"Your fans say they want to boycott this film that you were forced to take on, don't give them a second thought. The big fans still have a lot of influence..." Ji Juntao reported, "Plus, we've had almost zero publicity—and there's the issue of the subject matter. In short, this isn't your true box office appeal, don't be discouraged."
"Thank you for comforting me." Shang Yechu gave a wry smile as she browsed the box office distribution for September 30th on Mint Movies. "Don't worry, I'm not that fragile."
From Ji Juntao's end came the sound of rapid typing: "Actually, it's not just us; other movies are also doing poorly. Does saying this make you feel any better?"
Ji Juntao was right.
The total box office revenue for films on September 30th was over 300 million yuan, of which "Fighter" alone accounted for over 150 million yuan. Its overall box office share was over 50%. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it practically drained the entire market.
Films released at the same time as "The Fierce Land" all crashed. Films imported by Baogang, such as "Suffocation 24 Hours" and "Saving 1001 Hostages", only grossed a pitiful seven or eight million at the box office. Hollywood blockbusters such as "Nirvana", "Aftermath", and "Franz Alien" barely survived, hovering between ten and twenty million.
Films like "The Earth God" and "The Order of the Demons," being period dramas, escaped the disaster and managed to salvage a respectable 30 million yuan at the box office. As for the other minor films, there's no need to count them.
This is a battlefield where no one survived except for "The Martyrs." While "The Mute Woman" had low box office returns, its investment was also low. Compared to those big projects with hundreds of millions in investment, this minor flop doesn't seem so unacceptable.
After comforting Shang Yechu, Ji Juntao began to blame himself: "This time it was my mistake to make such a decision. I should have chosen a less popular release date. Sigh! It's too late to say all this now. How's the filming of 'Xiao Feng Que' going?"
"Filming is almost finished." Shang Yechu closed the movie's official website. "The only thing left to film is the love scene between me and another character."
"How's the preparation for 'Half of the Sky' going?" Ji Juntao asked again.
“I’ve read a lot of information about Li Yiming,” Shang Yechu frowned unconsciously, “It’s too fragmented, there’s no complete narrative. That’s alright though…”
Ji Juntao knew that what was coming next was the key point, so he held his breath and heard Shang Yechu say, "I need to learn the Ruguan dialect. I've been studying it online for the past two days, but I don't think it's very effective."
As the ancient poem goes, "I left home young and returned old, my accent unchanged but my hair gray." It's very difficult to change one's accent. Shang Yechu studied repeatedly for two days, his tongue almost twisted into a pretzel, but he didn't feel that his accent had improved at all.
“Okay, I’ll go find someone from Ruguan to hire a teacher for you.” Ji Juntao typed a key. “Is there enough time?”
"Learning a language in a month?" Shang Yechu gave a wry smile. "What do you think?"
Ji Juntao came up with another ingenious idea: "You can ask Zheng Bohan for the script and just practice the dialect lines that appear in the script. It shouldn't be too difficult to practice a few lines, right?"
“Impossible,” Shang Yechu said firmly. “Zheng Bohan won’t give me the script. Saying a word or giving me an interview is already his limit. He only agreed to delay for a month because the script still needs to be revised and polished. He’s incredibly rigid; trying to get him to do something special will only backfire.”
Ji Juntao thought for a moment and said, "Anyway, the dialect isn't the essence of the script, is it? At worst, we can do post-production dubbing. I'll find a local from Ruguan whose voice sounds a lot like yours and pay them a bit more."
"Can you come up with a less terrible idea?" Shang Yechu said bluntly. "You shamelessly asked for this opportunity, and in the end you still have to use voice-over? Touch the two flat spots next to your nose—that's your face, not a parking lot!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
