I'm just trying to ride the wave of popularity!

Chapter 357 This damn troublemaker!
3 month 27 day.

Chinese cinema has once again ushered in a historic moment!
Witnessed by countless movie fans, "Dark Knight" raked in 4.3 million yuan at the box office in 26 days, not only breaking the record in Chinese film history, but also approaching the 4.4 million yuan box office peak set by "Batman: Origins" in China with an unstoppable momentum.

Meanwhile, the film's global box office has exceeded $1.65 million, making it the first Chinese film to enter the "$1.5 million club," creating an unprecedented milestone!

Meanwhile, "Fast & Furious," released at the same time, performed even better, with its global box office exceeding $1.75 million, becoming a major Hollywood blockbuster in March!
Unfortunately, "Dragon Knight" was relegated to a supporting role, completely disappearing from the market amidst fierce competition...

……

Late at night.

The office of [Hongsheng Capital] was deathly silent.

Chen Lei silently stared at the box office data of "The Devil Knight," and then turned his attention to the heated discussions on the Internet.

At this moment, the internet was already in an uproar, and Zhou Yang had been completely elevated to a god-like status. Some even said that Zhou Yang was the second director after Li Zhengtao to usher in the era of Chinese blockbusters.

Unfortunately, that "Eragon" became a stepping stone for the gods...

Chen Lei put down the box office data and silently looked out the window.

During this period, he has been very busy. In fact, almost all overseas capital has been busy integrating all of China Film's resources...

From cinemas to shopping malls, to film companies, to movies, and then to major social media platforms...

They all came together to form a massive system, preparing to suppress Zhou Yang's momentum...

In fact...

During this period, seeing that "Devil Knight" was unstoppable and Zhou Yang was about to become a god, Chen Lei secretly joined forces to plan a "god-making movement".

Under the guise of "cooperation between China and the United States," they spent a lot of money to invite well-known directors such as Li Zhengtao and Wu Jiansen to invest in several "Chinese blockbusters" such as "The Great Wall: Taotie" and "The Forbidden Kingdom," attempting to create box office hits with top-notch special effects and an all-star cast.

They even invested in nearly 30 films of various types with short production cycles, and set their sights on the summer movie season during the "Domestic Film Protection Month" in July.

By secretly signing screening agreements with three major cinema chains, they planned to aggressively promote these films during prime time, while simultaneously leveraging media hype to completely overwhelm Zhou Yang's influence with their financial power. Furthermore, they intended to elevate the reputations of these directors to their absolute peak.

This is their "deification" plan.

This plan is perfect!
however……

"Mr. Li, Wu Jiansen, the director of 'The God of Kung Fu,' secretly met with Zhou Yang a couple of days ago. They had a private conversation at [Xuan Shi Entertainment] for nearly three hours. What's even stranger is that it's rumored that director Li Zhengtao was also present at the time..."

The secretary's phone rang.

After Chen Lei finished the call, his brows furrowed.

The image of Li Zhengtao's resolute face suddenly flashed into his mind!
At this moment, his expression gradually turned cold.

The projects "The Kung Fu Master" and "The Great Wall: Taotie" are among the most crucial projects for the investors.

In a sense, this is a work that aims to propel the two directors to the international market and even elevate them to legendary status.

The investors will provide special effects, funding, and talent if needed, as long as they can suppress Zhou Yang's momentum!
But these people are so ungrateful, treating us like easy targets!
The phone rang again as soon as I hung up.

"Mr. Li..."

"what's up?"

"Bi Zhengnan, the director of 'Building Dreams in the Entertainment Industry,' hopes to invest an additional 300 million yuan!"

"You've already made 3000 million for him to film an urban movie, isn't that enough?"

"He said it wasn't enough, he also said..."

"What else is there to say..."

"He also said that Zhou Yang called him, invited him over, and promised to invest 5000 million yuan in him, but he refused!"

"???"

After hanging up the phone, for the next two hours...

Chen Lei's office phone was ringing off the hook, each ring causing him pain.

And they all mean the same thing!
First, Director Zhao of "Qingmei School" requested an increase in the publicity budget, implying that "the conditions offered by Zhou Yang are very tempting." Then, Director Wang of "Urban Romance" sent a revised contract, doubling the actor's salary and attaching a screenshot of a blank cooperation intention form from [Xuanshi Entertainment].

The most outrageous thing is that even a newly signed new director dared to raise prices, stammering on the phone that "a special effects company is willing to cover the cost of my next film."

After listening for a while, Chen Lei finally understood that the "special effects company" was called Xuan Shi Special Effects.

His ashen face was reflected in the floor-to-ceiling window.

Just then, the door opened.

Among the stack of faxes delivered by the secretary was a budget increase request for "The Forbidden Kingdom".

Fuck!
A 3 million investment, and more is needed?
Director Wu Jiansen of "The Forbidden Kingdom" circled the action effects section in red pen and wrote next to it, "If we use [XuanShi Entertainment], it will be cheaper. 3 million can handle it, but Industrial Light & Magic will need to add about 1 million more!"

As Chen Lei looked at the documents, his face gradually turned ashen.

These bastards are clearly sharks that smell blood!
What alarmed him most was that he couldn't tell who was bluffing!
The secretary also told him that the director of "Building Dreams in the Entertainment Industry" seemed to be turning against him. She had just received news that director Bi Zhengnan had been photographed secretly meeting with Zhang Jingya at a coffee shop downstairs from [Xuan Shi Entertainment]...

They seem to be talking about something...

"Find out!" Chen Lei's face grew increasingly grim. "Is it Zhou Yang who's poaching people, or are these bastards setting a trap together?"

What the fuck!

They're all like vampires, demanding investment!

Even if more than ten of them joined forces, it would still be a huge headache!

The secretary nodded and hurried away.

He hadn't even been sitting in the chair for long...

There was a knock on the office door.

Immediately afterwards...

Li Mingrui walked in.

"Director Li, you..."

"I've carefully calculated the budget for that movie, 'The Secret of Heaven,' and 1.3 million isn't enough; we need to add another 3000 million..."

"Director Li, didn't you say the first budget was enough? Why isn't it enough now?" Chen Lei stared at Li Mingrui with a frighteningly gloomy look in his eyes!
Li Mingrui, seemingly oblivious, continued, "After recalculation, the budget for 'The Heavenly Secret Map' does indeed have a shortfall. 1.3 million is probably insufficient; an additional 3000 million is needed. This is mainly because some core actors have suddenly demanded higher salaries, claiming that Zhou Yang's side offered double their usual pay. As you know, Mr. Li, Zhou Yang is currently consolidating Huaxia Film and Television resources; even I've received calls from him about collaborations. However, rest assured, given my past conflict with Zhou Yang, I would never side with him. It's just that the current market environment is unusual; Zhou Yang is constantly raising industry prices, and we are indeed facing significant pressure."

"What will you do if I don't give you investment?" Chen Lei stared at Li Mingrui.

"Mr. Chen, of course I wouldn't dare do anything, but as you know, in the film industry, you get what you pay for. 'The Demon Knight' grossed 4.3 million yuan in China, fully demonstrating that the potential of the Chinese market is far from exhausted. With the booming development of the Chinese film and television industry, it will undoubtedly become one of the world's most important box office markets in the future, and its revenue prospects are limitless."

"But if we can't control Zhou Yang now and let him expand recklessly..."

"He will monopolize the entire market sooner or later!"

"Mr. Chen, this is a market worth tens of billions, no, it could be a market worth hundreds of billions in the future. If we give up this market, then..."

"..."

Chen Lei stared coldly at Li Mingrui, remaining silent throughout.

Li Mingrui lowered his head...

"Mr. Chen, we at [Huaying International] are all yours now... We're on the same side, and we wouldn't lie to one another! Good actors are really expensive..."

"You go down first!"

"Mr. Chen..."

"Go down!"

Li Mingrui nodded quickly, turned around and left the office.

Chen Lei sat in a chair, his eyes gloomy.

Immediately afterwards, he took out his phone.

"Notify all capital firms in China that we are holding a capital meeting!"

"it is good!"

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

4 month 1 day.

Amidst the intense anticipation of countless filmmakers in China, "Dark Knight," after a month in theaters, has officially surpassed 4.5 million RMB at the Chinese box office, breaking the record set by "Batman: Origins" and officially topping the Chinese box office charts!

The Chinese film industry is in an uproar!
Amidst this fervent excitement, the phrase "China is about to usher in its own era of blockbuster films" resonated across every corner of the internet...

And in this environment...

Major directors are making high-profile announcements about their new projects!
What's astonishing is that almost every project claims to have "extremely high offers to Zhou Yang"!
Initially, someone leaked the news, saying that Li Zhengtao had visited Zhou Yang three times to invite him to star in the movie "The Great Wall: Taotie," offering a salary of 1.5 million yuan plus a guaranteed 5% profit share...

But soon, the very next day, news broke that Wu Jiansen's "The Forbidden Kingdom" had offered a minimum guarantee of 2 million yuan to invite Zhou Yang, and that negotiations for signing the contract were underway...

In an interview, Bi, the director of "Building Dreams in the Entertainment Industry," mysteriously revealed that "Zhou Yang is very interested in art films, and we are having dinner together!"

Most dramatically, reporters photographed these directors entering and leaving the [Xuan Shi Entertainment] building one after another.

Among these directors were both well-known veteran directors and many unknown newcomers. When the media interviewed these suddenly emerging new directors with their scripts, although it was unclear what they had specifically discussed with Zhou Yang, each of them came out arrogantly stating, "Zhou Yang is very optimistic about my project and is prepared to invest in me."

…………

The conference room was filled with smoke, and the table was piled with scripts such as "Journey to the West: Gods", "The Great War of Gods", and "The Love of the Demon Knight".

Chen Lei stared at the outrageous outline of "Falling in Love with the Demon Knight"!

I felt my heart tremble slightly!

Fuck!
This thing is actually labeled as a "Zhou Yang's personally selected project"!
What's even more bizarre is that some of these scripts have already climbed to third place on the trending topics list online!

"This is fucking awful! It's so bad it makes me want to vomit!" A representative from a financial firm slammed down the proposal for "Bao Gong vs. the Demon Knight," only to find everyone else silently flipping through reports...

These terrible movies have pre-sale figures that are 200% higher than those of legitimate projects.

Someone suddenly gave a wry smile: "Weren't Zhou Yang's 'Sun Wukong vs. Superman' stories also criticized as garbage back then? Now..."

The phone rang suddenly, and the secretary reported tremblingly, "The director of 'Building Dreams in the Entertainment Industry' just released a press release saying that Zhou Yang has added 5000 million yuan."

……

Chen Lei looked at the analysis team not far away...

The analysis team is now sweating profusely.

It seems like all these movies are going to be huge flops...

Can……

Some market analysts, seeing the traffic and buzz on the internet, are now somewhat bewildered.

Many of these blockbuster movies are works from China's four major film and television companies!

sign……

Go for it!

I won't sign...

What if Zhou Yang signs it?
What if it becomes popular?
What the hell!
Many movies are indeed bad!

but……

Unfortunately, some bad movies...

For example, Zhou Yang's film, "Love Rollercoaster," is an epic disaster where even basketball players are flying high...

The box office was actually pretty good, and DVD sales were decent too...

Moreover, there are just too many fake news stories in the market. Directors who appear out of nowhere are all jumping around and making a ruckus!
So many that they didn't even know if Zhou Yang truly thought highly of these movies anymore...

Just then, someone sighed, and someone stood up.

"Forget it, let's give them more investment in 'Building Dreams in the Entertainment Industry'! This movie is hot, generates a lot of buzz, and everyone's jumping on its coattails. Seeing this director, I feel like I'm seeing a second Zhou Yang, both so unconventional. They could be nurtured... who knows, maybe he'll be the next Zhou Yang..."

"..."

(End of this chapter)