Chapter 196: Daily Work Routine - Box Office + New Drama...
Chapter 196
"Why is Vacuum Crisis so useless?"
In a building in City A, Chen Cong let out his first roar of the day.
There aren't many overseas blockbusters in total for the summer season. Everyone knows that Hollywood's special effects blockbusters have always been a strong contender at the box office. When Chen Cong saw that "Vacuum Crisis" and "The Eye of the Demon" were released on the same day, he was initially quite happy. However, in the face of "The Eye of the Demon," "Vacuum Crisis" turned out to be so easily defeated.
Just two days later, "The Detective" surpassed "Vacuum Crisis" at the box office!
"What good Hollywood movie is this? They're hyping it up so much. Everyone says it's a low-budget version of 'The Storm'."
Chen Cong doesn't want to talk much about "The Storm," because it makes him angry.
"The situation for 'The Detective' is definitely not as good as 'The Storm,' the box office growth is far behind," the agent comforted Chen Cong.
"The Detective" grossed over 300 million yuan on its opening day and has now reached over 500 million yuan. If this trend continues, reaching 2 billion yuan should not be a problem.
Considering the cost, 2 billion is a very good box office figure, but in the commercial film market, 2 billion is just average, and there are far too many male actors who have achieved this result.
“That’s true, ‘The Detective’ isn’t that good—” Chen Cong held his phone for a while, then suddenly frowned. “If the box office can reach 140 million in the morning, how much will it be for the whole day?”
On Chen Cong's phone screen, the clearest thing is the box office figures for "The Detective" on that day.
It's just past 12 noon, and generally speaking, at this time, the total box office for the day is not even halfway done.
This means that...
"That doesn't make sense." Chen Cong frowned even more. "Logically, shouldn't the box office have dropped?"
The agent shared the same idea.
The box office performance of "The Detective" is clearly not quite right.
What exactly is going on?
To say that theaters inflated the box office of "The Detective" is an exaggeration. Lin Yuan doesn't have that much influence, and the production company of "The Detective" isn't a big name in the industry. In terms of resources, Lin Yuan is far inferior to Chen Cong.
Chen Cong later discovered that the reason why "The Detective" had a box office increase was partly due to the strong recommendation of mystery bloggers like "Detective Rabbit".
Secondly, there was the failure of "Vacuum Crisis".
The summer movie season is always a peak season for box office revenue, and especially now, with the holidays just beginning, students' enthusiasm for watching movies is incredibly high.
The audience's enthusiasm must be released.
"Vacuum Crisis" failed to catch up, while "The Detective" with its rising reputation naturally became the target of viewers.
On its third day of release, "The Detective" was far ahead at the box office, becoming the only film to surpass 100 million yuan at the box office that day.
Viewers who came for the positive word-of-mouth were very willing to watch "The Detective with the Magic Eyes," and there was also a lot of discussion about the plot of "The Detective with the Magic Eyes." As a result, "The Detective with the Magic Eyes" once again experienced a surge in popularity.
On that day, "The Detective" grossed 320 million yuan, bringing its total box office to 800 million yuan.
In the words of marketing accounts, Lin Yuan's box office miracle continues.
"Wow, Lin Yuan is amazing!!"
"The Detective with the Magic Eyes is amazing!!!"
Lu Zhuo has thus become one of the more prominent characters in the commercial film market.
Detective and mystery films are well-suited for series productions. While "The Detective" is still showing in theaters, industry insiders are already discussing the possibility of making a sequel. Based on the current box office trend, "The Detective" is unlikely to only reach 2 billion yuan; 3 billion yuan... is probably a possibility.
In fact, among the movies released this week, "The Detective" is indeed the most popular.
After three days of release, the total box office exceeded 800 million yuan.
After four days of release, the total box office has exceeded 1 billion yuan, approaching 1.1 billion yuan.
The killer's modus operandi is both absurd and gives the impression that anything is possible in today's society.
The audience accepted the interpretation of "The Detective with the Magic Eye".
The character played by He Xun was also the subject of much discussion among viewers.
Before the movie's release, many marketing accounts touted the collaboration between He Xun and Lin Yuan after "The Powerful Minister," and the "Magic Eye Detective" production team also marketed the film in this direction.
As a result... after the movie was released, the audience felt cheated.
"What happened to the promise of rekindling their romance? I was completely stunned the moment He Xun's character was killed."
"Hilarious! Who didn't guess He Xun was the murderer?!"
"Judging by his status, he could really be the murderer, okay? He laid a lot of clues beforehand, but he ended up getting stabbed. I thought of everyone, but I never thought of him. It's hilarious."
A marketing account conducted a survey specifically for this purpose, which received a great response from netizens.
The number of netizens who voted exceeded 10,000, and among these 10,000 people, a full 8,000 believed that He Xun was the murderer.
Don't you think he looks like a murderer?
"The murderer's face +1. I was convinced from the beginning that He Xun was the murderer."
"Hilarious! He Xun is innocent!"
"Actually, the murderer is quite formidable. She's a doer, and she kills without hesitation. The fighting power she unleashed in that instant was simply incredible. She's too strong. To be honest, it would be difficult for He Xun, with his lazy and laid-back temperament, to play such a doer role."
He Xun, upon seeing the comments: "..."
He felt humiliated several times.
To some extent, "The Detective with the Magic Eyes" also has many "Lu Zhuo murderer" characters.
From the very beginning, these viewers were convinced that Lu Zhuo was the murderer. After all, many detective novels are written this way, so it's normal for "The Detective with the Magic Eye" to be filmed this way as well.
At the end of the film, "The Detective" gives Lu Zhuo a close-up. Outside the building, there is a warm autumn sun shining, which makes people feel warm and golden. However, half of Lu Zhuo's face is in the sunlight and the other half is hidden in the shadow.
He wasn't the kind of detective with a sunny personality.
On the contrary, he is intelligent and perceptive, and such people are usually prone to going astray.
Based on this, viewers concluded that Lu Zhuo was also involved in the murder.
"Was the murderer his scapegoat?"
"Otherwise, how did Lu Zhuo manage to escape?"
"Although the movie provides an explanation, I still feel that Lu Zhuo and the murderer worked together, and in the end the murderer took the blame alone. Otherwise, given the murderer's physical strength and ability, how could he have solved three murders so quickly and then let Lu Zhuo discover the evidence?"
"Why was the murderer willing to do it?"
"Perhaps there is an emotional connection between them."
"Maybe the next installment will provide an explanation? It's possible that the murderer and Lu Zhuo were both members of a dark organization. They decided to defect from the organization but were hunted down by its members. The murderer had had enough of the pursuit and was about to give up when Lu Zhuo killed her."
"...It's more accurate to say that the murderer took the drug A given to him by the Black Organization, the drug mentioned at the beginning, and turned from a man into a woman. That's how it was portrayed in 'Detective Conan'."
"That makes a lot of sense, a good idea."
Lin Yuan: "…………"
There are no plans for a sequel to "The Detective with the Magic Eye" yet, but Lin Yuan thinks that if things continue this way, the production team will even be able to save money on the script for the next season.
Some netizens analyzed the methods and motives of the crime, while others analyzed the beginning of the plot of "The Detective with the Magic Eye" and the hints given in the movie.
In any case, there are some hints in the movie, but they are very subtle and you won't notice them unless you look closely.
But looking closely means... you have to rewatch "The Detective with the Magic Eye" several times.
Many netizens do indeed have this kind of enthusiasm for this movie.
Lin Yuan even found Lu Zhuo's cosplay on video websites, as well as a recreation of the crime methods in "The Detective with the Magic Eye".
He admired him greatly.
The content not shown in the movie was reconstructed by netizens through their own thinking, revealing the exact modus operandi.
This only shows that netizens have a great deal of enthusiasm for "The Detective with the Magic Eye".
The enthusiasm of netizens will attract even more viewers.
Currently, there are many directors in China making detective and mystery films, but there are few good ones. To some extent, the market for this genre is quite large.
Among these, "The Detective" is definitely above average in quality, and the actors' performances fit the atmosphere of a detective and mystery film.
After "The Detective" surpassed 1 billion yuan at the box office, the box office platform adjusted its final box office prediction for the film to 3 billion yuan.
At that time, many people said that it would not be difficult for "The Detective" to break 2.5 billion, but it would be very difficult to surpass 3 billion.
However, after five days of release, "The Detective" grossed over 1.3 billion yuan.
Then came 1.4 billion, 1.5 billion... By the second Friday of the week with new releases, "The Detective" had already grossed 1.7 billion.
All of this is naturally closely related to the box office slump of "Vacuum Crisis". For the audience, "The Detective" is the only movie worth watching during this period.
Some people say that "The Detective" is very lucky.
However, the box office market is sometimes like that; a good film may not necessarily have a high box office; it depends on the right time, place, and people.
"The Detective" certainly seized this opportunity.
The second week still saw a wave of new film releases, with diverse themes, including commercial blockbusters and critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful art films. After the release of the new films, the screenings of "The Detective" declined, but because "The Detective" still maintained a daily box office of over 100 million yuan on the Thursday before the release of the new films, the screenings of "The Detective" were still above 15% this week.
The production team is already very satisfied.
Director Huang Yawen's final box office forecast for "The Detective with the Magic Eye" is 1 billion yuan. The director does not have high expectations. Anyway, it is no problem for "The Detective with the Magic Eye" to break 2 billion yuan at the box office.
With a little effort, 3 billion might not be just a dream.
However, when the box office results came out this Friday, even the director was shocked.
This week saw the release of two new films: the war epic "Battle of the Wilderness" by renowned director Shuai Jie, and the urban romance "The Stars Are Not As Bright As You." However, by Friday, the box office rankings presented a surprising picture—
The game that tops the list is naturally "Battle of the Wild".
However, the second place went to... "The Detective with the Magic Eye".
On that day, "The Detective" earned 82.66 million yuan at the box office with only 15% of the screenings.
Compared to the previous day, the decline was naturally quite sharp.
However, among all the new films, "The Detective" is still only the second most popular, even though it has been in theaters for more than a week.
Its box office exceeded that of "The Starry Night, The Starry Night" by 15 million.
The occupancy rate remains very high.
As for the following day, after "Battle of the Wilderness" suffered a huge drop in box office revenue while "The Detective" still managed to earn over 70 million, audiences had become numb.
"...Why do I feel like we could increase the screenings of 'The Detective with the Magic Eye'?"
"I also……"
+1.
In the new week, although the box office of "The Detective" was not as strong as the previous week, it still managed to reach 2.3 billion yuan.
Although "The Detective" is just an ordinary commercial film, its later growth and decline are similar to those of "The Storm" in the eyes of the audience, although it still lags behind "The Storm" in terms of daily box office.
At this time, netizens discovered—
"By the way, has the box office of Lin Yuan's film surpassed 10 billion?"
"ah??????"
Many netizens, including Lin Yuan's fans, were caught off guard.
Upon further calculation, the total came to 10 billion, including 1 billion from "Ghost Arts," 300 million from "Bloody Past," and "Storm" plus "The Detective with the Magic Eye."
Lin Yuan also holds a place among male actors who have starred in films with box office earnings exceeding 10 billion yuan.
"How did it get to 10 billion?"
"Wasn't it still a billion last year?"
"..."
Last year, when Lin Yuan had won the Woolf Award for Best Actor and was at the height of his popularity, many people criticized him, saying that he had no box office record.
At that time, Lin Yuan had only directed two films, and the second one won the Walter Award. Everyone knows that this statement is just nitpicking.
If Lin Yuan wants to achieve box office success, he'll have to star in at least several movies. Such opportunities are rare and require a lot of effort.
But for those unfamiliar with the film industry, Lin Yuan does lack this kind of achievement, even though "Ghost Arts" and "Bloody Past" were both huge profits relative to their costs.
Then this year, "The Storm" achieved the second-highest box office record in film history, and with the addition of "The Detective," Lin Yuan directly became a 10 billion yuan box office king!
This is an achievement that belongs to Lin Yuan and no one can take away from him.
What was once considered a weakness has suddenly become a strength.
Looking at the entire Chinese film industry, there are only a handful of actors whose leading roles have grossed over 10 billion yuan.
Lin Yuan is now one of them.
Most importantly, he is young and has won major awards. All things considered, Lin Yuan is now a top-tier film actor.
From last year to this year, no one has been able to overshadow him.
“Rewatching ‘The Rising Star’, I was filled with emotion. Lin Yuan was essentially abandoned by the show and rejected by the idol industry. Now… Wink is a thing of the past, but Lin Yuan is still shining brightly.”
When "The Detective" grossed over 2.5 billion yuan, many people felt that it would be difficult to reach 3 billion yuan.
However, the film's daily revenue was slowly dwindling from 50 million to 40 million, then to 30 million, 20 million... Every time the box office dropped by 10 million, it went through a relatively long period, and the production team still made a considerable profit.
It broke 2.6 billion, then 2.7 billion, 2.8 billion, and slowly, "The Detective with the Magic Eye" finally broke 3 billion.
With a production cost of less than 100 million yuan and a box office exceeding 3 billion yuan, from this perspective, the profit margin of "The Detective" is even more exaggerated than that of "The Storm".
If it weren't for the upcoming broadcast of "Up in the Clouds," Lin Yuan would probably have been dragged to various interviews, just like the director, and wouldn't even have time to rest.
According to director Huang Yawen, she has never been this busy in her life.
“It’s much more tiring than making a movie,” Huang Yawen said. “There are some things that are not suitable to say; we have to follow the script prepared by the production team.”
The director has always been the type to say whatever comes to mind; not being able to say anything would be incredibly frustrating for her.
...
The success of "The Detective with the Magic Eye" made the director happy, Lin Yuan happy, and the actors involved happy as well. The only one who was unhappy was Chen Cong.
Chen Cong has participated in many projects, all with the aim of winning awards and achieving high box office returns, but for some reason, his ideals always fall short of reality.
Despite having acted in so many movies, Chen Cong has yet to have a single film gross over 3 billion yuan.
Let alone 3 billion, it's not even 2 billion.
"Grandpa's Little Courtyard" flopped, and "Eagle Soars to the Sky" didn't make much money either. There's a growing rumor in the industry that Chen Cong is box office poison.
Chen Cong himself was very dissatisfied.
Recently, "The Detective with the Magic Eye" has become a hit.
The title of "box office poison" has stuck to Chen Cong even more closely, and he can't shake it off anytime soon.
Everyone knows that Chen Cong almost turned the show into "The Detective with the Magic Eye".
And what happened? He declined.
He's terrible at acting, but the ones he refuses to act in are the ones that do very well at the box office.
"Chen Congzhen starred in 'The Detective,' but to be honest, 'The Detective,' might not have had such high box office returns."
"+1, but I bet he's regretting it terribly now. If he had taken the role in 'The Detective' back then, his acting career would have been completely different."
"Let him choose. Besides, at that time, Shi Jinglin's movies were indeed a better choice."
It's worth mentioning that Shi Jinglin's movie has already finished filming and was recently submitted for consideration for overseas awards.
Chen Cong thus went abroad and made a splash on the red carpet.
Unfortunately, Shi Jinglin's new film has not received good reviews overseas.
For Shih Ching-lin, this film was a new breakthrough in his directing career. However, for the judges who were used to seeing all kinds of films, Shih Ching-lin was just trying out a style that his predecessors had already tried.
It was novel to him, but looking at the film market as a whole, that movie was not new at all.
It is said that some overseas viewers went to see the movie because of its reputation, but their reviews were also mediocre.
As a result, the film failed to gain any traction overseas, and the production team wasn't even given a chance to boast.
Back in China, Chen Cong might win an award, but if it's done behind closed doors, it means his already precarious reputation will plummet even further.
Although he is the kind of actor who doesn't need an audience and can handle all sorts of business operations, his capricious nature means that investors have to pay for his projects, making it difficult for him to maintain this lifestyle for long.
Moreover, the competition among resource providers is equally fierce.
Chen Cong wants to be famous, and so do others. The investment poured into him may one day be transferred to someone else.
No matter how prestigious a celebrity's resources are, they will eventually have to bow their proud head in front of the audience.
"Didn't Shi Jinglin's film win any awards?" Lin Yuan hadn't paid attention to this.
"The box office performance is also poor," Feng Zeng said.
"?" Lin Yuan was stunned. "When was it released? How come I didn't know?"
"It was released, and the box office was a few hundred thousand on the first day, but it was pulled from theaters immediately," Feng Zeng said. "Shi Jinglin was quite powerful, and Chen Cong's side was also quite powerful, so there weren't many media outlets speaking out."
"That's really impressive." Lin Yuan exclaimed "Wow!"
"Is it really that bad?" Lin Yuan asked curiously.
"It's said that it really doesn't work," Feng explained. "People are confused by what they've read, and some colleagues have even started criticizing it on social media."
Feng Zeng has a large circle of friends, and many people in his circle have added him on WeChat, including senior professionals in the film and television industry.
However, Feng Zeng usually wouldn't take screenshots of such things and show them to Lin Yuan.
Most of the time, the agent is willing to satisfy Lin Yuan's gossip needs, but occasionally, the agent also hopes that Lin Yuan will not be so gossipy.
"It seems really bad," Lin Yuan sighed. "It's a pity I haven't seen it yet."
Some films are indeed withdrawn from release due to unsuitable timing; if they were released at a different time, their box office performance might be much better. But for other films, withdrawal is just a fig leaf. They say they've withdrawn, but no one knows when they'll be released or whether they'll ever be shown again; it's all up to the audience to guess.
Shi Jinglin's movie is probably the type that was pulled from release and never saw the light of day again.
The audience will never see them again.
“If I waste two hours of your time, you’ll start cursing again.” Feng Zeng was speechless. “I’ve heard from people who’ve seen the movie that they don’t understand what the plot is about, and they don’t understand what Chen Cong is acting. He just pretended to be melancholy for two hours straight, making you want to feed him bird droppings so he can never be melancholy again.”
Lin Yuan: "..."
Awesome.
He agreed.
...
The reason why "Up in the Clouds" was scheduled for the summer vacation is twofold: firstly, the production cost of the series is high, and the summer vacation is the most likely time to reap high returns; secondly, the production team used all their skills and abilities, and these talented individuals would not allow "Up in the Clouds" to be placed in an unpopular time slot.
Lin Yuan had a good relationship with the other actors in the crew, but he had almost no interaction with Liu Jingyi.
With the upcoming premiere of "Up in the Clouds," Liu Jingyi's desire to create on-screen couples seems to be resurfacing.
Lin Yuan: "..."
Never mind.
His temper is getting better and better now.
Lin Yuan felt that as his fame grew, his tolerance also gradually increased.
He used to be an unknown, so no matter how much he jumped around or caused trouble, the number of people he hurt was limited, and not many people cared about him anyway.
But things are different now. His status has changed. Before, he could say whatever he liked and nobody cared. Now, if he says he likes something, someone will immediately send it to him or transfer it to him through Feng Zeng.
If Lin Yuan shows that he doesn't like someone, that person may be ostracized on set.
Even now, Lin Yuan doesn't really like Liu Jingyi. The crew of "Shang Qingyun" even poured oil on Liu Jingyi before.
But Lin Yuan gradually realized that the people who were most pleased with his support for Liu Jingyi were Liu Jingyi's rivals, as a bunch of articles smearing Liu Jingyi immediately came out.
Lin Yuan, on the contrary, became someone else's tool.
This has happened more than once.
Lin Yuan isn't incapable of being sarcastic; he still remembers the techniques. But when facing someone more accomplished than him, his sarcastic remarks are acceptable. However, when facing actors with much lower status, especially newcomers, every extra word Lin Yuan utters could cost them a place in the entertainment industry.
Not only his rivals, but even his management company will take this into consideration.
Often, Lin Yuan's intentions are unintentional, but in other people's minds, countless thoughts arise that are different from Lin Yuan's original intentions.
Lin Yuan had no intention of doing this at all.
Although he was quite annoyed by Liu Jingyi, he was annoyed by quite a few people.
Therefore, during the promotional period of "Up in the Clouds", Lin Yuan adopted a patient approach.
“If others don’t consider your needs, you shouldn’t consider theirs too much either,” Feng Zeng said. “That’s not the path you’re taking.”
"There are so many people in the film crew," Lin Yuan said, changing the subject.
The day before the premiere of "Up in the Clouds," the official Weibo account of the production team tagged a long list of actors with names and surnames, and Lin Yuan realized that so many actors had participated in the filming of this drama.
Lin Yuan didn't even remember some of the actors who didn't have scenes with him on set.
To this day, Lin Yuan still doesn't know how "Shang Qingyun" has been edited. This is a difficult situation for the director. Anyway, there are several well-connected actors in the crew. They need to keep their scenes while also considering the overall quality of the series. Lin Yuan guesses that the director's hair is probably turning white from worry.
He can at least keep his role as the lead actor.
"Ascending to the Clouds" is a serious drama and will be broadcast on satellite TV, with Tianfeng Satellite TV as its premiere platform. Whether there will be a second or third run depends on the ratings.
Before the series aired, Lin Yuan glanced at the online comments.
There's a lot of optimism online about "Up in the Clouds." Lin Yuan is currently riding high, with two hit dramas, "Storm" and "The Detective with the Magic Eye." Given Lin Yuan's dominant position in the television drama field, it's impossible for "Up in the Clouds" not to be a hit.
Lin Yuan's attitude, however, was quite indifferent.
To some extent, "Up in the Clouds" is the drama in which he had the least close relationship with the crew among all the dramas he starred in.
In the past, whether it was "Mandala" or "The Powerful Minister", perhaps because the investment was not high, the actors had few distractions and no mentality of becoming famous. They focused on making the shows they were supposed to make and had limited pursuits.
However, in "Up in the Clouds," Lin Yuan, being part of the crew, could sense that some people had very complicated thoughts.
Lin Yuan couldn't criticize other people's thoughts, after all, everyone wants to be famous, and he couldn't ruin other people's path to fame just because he was famous enough.
However... this kind of thinking may not be a good thing for the work itself.
With mixed feelings, Lin Yuan opened "Ascending to the Clouds".
In fact, whether this drama is popular or not has limited impact on Lin Yuan now.
The failure of a TV series or a movie cannot shake his current status.
But as an actor, he is also the lead actor in "Shang Qingyun", so Lin Yuan naturally hopes that the drama will achieve good results.
In the first episode of "Ascending to the Clouds," the protagonist begins his college entrance examination. The pacing of the series is quite good, and Lin Yuan feels that the director has included all the scenes he filmed in the series.
There are also tear-jerking moments.
The screen is filled with warm light and shadow, depicting the protagonist being cared for by his family. Whether he is reading by candlelight or riding his bicycle to a faraway place to find his teacher, these scenes are all vividly portrayed.
The hard work during studies, the anxiety when results are released... Although you've tried your best, you may not get the result you most expect.
Repeating a grade is a difficult choice, because no one knows whether there will be any reward, but the hard work, the uncertainty about the future... all of this is real.
Fortunately, he had a group of friends and a loving family who helped him get through this difficult time.
In Lin Yuan's opinion, this is what makes "Ascending to the Clouds" worth watching.
The visuals have a cinematic quality, and the background music perfectly complements the characters' emotions. In terms of quality, this episode is well worth the investment. However, Lin Yuan doesn't know if the plot can hold up in the end.
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Author's Note: It's here!!! [Sprinkling flowers][Sprinkling flowers][Sprinkling flowers]
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