Huayu: A Commercial Director

Chapter 250 The Largest Premiere + Celebration Banquet

Yang Mi's movie performed well at the box office, and is expected to gross 600 to 700 million yuan.

This was already quite a lot, which greatly boosted Yang Mi's confidence and led to increased publicity efforts. Within a few days, he appeared on several television programs.

Many TV stations welcome promotions for A-list celebrities, since they don't have to pay for them.

The Hunan TV show never charges appearance fees; celebrities appear for free, mainly to promote their work.

For celebrities, indoor variety shows are an important promotional platform.

Yang Mi even set her sights on him, hoping that Chen Shouzhe could appear on a TV show to promote her.

He's dreaming. Aside from interviews with CCTV, Chen Shouzhe hasn't appeared on many programs.

Now, he can only be seen in some old programs from 10 years ago. As a behind-the-scenes staff member, he rarely appears on programs to promote himself.

Besides filming, actors also have to promote their work; you can't just finish filming and run away.

Even if you're filming on set, and your previous movie required you to promote it, you still have to come out and cooperate with the promotion.

This rule is an unspoken rule in the industry, and you can't detain my actors. If your crew detains them, I can detain your movie actors the next time your movie is released. Making a scene won't solve anything for the actors.

Generally, the schedule and shooting date are coordinated in advance. Any activities need to be reported in advance for coordination of the shooting.

Wu Jing's film has already surpassed 5 billion yuan, and a celebration banquet is being prepared. Chen Shouzhe previously pioneered the model of combining the premiere and the celebration banquet.

There's no other way; he makes a movie every month, and he needs to eat at the premiere and celebration banquet, so it's better to combine them all at once.

With box office revenue exceeding 9 billion, a big celebration is definitely in order. In addition, his movie "Operation Northern Myanmar" will be released on September 28, and the premiere and celebration banquet are both scheduled for the 23rd.

Invitations were sent to almost all major and medium-sized companies in the film and television industry, but the invitation was unique to Shouzhe Pictures.

Everyone else is having a premiere or a movie celebration party.

The invitation from Shou Zhe Film Studio included a celebration banquet and an invitation letter, leading many to believe that Chen Shou Zhe was stingy for only inviting people once.

However, they also knew that the cost of treating everyone would be a small matter. Everyone was very busy, and it would be too troublesome for them to get together back and forth. It would be better to invite everyone over at once.

This event was very large in scale. Originally, we planned to hold it at the Great Hall of the People, since both films are patriotic films, but in the end, we decided against it and chose the CPPCC Auditorium instead.

Compared to Yang Mi's film premiere, this event was spearheaded by Shouying Film Industry, with Golden Shield, China Film Group, Xi'an Film Group, Shanghai Film Group, and Wanda Pictures joining forces, making it a much larger event that encompassed almost the entire mainland film and television industry.

Almost all the prominent companies and A-list celebrities were present. Many people from Hong Kong came, and although Chen Shouzhe didn't want to invite them, he still included them because he was right in some respects. There were also a few companies from Taiwan.

Although they disliked the Wang brothers, the two still came in person, and even Jiang Zhiqiang, who had been tricked by Chen Shou, came.

The scale of the red carpet surpassed that of all domestic awards, with dozens of internet companies in attendance.

The sheer scale of the event left many visitors speechless; the commotion was simply too great.

Once inside, they found that Director Tong and Zhang Hongsheng were there, along with several middle-aged men in white shirts. Only a few people, including Director La and Ren Zhonglun, could go over and chat with them; the others could only watch from afar.

As the producer and director, Chen Shouzhe naturally accompanied them, but they would not stay for the celebration banquet. After the movie ended, they got up to say goodbye, which relieved everyone present. They really couldn't relax with these people around.

They watched the movie first and then held a celebration banquet. Chen Shou had good relationships within the industry and stood on the stage to accept media interviews.

"Director Chen, I'd like to ask you what your box office prediction is for the film?"

"I hope it can surpass The Taking of Tiger Mountain." Chen Shou held the microphone. As for the box office of patriotic films, as long as they don't lose money, that's enough. He would be satisfied if it surpassed The Taking of Tiger Mountain.

"Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy has shown us another way out for patriotic films. I would like to ask Director Chen, will you continue to make patriotic films?"

"Definitely, but that's next year's plan. We can look forward to it then." Hearing what Chen Shou said, the eyes of the media company bosses sitting at the front tables lit up. Mainstream commercial films are great! In their view, they can achieve results and make money at the same time. Why not? They just need to see if they can get involved.

After the interview, they need to find Chen Shou to get closer to him.

The reporter then interviewed the actors. Yan Danchen and Dilraba stood next to Chen Shouzhe, while Zhang Hanyu and Zhang Tong were a bit further away. Many people present knew that both women had relationships with Chen Shouzhe, and together with Yang Mi in the audience, they were able to access so many of Chen Shouzhe's resources.

While they admired her, they also wanted to take her place.

"Alright, the premiere is over. Now, Director Wu Jing, come up here. Everything is ready for you."

Chen Shou checked the time; it was time to move on. He called Wu Jing and his team up and brought out a large cake and a large block of ice.

A new record has been set, almost broken even though the movie hasn't finished its run yet.

The five producers, Chen Shouzhe, La Dong, Wang Changtian, Liu Xiaobing, and Wu Jing, stood together.

The ice cube contained the number 56 billion.

It's too dazzling, too blinding.

Who would have thought that a movie would gross 56 billion yuan in the domestic market?

Chen Shouzhe's 48 billion is already outrageous. Wu Jing is a relatively new director. His first film lost money, and he couldn't find investment for his second film. Who would have thought that his third film would be such a huge hit, making him the second most commercially successful director after Chen Shouzhe?

Chen Shouzhe's film was released worldwide, and its total box office will definitely be higher than Wu Jing's film, but the domestic box office record already belongs to Wu Jing.

His films are destined not to be very successful overseas, unlike science fiction films which have common elements.

When the large block of ice was placed in front of them, they felt more envy and jealousy.

I envy Chen Shouzhe, I'm jealous of Chen Shouzhe.

He made all the money.

A CEO asked Huo Wenxi, who was standing next to him, "How's our movie filming going?"

"The filming is complete, only a few finishing touches remain," Huo Wenxi said.

"When will we be able to achieve this much at the box office? We need to hurry up and get Director Chen involved," he said.

"Boss, you can't treat people the same way as before..."

"Now that I know his personality, I'll look for an animal to give him another day."

Huo Wenxi breathed a sigh of relief; he was afraid that his boss would send someone away again.

Standing on the stage, Chen Shouzhe took in the expressions of everyone below the stage. He picked up a wooden mallet and struck the ice block.

The ice cracked, and the second half of the celebration began.

Although Wu Jing was the main character this time, Chen Shouzhe, as the biggest producer, still received the warmest welcome.

After deducting the special funds from the 56 billion yuan, there is still 53 billion yuan available for box office revenue sharing. Based on a 43% share, the box office revenue that ends up in their hands is approximately 22.8 billion yuan.

Chen Shouzhe took half, which is 11.4 billion, while his investment was only a fraction of that, yet he took 10 billion. Many listed companies only earn that much in a year.

To put it bluntly, he earned the combined annual revenue of Enlight Media and Huayi Brothers from just one film, rivaling Wanda Pictures, which has its own theatrical releases.

(End of this chapter)