Chapter 823 It's time to join the group.

Huang Zhongjing truly admired Lu Yanhe.

There's a saying that you should bear as much responsibility as you have the ability to do.

In reality, very few people would actually do that.

You really can't blame anyone else for this.

However, Lu Yanhe was able to build Linghe to this level in just a few years not only because of the success of each of his projects, but also because he was ambitious, goal-oriented, and decisive, while also being able to sacrifice some of his own interests, disregard immediate gains and losses, and use resource exchanges to gain opportunities to sit on the table again and again, and finally, successfully take a bite out of the pie.

The "resurrection" of the "Burning Fire" film series in the international market completely taught him a lesson—

Lu Yanhe had been emphasizing that this film had greater value; what did he mean by that?

Did Huang Zhongjing not know that the "Burning Fire" film series was very well done?

Of course I know.

Doesn't Huang Zhongjing want this film to fetch a better price overseas and secure better distribution terms?

Of course I want to.

But it's impossible.

Chinese film companies are at a disadvantage in overseas negotiations.

Linghe's strength is built upon works such as "Home Alone".

Longyan lacks such accumulation.

Moreover, Huang Zhongjing himself did not believe that the film "Burning Fire" would achieve great box office results.

Too many times, lofty ambitions have been dashed and thwarted.

The goal of Chinese films achieving good box office results overseas is not something that can be accomplished in just one or two years.

Longyan, a company that primarily produces commercial films, has tried countless times.

Because he had tried it, he knew very well how difficult it was to succeed.

They simply won't stand on a fair scale when distributing your film.

-

Huang Zhongjing said, "It's not that no one has achieved success in the international film industry like Lu Yanhe, nor that no one has had a say in international film production companies, but very few have been able to expand every advantage they have gained as much as Lu Yanhe has."

Mrs. Wong said, "Ultimately, it's because he accumulated a lot of capital as an actor, and his scripts were successful one after another. He was just too lucky."

“No successful person is without luck, but it would be terrible to only see luck for this reason,” Huang Zhongjing said. “Who dares to say that their success is 100% due to their own efforts? Even Longyan’s success story doesn’t dare to say that.”

Mrs. Huang sighed.

"I don't know how to put it, but I just don't like him. I've seen too many successful young people who have achieved temporary success. They're arrogant and conceited. You all say Lu Yanhe is humble, but in my opinion, there's no one more arrogant and disdainful of everyone than him," Huang Tai said. "He's just successful."

Huang Zhongjing smiled.

“From now on, I’ll handle all the dealings with him in Longyan,” Huang Zhongjing said.

“Didn’t you say that already?” Mrs. Huang said.

“Thanks to Lu Yanhe’s efforts, Longyan now finally has a film series that is performing well at the overseas box office.” Huang Zhongjing said to Huang Tai, “Until you adjust your mindset towards him, I hope you will not have any contact with him. I’m afraid you will offend him.”

Mr. Huang was speechless.

-

Afterwards, Lu Yanhe sat down with Huang Zhongjing and discussed the acting agreement for "Burning Fire 3," as well as the follow-up plans for the "Burning Fire" film series.

Huang Zhongjing took out an agreement and presented it to Lu Yanhe.

"Yan He, this time I don't just want to invite you to continue starring in 'Burning Fire 3'. In fact, I know you would definitely be willing to return for the third installment. You are a very responsible and conscientious person, and you will make sure this series has a complete ending."

"You've taken the 'Burning Fire' series to a new level this year, giving Longyan a wonderful gift, for which I am very grateful. I also hope that our connection with the 'Burning Fire' series will not be limited to just these three installments."

"I would like to invite you to serve as the co-producer of the 'Burning Fire' cinematic universe, and also invite Linghe to participate in the development of the 'Burning Fire' cinematic universe."

Lu Yanhe glanced at Huang Zhongjing with considerable surprise.

"I hope to turn the 'Burning Fire' series into a Chinese fantasy epic that the whole world will know about."

“Originally, I wouldn’t have dared to have such thoughts, but the success of the first and second parts of ‘Burning Fire’ overseas has given me back my confidence.”

Lu Yanhe remained silent.

Lu Yanhe was not surprised that Huang Zhongjing would have such an idea at this time.

However, Lu Yanhe was pondering whether or not to consider Huang Zhongjing's suggestion.

After thinking about it seriously for a long time, Lu Yanhe said, "President Huang, why don't we discuss the third movie first? The cinematic universe is a big deal, and it can't be explained in a short time."

“Okay, of course,” Huang Zhongjing said with a smile. “Let’s talk about the third part first.”

“We know that your salary in Hollywood has reached the level of $10 million base salary plus profit sharing,” Huang Zhongjing said. “Actually, I wanted to offer you that salary directly. The box office performance of ‘Burning Fire’ can support that salary. However, because Yongzhou is still here, although he has told me several times that he doesn’t mind if your salary is higher than his later salary.”

“Yes, I also hope to maintain a balance,” Lu Yanhe said. “I don’t want such a gap to appear between me and my senior brother. Even if we don’t mind, others will make a fuss about it, especially those marketing accounts. But, Mr. Huang, I also hope that my senior brother and I won’t suffer losses.”

“I understand. Of course, I won’t let you suffer any losses. If Longyan were a company that exploits and oppresses actors, it wouldn’t have achieved what it has today,” Huang Zhongjing said. “I will offer both of you a base salary of 20 million yuan. However, there will be some differences in terms of box office revenue sharing, overseas revenue sharing, and revenue from character merchandise. In addition, we have reserved an investment share of 10 million yuan for the third film—priority will be given to you or Linghe.”

For a film series like "Burning Fire," which already achieved box office success with its first and second installments, allocating ten million yuan in investment to Lu Yanhe and Linghe for the third installment is essentially giving away a money-making opportunity for free.

This is also Longyan's compensation to Lu Yanhe.

-

Lu Yanhe was quite satisfied with the attitude that Longyan had shown this time.

Chen Ziyan also said, "This time they finally stopped being so stingy."

Chen Ziyan asked, "Do you want to continue participating in the 'Burning Fire' series?"

Lu Yanhe said, "I haven't thought about it yet, but how should I put it, what you said to me back then really touched me."

"What did I say?" Chen Ziyan asked.

“This film series, no matter what, has become intertwined with my acting career,” Lu Yanhe said. “If you hadn’t said that to me back then, I probably wouldn’t have thought of trying to salvage the overseas box office of ‘Burning Fire’ under those circumstances.”

"Will you continue to participate in the filming of the 'Burning Fire' series in the future?"

“Who knows, it’s not certain.” Lu Yanhe thought of Robert Downey Jr. and the Detective Conan movies that get better with age. “But, as I said before, this movie is the best Chinese-language film I’ve seen in terms of visual effects. If I could have helped it take it a step further but didn’t, I would regret it.”

Chen Ziyan nodded.

“Then go for it,” Chen Ziyan said. “If you’ve already reached this level, and you still can’t choose your work as you please, then what’s the point? You’re absolutely right. If there’s a film that can truly represent the level of China’s film industry and the aesthetic style of this genre, and win the hearts of the world, but it doesn’t achieve that, it’s such a pity.”

Lu Yanhe nodded.

Chen Ziyan said, "Then let's do it."

"Won't it be a thankless task?"

"With me here, you won't waste your time and effort," she said calmly. "Do you think I'd let them do something like discarding you after they've served their purpose?"

Lu Yanhe laughed.

"It's all thanks to you being here."

-

Huang Zhongjing's attitude towards Lu Yanhe, while not a complete 180-degree turn, certainly became much more courteous.

This is, of course, because Lu Yanhe has brought tangible benefits to Longyan.

Huang Zhongjing wanted to link Lu Yanhe to the "Burning Fire" series because he saw the real help Lu Yanhe provided to "Burning Fire".

He was afraid that Lu Yanhe would stop helping him later.

Once Lu Yanhe stops endorsing the "Burning Fire" series, will Midoriya continue to release "Burning Fire" in this manner?

Huang Zhongjing wanted to keep Lu Yanhe in check in order to ensure that the "Burning Fire" series would continue to perform well overseas.

What if Longyan manages to pull strings overseas and thinks he can kick Lu Yanhe out of the game?

Chen Ziyan smiled and handed the revised cooperation agreement to Huang Zhongjing.

-

And just then, the release date for "The Corpse" arrived.

For this movie, Li Yuefeng shot eight magazine covers in one go, five of which were domestic magazines, which he arranged through his own resources.

The other three are overseas publications, which is due to the combined efforts of the Jump Up Group's media resources, as well as the support from Linghe and D19 behind the scenes.

Domestic magazines mainly focus on fashion and film magazines; "Jump Up" didn't even feature him.

Foreign magazines, however, are all thrillers and horror magazines.

That happens to be the target audience of "The Corpse".

"The Corpse" is also the only film with a touch of horror elements during the Qingming Festival period.

Before its release, "The Corpse" had already sold over 20 million RMB in pre-sales.

This is the best pre-sale performance among all the films starring Li Yuefeng.

Some rivals have smeared the film, saying that "The Corpse" is a low-budget, poorly made movie.

Linghe immediately posted: Linghe produces movies with very low costs but no compromise on quality. It's not about how much money is spent on making a movie, but about spending only what is necessary for making a movie. Not a penny more.

Some of Li Yuefeng's rivals have tried to smear him, saying that Li Yuefeng lowered his salary to secure a collaboration with Lu Yanhe, and that he was filming at a pittance.

This is also why Li Yuefeng was able to direct so many films about Lu Yanhe.

Li Yuefeng personally responded: Lu Yanhe never shortchanged me a single penny when he asked me to make a movie. Many people ask me to make movies and give me a friendly price, but Lu Yanhe is the only one who has never given me a friendly price; it's always the market price.

Someone immediately retorted: "How dare you say that? Lu Yanhe has given you so many roles, and you don't even give him a friendly price."

Li Yuefeng: To reply to you, I'll use a quote from Lu Yanhe: "You get what you pay for. You're not short of money, so why offer a 'friendship price'? If you're doing something at a low cost by exploiting your friends, that's not a low cost, that's just freeloading."

Soon after, media outlets and marketing accounts revealed that Li Yuefeng had used a lot of his personal resources to promote the film.

For example, leveraging your own brand resources, appearing on television programs, or having trailers played on those programs, etc.

The implication is that although Li Yuefeng did not receive a "friendship price," he still invested a lot of his own resources.

When Lu Yanhe was interviewed by CCTV's movie channel, the reporter also asked about this matter.

Lu Yanhe frankly stated, "I've always told my friends that if I'm really short of money when making a film, or if the film is purely for artistic value and has no box office potential, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to ask them for a discounted rate, or even act for free. But honestly, do you think I didn't have box office expectations for 'The Corpse'? If I didn't, why would I have cast Li Yuefeng? Did the company really run out of money for this film? Linghe has made quite a bit of money these past few years. So, there's no need to be stingy. I can say directly that Li Yuefeng's salary accounted for a large portion of the film's production cost. The film's budget is low because it doesn't need to spend much on production to make it very good. Li Yuefeng is the biggest market selling point of this film, besides its subject matter and story. So why should I make him a cheap actor? Do you think it's worth it? Isn't it worth it?"

Lu Yanhe added, "Li Yuefeng isn't a petty actor. After watching 'Crocodile,' he told me he liked it so much that he wrote a reflection on the film as acting advice, and said that if he were offered a role in a film like that in the future, he would definitely take it. I told him that if he acted in a film like that, he really couldn't use his star status to get market value, because even the biggest stars have limited ability to attract audiences to theaters. His response was that actors can't not make money from every film, but they also don't need to make money from every film. That's what I like about him; he never shies away from letting others know about his pragmatism, but he's not just about pragmatism."

On its opening day, "The Corpse" grossed 31 million yuan at the domestic box office, ranking third in the Qingming Festival period. The performance was decent, without any dark horse potential, but still a respectable result.

However, when you factor in the performance of several overseas markets, the situation changes.

It grossed $850,000 on its opening day in 420 theaters across North America.

It's rare for a film to be released simultaneously in Japan with other markets. Because Li Yuefeng is quite well-known in Japan, and with effective promotion, the film grossed $970,000 on its opening day.

Combined across several markets, "The Corpse" achieved a total of $2.72 million in overseas sales.

Judging from the feedback on its first day of release, this film has box office potential.

Therefore, D19 immediately increased promotional resources for "The Corpse," including plans to expand the number of theaters showing the film for another week.

The condition is that Linghe agrees to give them the distribution rights for "The Corpse" in other European markets as well.

After assessing the situation, Linghe immediately agreed and signed the agreement.

To relinquish some of the benefits in exchange for greater returns.

This is the principle that Linghe has always adhered to.

If Linghe had negotiated the distribution rights for "The Corpse" with each publisher individually, the final profit might have been greater.

However, Linghe wants more publicity resources and distribution conditions for D19.

Because of its potential for future returns, the ceiling is higher.

This increased investment in D19 has yielded positive feedback in various markets.

Media attention and discussion can spread worldwide.

Especially in this digital age, social media intertwines all kinds of information.

Once a certain scale of discussion is reached, attention will follow.

-

While the iron is hot, several more markets are preparing to release the film.

This time, Linghe negotiated distribution terms with several markets, focusing on their promotional efforts for the film in their local markets.

In particular, it requires that the premiere be attended by more than five mainstream media outlets.

At this point, what Linghe wanted was the prestige of "The Corpse".

Use brand image to create a blockbuster international film image.

-

In just one week, "The Corpse" grossed 157 million yuan at the box office, thanks to three days of the Qingming Festival holiday. While Li Yuefeng's haters were predicting its failure, Linghe was sending out daily reports of success and good news.

Even when Li Yuefeng's haters flooded Linghe's official Weibo account with complaints, criticizing them for being blind to cast Li Yuefeng as the lead actor and deserving of poor results, Linghe directly and openly responded:

When did a box office of 157 million yuan become a flop? Talking about box office value without considering production costs is just being dishonest, you know? A low-budget film starring a well-known actor like Li Yuefeng can earn 157 million yuan in its first week of release. That kind of box office appeal is something no film company could possibly miss.

Li Yuefeng was completely dumbfounded.

The fact that Linghe would so openly stand up for him and speak on his behalf was something he never dared to imagine when he was working with other film companies.

Because every film company worries that if they say something wrong, they might get into trouble and affect their stock price.

Unfortunately, Linghe has no stock price.

They don't care at all.

Chen Yin specifically instructed the company's publicity and public relations department to openly and unequivocally support Li Yuefeng.

But the reason wasn't actually that noble. Chen Yin was considering that Li Yuefeng had collaborated with the company on so many projects, and the greater Li Yuefeng's value, the greater the value of these projects.

Not to mention that after "The Corpse," there's another movie, "My Sassy Girl," that's going to be released.

How could Chen Yin stand by and watch Li Yuefeng be attacked by trolls?

-

However, this sends a different message within the entertainment industry.

For the actors, this was the film company protecting Li Yuefeng.

To be honest, when haters attack an actor for not being a box office draw or for a flop, what could be a more powerful response than the production company standing up and saying that the actor is extremely valuable?

In fact, this is why Linghe requires other markets to have a certain level of "prestige".

The card means—

Awesome, impressive results.

"But as a result, it seems unlikely that The Corpse will break the $100 million mark at the global box office."

"Why does it have to break 100 million?" Chen Yin said. "Do you really think we're all dark horse movie production factories that make big profits with small budgets? Do you think every movie can miraculously achieve huge profits with small budgets? The production and promotion costs of 'The Corpse' were less than 5 million US dollars, and now it has grossed 30 million US dollars worldwide. Isn't that good enough?"

Especially in the second week of its release, D19 suddenly announced that it had acquired the remake rights to "The Corpse" and would be remaking it into an English-language film.

D19 is a major producer of horror and thriller films, and also the distributor of "The Corpse" in North America and several other markets.

Being chosen by D19—doesn't that prove the film's success?

Can you only be noticed if you're not good enough?

Are they stupid?

Capitalists are blind, and you think you know the best?

-

The controversy sparked by "The Corpse" did not affect Lu Yanhe.

In any case, these controversies are nothing more than the fact that the box office results were mediocre, not as good as those of "Buried" and "Home Alone," and so on.

Anyway, Linghe has said everything he needed to say.

There will always be people who turn a blind eye and pretend not to see, and you can't correct them. They'll just have to run into a lamppost and realize they're blind.

Chen Yin messaged Lu Yanhe, saying he wanted to make a sequel to "The Corpse".

Lu Yanhe asked curiously, "Do you have any ideas?"

Chen Yin said that he did not have any specific story ideas in mind, but he wanted to use this opportunity to solicit submissions from around the world and seek out good stories.

Lu Yanhe asked: Why do you want to do this?

Chen Yin said: Because the copyright of "The Corpse" is particularly popular, seven or eight overseas film companies are contacting us to inquire about the adaptation rights.

Lu Yanhe was taken aback.

Chen Yin said: After chatting, we found that the main reason was that the production cost of this movie was very low, no matter which country it was made in, and its global box office performance was not that outstanding. It was not a movie story that everyone was familiar with.

Lu Yanhe immediately understood.

He thought of a movie called "Perfect Strangers".

It was an Italian film, and because of its innovative subject matter that was very modern, it has been remade all over the world, making it one of the films with the highest remake rate and the highest success rate in remakes.

The reason this is possible is that the production cost of a film is very low in any country.

One house, a group of actors, that's enough.

It is also very suitable for adaptation.

Lu Yanhe said: What does this have to do with developing "Corpse 2"? I thought you had a good story idea and that's why you wanted to make it.

Chen Yin said: Actually, it's also a gimmick, in order to stimulate more audiences around the world to go to the cinema to watch it.

Upon hearing this, Lu Yanhe thought about it and understood.

If the news of calling for submissions globally for story 2 can successfully create some buzz, many screenwriters, directors, novelists, and even writing enthusiasts will go and see what the first story is all about.

If these people go to see it, it is very likely that the enthusiasts around them will be influenced.

Lu Yanhe: We need to use a two-pronged approach.

Chen Yin: Is it feasible?

Lu Yanhe: I don't know if it's feasible, but let's give it a try.

So Chen Yin took out $1 million and published a call for submissions for "The Corpse 2" in twelve media outlets and magazines around the world, from The New York Times in the United States to the Weekly Literature in Japan.

With major media outlets around the world reporting on it, the dissemination effect is quite remarkable.

The box office of "The Corpse" was indeed stimulated.

When Lu Yanhe came to the United States to negotiate with Soren about the movie "Men in Black", Soren's representative said that the marketing strategy of "The Corpse 2" was unexpected, but it attracted a lot of attention and was very impressive.

Lu Yanhe said that these were all ideas from the company's employees, and the results were indeed beyond expectations.

He hadn't expected that Soren would even be paying attention to the movie "The Corpse," especially since "The Corpse" hadn't even grossed ten million dollars at the North American box office so far.

However, Soren only mentioned it briefly before immediately changing the subject.

Indeed, Soren probably wouldn't be interested in the box office revenue of this movie.

-

The film "Men in Black" was basically directed by Lu Yanhe.

Even the director, Fu Kai, was chosen by Lu Yanhe.

Because Lu Yanhe wrote and starred in the film, Soren had a lot of confidence in it.

Even after calculations, the final production budget reached a staggering $120 million.

Sauron is certainly not short of money.

At this stage, it was even worried about not being able to spend the money.

-

Soren sent two producers: Mini Price and Sunny Kruger.

One is in charge of finance, and the other is in charge of production management.

Since he was the director, screenwriter, and lead actor, Lu Yanhe did not assign any of his own people to key production positions.

In the film "Men in Black," Lu Yanhe was not only the lead actor and screenwriter, but also the producer, who was listed first in the credits.

This gave him enormous power on set.

This time, Lu Yanhe came to communicate with Soren about some arrangements for the production budget, including meeting with some of the actors Soren had found.

Another male lead for the film "Men in Black" has been cast: Sean Griffiths.

Besides him, Yan Liang, Cai Na, and Wen Minglan will all make cameo appearances in the show.

All the other casting was done by Soren. Lu Yanhe only had one requirement for the actors chosen by Soren: they shouldn't have any fundamental problems.

These things need to be written into the performance agreement.

If you violate this rule, you will have to pay a fine.

Soren didn't understand at first, but Lu Yanhe insisted, and under these circumstances, Soren agreed.

-

"The goal for the global box office of 'Men in Black' is to reach $500 million worldwide." Lu Yanhe stated this goal directly during a meeting with the production team. "Our production budget for this film is $120 million, and the filming schedule is very demanding, requiring everyone to cooperate with each other."

For a film with a production budget of $120 million, as long as the final product doesn't make Sauron lose confidence, the corresponding publicity budget is basically 1:1.

In this scenario, a box office of $500 million is the bare minimum. Otherwise, even breaking even would be difficult.

Of course, Lu Yanhe was not worried that "Men in Black" would do poorly at the box office. After all, when the movie was released, it was still a classic and had a large number of fans.

To ensure that the film adaptation of "Men in Black" has a similar feel to the original, Lu Yanhe has specially commissioned someone to draw the storyboards for "Men in Black".

Lu Yanhe wanted to cast Fu Kai in this film for two reasons. First, Fu Kai is a well-established commercial film director in China, and he is very skilled at shooting fast-paced, large-scale action movies. Second, Lu Yanhe had worked with him before and they were very familiar with each other. Lu Yanhe could confidently share his vision for the film with Fu Kai as the screenwriter and ask Fu Kai to bring it to life as much as possible.

After all the staff for each department were basically found, the start date for filming was also set for August of this year, with a total filming period of 3 months. Lu Yanhe's scenes will take about two months to film, so his filming can be completed by the end of September or the beginning of October, without affecting the filming of "Friends".

-

This year, Lu Yanhe has two Hollywood blockbusters set to be released in the United States: "Godless" and "Cloud 3". The former will be released during the summer, and the latter at the end of the year.

Both of these films are aiming for a global box office of over $500 million.

This means Lu Yanhe is destined to have a lot of exposure this year.

Excluding "Friends", Lu Yanhe has actually reduced the frequency of joining film crews in the past year or so.

Of course, his presence in the film industry has never been diminished.

However, Lu Yanhe is indeed going to join the film crew for shooting.

Lu Yanhe is now waiting for summer to see if director Wang Zhong's movie will start filming.

Just then, Huang Tianlin sent him another script.

After collaborating on "Tropical Rainy Season", Huang Tianlin sent him a new script, but Lu Yanhe didn't think it was very good after reading it, so he declined.

No one knows what Huang Tianlin did with that notebook in the end, but this time, Huang Tianlin sent over a new notebook.

He said it was newly written by him.

Lu Yanhe opened the script and was shocked to discover that it was actually a story about... revenge against one's biological father.

(End of this chapter)