Chapter 886 Movie Star

For the film industry, the Spring Festival season is a fiercely contested battleground.

The film "Ten Miles of Fragrance" is Shi Jin's first big-budget production.

Fantasy/martial arts genre, popular leading actors—

This film, which had already flopped several major projects several years ago, has inexplicably become a top-tier project.

Of course, not everyone is waiting to see them fail.

Many people also want to see this model succeed.

Once successful, a large number of IPs can replicate its success path.

However, compared to the absolute national IP "Home Alone," no amount of exposure, buzz, or popularity can match its box office numbers.

The only sequel film in this year's Spring Festival film season is "Home Alone 4," which is also the last installment in the series.

The final chapter.

This is enough to make it the most anticipated and highest-grossing film of this year's Spring Festival season.

This is a pure comedy film with the same formula. The first three films are almost unchanged, except for the methods of fighting the thieves. Yet, it is still very entertaining to watch. What difference does the final installment make?

It's almost impossible for it to be messed up.

It has deviated from so-called literary expression and plot development.

It simply keeps exploring new scenarios and new ways of wit and strategy, keeping the audience entertained and laughing, which is enough to satisfy them.

-

On the 29th day of the Lunar New Year, Yin Xincheng officially announced his marriage.

The news was indeed explosive.

Even a third-tier celebrity announcing their marriage attracts attention.

Birth, aging, illness, and death—these are the major events in life, and they are enduring headlines in newspapers.

Moreover, this is Yin Xincheng.

He was a top male star who remained popular for six or seven years thanks to the sitcom "Friends".

This news was indeed so sudden that it stunned Yin Xincheng's fans—a large number of his female fans announced they were unfollowing him, and some even uttered vicious curses in their emotional outbursts. This phenomenon, due to its extreme negativity, sparked even wider discussion.

Fortunately, Yin Xincheng's team's plan was successful.

On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, no matter how big the matter is, it still has to face the "big holiday" aspect.

Faced with a large number of fans announcing they were leaving the fandom, Yin Xincheng's team was anxious, but there was nothing they could do.

Yin Xincheng got someone pregnant, so he must take responsibility.

Otherwise, it would be an even more difficult public relations disaster than what we are facing now.

Fortunately, no matter what, Yin Xincheng will not fall into silence because of this.

At least, the contract for the next season of "Friends" has already been signed. For an actor, having a highly anticipated evergreen series is like having a retirement fund.

With this pension insurance, Bai Jin dared to go to the UK to pursue a master's degree.

Yin Xincheng also relied on this pension insurance so that he wouldn't have to spend the New Year in fear and anxiety.

-

Yin Xincheng's girlfriend, Huang Yunlan, has been the subject of numerous online searches and doxxing.

However, because she is indeed an ordinary person and not much information about her has been exposed online, nothing too bad has happened yet.

On Lunar New Year's Eve, the focus on social media platforms completely shifted to the Spring Festival Gala.

On this Lunar New Year's Eve, Lu Yanhe was on set.

Malaysia also celebrates the Lunar New Year.

The crew of "The Original Father" also gave everyone a three-day break.

Lu Yanhe had originally planned to return to China to be with Chen Siqi.

Every year on this night, Lu Yanhe would accompany her to her maternal grandparents' house.

However, Chen Siqi told him there was no need for him to make the trip. Since it was Chinese New Year anyway, she decided to bring her grandparents' family to Malaysia to celebrate the holiday.

Lu Yanhe was waiting for them in Malaysia.

However, they won't be coming until the first day of the Lunar New Year, so Lu Yanhe will be spending the night of Lunar New Year's Eve alone.

Lu Yanhe's team was given leave in two batches. The first batch had already returned to China to reunite with their families for the holiday, while Wang Biao and a few others stayed with him. The first batch would return on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, allowing Wang Biao's group to go home. The second batch would have five more days off than the first.

Everyone was very happy.

Those who can go home on Lunar New Year's Eve can reunite with their families, while those who can't can have a few more days off.

Of course, most importantly, this year's year-end bonuses for Lu Yanhe's core team members all started at 100,000 yuan, while non-core members also received around 50,000 to 60,000 yuan. Lu Yanhe has always been extremely generous to his team members. Their salaries are already high, and they always receive red envelopes and gifts during holidays.

The reason for this is not only that Lu Yanhe is a kind person who treats those around him well, but also that he understands very well why a team sometimes collapses from within. It's because everyone works in the same industry, and while celebrities earn so much, we can only make so little money to live on? Living a tight and frugal life?

It would be difficult for anyone to accept such a gap in the long run. Therefore, in order to prevent his team members from stealing his information to make money or being lured into some crooked ways, Lu Yanhe was very generous with his money, ensuring that they could live a life free from worries about food, clothing, and shelter. On the other hand, he also provided them with visible career advancement opportunities.

Apart from core members like Wang Biao and Zou Dong, the rest of the staff, as long as they work diligently, are hardworking and have good character, can generally be promoted to a middle-level position in Linghe or Shihuo within three to five years. The outstanding ones may be promoted even faster.

When people are offered both immediate benefits and a long-term future, they are generally less likely to be blinded by petty gains.

Lu Yanhe's team is known in the industry as an ironclad unit, and is also known for protecting his interests.

Many people believe that it's because of Lu Yanhe's team. With Lu Yanhe's personal charisma alone, the team of such a top artist and a top star should be incredibly loyal; how could they not be an unbreakable unit? In reality, that's not the case at all.

Of course, it doesn't matter.

Just like some people whose first reaction upon hearing about someone's success is that this person must have someone supporting them—their life logic is firmly welded to the iron pillar that "this is a world where the possibility of achieving success through one's own efforts has been blocked."

In this world, you can't expect everyone to still believe in the most basic and simple things, just as you can't expect everyone to still believe in virtue, a word that's become too unfamiliar and seems to be relegated to a museum.

-

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival film season kicked off in full swing.

Home Alone 4 premiered simultaneously worldwide.

As the screenwriter, Lu Yanhe did not appear at any promotional events, but only released related information on various social media platforms.

This doesn't stop people from mentioning him when discussing the movie.

Overseas box office statistics are far less readily available than those for domestic markets.

However, it grossed 370 million RMB on its opening day in the country alone.

The estimated box office revenue for "Home Alone 4" in the country has exceeded 2.5 billion yuan.

However, the box office performance of the first three Home Alone films tended to weaken quickly, unlike some other films. Therefore, even with the fourth installment, the market did not expect it to achieve particularly record-breaking box office results.

However, on the second day of the Lunar New Year, the film still grossed 360 million yuan, almost the same as the first day, without any decline.

After the first three installments, the Home Alone series has amassed the largest audience in the current Chinese film market. However, inversely proportional to this large audience, the number of loyal fans is not actually that high.

A true movie fan is someone who genuinely believes that a film must be seen in theaters.

This group is very small.

This is a movie primarily aimed at a casual audience.

When the third day of the movie, Home Alone 4, still had 350 million yuan in box office revenue, everyone suddenly realized that Home Alone 4's box office revenue this year was likely to reach a very high level.

The promotion for the final installment of the "Home Alone" series seems to have had a greater impact than many people imagined.

If it were just one of the films in the series, it probably wouldn't have had such a huge box office appeal.

When overseas box office figures were gradually released, they broke the records of the previous three films.

The film was released overseas simultaneously with China. However, these days were neither weekends nor holidays overseas, and no one expected it to achieve good box office results in the first few days. However, in just three days—two weekdays and a Friday—Home Alone grossed $43 million in North America, and in the entire overseas market, it surpassed $100 million in just three days.

The first three Home Alone films grossed nearly $700 million worldwide. The phenomenal success of Home Alone 4 suddenly gives it the potential to reach $1 billion.

This film was already highly anticipated, and its box office performance only amplified that.

Many people can't help but wonder, does Lu Yanhe really intend to end "Home Alone" like this?

Are you not going to film anymore?

Why wouldn't you film if you were making so much money?

Even Schmidt Laurie asked Lu Yanhe if he really wanted to end "Home Alone" like this.

Without hesitation, Lu Yanhe said, "Yes, it should end."

Schmidt Laurie was in great distress.

Watching such a blockbuster film series end is like having blood ripped from your heart.

-

Compared to the brilliant success of "Home Alone 4", another highly anticipated blockbuster, "The Legend of Fragrance", also performed well at the box office on its opening day, earning nearly 200 million yuan thanks to the power of its fans and its extensive and exaggerated publicity.

Conversely, there was a barrage of criticism from audiences regarding the film itself.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the word "fraud" became a trending topic.

Clicking in, all I saw were people criticizing "Ten Miles of Fragrance".

The movie's content was criticized...

How should I put it? It's like the feeling of going to the cinema to watch this movie – as if your intelligence has been insulted.

The special effects in the movie were quite beautiful, and the actors were handsome men and beautiful women. The problem was that the plot and pacing of the whole movie could be described as "terrible".

One second the two couldn't stand each other, the next they suddenly joined hands, as if they were old friends, working together as if they were enemies.

In the climactic battle, the two main characters, even amidst the fierce fighting around them, still get angry and quarrelsome. Then, in the midst of the raging war, they reconcile and become as affectionate as ever.

The next day, the daily box office dropped to 87 million.

On the third day, it was halved again, leaving only 42 million.

Its reputation has been completely shattered.

Despite this, the film still grossed over 300 million yuan in its first three days.

However, box office estimates have already fallen to 600 million.

If this decline is not controlled, the figure will likely be even worse.

Then, a magical scene unfolded.

The two fan groups, who had been fiercely fighting over billing order before the film's release, have suddenly started passing the buck.

Lang Xia's fans: Isn't this just a female-led movie? How come now that the box office isn't doing well, they suddenly acknowledge that Lang Xia is the lead actress? A TV drama actress is a TV drama actress.

Yan Lingyu's fans: Ha, they were blind before and refused to admit that the female lead also contributed to the box office success of "You Are the Apple of My Eye". They said that "You Are the Apple of My Eye" was a male-centric movie and erased Yan Lingyu's existence. Now that "Ten Miles of Fragrance" has a bad reputation, they start to say that it is a female-centric movie. Who was it that said that this movie could only rely on Lang Xia to sell the box office?

Lang Xia's fans: You have the nerve to say that? Without Lang Xia starring, this movie probably wouldn't even have made 300 million at the box office.

Yan Lingyu's fans: It's hilarious. At least we can see that although the movie is bad, Yan Lingyu's acting skills are not being ridiculed. Unlike a certain greasy, expressionless actor, it's unprecedented. It's the first time I've seen greasy and expressionless coexist in one person.

...

"Ten Miles of Fragrance" is facing a situation where it is being fiercely criticized by fans of both sides, while its box office is plummeting. On the sixth day of its release, it collapsed, with daily box office falling below 10 million yuan, and it seems that it may not even reach 400 million yuan in box office revenue.

This attracted a lot of people who wanted to laugh at the situation.

Linghe, however, did not rest on the laurels of "Home Alone 4".

The movie "My Sassy Girl" is about to start its promotional campaign.

A film starring Li Yuefeng and Xiao Yun.

Released on Valentine's Day.

Previously, "The Classic" achieved a phenomenal box office of 1.2 billion yuan in China with its particularly sentimental tragic love story, breaking the industry's impression that romance films were no longer box office hits. The recently released "Love is Not Blind" also continued this box office success, although it didn't reach the staggering 1.2 billion yuan, it still garnered excellent critical acclaim. Now, not long after, another romance film written by Lu Yanhe is coming.

But this time it's not a tragedy, it's a comedy.

Is it a comedy like "Love is Not Blind"?

This was everyone's first reaction.

Why did Lu Yanhe write so many film scripts with romance themes?

This was everyone's second reaction.

For Li Yuefeng, this is another peak he is about to reach.

Two years ago, when attending a brand event, Li Yuefeng's team argued with the brand's liaison over the order of appearance, questioning why he should appear before Lang Xia, even though his seat in the inner circle was worse than Lang Xia's.

However, the brand responded that Lang Xia is a movie actor, while he is only a TV drama actor.

But after appearing in several of Lu Yanhe's films, no one dared to say that about him anymore.

Li Yuefeng was definitely one of the happiest people about the flop of "Ten Miles of Fragrance".

He could accept that he was inferior to Lu Yanhe and Li Zhibai, but what about Lang Xia?

What is Lang Xia anyway?

(End of this chapter)