HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 322 [322] "Bouquet" grosses eight million on its opening day, the highest opening day gross for a domestic film in recent years.
Sa Beining is a very professional host, he has received professional training, and he kept his composure.

Today he has achieved enlightenment in Longchang.

He vowed that in the future, when he has the opportunity to share his experience with young people, he would use his experience of being recommended to Peking University and then to graduate school to make a big splash.

……

The premiere of "The Bouquet" concluded successfully.

Starry Sky, China Film Group, Media Asia, and Warner Bros. all launched a publicity campaign simultaneously.

The first three are investors, producers, or distributors, and it's perfectly reasonable for them to promote the film, since it involves their own interests.

Warner Music helped with the promotion to generate buzz for Qi Yuan's EP.

The songs "You're Beautiful" and "Baby" from the EP were used as background music for the movie.

Warner has already arranged for the factory to record it.

The EP will be released when "Bouquet" is shown in Japan.

This time, Qi Yuan's EP has been upgraded to a global release, making Qi Yuan the first Chinese male singer to release an English EP worldwide.

This was Qi Yuan's first battle to penetrate Europe and America.

After several days of heavy promotion, on November 17th, an ordinary Friday, "The Bouquet" was officially released in mainland China.

Audiences in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Guangzhou began buying tickets to enter cinemas.

……

At around 2 a.m. on the 18th, a day later, Qi Yuan was woken up by a phone call from Chen Kaige.

"Ah Yuan, the box office data for the first day is in. Do you know how much the box office was on the first day? 802 million! It's the highest-grossing domestic film on its opening day in recent years."

Chen Kaige was very excited.

Don't assume that Chen Kaige doesn't care about box office revenue.

His achievements were all built on his past work in art films; his performance in commercial films has been lackluster, even compared to Zhang Yingmou, who also started out making art films.

Zhang Yingmou directed "Keep Cool" in 97, which grossed 4600 million yuan at the box office, and "Not One Less" in 99, which grossed 3000 million yuan at the box office.

Chen Kaige's most recent film is "The Emperor and the Assassin," which was a commercial success, but only grossed 1000 million yuan at the mainland box office.

Keep in mind that the investment in "Jing Ke" was as high as 7000 million!
The failure of "Jing Ke" means that Chen Kaige's attempt at commercial films has failed once again, and his reputation has also deteriorated, with people criticizing him.

This time, "Bouquet" had a real investment of 2500 million yuan, which is several times less than "Jing Ke".

With its opening day box office nearly matching the total box office of "Jing Ke", how could Chen Kaige not be excited?

Chen Kaige has finally proven himself in the commercial film industry.

Director Chen was in a great mood. He felt it was so great to work with Qi Yuan. He was praised by everyone, and the movie was a box office success. He truly achieved both fame and fortune!
He's starting to look forward to that big-budget film with an investment of hundreds of millions of yuan. How amazing it will be to make that movie! Maybe he'll even get another title as the top commercial director in mainland China.

Qi Yuan was woken up in the middle of the night, feeling somewhat distressed, but upon learning the box office figures for the first day, he was also very happy.

802 million—this figure was incredibly valuable in the mainland market in 2000.

Last year's box office champion in mainland China, "Be There or Be Square," only grossed 4300 million yuan.

In fact, the mainland film market has great potential, stronger than Hong Kong and Taiwan combined.

In 95, a film titled "True Lies" was released in mainland China, which grossed 1 million yuan at the box office.

The 98 film "Titanic" grossed an astonishing 3.6 million.

This year's "Choice Between Life and Death" also grossed 1.2 million. This film is quite special. Many organizations and departments organized viewings and study sessions for it. It cannot be compared with ordinary commercial films.

The 01 film Pearl Harbor grossed over 1 million.

Zhang Yingmou's "Hero" grossed 02 million yuan in 2.5.

Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle" grossed 1.73 million yuan in 04.

These data demonstrate that mainland China already possessed the market potential for a single film to gross over 100 million yuan in 1995. As long as a film has a sufficiently compelling narrative to attract audiences to theaters, its box office can indeed exceed 100 million yuan.

"Bouquet" has just the right gimmicks: it won an award in Tokyo, stars the hottest star Qi Yuan, and is directed by Chen Kaige, the top director in mainland China. These are all gimmicks to attract audiences to the theater.

Of course, films like "Bouquet" are aimed at young people, and older uncles and aunts may not like to watch them.

Qi Yuan believes it's almost impossible for "Bouquet" to break 100 million views.

However, 802 million is a good start, and Qi Yuan is very much looking forward to seeing how much box office this film can achieve.

Qi Yuan patted Fan Xiaopang, who was lying next to her.

Fan Xiaopang, still half asleep, muttered, "What time is it? Why are you still coming?"

"Our movie's opening day box office is in the hundreds of thousands."

Fan Xiaopang's eyes suddenly cleared, and he sat up excitedly: "802 million!!! Come on, let's not sleep tonight."

802 million! Having been in the industry for several years, Fan Xiaopang certainly understood what 802 million on the first day meant.

Last year, only four films in mainland China grossed over 30 million yuan, while a large number of films didn't even reach 10 million yuan.

"Bouquet" grossed over 800 million yuan on its opening day, surpassing the total box office of many films from their release to their final screening.

She's really about to take off this time.

In the film industry, apart from Zhang Ziyi, all the young actresses in mainland China have become younger men.

Zhao Yanzi, Lin Xinru, Zhou Xun, and Xu Jinglei all have to take a backseat.

……

At 10 a.m. on the 18th, the Beijing Film News released the box office figures for the first day of "Bouquet".

The figure of 802 million caused an uproar in the entire mainland film industry.

Feng Xiaogang was devastated. He had spent four months making a film that only grossed a little over 40 million yuan, while Qi Yuan and Chen Kaige's films made eight million yuan a day.

It hasn't even been released in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Japan yet. Once it's released in all those places, how much will it gross? More than 100 million? Maybe 150 million? 200 million?

The box office success was already excessive, but after browsing media reports and audience comments, Feng Xiaogang found it was even more excessive.

"Bouquet" has received very good reviews. Apart from a few media outlets and netizens who criticized it as pretentious and affected, the vast majority of them praised it.

Feng Xiaogang also longed to make a film that would be a box office and critical success, and seeing the success of "Bouquet" filled him with envy.

He pushed open the door to Huayi Brothers' president's office once again: "Give me the money, and I'll make good films that have both critical acclaim and box office success."

Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei: "..."

Qi Yuan, you're a scourge.

Wang Zhongjun spent a lot of time persuading Feng Xiaogang to leave, promising to give Feng Xiaogang 30 to 40 million yuan in the future so that Feng Xiaogang could film whatever he wanted.

"I don't understand why that kid surnamed Qi succeeds at everything he does. Is he really blessed with good fortune?"

Wang Zhonglei was very frustrated.

Wang Zhongjun did not answer.

He attended the premiere that day, but his focus was actually on the English songs featured in the film.

He studied in the United States for four or five years, during which time he was exposed to a lot of European and American music. Qi Yuan's songs gave him the same feeling as many classic European and American songs, and he was deeply impressed after listening to them once.

He suspected that Qi Yuan only made the dumplings because of the vinegar, and made the movie because of those songs.

If one English song sold for fifty or sixty million, how much would several songs combined sell for? And how much of that would Qi Yuan get?
No wonder this kid dared to say that 100 million is a small goal; perhaps for him, 100 million really is just a small goal.

When it comes to making money, Qi Yuan alone can easily crush the entire Huayi Group.

(End of this chapter)