Shadow of Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 264 [Shadow Level 3]

On June 5, 2006, after two months of theatrical release, the film "Sissi's Dog" officially ended its run.

Even during the film's preparation stage, Hu Xiaobei had a clear prediction of its box office prospects, which is why the filming cost was not high.

Given the dual limitations of the film's subject matter and the domestic film market environment.

He felt that if the domestic box office could exceed 3000 million RMB, it would be a pretty good result.

However, reality far exceeded everyone's expectations.

In the past few months, An Xiaoxi has become a sensation across Asia for her role as the ethereal Little Dragon Girl in the hit drama "The Condor Heroes," and her popularity is soaring.

In addition to winning one gold and two silver medals at the Berlin Film Festival, she also achieved a remarkable record of winning gold and silver medals at the Cannes Film Festival.

These dazzling accolades injected a powerful star effect and generated considerable buzz into the film "Sissi's Dog".

According to industry insiders, a film that grosses 5000 million RMB would be considered a great success.

But no one expected that the film had many "hidden advantages".

Despite the support from major universities, the estimated data still showed significant deviations.

First, thanks to the support of "all parties", "Sissi's Dog" was granted the opportunity to have its screening extended, allowing it to continue to be shown in theaters for two months.

Secondly, in terms of copyright protection, the film was almost unaffected by piracy issues, the specific reasons for which need not be elaborated.

More importantly, many organizations and school groups organized movie screenings. Although group tickets were discounted, the large number of viewers made up for the price difference.

Ultimately, "Sissi's Dog" became a dark horse among domestic films this year with an astonishing box office of 1.15 million RMB.

In the original timeline, in 2006, domestic films and imported films each accounted for half of the top 10 box office hits in mainland China.

"Curse of the Golden Flower" topped the list with 2.5 million yuan in revenue, followed by "The Banquet" with 1.3 million yuan, "Fearless" with 1.01 million yuan, "Rob-B-Hood" with 9700 million yuan, and "A Battle of Wits" with 6700 million yuan.

"The Da Vinci Code" and "King Kong" earned 1.05 million yuan and 1.02 million yuan respectively, ranking third and fourth. Other imported films, "Mission: Impossible III", "Poseidon", and "Superman Returns", ranked seventh, eighth, and tenth respectively.

At this time, it was only June 5th, and apart from "Fearless" which had already been released on January 25th, the other four domestic films had not yet been released.

"The Banquet" and "Rob-B-Hood" will be released in September, while "A Battle of Wits" and "Curse of the Golden Flower" are scheduled for November and December, respectively.

In other words, "Sissi's Dog" is not only the second domestic film to break 100 million yuan at the box office in 2006, but also the highest-grossing film in China this year.

Although Hu Xiaobei did not receive any financial return from the box office revenue because he donated the film's proceeds to various universities in advance, this work laid a solid foundation for his directing career.

As Hu Xiaobei's directorial debut, "Sissi's Dog" not only won accolades at international film festivals.

It also achieved great success at the box office, a double achievement that is extremely rare in the domestic film industry.

After all, under normal circumstances, the films that win awards are not popular with the general public!
Of course, if Hu Xiaobei hadn't donated the proceeds to various universities in advance, this movie certainly wouldn't have achieved such good results.

The box office success fully demonstrates Hu Xiaobei's directing ability and box office appeal, and also allows him to successfully join the "100 Million Yuan Director Club" in China.

Previously, only three directors in China had grossed over 3 million yuan at the box office: Zhang Yimou, who directed "Hero" in 2002, which grossed 2.5 million yuan in mainland China.

Stephen Chow directed "Kung Fu Hustle" in 2004, which grossed 1.73 million RMB.

Feng Xiaogang, who directed "A World with Thieves" in 2004, grossed 1.2 million RMB.

The title of the fourth director in China to join the "100 Million Yuan Box Office Club" undoubtedly paved the way for Hu Xiaobei's subsequent film creations.

When Hu Xiaobei has a new film released in the future, he will definitely receive more attention and better cinema screenings.

As the female lead in the film "Sissi's Dog," An Xiaoxi, who won Best Actress at two international film festivals within half a year, is even more popular.

If the upcoming female-centric film, "Become Yourself," also achieves high box office returns...

An Xiaoqian is bound to become a guarantee of high box office revenue in the eyes of industry insiders.

....................................

June 5, 2006, midnight. Under the dual tempering of "enhancement" and "illusion and reality", the shadow ability has approached the threshold of level three.

[Shadow Level 2]: 99.99%
With a thought from Hu Xiaobei, the advancement process began.

The shadows that were originally attached to the ground suddenly surged like living things, turning into a black vortex that kept spinning.

Unlike the smooth progress during the second-level promotion, this breakthrough felt like a strange sense of integration, along with a subtle spatial fluctuation.

Hu Xiaobei felt that his spiritual sense and shadow abilities were being repeatedly tempered and reshaped by some unknown mysterious force.

His pupils reflected fine dark patterns, as if countless tiny vortexes were flowing within them.

[Shadow Level 3]: 0.001%
After being promoted to the third level, Hu Xiaobei's physical condition did not change, and he still maintained the strength to snatch more than 500KG.

However, on a spiritual level, it underwent a tremendous transformation.

The range of spiritual perception increased dramatically, with the perception radius centered on the shadow jumping to 40-48 meters.

While the data itself may appear to have only doubled, the perceived range is entirely different, with the coverage expanding exponentially – a world of difference.

When one's spiritual awareness is fully activated, one can perceive and analyze all changes in light and shadow within a radius of nearly 100 meters, both clearly and vaguely.

In other words, his home turf is within a radius of 40-48 meters centered on himself or his shadow.

Within this domain, no attack can escape his perception, and he can further distort, deflect, and weaken attacks using his shadow abilities.

Hu Xiaobei raised his hand and waved it lightly, and the shadows on the ground instantly transformed into thousands of black ribbons, weaving a dynamic three-dimensional projection in the air.

These shadow threads can solidify into sharp blades to cut through steel plates, or soften into flowing water to envelop objects, truly achieving the terrifying state of "a change of form with a thought."

More importantly, the quality of the shadows has undergone a qualitative leap after the advancement.

Simply put, conventional firearms such as pistols, submachine guns, and even grenades are no longer able to break through Shadow's defenses and cannot cause any substantial damage to Hu Xiaobei.

Of course, heavy weapons such as sniper rifles and missiles are still a threat that should not be underestimated. If you are hit, you will most likely be finished.

At the same time, the shadow's lethality has also been greatly enhanced, with its attack power within 40-48 meters comparable to that of a submachine gun.

The most strategically valuable ability is the newly awakened "Shadow Devour".

[Shadow Eater lv3]: 0.001%
Hu Xiaobei placed a compressed biscuit in the shadow. The shadow instantly enveloped the food as if it were alive, and the biscuit disappeared in the blink of an eye, gradually transforming into energy that promoted the evolution of his abilities.

This means that, as long as there is a sufficient supply of resources, the speed of his shadow's evolution will be greatly increased.

Unlike normal eating, the ability to devour is not limited by the human's conventional digestive system.

After all, he himself has to consider whether his stomach can handle what he eats, and whether he even wants to eat.

However, with the Shadow Devouring ability, it's different; there's no need to worry about these issues at all. However, the Shadow Devouring effect still takes some time to dissipate.

In addition to these characteristics, the Shadow Devouring ability also greatly improves evolutionary efficiency.

At the current level, the object that can be swallowed at one time cannot exceed three times the weight or volume of Hu Xiaobei himself.

By using Shadow Devouring, the evolution efficiency can be directly increased from 0.001%/hour to about 0.003%/hour.

This translates to 0.072% per day and as high as 2.16% per month, without even taking into account Hu Xiaobei's own assisted digestion.

Moreover, this number will continue to increase as capabilities improve.

It is worth mentioning that the "Blessing" ability has completed the integration and sublimation of all sub-abilities, and can now operate automatically 24 hours a day.

From now on, all shadow abilities, including Shadow Devour, will evolve in sync with the improvement of the main ability.

In other words, Shadow Devour is a level three ability from the moment it awakens, and there is no need to gradually upgrade it from the basic level.

Moreover, as long as the shadow ability is increased to 10% of the current level, all shadow abilities will reach the limit of the current level.

(End of this chapter)