The director starts by learning from the abilities of renowned directors.

Chapter 129: Breaking 100 Million in a Single Day!

At noon, the box office figures for "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" for its first day were released—9150 million yuan.

Regardless of what others think, Shen Qing himself was shocked—"Gravity" only grossed 5300 million on its opening day, and its highest single-day gross was only 7900 million!

The film was still distributed by China Film Group and Enlight Media, and both distribution companies were taken aback. After the first-day data was sent to Shen Qing's phone, Han Sanping and Wang Changtian both called to congratulate her and then chatted for a while. As if they had agreed beforehand, they both said that when they first saw the number, they couldn't believe their eyes and rubbed them in disbelief.

The opening day box office of a movie is usually not the highest single-day box office of the movie, which means that there is a very high probability that the highest single-day box office of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" will exceed 100 million.

Has the Chinese film market reached a new stage where a single film grosses over 100 million yuan in a single day?

After transmigrating, Shen Qing's memory became excellent. He tried hard to recall, and it seemed that in the original history, the first movie to break 100 million yuan in a single day in the domestic market was "Transformers 3," which was exactly one year before its release. It also seemed that "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" also broke 100 million yuan in a single day in the original history, but that was in 2013, a full two and a half years away.

Who knows how many new cinemas have opened in the past two and a half years?

In the first few days after the film's release, Shen Qing was busy traveling all over the country promoting it. She didn't feel tired, as Shen Qing's energy was extraordinary; it was just a bit boring. Every day was the same routine—a press conference, a Q&A session with audiences at cinemas with high ticket sales, and then another trip to a different city.

Liu Yifei is taking this film release very seriously. She has many classic roles in television dramas, but her film career has been rather mediocre—films like *May Love*, *Love Winner*, and *A Bao's Story* are probably unknown even to her fans.

"The Forbidden Kingdom" did have a significant impact, but unfortunately, its reputation wasn't great. Moreover, those who came to see the movie were mainly there for the showdown between Jackie Chan and JJ Lin, and Liu Yifei had nothing to do with it.

"Make a Name for Yourself" didn't even last five minutes on screen.

This makes "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" very meaningful to her.

To her delight, netizens seemed to approve of her performance, with many exclaiming: "Is this still the ethereal, otherworldly fairy sister?!"

At first glance, Liu Yifei's portrayal of Miss Duan looks like a princess who escaped from the palace, or at the very least, the daughter of a prime minister! She's clearly a lady of high birth!

As a result, when he beat up the monster, he was incredibly fierce. He grabbed the monster with his bare arms and used all his strength to beat it up. The strong contrast was simply amazing.

The costumes were beautiful, and the scene where she danced under the moon left many viewers mesmerized.

The ending left the audience deeply saddened.

Liu Yifei chuckled occasionally as she read the online discussions.

"Has Liu Yifei improved that much? She's almost become a skilled actress!"

Shen Qing walked to the side and read aloud the reply that Liu Yifei was reading. Liu Yifei turned around, her hair brushing against his face. Shen Qing sniffed; it smelled nice.

"How long have you been out? So fast! Are you all clean? You startled me!"

The two are in a hotel in Shanghai. Starting tomorrow, the film crew will be promoting the movie in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai area.

"Just give it a quick wash, we'll wash it again later anyway."

Shen Qing stared at the netizens' comments and continued reading: "Isn't it all because of Shen Qing's excellent training?"

After reading it aloud, he laughed and said, "This netizen has insight."

Liu Yifei, however, was thinking about Shen Qing's previous statement and said, "Want to shower again? You went to so many cinemas during the day and took a plane, aren't you tired? Want to do it again?!"

"Tired! But that's precisely why we need to do it even more! It's like when your phone is about to run out of battery, you just plug the charger into the power strip and it's fully charged and back to normal."

Liu Yifei protested, insisting that Shen Qing was using her as a power strip. Shen Qing had to coax her for a while before she obediently went to take a shower.

Shen Qing casually browsed the web and learned that "Flirting Scholar 2: The Four Great Scholars," which was released on the same day, only grossed 1200 million yuan on its opening day, less than one-seventh of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons," and its final box office would be at most a little over 1 million yuan.

The Douban ratings also show a huge difference: *Flirting Scholar 2* scored 4.1, while *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons* scored 7.9.

Minute.

The Douban score for "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is relatively low compared to Shen Qing's films, but a score of 7.9 is still quite good.

Shen Qing also discovered something very interesting: in the Douban review section of "Flirting Scholar 2: The Four Great Scholars," many people were saying that only Stephen Chow could play Zhou's nonsensical style, and that anyone else would be a disaster. Then, in the review section of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons," many people were saying that the future of Zhou's nonsensical style lies with Shen Qing.

Women take their time showering. Shen Qing browsed the web for a while, and seeing that Liu Yifei hadn't come out yet, she took out her phone to check her text messages. She had been busy with promotions all day and hadn't even had time to check her messages.

Sure enough, the number of unread text messages was almost 100, mostly congratulatory messages from colleagues.

Shen Qing replied to a few people she cared about, including Liu Shishi, Fan Bingbing, Li Yitong, Wan Qian, and Zhao Liying.

Before long, Liu Yifei came out wearing a white bathrobe. Seeing Shen Qing looking up at her, she smiled and twirled around on the spot.

"Is it beautiful?"

"beautiful."

Shen Qing typed for a moment and then said.

Upon hearing this, Liu Yifei felt a surge of joy and her heart spun around. Just a casual "beautiful" from someone she cared about could make her feel happy all day.

"When someone is beautiful, even a bathrobe can look high-class on them."

Since women like to hear this, Shen Qing didn't mind praising them a bit more. It's beneficial; things they wouldn't normally agree to, things they wouldn't allow touching, they'd agree to once they've been flattered.

Liu Yifei was praised for her beauty. She untied the towel covering her hair, and with a seductive look in her eyes, she tossed the towel onto Shen Qing. She tilted her head back, the wet towel flying behind her, and then began to dance slowly—surprisingly, she started dancing the same dance that Miss Duan danced under the moon in "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons".

Shen Qing gently tapped out the rhythm for her, and then unknowingly became engrossed in watching.

After daybreak, the crew set off for promotional activities. Shen Qing was energetic and not tired, while the others were exhausted but in high spirits. The box office performance of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" was outstanding, and everyone felt proud of it.

At noon, the box office figures for the film's second day were released—1.0162 million!

It's not surprising, really. It grossed 91.5 million on its opening Friday, so it's highly likely to break 100 million on Saturday! Everyone had expectations for it to reach 100 million today. But there's a big difference between expecting it to break 100 million and actually breaking 100 million.

The crew cheered, and Shen Teng shouted "YES!" several times. Liu Yifei smiled at Shen Qing, who immediately said that there would be red envelopes at the celebration banquet.

-

The media was in an uproar, reporting on it everywhere.

[Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons Surpasses 100 Million Yuan in Box Office in a Single Day! — China Economic Net]

[Shen Qing's "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" sets a new single-day box office record in Chinese film history - People's Daily Online]

[Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons raked in 1.016 million yuan on Saturday, breaking the single-day box office record (Qianjiang Evening News)]

[For the first time in Chinese film history, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" surpasses 100 million yuan in a single day—Sohu Finance]

Huayi Brothers and Feng Xiaogang are paying close attention to the box office performance of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons".

The reason is simple: in about 10 days, "Aftershock," invested by Huayi Brothers and directed by Feng Xiaogang, will be released.

The Wang brothers and Feng Xiaogang previously estimated that if "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" could gross 5 million yuan, that would be ideal. From last year to the beginning of this year, apart from "Avatar" and "Gravity," the highest-grossing film only reached 4.6 million yuan. Surely "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" can't possibly be compared to those two films?

Don't be fooled by the fact that "Gravity" is Shen Qing's film; it only made it because of the success of "Avatar." Otherwise, it wouldn't have grossed 14.6 billion yuan at the box office.

Such miracles won't happen again for the next ten years. For a considerable period of time to come, a box office of 5 million will be considered a great success.

As for their own film, "Aftershock"—it's a masterpiece among masterpieces, and it's still hopeful that it will gross 7 million yuan at the box office!

The result was the news that "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" grossed over 100 million yuan in a single day.

With a single-day box office exceeding 100 million, is the total box office about to reach the 1 billion mark? Most movies don't have that kind of box office success, unlike *Avatar* and *Gravity*.

Its staying power is limited; we shouldn't expect it to rival those two films just because of its high initial box office.

Another billion-yuan movie is about to be born? And this time it's not even a 3D movie? Has the domestic film market developed to the point where any movie can easily break the billion-yuan mark?

"Xiao Gang, our 'Aftershock' is no worse than his 'Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons.' Don't you think our previous assessment was a bit conservative?"

Wang Zhonglei's previous assessment was that the final box office would be between 5 million and 7 million yuan.

"Judging solely by the film's quality, 'Aftershock' is worth 10 billion yuan!"

Feng Xiaogang's words, seemingly full of confidence, actually lacked substance. Saying it's worth 1 billion yuan implies he's not certain about reaching that valuation. And Feng Xiaogang is such an arrogant director; even when making bold claims, he wouldn't dare say it's worth 15 billion yuan. "Gravity" grossed 14.6 billion yuan; it can't surpass that without 15 billion yuan—Feng Xiaogang wouldn't even dare to boast about surpassing Shen Qing!

It seems that Director Feng has been in Shen Qing's shadow for too long, to the point that he subconsciously believes he can never surpass her.

After grossing 9150 million yuan on its opening day and 1.0162 million yuan on its second day, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" earned another 8475 million yuan on its third day, a slight decrease from the previous day, suggesting that 1.0162 million yuan may be its maximum. The cumulative box office for the first three days reached 2.77 million yuan.

Then, on the fourth day, Monday, the daily box office dropped even further to 6147 million.

5732 million on the fifth day.

4893 million on the sixth day.

4206 million on the seventh day.

The eighth day was a Friday, and the daily box office rebounded again, reaching 5317 million, exceeding 5000 million.

Eight days after its release, the film has grossed 5.408 million yuan – "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" has surpassed 5 million yuan in eight days!

The ninth day was a Saturday, and the daily box office continued to rebound, reaching 6578 million.

The tenth day was Sunday, and the daily box office rebounded significantly to 4322 million yuan.

On Sunday, the film crew held a celebration banquet in Beijing to mark the film's box office surpassing 5 million yuan. Shen Qing personally presented the lead actors and behind-the-scenes creators with valuable red envelopes.

The box office performance of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" has already surprised Shen Qing. The only drawback is that it wasn't released in Taiwan, and its box office performance in Hong Kong has also been mediocre. As of now, after ten days of release in Hong Kong, the box office for the first nine days has been tallied, accumulating only a little over HK$1700 million, which is significantly less than Shen Qing's previous films.

Another issue is that North American distributors weren't very enthusiastic about the film, only agreeing to a limited release, and its box office performance was rather mediocre, earning just over a million dollars in its opening weekend, barely making ends meet.

However, Shen Qing never expected the movie to be a big hit in North America, so there was no reason for her to be disappointed.

The roadshow had already ended, and Shen Qing returned to her office at Magic Film Company.

Yang Mi went to the Magical Film Company almost every day, and her reason was quite good—"Our Times" was about to start filming.

Shen Qing originally wanted to direct this movie himself, but after looking at his later shooting schedule, he realized that if he were to personally direct such a low-budget film, there simply wouldn't be enough time. So he hired an outside director.

"Our Times" was directed by Zhou Shen, who had collaborated with the company many times before. He was the one who directed "Mr. Donkey" and "Almost a Comedy" for the company.

Yang Mi was somewhat unhappy when she found out. The same movie, directed by two different directors, could potentially yield vastly different results. If possible, who wouldn't want their starring film directed by Shen Qing?

She threw a small tantrum in Shen Qing's office, and Shen Qing patiently coaxed her. During this time, Li Yitong, Mao Xiaotong, and Tan Songyun came into the office one after another, so Yang Mi didn't dare to continue her tantrum.

Shen Qing is surrounded by too many beautiful women. If he wanted to pursue any of them, it would be incredibly easy; failing would be a very low probability event. A little drama now and then is just for spice things up, but if it goes on and on, does he really think Shen Qing can't live without anyone?

"Actually, who directs is a minor issue, but if it's you, we can be together every day. How long has it been since we last saw each other?"

Yang Mi didn't care that they were in Shen Qing's office, and sat directly on Shen Qing's lap, hooking her arms around his neck and acting coquettishly.

"Didn't we just meet the day before yesterday?"

Shen Qing stretched out her hand, squeezed it, and said, "It's only been a day since we last met, right?"

What's the point of just meeting in person?

Yang Mi leaned close to Shen Qing's ear and whispered, "It feels like three autumns have passed since we last met."

"Haha, it's only been a day since we met. Where did you learn all this? You're the most clever and mischievous of them all!" Shen Qing pulled his hand back and pinched Yang Mi's cheek.

Shen Qing initially wanted to cast Yang Mi in "Back to 20", but later found that Yang Mi's singing was really bad, so she replaced her with "Our Times" and gave the "Back to 20" project to Wan Qian.

Shen Qing also didn't have time to direct "Back to 20" himself. He first approached Teng Huatao, thinking that he would ask Teng Huatao to direct "Back to 20" first, and then Teng Huatao would continue to direct "Love is Not Blind" after this film was completed.

The novel adaptation rights for "Love is Not Blind" have long been in Shen Qing's hands.

As it turned out, Teng Huatao was preparing for "Naked Wedding Era" and didn't accept the offer. Shen Qing then contacted Han Yan, the director of "Sending You a Little Red Flower" and "Let's Shake the Sun Together." Han Yan valued this opportunity highly. When contacted, he was out of town. Although Chen Zhixi told him to come whenever he was free and that things weren't urgent, he still flew back to Beijing immediately.

Shen Qing talked with Han Yan for more than two hours and confirmed that he was capable of making a good film about "Back to 20". So he immediately decided to cast him.

Both "Our Times" and "Back to 20" have hired external directors, and Shen Qing is next going to Southeast Asia to film "Taken 3" and "Lost in Thailand".

"Taken 3" involves a range of crimes including human trafficking, organ trading, telecom fraud, industrial parks, torture, and murder, requiring many victim characters who are supposedly lured from all over the country. So how do you portray the victims as coming from all over the country? Either they speak some local dialects, or they have distinctive regional features.

Shen Qing saw two very familiar faces in the list of actors that Chen Zhixi handed over—Dilraba and Nezha.

One of them got into the Shanghai Theatre Academy, while the other is still working as a print model.

"These two girls—"

'

After pondering for a moment, Shen Qing said, "There aren't many roles I can play, but the commercial value should be very high."

"Then sign it."

"Aftershock" officially premiered on July 22nd, grossing 160 million yuan in its opening weekend. This box office performance is actually quite impressive. Judging from the current trend, reaching 500 million yuan is definitely not a problem, and ideally, 700 million yuan is even possible.

But as the saying goes, everything is subject to comparison.

同样是截至7月24日24时，上映整十六天的《西游降魔篇》累计票房8.0823亿。一个是理想状态下有可能拿7个亿票房，一个是上映十六天已经拿到了8亿票房。

The gap is still very obvious.