Chapter 915: Aiming for $1 Billion!

From the end of June, for almost twenty days, Lu Yan He was running the publicity for *Godless*.

This was the longest publicity itinerary Lu Yan He had ever participated in.

This young man Ivan was also the same as when he was filming from beginning to end, not timid, but always respected Lu Yan He, whether in front of or behind people, he was in such an attitude, and Lu Yan He himself could feel that he was sincere, not pretending—

Actually, it was pretending, Lu Yan He also understood.

When young, who really respects everyone from the bottom of their heart. They are all at the time when they are most conceited. Therefore, the more Ivan was like this, the more Lu Yan He liked this kid Ivan.

—Ah, actually, Lu Yan He, you also like to have your feet licked, you didn't like it before, just because they didn't lick it sincerely or high-end enough.

There were many actors participating in the publicity of *Godless*. Counting them all, a total of more than ten actors participated in it.

However, the only ones who truly went through the whole process were Ivan and Lu Yan He.

To some extent, Lu Yan He's relationship with Ivan became more familiar because of this publicity.

The last stop of publicity was still set in China.

If the Hollywood projects Lu Yan He participated in had large-scale overseas publicity itineraries, China would generally be set as the last stop.

This seemed to have become a default convention.

Lu Yan He took seven or eight people from the crew to participate in the recording of 2 interview programs in China (one of which was still the immovable *Zhi Xing*), and also participated in the recording of a national-level variety show.

Lu Yan He also organized a grand party as a host, inviting his domestic friends to get to know the creators of *Godless*.

*Jump Up* invited the famous domestic cartoonist Mingniao to draw a poster for all the creators of *Godless*, which was sold as the cover of *Jump Up*.

On the day *Godless* was released, Lu Yan He stayed in China, waiting for news.

*Godless* was released globally simultaneously.

It also became the only Hollywood blockbuster in China's summer file in July.

China once again highlighted Lu Yan He's special status in this way.

When *Godless* met the audience, seeing Lu Yan He in the movie, his scenes were not few at all, basically can be said to be on par with the male lead Ivan—especially the character Lu Yan He played, which is actually the existence of a mentor similar to Ivan, the domestic audience breathed a sigh of relief for a time—

I don't know why, everyone doesn't want to see Lu Yan He playing soy sauce in a Hollywood blockbuster.

Others can, but Lu Yan He cannot.

Unless it was like *Hurricane 2*, where it was clearly marked as a guest appearance when participating.

*Godless* is such a story. Although the summary is about a teenager stepping into a fantasy world to explore the truth of the fall of the gods, it is essentially about a teenager's growth in fantasy adventure.

Lu Yan He's character is both a guide like Gandalf in *Lord of the Rings* and a companion like "Face Uncle" in *Kingsman*.

His character design is very eye-catching.

Just like every child who watches *Harry Potter* has an incomparable filter for the actors of Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall, if *Godless* becomes a classic of a generation, Lu Yan He will also become the "wise and kind elder of life" in the hearts of a generation of children because of this movie series.

The box office pre-sale of *Godless* in China directly broke 80 million on the first day, and after the official release, it harvested the box office all the way—

The special effects of the movie are indeed a box office weapon. Such mainstream blockbusters are the movies that everyone is most willing to buy tickets to watch in the cinema—in fact, many audiences will consider a question of "whether it is worth it" when choosing whether to spend money to buy tickets to watch a movie. Among them, a very key question lies in whether this movie is okay on the computer, or whether it is like *Life of Pi*, a movie that must be watched in the cinema.

Visual effects played an incomparable role in it.

The box office of *Godless* in China can see changes in real time.

No need to wait until the next day to see the rough report like in North America.

On the first day of release, *Godless* got 180 million box office in China.

Second day, 210 million.

Third day, 150 million.

The first weekend, a total of over 500 million box office, approaching $100 million.

And when the first weekend box office in North America came out, it directly exceeded $100 million, harvesting $110 million in the first weekend.

Including the box office in other regions, *Godless* harvested a total of $280 million in the first weekend globally, breaking the record of the past five years.

Looking down on the heroes.

This first weekend box office performance makes it very hopeful to impact the global $1 billion box office.

Or even higher.

Although everyone regards *Godless* as a candidate for the annual box office champion this year, when it really achieved such results at the box office, it was still very uplifting.

Every year there are some box office tragedies, such as Disney's *Snow White* in a parallel space.

These are all aiming for a global box office explosion when they are established.

Before really coming to the cinema to see the truth, everything is uncertain and risky.

Even if—

There is also a "box office miracle" like Lu Yan He who has never tasted defeat since his debut.

This can only increase everyone's confidence, but cannot reduce everyone's worry.

Now, the dust has settled.

The first weekend box office exploded, the audience word-of-mouth was also good, and even if the subsequent trend was only at a passing level, the box office landing point of the movie was absolutely above $600 million, which was absolutely an outstanding performance for this movie.

The American *Variety* magazine published a commentary article, pointing out that following the $1.1 billion global box office performance of *Home Alone 4* in January, the $160 million of *Love is Not Blind*, and the $300 million of *The Notebook* in June, the $Godless* in July made Lu Yan He sweep the global film market as an actor, plus *Cloud 3* to be released in August, the box office of movies Lu Yan He starred in or wrote this year is very likely to exceed $3 billion.

This is a very terrible result.

People always said before that although Lu Yan He is a "box office miracle," he didn't have works with TOP-level, giant-scale box office in his hands.

His "box office miracle" is often based on "small betting big" and "box office dark horse."

However, there is no real box office record.

For example, Leonardo's *Titanic*, Robert Downey Jr.'s Marvel series, Tom Cruise's *Top Gun* and *Mission Impossible*.

How can you become a global superstar without a movie that dominates the global market magnitude?

Now, the screenwriter works have the *Home Alone* series, and the starring works also have *Godless*, which looks like another money-sucking series.

Who can still question Lu Yan He's global superstar status?

... Wait, at this time, some people still said that Lu Yan He is not the number one lead of *Godless*.

The number one lead is Ivan.

Unfortunately, for those who pick faults, they cannot shake Hollywood's convention. In Hollywood's recognition, at least when *Godless* was the first part, the absolute core of this movie was Lu Yan He.

Just like *Aladdin* starring Will Smith, no one would record the $1 billion box office performance of this movie to the male lead Mena Massoud.

The box office success of *Godless* made the next two parts of this series immediately put on the agenda.

This time, Darren Wilson negotiated with Green Valley and directly proposed a $20 million base salary, with box office dividends calculated separately.

Green Valley almost didn't oppose it and agreed.

Now Lu Yan He wants to get a $20 million salary, which is already a matter of course.

It is not an unreasonable request.

Chen Ziyan said to Lu Yan He: "Your salary in Hollywood next, there is only one goal."

"What goal? Is it to get a higher salary than $20 million?"

"In non-sequel commercial movies, you can relatively stably get the salary figure of $20 million." Chen Ziyan said, "It is not that one or two movies achieve this result, but that you can continuously get it, which means you have stood firm in the $20 million club."

Lu Yan He nodded.

"Alright, then I will continue to work hard."

Chen Ziyan said: "A *Godless 2*, a *Mist 3*, if these two movies can be signed with a $20 million base salary contract, then your professional situation will completely enter a new stage, truly entering the superstar era."

Lu Yan He: "Without accident, should be able to talk it down, right?"

"Hmm." Chen Ziyan nodded.

"However, *Godless 2* this movie, the $20 million salary is basically the ceiling standard. Ivan's salary in the second part will definitely rise, and they won't let the budget of this movie exceed a certain proportion in the actor's salary." Chen Ziyan said, "Even if *Godless 2*'s production budget is increased to $200 million, for such visual effects-based movies, the general personnel budget will not exceed 35%."

Lu Yan He understood.

"Good."

The box office trend of *Godless* is indeed outstanding.

After the second week of release, the global box office has exceeded $800 million, and the $1 billion target is no longer just a target.

The viewing craze set off by this movie globally continues to maintain a high position with the discussion heat of the movie plot.

Lu Yan He's character can be said to be the most popular character in *Godless*.

Ivan is a growth-type protagonist, and his character charm has to wait until the completion of the trilogy to realize a complete character arc.

However, the character played by Lu Yan He has high-level abilities and a formed character charm from the moment he appears.

Just like Face Uncle in *Kingsman*.

After the first movie was released

For Lu Yan He, the greatest benefit of this matter was that Green Valley quickly agreed to the conditions for the sequel participation proposed by Darren Wilson.

Lu Yan He could directly enjoy a 10% share of all revenue from "Godless 2" in the China region, a 5% share of box office revenue from all other global regions, and various shares of other derivative income.

It was mainly the first two points that were extremely difficult to negotiate.

Yet, Darren Wilson managed to secure them for Lu Yan He starting with "Godless 2."

Even Chen Ziyan said that Darren Wilson must have put in a massive amount of effort this time.

Otherwise, even with Lu Yan He at the height of his popularity, it would have been difficult to obtain such terms.