Chapter 161: Film Wrap-up and a World for Two

The filming of *Now You See Me* was still very smooth, especially after the initial period of adjustment for the main cast; the shooting schedule quickly got on the right track.

Wei Jin estimated that it would be successfully wrapped up in about another month, even faster than the originally scheduled time.

However, Jing Tian's vigilance had been unusually high these past few days, giving Wei Jin a bit of a headache. Wasn't it just that Daddario had given him a small slip of paper? Was it necessary to be so guarded? It was as if she didn't trust the character of me, Wei.

Therefore, during this period, Jing Tian also endured an output that exceeded what someone of her age should bear, but the young girl gritted her teeth and persisted, finding pain and pleasure in it.

In his spare time from filming, Wei Jin was also paying attention to news from back home.

The release date for *Lust, Caution* in the country had been changed again and again, finally settling on November 1st.

Due to the news coming from North America and the results achieved in Hong Kong and Taiwan, *Lust, Caution* had thoroughly whetted the appetite of Mainland China audiences, and many people wanted to see just how explicit it really was.

The media coverage also made the film's popularity extremely high; on the day of the premiere, the theater occupancy rate reached nearly 100%, which could be called terrifying.

Unsurprisingly, the first-day box office for *Lust, Caution* easily broke ten million, and it maintained eight or nine million almost every day thereafter. The last time an art film performed so violently was Wei Jin's *Room*.

Many media outlets were speculating about which of the two Oscar Directors was more formidable.

However, Wei Jin wasn't that bored; comparing these things was meaningless. He was more concerned about the ratings for *Scarlet Heart*.

In mid-October, this television series began airing simultaneously on Shanghai Television and Anhui Province Satellite TV. The premiere ratings for both stations broke 5, which was very gratifying. After all, Wei Jin Company's works had already been tested by the market, and many viewers were waiting in front of their televisions for the broadcast to begin.

Subsequently, as the plot unfolded, the peak rating for Shanghai Television broke 8, and Anhui Province Satellite TV also reached as high as 7.4, making it unstoppable in the same time slot.

Ma'ertai Ruoxi seemed to be the new "Little Swallow," and the actress Bai Bin became an overnight sensation. From an unknown amateur, she leaped directly into becoming a popular young starlet. The position of Wei Jin's Assistant had truly become the highest-quality stepping stone in the industry.

With Bai Bin's rise to fame, it was impossible for her to return to Wei Jin's side to serve as an Assistant, and the company had already begun looking for a new candidate.

Once the news got out, many female students from art colleges set their sights on this stepping stone, and Wei Jin Company had already received many resumes.

And let's just say, these female students pursuing progress had truly studied Wei Jin's aesthetic thoroughly. The photos attached to the resumes were basically all of them dressed in black silk stockings and tight skirts, and their appearances were all quite decent; many of them even had quite substantial assets.

Looking at the resumes sent over by Zhang Xu, for a moment, Wei Jin actually felt like he was choosing a concubine.

Amidst the hustle and bustle, time flowed by slowly. In late November, the on-set portion of *Now You See Me* officially wrapped up, and what followed was the location shooting portion.

Originally, Wei Jin had intended to arrange for an Executive Director to go over and film, but as soon as Jing Tian heard that they were shooting on location in Paris, she begged Wei Jin to direct it himself so that the two of them could spend some time in a world for two abroad.

Since the filming progress was faster than expected and there was nothing major happening back home, Wei Jin thought about it for a moment and agreed, treating it as accompanying Jing Tian to relax—on November 23rd, *The Invisible Guest* was officially released in the country, and many of Wei Jin's fans and suspense film buffs had already started grabbing tickets on Yinxiang Net.

Since its launch in May of this year, Yinxiang Net hadn't attracted much attention at first. Apart from industry insiders watching the real-time box office, most people were not interested in this unknown website.

Later, it was only under the promotion of many stars under Wei Jin's banner that it began to enter the audience's line of sight. Subsequently, many stars in the industry who were on good terms with Wei Jin also joined in to promote it, and the number of registered users continued to rise. Currently, there were over 2 million registered accounts, with 100,000+ daily active users.

Although Yinxiang Net focused on online ticketing and real-time box office, what most users were more concerned about was the work rating function. This meant that the general public also had their own channel to voice their opinions, rather than relying on those so-called elites.

On Yinxiang Net, users could give their own impression scores for all works, including but not limited to film, television, books, and music, using a five-star rating system, where half a star was 1 point, for a maximum of 10 points.

Each user only had one rating for a single work, which could be modified, but there were some limitations.

At the same time, it controlled bad behaviors such as paid posters inflating scores and malicious low ratings, ensuring the fairness and impartiality of the impression scores as much as possible. Wei Jin did not want to create another trash heap like Douban. However, since Yinxiang Net became popular, the R&D team's ambitions had also grown, and with Wei Jin's support, they had purchased quite a few copyrights.

Furthermore, they cooperated with television stations to obtain a lot of first-hand data, including television ratings, broadcast times, awards received, and so on. Even many entertainment reporters had to come to Yinxiang Net to check data when writing about various statistics.

As a result, discussion sections for film, television, and music on sites like Douban, Tianya, blogs, and even Tieba could be said to have suffered heavy losses.

There was no help for it; the massive database allowed people to find nearly 90% of the film, television, books, and music on the market here.

In terms of movies and television series, the information was detailed, and there were also some behind-the-scenes footage and actor materials, which attracted even more pursuit from many film fans.

Now, many film fans, after a movie was released, would first go to Yinxiang Net to see the ratings given by netizens who had already tested the waters.

*The Invisible Guest* had over a thousand ratings on the night of its premiere, with a total score as high as 9.4. The comment section was full of praise. One had to know that among the hundreds of film works currently collected, the highest score was only 9.7, which was Chen Shiren's *Farewell My Concubine*.

What was ironic was that the lowest score was also created by Chen Shiren: *The Promise* with 3.5 points, a rating given by over three hundred thousand people.

One didn't know what Chen Shiren thought when he saw this, but Wei Jin knew that in a few years, there would be even worse ones, and by then, perhaps *The Promise* might even go up a point or two.

Thanks to such a high rating, *The Invisible Guest* aroused great enthusiasm from the audience. The first-day box office was 24 million, and the box office for the first three days of the weekend was as high as 81 million.

Even so, it couldn't stop the audience's enthusiasm. Tickets for many screenings were sold out as soon as they were released. The theater chains also saw that the daily pre-sale box office was so high and urgently adjusted the scheduling. This feature also made the major theater chains increasingly supportive of data interoperability.

However, because of this, another film released in the same period, *Blind Mountain*, was completely squeezed out with no room for survival, and had to announce its withdrawal from theaters after only five days because the daily box office was already less than 10,000. — "Brother Wei Jin, come take a picture for me quickly."

Under the Eiffel Tower, Jing Tian posed, urging Wei Jin with an excited face.

"Tian Tian, lower your head a little, yes, look over here."

Wei Jin looked at the beauty and the scenery in the lens and felt it was pleasing to the eye; the fatigue of the past few days was swept away.

The location shooting for *Now You See Me* was very simple. With the coordination of the local government, it was completed in less than three days. These past few days, Wei Jin had been accompanying Jing Tian to check in at various attractions in France, which could be considered a short break.

"Brother Wei Jin, should we find a passerby to help us take one? I don't want to be alone."

Jing Tian really wanted to leave some individual memories with Wei Jin; otherwise, wouldn't this trip be in vain?

Immediately, Wei Jin began to look for a suitable candidate. After looking around, he found an old white man who had his own camera and looked like he knew how to take pictures. After some conversation, the other party was very willing to help.

"Hey, young man, you should put your arm around your wife."

The foreign old gentleman felt quite familiar and directed the two of them to pose in various ways.

His words also made Jing Tian's pretty face flush, but she smiled even more beautifully, cooperating very well with the old man's various requests.

After a burst of clicking, looking at the photos in the lens, the old man sighed with some emotion:

"I really envy you. I can never meet my youth again."

Wei Jin's face darkened. He really hadn't noticed that this old man had such a literary temperament, but there were no girls here, so who were you showing this to, old man? Waving goodbye to the enthusiastic old man, Wei Jin took Jing Tian to the next stop. Today is the third update. I implore all book friends to reward me with subscriptions, follow-up readings, and collections. Please flip to the last page for the follow-up reading, thank you everyone! (End of chapter)