Fooling Huayu for Thirty Years

Chapter 435 "The Legend of the Martial Arts World"? Mr. Ma, you're truly amazing!
"2 million! Kung Fu Hustle becomes the summer box office champion!"

"Undeterred by blockbuster 'Spider-Man 2,' the domestic film 'Kung Fu Hustle' takes the top spot!"

"Kung Fu Hustle is still showing in theaters and its box office performance still has room to grow!"

"Two hundred million is far from the maximum for this movie!"

Although the summer movie season is not really over yet, the box office champion has already been decided.

"House of Flying Daggers" started strong but ended weak, a classic case of all bark and no bite.

While it can't be said that this movie was a failure, it still grossed nearly 150 million yuan at the box office.

However, I must say that this movie is far below expectations.

Putting everything else aside, just looking at the premiere of this movie, it was truly a high-profile event unprecedented in human history.

Moreover, the investment is even larger than that of the previous "Hero" film.

The result was such a small box office.

Domestic investors can pretend to be rich and claim that we haven't lost money.

After all, this film has overseas investors, and they generally don't want domestic box office revenue.

But when he said that, his face was really swollen.

Previously, another bombshell dropped: Ma Xun angrily berated Zhang Yimou.

Although a reconciliation between the general and the minister later occurred, which calmed the matter down.

However, this movie is clearly quite noisy.

Actually, a lot of juicy gossip broke out at the premiere that day.

I won't go into details about these.

Then came Spider-Man 2, a movie that was quite powerful.

However, there is one problem: piracy is rampant now, especially with Hollywood blockbusters.

That's so fast.

This movie is good, but many movie fans have already seen it, especially those who are famous for it. They should see it as soon as possible.

Therefore, given the current market situation, a box office of tens of millions is already quite good.

Kung Fu Hustle is undoubtedly the best!

Even without mentioning the word 'sentiment,' Ma Xun swears to God that he has never promoted anything like: 'We owe Stephen Chow a movie ticket.'

He really didn't do that!
This attempt to play the nostalgia card is truly nauseating.

What do you owe?

Why don't you talk about how much you owe your parents?
As for that!
In fact, this whole "owing movie tickets" thing has nothing to do with Stephen Chow.

In particular, Ma Xun knew that some of Stephen Chow's movies were later re-released.

Stephen Chow himself has made it very clear that the copyright for films like "A Chinese Odyssey" was never originally in his hands.

There's nothing wrong with going back to the cinema to watch this movie again; it's a way to reminisce and relive the past, to cherish one's youthful days.

That's all good.

But as for returning the movie tickets... Stephen Chow won't get a single penny of that money!

Although Ma Xun always comes up with some unusual, even underhanded, tricks when marketing film and television dramas.

But he just couldn't pull off that sentimental appeal!
If we really wanted to fight, we could.

After all, Stephen Chow's movies haven't been shown in mainland China for many years.

In his opinion, the previous "A Chinese Odyssey" was a rather "failure".

In addition, the censorship of "Shaolin Soccer" failed.

This film, "Kung Fu Hustle," is full of sentiment.

But Ma Xun really didn't advertise it like that. However, although there was no such advertising,

However, many movie fans did go there because of Stephen Chow's reputation.

Naturally, some comments about sentimentality were also made.

That's fine.

It wasn't said that sentimentality was unacceptable.

But using this for publicity is indeed...

Never mind, I won't say any more.

With its box office now at 200 million yuan, "Kung Fu Hustle" has directly taken the top spot at the summer box office.

How much box office revenue it will generate in the future is, of course, still unknown.

Judging from the current trend, it has broken the box office record previously set by "Hero".

The possibility is really small.

It's a pity indeed.

But this is also the current situation of our domestic film market.

In fact, achieving such results is already quite remarkable.

We must not overlook one objective condition: that is, we have only just emerged from the pandemic.

Without Ma Xun's previous actions, the defense plan and the restart plan would not have been effective.

Currently, even that kind of box office performance is unattainable.

Therefore, from Ma Xun's perspective, this year's summer movie season was absolutely a huge success!
The box office of "Kung Fu Hustle" also exceeded that of the original timeline by a considerable margin.

The whole plan actually started from the initial discussions with Han Sanping, Jiang Zhiqiang, and the Wang brothers regarding film scheduling.

Now, the summer movie season can be considered over.

Ma Xun should focus on other aspects.

After all, Ma Xun didn't have any projects coming out for the National Day holiday following the summer season.

He should at least focus more on television dramas, or perhaps on the seeds he sowed earlier.

In the US, James Wan and Anne Hathaway.

However, the situation in the United States is still unclear, and at least he hasn't received any information.

Let's focus on our domestic situation.

As expected, "Detective Dee" started slowly but gained momentum after its broadcast.

The highest viewership rating ever reached 5%.

Of course, this is the instantaneous viewership rating. If we look at the average, it still unsurprisingly surpassed Hunan TV's previous high of 2.7%.

From this perspective, it was an absolute success!

As for whether it's possible to break three points on average, that's indeed quite difficult.

But shouldn't we be comparing ourselves to someone else in this matter?
"Twin Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" has been released, and the show's opening rating is only 1%.

Later, it reached over 2%, but it didn't last long.

Then came all sorts of messy rumors circulating online.

There were even TVB actresses personally getting involved in the online feud.

Indeed, that Miss Hu has a rather formidable personality, almost like the demonic witch in the play.

And that's when things get interesting.

Ma Xun's feud with TVB... it's never peaceful there.

By the way, there's a wallpaper that's really popular on Mop right now. It features a little girl wearing a Microsoft "advertisement outfit," probably working as a model at some game expo. That's YOYO, she's incredibly popular right now, a goddess to many mainland Chinese otaku.

But later, she became TVB's Chan Chi-Yao.

The gossip about her is truly...

Anyway, the infighting within TVB is always more exciting than the dramas they produce.

I won't say any more.

"Twin Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" is not bad in itself, but unfortunately it encountered an opponent that she could not defeat.

Ma Xun is currently planning several upcoming films.

The broadcast of dramas such as "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber", "Young Justice Bao", and "Water Moon Cave", which was produced before the Pumpkin Couple's team was poached.

Unexpectedly, someone came looking for him.

"Boss, are you free lately?"

"Huh? What are you planning to do?"

"It's just... um... treating the boss to dinner."

"No, you're inviting me, your boss, to dinner? Don't you find that strange?"

"What's so strange about that? What's our relationship? Haha..."

It's that guy, Sha Yi.

He wants to treat me, his boss, to dinner?

Ma Xun knew immediately that there was something more to this than met the eye.

"Get to the point, stop beating around the bush."

Sha Yi was very pleased to hear these words.

"Hehe...that's right, I have a friend here, and this friend has a project..."

"Project? What project?"

"This……"

"Is the risk too high?"

"Yes, it is indeed very risky."

"How big is it?"

"Anyway, the last one lost a lot of money."

Ma Xun laughed and said, "That's alright. Failure is the mother of success, right?"

“That’s right, that’s right, boss…”

"Tell me the details of this project, and who exactly suffered such a huge loss?"

"The detail is... cough cough, I acted in a movie back in 2003, and that's how I met Director Shang."

Director Shang?

The moment the name appeared, Ma Xun perked up immediately.

"This meal is on me!"

Goodness, this completely baffled Sha Yi.

……

Bianyifang in Beijing.

This store is really not cheap.

However, the people who came today are quite accomplished.

Simply put, they weren't intimidated; in fact, they seemed quite natural.

But if someone you know sees it, you'll definitely have to say something.

"Hey! How much did you lose before? Now you're showing off again?"

In fact, that's not an exaggeration.

These people were brought in by Sha Yi, and among them was Shang Dao, also known as Shang Jing.

There was another guy who looked rather sly; his pen name was Caishen (God of Wealth).

Don't underestimate this guy; as soon as he arrived, he tried to get close to the host of today's dinner party.

“Mr. Ma! Oh my, we’ve met before. You must have a bad memory. The year before last, oh no, I think it was the year before that, the time we had a copyright dispute.”

Goodness, this guy really lives up to the word "shameless".

Seeing this, Ma Xun couldn't help but laugh, "God of Wealth?"

Upon hearing this nickname, the guy immediately backed down, grinning obsequiously, "How dare I call myself the God of Wealth in front of you? You are the God of Wealth! You, Ma Xun, Boss Ma, are the greatest God of Wealth in our entertainment industry!"

Listen to that, it's absolutely nauseating.

The others who came with us all got goosebumps.

Even Sha Yi was extremely embarrassed.

He's a handsome man from Northeast China, but he's very proud!
However, the God of Wealth wasn't wrong; Ma Xun laughed heartily after hearing it.

"I heard you lost a lot of money in the financial markets and now you can't even afford your mortgage?"

Wow, that statement has directly pinned down the 'God of Wealth'!

It took him a while to recover. "Mr. Ma, you're awesome! I have nothing more to say. We've really hit a rough patch right now, as long as..."

Before he could finish speaking, Ma Xun waved his hand and then looked at Director Shang.

Director Shang knew he should speak up.

"Well, Mr. Ma, I need to introduce our project first. This introduction has to start from before. We worked together on a show called 'Urban Men and Women' with Sha Yi and Yao Jia."

Yes, Ma Xun knows about this.

And this film, "Urban Men and Women," lost a fortune.

Interestingly, this magazine, "Urban Men and Women," was actually written by a group of "urban men and women."

The Ningguo (Ningxia) product featuring the 'God of Wealth' is the core item.

But back then, this guy was pretty awesome. He made a lot of money in the stock market and had a whole circle of friends who all acted like urban elites.

So, these guys were frequent visitors to Bianyifang and were quite familiar with it.

But now... stocks, and other things, are really going to make them lose everything.

The TV series "Urban Men and Women" was not successful, and the stock market losses added to the problem.

That's exactly what the 'God of Wealth' is all about.

He's a well-known screenwriter in the industry; he's had a tough time before.

Now all that's left is to kneel down and lick Ma Xun's boots.

However, Ma Xun was in no hurry and listened to what Director Shang had to say first.

Until those four words were spoken.

My Own Swordsman.

"Okay! I understand. Actually, putting everything else aside, I'll definitely give Sha Yi face and invest in this project!"

I won't ask how much it costs!

The "God of Wealth" immediately exclaimed, "Mr. Ma! You're awesome!"

(End of this chapter)