Chapter 887
That's what some people think.
Although the box office of "Ten Miles of Fragrance" seems destined to stop at 400 million, it is not a failure for the two lead actors.
From an investment perspective, this film is unlikely to recoup its costs or generate a profit—even with the addition of various broadcasting and overseas distribution rights, it still won't be profitable. After all, the production costs and Spring Festival promotional expenses alone amount to over 200 million yuan.
However, given how bad the film's reputation is, it's likely to be ranked among the top ten most tragic films in the future. Yet, thanks to the two lead actors, it still managed to gross 400 million yuan at the box office.
From this perspective, the box office appeal of Lang Xia and Yan Lingyu is also proven in reverse.
In fact, that is indeed the case.
If it weren't for the high cost of "Ten Miles of Fragrance," a box office of 400 million yuan wouldn't be considered a failure at all.
Zhou Ping'an is very good at seizing any opportunity to promote his artists.
However, Lang Xia is not yet under his command, so he won't bother with that.
He Yingzi was disappointed and even a little discouraged by Lang Xia's previous behavior. Not kicking him while he was down in anger and disappointment was the last bit of kindness she had shown, so of course she would no longer help him with these things.
On the contrary, Yan Lingyu's agency seized the opportunity quickly, hiring online trolls, publishing press releases, and creating momentum. As a result, the box office appeal of 400 million yuan gradually fell on Yan Lingyu.
Yan Lingyu's achievements in film can actually be described as outstanding.
"Late Spring" features the female lead and grossed 600 million yuan.
She played the female lead in "You Are the Apple of My Eye," which grossed 700 million yuan.
She played the lead female role in "The Classic" and the film grossed 1.2 billion yuan.
"Ten Miles of Fragrance" features a female lead who shares the lead billing and grossed 400 million yuan.
The success of the previous three films was not really attributed to her. Although she was the biggest star of "The Classic", people regarded "The Classic" as a success of topic marketing - just like the huge success of the stage play "Green Apple Paradise" back then, which mainly relied on hitting the memory of the times.
However, "Ten Miles of Fragrance" is a film that, apart from its well-known IP, lacks anything else. The pre-release fan war between her and Lang Xia, which boosted pre-sales, was witnessed by everyone. With this film, no one can say that Yan Lingyu has no connection to its 400 million yuan box office success.
In fact, after "Chinese Paladin" and "You Are the Apple of My Eye", Lang Xia's fan base and popularity index are not on the same level as Yan Lingyu's.
It's just that male celebrities have been popular for longer than female celebrities, and male celebrities have always had more female fans than female celebrities, who are also more enthusiastic, which makes the two sides seem to be evenly matched.
A week after the movie's release, Yan Lingyu absorbed almost all of this abnormal bonus. Apart from maintaining the record of his starring film still grossing over 100 million yuan, Lang Xia was directly suppressed by Yan Lingyu because no one helped him to generate buzz and maintain exposure.
He was frustrated and angry, but there was nothing he could do.
His team was all assembled by He Yingzi; apart from his personal assistant, no one was truly his person.
In work-related matters like this, if He Yingzi doesn't agree, no one else's opinion matters, including her own.
However, Lang Xia did not realize that in the battle of the Spring Festival film season, "Ten Miles of Fragrance" was defeated so quickly that he, as the lead actor, was not negatively affected and was not regarded as a "box office poison" by the industry, which is already fortunate.
It's fortunate that He Yingzi didn't take the opportunity to kick him while he was down after experiencing his "betrayal".
In fact, until now, Lang Xia has no idea that He Yingzi had already been helping him contact Chen Ziyan and Zhou Ping'an before he sought another path.
Chen Ziyan wouldn't tell him about such things, and Zhou Pingan certainly wouldn't either.
-
Lu Yanhe was filming "The Original Father" when, in the blink of an eye, it was time for the Oscars ceremony.
Home Alone 4 has been a global box office success, grossing over $800 million in less than a month and nearing $1 billion.
The speed is so fast, and the key point is that the Chinese market has produced an unexpected figure. As of now, "Home Alone 4" has grossed 1.9 billion yuan in China, which is nearly 300 million US dollars, far exceeding the box office of the previous three films in China.
Therefore, Huang Feng, Liu Teli, and Luo Weida were also invited to the Oscars ceremony to present the award for Best Visual Effects.
Liu Bige, Wen Shengming, and Miao Yue attended together.
The Oscars have a point that many award ceremonies could learn from. For films that receive positive reviews each year, even those not nominated for Oscars, the ceremonies still invite the filmmakers to the ceremony.
While to some extent it may simply be a gesture, such a gesture is actually important for an industry. The Oscars want to maintain its influence within the industry and its status as the premier annual film event. Those who strive to create good films, even if they don't receive a nomination, still hope to be recognized, or rather, respected.
When "The Grandmaster" was shortlisted for the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, it missed the final nominations but was nominated for two technical awards—and director Wong Kar-wai was still invited to attend. The same thing happened at last year's Oscars. Joan Chen, who delivered an outstanding performance in "My Brother" and was considered a strong contender for Best Supporting Actress in the early stages of awards season, was invited to attend despite her early disappointment, thanks to praise from the media and critics.
If you really want an award to be recognized by the entire industry, then you must not let it only revolve around the group of people who are vying for the award.
Lu Yanhe's refusal to attend this year's awards ceremony is widely seen as a sign of his dissatisfaction with the Oscars. This led several Academy members to contact him, some extending warm invitations, others offering subtle reassurances. Lu Yanhe's influence in the film industry has now reached a level that even the Oscar committee cannot ignore.
Lu Yanhe only said that he was filming and couldn't spare the time.
Anyway, as long as it looks presentable, that's fine.
He also couldn't openly say that he actually had any dissatisfaction with the Oscars—
He hasn't reached that level yet.
-
This year's Situ International Film Festival was held after the Oscars ceremony.
Lu Yanhe has confirmed that he will be there for two days.
I've already asked the production team for leave.
Huang Tianlin asked him, "Which film festival would be best for the film 'The Original Father' to participate in?"
Lu Yanhe asked, "What are you thinking?"
Huang Tianlin said, "My first choice is of course Satur. Among the four major international film festivals, Satur is the most artistic and commercially successful, which is generally acknowledged. Satur is also the film festival with the greatest influence on Europe and America. However, you have already won Best Actor once at Satur. In such a short time, it may be difficult for you to win it again. But I think this film is very worthy of winning you another Best Actor award."
Lu Yanhe was surprised that Huang Tianlin would consider this.
He said, "Actually, it doesn't matter."
"Hmm?" Huang Tianlin asked, "You've lost interest in winning awards?"
“How could that be? I just think there’s no need to consider that when choosing a film festival,” Lu Yanhe said. “For actors, winning many individual performance awards is not as important as having many classic films that leave a deep impression on the audience. Like you, I have high hopes for the film ‘The Original Father’ because I think it will be very good and will become a classic work no less than ‘Tropical Rainy Season’.”
If "The Original Father" can become a critical and commercial success at Situ, it will undoubtedly have a greater impact on the film than the other three film festivals.
Huang Tianlin nodded.
"Then I'll probably save this film for next year's Satur."
Lu Yanhe nodded.
Huang Tianlin asked, "Your film 'The Boat' will be competing in this year's Situation. Have you seen the finished film?"
“I haven’t seen the finished film, only a rough cut,” Lu Yanhe said. “However, I know what kind of film this movie is intended to be. It is completely different in style from ‘The Original Father.’ You don’t have to worry about similar themes; the focus and themes are completely different, even though both end with the murder of the father.”
Huang Tianlin breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Lu Yanhe say that.
“I was initially worried that the two films were too similar in theme,” Huang Tianlin said. “Was it because the endings were a bit similar that you hesitated to take the role for so long?”
"I did consider that at the time, but it wasn't actually what you think." Lu Yanhe was shocked. What a coincidence that the scripts he found one after the other were so similar to his state at the time—
It seemed like some kind of divine will.
That's where he was conflicted and hesitant.
-
"Are you going, Situ?" Chen Siqi asked.
Lu Yanhe said, "I'll go, but I can only stay there for two days. The crew can't leave for too long either."
Chen Siqi: "Yes, if you go to Situ, I'll go with you."
Since arriving on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Chen Siqi has been staying in Malaysia with Lu Yanhe.
Therefore, Lu Yanhe has been coming back almost every day after finishing work these days.
Chen Siqi's maternal grandparents don't live together; they hired a local guide and are currently traveling around the area. Chen Siqi spent a few days with them before returning home.
So, basically, whenever Lu Yanhe wasn't on set, the two of them would spend all their time together. Chen Siqi understood this quite well; unless it was an occasional set visit, she generally wouldn't spend a long time at Lu Yanhe's workplace. Just like Lu Yanhe often went to the "Jump Up" editorial department, he rarely spent extended periods at their workplaces.
Lu Yanhe was never quite used to it; some actors bring their whole family along when they join a film crew. How to put it...it's a different experience.
Yuan Zhihua, who played his father in "The Original Father", is such an actor.
His wife is his agent—but not only his wife is with him, his mother is also with him, taking care of his three meals a day. Yuan Zhihua doesn't eat the meals provided by the film crew; his mother prepares all three meals a day and delivers them to the film set.
Of course, this was their private matter and it didn't affect the filming. Although Lu Yanhe didn't quite understand, he didn't say a word.
Yuan Zhihua had worked with Huang Tianlin in his first film. He was indeed a very good actor, a veteran performer. When they first met, Lu Yanhe thought it was alright; after all, he was a senior actor, and he had to respect him.
Although we weren't familiar with each other, we were still able to cooperate happily in all aspects.
Until he discovered that once Yuan Zhihua finished filming, his wife would appear by his side like a ghost. Whether you went to find him to rehearse a scene or just chatted casually, his wife would be there without fail, standing guard like a statue. Lu Yanhe was a little... how to put it, if people want to get closer and more familiar with each other, it is absolutely impossible without one-on-one time.
So, afterwards, Lu Yanhe basically stopped chatting with Yuan Zhihua except when they were discussing the play. At most, they would chat and laugh for a while when they sat together.
The cast of "The Original Father" was small. It was still a small production with only a few characters. However, even for minor roles with just a few lines, Lu Yanhe noticed that Huang Tianlin had mostly cast actors he had worked with before. Huang Tianlin seemed to have a particular fondness for continuing to work with actors he had previously collaborated with.
Even Han Yujiang from "Tropical Rainy Season" made a cameo appearance as a shop owner, with only a few lines. Despite this, Han Yujiang was still very happy to come.
It took Lu Yanhe quite a while to get used to the name Han Yujiang. After all, the last two characters belonged to a different person in China, someone he didn't get along with at all. Fortunately, that person generally didn't dare to fire back now, because every time he did, the criticism would just come back at her.
It's also because he's now the boss of Ai Ru Tian Shen Film and Television Company, and he's no longer a sole proprietor. He has more and more things to consider when doing things and saying things.
After the Spring Festival, Huang Feng finally finished promoting "Home Alone 4". Before the winter vacation ended, he came to Malaysia with his mother to meet Huang Tianlin and have a belated reunion dinner.
This child star, who is now the most popular in the world, has grown up quite a bit since Lu Yanhe first met him.
She's not as cute as she was when she was little... This is something Lu Yanhe can only think to himself.
Lu Yanhe still really liked Huang Feng.
He gave Huang Feng a large red envelope and told him to study hard and do well in his studies.
Now that the "Home Alone" series is finished, it's time to get back to work.
Later that evening, his mother came over and asked Lu Yanhe if there were any other plans for Huang Feng.
His mother seems to want him to continue acting.
(End of this chapter)
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