Chapter 24: Windfall, Screening, Taking Stock

As early as when he was in Berlin, Wei Jin had established an overseas offshore company through a European consulting firm, and the offshore company legally held the overseas copyrights for all works under the name of Wei Jin Fengliu Studio.

Therefore, the more than 6 million USD in overseas copyright revenue remained in the offshore company's account.

It was originally just a habitual precaution, but who would have thought it would be a happy accident; since he could not participate in the European Championship domestically, he would participate legally from abroad.

The half-month since entering June could be considered the most tense time for Wei Jin since he transmigrated; the European Championship was not only related to Wei Jin's development funds, but also served to verify a long-held idea.

At the very beginning, Wei Jin confirmed that this was his original world, but in fact, the scope he had verified was very narrow. What could land area prove? What could the world's composition prove? What could historical events prove? From the moment he transmigrated, the future he relied on was already unpredictable; only if the super-large-scale events in his memory occurred according to their original trajectories could he barely verify his idea. After all, there was no such thing as world-line convergence.

In fact, the butterfly effect had already occurred on a small scale, for instance with Huang Bai and Ceng Li, so Wei Jin did not dare to be certain that the result of this European Championship would be the same as in his memory.

However, it was fortunate that the overseas copyright revenue was an unexpected windfall; losing it would not affect Wei Jin's domestic foundation.

Facts proved that Wei Jin, this little butterfly, did not have that much influence; at least, he did not affect the European Championship matches thousands of miles away.

The match result was just as in Wei Jin's memory: the Greek team won the championship. The more than 6 million USD Wei Jin invested instantly skyrocketed more than 80 times. After paying taxes, the funds in the overseas company's account reached 430 million USD—a windfall from heaven.

Just as Wei Jin was reaping his windfall overseas, *Buried* was also being screened to great popularity.

Although this film was an award-winning piece, its art-house attributes were not prominent, and China Film Group was still quite optimistic about it, expecting a box office of 15-20 million.

On July 1st, two days before the film's release, the sale of the overseas copyrights was announced to the media, which stirred up a thousand waves in an instant.

"Sky-high copyright price, Beijing Film Academy student becomes a multi-millionaire in one fell swoop."

"Overseas copyright hits a new high, a way out for art-house films."

"Silver Bear Director may already be married, who is the woman?"

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For a time, Wei Jin, who had kept a low profile for half a year, became a media darling again, and his phone was blown up once more.

This time, the calls were more about flattery than congratulations; earning over 50 million from a single film, this money-making ability had already surpassed the vast majority of domestic directors, and Wei Jin's status as a Silver Bear Director was truly valued by the industry.

This included Miss Cai from Tangren and Liu's mother; the former was seeking film cooperation, to which Wei Jin only indicated that he would certainly do so if there was an opportunity.

The latter, while congratulating him, mentioned that Wei Jin and Yifei were classmates and that they could interact more in Beijing; Wei Jin similarly indicated that he would certainly do so if there was an opportunity.

The most surprising thing was that Wang Zhonglei of Huayi also called personally to offer congratulations, while simultaneously expressing an intention to recruit him in a veiled manner, inviting him to have a meal together when he had time, which Wei Jin readily accepted.

As for when he would have time, Wei Jin felt it should be when he was strong enough; after all, he had not yet proven himself in commercial films.

In the past two days, promotional photos for the film had also appeared on the internet; it was a photo of Qin Hao lying in a coffin with a look of despair, and the thrilling atmosphere was instantly maxed out, which really attracted quite a few netizens for a time.

The film was released amidst this gradually fermenting heat.

Back in '04, there were very few films released domestically, and everyone had not yet developed the habit of watching movies. The entire month of July only had *Buried* and *House of Flying Daggers*, as well as a South Korean film, *My Boyfriend Is Type B*.

*Buried* was released on Saturday, July 3rd. Because there were no competitors, the cinema chains' scheduling was very supportive, and with the addition of the holiday, the opening day box office actually exceeded 3 million. Moreover, the word-of-mouth was good, and China Film Group increased promotional efforts at the right time.

As word-of-mouth fermented, more and more "organic" fans promoted *Buried* on the internet, and the Sunday box office hit a new high, reaching 4.2 million. It was hard to imagine that a low-budget thriller had actually broken 7.2 million in two days of box office; looking at the word-of-mouth, the projected box office should be around 40 million.

Generally speaking, if word-of-mouth does not collapse, a film's final box office will be 11-15 times its opening day box office.

Subsequent developments did not exceed expectations, with 14.7 million in box office captured in the second week, and a cumulative box office of 21.9 million after 9 days of release.

However, these were already unrelated to Wei Jin; at this time, he was taking stock of the studio's account funds.

As of the end of June 2004.

In terms of novels, *Sword Snow Stride* had already released fifteen volumes, with cumulative sales exceeding 6 million copies. This was mainly because there was too much piracy, and Wei Jin did not want to hold any book signings, so he just let it be. In terms of copyright revenue, it brought Wei Jin 11 million.

Once *Those Years* was released, sales exploded, currently exceeding one million copies, and he was already in contact with publishers in Taiwan and Thailand, with revenue reaching 2.6 million.

In terms of songs, 6 hit ringtones, after more than half a year, had a total download volume exceeding 140 million, with ringtone revenue of 280 million, and the studio's share was 98 million.

*Those Years*, sung by Li Jian, was also officially released, and the market response was good; many people expressed that it sang of their youth, but the release time was still short, so the revenue was not yet apparent.

In terms of commercial performances, as the popularity of the songs gradually declined, Huang Bai's appearance fee stabilized at 150,000. Over more than half a year, he had basically run through all the clients with demand, with cumulative income of 21 million.

This was still the result of Wei Jin trying to minimize work arrangements for fear that Huang Bai would die from overwork; it was evident that commercial performances were truly super-profitable, no wonder so many stars later, whether human or dog, released singles to rake in money everywhere.

Added to the 3 million from the buyout of *Buried*, the studio had reached a terrifying total revenue of 130 million since its establishment.

In terms of expenditures, he invested 3 million in *Chinese Paladin*; later, due to special effects production, the funds were insufficient, and Tangren hoped for additional investment. Wei Jin waved his hand and added another 5 million, bringing the project share to 30%. Tangren felt that cooperating with Wei Jin was very pleasant and sent over another project, *Strange Tales of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio*, for which Wei Jin invested 5 million, with a 30% share.

Among the projects reported by Chen Zhiming, there were several that Wei Jin had an impression of, and he invested in them to varying degrees, among which:

*Emperor Wu of Han* investment of 7 million, 12% share.

*World's Number One* premium investment of 10 million, 25% share.

Cumulative expenditure of 30 million, plus the studio's operating expenses, the current available funds on the books were 91 million.

Looking at the report in front of him, Wei Jin fell into deep thought. The initial effect of planting a flag had already manifested; projects were already actively coming to his door, many of which were high-quality projects. The only regret was that the production team had not yet been successfully built; it seemed he would have to set his sights on school graduates.

Regarding the use of the funds on the books, Wei Jin already had some preliminary plans.

There were still too few cinemas in the country; only by making the cake bigger could he earn more money, and grasping the cinema chains was also strengthening his own right to speak.

When one day Wei Jin controlled enough cinema chains, he would like to see who dared to speak loudly to him.

A new author writing a book for the first time, kneeling and begging for collections, follows, reading updates, and recommendations, thank you everyone. A new author writing a book for the first time, kneeling and begging for collections, follows, reading updates, and recommendations, thank you everyone.

(End of this chapter)