Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 649 has exploded! It's exploded!
The reason is both laughable and pathetic: the company responsible for the spacesuits and space capsules in "Crazy Alien" went bankrupt midway through production due to mismanagement! They couldn't find anyone to take over the final stages of the prop work anytime soon!

The crew of "The Wandering Earth" actually believed that!

Domestic companies doing this kind of work are indeed struggling. The visual effects company responsible for designing military vehicles, engineering vehicles, and other vehicles for the "Wandering Earth" production team is a German-owned company called Pixomondo. The Chinese branch of this company is now barely hanging on, and the "Wandering Earth" production team is doing everything they can to keep it afloat. Even Autumn Pictures is seeking financing for this company.

Helping those in distress and providing assistance in times of emergency is a good thing, and as long as it's within the capabilities of our production team, there's nothing we can't agree to.

Li Qiutang readily agreed, saying that Ning Hao's production team should negotiate with her own production team.

"Thank you so much, you've been a huge help to our crew."

"Oh, it's nothing, just remember to pay it back," Li Qiutang said with a smile.

"I'll definitely return it to you exactly as it was when I'm done using it." Ning Hao was genuinely worried that Li Qiutang wouldn't lend it to him before he came.

Ning Hao borrowed more than just two spacesuits and a space capsule; he also had to take the prop maintenance team with him. The "Wandering Earth" crew also had to let him take them with him.

Since we're all filming in the same park, it's not too much of a hassle.

It will only delay the filming of "Crazy Alien" for a while, since the spacecraft for "The Wandering Earth" is not yet fully built.

"That's not a problem, we can wait. We'll film other scenes first." As long as we can borrow the items, that's fine.

Having agreed to borrow props and with Ning Hao's makeup done, the two directors went on set to film.

Ning Hao is ready inside the skewers shop, waiting for the director's instructions.

Li Qiutang's voice came through the intercom: "Come and see the style of our Shanxi Province's veteran artists."

Ning Hao didn't have a walkie-talkie, otherwise he would definitely have called back.

"Okay, ready, 3-2-1, go."

Li Qiutang looked at Ning Hao on the monitor and laughed at the staff around her, "He really looks like a kebab vendor when he's dressed up like this."

The staff member said, "You just want to say that Director Ning is not good-looking."

"I didn't say that," Li Qiutang quickly denied. "I meant he looks good."

Ning Hao makes a cameo appearance in three scenes. One is before the crisis breaks out, when he orders food for the siblings at a skewer shop. He has two lines in this scene. In the second scene, when the crisis breaks out, his skewer shop is destroyed and there is no chance of survival. He stands alone in the ruins drinking. In the third scene, after the crisis, Liu Qi returns to the underground city and passes by the skewer shop. Ning Hao waves to Liu Qi through the glass and greets him without any lines.

His acting is that simple.

Filming was underway when Lei Jiayin arrived. He also had a cameo role in "The Wandering Earth," playing the top boss of the underground black market. After filming Ning Hao's scenes, they filmed his.

“I’ve been playing various roles lately. After playing your role, I have to play a policeman for him.” Lei Jiayin pointed at Ning Hao on the monitor.

“That means you’re popular,” Li Qiutang said.

"Not bad, not bad." He was so happy his face was full of wrinkles.

"You like listening to this?"

"Not bad, hehe."

"This is ridiculous." Li Qiutang laughed and cursed, then turned around and stopped Ning Hao, demanding another take.

…………

Nobody expected "The Founding of an Army" to flop!

With only 3600 million viewers on its opening day, it's completely unworthy of the scale of "The Founding of an Army".

Even more critically, "The Founding of an Army" has the lowest reputation among the three films in the series.

After the film's opening day, the director was heavily criticized by netizens for his lack of historical knowledge and patriotism. They accused him of turning such a momentous historical event as the founding of the army into a gangster brawl and portraying the founding fathers as street thugs. "To survive in this world, you need three things: ruthlessness, loyalty, and plenty of brothers!"

A group of young, handsome actors were also criticized for having overly glamorous images and subpar acting skills.

Even putting all that aside, the movie's story is a mess, even riddled with plot holes.

Not to mention the incredibly stupid pre-release marketing for "The Founding of an Army"!
"This is a patriotic film? This is practically the Chinese version of Marvel!!!"

"Captain China Ye*! Wolverine Su*! The Avengers assemble in Hongdu!"

"A hot-blooded shonen manga!"

"My first time experiencing the Ten Marshals firsthand, they are truly handsome~~~~~~~~~~~!"

These words were all written openly on the movie's promotional posters.

Tell me, which Chinese person could stand this?

Others may not know, but at least the marketing and distribution team for "Wolf Warrior 2" was stunned when they saw the poster for "The Founding of an Army".

All three films with "The Founding of an Army" in their titles use commercial packaging to promote the main theme, and their marketing closely follows the market, which is understandable. But are these kinds of rhetoric really suitable for a film like "The Founding of an Army"?

In contrast, the marketing and distribution of "Wolf Warrior 2" proceeded very steadily, not seeking anything particularly outstanding, but rather avoiding mistakes and being caught out.

The movie premiered at 8:01 a.m. and grossed 9741 million yuan in the first four hours. With the advance screenings, the total box office for the first day reached 1.02 million yuan.

Breaking 100 million on the first day is not bad, but not particularly good.

But this is also the second film to gross over 100 million yuan on its opening day since the start of the summer movie season.

It's worth noting that this 1.02 million yuan was earned by "Wolf Warrior 2" with an extremely low screening rate of only 14.4%—it wasn't that the distribution team in the fall was incompetent, but rather that the theaters simply didn't believe "Wolf Warrior 2" could be a box office hit.

Wolf Warrior 2 relied on its phenomenal opening day attendance of an average of 78 people per screening.

Theater managers are the most pragmatic group of people in the entire film industry. A 14.4% share of screenings yielding 1 million yuan in box office revenue, with an average attendance of 78 per screening, means something no one understands better than them.

As a result, the next day, the number of screenings for "Wolf Warrior 2" soared to 41.9%.

Wolf Warrior 2 lived up to expectations, earning 2.14 million yuan in a single day and averaging 53.9 yuan per screening.

In less than 30 hours after its release, the total box office exceeded 3 million yuan.

On Saturday, the number of screenings increased again to 46.1%, and "Wolf Warrior 2" earned 3.1 million yuan in box office revenue in a single day.

On Sunday, it rose another level to 3.59 million!
9.96 million in the first weekend!
This is truly explosive!
Wu Jingren was just guessing. He was confident in "Wolf Warrior 2", but not to that extent. He estimated that if the second film could gross 8 million to 10 billion, he would have done justice to Autumn Pictures and Li Qiutang.

Unexpectedly, the goal was achieved in just four days during the first weekend.

Even more noteworthy is that "Wolf Warrior 2" surpassed Nolan's new film "Dunkirk" to become the world's highest-grossing film this weekend, with a box office of $1.27 million in its opening weekend!
Tickets for "Wolf Warrior 2" sold out like crazy, and so did the merchandise related to "Wolf Warrior 2"!

Fortunately, the team listened to Mr. Li's advice and placed orders with the factory a month in advance. They also put pressure on the cinemas and their partner stores to stock up on the goods—which they were initially unwilling to do.

Now that "Wolf Warrior 2" has become a huge hit, they can't even keep up with the demand!

The best-selling items are definitely small gadgets like T-shirts, hats, bullet pendants, and phone cases. Don't underestimate them; if you buy in bulk, the profits can be quite substantial!

The copyright director couldn't stop smiling. Just a few days ago, he was the one begging the partners to sign licensing agreements with him; now, the partners are begging him to grant them licenses.

He was very happy with his busy schedule.

"The director underestimated it. 1 million? If the revenue from 'Wolf Warrior 2' merchandise is less than 2 million, I'll quit. This year, our copyright department is giving out huge bonuses, making the producers and distributors green with envy."

(End of this chapter)