Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 405 Interviewing Awesomeness
In January, the snow fell silently in the capital.

After being delayed by "Bad Genius" for a few days, Feng Xiaogang's "If You Are the One" finally crossed the 300 million mark on the 5th.

Huayi's long-planned grand celebration banquet unsurprisingly became the focus of media attention.

Big names like Jackie Chan, who are familiar with Huayi Brothers, were invited to the event.

Feng Xiaogang held up a sign that read "300 million" and smiled broadly.

He is the third director in China to have a film gross of 300 million yuan, and the second in mainland China.

For him, this time he has surpassed Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige in terms of box office revenue.
When interviewed by the media, Feng Xiaogang spoke fluently and confidently, appearing quite pleased with himself.

Wang Changtian naturally witnessed this scene and contacted Wu Chen the next day.

"Let's celebrate the 300 million box office success." Wu Chen smiled upon hearing this. "We definitely need to put on a show for Director Ning too. Based on current box office projections, it'll probably surpass 'If You Are the One' by two or three days, around the 16th or 17th."

Wang Changtian laughed heartily: "Haha, Director Wu and I think the same way, then let's tentatively set it for the 17th."

The box office of "Bad Genius" grew rapidly.

Although the situation worsened slightly after entering the work week, the Chinese film box office trend did not follow the same pattern as Hollywood, where the box office would be halved on work weekdays. Instead, the decline was relatively mild, and the box office was able to maintain around 1500 million yuan.

At this very moment, China Film Group released its major project shooting plan for this year, with "The Founding of a Republic" prominently featured at the top.

Han Sanping's zero-salary plan was not publicly announced, but he took the opportunity to invite veteran actors such as Tang Guoqiang and Zhang Guoli to join the project. The latter expressed that they did not need any salary, which opened up the situation as if by tacit agreement.

There is a shortage of over 200 roles.
As a result, "zero pay" quickly became a hot topic in the industry, with actors from all sides either recommending themselves or being pushed in by their agents.

Over the phone, Jiang Wen's voice was filled with admiration: "Chairman Han, what a brilliant plan!"

He didn't expect that being invited to make a guest appearance was only one thing; Han Sanping actually planned to invite an all-star guest lineup.

Wu Chen chuckled: "Only Chairman Han could play this game. Why don't you give it a try?"

"I don't have that kind of influence, but my script will definitely have an all-star lineup, just you wait."

Jiang Wen was very confident.

Just as "Bad Genius" was enjoying a smooth box office run and was about to break the $200 million mark in its second weekend, the College Board in the United States released a statement that instantly sparked a new round of heated discussion:
In light of recent Asian films depicting SAT cheating across time zones, the College Board hereby issues the following statement:

No related incidents have occurred so far, and the committee will actively develop a more rigorous examination system and procedures in the future.
Measures including, but not limited to, increasing the frequency of question bank rotation, implementing random question selection mechanisms, and increasing invigilation efforts, are taken to resolutely uphold the fairness and impartiality of the examination and safeguard the interests of all candidates.

The statement was immediately shared wildly by major domestic portal websites:
"Wow, the US actually issued a statement?"

"Is the film based on reality?"

"Maybe reality is more exciting than the movies, maybe these cheating methods have been popular for years!"

"This public relations statement was quite timely."

Netizens joked and teased, further fueling public discussion about the film.

Meanwhile, Wu Chen and others were invited to a special interview with the movie channel to review the film's creative process.
Since returning these past few days, everyone hasn't had an easy time, with a barrage of questions from all sides. Enlight Media even arranged an interview program for the film, which will certainly help increase the overall exposure of the movie.

During the interview, Wu Chen, Ning Hao, and others handled the host Yao Miao's questions with ease, giving very formal answers.

"Evie, you play a highly intelligent character in this movie. What are you like in real life? Are you just as smart?"

Yao Miao then turned to the lead actor for questions.

"Huh?" Liu Yifei's eyes lit up, then she shook her head with a grin: "I'm not that smart in real life. Wu Chen often makes fun of me, saying I'm stupid and silly."

"Nonsense, I never said that. She's slandering me," Wu Chen laughed, trying to prove himself.

The people around chuckled softly.

"Haha, I'll help you condemn him." Yao Miao laughed upon hearing this, but still pressed on, "Yi Fei, everyone knows you're very beautiful."

"No, no, I'm ugly, I'm the ugliest in my family," Liu Yifei shook her head vigorously. Shu Chang couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Wu Chen was also suppressing a laugh.

It has to be said that interviewing Liu Yifei was much more interesting than interviewing the others, and Yao Miao seemed to have noticed that as well.

"Since Iphie has said so, then I'll ask a difficult question."

"Oh?" Liu Yifei was clearly intrigued and wanted to test her skills against Yao Miao.

"Yifei, you just said that Director Wu said you're stupid, and you also said you're ugly, but I don't think Director Wu and the others agree. So, if you had to choose one, would you choose ugly or stupid?"

After asking the question, Yao Miao looked at Liu Yifei curiously.

Wu Chen and the others waited with great interest for Liu Yifei's reply.

Liu Yifei said almost without hesitation: "I choose stupid!"

"Oh, Iphie, what do you mean?"

"Because I'm ugly, I knew it immediately," Liu Yifei smiled slightly, "but as for being stupid, I might never know I'm stupid."

"Ha ha ha ha."

The audience burst into laughter during the interview.

Liu Yifei's "interviewing arrogance syndrome" has flared up again.

Yao Miao couldn't help but exclaim, "Yifei is so interesting!"

At the end of the interview, the question naturally came up regarding the university committee's statement.

In front of the camera, Wu Chen appeared relaxed: "I think it's great. It's good that the examination mechanism can be improved in a timely manner. Fairness in examinations is a part of social fairness, and this is what we hope to see."

The interview was released over the weekend, and many people found it hilarious.

"This reply is not stupid at all, it's incredibly clever."

"Haha, that makes sense. If you're stupid, you'll never realize you're stupid. Yeah, that's definitely true."

"This interview is hilarious!"

"The ugliest in the family? I can't take it, I'm going to get depressed."

"."

On the morning of the 12th, "Bad Genius" achieved a new milestone in its performance.
"Bad Genius" has raked in 200 million yuan at the box office in 11 days, reaching 2.15 million yuan, and is expected to surpass 300 million yuan by the end of next week.

"Bad Genius surpasses If You Are the One's record of breaking 200 million yuan in 13 days, setting a new record for domestic films."

"Liu Yifei is about to become the first female lead to gross over 300 million yuan at the box office."

"."

Reports continued to emerge.

This result left many actresses feeling helpless.

"There are only a handful of movies that grossed 300 million yuan at the domestic box office, and some of them even had female leads who were just there for show."

"How are we supposed to follow this? The box office jumped straight from 100 million to 300 million, without any transition in between."

"."

(End of this chapter)