Huayu: Starting from joining the mainstream entertainment industry in 96

Chapter 305, Section 303: Reactions and Startup

Time slipped by to Thursday, July 20, 2000.

After the first weekend (July 14-16) and the subsequent days of fermentation and data compilation, the opening weekend box office results of "My Sassy Girl" were like a thunderclap, exploding in the somewhat dull summer movie season.

Despite the delays in data reporting from some remote cinemas, preliminary statistics show that the box office for the first weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) has reached approximately 1765 million yuan!

This number, like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, instantly stirred up a thousand waves.

The media was the first to react with excitement.

The entertainment section of the China Youth Daily featured the film on its front page with a striking headline: "A 'Savage' Storm Sweeps the Nation! 'My Sassy Girl' Raises 1765 Million Yuan in its Opening Weekend, Breaking Wang Sheng's Personal Record!"

The article details the film's remarkable performance in major box office cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, stating that "with its precise genre positioning, subversive character design, and abundant humor, it successfully attracted a large audience mainly composed of students and young white-collar workers, marking a milestone in the genre exploration of domestic commercial films."

China Film News analyzed from an industry perspective: ["My Sassy Girl" surpasses "Happy Family" at the box office in its opening weekend; Wang Sheng's self-transcendence is due to the expansion of the market and the victory of the genre].

The article points out that compared to the record of 1632 million yuan in the opening weekend set by "Happy Family" during last year's Lunar New Year season, "My Sassy Girl" surpassed it in the summer season, which is not traditionally the strongest season, proving that high-quality genre films (especially comedies and romance films) have a strong appeal across seasons.

The commentator wrote: "Director Wang Sheng has once again proven his accurate grasp of the market pulse. From social issues to inspirational comebacks, and now to urban romantic comedies, his works cover a diverse audience and are all hits. This is no accident, but the inevitable result of systematic operation and keen market insight."

On the internet, although Chinese internet forums were still in their infancy in 2000, they had already gathered the earliest group of movie fans.

On popular forums such as Xici Hutong and Tianya Community, "My Sassy Girl" became the hottest topic.

Posts like "Laughing until my stomach cramped, crying until my eyes were brimming with tears, Fan Xiaopang's acting was phenomenal!" are everywhere.

"Can anyone tell me if Fan Rourou's OICQ number in the movie is real? I added it but no one replied!"—This sparked countless comments and good-natured ridicule.

"Deng Chao's portrayal of the cowardly boyfriend is so realistic, it's practically a reflection of myself (crying)." — This resonated with a large number of male viewers.

"The scene where they reunite at the airport, accompanied by the song 'Encounter,' brought me to tears! This is what love should be like—healing each other and growing together." —A long film review by a user with the ID "Waiting for the Wind Cat" was pinned by the moderator and received numerous likes.

Discussions about "My Sassy Girl" are everywhere—on the streets, in offices, and in school cafeterias.

"Have you seen 'My Sassy Girl'?" has almost become a common greeting among young people.

The girls excitedly discussed Fan Rourou's outfits, imitated her tugging at her boyfriend's clothes, and even started a trend of slightly "domineering" ways of being affectionate. Meanwhile, the boys complained that the movie was corrupting their girlfriends, while secretly hoping to meet a girl like Fan Rourou who was outwardly domineering but inwardly soft.

On the bus, two girls in school uniforms were chattering away:
"I asked my boyfriend to buy me high heels too, but he fell after taking only two steps in them, it cracked me up!"

"Wang Yonggan is so much better. He has such a good temper. He never fights back or talks back when hit or cursed."

"Come on, that's just a movie! If you were that 'savage' in real life, you would have broken up eight hundred times over!"

"Oh, it's just for fun! But the movie was really funny, and the songs were great too."

In the office building elevator, several young white-collar workers were also talking:

"Did you see the data? 1765 million! And that's only been three days! Wang Sheng's money-making speed is faster than a printing press, right?"

"The key is that the word-of-mouth is good. My girlfriend dragged me to watch it a second time and insisted that it was better than the first time."

"I heard that Sheng Ying's next movie has already started filming. It seems to be called 'Fake Marriage,' and the lead actors are Li Bingbing and Wang Zhiwen."

"Huh? Not Fan Xiaopang or Gao Yuanyuan? I quite like them." "Maybe the roles aren't suitable. I heard it's a story of marriage of convenience that blossoms into love, so they need a more mature actress."

……

the other side.

Having completed the initial layout of the cinema chain, Wang Sheng turned his attention to filming "Fake Marriage".

"The Proposal" tells the story of an older urban couple facing their own real-life difficulties who agree to a marriage of convenience for mutual benefit. However, through friction and mutual assistance under the same roof, they gradually develop feelings for each other, a story commonly known as "marriage of convenience leading to love."

This requires the male and female leads to have a certain amount of life experience and mature temperament, and to be able to portray the complex inner layers of the characters and the subtle emotional changes between adults.

Li Bingbing, with solid acting skills and a capable demeanor, and Wang Zhiwen, who has established his status as a powerful actor with many works and can handle both righteous and villainous roles, play the male and female leads.

At this moment, the scene being filmed on set is a heated yet humorous confrontation between the male and female leads in the early stages of their "newlywed" marriage, under the same roof, due to differences in their living habits.

Li Bingbing plays Lin Yue, a shrewd and ambitious advertising company director who chooses to enter into a fake marriage with Jiang Zhou, played by Wang Zhiwen, because she needs a Beijing residency permit for her work.

She was dressed in a sharp business suit, her hair was neatly pulled back, and her face carried the aloofness and slight obsessive-compulsive tendencies characteristic of urban elites.

Wang Zhiwen plays "Jiang Zhou," a folk magazine editor with a slightly decadent and artistic temperament who lives a leisurely life in his ancestral courtyard house.

He wore a loose linen shirt, his hair was slightly messy, and his eyes always carried a sense of worldly-wise indifference and cynicism.

“Mr. Chen, I’ll reiterate once again!” Li Bingbing pointed to a blue-and-white porcelain vase that was placed at less than five degrees crooked in the living room, his tone cold and hard, “According to Appendix Three of our agreement, items in public areas must be kept horizontally and vertically aligned. This vase of yours seriously disrupts the overall harmony!”

Wang Zhiwen slumped in his armchair, legs crossed, toying with a string of bodhi seeds in his hand, not even bothering to lift his eyelids: "Director Lin, this is called 'well-arranged,' it's aesthetics. Your standardized office procedures don't apply here. Besides, this bottle was passed down from my great-grandfather; it can be crooked however it wants."

"This is a breach of contract!" Li Bingbing's chest heaved with anger.

"Breach of contract?" Wang Zhiwen finally raised his eyes, a roguish smile playing on his lips. "The contract doesn't stipulate that my family's heirloom bottle can't be crooked. Why don't you straighten it? I won't compensate you if you break it."

“You…” Li Bingbing was speechless. She glared at him fiercely, then turned around and went back to her room with a thud in her high heels, slamming the door shut.

"Crack!"

The voice of executive director Wu Yiyi rang out.

The tense atmosphere at the scene instantly relaxed.

Li Bingbing and Wang Zhiwen also immediately detached themselves from their roles.

"Good, this one is approved."

Wang Sheng began, "Prepare for the next scene, the scene where you 'meet the parents' for the first time. Familiarize yourself with the script again, and get that awkward yet forced affectionate feeling in place."

“Okay, Director Wang,” Li Bingbing and Wang Zhiwen replied in unison.

Li Bingbing cherishes her first leading role in a film, especially since it was a Lunar New Year film directed by Wang Sheng himself.

It is a widely accepted consensus in the industry that Wang Sheng's films directed during the Lunar New Year season can win awards.

(End of this chapter)