Chapter 189: How many billions will the box office reach?
Chapter 189
"Storm is amazing!!!"
"A true dark horse of the Spring Festival season. If this trend continues, will 'The Storm' eventually break 6 billion yuan at the box office?"
"Even if it's not 6 billion, it should be at least 5 billion."
"I wish my life could be like a kangaroo's, with the same good fortune as a kangaroo's."
Before the release of "The Storm," fans knew that this movie was very important to Lin Yuan, and it couldn't possibly flop—a commercial blockbuster flopping would be too damaging for an actor.
But fans never expected that "The Storm" would not only escape the category of flop, but also become closely associated with the word "blockbuster".
Many fans dreamed of "The Storm" becoming the box office champion during the Spring Festival, but no one dared to dream of figures like 5 billion or 6 billion, as that was simply too far-fetched.
Before the release of "The Storm," fans still remembered the media's pessimistic predictions.
Some say that the quality of domestic special effects blockbusters is far inferior to that of overseas ones, and that "The Storm" will inevitably embarrass itself. Others say that Lin Yuan's ambition in taking on "The Storm" is too inflated, and that it will be difficult for him to take on commercial blockbusters in the future.
Well, as it turns out, none of what the media and marketing accounts said happened.
"The Storm" grossed over 2 billion in three days, and the media are all singing praises to Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan was previously criticized by rival fans for lacking box office achievements, but now...
The box office performance of "The Storm" is so clearly laid out before everyone's eyes.
As fans, nothing excites them more than box office success.
There was nothing we could do; Lin Yuan was just too ambitious.
...
On its third day of release, "The Storm" grossed over 500 million yuan. It's worth noting that the second-ranked film on the box office chart today is not "Eagle Soars in the Sky," but "Mother."
"Mother" has achieved two consecutive days of box office growth, with daily box office revenue exceeding 200 million yuan.
Despite lacking popular actors, "Mother" managed to gross 500 million yuan in three days thanks to its excellent storyline and positive word-of-mouth.
Family dramas can also have a long run. The box office platform promptly adjusted its prediction for the total box office of "Mother". Originally, it was less than 1 billion yuan, but now it has reached 2 billion yuan.
"The Storm," "Mother," and "Wild Boar Party" are also the only three films among the new releases during the Spring Festival season whose occupancy rate exceeded their screen time.
In contrast, the other films all seemed to lack staying power.
The biggest question in the industry right now is whether "Storm" can break the 6 billion mark.
Once a film's box office reaches 4 billion, the difficulty of increasing it by another 1 billion becomes unimaginable.
Looking at the entire history of Chinese-language films, there are only a handful of movies that have grossed over 5 billion yuan.
Can "The Storm" become one of them and aim for 6 billion?
Before the movie was released, no one dared to think about this question.
At that time, "The Storm" was even considered a small-scale project. Everyone knew that the film ran out of money during filming, and it was director Fang Qi and lead actor Lin Yuan who filled the gap themselves. If Lin Yuan hadn't gone to France to win the Walter Prize, it would have been uncertain whether "The Storm" could have continued to be made.
But the significance of "The Storm" goes beyond that.
It wasn't until the release of "The Storm" that audiences suddenly realized how remarkable our film industry had become.
Turns out we can also produce works like "Storm," instead of just looking at Hollywood with adoration.
Aside from the top few special effects blockbusters, "The Storm" is on par with any good Hollywood movie.
Hollywood movies have a Hollywood core; as bystanders, we can understand the decisions our characters make, but we may not necessarily agree with them.
However, "The Storm" is a film that shares similar values with them.
The actors worked very hard, and there were many obstacles in the special effects production, but "The Storm" overcame everything.
Initially, the focus of the promotion for "The Storm" was on special effects: which companies were hired, how much money was spent, where the difference from Hollywood was, and which experts and scholars were invited to verify them... Audiences loved it, so the marketing efforts were naturally increased.
It's worth mentioning that the distribution company that partnered with "The Storm" wasn't very enthusiastic at first, and neither were the theater chains. Overall, the prospects for "The Storm" weren't very promising from any of the parties involved.
However, when "The Storm" saw explosive box office returns on its opening and second days, generating more profit for theaters than all other films combined, its treatment immediately changed.
With the special effects emphasized enough, the characters' emotions became the focus of the film's promotion.
"The Storm" and "The Eagle Soars in the Sky" share similarities in the emotions they express, so naturally, the two will be compared.
The publicity team didn't try to discredit "Eagle Soars to the Sky." In terms of plot, both films are closely related to the development of science. However... Chen Yushen goes without saying. If we compare Lin Yuan and Chen Cong, although both are young characters, Lin Yuan is clearly superior in terms of emotional expression.
There's no way around it; viewers just love comparing Lin Yuan and Chen Cong.
Today, the news that Lin Yuan and Fang Qi filled the gap in funding for "The Storm" midway through its production has also been unearthed by the media.
This news wasn't kept from anyone, but it sparked widespread ridicule during the filming of "The Storm." How could a movie that even investors didn't have high hopes for ultimately turn out well?
But now, with "The Storm" heading towards 5 billion, the investment company that abandoned it halfway through must be regretting it to the core, as netizens say.
Neither Lin Yuan nor Fang Qi gave up.
Everyone knew that investing in "The Storm" was quite risky at that time, but Lin Yuan invested anyway. Moreover, he had already given the production team an investment when he accepted the script.
With the film "The Storm" currently enjoying immense popularity, director Fang Qi also gave an interview to reporters.
Fang Qi frankly admitted that Lin Yuan was his biggest motivation for continuing to film "The Storm" and for not having any worries.
The director even described the scene of their first meeting.
“We weren’t familiar with each other back then, but he had already taken out his phone and asked me how much money I needed,” the director laughed. “At that time, I just thought, actors make so much money.”
“But Lin Yuan told me that he is usually quite stingy, but he was willing to spend money on ‘Storm’.”
"I thought to myself, even if it's just for him, I have to stick with this movie and not let him down."
The director's eyes reddened as he spoke of this part.
Some netizens shared a screenshot of Lin Yuan with tears in his eyes during a promotional event for "The Storm." He said that "The Storm" is a very good movie and he hopes that all audiences can see it.
At that time, many people felt that Lin Yuan's remarks were marketing rhetoric, and his tears seemed more like a performance.
Now, the truth has come out.
Because "The Storm" is truly a great movie, many viewers, the moment they finished watching it, immediately thought of recommending "The Storm" to others.
Presumably, that was Lin Yuan's strongest and most genuine thought after reading "The Storm".
Lin Yuan and Fang Qi's performances both moved the audience.
Not everyone is born with abundant resources to film whatever they want. Many directors have good scripts, but they can't raise funds and their ideas can't be realized.
The film "The Storm" almost couldn't be made.
As a result, viewers are more willing to support "The Storm".
On its fourth day of release, the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, surprisingly, "The Storm" still grossed over 500 million yuan, almost the same as the previous day.
Although "The Storm" has exceeded 30% of screenings, it is still unbelievable that it can maintain a daily box office of 500 million.
"...Has 'The Storm' already reached 2.7 billion?"
"So strong!!!"
"3 billion is just around the corner."
The phenomenal success of "The Storm" has sparked various media discussions about the film. Currently, the film's box office has exceeded 2.7 billion yuan, making it not only the fastest film to break 2 billion yuan during this year's Spring Festival season, but also one of the fastest films to reach 2 billion yuan in the entire Chinese film industry.
Besides, "Storm" has already recouped its costs, and now it's all about making a profit.
Given that Lin Yuan owns about 16% of the 500 million yuan investment in the film, how much money will Lin Yuan earn after the film's release?
In short, netizens didn't even dare to calculate it in detail, but in general, Lin Yuan probably earned about nine figures from the movie "The Storm".
"Didn't they say that Fang Qi asked a lot of people for help back then? Everyone was saying that Fang Qi was very good at talking and managed to fool Lin Yuan in one go. But to be honest, Fang Qi asked far too many people. Lin Yuan is probably the only one with that kind of courage."
"Ahhhhh, no wonder Lin Yuan makes money. Today is another rich day for the kangaroo."
"Could you... put your hand into the mouse's wallet to warm it up? I really need the comfort of money."
Throughout the entire Spring Festival period, from the first day to the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, the box office of "The Storm" never fell below 400 million yuan.
On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, the total box office of "The Storm" officially surpassed 4 billion yuan.
Just seven days.
"That's terrifying, 4 billion already?!"
"A frightening number!"
Everyone knew "The Storm" was good, but no one expected it to be this good.
Before the release of "The Storm", Lin Yuan's box office performance was not among the top in the entertainment industry. Even with the addition of "Killing" and "Thousand Mountains", his cumulative box office was only 5 billion.
The movie "The Storm" propelled Lin Yuan into the top twenty.
Box office platforms have quietly raised their predictions for "The Storm" again, with one platform giving an astonishing figure of 7 billion.
Initially, when the platform predicted that "The Storm" would gross over 6 billion yuan, some people were not optimistic, believing that the platform's expectations for "The Storm" were too high.
But so what if "The Storm" doesn't reach the box office numbers predicted by the platform?
It doesn't matter anymore.
It was the biggest winner during this Spring Festival season.
It's worth mentioning that after "The Storm," the most anticipated film is "Mother." If all goes as expected, "Mother" will definitely break through 2 billion yuan in total box office revenue, and reaching 3 billion yuan is not out of the question.
This was an outcome that no one had anticipated.
Initially, many people believed that this year's Spring Festival film season would be a battle between "The Storm" and "Eagle Soars in the Sky".
While Lin Yuan received much praise, Chen Cong faced increasing criticism.
The main reason is that "Eagle Soars to the Sky" has all the foundations for high box office success. The male lead, director, production company, publicity and distribution... even the plot of "Eagle Soars to the Sky" does not have many flaws.
The only difference between "Eagle Soars to the Sky" and Chen Yushen's previous work is that Chen Cong was invited to play the second male lead, whose role was second only to Chen Yushen.
With the success of "Grandpa's Courtyard" and the subsequent failure of "Eagle Soars to the Sky" to be released during the Spring Festival, Chen Cong's intention in taking on "Eagle Soars to the Sky" was to have Chen Yushen carry the show, but his intentions were too simplistic and were still noticed by netizens.
Chen Cong wanted to retaliate, but no matter how much resources he had, the box office losses suffered by the production team were real.
His resources couldn't make up for the crew's losses.
By the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, the total box office of "Eagle Soars to the Sky" had exceeded 1.2 billion yuan, which is not bad. The filming cost of "Eagle Soars to the Sky" was less than 400 million yuan, but it was far from the expectations of the production team.
In the original plan of the production team, "Eagle Soars to the Sky" was expected to gross at least 2 billion yuan, and if the competition during the Spring Festival season was not fierce enough, it could very well gross 3 billion yuan.
As things stand now, breaking 2 billion is impossible, and 3 billion is out of the question.
The publicity and distribution costs for "Eagle Soars to the Sky" were not low, and the revenue share given to theaters was also not low, so the profit that the production team actually received was quite limited.
Moreover, the film had the potential to be better, but that potential has now been dashed.
Thanks to the high box office of "Storm", Lin Yuan's next film "Magic Eye Detective" has also begun to attract much attention.
Most importantly, as everyone knows, the casting process for "The Detective with the Magic Eye" went through Lin Yuan—Chen Cong—Lin Yuan again, and the movie was just one step away from having Chen Cong as the lead actor.
In the past, who the lead actor was wasn't so important, but now... the difference between Lin Yuan as the lead actor and Chen Cong as the lead actor is significant.
"That was close!!"
"Thank goodness, the director of 'The Detective with the Magic Eye' must be laughing to himself at home right now. If it were Chen Cong, even I wouldn't be optimistic about it."
"Speaking of which, when the crew of 'The Detective with the Magic Eye' contacted Lin Yuan, Lin Yuan didn't even seem to have won the Wall Award yet."
"Catch, catch good luck!!"
If "Storm" was lucky to win the Wall Award, then the crew of "The Eye" was doubly lucky.
The movie hasn't even been released yet, but Lin Yuan's work is already close to becoming the highest-grossing Chinese film in history.
Whether it's the Wall Award or the high box office of "The Storm," both are adding a boost to "The Detective." Now, "The Detective" has a special place among the summer releases.
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Author's Note: Here it comes! [Sprinkling flowers][Sprinkling flowers][Sprinkling flowers]
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