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

Chapter 173 Strong Screening

"Lucy" is one of Shen Qing's more controversial films, as the entire movie is based on the assumption that the human brain only develops 10%.

But this assumption is actually nonsense, with almost no scientific basis, and this point naturally became a point of attack for some people against "Lucy" and Shen Qing.

Shen Qing is very popular, extremely popular. Some people love him, and naturally, some people hate him. Moreover, Shen Qing has a large following, and the female lead, Fan Bingbing, also has a large following. Trying to piggyback on the popularity of these two and their movie can generate traffic. Even if you get criticized for it, being famous for being infamous is still being famous, so it's not a loss.

Since its release, "Lucy" has been the subject of constant controversy.

Then, when it was first rated on Douban, it scored 8.1, and the rating became the target of criticism. People said that if such a ridiculous movie could get a rating above 8, then Chinese cinema was doomed!

The criticism actually had some effect. It's normal for some potential viewers to cancel their plans to watch the movie once they heard that the movie's basic premise was ridiculous. Even if some potential viewers didn't cancel their plans, they would choose to wait and see what other reviews came out.

For viewers who weren't affected by the negative reviews, once they accepted the basic premise that the human brain only develops 10%, the rest of the show became increasingly engaging and enjoyable.

Brain development increased by 20%: Significant enhancement of bodily organs and physical fitness.

Brain development 30%: Significantly enhanced control over the body, ability to change hair color at will, rapid absorption of knowledge, reading of others' memories and hacking into electronic devices, gradual fading of emotions, and weakening of human feelings.

Brain development at 40%: Metabolic speed far exceeds the body's limits, stimulating the evolutionary potential of all cells. Individual cells choose to break away from the body's drug-induced structure to exist independently in order to ensure their own survival. Lu Qian lost her teeth and her skin dissolved on the plane, facing a crisis of disintegration. She managed to stabilize the situation by swallowing large amounts of drugs to provide energy to her cells, but this only delayed the disintegration process.

Brain development 80%-100%: Completely surpassing the human form, ignoring the limitations of time and space, the ending is a montage of Fan Bingbing traveling through time and space, like a rewind of Chinese history, until finally Fan Bingbing and Lucy the Ape, who are separated by 300 million years of time and space, touch each other's fingers, the scene suddenly pulls away from Earth to space, and Fan Bingbing sees the formation of stars and the birth of the universe.

It's awesome!

The final montage in the film left countless viewers breathless, as if the originally absurd premise had acquired a profound philosophical flavor.

Humans are very susceptible to addiction to all sorts of "upgrades".

Millionaires want to become multi-millionaires, officials from the ninth rank want to become officials from the eighth rank, and lowly accounts from the first rank want to level up to the second rank. This movie, "Lucy," is an imaginary story about upgrading the level of human brain development for the audience.

Furthermore, with Shen Qing's combined mastery of pacing and atmosphere-building skills as one of the four top directors, Shen Qing's version of "Lucy" is even better than the original Luc Besson version.

In its second week in North America, "Lucy" grossed $2320 million from Monday to Thursday and $2578 million from Friday to Sunday. Compared to last weekend, the box office dropped by 45%, placing it second on this week's chart.

This week's champion is "Guardians of the Galaxy," which opened in over 4000 theaters and grossed $9500 million in its opening weekend, making it the biggest dark horse of the week. "Lucy" only dropped 45%, which is quite good. "Hercules: The Thracian Wars," which is also in its second week of release, even saw a drop of 65%.

As of 24:4 local time on April 29, "Lucy" had grossed $9586 million in North America, over $2 million overseas, over 7 million yuan in China, over 8 million yuan in Greater China, and $4.25 million worldwide.

Domestic netizens have become somewhat numb to the overseas performance of Shen Qing's films. With one film already exceeding $15 billion and another exceeding $10 billion, it's hard for them to get excited about any new film, no matter how spectacular its success.

That was indeed the case at the beginning. When it grossed over $2 million globally in the first three days, people weren't too surprised until someone compared it to "Rush Hour 2" and "The Karate Kid".

Rush Hour 2 was one of the highest-grossing films starring Chinese actors before Shen Qing's rise to fame, with a global box office of $3.47 million. It is one of Jackie Chan's Hollywood masterpieces, but it was far surpassed by Fan Bingbing's solo film Lucy, which took less than 10 days to achieve the same level of success.

Furthermore, Rush Hour 2 had the built-up popularity of its predecessor, while Lucy started from scratch.

"The Karate Kid" is a remake of the 1974 film "The Karate Kid," not an original movie. It also benefits from the popularity of the original work, but it is no match for "Lucy."

"Lucy," a film reportedly made with a budget of only $3000 million, starring Fan Bingbing alone, has so spectacularly surpassed Jackie Chan's peak achievements in Hollywood.

Unsurprisingly, the entire Chinese internet was abuzz with excitement.

"I still can't believe that a movie that relied entirely on Fan Bingbing could beat Rush Hour 2. It's outrageous. But box office is box office, and influence is influence. No matter how high the box office of Lucy is, 10 Fan Bingbings in Hollywood don't have the influence of Jackie Chan."

"Actually, each generation has its own idols. This generation of adults sees Fan Bingbing suddenly becoming very successful in Hollywood and feels she lacks depth, but the next generation might not see it that way. For example, I only recognize female celebrities like Rosamund Kwan, Angie Chiu, and Li Ruotong."

I had absolutely no feeling for Hong Kong stars of the same generation as Wong Cho-yin and Chu Yin, or for actresses like Yang Mi, Liu Shishi, and Liu Yifei.

I also feel that actresses like Yang Mi and Liu Shishi lack the depth and experience of previous Hong Kong stars, but the next generation clearly doesn't see it that way. The next generation doesn't watch old Hong Kong films and dramas, so they won't be fans of older Hong Kong stars. They grew up watching Zhang Jizhong's versions of *The Return of the Condor Heroes*, *Scarlet Heart*, and *Palace*, and will therefore consider Liu Yifei, Liu Shishi, Yang Mi, and others to be the best.

"That makes some sense."

"That little Jin Suo from back then has grown up like this."

"Actually, it can't be said that Fan Bingbing alone carried the box office of this movie. Just look at the comments in Europe and America and you'll know how many viewers went to the theater because of the name 'Shen Qing'. It's true that Fan Bingbing is the only main character, but the key to the high box office is Shen Qing."

"You've hit the nail on the head. If Fan Bingbing could still achieve the same level of success even if she left Shen Qing's films, then she would truly be comparable to Jackie Chan."

"In the end, Shen Qing is still the better one."

The film grossed $12.9 million in its third weekend and $733 million in its fourth weekend. By midnight on the fourth weekend, "Lucy" had grossed $1.34 million in North America and $2.77 million overseas, indicating that the film's run was nearing its end.

On May 22, "Lucy" was gradually removed from streaming platforms worldwide. Its final box office gross in North America was $1.37 million, and overseas it was $2.93 million.

The film grossed $100 million, with domestic box office exceeding 1 billion yuan and 11.3 billion yuan in Greater China. It will still be showing in China for some time.

By the end of May, filming had wrapped on "Bad Genius," "Love is Not Blind," and "The Martian," directed by Shen Qing himself. "Lucy" was officially removed from theaters in China, with a final box office of 10.7 billion yuan in mainland China and a total of 12.1 billion yuan in Greater China.

With this, *Lucy*'s global box office total reached $6.2 million. After currency conversion, Greater China contributed $1.93 million to the box office.

One hundred million U.S. dollars.

After Maoyan Movies developed, Shen Qing's company also ventured into the distribution field, so the proportion of revenue they could receive would become larger. Preliminary calculations show that Shenqi Films could receive approximately 4.9 million yuan from the Greater China region this time.

The overseas box office revenue is approximately $3800 million. Theoretically, the combined DVD and TV/VOD revenue will exceed the box office revenue. In addition, with a minimum guarantee of $6800 million, Shen Qing's company's pure dollar revenue from this film will likely exceed $1.5 million.

In early June, the first 40 episodes of "Princess Agents" were edited out and sold to four major satellite TV stations: Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Dragon TV, and Beijing TV. The online rights were jointly acquired by iQiyi and Tencent Video. The total price per episode, including both TV and online rights, is the same as "Let's Get Married," at 5.9 million yuan, for a total contract amount of 2.36 million yuan. The expected broadcast time is mid-June.

Wu Jing's Wolf Warrior has completed post-production editing. Shen Qing, along with executives from Shenqi Films and Maoyan Movies, watched the finished film in Shenqi Films' internal screening room. Wu Jing appeared very nervous throughout the screening, perhaps because he was thinking about the film Wolf Fang, which caused him a huge loss.

"It looks promising, so we could try turning it into a series. The next installment could be set overseas, where you can encounter anything and do whatever you want."

Xie Nan asked Shen Qing with surprise, "President Shen, do you think this movie can have a sequel? To be honest, Wu Jing's biggest worry lately has been that if the box office performance is poor, he would feel sorry for you, President Shen, and he would also be afraid that he wouldn't be able to find investment for his next movie. With your words, he should be relieved."

Wu Jing and Xie Nan had just gotten married last month and were still newlyweds. However, Wu Jing was proud and refused to admit that he was worried about the box office. He said to Shen Qing, "President Shen, actually I am confident about the box office performance of 'Wolf Warrior'."

Shen Qing patted Wu Jing on the shoulder and said, "As long as you keep making movies with your heart and don't fool the audience, I will continue to invest in your movies even if they lose money."

Wu Jing nodded heavily, then said, "President Shen, if we're going to make a sequel, I want to go big."

"How big do you want to play?" Shen Qing looked at Wu Jing with a half-smile.

"This movie cost 8000 million, and I want to double that for the next one."

Shen Qing smiled and said, "First, produce a detailed script and shooting plan. As long as the cost is reasonable, let alone 1.6 million, even 2 million is no problem."

In the first quarter of 2012, Maoyan Movies sold 17 billion yuan worth of tickets, accounting for 25% of the total box office revenue in the first quarter. One out of every four tickets sold nationwide came from Maoyan Movies.

In June, Enlight Media and Tencent each invested 150 million yuan in cash to acquire a 2.5% stake in Maoyan Movies, completing Maoyan Movies' first round of financing with an overall valuation of 6 billion yuan.

Chen Zhixi completed her one-year tenure at Maoyan Movies, successfully obtaining 1% of the agreed-upon stock options and 1% of the performance-based bonus options, with her shares valued at 1.2 million yuan. She subsequently resigned from all positions at Maoyan Movies, and Shen Qing officially appointed Shen Li as the CEO of Maoyan Movies.

From being asked about unspoken rules during auditions and having almost no acting opportunities after refusing, to joining Shenqi Films and being appointed as a senior executive by Shen Qing, Chen Zhixi's journey over the past few years can be described as legendary.

Now that she has successfully obtained stock options worth 1.2 million, it will be easy for her to cash out when the company raises funds for the next time. She is about to become a wealthy woman in a glamorous way.

She is the CEO of Jumei Entertainment, and she has 8% of Jumei Entertainment's stock options that mature over four years. In addition, she has performance options and listing options. Shen Qing has given her everything except marriage.

"If Jumei Entertainment wants to go public independently, it needs to gradually get rid of its dependence on the parent company. In the future, you should pay attention to expanding Jumei's business, try to invest in some film and television dramas yourself, and have your artists act in more film and television dramas produced by other companies. If the proportion of them acting in fantasy film and television dramas is too high, the company's ability to survive independently will be questioned."

That night, Shen Qing unusually brought Chen Zhixi home, and the two snuggled on the sofa and chatted.

"Okay, I understand."

Chen Zhixi looked up slightly at Shen Qingdao.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, then Shen Qing pushed her down onto the sofa. Chen Zhixi's lips moved, and Shen Qing asked, "What were you trying to say?"

"It's nothing."

Chen Zhixi pursed her lips and shook her head.

"Really?" Shen Qing asked again.

Chen Zhixi then said, "I'm just suddenly a little curious—curious about how many women you've slept with on this sofa."

.

Shen Qing feigned anger and said, "Is that something you should be asking? You deserve a beating!"

As he spoke, he pulled her up and made her lie on his lap—

Shen Qing's personal assistants are not static. While the head assistant, Shen Ying, is relatively stable, there is a turnover rate among the junior assistants. Some are dismissed for poor performance, while others leave voluntarily. In June, Shen Ying interviewed and approved two candidates for personal assistants. Ultimately, the decision of who to keep and who to keep rests with Shen Qing.

-

morning.

The two girls who passed Shen Ying's interview were led by Shen Ying to Shen Qing's office.

Shen Qing looked up at one of the girls who looked somewhat like Li Yitong and said, "You have good qualities. Why did you decide to apply for an assistant position? Haven't you considered studying acting at the Beijing Film Academy or the Central Academy of Drama and developing a career in the entertainment industry?"

The girl's body trembled slightly, it was hard to tell whether it was from nervousness or excitement.

"I used to be playful and didn't get into high school. I'm currently studying at a vocational school and will graduate next year. I don't really dare to dream of going to Beijing Film Academy or the Central Academy of Drama. Last month, I went to Shanghai to participate in the audition for trainees at SM Entertainment in South Korea. Maybe I don't have any talent, because I was not selected. Later, I saw the news here that you are recruiting an assistant, so I decided to come and give it a try. Director, I really admire you very much."

Shen Qing glanced at the girl next to him and said, "You can stay."

After saying that, he looked at the girl who looked somewhat like Li Yitong and said, "You have good potential. It's okay that you weren't selected as a Korean trainee. It wasn't a great career path to begin with. Don't be discouraged. Go back and work hard to improve yourself. There will be opportunities in the future."

The girl became anxious as soon as she heard that.

She was just a vocational school graduate. What could she do after graduation? Become a tour guide? In short, it wouldn't be the life she wanted. When Shen Qing said that she was a good candidate, she could hardly believe her ears.

Shen Qing said she was a good catch, doesn't that mean he's going to promote her?

Promote her! Shen Qing promotes her?!

At that moment, the girl was enveloped in an immense sense of surprise.

She seemed to see herself as a big star in the future.

Then Shen Qing told her to go back and improve herself, and that there would be opportunities in the future.

What opportunities might I have if I go back?

The only real, tremendous opportunity is to successfully stay by Shen Qing's side.

"Director, please keep me on! You just said I was a good candidate, how come you've eliminated me so quickly?"

"We're hiring my personal assistant today."

"But I applied for the position of your assistant."

Shen Qing turned to look at Shen Ying beside him and said, "Then let's keep both of them here."

19

Shen Ying nodded upon hearing this.

"Zhang Mei, Bai Mengyan, you two come with me."

Shen Ying took the two of them to sign the contract.