Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 668 exploded!
Justice League was released in China on the 24th, a week after Pacific Rim 2. The failure to achieve a simultaneous release in China and the US has angered Warner Bros. and some Chinese moviegoers.

But when domestic moviegoers saw that the release date of the 17th was given to "Pacific Rim 2", they knew what was going on.

With investment from China Film Group and starring Liu Yifei, it's perfectly reasonable for "Pacific Rim 2" to receive some preferential treatment in terms of release schedule.

But "Manhunt" is going to be criticized. John Woo, who is over 70 years old, finally managed to raise HK$200 million to remake "Manhunt", but it ran into Warner Bros.' annual blockbuster "Justice League". You can imagine what the outcome will be.

If "Manhunt" flops again, no one in China will probably invest in John Woo anymore.

But they kept their dissatisfaction and grievances to themselves. They didn't want to release it on the 24th; they could simply reschedule it for the December Lunar New Year season, and no one would stop them.

Anyway, with the Spring Festival film season booming, there are plenty of slots available for the December New Year's film season. If the company is confident, it can definitely give it a try during the New Year's film season.

But Media Asia didn't seem very confident; the producer of "Manhunt" didn't say much except for a couple of complaints.

Liu Yifei left home at 9 a.m. the next day, taking Toro and his group to Shanghai by Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed ​​Railway.

Liu Yifei prefers taking the high-speed rail to flying.

It's almost as fast as an airplane, and even more convenient.

Toro and his entourage were amazed by China's high-speed rail and the speed of China's development, exclaiming "Awesome!"

Later that day, Li Qiutang also took the high-speed train from Yanjing to Qingdao.

After two days of testing and trial shooting in Qingdao, the "Wandering Earth" crew announced the resumption of filming at 3:12 pm on the 17th.

Perhaps it was the combined efforts of autumn and China Film Group that paid off. After the "Pacific Rim 2" crew finished their originally scheduled two-day trip to China, the others went to the next country for promotion, while the female lead, Liu Yifei, stayed in China alone to continue promoting the film on behalf of the crew.

This seems to be the first time Liu Yifei has ever promoted a movie all by herself since she started working. Her team didn't make things difficult for her, only asking her to visit the major box office markets.

After all, there is no precedent for Hollywood films to have large-scale roadshows in the country.

On the 17th, Liu Yifei was in Chengdu.

She said she had been to Chengdu several times, and that Chengdu was a stop on almost every movie promotion.

“Sometimes even when I don’t have a schedule, I will still ask to come to Chengdu. Because the audience in Chengdu is very enthusiastic, and the hot pot in Chengdu is delicious.”

This is no mere politeness; she has indeed visited Chengdu many times and can even name some of the best hot pot restaurants for the audience as if they were her own.

On the 18th, Liu Yifei arrived in Chongqing, where her assistant informed her of the film's opening day results.

With a domestic opening day gross of 130 million yuan, surpassing "Thor: Ragnarok" and marking the highest opening day performance since November, it is double the opening day gross of its predecessor in China. This fully demonstrates the rapid development of the domestic market and how much Liu Yifei can carry the box office in China—the latter part is a fan's perspective, as such blockbusters can actually weaken an actor's appeal—but this achievement is definitely attributed to Liu Yifei.

The competition on the opening day in North America was fierce, with four new films opening on a large scale yesterday: Justice League, Pacific Rim 2, Wonder, and Christmas Star.

Warner Bros. vs. Universal vs. Lionsgate vs. Sony: A massive free-for-all between the big names.

Justice League led the pack with 4051 theaters opening, but due to word-of-mouth from advance screenings and limited pre-release publicity, the film only grossed $38.8 million on its opening day, failing to meet its target of breaking $100 million on its first day.

Pacific Rim 2 ranked second with 3550 theaters open, which is understandable, as Pacific Rim 2 has no right to compete with Justice League for the number of theaters open on its opening day.

The two films opened with 500 fewer theaters, but their opening day box office differed by $500 million. *Pacific Rim 2* grossed $3300 million on its North American opening day, slightly lower than its predecessor, but this is understandable given the fierce competition during this year's release window. Furthermore, *Pacific Rim 2* received better reviews than *Justice League*.

On its opening day, Justice League received a 37% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while Pacific Rim 2 had an exceptionally high score of 86%, leading the box office.

Pacific Rim 2 has received much better reviews in China than its predecessor. Although it has not yet been rated on Douban, many netizens have already given it 4 or 5 stars.

"Action films are definitely Liu Yifei's comfort zone. It's rare to find such a young actress still making action films."

"You absolutely must see it in IMAX. The sheer scale and awe-inspiring presence can only be truly experienced in IMAX."

"If I had to nitpick, it would be that Liu Yifei's face is too beautiful, and it always makes me lose focus. I feel that it would be a waste not to film romantic scenes for her, but the director just won't arrange any romantic scenes for Liu Yifei."

Not only Liu Yifei, but also Universal and Legendary, and even the Pacific Rim 2 crew, were very satisfied with this data.

However, don't forget that *Pacific Rim 2* cost a whopping $2 million to make, plus $1 million for marketing and distribution. Even a rough calculation shows that the sequel would need to gross $8 million worldwide to break even—thanks to diverse profit channels, many Hollywood films no longer adhere to the 3x payback rule; a 2.5x payback period is usually sufficient to break even.

The pressure remains immense.

I have to say, Toro really knows how to spend money!
These impressive figures have given the production team even more motivation to promote the film.

After leaving Chongqing, Liu Yifei immediately headed to Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

The opening weekend results are in: 6.8 million yuan in China, a good start for the upcoming Lunar New Year film season.

With $1.02 million in North America, it surpassed Justice League's $9600 million to become the week's champion.

Global's retaliation against Warner has achieved initial success.

However, Justice League performed better than Pacific Rim 2 in overseas markets outside North America. Justice League grossed more than $1.85 million in its opening weekend worldwide, while Pacific Rim 2 only grossed $1.73 million overseas (including the Chinese market).

After the first weekend, Liu Yifei also left China to join the rest of the group and begin overseas promotions.

With a domestic box office of 6.8 million yuan and a North American box office of 1.02 million US dollars in its opening weekend, Liu Yifei can continue to lead domestic actresses by a wide margin.

After this result was announced, domestic offers poured in for Liu Yifei like snowflakes.

It's true that we can't say that Liu Yifei carried the entire box office of over 6 million to nearly 7 million yuan on her own, but no one can deny that Liu Yifei is the most commercially successful and best-selling actress in China.

Not just actresses, but actors.

After that, an even more outrageous phenomenon occurred: a TV drama production team actually wanted to invite Liu Yifei.

Everyone in the industry knows that Liu Yifei doesn't take on TV dramas anymore, but there's nothing they can do about it. Liu Yifei is too good at making money. Hiring her would cost an extra 100 million yuan, and then reselling her to another company would be too tempting a deal.

It is rumored that an investor told the producer, "I'll give you an extra 100 million yuan, can you get Liu Yifei to act in this drama?"

The market is just that blind and unreasonable.

The pioneers are a production team called "The Records of Nanyanzhai". They had not previously thought of inviting Liu Yifei, but now they have sent her an invitation on a whim.

Asking price: 1.2 million!
(End of this chapter)