Congratulations, Professor Ji!
"The celebratory hotpot is already waiting for Teacher Ji to spend money on it."
"I'm showing off my ticket stub to express my support for Professor Ji."
Fang Yu and Lu Wei frantically tagged Ji Yan in the group chat. Two weeks after its release, "The Vanished Murder" successfully surpassed 800 million yuan at the box office, becoming the biggest dark horse to emerge during the Lunar New Year period.
What does 800 million mean? It means that compared to the film's production cost of less than 20 million, the film received a return of 40 times after its release!
Despite the release of "The Vanishing Murderer" a week later, with the release of "Silent Love" and "Drunken Valentine," "The Vanishing Murderer" still managed to secure a place in the film market thanks to its unique style and excellent word-of-mouth, and its box office performance remained outstanding.
On Valentine's Day, romantic films like "Drunken Valentine" became the top choice for couples, but the audience for the film was not limited to couples; a large number of viewers also chose "The Vanishing Murderer".
Industry insiders estimate that "The Vanishing Murder" will ultimately gross at least 1.2 billion yuan, and it is not impossible for it to break 1.5 billion yuan.
Among the films released this year, "The Vanishing Murderer" currently ranks 7th in the box office charts. While this figure is certainly difficult to compare with the box office behemoths that often gross 3 billion or 4 billion yuan, in terms of return on investment, "The Vanishing Murderer" is definitely far ahead.
With this film, Lu Ming went from an unknown new director to a hot new star in the directing world. Major film companies came knocking on his door, inviting him to direct their new films. The amazing returns of "The Vanishing Murder" were enough to tempt any company.
Screenwriter Fan Cong has accumulated several script offers. The production team does not force Fan Cong to write about topics he is not good at, but only hopes that he can write another script that is similar in type and quality to "The Vanishing Murder".
It's no exaggeration to say that the crew of "The Vanishing Murder" truly experienced what it's like to become famous overnight.
Ji Yan, as the lead actor, is doing well. Since the release of "Youthful Love Poems," he has received numerous script offers. Although it hasn't been officially announced recently, news of his collaboration with Xi Ming on a new film has been circulating widely in the industry. The basic cast of the new film has been finalized, but the actors for a few roles have not yet been confirmed. It was said that several actors were vying for the roles, but since "The Vanishing Murder" emerged as a dark horse, Ji Yan heard from Xi Ming that the competition for those roles has become even fiercer.
The entire film and television industry can see that Ji Yan's rise to power is unstoppable.
Before "The Vanishing Murder," he had been nominated twice for the Chang Kong Award, and his acting skills were recognized by two famous directors, Li Xiang and Zhu Shuguang. He was even called "Li's leading man" and "Zhu's leading man." However, he had little screen time in "I, Nameless" and "Young Love Poems" did not perform particularly well at the box office. He seemed more like a newcomer who was promoted by the industry with preferential resources, and he was slightly lacking in audience recognition.
Even though Ji Yan's group "Wings" is currently quite popular and has several best-selling albums to back it up.
However, success in the film industry is ultimately unrelated to success in the music industry. If Ji Yan wants to truly gain recognition in the film industry, she still needs a truly blockbuster masterpiece.
To some extent, "Young Love Poems" is already an important representative work of Ji Yan, but with the addition of "The Vanished Murderous Intent", Ji Yan's shortcomings were truly made up.
"The Vanishing Murder" is not a big-name director, big-budget production, or star-studded cast. It can be said that the only actor with public recognition in the film is Ji Yan. Without the participation of other big-name stars, the film grossed more than 800 million yuan at the box office with a budget of less than 20 million yuan. This is certainly related to the excellent script and Lu Ming's directing skills, but the contribution of the lead actor Ji Yan to the film's success cannot be ignored.
His portrayal of Cheng Yuan in the film was impressive.
Besides Ji Yan, He Qing, Yang Le, and Cen Xuzhi all received new filming offers, with He Qing and Yang Le even getting their first leading roles in their acting careers.
"I'm so excited!!"
"Even though I'm playing the male lead in an idol drama, I'll do my best!!"
He Qing had already impressed many industry insiders with his nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Huayi Awards for his role in "Young Love Poems." However, given his long career, he is unlikely to be offered roles in idol dramas or fan-attracting productions. Yet, this time he landed the lead role in a rural drama and the second lead role in another. While it may seem like he didn't earn much, the rural drama has a high chance of airing on CCTV. For an actor, this means his career has taken a significant leap forward. The latter is also a major production of the year, and although the cast isn't as star-studded as "The Long Ballad," it still features several veteran actors.
Yang Le started getting leading roles, a stark contrast to his situation before filming "The Vanishing Murderer." He truly experienced the benefits of taking acting seriously.
Relatively speaking, Song Jing is the only one whose situation remains dire.
The main problem was that the things he did during the filming of "The Vanishing Murder" were just too outrageous. The entire crew didn't include him in the promotional period. In addition, his performance in the movie was far from outstanding, and he was practically the only flaw in "The Vanishing Murder." Plus, he had previously tried to piggyback on Ji Yan's fame, so any crew with a little ambition was unwilling to include him in their productions.
Unless it's a show produced by String Entertainment itself, or some web series that are interested in his popularity, but Song Jing doesn't really care about those shows. After all, "The Vanished Murder" has already grossed nearly 1 billion yuan, and he is one of the main actors. He considers himself to be better than Yang Le. Yang Le has the lead role in a TV series, so why should he only be able to act in web series?
Unfortunately, Song Jing's wish was not fulfilled in the end.
He did want to act in a primetime drama, but the production team for the male lead was unwilling to include him. As for the second or third male lead, given Ji Yan's tragic experience of being taken advantage of by him, the actors who played the male lead were basically unwilling to work with Song Jing, fearing being associated with him. Naturally, the production team had to think twice before inviting him to work together.
...
Of course, Song Jing's experience had nothing to do with Ji Yan.
After the release of "The Vanishing Murderer", he witnessed the movie gradually becoming popular. There were promotional billboards for the main actors at the entrance of the cinema, as well as promotional posters at subway and bus stations. When the movie's box office exceeded 1 billion yuan, it even made it to the top of Weibo's trending topics.
Because "The Vanishing Murderer" had such a low budget, the film attracted many fans who watched it two or three times. These fans naturally paid close attention to the film's box office data when they contributed to the box office, updating it almost every day. They watched "The Vanishing Murderer" grow from more than 5 million yuan in box office revenue per day to a peak daily sales of over 90 million yuan.
The film's box office growth also resembled a thrilling story.
Ji Yan's fans were also very happy.
When Ji Yan gave up "Alien Invasion" and chose "The Vanishing Murder" instead, fans supported his choice, but they couldn't help but have doubts. After all, "Alien Invasion" seemed much better than "The Vanishing Murder". But what about now?
"The Vanishing Murder" became one of the representative works of Ji Yan's acting career. Ji Yan did not need to share the box office benefits of the film with any other actors. He almost enjoyed all the highlights of the film by himself.
"Alien Invasion" has not yet been released, and Luo Yi is aiming for this year's summer blockbuster season. However, judging from the cast, if Ji Yan participates, how much of his brilliance can he still shine against the backdrop of several award-winning actors?
Fans aren't blindly praising Ji Yan. If "The Vanished Murderer" were a film without any merits, it would naturally prove that Ji Yan's judgment was flawed. However, the fact is that "The Vanished Murderer" is a phenomenal film with a return on investment of over 50 times, demonstrating that Ji Yan's choice of films is flawless. And Ji Yan's decision to choose "The Vanished Murderer" over "Alien Invasion" proves that the latter better showcases his abilities as an actor.
Everything will be revealed after the release of "Alien Invasion," but fans have unwavering faith in Ji Yan's choice.
—Since the start of filming for "The Vanishing Murder," whether it was the lackluster reception before the film's release or the incident where Ji Yan was framed by Song Jing during filming, there have been trolls who have sourly commented that Ji Yan deserved to take on "The Vanishing Murder" because he was stupid enough to accept such a bad film.
In short, nobody had high hopes for "The Vanishing Murderer".
Ji Yan's fans witnessed firsthand how a group of people displayed his name and mocked him on the first day of the film's release, saying he would flop and that the highlight of his box office career was the 180 million yuan gross of "Young Love Poems." The mockery continued on the second day, but on the third and fourth days... "The Vanished Murder" became the only film on the daily box office chart to buck the trend and grow, with its occupancy rate far exceeding that of the others, and the mockery gradually disappeared. Then, "The Vanished Murder" went from 100 million to 1 billion yuan at the box office, and no one mocked him anymore.
Currently, Ji Yan is the youngest actor whose films have grossed over 1 billion yuan. Moreover, he was the main box office draw for his two films, "Young Love Poems" and "The Vanished Murderer," without any other box office superstar supporting him. In addition, he is an actor who has both box office success and nominations for Best Actor at the Chang Kong Awards and Huayi Awards. Among young actors of his generation, Ji Yan is also number one.
As of now, no young actor can surpass him.
...
The final box office of "The Vanishing Murder" was 1.799 billion yuan, 1 million yuan short of 1.8 billion yuan. Zhu Shuguang even made a special call to Ji Yan about this figure, meaning that the movie could be extended for a few more days, which would be good if it could reach 10 times the box office of "Young Love Poems".
Ji Yan: "..."
Although Zhu Shuguang didn't say anything, Ji Yan could still sense the deep jealousy in the old man's voice on the phone.
Because Ji Yan's "The Vanishing Murder" has already surpassed the total box office earnings of all the films Zhu Shuguang has directed in his entire career.
Even Lu Yu contacted Ji Yan to ask if he was interested in investing in Zhu Shuguang's new film.
Ji Yan's profit-sharing contract with the "Disappearing Murder" production team was not a secret; it had been reported by the media before. At the time, when Ji Yan personally invested money, some people mocked him, saying that others made money from filming, but Ji Yan only lost money. This was partly due to the low salary of "Youthful Love Poems." Ji Yan stayed in the production team for half a year, and during that time, whether he released an album, held a concert, or took on commercial projects, it was enough for Ji Yan to earn ten or even a hundred times his salary.
The investment in "The Vanishing Murder" even led Ji Yan to put all of his salary into it, and he even lost some money.
However, now that the final box office of "The Vanishing Murder" is calculated to be 1.8 billion, after deducting the theater's share and the distribution and marketing, the production company can get about 700 million, of which Ji Yan takes 20%.
20% of 700 million.
Unbeknownst to many, Ji Yan has already been recognized as a god of investment among actors.
Many other actors receive a share of the profits as payment, while others directly serve as film producers. However, actors who can serve as producers or receive a share of the profits are usually superstars. Films that catch their eye will definitely not be cheap. Even if a film grosses over 2 billion, after deducting various expenses, the actor's personal profit will not be much. After all, big-budget films are usually complex, with countless companies involved.
The investment in "The Vanishing Murder" was very simple, and its success was due to a combination of coincidence and chance.
Ji Yan not only received a generous share of the profits, but also benefited from the fact that the film "The Vanishing Murder" was originally invested in by the "Wing" project. In other words, he had created a support program aimed at helping films that lacked investment. As a result, the profits from "The Vanishing Murder" recouped all his previous investments and even made him a fortune.
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