Chapter 359 I've Already Made a Lot of Money

On the first day of the 2016 Spring Festival, the box office results of several films gave all filmmakers a surprise.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the total single-day box office in the country exceeded 700 million yuan, including 250 million yuan for "The Mermaid", 190 million yuan for "The Richest Man in Xihong City", 140 million yuan for "From Vegas to Macau 3", and 120 million yuan for "Journey to the West: The Monkey King 2".

With all four contenders competing for supremacy in the film market, the animated film "War of the Nian Beast" unfortunately became cannon fodder, with a mere 9.1 million at the box office on the first day.

At this point, everyone also realized that the sudden rise of "The Return of the Great Sage" was ultimately an exception. The domestic animated films released after it not only did not sell well at the box office, but only a few of them made a profit.

Of course, this also has a lot to do with the quality of the animated film itself.

At the very least, the reputation of "War with the Nian Beast" during the Spring Festival was very average. Coupled with the squeeze on the screening schedule of four other big-budget movies, it was not surprising that it failed to achieve good results.

Starting from the second day of the Chinese New Year, Gu Wei continued to devote himself to the filming of "Three Lives, Three Worlds". Everything in the crew was no different from the New Year, but during the breaks in filming, he would always take out his mobile phone to check the real-time box office situation of "The Richest Man in Xihong City" and pay attention to the box office rankings of all movies that day.

"Susu, I just hope you can rest well in Xiwu Palace and give birth to the baby safely.

Remember, don’t get involved with anyone.”

After saying that, Gu Wei grabbed Yang Mi's shoulders and kissed her forehead lightly.

"Crack! Okay, this shot is done!

Take a break and prepare to move on."

When the director's voice came, Gu Wei also came out of his previous emotions and the expression on his face changed immediately.

These past two days, Gu Wei and his crew were filming a scene where "Su Su", played by Yang Mi, ascended to the Heavenly Palace.

She was pregnant with Ye Hua's child, but because she was a mortal, her situation was very bad.

It is one of the most sad scenes in the whole play.

Gu Wei plays the Ninth Heaven Prince "Ye Hua", who, despite his noble status, is unable to be with the person he loves. In order to protect Su Su, he has to remain indifferent to her on the surface, so he is very painful in his heart.

When acting, Gu Wei also had to express the male protagonist's inner state at the time.

Some of the staff were moving equipment, while others were setting up the background, busy running back and forth.

After filming this scene, Gu Wei walked to his own chair in the rest area and sat down. He took a sip of water from his assistant and then turned on his mobile phone.

"I don't know whether to say you're a good actor or heartless!"

Yang Mi walked over and sat opposite Gu Wei, looking at his relaxed expression, and said something angrily.

"What's wrong, Sister Mi, who recruited you again?"

Gu Wei asked casually without even raising his head.

"Besides you, is there anyone else in this crew who would hire me?"

“What’s wrong with me?

Didn’t we take a good photo just now?”

Gu Wei shifted his gaze from the phone, glanced at Da Mimi, and asked curiously.

"The crew has been filming this scene for the past two days. I have invested a lot of emotion in it to get it right. Every day I think about how I would react if I were Su Su.

You, on the other hand, were making solemn vows to me just a second ago, but as soon as the director shouted 'cut', you immediately became a completely different person, your emotions detached too quickly.

Give me this performance of changing your face!"

Yang Mi also took a sip of water and said somewhat unwillingly.

"Oh, I thought it was something else.

Sister Mi, our performance styles are different. You are an experiential school, and I am a method school.

Well, if we have another emotional scene later, I'll accompany you to experience it for a while, and I won't change my expression! "

Gu Wei dealt with it casually and made some promises to Da Mimi.

In fact, Gu Wei knew what was going on as soon as he thought about the situation Yang Mi described.

The two people's different states when facing acting are actually because Yang Mi's acting skills are so different from Gu Wei's.

Originally, "Eternal Love" is a costume drama, which does not require high acting skills from the actors. Gu Wei felt that the male lead he played was not complicated. With his level, he could easily perform well without investing too much emotion into the role.

But Yang Mi is different. If she doesn't invest some emotions and put herself in the heroine's shoes, she won't be able to perform well in some places. This is also the biggest difference between the two.

Yang Mi also knew that she was being a little unreasonable, so she didn't say anything after Gu Wei showed his attitude.

Seeing that Gu Wei was concentrating on his phone and didn't say anything, she moved her chair towards Gu Wei and nudged him with her elbow.

"Hey~ How are you today?"

Gu Wei looked up at her, smiled and stretched out a palm.

Yang Mi looked at Gu Wei, then at his hands, his eyes wide open, a look of disbelief on his face.

"That's five hundred million?"

"As of today, it's 520 million. It's broken 500 million in three days. That's pretty good!"

Gu Wei looked very proud.

"At this rate, the first week's box office will break 1 billion, and the final box office will reach 2 billion?"

Although Yang Mi knew that "The Richest Man in Xihong City" would be a big hit and the box office would be over 1 billion when the box office figures came out on the first day, he never thought that this movie would have the potential to have a box office of 2 billion.

Currently, there is only one Chinese-language film, "Monster Hunt," that has grossed over 2 billion yuan.

A film that exceeds 1 billion can barely make it into the top ten in film history, and a film that reaches 2 billion will be the runner-up of Chinese-language films. The two are completely incomparable.

"Who knows? I hope the box office can reach 2 billion. I am still very confident in the quality of "The Richest Man in Xihong City"."

The original version of "The Richest Man in Xihong City" was released in the summer of 2018 and eventually achieved a good result of 2.5 billion.

Now that it is released two years in advance, the number of screens in China may be lower than that two years later, but the Spring Festival period is more suitable for comedy movies, and Zhang Tianai's version of "The Richest Man in Xihong City" is of higher quality, so Gu Wei does not think the box office will be much worse than the original.

"I remember this movie was produced independently by your company, right?"

Yang Mi suddenly asked.

"Yeah~"

Gu Wei nodded.

"Tsk tsk, Boss Gu has made a killing again this time. It seems like little stars like us can't even compare to you!"

Da Mimi sighed sourly.

Although it was not the first time she knew that Gu Wei made money, but when she thought about the final box office of the movie and the money that Gu Wei could earn, she was still envious.

However, Yang Mi also knew that she could not make money the same way as Gu Wei.

It's okay to pay her to act in a movie, but if you ask her to make a movie with her own money, she will most likely lose everything.

Yang Mi has a relatively clear understanding of herself. She is good at filming and hyping herself up as a star, but she also knows that she does not have the ability to invest in movies.

"[The Richest Man in Xihong City] has had good box office results these past few days, but judging by the trend, it's set to remain the perennial runner-up during this year's Spring Festival.

Mermaid earned 750 million in three days, surpassing Xihong City by more than 200 million.

Faced with Yang Mi's envy, Gu Wei was not too happy, but sighed and said.

"This result is already very good, why bother comparing it with Zhou Xingchi?"

Yang Mi comforted him.

"Haha~ Sister Mi, you're right. I used to think so too. But the movie did so well at the box office that I started to get greedy.

In fact, I have made a lot of money with this result now! "

After saying this, he had a smug look on his face again.

Gu Wei's expression changed so quickly that Yang Mi, who had just comforted him, secretly slapped himself.

'I told you not to talk too much!'

As the Spring Festival period progresses, the four films released in the domestic film market have shown polarized reputations.

[The Mermaid] and [The Richest Man in Xihong City] both have very good reputations online, and their Douban scores are both above 7 points.

Audiences who have watched these two comedy films have given good reviews, and the word-of-mouth effect has gradually spread.

[From Vegas to Macau 3] and [Journey to the West: The Monkey King 2] are completely opposite, one with more than 4 points and the other with more than 5 points.

The comments given by the audience are also very real. Don’t use your brain when watching "From Vegas to Macau 3", just laugh foolishly.

[The Monkey King Defeats the White Bone Demon] Just watch the special effects and Gong Li, it's worth the price of admission.

Partly influenced by word of mouth, the box office of the four films "The Mermaid" took the lead, with the daily box office being stable at around 250 million.

The second is "The Richest Man in Xihong City", and the single-day box office did not drop much in the following few days of screening.

The box office trends of "From Vegas to Macau 3" and "The Monkey King 3" are quite obvious, showing a decreasing curve. However, due to the large number of people watching movies during the Spring Festival, the decline in box office is not large.

Huayi Brothers, President's Office.

The two brothers Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei were not in a good mood at this time.

Originally, Huayi had nothing to do with this year's Spring Festival period. They had no movies to show or distribute, so they were just a spectator.

Even if others' movies have big box office success, at most I will just be envious and say a few sour words, and there will be no other emotions.

But that’s not actually the case.

The two brothers are regretting their decision now.

In 2013, Huayi and Zhou Xingchi were still close partners.

The two parties collaborated to produce the hit movie "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons". Before the movie was released, Huayi and Zhou Xingchi signed the agreement.

Due to the good market assessment of the film, Zhou Xingchi had verbally agreed with Wang Zhongjun that if the box office revenue exceeded 500 million yuan, Huayi Brothers Company would give him box office dividends.

Wang Zhongjun also agreed at that time. Later, regarding the issue of box office dividends, the two parties reached this [Supplementary Agreement] on box office dividends through email confirmation.

However, because Zhou Xingchi trusted Huayi too much at that time, the agreement was not signed or stamped with the company seal.

Finally, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" grossed 1.248 billion yuan at the box office.

According to the agreement between the two parties, Huayi Brothers Company should pay Zhou Xingchi a box office share of 86.1 million yuan.

But at this time Huayi acted like a rogue and told Zhou Xingchi that the 500 million yuan promised before was not the box office, but the 500 million yuan profit of the production company, so it could not pay him dividends.

In fact, any normal person would know that Huayi was making excuses. If the producer made a profit of 500 million, then the total box office would have to be over 1.4 billion. The box office champion at the time, Lost in Thailand, only made 1.27 billion.

If the original agreement was that this was the only way to distribute dividends, then this agreement is meaningless.

Zhou Xingchi had no choice but to sue Huayi in court.

In the end, Zhou Xingchi lost the case due to insufficient evidence.

Because of this incident, the two sides broke up completely.

Later, Wang Zhonglei mocked him, saying, "Zhou Xingchi doesn't understand movies at all."

It is also because of this that Huayi is not involved in either the production or the promotion of the movie "The Mermaid". In addition to China Film Group remaining unchanged, Light Media has joined in and replaced Huayi as the main force in promotion.

"Brother, this is my fault. It was me who suggested not giving Zhou Xingchi the money. Who would have thought that this new movie he made would become so popular?"

My younger brother Wang Zhonglei spoke first.

“Needless to say, I agreed to this matter, and it’s useless to say this now.

What's important is what to do next, whether to find a way to repair the relationship with Zhou Xingchi."

Wang Zhongjun did not blame his younger brother. They had worked together for so many years, and no matter what problems arose, they both bore them together. This was one of the reasons why Huayi could move forward steadily.

"We've screwed him so much, can the relationship be repaired?"

Wang Zhonglei felt that if he were in Zhou Xingchi's position, he would definitely never cooperate with him.

"In addition to being a director, Zhou Xingchi is also a businessman.

Although we did some things wrong at the beginning, it was also in line with business rules.

As long as we are sincere enough and offer good conditions, I believe he will not be reluctant to give in to money."

Wang Zhongjun, who was sitting behind his desk, tapped the table with his fingers and spoke calmly.

"Guangzhou Films made a killing during the Spring Festival this year. 'The Mermaid' broke 1 billion in 4 days, and 'The Richest Man in Xihong City' grossed over 600 million in ticket sales. What a rotten luck this guy Wang Changtian has!"

After hearing what his brother said, Wang Zhonglei nodded and said with envy.

"Wang Changtian is a smart man who knows how to work with outstanding people. Zhou Xingchi and Gu Wei are both good examples.

Our film and television industry is all about people.

Didn’t Huayi rely on Director Xiaogang before? This path has been correct from the beginning to now.”

(End of this chapter)