Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 619 What is meant by "top-tier"?

The filming of "The Butterfly Lovers" lasted two and a half months, and one question lingered in Liu Yifei's mind without being answered.

Why did Li Qiutang want to make such a movie?
Commercial films are essentially jobs taken on to make money at the box office.

But the motivation for making art films is not like that; when making art films, the director must have something to think about and express.

This makes the film *The Butterfly Lovers* seem rather strange. Liu Yifei herself believes that she and Li Qiutang have been together for over seven years, their relationship is stable, and they get along very well. Li Qiutang has absolutely no reason to film a story like *The Butterfly Lovers* based on his own experience.

Based on Liu Yifei's understanding of Li Qiutang's family, her parents-in-law had lived together their whole lives. Of course, they had quarreled, but perhaps the few years when her mother-in-law was forced to be laid off from the factory in the 90s were a bit difficult. But nothing major happened that would make Li Qiutang think of a story like "The Butterfly Lovers," so it wouldn't shake Li Qiutang's distrust of marriage and family.

Yes, as Liu Yifei has filmed this far, she has also gleaned another deeper meaning from the script—the author's distrust of intimate relationships.

Although Li Qiutang had told Liu Yifei long ago that he wanted to express the natural barriers to communication and understanding between people in "The Butterfly Lovers", he would use a Rashomon structure.

But Liu Yifei now has her own understanding beyond that meaning.

However, Liu Yifei couldn't directly ask Li Qiutang about this issue.

Liu Yifei thus came to believe that everyone, especially artists, has some thoughts that belong only to themselves, so private that even their closest lovers cannot pry into them.

Liu Yifei didn't really want to know the details. Why would she need to know so much? The most important thing was that this person was still by her side.

The film market's performance during the just-concluded Spring Festival holiday can be described as lackluster.

"Buddies in India" was guaranteed 8 million yuan by Yanjing Culture, but it now seems that completing it will be quite difficult. Logically speaking, since the film was guaranteed by Yanjing Culture, it has nothing to do with Qiutian Pictures. However, many viewers still blame Qiutian for the failure of "Buddies in India," believing that Qiutian did not fulfill its supervisory responsibilities during the film's creation stage, allowing Wang Baoqiang to make such a film.

Some investors even asked Qiutian on the trading platform: "The box office of 'Buddies in India' has collapsed. The company has had a bad start to the year. It seems that the company only arranged one movie to be released in the first quarter. Does the company have any other measures to prevent a sharp decline in the first quarter's performance?"

This concern is somewhat premature. However, the secretary of the board of directors of Autumn Pictures patiently answered the question: "Thank you for your attention to the company. As an important film company in China, Autumn Pictures will formulate targeted release plans for each invested film. The company still has a lot of films to be released this year... Thank you for your support and attention to the company."

But actually, it was Yanjing Culture that lost money on "Buddies in India," while the company made money in the fall!
"Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back" has grossed 15 billion yuan at the box office so far, leading the Spring Festival film season. However, industry insiders and ordinary viewers know that this is where the film's run ends.

The reputation of "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back" has been ruined.

The best-received film is still "Duckweed," which was a huge hit, grossing over 7 million yuan. "Kung Fu Yoga" grossed 13 billion yuan.

Indeed, everyone made a lot of money.

But what the market is calling for is a blockbuster that can ignite a nationwide movie-going frenzy, a film that grosses 20 billion or even 30 billion yuan, which would be in line with the scale and resource allocation of the Spring Festival film season.

However, not this year.

The film market may not have it, but the television drama market does!

January belongs to Jiaxing!
At the beginning of the month, "Pretty Li Huizhen," starring Dilraba Dilmurat, premiered on Hunan TV. Its ratings immediately ranked second in its time slot, and after two days, it remained firmly in first place.

Li Huizhen's character was so perfect that Dilraba became a huge star!
The TV series "Eternal Love" will be broadcast at the end of the month.

What is a ratings queen? What is a traffic queen? What is a top star?

Yang Mi has become incredibly popular again! And more popular than all her previous dramas combined!

How many hit dramas has Yang Mi starred in?
"Chinese Paladin 3", "Palace", "Swords of Legends", "Eternal Love" - ​​all are ancient costume dramas! Actually, "The Interpreter" which aired last year also had good ratings, with an average rating of over 2, but modern dramas are still not as popular as ancient costume dramas.

Therefore, the first task after the New Year in the fall was to evaluate Jiaxing's performance.

The main controller of "Eternal Love" is Huace Media, with Jiaxing Media investing 25%. This is something Qiu Tian knows, but the sales figures for the TV series are company secrets, so Qiu Tian really has no way of knowing and can only wait for Huace Media to release its financial report.

However, the sales revenue from this drama will definitely be included in the 2016 revenue, so Qiu Tian felt that Jiaxing should be about to fulfill its bet with itself.

The idea of ​​leaving in the fall doesn't mean abandoning Jiaxing; it means cashing out a portion of the assets.

It's been three years, by now we should be seeing some return on our investment.

Yang Mi is indeed a very good investment target. Now, Dilraba has become a hot commodity, and I hope to continue making money from Jiaxing Media in the fall.

With the performance-based agreement no longer in effect, the investment cooperation between the two parties is likely to become more harmonious.

Meanwhile, seeing the great success of "Eternal Love," Yang Mi breathed a sigh of relief. With the show's huge success, she should be able to fulfill her bet soon.

She is not unaware that her frantic acceptance of roles over the past two years has damaged her reputation.

But she had no choice; that was all she could do.

Of course, if she had to choose again, she would still sign that performance-based contract. She doesn't regret her initial choice or everything she's done over the past two years.

She still believes that maintaining exposure and traffic is the most important thing.

Liu Yifei films one movie a year, takes a six-month break after filming, and refuses to appear on reality shows—this approach doesn't suit her.

With the performance-based agreement largely finalized, Yang Mi began to have other ideas.

I had no choice before, I had to fight. I know you all criticize my acting skills.

But now I'll be able to complete my bet soon, and I need to salvage my reputation and prove my acting skills.

Yang Mi is currently filming "The Negotiator," but her eyes are already on a movie called "Baby." The female lead is a disabled girl who works as a cleaner in a hospital. She helps disabled babies who share her plight.

This story is very compelling, and the actors have a lot of room to perform, which will definitely allow them to prove their acting skills.

Director Liu Jie is also a renowned director of art films in China, so working with him is definitely a good choice.

The script was given to Yang Mi a long time ago, but at that time Yang Mi was under too much pressure to meet her performance targets and did not want to take it. Now that the pressure is gone, Yang Mi notified the company and accepted the role.

Actually, Yang Mi's first thought was to get some resources from Qiutian Pictures. She thought, "I've helped you meet your targets, so asking for a film wouldn't be unreasonable, right?" But after some inquiries, she found that the projects Qiutian was going to start filming this year, or those that were already in the planning stages, either already had their actors confirmed, like "Sewing Machine Band," where Da Peng had already cast Gulnazar, and besides, Yang Mi wasn't a good fit for Ding Jianguo; or the directors had established teams and crews, and Yang Mi simply couldn't get involved.

But after some inquiries, Yang Mi actually found out about a romantic comedy called "How Long Will I Love U," which is scheduled to start filming in the second half of the year and whose female lead has not yet been confirmed. It's directed by a newcomer, Xue Xiaolu, and is a project supported by the "Sky Tree Project" this year.

This project looks promising. After filming "Baby," we can try to negotiate with the higher-ups at Autumn Pictures.

(End of this chapter)