Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 525 Aunt Liu

Apart from the special media screening in the morning, Li Qiutang did not show the film to moviegoers at the premiere ceremony in the afternoon.

But as the premiere ended, the word-of-mouth from the morning's media screenings grew even stronger.

More than one reporter reported that their WeChat Moments were filled with posts about "Mojin: The Lost Legend" that day.

"It's miles ahead of 'Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe'."

"It's 10 times better than 'Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe' than 'The Lost Tomb'."

"Sympathize with Lu Chuan."

To reiterate, the "Mojin: The Lost Legend" production team did not review any of the articles. Reporters who saw the film in advance can publish whatever they want; it was all spontaneous.

Let's get back to the "Mojin: The Lost Legend" production team. The male lead of "Candle in the Tomb" is Hu Bayi, but everyone in the production team knows that the promotion of "Mojin: The Lost Legend" relies on the husband-and-wife team of Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei.

It's not that Liu Ye has no fans; the president of the club has quite a few fans, but compared to Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei, they pale in comparison.

Li Qiutang has now established himself as a director with considerable influence, attracting many moviegoers who come to see his films because of his reputation.

Needless to say, Liu Yifei is the most popular person in the whole group.

Liu Yifei's schedule is very tight. She only gave the production team one week for promotion, so the production team required her to visit all eight major film markets in the country within 7 days. It's not that her husband doesn't care about her, but this is the job that Liu Yifei has to do.

After the premiere in Yanjing, the film crew came to Shanghai to hold a press conference.

While the main creative team of the film crew did their best on the front lines of publicity, Autumn Pictures once again welcomed the China Film Group team from the rear.

China Film Group also wants to invest in "Pacific Rim 2".

This meeting was personally led by La Dong.

When China Film Group invested in "Seventh Son" last year (the film's failure caused a rift between Legendary and Universal), it signed a cooperation agreement with Legendary, stipulating that the two parties would invest in, develop, and produce multiple films over the next three years.

These agreements are practically worthless; countless such agreements are signed every day in the industry.

However, it must be said that it was this prior agreement that made today's talks possible.

According to the agreement between Fall and Legendary, Pacific Rim 2 will no longer be released in China as a co-production.

By investing in "Planet 2" in the fall, Legendary Pictures will enjoy distribution and attribution rights in China, as well as global revenue sharing—risk-sharing. Legendary Pictures doesn't want to play the buyout game again in the fall. The film studio is losing money in the global market, while you're making a killing in the Chinese market. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

In the fall, China Film Group had half of the shares in "Pacific Rim 2", and demanded $2000 million from the company, without any premium.

However, China Film Group has promised to provide assistance with the import and censorship of "Cybernetic Overture 2" when it is released in China, as well as to give the film preferential treatment in terms of distribution and screening.

If there's no premium, then there's no premium; this deal is still worthwhile.

However, in the fall, they hope China Film Group will subscribe to a larger portion, as 2000 million is too little.

“That’s quite a lot,” Director La said. “The group has too many expenses, and 2000 million was squeezed out of every possible means.”

After China Film Group took 2000 million yuan, Qiu Tian set his sights on his own shareholders.

Zhang Zhao wanted to get Penguin involved to take over another portion of the business.

But Penguin has no interest in a sequel like Pacific Rim 2, which was a box office failure for the first film.

Penguin is currently evaluating another of Legendary's films, Kong: Skull Island.

King Kong is Legendary's most valuable IP, making it a more worthwhile investment than Pacific Rim 2.

Warner Bros. was still the producer of "Kong: Skull Island," which shows how much Legendary and Universal are at odds. Universal actually tolerated Warner Bros. taking "Kong" away. Warner Bros. preferred "Kong: Skull Island" to "Ultraman 2," demonstrating how unpopular "Ultraman 2" was in Hollywood.

It's a pity that Tencent didn't invest, but there will be no shortage of buyers in the fall.

Companies like Huayi, Kimi, and Ali are all very wealthy; they're waving their cash around, just waiting for the autumn to come.

However, in the end, Qiu Tian chose Shanghai-based Kimi Pictures as the last partner. Kimi Pictures took home a $3000 million share, while Qiu Tian kept half of it. Qiu Tian promised China Film Group and Kimi Pictures that he would not sell it again, but required the funds from the two companies to arrive within half a month.

Autumn Pictures is in a critical quiet period before its IPO. After reaching cooperation agreements with the two companies, it is inconvenient to promote the film. At the same time, it has requested that China Film Group and Kimi Pictures not promote "Universe 2" to the outside world. If the cooperating companies promote major projects, it will be misunderstood as listed companies guiding investment.

It's not worth it for China Film Group and Kimi Media to do this. Everyone is extremely sensitive in the autumn. If they try to trip up the autumn now, they'll be offending the entire company to death.

Of course, normal movie promotion does not violate the principle of silence, but we still need to be extremely careful.

For example, the official Weibo account of "Mojin: The Lost Legend" announced that the pre-sale box office on the opening day reached 1.27 million yuan, which does not violate the principle of silence.

However, as the boss's wife, Liu Yifei cannot answer questions such as "How many shares of your company do you own?" during promotional events.

Li Qiutang would never answer such a pointless question as, "Have you thought about how you're going to spend this money in the future?"

Other celebrity shareholders were also given a gag order in the fall, forbidding them from discussing the stock before the company went public.

The day before the release of "Mojin: The Lost Legend", Liu Yifei and Li Qiutang came to Chongqing to do a promotional tour.

After the movie ended, the two went into the theater to interact with the audience.

They had a good chat, talking about filming and their married life, which the audience enjoyed listening to.

A female fan stood up with a microphone and said in the Chongqing dialect, "I grew up watching your TV dramas."

"Hahahaha!" The audience laughed.

Liu Yifei was still confused; she couldn't understand, so she turned to her husband, Li Qiutang, who translated for her.

Liu Yifei then smiled and said, "Call me Auntie quickly." She laughed as she said that.

After the joke was over, the fan asked a serious question: "I just want to know, when you were filming Director Li's movies, did you have a different feeling, a different feeling from other directors?"

Li Qiutang also looked at Liu Yifei, as he was also curious about the answer to this question.

Liu Yifei also turned her head to look at Li Qiutang, and all the female fans in the audience screamed again.

"what--"

Liu Yifei was startled: "I haven't said anything yet."

Then, in response to a fan's question, she said, "Filming my own husband's movies definitely gives me a different feeling. Sometimes it's really annoying. When I'm on set, I'm facing him, and when I'm off set, I'm still facing him. It's so frustrating."

"Hahahaha!" This answer was unexpected by the audience.

Liu Yifei continued, "Actually, when filming my own husband's scenes, I don't think about slacking off. On the contrary, I'm even more demanding of myself. After all, everyone is watching me, and I would lose face if I didn't do a good job."

Fans then asked a question that Liu Yifei hadn't expected: "Was it like this when filming 'In Time'?"

In Liu Yifei's Baidu Baike page, the "Personal Life" section clearly states that the two got together in 09 while filming "In Time".

Liu Yifei blushed and laughed, "Oh, I won't say anymore!"

Fans loved seeing Liu Yifei like this and burst into laughter and cheered.

(End of this chapter)