a desire to see it again arose.
This is the benefit of a short release interval; it maximizes the human desire for serial content. Otherwise, this desire would gradually dissipate over time.
So, Zuckerberg immediately booked a ticket for the midnight premiere on January 1st. It was the first time in Zuckerberg's life that he attended a movie premiere. It wasn't that he couldn't get a ticket, but he felt that going to the movies at midnight was suicidal. He had always been a good child who went to bed early and woke up early.
But now, Zuckerberg clearly couldn't afford to stick to his early-to-bed, early-to-rise principle anymore. He couldn't wait another second.
Fortunately, Zuckerberg had a relatively good mood while waiting for the second part to be released. However, this mood was soon slightly damaged by an unexpected event.
"What's going on? Why have The Misty Journey's Rotten Tomatoes ratings, audience scores, and professional scores all declined?" Because he genuinely liked the movie, Zuckerberg checked the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes from time to time, looking for interesting long reviews.
Zuckerberg often discovered hidden Easter eggs and other interesting stories in other people's productions that he hadn't noticed while watching the movie, which he found very engaging.
But now, the ratings and approval ratings on Rotten Tomatoes had dropped.
The approval rating had fallen from 95% to 93%, the audience score from 9.4 to 9.0, and the professional score from 8.9 to 8.8.
Although the overall result was still the strongest among all fantasy films, the decline was tangible and significant, arguably a rather drastic fluctuation in reputation.
For ordinary people, seeing their favorite movie's rating decline would at most involve posting angry rants online and venting their frustration with their keyboards. There was nothing else they could do.
But Zuckerberg was different. Rotten Tomatoes was also a website under the umbrella of the US Priority Group. Although the website was operated independently and its organizational structure was separate, it was not affiliated with Weibo's corporate structure.
At that time, the core development philosophy of Rotten Tomatoes was not to grow bigger and stronger or become a diversified giant. Instead, it was to focus on the development of the rating website domain, without needing to explore other businesses.
Therefore, giving Rotten Tomatoes an ambitious leadership team would not be a good thing. Not only would it be a waste of money, but it could also lead the entire Rotten Tomatoes astray and create serious internal friction.
So, Ms. Versailles, learning the art of托管 (management/oversight) from Jiangnan Group, directly placed Rotten Tomatoes, which had no equity relationship with Weibo, under Weibo's management.
In other words, while the Rotten Tomatoes operations team operated independently, the higher-level positions like president, directors, finance, office space, and server resources were all covered by Weibo.
Since all of Rotten Tomatoes' equity was held by the US Priority Group, no one could object to their way of doing things.
Therefore, although Rotten Tomatoes had no direct equity relationship with Weibo at the moment, Zuckerberg was the highest leader of Rotten Tomatoes and could intervene in all matters of its management. However, due to the托管 relationship, Zuckerberg usually focused more on financial management, and otherwise allowed the Rotten Tomatoes operations team to handle matters themselves or relay orders from the group. He had never personally intervened.
But this time, he couldn't stand it.
So, Zuckerberg directly stormed onto the 12th floor of his own office building, a floor entirely dedicated to Rotten Tomatoes. Except for a brief visit when they moved in, he had never been to this floor before.
Then, Zuckerberg stormed in aggressively and walked directly into the station manager's office, confronting him directly and questioning, "What's going on with The Misty Journey's rating? Did you secretly take action!"
"President!" The station manager was startled. Especially seeing that the speaker was Zuckerberg, the president of Weibo, who never interfered with Rotten Tomatoes' operations but could actually fire him, he couldn't help but feel a chill of fear.
"Sir, even if I had the guts, I wouldn't dare tamper with The Misty Journey's rating. This is a film that was specifically instructed upon by the higher-ups!" the station manager quickly said.
"Is that so? Did I instruct upon The Misty Journey's rating? I don't recall," Zuckerberg replied, pausing.
"No, sir, you certainly didn't say those words. Those words came directly from the group headquarters." the station manager said.
"Group headquarters? Is it an order from Mrs. Versailles? Why would she be interested in this movie?" Zuckerberg asked, somewhat surprised. The station manager explained, "It's likely because the production company behind The Misty Journey is an important partner of our group, Jiangnan Group!"
"What, the production company of The Misty Journey is actually Jiangnan Group!" Zuckerberg exclaimed in surprise, murmuring to himself. If it was Jiangnan Group, it would be quite normal for them to give it special attention.
Because BL
This made Zuckerberg feel a sense of approval towards Jiangnan Group for the first time.
"Since Jiangnan Group is involved, why has the movie's rating still decreased?" Zuckerberg continued to ask with dissatisfaction.
"Actually, this is quite normal! We believe there's no malicious interference from other forces," the station manager said, lowering his head. "The previous scores were given by a smaller number of viewers, and those who watched were mainly fans of Eastern fantasy. They were willing to give this movie high ratings."
"However, as the number of viewers has increased recently, there are many people who don't particularly like Eastern fantasy films, find them difficult to understand, but were dragged to watch them by friends and family. So, these people gave negative reviews, ultimately leading to a decline in ratings and approval ratings. These are all very normal data!"
"Is that so?" Zuckerberg scoffed, then said, "Show me the backend data. I want to see the most detailed backend data!"
"Yes!" The station manager quickly ordered someone to retrieve the backend scoring data, which was then automatically generated into a detailed table. Zuckerberg took one look and decisively said, "This data is not normal. Look at the number of negative reviews that have come in over the past week; it's more than in the previous two weeks. How can this be normal? The box office has been declining over the past week, so the second week should have the most negative reviews!"
"This is actually normal, because viewers don't rate immediately; they usually have a delay! Also, the media started reporting on this movie's box office miracle from the third week, which reminded many who had watched it to give their ratings," the station manager explained.
"Then why are there so many more negative reviews today than in the previous two days?" Zuckerberg asked again.
"Because the news of the second part was announced yesterday, reigniting the enthusiasm that had somewhat cooled down. This led more people to come and rate!" the station manager replied.
"Nonsense! I think this is clearly someone maliciously giving The Misty Journey low scores. This behavior must be stopped!" Zuckerberg said angrily.
"President, this really..."
"This is malicious scoring. Are you perhaps the mastermind behind these malicious negative reviews?" Zuckerberg glared at the station manager, who instantly shut his mouth.
"The Misty Journey is a very excellent film. Although personal tastes may lead to scores ranging from 10 to 5, these are all acceptable. However, those who gave scores below 5 are definitely malicious ratings. How can there be a normal person who gives a score below 5 to such an excellent film as The Misty Journey? This is the greatest malice!"