Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 684 Two Hundred Million?
Friday, January 9th.

The National Day holiday is just around the corner.

But for the mainland film market, this war without gunpowder has already begun ahead of schedule.

Originally scheduled to be released on the 29th alongside "Painted Skin," "The Legend of the White Snake" has decided to move its release time forward by a full six hours in order to gain an advantage.

Meanwhile, "1911 Revolution," directed by Jackie Chan, chose to officially open its theaters after a small-scale preview screening in the early hours of today.

As for Wu Chen and Liu Yifei's "The Warmest Thirty Days of My Life," it will still be released on October 1st, National Day, as originally planned.

Industry insiders are filled with curiosity about these two epic period fantasy films that have been released first.

It's worth noting that online, these two movies have already been jokingly referred to by netizens as a showdown between "Li Lianjie's fairy army and Sun Li and Deng Chao's fairy army".

"It's out! It's out! The opening day box office figures for the two movies are in!"

Liu Yifei, who was in the dressing room preparing for the afternoon's promotional event, suddenly held up her phone and shouted excitedly.

These days, her favorite thing to do is to browse various film reviews and comments about "30 Days of Warmth" on her phone.

Even when preparing for a promotional trip, they still manage to steal a few moments to glance at it.

"How many?"

Wu Chen, who was watching the event proceedings from the side, looked over curiously.

"The Legend of the White Snake had a preview screening with 900 million yuan, plus 1500 million yuan from today's daytime showings, bringing the opening day box office to 2400 million yuan."

Liu Yifei read out the numbers, "Mr. Wang's 'Painted Skin' grossed over 1200 million on its opening day. Is that considered normal?"

"What's wrong with that!"

"I've seen a lot of criticism online, and the Douban rating is quite low."

"."

The box office results are finally in, and the media hype continues unabated.

[The Legend of the White Snake leads the National Day box office with 2400 million yuan on its opening day!]

[The film "Painted Skin" followed closely behind, grossing over 10 million yuan on its opening day, proving that the star power of the husband-and-wife team of Deng Chao and Sun Li remains undiminished!]

The National Day box office battle has begun early! Fantasy films emerge as the biggest winners!

However, amidst the media's praise, the online community was flooded with complaints from ordinary netizens, growing increasingly fierce with each passing day.

"I threw up! I just came out of the movie theater! What kind of garbage is 'The Legend of the White Snake'? The special effects are worth no more than 50 cents! The plot is a complete mess!"

Bai Suzhen is like a naive and innocent girl, and Xu Xian is a complete scumbag! Fahai is the real protagonist! I seriously suspect this movie should be renamed "The Legend of Fahai"!

"Hey upstairs, have you seen 'Painted Skin'? That's a true masterpiece! It's a complete 'buzzer' moment! A bunch of fairies surrounding a scholar, throwing themselves at him, it makes absolutely no sense."

"Ugh, I wish '30 Days of Warmth' would be released soon, I can't stand them anymore!"

"."

In the office of Juli Film and Television, Yang Zi looked at the comments on the internet, his face so gloomy it was almost dripping with water.

Although, so far, the box office performance on the first day seems quite encouraging.

However, two more films, "1911 Revolution" and "The Warmest Thirty Days of My Life," are scheduled to be released soon.

The production cost of "The Legend of the White Snake" was as high as 1.5 million yuan.

The box office needs to be at least 3 million to break even.

"No! We need to add fuel to the fire!"

Yang Zi gritted his teeth and immediately instructed his publicity team to unleash a major offensive.

"This time, we specially invited the special effects team from 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and spent over ten million US dollars to create top-notch visual effects for us!"

"The Legend of the White Snake" is designed to present a true magical feast to the vast Chinese audience! This ticket price is absolutely worth it!

"A viewer's comment, 'It's worth spending a few dozen yuan to see "The Legend of the White Snake," is enough for me! Our goal is at least 300 million yuan!"

When Wu Chen saw this news in his hotel room, he almost couldn't help but spit out the mouthful of water he had just taken a sip of.

Holy crap! Tens of millions of dollars in special effects?
That's quite a boast! Why were you so stingy when you quoted Xingchen Special Effects in the first place?

Of course, there are quite a few naive netizens on the internet who actually believed this explanation.

"Really? Then I really have to go to the cinema to see it."

"Ten million dollars for special effects? That's almost a hundred million yuan, rounded up?"

"Damn it! The production cost of this movie was less than 200 million RMB, right? Are you sure the special effects alone cost tens of millions of US dollars?"

It must be said that Yang Zi's move, though simple and crude, was somewhat effective.

After all, for a fantasy blockbuster, special effects are always one of the biggest highlights.

"Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?"

Huang Shengyi looked at Yang Zi, who was spouting off in front of the media, and asked with some concern, "The audience is just for fooling. Anyway, no one will take it seriously." Yang Zi didn't care at all; he was more concerned about his reputation right now.

"Go! Check this out! What's going on with these Douban ratings? Why are there so many one-star and two-star reviews? Is someone deliberately trying to smear us?"

Yang Zi's side is enthusiastically promoting it.

Wang Changtian of Enlight Media was no exception.

He also publicly announced a box office target of 300 million.

This put Ren Zhonglun, the director of "The 1911 Revolution," in a great hurry and under immense pressure.

The main problem is that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television set a target of 1 billion yuan in box office revenue for tribute films at the beginning of the year, and now almost all the pressure is on the Shanghai Film Group.

Although China Film Group's "The Founding of a Republic" grossed over 4 million yuan, the box office of other patriotic films was almost negligible.

"The 1911 Revolution will rival The Founding of a Republic and aim for a box office of 400 million! We are confident that we can present a great gift to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China!"

When Ren Zhonglun was interviewed, he could only grit his teeth and shout out the slogan.

For a time, the slogans were shouted loudly throughout the National Day holiday period.

This left other film companies in the industry completely baffled.

"Seriously? Three hundred million or four hundred million all the time? Damn, when we make a movie, getting even a hundred million is like climbing to the sky!"

"This is outrageous! They're all drinking fake alcohol? If you guys achieve all the box office targets, then this year's National Day holiday box office will be heading for 15 billion yuan, right?"

"I'm quite curious what Wu Chen and Liu Yifei will say about 'The Warmest Thirty Days of My Life'?"

Facing countless expectant eyes from both inside and outside the industry, the media naturally understands this perfectly well.

During the promotional activities for "30 Days of Warmth", they kept asking Wu Chen and Liu Yifei questions.

"Director Wu, your peers have all set very high box office targets. What are your expectations for '30 Days of Warmth'?"

"My colleagues all think it's quite high, so it wouldn't be good if I said it's too low. But if I say it's too high, I'm afraid I might be wrong."

After all, our film isn't particularly commercial. I'd be quite satisfied if it broke a record for an art-house film.

Wu Chen smiled and began practicing Tai Chi.
"Oh, Director Wu, don't be so modest. Give me a number! Are you aiming to break the record with two hundred million or three hundred million? That makes a big difference!"

The media wouldn't let it go.

"How much do you think is appropriate?"

Wu Chen smiled and asked Liu Yifei, who was standing next to him.

This question immediately drew cheers from all the onlookers and media present.

Liu Yifei blinked, tilted her head, thought for a moment, and then said somewhat conservatively:
"We don't need to go too high, right? After all, we've already sold a lot of the copyrights. How about two hundred million?"

"Hey, you all heard that, right?" Wu Chen said with a smile. "I'll listen to her."

Before long, news also broke about Wu Chen and Liu Yifei's box office expectations for "Warm Thirty Days".

[Wu Chen and Liu Yifei respond to box office expectations: 200 million yuan would be satisfactory!]

[In the National Day box office battle, Wu Chen and Liu Yifei are the most "laid-back"!]

[Liu Yifei takes charge, setting a box office target of 200 million yuan for her new film!]

【.】

The first to notice this news were none other than several competitors in the same time slot.

"Two hundred million?"

Yang Zi smiled happily when he saw the number, and felt a great sense of relief.

"It seems Wu Chen isn't very confident this time either. No need to worry, no need to worry! Right now, the most important thing is still with 'Painted Skin.' They're really putting up a tough fight."

The two films, "Painted Skin" and "The Legend of the White Snake," seem to be quantum entangled now.

The box office has been fluctuating around 1300 million over the past two days.

You advance, I retreat; neither of us can shake the other off.

"If the box office of these two movies could feed my family, that would be great."

Yang Zi looked at the real-time box office data and felt very anxious.

At this rate, forget about 300 million, even 200 million would be considered good.

On the contrary, Wang Changtian and Ren Zhonglun, who truly understood Wu Chen, did not relax at all after seeing the figure of "two hundred million".

They didn't believe a single punctuation mark on the number Wu Chen and Liu Yifei mentioned.

At this moment, everyone is waiting for the box office results for the first day of the National Day holiday to be released the next day.

The key to box office overflow can only be seen on the first day of the holiday.
(End of this chapter)