Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 767 Let's Charge!
It is now 11:57 pm on the first day of the Lunar New Year. All three parents have already gone to bed, and Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei have also gone inside.

Liu Yifei sat on the bed. Twenty minutes ago she said she was going to read a book, but within two minutes she was glued to her phone, scrolling through it nonstop.

Li Qiutang sat at the small table next to her, eating dumplings.

"Still pretending, still saying you're not nervous," Liu Yifei said. "If you weren't nervous, why would you make over twenty dumplings in the middle of the night?"

"I'm really hungry," Director Li continued stubbornly. "My mom made really good dumplings this year, so what's wrong with me eating a few more?"

"Keep being stubborn." Having been together for so long, Liu Yifei knew Li Qiutang all too well. "His stubbornness is his whole personality."

"Actually, I'm quite hard in other places too."

"Pah. Just eat yours, twenty-odd dumplings aren't enough to shut you up."

"What did I say?"

"Are you going to eat it or not? If not, I'll throw it away."

"Eat, eat, eat." Li Qiutang continued eating dumplings.

While she was eating, Liu Yifei suddenly screamed.

“4.3 million, honey, 4.3 million, first day champion.” Liu Yifei waved her phone at Li Qiutang.

She kept refreshing the official Weibo account of "The Wandering Earth," eagerly awaiting official news.

Li Qiutang didn't even put down her chopsticks; she took three steps in two, snatched Liu Yifei's phone, and it was 12:03 AM on the second day of the Lunar New Year. The official Weibo account of "The Wandering Earth" had just released the first day's results report:

"#The Wandering Earth# grossed 4.3 million yuan on its opening day, topping the box office charts for the first day of the Spring Festival holiday!"

A poster is attached.

With her heart finally at ease, Li Qiutang handed the phone back to Liu Yifei and said casually, "As expected, let's eat first."

"You're just pretending, aren't you? You're secretly thrilled, aren't you?" Liu Yifei exposed her husband's true feelings.

"It's alright. Last year, 'Monster Hunt 2' made 5.4 million on its opening day, but it didn't break the opening day record." Still pretending.

Liu Yifei said, "If someone remembers other people's records so clearly, they must have been planning this all along."

“You think you know everything?” Li Qiutang said.

"Of course I understand what my husband is thinking."

From that moment on, Li Qiutang's phone kept ringing.

During the day, not every detail of what happened at the front lines was reported to Li Qiutang. He was only notified now that the first day's results were in.

Chen Zhixi asked him to write a long article to reflect on the past and express his gratitude.

How exciting it is that a domestic sci-fi film that was not expected to succeed in advance took the top spot during the most competitive period of the year.

Li Qiutang agrees to everything; he's willing to do anything now.

"It received a high score of 8.7 on Douban, ranking first among movies released at the same time." Douban hasn't been overrun by fan culture yet, and it really dares to release a score for a popular movie on the first day.

The fact that it received this score demonstrates the audience's great appreciation for "The Wandering Earth".

In comparison, "Pegasus," which had the most screenings, only grossed 210 million yuan today; Stephen Chow's "The New King of Comedy" barely surpassed 100 million yuan on its opening day; while "Crazy Alien," thanks to the golden combination of Ning Hao, Huang Bo, and Shen Teng, earned 270 million yuan. Jackie Chan's "The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang" fared even worse, with its opening day grossing less than 50 million yuan, even less than "Boonie Bears." Those in the know can easily predict what will likely happen next based on these figures.

Box office siphon!

The first place has 4.3 million, while the second place only has 2.7 million. The difference is too big. The first place winner is likely to dominate the entire market.

An hour later, Li Qiutang posted a long article on her personal Weibo account entitled "A Letter to <The Wandering Earth>".

"Little Wandering Earth (the nickname for the movie 'The Wandering Earth'), you are four and a half years old now. Today, you will officially leave home and come to the outside world. No matter what storms or thorns you face, the road ahead is up to you..."

The lengthy article briefly reviews the creative process of "The Wandering Earth" by thanking several key figures.

Li Qiutang thanked Wei Ming, the visual effects supervisor of "The Wandering Earth", Chen Zhixi, the executive producer, Liu Cixin, the original author, Wu Jing, and many other staff members both in front of and behind the camera.

"...Today, you will leave home, marking a brand new beginning. On the road ahead, you must continue to endure hardship, persevere, learn, and constantly strengthen yourself. Along the way, you will encounter more and more 'little broken balls,' and you will journey together. Gradually, you will grow stronger and more united, and you will share a common name: 'Chinese Science Fiction.' I firmly believe in this!"

Finally, he wrote: "Alright, that's enough. Just three more things: Little ball, have a sense of awe! Have a sense of gratitude! Little ball, choose hope! Believe in the future! Little ball, learn to hold your head high!"

Its daybreak.

This time, the production team didn't need to beg anyone; people in the industry, whether they knew them or not, started tacitly sharing and promoting "The Wandering Earth."

Huang Xiaoming even posted photos at 10 a.m. showing his whole family watching "The Wandering Earth" in a private theater, saying, "Little Wandering Earth, go go go! Chinese science fiction, go go go!"

In the afternoon, after a screening, Li Qiutang, along with the main cast including Wu Jing, Qu Chuxiao, Zhao Jinmai, Wu Mengda, and Li Guangjie, appeared at a cinema in Yanjing, which was met with thunderous cheers and applause!
Li Qiutang lowered her head and said to Zhao Jinmai, "Am I right?"

Zhao Jinmai was constantly checking the real-time box office data yesterday, and her mind is still in a daze. 4.3 million on the first day, and she's the female lead. This is a scene she never even dreamed of before.

The audience was very enthusiastic. One guy sitting in the back row didn't have a microphone and shouted to the creators in his own voice, "I want to watch it 100 times!"

Li Qiutang immediately responded, "Come on, manager, register this guy."

It elicited laughter from the audience.

Li Qiutang thanked the audience for their support at the event: "I really didn't expect to achieve such good results."

When it comes to filming, Wu Jing has a lot to say. He complained that Li Qiutang was a big conman: "As everyone has seen, many friends cameoed in this movie, and I started out as a cameo. But as I kept doing cameos, I realized something was wrong. Other actors only did cameos for a day or two, or at most three days, and then they were gone. Why did I have to film two scenes? I finished filming the ground scenes in one day, and after that, the director told me to come back in two months to finish filming the space scenes. As a result, the space station scenes took a month to film. Is this a cameo?!"

The final conclusion was: "The director is a big liar."

The audience burst into laughter.

For the first time, the lead actress Zhao Jinmai faced such a large and enthusiastic audience. The grand scene made her stutter as she spoke: "I am very grateful to the director for giving me this opportunity. Thank you, director."

When asked what impressed her most about the film crew, Zhao Jinmai said, "When I auditioned, the director said he would help me with my homework, but when I gave him the homework, he still couldn't do it."

That's hilarious! It turns out he tricked the female lead into marrying him too.

Li Qiutang's defense was: "She gave me my math, physics, and chemistry homework, which I really didn't know how to do."

Starting from the second day of the Lunar New Year, the crew of "The Wandering Earth" launched the second round of nationwide roadshows.

At the same time, negative reviews also began to emerge.

(End of this chapter)