Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 590 Bet!
Since "The Invisible Guest" in 14, all of Huang Xiaoming's movies have flopped, and the past two years have indeed been a low point for him.

But this time when he came to see Li Qiutang, he really wasn't there to ask for a film contract.

According to rumors within the industry, filming for "The Butterfly Lovers" will begin no later than November, and the cast should already be finalized, so he couldn't get any roles even if he begged.

He just wanted to talk to someone after he had been pounced on so many times.

Li Qiutang had said what he wanted to say, and he was satisfied.

Yes, I'm the boss, I can do whatever I want.

"Nirvana in Fire 2" is a good project, why can't we take it on?

Having figured this out, Huang Xiaoming had nothing left to worry about.

After they finished their meal, they prepared to leave.

Both of them are people who like to pay the bill. The Northeasterner felt it was his duty to pay, while the Shandong native felt it was beneath him to let his friend pay. In the past, Li Qiutang usually paid the majority of their meals, but this time, instead of arguing with Huang Xiaoming, she offered to pay instead.

“You buy it. My family’s current financial situation doesn’t allow me to pay such an expensive meal.”

Huang Xiaoming asked casually, "What's wrong?"

“Yifei wanted to experience life and insisted on dragging me along. She strictly controls our family’s monthly living expenses and doesn’t let me spend any more money.”

Huang Xiaoming found it amusing and said, "Consider it supporting my wife's work." He readily paid the bill.

Li Qiutang added, "So for the past two months, I've been going around to different places to freeload meals, and I haven't spent a single penny." She said it quite frankly.

Huang Xiaoming said, "Yifei is just controlling your spending, not preventing you from spending a single penny. You're going a bit too far."

But Li Qiutang didn't care, said goodbye to Huang Xiaoming, and went home.

"Operation Mekong" didn't get off to a fast start, but it still managed to gross 1.65 million yuan in its opening weekend, trailing behind "I Belonged to You" (3.11 million yuan) and "L.O.R.D.: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties" (1.98 million yuan).

However, Mekong River received the best reviews during the entire release period.

Although critical acclaim doesn't always translate to box office success, Bernard and Autumn still believe that "Mekong" will be a hit.

The turning point came after the opening weekend, with "Operation Mekong" box office rising day by day, reaching 8500 million on the 5th and surpassing 9000 million on the 6th.

It became the only film in its release period to experience a box office decline.

Word-of-mouth marketing really worked.

By the end of the holiday, "Operation Mekong" had earned 5.31 million yuan in 7 days, with a total box office of 5.7 million yuan, firmly holding the top spot in the National Day box office.

Bernard has swept away the summer box office slump, shouting the arrogant slogan that "from now on, police and gangster films should aim at 'Mekong River,' and if they are not made as well as 'Mekong River,' they are not police and gangster films."

No one could have predicted this result. A crime thriller about war and drug enforcement actually topped the box office charts and looks set to continue raking in profits. This is something that has never happened before.

Fall won't steal Bernard's credit. Every company has its own pace. Fall won't blindly rush into crime films just because "Mekong" made money.

But Yu Dong dared to do it!
Yu Dong is truly daring to gamble. "Operation Mekong" has only grossed 5 million yuan so far, yet he dares to gamble on a patriotic blockbuster. He even approached Zhang Zhao in advance to collaborate with Qiu Tian on developing a patriotic commercial blockbuster.

You have to admit Yu Dong is good at making money; he has a really sharp eye and is incredibly daring.

However, Zhang Zhao is not very interested in such collaborations. He has his own release schedule in the fall. In terms of mainstream blockbusters, he has "Wolf Warrior 2" in the fall. He has already collaborated with Berna on the Yemen evacuation case. Even if there is to be further collaboration, it will have to wait until this case is completed.

In fact, Zhang Zhao knew exactly what Yu Dong was planning. One aspect was co-producing a film, and the other was to use Qiu Tian's influence to boost his own performance. Qiu Tian releases quite a few films every year. It doesn't have to be many. As long as Bona invests 10% or 20% in the back, and does a co-production and co-distribution, it can be said to be their own film, which will make the financial report look much better.

In fact, Qiu Tian wouldn't lose out by partnering with Berna. Berna owns the most cinemas owned by private film companies, and Berna is willing to share this resource with Qiu Tian.

Autumn has tied itself to many young directors, while Berna has tied itself to the Hong Kong film industry. Yu Dong has many Hong Kong directors under his wing, and these directors can also make a good living, no less than the young people from Autumn. Putting aside other things, the success of "Operation Mekong" did indeed rely on Lin Chaoxian's rich experience in police and action films; it's not certain that a mainland director could achieve the same level of success.

Bernard wants Autumn's resources, and Autumn wants Bernard's money.

Zhang Zhao then presented Yu Dong with "The Wandering Earth" and the animated film produced by Almond Films, inviting him to invest.

The main producers of "The Wandering Earth" are no longer being recruited, leaving only Autumn Film, China Film Group, and Wanda Film Group, but the more co-producers the better.

Almond Films is also working on two animated films, "Nezha" and "Jiang Ziya," which both require funding.

These two cases were not the first time they had been presented to Yu Dong, but Yu Dong had no interest in science fiction and animated films, and once again rejected Zhang Zhao.

Even though the deal fell through, the goodwill between the two parties remained. Yu Dong wanted to know what films would be released during the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival season this autumn.

There's no point in hiding it; it'll be announced in a few days anyway.

"The Saint of Love will be released in December, and the movie 'Buddies in India' will be released on the first day of the Lunar New Year."

"That movie directed by Bao Qiang, 'Lost in India'?"

"Yes, it's been renamed."

"Because of Xu Shanzheng?" The inside story of this matter is little known to the average viewer, but it has been widely circulated within the industry for some time.

"If he wants it, just give it to him. The price he offered is good too. It's business, after all."

But after that, Qiu Tian never paid any attention to Xu Shanzheng again.

In return, Yu Dong also revealed two of Bernard's films: "The Sword of the Three Young Masters" in December's Lunar New Year season and "Duckweed" starring Han Han on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

The two companies won't meet in December, either at the beginning or end of the month, but the first day of the Lunar New Year will be a clash of titans – both Bao Qiang and Han Han are favored by the outside world.

But as I said before, the market is big enough to accommodate it.

The day after Zhang Zhao finished talking with Yu Dong, Huayi Brothers released an announcement, declaring that Stephen Chow's film "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back" would be released on the first day of the Lunar New Year!

It seems they were forced to set the release date so early due to poor performance.

Along with the release date announcement, the film's main cast was also revealed.

Wu Yifan, Lin Gengxin, Yao Chen, Fei Xia, Bao Beier...

This lineup just doesn't look right.

"The powerful collaboration between Stephen Chow and Tsui Hark makes the audience unable to stop watching; while the cast of the fresh-faced version has a hint of bad movie."

"What kind of Journey to the West would it taste like if you put a director with a built-in Douban rating of +1 and an actor with a built-in -1?"

This awkwardness isn't something the audience imagined out of thin air; "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back" was destined to be awkward from the very beginning of its creation.

Stephen Chow had a falling out with Huayi Brothers over revenue sharing for "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons." While the IP for the new Journey to the West is indeed his, he would need Huayi Brothers' consent if he wanted to make sequels based on "Conquering the Demons."

So Zhou asked Ali to act as a mediator, since Ali and Ma Yun were shareholders of Huayi. Ali lived up to expectations and successfully mediated the dispute.

However, Stephen Chow was working on the post-production of "The Mermaid" at the time and didn't have time to direct "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back," so he outsourced the entire project to Tsui Hark.

It's fair to say that Huayi Brothers has been tricked by Stephen Chow once again. I authorized and invested in you so you could direct it yourself, and this is the trick you pull?

But there was nothing they could do; the project had already started, and Huayi had no choice but to grit their teeth and move forward.

However, judging from the current reaction to the release date announcement, "The Demons Strike Back" has caused a huge stir and generated a massive response!
Regardless of whether Stephen Chow directed or not, this is not a Stephen Chow film.
That should be fine!
With two top-tier directors and a group of top-notch young idols, this is bound to be a box office hit.
(End of this chapter)