Huayu: Starting from the top talent show

Chapter 361 Record Maker

[Better Days’ box office revenue surpassed 300 million yuan on the first day, Shen Juan’s acting skills exploded! Countless fans burst into tears]

[Capital helps popular stars gain popularity, and "Better Days" becomes a strong contender for the summer box office champion! ]

[Better Days" has a Douban score of 8.9! A detailed analysis of how much this movie is worth and what is its charm? ]

[It’s a big hit as soon as it’s released! The movie “Better Days” starring Shen Juan and Zhou Qiuyu is coming on strong, Maoyan predicts the box office will be 28 billion. ]

[Better Days was released yesterday, the lead actor's acting skills were widely praised, Shen Juan dedicated a new masterpiece in his acting career! ]

During the break in filming after returning to the Xiamen crew, Shen Juan took some time to read various news about the movie on his mobile phone.

Most of them are praises.

The audiences who have watched the movie obviously recognized the acting skills shown by Shen Juan, Zhou Qiuyu and Zhou Ye in the movie.

The netizens who had previously questioned Shen Juan's nomination for the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor are now all silent.

Of course, there is also a lot of controversy about the original author Jiu Yuexi's plagiarism. Many netizens don’t understand why Zeng Guoxiang insisted on adapting this novel. If he is so capable, couldn’t he just write a new script?
Even under the guidance of black fans, the fire spread to Shen Juan, causing him to suffer a lot of doubts and accusations.

Shen Juan had no intention of evading this.

I don't have double standards.

Since you chose to reap the benefits in the first place, you have to bear the subsequent controversies and negative trends.

There are gains and there are losses.

Being scolded is no big deal.

He is not that precious.

Then, Shen Juan clicked on various forums and social platforms to see how the movie’s word-of-mouth developed on the first day of its release, as well as the hot searches on Weibo and the topics that the public was discussing.

Just as expected.

On major platforms and video sites, various news posts related to "Better Days" are dominating the screen and constantly attracting new netizens to participate in the discussion.

While gradually increasing the popularity of the film itself on the Internet, it also greatly stimulated and increased the general public's enthusiasm for watching movies, which was of great benefit to the growth of box office.

Shen Juan took a quick look and found that many people were sharing their experiences of being bullied or fighting against bullies.

The number of replies to these comments is often very high, and it is obvious that netizens are very happy to have an in-depth discussion on this topic.

[Children with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities are most likely to suffer from school violence. In fact, when I was a child, I also bullied classmates with intellectual disabilities. At that time, I thought it was nothing and just thought it was fun to bully idiots with friends. Now I think it is really disgusting and shameful.]

[In my hometown, there was a 12-year-old kid whose skull was smashed with a shovel by a group of his peers and whose body was buried in the ground.]

[The problem of school bullying is getting more and more serious now, and it really needs to be focused on. Support "Better Days"! Support Shen Juan for bringing this social issue into the public eye! ]

[It's true that although we live in the same world, what we see and hear seems to be in different worlds. I just hope that when you encounter injustice, you can stand up and resist, instead of claiming to be mature and rational, pretending to be "carefree and indifferent", but in fact secretly wiping tears and pretending not to care. ]

[It is both funny and ironic that the heroine of this movie also tried to bully others in the workplace and asked the whole team to cut their hair with her, but was stopped by the hero. ]

[Does this mean Shen Juan is a staunch anti-bully? Hahaha, then I think it's time to overturn Sister Tian's case. If she was really a school bully, Shen Juan would not date her. My Juan is an upright boy! ]

[To thank Huang Ya for clearing her name, Sister Tian said, "You know, Huang Ya is a good person. This guy is a natural movie queen! I will never eat duck meat again in my life!"

Whether it is the discussion in the front focusing on school bullying and self-reflection, or the various discussions about the actor himself in the back, these are the developments that Shen Juan wants to see.

The former can help further increase the popularity of "school bullying" and allow "Better Days" to gain more attention.

The latter would allow Shen Juan to step on Zhou Qiuyu's corpse and establish a good image of an upright person in front of the public.

In fact, it is similar to the marketing plan during the release of "Gone Girl" and "All or Nothing", in which the distribution company invested a lot of money in Southeast Asian news on major platforms across the Internet.

The distributor of "Better Days" has also recently invested a lot of money in news related to school bullying, digging up many old accounts to stimulate the public's interest in this social current event, thereby creating more traffic and topics, and calling on parents to take their children to the cinema for education.

Although there is no obvious box office gain for the time being because today is Thursday, but judging from the online feedback, "Better Days" has already gained momentum this summer.

So when things developed to this point, Shen Juan knew that the subsequent box office performance of this movie would definitely not be bad.

After all, when a movie becomes a social hot spot, all you have to do is wait for the box office to continue to increase.

Otherwise, nothing needs to be done.

On June 6, Shen Juan took leave from the crew again and went to Wandao to attend this year's Golden Melody Awards ceremony.

In the VIP lounge of Takasaki Airport, I used my mobile phone to check the box office performance of "Better Days" two days before its release.

On Thursday, the 27th, the single-day box office was 3.04 million.

On Friday, the 28th, the single-day box office was 2.42 million.

The cumulative box office plus remaining pre-sales have exceeded 6 million yuan, and Maoyan predicts that the box office will remain in the range of 28 billion to 29 billion yuan.

2019 is now halfway through, and there are only two movies with box office revenue exceeding 30 billion yuan: "The Wandering Earth" and "Avengers 4". Considering that only the National Day movies in the second half of the year have some strength, the public generally believes that "Better Days" has a chance to hit the annual TOP5.

The box office figures for Saturday the 29th have not yet been released, but the screening schedule has been raised to 45%, firmly surpassing Spider-Man in the same period.

甚至如果不是昨天上映取得1.8亿首日票房（原时空是53排片拿下2.2亿）的漫威大片《蜘蛛侠：英雄远征》强行分走了35%的排片，《少年的你》上映第三天的排片怕是能干到60%，实现垄断通杀。

However, 45% of the screenings are already impressive enough.

After all, Shen Juan and the publisher have jointly stimulated public attention and discussion on school bullying.

This not only gave Shen Juan a truly representative role in his career (An Elephant Sitting Still was not officially released, and A River of Sorrow was so bad that even fans only praised its box office results), but also allowed the domestic entertainment industry to witness for the first time the power of artificially creating social hot spots for film marketing.

Others generate social topics when their movies become popular, but here we create social topics first and then drive the movie to become popular.

Before this, they had never imagined that they could attract audiences to the cinema in this way.

Of course, it may not be possible.

After all, there is only one actor like Shen Juan.

How else can anyone bring social issues to the public eye through his popularity and influence like he does?

To the extent that during this period, many film and television companies, in order to chase the cash cow, dug out scripts suitable for Shen Juan from their own script libraries and sent them to him, seeking to cooperate with him next year. Many of these scripts were even completely new stuff that Shen Juan had never even heard of in his previous life.

I don’t know how long these scripts have been lying around because they can’t find suitable young actors in the industry.
However, if Shen Juan were allowed to choose the script himself, he would definitely not choose these new scripts with "uncertain future".

After all, making a movie is different from making a song.

When producing songs, he can control the direction by himself and ensure that the songs are produced in the direction and with the effect he wants.

But making a movie is different.

Due to the large number of positions, long production cycles, limited say among actors, and too much uncertainty, it is possible that a good script and a good team can make a bad movie.

As an artist whose main job is a singer, Shen Juan feels that it is better for him to be more conservative in the film and television industry.

Anyway, he felt that adapting film and television scripts from Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia was more reliable than challenging scripts that he had never heard of.

"You really can't watch any of them?"

Yang Yangjin folded and sorted all the scripts that Shen Juan had read, and then put them into the briefcase she carried with her.

"In fact, I've read a few of the scripts and they're pretty good. The production company is pretty strong, so the cast shouldn't be bad."

"You also said that it should be. Before things are finalized, any unexpected situation may happen."

"Then why did you go against everyone's opinion and choose Guo Jingming's "Sadness Is Like a River" last year?" Yang Yangjin asked with a smile.

Shen Juan rolled his eyes speechlessly. "We had no choice but to accept "A River of Sadness" last year. At that time, the film industry was gradually disenchanting with traffic, and Le Hua didn't have any useful film resources, so we could only accept Guo Jingming's bad movies to prove our commercial value. But now that we have developed and have ample room for choice, I think we still have to be more cautious in choosing scripts. One work is enough to consume the enthusiasm of fans and the trust of the audience."

"And compared to taking on external productions from other companies, I prefer to organize my own productions and continue to shoot internal productions, and be in control of the crew."

"For example, my mother's ancestral home is in Chaoshan, and the whole movie pays tribute to the culture of her hometown, making her and her grandmother happy."

"This whole fantasy romance drama calls on all sectors of society to give more support and care to Alzheimer's patients"

"Like Yue Lao, the two female protagonists reincarnate and restart their lives again and again to open up the Earth Online"

"Then some time ago, Xiao Xiao and I watched the latest American romance film "Five Feet Apart". If you don't want to create something original, you can just buy the foreign copyright and remake it. Anyway, most of Happy Twist's films are remakes with Chinese subtitles. As long as the adaptation is good and the filming is good, the box office will still be high."

"There are so many things that can be filmed, and there is freedom in creation. Of course, I am just talking casually, and I can't take it seriously."

"So many of these are just casual remarks?"

Yangyang Jin always felt that there were things in Shen Juan's mind that were difficult for ordinary people to understand, but as a tool-type agent who was ridiculed by fans as "high-paid but low-skilled", she should just do her job honestly. Anyway, she had no qualifications or power to ask Shen Juan to do this or that.

“Shred coconut!”

"Then you really have plenty of inspiration. No wonder you can write so many songs in two years. You are as productive as a sow."

“Productivity is also one of my winning strategies!”

During the conversation, Yangyangjin suddenly remembered something and tried to get Shen Juan to answer her questions. "Wait, you just said that you like to shoot domestic dramas, right? Then why did you make a verbal promise to star in Han Yan's new movie yesterday? Do you really plan to take it, or are you just being polite?" "It depends! If the complete script and the assembled cast can satisfy me, then it's not impossible to take it. Anyway, the shooting period won't be too long, and I will have plenty of time to stay in China next year. I'll just take it as an opportunity to deepen our friendship and build my own network of contacts."

Apart from second-generation directors like Teng Huatao who like to pass on the blame, Shen Juan still has great respect and admiration for the profession of directing.

After all, movie directors are not as cheap as those TV drama directors who have no dignity at all in the face of traffic.

Therefore, every film director who is capable and has no major moral problems is worth making friends with and taking seriously.

To put it bluntly, actors are just pawns, and the behind-the-scenes personnel such as directors and screenwriters are the key to the future rise of Chinese films.

Moreover, Shen Juan has already made plans for next year. After the full outbreak of friendship, the entertainment industry will be able to resume work in March.

When the time comes, I will start shooting directly without wasting any time, and try to shoot more dramas and put them into my own waiting library.

In this way, 2021 is likely to be the year for a new round of global hits with albums, film and television dramas all flying off the shelves!
"The complete version of the script? Does that mean he has already shown you the first draft of the script?" Yang Yangjin discovered the highlight.

"I've finished reading it. There's not much content."

"What's the subject? What's the story?"

"His main job is fighting cancer."

"After you've dealt with school bullying, you want to fight cancer now?"

"Is it not possible? Is it a bad thing to use movies to draw public attention to school bullying and cancer patients?"

Yangyang Jin shook her head. "I just think that in the current market environment where patriotic themes and comedies are the mainstream, your film may have a relatively limited audience and may not be so popular. Whether it is the box office ceiling or the chassis, it is inherently weaker than others, and it is at a disadvantage in terms of performance."

"It's right to be not so likable. I want to be unique and special, so that I can deepen the impression of the role and strengthen my identity as an actor. And just because others shoot mainstream films doesn't mean I have to do it too. The current film market is too lacking in the variety of themes, and I don't like to be the same as them."

"As for the box office performance? Just enough is enough. Human energy is limited. It is difficult to achieve perfection in two areas."

"A genius like you can also make such an exclamation?" Yang Yangjin asked in a somewhat strange tone.

"No matter how talented you are, you are still a human being after all. What's more, I am just an ordinary person with good luck." Shen Juan shrugged.

"Does being lucky mean being liked by so many girls at the same time?" Yangyangjin asked somewhat unhappily.

Smelling the vinegar in the air, Shen Juan first smiled and shook his head, then replied in a gentle voice: "It is my luck to meet an agent like you."

Just at this moment, the assistant came running over, "Boss, Sister Yangyang, get ready to board the plane!"

"Well, here we come."

Yang Yangjin, who was once again confused by Shen Juan's teasing, stood up in a panic and was liberated.

Taipei Arena.

This year's Avenue of Stars starts at 5pm.

More than eighty groups of singers and artists walked onto the star-studded red carpet one after another, making their official debut at this year's Golden Melody Awards.

The cheers and screams from fans at the scene were heard one after another, and the majority of them were fans holding up Shen Juan’s support items.

So when the time came to around half past six, the most exciting and screaming moment finally arrived.

This year's red carpet finale guests arrived at the scene.

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!!!!"

"Shen Juan!! Brother Juan!! Alex!!"

It is obvious that his popularity in Wandao is no less than that in mainland China, and because he seldom comes to Wandao to attend events, Wanwan fans' desire to chase stars is even stronger than that of mainland fans at this stage. They shout Shen Juan's name at the top of their lungs, and all of them are excited to the point of blushing.

Of course, it could also be because of the heat.

After all, the perceived temperature in Taipei today is as high as 35 degrees Celsius, and with so many headlights and awnings, the Star Boulevard scene is almost no different from a sauna. Anyway, the on-site staff conservatively estimated that the perceived temperature is at least 40 degrees Celsius.

People are almost steamed.
So after getting off the car, Shen Juan, who treated his fans as human beings, trotted directly to the fan group holding the "Alex Club TW" support banner, interacted with them briefly, and expressed his care and gratitude to them, which immediately triggered even more explosive screams.

Other fans couldn't help but feel envious and jealous when they saw this scene.

After all, their idols just walked past them when they were walking on the red carpet, and some didn’t even look at them.

The contrast between before and after is so great that one can’t help but sigh: Celebrities who respect and pamper their fans deserve to have so many fans!
It’s a pity that the organizers of the Golden Melody Awards took Shen Juan’s exaggerated popularity into consideration and feared safety accidents, so they added many security personnel on the red carpet.

Then a buffer zone of about two or three meters was set up between the red carpet and the fan area.

Otherwise, Shen Juan could have taken a group photo with them, creating the famous scene of "As I Run Towards You" which is a special edition of Wandao.

During the days when he was not coming to Wan Island for activities, his activities continued to enhance their cohesion.

Of course, while the red carpet host secretly sighed in his heart about Shen Juan's explosive popularity, he also did not forget to introduce this contemporary pop superstar to the fans who were watching on TV and online live broadcast: "Oh my God! Is it really him? Is the person walking on the red carpet now really the pride of all of Asia?"

"Yes, let's welcome our Alex with the most enthusiastic and crazy screams so far, Shen Juan!!"

"Ah ah ah ah ah!!!"

"As a new-age pop king who has created a global pop storm in the past two years and has won the support and love of countless fans, Shen Juan was nominated for the Golden Melody Awards for the first time this year with his Mandarin album "Weisha". He received 11 nominations including Golden Melody King, Album of the Year and Song of the Year. He also broke the record of ten nominations in the same year previously held by Jay Chou, A-Mei Zhang and Jolin Tsai. He is expected to become the biggest winner of this year's Golden Melody Awards."

Amid the fans' enthusiastic and exaggerated screams, Shen Juan finally walked up all the stairs and arrived at the interview area.

The male host Dennis started to ask questions first: "This should be your second time to Wandao, Shen Juan, and your first time to attend the Golden Melody Awards, right? How do you feel? What is different from the last time?"

Shen Juan smiled as he looked at the microphone that was passed to him, and replied, "Because the last time I came to Wandao was in winter, and now it's summer, so it feels quite hot. Both the fans and the weather are very enthusiastic. I hope everyone will leave soon after watching the red carpet, and don't get heatstroke."

"Wow! Shen Juan, you are really warm!"

“I’m just sharing the warmth that my fans have given me.”

"So have you ever considered coming to Wandao more often to meet your fans here in the future? Or have you ever considered holding a concert in Wandao? Because we all know that Shen Juan, your Leviathan World Tour will start in the mainland next month. Many fans here in Wandao have said that they have already bought tickets and are ready to go to the mainland to meet you. If you can meet your fans in Wandao in the future, it should be much easier for everyone."

"I have actually thought about this question. I have always been very grateful to the fans of Wandao for their support. So if nothing unexpected happens, I plan to hold a concert here next spring. After all, I have always had a special feeling for this land of Wandao, and I hope to come here more often in the future."

In fact, Shen Juan had never thought about coming to Wan Island.

Because his goal from the beginning to the end was to force this group of Taiwanese fans with limited knowledge to go to the mainland.

Then, during the tour, they witnessed the earth-shaking changes on this side of the sea and refreshed their inherent cognition.

So just draw the pie in the sky and be done with it.

Anyway, when the time comes, all the original plans will be interrupted when the sense of righteousness comes into play.

This is an excuse that's right at your doorstep, so why not use it?

"Really? Then your fans will be very happy, and we will welcome you very much! We look forward to seeing you!"

After the male host finished the interview, it was the turn of the female host Mary next to him to ask questions:
"Shen Juan, you have been nominated for eleven awards this year, breaking the Golden Melody Awards record previously held by Jay Chou, Jolin Tsai, and A-Mei Chang. It can be said that you have received almost all the nominations that can be received. So how do you feel now? Do you feel the pleasure of breaking the record?"

"I feel a little bit of pleasure, and I am of course very happy and excited to be named together with these three great predecessors, but I won't say that my achievements and accomplishments in the Chinese music scene have surpassed them, because I am still young and don't have as long a career as them."

Although there were some unpleasantness due to the tour guests and their status in the music industry, Shen Juan still respects these music predecessors who have accompanied countless post-90s people growing up with their singing. After all, positions determine hostile relationships, but the achievements they left in the music industry are objective existences and can never be erased.

Competing with each other does not mean hating each other.

"But being young also means that there are infinite possibilities in the future. I look forward to you bringing us more excellent works in the future."

"Thank you."

"So how many trophies are you planning on taking home tonight?"

"If I could, I would definitely like to take eleven trophies back, but I don't have the final say, so I'll just leave it to the judges." Shen Juan shrugged. "After all, as you know, I didn't win any of the major music awards in the United States last year. I've long been accustomed to the taste of failure."

"But you succeeded this year! I mean you won the Best New Artist award at the Billboard Music Awards in May."

"Then do you think I can win the Golden Melody Award for Best Newcomer today?" Shen Juan turned his head and looked at the female host next to him.

Looking at Shen Juan's impeccably handsome face, the female host gave an answer that might easily offend people in front of the live camera without even thinking:

"If I were the judge, I would definitely give it to you!"

No wonder so many girls like him, his face is really handsome!
If Shen Juan was born in Taiwan, a country with open-minded views, he would have had more than ten romantic experiences in high school.

"Too bad you're not."

"Yeah, but unfortunately I'm not."

Shen Juan smiled and said, "But I still want to thank you. I have received your blessing. I hope I can gain something tonight."

Amid the thanks and blessings from the two hosts, Shen Juan walked down the red carpet and followed the staff to the backstage.

(Because the organizers decided to let Shen Juan walk the red carpet last, Jolin took the initiative to post a blog to save face and said that she would not walk the red carpet this year)

(End of this chapter)