Chapter 281: Where Are All These Succubi Coming From

"Love and Time" is, after all, just a small-budget romance film.

Romance films mainly attract young women, their audience is narrower than family-friendly or special-effects blockbusters, and their penetration into lower-tier markets is relatively low.

Most small-to-mid-budget romance films have box office concentrated in the 100 million to 500 million yuan range; any that break 1 billion can be considered a phenomenal romance film.

They usually still need an innovative premise, emotional marketing, and a favorable release window to break past 1 billion+.

And "Love and Time," which broke 2 billion, basically hit all three of those points, with the added bonus of Bai Liang, who had no connections.

Basically, it touched the ceiling for this genre's box office — after all, this thing isn't some "Titanic."

So the box office drop afterward is pretty normal.

"Can't make it to 3 billion? I think you can~"

Meng Jie doesn't care about any market rules or box office ceilings or other "scientific" stuff — she just wants to "send blessings."

These past few days, she and Chen Yao have had nothing to do on set, spending all day cooped up together in Bai Liang's trailer studying the box office of "Love and Time."

Even though the film making 10 billion wouldn't have anything to do with either of them, they always felt that keeping an eye on it gave them a strange sense of participation.

Watching the box office numbers grow day by day, the two girls would cheer together, then come up with their own ways to celebrate — like eating something nice~

Little hedgehog, you're amazing! Keep going!

Chen Yao: Right, right~

The earlier you get to know Bai Liang, the more it feels unbelievable, somewhat like a raising-sim game watching him go from unknown to as amazing as he is now.

It's really wonderful!

Watching the two little girls whose eyes seemed full of admiration, Bai Liang felt like he'd gotten his fill of emotional value today too.

Little girls really are cute!

"This isn't that important either, 3 billion isn't exactly some earth-shattering achievement," Bai Liang said, not really caring about it.

Meng Jie disagreed: "It's not like every film is 'Wolf Warrior 2,' and you were the lead in 'Wolf Warrior 2' too~"

Chen Yao nodded along, right, right!

She still couldn't forget the atmosphere inside Tang Ren Pictures when the "Wolf Warrior 2" box office was changing every day, skyrocketing crazily.

After all, the female lead was their company's top actress!

"Tch, I'm not talking about 'Wolf Warrior 2,'" Bai Liang said, lowering his head to look at the new script in his hands.

"Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child."

Voice acting wasn't all that unfamiliar to him, because so far, every film he'd shot had basically used his own original voice.

During filming, the audio might have problems — background noise, microphone issues, or unclear mouth movements — so quite a few scenes needed him to go back and re-dub them after shooting.

Of course, there were also some actors whose delivery was just plain bad, with terrible lines, who had no choice but to be dubbed.

However, one thing Bai Liang didn't expect was that for dubbing an animated film, the director actually said he wanted to come back and direct him.

An animated film — directing a voice actor?

Sounds pretty interesting.

But Sister Yanzi was quite wary about this matter and had already gone to inquire whether "Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child" was also short on money.

This play felt exactly like Guo Fan's old routine.

She had a feeling there were more "bad guys" trying to trick their Little Bai-ge again.

At this moment, the two girls were naturally curious about the script in Bai Liang's hands.

But they were both pretty restrained — since Bai Liang didn't mention it, neither asked.

After noticing their eyes glancing at the script several times, Bai Liang simply showed it to them. "This is a script for an animated film. I'm going to do voice acting for it."

Oh, I see~

The girls' interest immediately dropped by a large chunk.

Film was already pretty far removed from both of them, let alone animated film — it felt like something from a different world.

Bai Liang: Something from a different world is exactly what makes a "dimensional reduction attack" easy.

Although the girls weren't interested in the animated film itself, they were very interested in things beyond the film.

The fact that Bai Liang's mother was a voice actress — thanks to the show "Longing for Life," many people knew that now.

"Is Auntie also going to do voice acting for this film?" Mencius asked.

"Meng Jie, if anyone ever says you're not smart again, just slap them across the face~" Bai Liang gave her a thumbs up.

See! She knew it!

Mencius looked smug.

And just as she was feeling smug, Chen Yao beside her suddenly said: "Little Bai-ge, is Auntie... coming to the set?"

Obviously, Yao-mei was even smarter!

Bai Liang looked up at her and smiled: "Yeah~"

Because of the "Ne Zha" dubbing, his mom was recently coming to find him, staying with him for a while, and then waiting for Director Jiao Zi to come direct them together.

His mom was pretty excited about it — getting to do voice acting and hang out on set~

And getting to see her son's girlfriends?

Mencius instantly froze. "Huh?!"

"Stop huh-ing~ Where's Sister Qian Jie lately? How about asking her to visit the set too? When my mom comes, the two of them can keep each other company."

Mencius: I want that too!

But as luck would have it, Sister Qian Jie had just gone out traveling.

"Too bad Li Yitong wrapped and vanished too~" Bai Liang remarked with some regret.

At this, Meng Jie fell silent — she knew the reason for this too.

It was still because of that content on the "Longing" show — Bai Liang said it openly himself: his mom really likes Li Yitong and Miss Jing Tian.

Jing Tian didn't need to say anything, but Li Yitong was thoroughly swept up in the hype—she never appeared on the show "Xiangwang," yet still rode the same trending wave as the program.

She always somehow swallowed Bai Liang's hype in the strangest places.

No wonder she loved kneeling or squatting before Bai Liang, looking up at him.

Seriously, you've got to eat it!

Oh right, Meng Jie also got a taste of it, since both chocolates and Rou Rou the two dogs were brought onto the show by Bai Liang.

But the dogs had traffic and trending topics; she didn't.

Still, that's not very important—the important thing is Bai Liang's mother is coming! —

"Big Brother Dou Xiao Bai! You won't believe it—I actually guessed right!"

His biological mother didn't come, but Sister Yanzi did.

And she brought the latest news.

Hmm. "Ne Zha: The Demon Child Comes Into the World" really is short on funds.

Since 2014, the domestic animated film market has surged rapidly.

After the 2015 domestic animated film "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" grossed 957 million yuan, "Who will be the next Great Sage" became a fixed topic.

Meanwhile, capital keenly sensed the market shift, and major companies scrambled to enter.

But in stark contrast to the capital frenzy, most serious, time-consuming, costly, and labor-intensive domestic animations failed to find a viable profit path. In the past three years, the animated film market has steadily cooled. Only 131 animated films were greenlit in 2018, a 17% drop from 2017 and a 28% drop from 2016.

One article bluntly stated: 95% of domestic animations are unprofitable.

Since "Monkey King: Hero Is Back," only two domestic animated films have grossed over 400 million yuan: "Big Fish & Begonia" and "Boonie Bears."

Analyzing the three-year average data reveals the probability of a breakout animated film is 2.6%. If you remove the influence of the established "Boonie Bears" IP, the chance of a new IP becoming a breakout film is roughly 8.8 per thousand—about the same as winning the lottery.

So even though Light Chaser became the primary investor in the "Ne Zha" project midway, the production budget was repeatedly slashed.

The entire film had only about 60 million yuan in production costs, so even after securing investment, the Director Jiao Zi team still had to budget tightly.

Poverty forced them to independently develop animation tools, like dynamic storyboarding software, to cut outsourcing costs.

Some visual effects shots were completed by small teams, even with the director personally adjusting details.

Even the voice acting budget wasn't enough, so Director Director Jiao Zi planned to get it for free.

He never intended to pay Bai Liang any voice acting fee—he even wanted to beg for a little karma~

Originally, Guo Fan approached Bai Liang after getting inspiration from Wu Jing, and Director Director Jiao Zi naturally got his inspiration from Guo Fan.

Because Guo Fan did the same thing Wu Jing did.

Not a single word, not a single line, not a single piece of content was wrong!

"The Wandering Earth" is still in post-production, but its release date has already been locked—in the next Spring Festival slot.

During this time, Guo Fan, despite being busy, couldn't resist boasting within the industry—especially after "The Wandering Earth" became a huge hit.

Bai Liang proved his ability to single-handedly carry box office returns; Guo Fan was truly thrilled!

He originally just lucked into a top star and a flood of investment, but now this top star keeps evolving—where the hell can you even argue with that?

Sneaking laughs under the covers isn't enough—he had to let others know just how thrilled he was.

And it was perfect timing to counter the online claims that "The Wandering Earth" would definitely flop.

The domestic sci-fi market really is terrible; those reckless idiots before almost killed the entire sci-fi genre.

But oddly, since Bai Liang's debut, he's never once flopped.

Except for "Immortal Samsara: Clouds of Fan."

But he had too little screen time in that—just a minor supporting role; if it flopped, it wasn't his fault.

So in a sense, Bai Liang has an invincible aura.

Every TV drama he stars in becomes a hit; every movie he makes becomes a box office smash.

He's only starred in three films total, yet their combined box office exceeds ten billion yuan.

Of course Guo Fan would never miss the chance to leverage this brand.

Before the film's release, use Bai Liang's reputation to endorse "The Wandering Earth."

Moreover, just putting Bai Liang's name out there makes it far easier to secure theater screenings later.

Under these circumstances, if Guo Fan didn't brag about Bai Liang, that'd be weird.

One nonsense after another: "Big Brother Bai is so loyal—he pays up without hesitation, no movie can be made without him!"—he was now paired with Wu Jing as the industry's two biggest hype men for Bai Liang.

Director Jiao Zi: I heard that!

Oh right, it's not just Wu Jing and Guo Fan doing the bragging.

Xu Zheng has also been talking nonstop lately.

"The Wandering Earth"'s underdog success made him rich beyond dreams.

But online, some questioned: even if Jing Tian is incredibly cheap and costs almost nothing, what about Bai Liang?

How could this movie possibly have a production cost of only 30 million yuan? That's unreasonable.

So during a film festival forum promotion for "Dying to Survive," a reporter asked Xu Zheng this question.

"Director Xu, how did you keep the production cost of 'The Wandering Earth' under 30 million?"

Xu Zheng chuckled, first praising the actors' artistic dedication, then revealed that Big Brother Bai is straightforward—because the script and project were good, he took no salary, only a share.

As soon as he said that, the media's eyes lit up, immediately pressing for how much Bai Liang would earn.

Xu Zheng naturally wouldn't reveal the exact figure, but he disclosed that Bai Liang's studio received over 20% of "The Wandering Earth"'s box office revenue.

At least twenty percent; how much higher, he couldn't say.

As soon as this was said, it immediately hit the trending list.

#HowMuchDidBaiLiangEarn#

Netizens are always fascinated by topics like this.

Back during *Wolf Warrior 2*, there had actually already been one round of this. The only difference was that everyone was more interested in how much the lead, Wu Jing, had made.

Bai Liang, who was raking in the money quietly, and that Nazha didn't really get discussed much.

It was only later, when Nazha went on a show herself and told people about these things, that everyone learned this young lady had cashed in along with him.

The way she brought up the topic, beaming all over her face — it was pure the scent of money!

Seems like even her looks keep getting better and better. Is money really that all-powerful?

Or is it that fame nurtures people? The more you're nurtured, the better you look?

As for this round of *Love You Forever*, it's honestly hard to say whether Xu Zheng got more or Bai Liang got more.

Sister Yanzi is still pretty ruthless. The box-office split seems to be tiered — this much for 500 million at the box office, that much for a billion.

The higher the box office, the higher Bai Liang's cut.

Director Jiao Zi: Heheh, hehehehe! I'm coming for ya!

Sister Yanzi: Not a chance in hell!

This time she was determined to "guard" her own Little White Brother well — she refused to believe there could be that many "sirens" out there.

Her own Little White Brother was the number one siren in the world, sure enough; Guo Fan was a cyber siren; could your Director Jiao Zi also be an animated siren?

And although Bai Liang knew *Ne Zha* seemed like a pretty formidable thing too, he wasn't about to flat-out shoot down Sister Yanzi's idea.

Very good, plenty of spirit! Keep it up~

With her own Little White Brother's encouragement, Sister Yanzi swore she had to help him keep a close eye on that money.

Still, there was one "helpless" matter: the studio's business was getting more and more varied by the day.

Originally it had just been an artist studio serving Bai Liang alone, but then it was investing in films, taking on publicity and distribution jobs — and before you knew it, it was actually drifting toward film and TV production.

But although Sister Yanzi complained about the ever-growing workload, she too had slowly been forced from a plain agent into a jack-of-all-trades.

As for the situation itself, though, she didn't really think it was a bad thing.

Bai Liang's current price tag was just too high — a lot of projects couldn't afford his fee at all, and he himself was so willful.

The studio had no choice but to get into film and TV production.

They couldn't really take a loss and lower his price just to take a role~

Sister Yanzi didn't want her own Little White Brother's interests to suffer, yet she didn't want to kill his mood either. It seemed this was the only path.

Turn herself into the client side, take part in the project and split the cake.

Oh right, she also had one little "guess."

These days, the pay for entertainers in the entertainment circle was honestly a bit too outrageous — sky-high fees everywhere, and on many projects more than half of the production budget went to artist fees. The grumbling inside the industry seemed to be getting louder and louder.

Sister Yanzi felt this wild, runaway surge in fees couldn't possibly keep going on like this.

Sooner or later there would be limits.

Consider it getting ahead of the curve.

As for whether she was right or not — she'd asked Bai Liang, and his answer was the same as always: do whatever you want~

(End of chapter)