HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 323 [323] 2000, Unlock Achievement: Qi Yuannian
The box office figures for "Bouquet" on its opening day caused a stir in the industry.

Outside of the entertainment industry, the first batch of viewers who saw the film began recommending it to their friends and online acquaintances.

"I highly recommend everyone watch this movie. Whether you've been in a relationship or not, you'll gain something from watching it. I only realized after watching this movie that sometimes men and women think differently."

"After watching this movie, I'm a little scared. My girlfriend and I are the same way. We got together because of similar interests and common ground. We've been dating for a month and have endless topics to talk about. I'm afraid that we'll become like strangers in the future."

"Don't be afraid, don't worry that future heartbreak will ruin the beauty in front of you. You didn't understand the core of this movie. What the screenwriter and director wanted to express was that adult love is not a wish-fulfillment story. As long as two people love each other well, even if they can't be together, saying goodbye properly is a kind of fulfillment in itself."

"This movie is so realistic, it's like it's spying on our lives."

Some netizens hold different opinions.

"Two people who seem similar are simply covered up with labels like books, music, and movies. They find that the other person shares a few of these labels with them and think that true love has arrived. They talk about movies and literature, but never about values ​​or the future. Such love is a castle in the air from the very beginning, and its collapse is inevitable."

Both of the audience's statements are correct.

Whether you're an artsy young person who likes this film or a rational person who's indifferent, no one can deny its success.

On its second day of release, the film grossed 831 million yuan.

The number dropped slightly on the third day, to approximately 819 million.

2452 million in three days!
This achievement undoubtedly injects a glimmer of vitality into the sluggish mainland film market.

In order to boost box office revenue, Qi Yuan and Chen Kaige worked tirelessly, traveling to cities all over the country to promote their products.

For a top-tier celebrity with box office appeal, the first three days are the peak period for fans to enter the theater.

Three days later, the number of fans decreased, and it depended on the movie's word-of-mouth and the number of casual viewers.

On the fourth day, which was a Monday, the daily box office indeed dropped to around 650 million.

Both Qi Yuan and Chen Kaige were quite satisfied with this result.

In the near future, "The Bouquet" will enter a period of stable box office performance thanks to its good word-of-mouth. Qi Yuan predicts that the daily box office will remain stable between 400 million and 600 million for one to ten days.

This means that "The Bouquet" could gross 7000 million or even 8000 million yuan at the mainland box office.

This number is outrageous; currently, the mainland's total box office can only support a little over 100 million yuan for a movie.

Titanic was a game-changer; it took five years to make, cost $200 million, and used the most advanced special effects technology available at the time.

Before entering the Chinese market, Titans had already become a global box office and critical sensation, raising its popularity and audience expectations in mainland China to an unprecedented level, which led to its box office success of 3.6 million RMB.

"Bouquet" is just an art-house romance film with an investment of less than one-tenth that of "Titans," so it's incredible that it grossed 7000 to 8000 million at the box office.

This achievement is thanks to the combined reputations of Qi Yuan and Chen Kaige.

If Feng Xiaogang were to direct a film, it would cost at most 30 to 40 million yuan.

With the success of the trilogy "The Mission", "Infernal Affairs" and "Bouquet", Qi Yuan has risen to become the young actor with the highest box office performance in the country, without exception.

Some media outlets began calling 2000 the year of Qi Yuan, a year of hope for Chinese-language films.

The reasons given by the media are quite valid.

Besides the unsurpassable "Choice of Life and Death," Qi Yuan's starring roles in "Bouquet" and "Infernal Affairs" will occupy the second and third places on the 2000 mainland box office chart.

Qi Yuan occupied two of the top three spots.

In Hong Kong, Qi Yuan's starring role in "Infernal Affairs" made it the highest-grossing film of the year, and no new Hong Kong film in the second half of the year could surpass it. This is just one example of Qi Yuan's success in the film industry.

In the music industry, Qi Yuan successfully entered the Japanese market, with his singles selling nearly 200 million copies in Europe and America.

Some media outlets have also said that we should not limit our focus to the film industry; the entire entertainment industry in 2000 can be called the year of Qi Yuan.

Qi Yuan himself found this statement quite interesting.

He remembered that the saying "xx year" only came about in 03.

In her previous life in 03, Zhao Yanzi starred in four movies, collaborating with top stars like Jiang Wen and Nicholas Tse, becoming a focus of the film and television industry that year. The media dubbed 03 the "Year of Zhao Yanzi."

Qi Yuan never expected that he would actually steal the achievements of xx years ahead of time.

……

With the huge box office success of "The Bouquet" in mainland China, the release dates for Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and other regions have also been set.

It will be released in Hong Kong on November 23, in Taiwan on November 25, and in Japan on November 28.

The most important market is Japan, followed by Hong Kong; the Taiwanese film market is terrible.

"Infernal Affairs" didn't even gross 20 million RMB at the Taiwanese box office, and Li An's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" didn't even reach 15 million.

Just as Media Asia announced the specific release date for the film, Warner Bros. has made a new move.

Qi Yuan's EP, featuring songs "Baby" and "You're Beautiful," was sent to radio stations in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other countries and regions for promotion and charting.

Both songs are new. Qi Yuan sang "Baby" once at her Taipei concert, but only the 15,000 audience members present had heard the song before.

In the movie, these two songs only appear briefly for twenty or thirty seconds.

For music fans, these two songs are very new.

The other hidden song, "Sugar," has not been touched by Warner Music or its headquarters.

This is hidden content in the deluxe edition of the ep; viewers won't hear it unless they pay extra for the deluxe edition.

Warner Music stated in their announcement: 'Qi Yuan's global fans have been eagerly anticipating this moment. On November 28, 2000, Qi Yuan's first all-English EP, "22," will be released worldwide…'

Qi Yuan's fans were all excited.

Global release, look, their idols still have the prestige.

Those so-called superstars, all boasting about going international, why don't they try releasing an EP or album globally?
"It's here, it's finally here! I've already fallen in love with Qi Yuan's first English single. Tonight I'm going to stay up late to listen to both of her new songs."

“Qi Yuan! Do you know how painful it has been for me to wait? Do you know how I’ve been these past few days? My girlfriend and I bought movie tickets twice just to hear your new English song.”

"I'm so looking forward to it. The few dozen seconds that 'Baby' and 'You're Beautiful' appear in the movie are really good. I hope the full version won't disappoint me."

"I heard that 'Free Loop' is the weakest one? I want to hear how good these two new English songs are."

……

Listeners from many countries and regions are eagerly awaiting Qi Yuan's new English song to debut on the radio, including fellow singers in the industry.

(End of this chapter)