This actor has something

Chapter 436 Friends Everywhere
He can sleep up to eight hours a day on good days, and only two or three hours on bad days. Coupled with the long journey, even the energetic Zhang Yimou is starting to feel the strain.

Thankfully, the box office data kept the creative team motivated every day. Otherwise, under such high intensity, they might not have been able to last even a week, let alone half a month. After all, they came here to be stars, not to be slaves. If they weren't aiming to break box office records, they wouldn't have been willing to suffer like this, no matter how much money they were offered.

However, now that they've weathered the storm, the creative team behind Painted Skin feels more involved. After all, other movies only do two roadshows a day, not to mention participating in program recordings every few days. Apart from the unspeakable box office-dumping behavior, the creative team behind Painted Skin deserves the most credit.

After a good half-day rest and a good night's sleep, the Painted Skin roadshow team took a flight back to Beijing. Instead of immediately disbanding, they boarded a business vehicle arranged by Ya Yue and went to Yonghui Qiming together.

boom! ! !
The confetti exploded as soon as I stepped out of the elevator.

"Congratulations to the Painted Skin roadshow team on their return! The box office of Painted Skin is getting higher and higher, thanks to everyone's hard work."

Wang Jinghua and Liu Ying had clearly not informed anyone about this little surprise they were putting on. He Daqi glanced at Wu Nannan, who was obviously unaware that the company had prepared this little surprise, and was somewhat surprised.

After leading a group of employees in applause, Wang Jinghua said with a smile, "Knowing you're coming back today, I specially ordered a big cake. We'll chat briefly in the conference room later, and then we'll cut the cake to celebrate. We can have a proper celebration after Painted Skin is off the screens."

"Then we'll have to wait. Didn't China Film Group apply for an extension for Painted Skin? If that's the case, we won't be able to have the celebration banquet for at least a month."

He Daqi is truly a master at sabotaging others. Just when everyone was having a good time, he casually said this.

"To be honest, I really didn't expect you to finish the race this time, Daqi. I thought you would leave halfway through, but I didn't expect you to actually persevere to the end."

"Yeah, Daqi, it's not easy for you to stick it out. Were you afraid that Vivian would think the box office wasn't enough and keep throwing money into it, so you gritted your teeth and ran the whole thing together?"

Having known each other for so long, they were already quite familiar with each other and knew each other's temperaments. When they heard that He Daqi was unreliable, Wang Jinghua and Liu Ying each made a sarcastic remark about him.

He Daqi rolled his eyes, not wanting to explain further.

To be honest, there's a reason why He Daqi is putting in so much effort this time. A small part of it is because he's afraid Zhou Huimin will continue to pour money into it. The main reason is that he's afraid that if the box office is not good, Han Shanping will continue to mess things up.

Old Han is cunning and ruthless. He takes advantage of both his suppliers and customers. In order to make Painted Skin's box office numbers explode, Han Shanping has done more than just a few dirty tricks. He Daqi knows of more than just two or three of them. The key is that every single one of them offends people. He's utterly wicked.

Under these circumstances, He Daqi couldn't just quit halfway through. He had to ensure that the roadshow team didn't mess things up and that the box office was stable. Otherwise, Han Shanping, who was in a frenzy, might cause some trouble again.

Fortunately, the mission has been successfully completed. If they try anything funny now, it would just mean that China Film Group is being too greedy.

The group entered the conference room in twos and threes and sat down. The door closed, the curtains were drawn, and Liu Ying turned on the projector, her expression becoming serious.

"The success of the Painted Skin project has, frankly, exceeded everyone's expectations. The previous highest domestic box office record was held by Ning Hao's 'After the Flowers Bloom, a Hundred Flowers Kill,' which grossed 360 million yuan. Of course, that's just the domestic box office; the international box office was even higher, but I won't go into details here."

When Daqi previously mentioned investing heavily in ticket subsidies, we did anticipate that Painted Skin would break box office records, but our estimate was a bit conservative. We thought that Painted Skin's box office from its initial release to its extended run would be at most 500-600 million yuan.

However, we didn't expect China Film Group to go to such lengths, and we also underestimated the massive ticket subsidies that would generate such a huge influx of viewers. As a result, Painted Skin's box office performance has far exceeded expectations. In just fifteen days, it has reached nearly 600 million yuan, especially from the fourth to the tenth day, with the box office increasing almost every day.

"Everyone just got back today, but instead of letting you go home and rest right away, we're having a meeting first. We want to discuss how, through a series of unexpected events, the box office of 'Painted Skin' suddenly skyrocketed."

As soon as Liu Ying finished speaking, Zhou Huimin asked suspiciously, "Little Liu, didn't you just say that it was because you underestimated the traffic from ticket subsidies and didn't expect China Film Group to go all out and support Painted Skin so much? What? Is there another reason?"

"Yes, and quite a lot." Liu Ying nodded and began operating the projector. Soon, a set of data appeared on the screen. Then, Liu Ying pointed to the data and explained:
"We previously thought September wasn't a good release window, but that was a misconception. For other years, September might not be a good release window either. Director Zhang even suggested moving Painted Skin to the Spring Festival period, but China Film Group didn't agree."

It seems that China Film Group has some capable people. Because of the Olympics this year, films released in August received almost no promotion, leading to a consensus among filmmakers not scheduling any big-budget releases. China Film Group essentially revealed its hand, reserving the August summer blockbuster season for *Red Cliff*, but unexpectedly, *Red Cliff* couldn't withstand the pressure.
Some moviegoers, accustomed to summer blockbusters and unconcerned about the Olympics, found themselves with little to watch in theaters and opted for the seemingly reliable "Perfect Imperfection," which became a dark horse, grossing around 50 million yuan. It wasn't until the release of "Painted Skin" that "Perfect Imperfection" was finally dethroned.

After the Olympics, China retained a large number of foreign tourists, along with moviegoers who hadn't been to theaters due to the Olympics. The release of "Painted Skin" at that time provided an opportunity for promotion, effectively absorbing the pent-up box office revenue from the entire summer season. This explains the explosive box office performance in the first few days, and the subsequent significant increase is also partly attributable to this factor.

It seems that Liu Ying and her team have been very busy these past ten days. Just by looking at the data on the screen, you can tell that it was collected by organizing people to go out and conduct interviews.

Seeing how detailed Liu Ying and the others' analysis of the box office data was, Zhang Yimou became a little unhappy. With a drooping lip, he said gruffly, "So you're saying we got a great deal? The high box office wasn't because the film was well-made, but because of good luck?"

“Director Zhang, you can understand it this way. To be honest, this bargain was beyond everyone’s expectations. China Film Group must have some idea of ​​what was going on, so they temporarily withdrew a lot of movies, leaving Painted Skin to dominate for more than half a month. And the second half of the month was also Painted Skin. Just look at the schedule, and all the films released after that were low-budget art films.” Wang Jinghua seemed not to have noticed Zhang Yimou’s reluctance and continued the conversation with a smile.

He Daqi clicked his tongue.

No wonder they're preparing for an IPO; these managers are doing things very differently now. Before, there was no such thing as post-event analysis. When Ning Hao broke the box office record, they just chatted casually and didn't think about anything else.

"Sister Hua, have you been spending all your time studying box office data lately? The company has a ton of projects to work on. Don't let your focus on just the paintbrush make you neglect the others."

"Daqi, you can rest assured about that. The reason we're so focused on the box office figures for *Painted Skin* is that we wanted to see if we could replicate this model. Unfortunately, this time it was mostly luck. Apart from ticket subsidies and the strong support from China Film Group, we couldn't replicate the others," Wang Jinghua said with a sigh. This is 08! Anyone seeing the current figures for *Painted Skin* would be astonished. Not only Liu Ying and Wang Jinghua want to understand it, but other film companies are also eager to find out more. Even China Film Group is probably currently focused on these box office figures, much to their amusement.

Next, Liu Ying began to analyze from other aspects, such as the added benefits of roadshows, whether the variety shows that appeared during the film's release were useful, and the effectiveness of China Film Group's high-profile boycott of piracy.

Putting everything else aside, the crackdown on piracy by China Film Group this time is indeed powerful, but it's a bit difficult to implement. It's okay to only target the movie Painted Skin, but if they crack down on more movies, the effect will probably be much worse.

He Daqi had endured a lot of hardship during this period, and finally had some free time. Naturally, he relaxed and listened to Liu Ying and Wang Jinghua's rambling. Before he knew it, his eyelids drooped. It was quite remarkable that he actually sat up straight and fell asleep.

When I opened my eyes again, I was woken up by Vivian Chow. I almost fell to the ground and stumbled, looking quite embarrassed.

"The meeting's over?" He Daqi asked in a muffled, groggy voice.

"Your phone is ringing, it's Wang Rui calling. Daqi, go outside and take this call, walk around for a bit to clear your head."

He Daqi looked around and found that everyone in the conference room was looking at him with a half-smile. So he rubbed his face, didn't say a word, took the phone from Zhou Huimin, and lazily went out the door.

He didn't intend to walk around a couple of times to clear his head; instead, he wanted to go to his office, lie down on the sofa, and continue sleeping. He casually dialed Wang Rui's number back, and Wang Rui answered the phone as soon as he reached the office door.

"Daqi, you should be back in Beijing by now, right? You said you'd be back today when we called yesterday, have you come back yet?"

"Ha~~" He Daqi yawned, feeling a few tears welling up in his eyes. He rubbed his eyes and then lazily replied, "Brother Rui, let's talk tonight if there's nothing urgent. I'm a little sleepy now and want to take a nap."

Wang Rui chuckled softly. He'd been relaxed these past few days, and hearing He Daqi's lazy movements, he felt a surge of amusement and, suppressing a laugh, said:
"Daqi, I have something important to say. I feel that the box office data for your Painted Skin movie is worth reconsidering. Someone just gave me an idea, saying that if you release two movies a month and both gross 1 billion yuan, and release 24 movies a year, then your Asia-Pacific and ticketing platforms here can just sit back and collect money. What do you think? Is this idea good? Go and contact China Film Group?"

He Daqi snapped awake instantly, so awake that he felt numb.

Contacting China Film Group is a joke. Knowing Han Shanping's audacity, he didn't even need to think about it. He knew that if things were to go a little too far, the old man might actually dare to do it.

"No...it can't be that bad, Brother Rui. Aren't we doing well making money legitimately right now?"

He Daqi was starting to consider whether he should quit the entertainment industry. Putting everything else aside, the system was restricting him here, and if he actually did this, he didn't know what kind of punishment the system would give him.

He Daqi wasn't very brave. He'd already transmigrated, so he didn't want to mess with the system. Besides, he already had a family and a career and was living a happy and fulfilling life. He'd rather let others have the thrill of creating trouble for themselves.

"Hahahaha, are you sober now?"

Wang Rui was very happy. The old man came over and scared him. Although he wasn't scared, it didn't stop him from scaring He Daqi for fun.

Hearing Wang Rui's laughter, He Daqi immediately realized he had been amused and broke down, replying in an annoyed tone, "You're awake! I'm not sleepy at all now. I think your idea is really reliable, Brother Rui. Why not be even bolder and use ticket subsidies to make 10 billion yuan in box office revenue for one movie, and do that for 20 movies a year!"

"Alright, alright, enough joking around. I have something to ask you. A friend of mine, a life-or-death friendship, has come to visit. He wants to seriously observe what the rules and regulations of a film company are. Would it be convenient for you to show him around Asia and Vietnam? If not, have Liu Ying talk to him about it. But don't tell Liu Ying that this is my friend. Liu Ying is quite wary of me. I'm afraid that if she knows that this is my friend, she won't say anything serious and will lead me astray."

He Daqi was slightly taken aback, and then advised, "Brother Rui, you should know that running a film and television company doesn't make money these days! It would be better to let your friend do some other projects. You have a life-or-death friendship with him... Why don't you just let him work with us on internet projects, like live streaming and short video websites?"

"Don't worry, he's not in it for the money. You can just show him around. If I wasn't worried that Liu Ying would cause trouble for me if I took him there, I wouldn't bother you."

"Alright," He Daqi agreed after a moment's thought.

After hanging up the phone, He Daqi was wide awake. He had been quite startled by Wang Rui earlier, and now his mind was sharp and he was full of energy.

Since he didn't want to go back to the meeting anyway, he sat in his boss's chair and started browsing Yabo.com.

News about the box office of Painted Skin is everywhere online now. The top five most popular topics on Yabo.com are all related to this. It's impressive that it has overshadowed the Olympics. Fortunately, the Olympics are over now, otherwise someone would have to come and talk to He Daqi about this again.

A while ago, these people in the entertainment industry were riding the wave of the Olympics, and now they're riding the wave of Painted Skin. They're using all sorts of bizarre angles and creating a lot of noise and buzz to ride the wave.

Those who knew He Daqi and felt they had a good relationship with him would directly use his name to piggyback on his fame, such as tagging him and congratulating him on the box office success of Painted Skin. If they were even more shameless, they would post a short essay about their experiences with He Daqi. It just so happened that He Daqi was having barbecues, beer, and seafood every day in July and August, and he took a lot of photos of himself having meals with people. Now these people were using these photos to their advantage.

He Daqi was like that, as were Zhang Yimou and Zhou Xun. It was as if everyone in the entertainment industry was a friend, and everyone had a connection with the creative team behind Painted Skin.

(End of this chapter)