Literary Master: Starting with Refusing to Be a Child Star

The data started to emerge during the first weekend after the release of "Saw".

Luo Jinnian received the box office report forwarded by Meng Zhaoming on Monday afternoon.

The figures in the report were higher than he had expected. The box office was over 20 million in the opening weekend. It wasn't explosive, but for a small to medium-budget suspense film with production costs kept within a reasonable range and almost no big-name actors, this start had already made many distributors start to recalculate its final size.

What surprised the industry even more was its occupancy rate. On Saturdays and Sundays, the prime screenings were almost always sold out. Some cinemas even added screenings in the early morning, and the occupancy rate was still over 50%.

The signal this data reveals is more direct than the box office figures themselves: word-of-mouth is leading the way, not marketing and distribution.

It opened with a Douban rating of 8.0, and the rating remained stable at around 7.8 during its first week.

The top comment in the short review section read, "Finally, domestic suspense films don't have to rely on ghosts to scare people anymore," followed by hundreds of replies. Some netizens commented, "The ending left me stunned in the theater," while others were more concerned with other things, such as, "I started guessing who the corpse was from the middle, and it really was him!" "After watching it, I went home and reread the original story in *Story Collection*, and found that the movie had some more content than the book."

That comment was pushed to the second page, and someone asked, "What exactly did it say?" The reply was, "It's about brutal acts against innocent people."

When Luo Jinnian saw that line, he paused for a moment. That line was indeed not included in the movie—not because he forgot it, but because he felt that putting it in that position would weaken the impact of the ending. He needed to make "Game over" the last sound, and there couldn't be any heavier lines before it that would overshadow it.

The box office did not experience a precipitous drop in the second week; instead, it rose again on Saturday.

The cinemas maintained their screening schedule, audience discussions continued, and those who saw it on Friday night started inviting their friends to see it again.

Someone posted a video on a short video platform showing audience reactions recorded in a movie theater. During the plot twist at the end, the entire audience simultaneously let out a suppressed gasp. Although the recording wasn't very clear, the quality of that sound could be felt even through the screen.

The video garnered over a million views in a single day, with comments such as "That was my reaction too," "I've already bought tickets for a second viewing," and "Will not having read the original book affect the viewing experience?" to which someone replied, "It won't, but reading the original book after watching the movie will give you a different experience."

In its third week, *Saw*'s total box office surpassed 80 million. This figure wouldn't be much during the Spring Festival or National Day holidays, but for a suspense film in a relatively quiet period with no big-name actors, it exceeded the industry's initial expectations. Meng Zhaoming posted in the group chat, "We might break 100 million," and Director Qin replied with a smiling emoji. Zhao Bo remained silent. Luo Jinnian saw the message while attending evening self-study at school. He placed his phone face down on the table and only replied with a "Hmm" after class ended.

What truly transformed *Saw* from "a decent-selling movie" into "a phenomenon" was its performance in the fourth and fifth weeks. Generally, by the fourth week of a film's run, box office numbers are nearing their end, screenings decrease, and only the last remaining viewers are interested. But *Saw*'s trajectory didn't plummet like most films; instead, it declined slowly, almost imperceptibly, dropping only a little each week before plateauing. Ultimately, its total box office in mainland China surpassed 100 million yuan during its run, and with some long-tail effects later, the figure moved towards 130 million yuan. That night, Zhao Bo posted a single two words on his WeChat Moments: "Holy crap."

The success of "Saw" led to something predictable—the sales of the latest issue of "The Grocery Store" began to rise rapidly.

This collection of short stories includes several suspenseful short stories such as "Saw" and "Final Destination". It had been on the market for some time before its release and performed steadily, with good sales every month.

But after the movie was released, things changed.

After watching the movie, some people searched for "the original novel of Early Spring Tea," found "The General Store," and placed an order. People wrote in long reviews on Douban, "The movie was well-made, but the original novel is even more intense; I recommend everyone to watch it." Others held up the book in short videos, saying to the camera, "If you feel you haven't had enough after watching the movie, this book has more surprises waiting for you than you imagine." This content was pushed to even more people by the platform, and some of those people became new readers, forming a spontaneous cycle.

Jiabei sent a sales report in the third week after the film's release. The report showed that sales of *The Grocery Store* increased slightly in the week of the film's release compared to the previous week, nearly doubled in the second week, and increased significantly again in the third week. This increase exceeded Jiabei's expectations, and he added a note in the email: "This book has already been reprinted three times, and the current inventory can last for a while. We will decide whether to continue reprinting based on sales." Luo Jinnian didn't reply after reading the email. He knew that the film would boost the book's sales, but what was really at work behind those numbers was more complex than "the film boosting the book"—it was a reader reading the short story and then looking at the author's previous works, a viewer wanting to see another form of the story after watching the film, someone reading the book and then going back to watch the film again, shuttling back and forth between the two forms.

"The General Store" eventually made it into the top ten of the annual bestseller list for literature at the end of that year. This ranking was not low for a collection of short stories, especially one without celebrity endorsements, book signings, or large-scale marketing. Next to it were a novel and an essay collection, squeezing out a narrow gap between them, as if it had carved out a spot that hadn't been reserved for it. When Luo Jinnian saw the list, he didn't say anything, but saved a screenshot to a folder named "The General Store." There were already several similar screenshots in that folder: the Douban rating page, long reviews from readers, and photos of bookstore displays.

The movie is still playing, and the book is still being sold.

Those people were so frightened in front of the screen that they gripped the handrails tightly, walked out of the theater after the lights came on, and placed orders on their phones on their way home.

Actually, there were also off-screen reasons why "Saw" caused such a sensation.

At that time, there were actually more horror movies showing in theaters than just theirs; there was also another suspense drama that was said to be a big-budget production that had been five years in the making.

Luo Jinnian thought that when "The General Store" is reprinted next time, he could write more on the title page to thank the readers and his colleagues.

"Everyone in the same industry is a benefactor."