Chapter 143: Locking in the Victory and the Official Start of Filming

On the first day of its release, *New World* brought in 11 million in box office revenue. It doesn't seem very high, but this was a weekday, and the word-of-mouth online is excellent. Many netizens have expressed that *New World* is more satisfying, more realistic, and more grounded than *Infernal Affairs*.

Word-of-mouth is indeed the best boost for the box office; *New World* reported 13 million on its second day, and on the last day before the May Day holiday, it reached 16 million.

In three days of release, *New World* has raked in 40 million at the box office, achieving a strong start. Now, it remains to be seen if it can hold its ground during the May Day holiday.

However, by this time, Wei Jin had already arrived in the Hongya Region, and the male lead's solo performance had officially begun.

This time, Wei Jin only brought Liu Tianwang and a portion of the behind-the-scenes production team; the other actors remained at the training base on standby.

After the plane landed, they transferred to a bus for the rest of the journey. This place is rarely visited by people; the further they went, the more desolate it became, and the Danxia landforms gradually came into view.

"This place is truly incredible."

Liu Tianwang and the rest of the crew looked outside through the bus windows, their eyes filled with shock.

After traveling for who knows how long, a cluster of buildings resembling shipping containers came into view, and there were some construction vehicles nearby that seemed to be working.

The film crew's vehicles stopped one after another, and everyone began moving their things. Conditions here were limited, and everyone was staying in construction site prefab housing, Wei Jin included.

"Everyone, thank you for your hard work during this time. Conditions are limited, so please bear with it."

"Director Wei, you're too polite. We've experienced even tougher filming environments; this is a small matter."

A group of staff members, including Liu Tianwang, spoke up one after another. Just kidding—Wei Jin was staying with everyone, so what else was there to say?

Various equipment and props began to be set up in an orderly fashion, and the filming time was drawing closer.

A professional team is truly impressive. Wei Jin took Liu Tianwang to see the "Living Module" designed and built by Aerospace Science and Industry up close. Even the interior layout was very particular, striving to be rigorous, scientific, and reasonable.

After telling everyone to get some rest early, Wei Jin found it hard to fall asleep. This was truly the worst environment he had ever stayed in.

The next day, everything was ready, and filming began.

The male lead is left alone on Mars, facing immense survival risks, and is forced to embark on a journey of survival where he must find joy in bitterness.

As a botanist, the protagonist has a very clear head. He first took inventory of the supplies in the Living Module and calculated how many days he could survive.

When the numbers were tallied, the male lead's despair was imaginable. Decadent, he counted the days until his death on his fingers, recording his last words over and over again.

It wasn't until he found a bag of vacuum-packed potatoes in a teammate's locker that the decadent protagonist began to become motivated.

There is nowhere that the children of Huaxia cannot conquer. As long as there is a piece of land and seeds, one can grow a country. This is rooted in the bones of the Huaxia people, not to mention that the male lead is a botanist.

"Cut, this take is good."

Wei Jin looked at the image on the monitor and nodded with satisfaction.

"Hua Ge, your expression was spot on. I was afraid that since you hadn't experienced it, you wouldn't be able to act it out."

This scene required the male lead to use his hands to turn his colleagues' excrement into organic fertilizer. His face needed to show a look of disgust and aversion, yet he had to bite the bullet and do it.

"Haha, Director Wei, you don't know. Back when I was filming movies in Hong Kong, the props were so realistic. Sometimes they even used the real thing. That feeling..."

"Hua Ge, stop, don't say any more. I already have the image in my head." — After finishing the day's filming, everyone went to rest early, but Wei Jin picked up his laptop, opened Yinxiang Net, and kept refreshing the page.

"Director Wei, why are you still not asleep so late?"

Seeming to notice that the light in Wei Jin's room was still on, Liu Tianwang, who was next door, asked from outside the door.

"It's Hua Ge. I can't sleep, so I'm checking the *New World* box office."

Wei Jin opened the door and invited Liu Tianwang in. He really couldn't sleep; the conditions were too poor.

"Oh? It's just past midnight, right? Can the box office numbers be checked so quickly?"

Historically, box office numbers relied on theater chain statistics, which were then aggregated for the distributors. Usually, it took until the middle of the night to get the day's data, so Liu Tianwang was a bit surprised.

Wei Jin briefly explained the functions of Yinxiang Net. Liu Tianwang was stunned as he listened; he hadn't expected it to be so convenient.

"Hua Ge, look, it's out."

Liu Tianwang looked at the numbers on the page, his eyes widening in pleasant surprise: "24.17 million, Director Wei, over 24 million! It's even higher than yesterday. This is truly great."

It was no wonder Liu Tianwang was incoherently excited. In the last two years, none of the movies he starred in had broken 100 million at the box office, and there were already many voices in the industry saying he didn't deserve such a high salary. For *The Warlords*, Liu Tianwang received a salary of 16 million, which was already considered very high among domestic stars—one must remember that it was only 2007.

"Well, how about it, Hua Ge? I didn't fool you, did I?"

"Yes, in this regard, Director Wei, you are truly an expert."

Since entering the May Day holiday, with the word-of-mouth fermenting over the previous few days, the *New World* box office surged.

On the first day of the holiday, the box office reported 21 million. At the time, Liu Tianwang couldn't believe it, fearing it was just a flash in the pan. Wei Jin told him that the word-of-mouth had stabilized and the box office would definitely not be bad.

Now, the second day's box office of 24.17 million completely solidified Wei Jin's theory that word-of-mouth equals box office.

"It's only been five days, and it's about to break 100 million. Sigh, what a pity, it almost broke the record."

One second Liu Tianwang was happy, the next he was already feeling a bit regretful. Truly, human greed knows no bounds.

Wei Jin was not surprised by this at all. After all, he only provided the script for this movie, rather than directing it himself; the "Wei content" was a bit low.

"Breaking 100 million is only a matter of time, and 200 million isn't too difficult. Now it just depends on how far it can go."

"Director Wei, are you that confident? Aren't you worried about *Spider-Man 3* at all?"

Liu Tianwang was startled by Wei Jin's words. If he could have 200 million at the box office, he would be burning incense in gratitude; anything more was something he didn't even dare to imagine.

"Hua Ge, people must have dreams. Since it's a dream, why not make it bigger, even bigger? Besides, we occupy the home-field advantage. I have confidence." — Liu Tianwang wore a space suit weighing several dozen catties, pushing a small cart to transport Martian soil from outside, just to create a piece of pure land where potatoes could be grown.

As for the source of water, the protagonist used a method of igniting hydrogen and oxygen. Unfortunately, his luck wasn't very good, and it exploded once.

To be as realistic as possible, this segment was filmed live. Liu Tianwang was still very professional, provided the director needed it.

This scene was very dangerous, and the professional team conducted detailed safety verification. Wei Jin didn't want the male lead to have an accident just a few days into filming.

These days, Liu Tianwang would log into Yinxiang Net every night to follow the box office situation, even more actively than Wei Jin.

On May 3rd, the *New World* box office reported 23 million, a slight decline from the previous day, which was also normal. After 6 days of release, it totaled 108 million.

On May 4th, *Spider-Man 3* was released, with a first-day box office of 28 million, causing great shock. However, Wei Jin knew that this was the fan effect inherent to a mature IP; many Hollywood blockbusters were like this.

However, the screen allocation for *New World* was squeezed, and the daily box office barely exceeded 10 million, hovering around the 10 million mark for several days thereafter.

As of May 7th, *New World* had been released for 10 days with a box office of 146 million, while its competitor *Spider-Man 3* had been released for 4 days and had raked in 89 million.

It looked evenly matched, but Wei Jin knew that *New World* had basically locked in the victory in advance. — The construction of the Mars base in Hongya was very fast, and it was completed ahead of schedule before the holiday was even over.

On May 8th, the remaining actors arrived here according to the requirements.

"Long time no see, everyone."

Wei Jin and Liu Tianwang saw the bus from afar and waited in the designated parking lot.

"Tian Tian, seeing your dear brother, why don't you hurry over and ask for a hug?"

Zhang Ziyi teased Jing Tian; this woman was quite capable, and with intentional effort, she had managed to maintain a pretty good relationship with Jing Tian.

"Sister Ziyi, you're making fun of me again."

Looking at Jing Tian's charming and cute appearance, the group of main creators all laughed.

"Alright, everyone, let's get settled first, have a rest, and officially start work tomorrow."

The conditions here were limited, and Wei Jin had no way to host a welcome banquet or anything of the sort for everyone, so he could only let everyone have a good rest.

"Alright, Director Wei, we are already hungry and thirsty for it."

Wu Jing flexed his biceps and said somewhat cockily.

"Get lost, what kind of tiger-wolf words are those."

Surprisingly, reporters actually came to interview them that evening, but helplessly, Wei Jin had given instructions early on that the filming site needed to be kept confidential, especially those buildings.

The few reporters could only be blocked far away by the staff, and the cameras carried on their shoulders ended up filming nothing but emptiness.

With the arrival of the main creators, it signaled that The Martian had officially begun filming. Today's first update, I earnestly request all book friends to reward me with subscriptions, follow-up readings, and collections. You must flip to the last page for the follow-up reading, thank you everyone! (End of this chapter)