Chapter 252: The Release of

Domestically, Shanhe Building.

"Director Jiang, it has been a long time."

Wei Jin sized up the woman in front of him; her appearance could be rated a 70, comparable to Miss Cai.

To be fair, several well-known powerful women in the entertainment industry seem to look quite good; Chen Xi is like this, Zhong Lifang is like this, and Jiang Xuerou before him is also like this.

Currently, the original employees have been broken up and assigned to various departments of Shanhe Media, and Jiang Xuerou has also smoothly become the director of the group's TV production department.

The previous director's ability was indeed a bit lacking, and business was basically pushed entirely by Wei Jin; in the workplace, it is perfectly normal for the capable to rise and the mediocre to fall.

"President Wei, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. From now on, I will focus on working for the group."

Although it was their first meeting, Jiang Xuerou was very grateful to Wei Jin; whether it was that divorce settlement fee or being given an important position upon arrival, both showed that he valued her.

"Director Jiang, you are too polite. The year-end bonus for the TV production department in the future will depend on you, hahaha."

"Rest assured, President Wei, I will definitely do my utmost."

Although Zhou Yi is gone, upon entering a new platform, Jiang Xuerou believes that relying on her own ability and the powerful resources of Shanhe Media, she will definitely achieve something.

"Then, once you finish 'Peacock Feather', start 'Zhen Huan Zhuan' as soon as possible. This is our first big move for next year; whether we can make a name for ourselves depends on you."

Shanhe Media had long ago obtained the copyright for this novel and completed the adaptation work; handing it to Jiang Xuerou is just the right way to test her mettle.

"Okay, President Wei, I will get started on this matter as soon as possible." — On November 27, the long-hyped "Inception" was released globally.

Domestically, industry peers were all paying attention to this film, especially Han Sanping, who made the final decision to invest.

According to the agreement, China Film Group holds a 10% share, but in the Asian region, only China Film Group and Shanhe Media split it, with a sharing ratio as high as 28.5%.

In this way, the domestic data becomes particularly important.

For this film with a huge investment, theater chains were also generally optimistic, so in terms of scheduling, they basically gave considerable support; during prime time, it was almost all "Inception".

Even so, it still could not hold back the audience's enthusiasm for watching the film.

Major cinemas were crowded with people, especially the 3D and IMAX halls, which were truly People Mountain People Sea; although the ticket prices were much higher than regular halls, the audience was still willing to pay for the visual feast.

After the first screening ended, a large number of viewers gave ratings on Yinxiang Net; a score of 9.5 declared that the film's word-of-mouth was explosive, and many netizens left comments recommending it one after another.

Sky Clear as Water, Dragon in the Sky: "Dreamy, gorgeous, surreal!"

_Qi Ye_: "The special effects are cool to the point of exploding; a Dream Architect can create and destroy a city in a single thought."

Chi Shen Shi Jian Yu: "Unconstrained ideas, dreams and reality, one ring after another; Zhuangzi dreams of the butterfly, it's amazing."

Nixi Tiandi Ren: "I recommend everyone watch the 3D version for an immersive experience."

Xie Zhi Mou: "Nolan is worthy of being a billion-dollar director; the Yellow Crane Tower was also filmed so beautifully. As a Jingzhou native, I announce that from today on, I am a fan of Nolan."

Many actors and industry insiders also walked into the cinema with curiosity, wanting to see this super production that cost 250 million USD and had a luxurious creative team.

However, when they came out, most people's minds were filled with the word 'shock'; at this moment, they only regretted not studying hard enough, as now they could only think of using 'awesome' to describe it. — Beijing, inside a villa.

Two naked bodies were rolling on a snow-white bed.

Liu Yifei had not seen Wei Jin for several months; at this moment, she seemed to have endless energy, and the strength of her combat power made Wei Jin look sideways. It seems the young girl still has great potential for development.

After tidying up, Liu Yifei lay on Wei Jin, saying with a bit of resentment:

"Brother, I miss you so much; you were gone for too long this time."

Although she had just been satisfied, anyone who had been empty for so long would endure it very painfully, right?

"Yifei, I miss you too. How about I stay with you for these two days?"

Gently holding the girl's face, Wei Jin said with some pity; it could be seen that flowers still need to be watered often. When will the dream of sleeping together under one quilt be fulfilled? "By the way, Yifei, the box office is almost out, let's take a look."

"Ah, yes, yes, I almost forgot."

Speaking of this, the young girl felt a bit embarrassed; she was originally waiting to see the box office, but she couldn't help but satisfy her cravings first.

Forcing herself to get up, Liu Yifei took the laptop, logged into Yinxiang Net, and started refreshing the page. She was very concerned about the box office; although she was not the one carrying the box office, in any case, this film had her contribution.

Looking at the girl's smooth back, Wei Jin adjusted his posture to hold her in his arms, and his hands began to give her a massage.

With the soft skin kneaded in his hands, Wei Jin was so comfortable he was almost falling asleep, when suddenly, Liu Yifei jumped up, giving him a big fright.

"Brother, it's out, it's out... 38.8 million!"

Hearing the first half, Wei Jin barely managed to hold back his laughter; it came out just by touching it, it was probably too ineffective.

However, hearing the number, Wei Jin felt confident. He had been a bit worried before; after changing the cast and some filming locations, and adopting a partial 3D shooting method, it was already quite different from the original work, and whether it could achieve the results of his past life was unknown.

Now it seems that it is highly likely that a better ending will appear.

"Alright, Yifei, the data is out, let's go take a shower. Look at you, you're still all sticky."

"Brother, you still have the nerve to say that, it's all your fault." — The box office of "Inception" continued to surge forward.

The second day, 45.8 million.

The third day, 43.6 million.

In late November, a not-so-popular release window, "Inception" raked in 128 million in box office for the first three days of the opening weekend, which can be called a miracle.

At the same time, overseas box office figures were also sent back to Huaxia.

The cumulative box office in the Asian region was 68 million USD, the cumulative box office in North America was 118 million USD, and the cumulative box office in other regions was 93 million USD.

The focus of various media recently was all on this film; the moment the overseas box office came in, they began to compete to report it.

"'Inception' raked in 279 million USD at the global box office in its first three days, topping the global box office chart!"

"China-US co-produced sci-fi blockbuster 'Inception' creates a viewing miracle!" "'Inception' 3D movie tickets are hard to come by!"

As a sci-fi blockbuster released globally, the first-week box office data of "Inception" was undoubtedly very bright.

Seeing this number, Han Sanping's face was full of smiles; one must know that for this kind of 3D blockbuster, the threat of piracy is much smaller. As long as the quality is solid, the box office harvest period will be quite long, which means the domestic box office is very likely to break 700 million, setting a record, and the global box office is even more likely to break 1 billion.

Although China Film Group cannot participate in the North American revenue share, the profits from other regions around the world are definitely a huge gain.

The person even happier than Han Sanping was Liu Yifei; as the only Huaxia actress in "Inception", the boost she received was too great.

Originally, she already had many high-end endorsements, and during this period, with the popularity of the film, activities from brands also sprang up like bamboo shoots after a rain.

For a time, the young girl was so busy she couldn't handle it, which could be described as painful yet happy. — Time entered early December, and the promotion for "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame" had already started in full swing.

Xu Laoguai personally brought a group of key creators to promote the film; this was his first battle since joining Shanhe Media, and it had to be fought beautifully.

One must know that if the box office performance was not ideal, not only would he lose money himself, but more importantly, it would be a loss of face; after all, the box office results of Wu Ershan and Lu Yang were both higher than his, and as a major commercial director who had dominated Hong Kong, he did not allow himself to continue living off his past achievements.

Wei Jin naturally had no way of knowing Xu Laoguai's inner journey; he was currently at Shanhe Ink, concerning himself with the post-production matters of *Passengers*.

"About how much longer will it take?"

"Well, President Wei, according to the current progress, about four months."

The technical staff deliberated for a moment before giving an answer.

Wei Jin nodded upon hearing this; the efficiency of Shanhe Ink was not far off from Hollywood.

"Alright, follow your plan; do not rush the work."

"Understood."

Leaving the Shanhe Ink post-production center, Wei Jin returned to his office and casually picked up a stack of invitations on the desk to flip through.

Every month he received many invitations to various events, but whether they were seen by him depended entirely on luck; after all, those he was truly on good terms with all had his phone number.

Before long, Wei Jin couldn't help but laugh; Zhang Weiping was truly capable of bending and stretching.

Back when *Curse of the Golden Flower* was sniped so miserably, not only had he never publicly cursed him over these years, but now he had sent an invitation to the premiere of a new film; his mind was quite clear.

Wei Jin was considering whether to give him some face, but his phone rang; it was actually Wu Dun.

"President Wei, I hope you will do us the honor of attending the premiere of *The Treasure Hunter*, haha, Lin Chi-ling misses you very much."

Wei Jin then remembered that this film was set to be released on the 9th, jointly produced by Changhong Film and Television and China Film Group; the former was precisely Wu Dun's company. It seemed that Taiwan capital had been developing well in Mainland China over these two years, having already made connections with China Film Group.

"President Wu, I am truly sorry; I just returned to the country these past two days, and the company has many affairs."

After hanging up the phone, Wei Jin let out a sneer; this Wu Dun actually wanted to use Blackie Ko to tempt him, his mind was simply not clear.

Thinking about it, since he wasn't attending this one, he wouldn't attend any of them, otherwise, it wouldn't look good for Han Dong's face; he pressed the phone on his desk.

"Lao Chen, help me reply to New Picture, I'm not going." — December 4th, *The Hunt* was released in North America.

Relying on the drawing power of Matt Monda and Wei Jin, as well as the gimmick of it being a Golden Bear Award film, it opened on 2,200 screens on the first day, setting an opening record for an art-house film.

Such a large distribution scale also made the box office data quite eye-catching, with a first-day take of 7.7 million USD.

The IMDb rating was also very high, around 8.5, which could not compare to the peak of 8.8 for *Room* back then, but it could still indicate that the film's word-of-mouth was very good.

What was even more surprising was that as the weekend arrived, the film's box office showed explosive growth, with 21 million on the second day and an even more exaggerated 25 million on the third day.

For an art-house film like *The Hunt*, the opening weekend box office was actually as high as 53.7 million; this damn thing was catching up to the weekend box office of *Inception* in North America. Even Wei Jin felt it was very unreal when he received the news; where exactly had things gone wrong?

Soon, Hunter's explanation arrived.

"Boss, you are truly amazing. The box office comes from the fans of Michael Jackson; they believe this film is speaking for their late idol, and they are spontaneously contributing to the film's box office..."

Wei Jin was a bit dazed; the legendary superstar Michael Jackson passed away in June of this year, but the "child molestation case" he encountered during his lifetime was indeed very similar to the film's plot; this way, it made sense.

One must know that this person's fan base was terrifying; even if only one-tenth of the fans in North America walked into the theaters, it would absolutely erupt with unimaginable energy. This was truly a case of planting a willow tree unintentionally that ended up providing shade.

"Alright, this is an unexpected joy. Hunter, continue to follow up on the award-campaign matters."

This time it was a pure English-language film, so the process for the Oscar campaign was much simpler; plus, with a public relations team, Wei Jin didn't need to spend much effort. Perhaps Michael Jackson's legacy would bring some unexpected gains to this Oscar campaign.

"Understood, boss." — *Inception* was still harvesting the box office, grossing 209 million domestically in the second week, with a cumulative domestic box office of 337 million after 10 days of release.

The cumulative box office in the Asian region was 151 million USD, the North American box office was 248 million USD, and other regions were 205 million USD, for a cumulative global box office of 604 million USD, remaining at the top of the global box office chart for the week.

The media had already predicted that this film would break the domestic box office record and even enter the 800 million mark.

Looking at the box office data, Han Sanping's old face smiled into wrinkles, while the secretary on the side tapped on a calculator, calculating the current earnings of China Film Group.

At the same time, the highly anticipated *A Simple Noodle Story* held its premiere in Beijing.

Although Zhang Weiping was not well-liked, out of respect for Zhang Yimou, many people attended the premiere.

It was also at this time that everyone learned that this film had an investment of no more than 28 million, which could be considered the lowest-cost commercial film directed by Zhang Yimou.

The Zhao Family Troupe, just as the media had reported before, almost all took no salary.

With this production cost, plus Zhang Yimou's reputation, no matter what, the film was definitely going to be highly profitable; no wonder this guy Zhang Weiping dared to choose this release window.

In his past life, Wei Jin had not seen this film and only knew that the word-of-mouth was poor, but after browsing online, he didn't see any reviews.

Upon asking, he learned that this premiere only showed a ten-minute trailer, and the full film could only be seen in theaters after the release.

Shaking his head, Wei Jin knew in his heart that this was Zhang Weiping's final struggle.

First update of the day.

(End of this chapter)