Who are you calling "little fresh meat"? I'm the king.

Chapter 573 Head-on Confrontation with Transformers 4 (14)

In the first decade of this century, the Korean Wave swept across Asia.

Chinese trainees have become a magic weapon for South Korean companies to open up overseas markets, and have also provided young people in mainland China who dream of becoming stars with an alternative path to success through "export to domestic sales".

Lu Han was born through this path...

EXO!
—In 2012, SM Entertainment launched the boy group EXO, with one-third of its members being Chinese…

Lu Han, Wu Yifan, Zhang Yixing, and Huang Zitao are all members of this group.

But Lu Han is the most popular!
The term "top influencer," or "traffic star," was popularized by Lu Han.

He was the first celebrity to open a personal super topic on Weibo. In 2016, Sina launched a super topic beta test on Weibo. After a fierce competition, Lu Han's data surpassed all others, making him the first person to open a super topic.
The first person to surpass 2000 billion views on a Weibo supertopic, and even now, the power ranking for celebrities whose fandoms are desperately working on data was pioneered by Lu Hanhan on Weibo…

He is also the first celebrity to have over 100 million comments on Weibo!
Yes, the number of comments has exceeded 100 million!
Shen Yan's Weibo comments have remained at around 10+...

In a sense, Lu Han's emergence redefined the concept of "top influencer" and pushed the fan economy to its peak. The commercial value of his personal brand reached its zenith in 2016, and he was even listed alongside Yang Zhenning as one of the "Influential People in China of the Year" by China Newsweek.

"Little fresh meat" is associated with the term "traffic star"!
The appearance of the "Four Big and Three Small" stars signifies the beginning of a close integration between the concepts of "little fresh meat" (young, handsome male celebrities) and "traffic stars" (celebrities with high online popularity).

Subsequently, investors and producers gradually realized that packaging and promoting young, attractive actors could quickly gain high attention and commercial value. As a result, a large number of film and television works began to use young, attractive actors, forming the so-called "traffic economy".

With hot money pouring into the entertainment industry, the term "traffic economy" has become a buzzword!

The formula of "big IP + young heartthrob" was very popular in those years.

However, this formula was quickly proven unreliable, but many film and television projects have very long production cycles…

However, during that period, many filmmakers discovered that they could make money without an audience, and that making movies was purely an investment product.

A project, with a few celebrities involved and a cost of 30 million, can be turned into a 200 million project after a quick dip in the secondary market!

They're making money off retail investors...

As for the quality of the film itself, or whether it can make money, that's not that important...

For filmmakers looking to make money, the next four or five years will be the best time; they can easily earn more money than most people could in a lifetime…

Actually, Shen Yan could also join them.

But... there's no need.

To be honest, if he wanted to make money, he had countless ways…

Transitioning to an investor is also an option; ByteDance, Meituan, Red Book, and DJI are all companies worth investing in.

Isn't this unnecessary?

To put it bluntly, for Shen Yan at this stage, making money is no longer the goal...

While it's not quite like what Ma Yun said, "I don't love money and I'm not interested in money," Shen Yan has already achieved financial freedom!
—Just the US stock market shares alone will be worth at least $3 million in three years.

Therefore, when many people talk about internet celebrities and young heartthrobs, Shen Yan doesn't join the discussion at all...

……

"Have you decided?"

"Ok!"

In early June, Deng Chao visited Shen Yan on set in Hengdian and they talked about the release date of "The Magic Hour"—he decided to release it on the same day as "Transformers 4"...

Shen Yan nodded: "It's actually a good idea. Releasing it on the same day as 'Transformers 4' can leverage the high profile of 'Transformers' to increase the exposure of 'Magic Hour' and attract more viewers. This strategy is similar to complementary marketing, using the influence of a strong film to attract audiences."

After a pause, Shen Yan suggested, "How about we release it a day earlier?" "No use, there are Hollywood blockbusters every week in June..."

Indeed, starting with "X-Men: Days of Future Past" at the end of May, "Edge of Tomorrow," "Godzilla," and "Maleficent" were released one after another...

"Okay, I'll post it on Weibo for you..."

Deng Chao smiled bitterly: "I hope my death won't be too gruesome!"

“Not at all,” Shen Yan waved his hand, “We’ve spent 2000 million on ticket subsidies, and the platform has also spent 2000 million… I’ve seen the finished product of ‘The Magic Hour,’ and the quality is good. It’ll easily break 6 million! It won’t be worse than ‘The Big Winner’…”

Shen Yan has no idea how to predict the box office performance of Deng Chao's version of "The Magic Hour," which is "The Professional."

It can only be compared with the same type.

Just as "The Big Winner" is about to finish its run—its cumulative box office reached 6.08 million yuan…

To be honest, if there hadn't been so many Hollywood blockbusters in May, "The Big Winner" would have grossed at least 700 million yuan!
The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and oh yes, Zhang Yimou's "Coming Home"...

As of now, "The Big Winner" ranks fourth on the annual box office chart for domestic films with a total of 6.08 million yuan, second only to "Duckweed" (18.87 billion yuan), "More Than Blue" (7.04 million yuan), and another film released during the Spring Festival, "From Vegas to Macau" (6.27 million yuan)...

As for "The Monkey King", its box office stopped at 5.85 million yuan, and "Where Are We Going, Dad?"'s box office stopped at 5.14 million yuan!
If we include *Captain America: The Winter Soldier* and *X-Men: Days of Future Past*, this ranking would drop two places...

In the original timeline, the total box office this year is close to 300 billion, and the top ten in the box office are all over 6.5 million.

Deng Chao also rose to fame by going head-to-head with "The Breakup Guru" against "Transformers 4"...

"The Magic Hour" isn't as awkward as "The Breakup Guru"...

However, "The Breakup Guru" has a lot of vulgar jokes.

Shen Yan couldn't say for sure which one would be more favored by the market...

The two chatted about "The Magic Hour" for a while... but actually they were mainly talking about how "Transformers 4" bullies people...

因为《魔幻时刻》2月就宣布定档6月27，《变形金刚4》直到昨天才官宣定档6月27！

The Film Bureau also suggested that the producers of "The Magic Hour" reschedule its release...

Deng Chao grumbled, "A suggestion to change the release date... I'm really speechless. It's only twenty-odd days until the release, and now they want me to change the release date?"

You should know that the distribution and promotion of "The Magic Hour" has been going on for more than half a year. The distributor, Enlight Media, has leveraged its advantages in the coverage of self-produced entertainment programs and large-scale variety shows to directly push the film to the target audience in an all-round way across 1100 local channels, 7 provincial satellite TV stations, and mainstream movie consumer activity venues such as subways, buses, airports, and university students.

The advertising expenses alone amounted to 2000 million!
Depending on the box office performance, an additional 3000 million yuan may be needed for promotion.

This was all planned...

You are withdrawing your application now...

Can the previous promotional work be withdrawn?
Shen Yan didn't know what to say...

After all, he wasn't happy either!

Changing the subject: "Let's not talk about movies for now. What's your decision regarding 'Running Man'?"

"Great! I've been wanting to change my image too!"

Have you watched the Korean version of "Running Man"?

"I watched a few episodes...it's quite interesting!"

"...Then you can be the team leader and try it out for one season..."

(End of this chapter)