Chapter 450: One Big, Two Small: Who Should I Choose?

After stretching for more than a month, the budget for *Edge of Tomorrow* was finally out, and Hunter called immediately to report it.

"How much?"

"170 million USD."

Hearing this number, Wei Jin did some mental math; if marketing costs were included, this project would need at least 400 million USD to barely break even, so the risk was still quite high.

"Boss, thanks to my persistent arguments, the female lead role has been secured."

Over the phone, Wei Jin could feel the sycophantic aura radiating from this guy Hunter.

The film *Edge of Tomorrow* was different from *Pacific Rim*; the female lead's role was quite prominent. Wei Jin certainly wouldn't let outsiders benefit, so after Warner Bros. confirmed the collaboration, he had Hunter negotiate for the role.

However, Wei Jin had long anticipated this result; after all, the Huaxia market had grown to a point that Hollywood could no longer ignore, especially since the domestic box office for *Pacific Rim* had already crossed 200 million USD, far exceeding North America.

As long as Warner Bros. wasn't stupid, they should know that if *Edge of Tomorrow* had the backing of a Chinese actress, it would be an absolute guarantee for the box office.

According to Wei Jin's initial idea, he intended to give it to Gao Yuanyuan; after all, he hadn't arranged a film for Da Meiyuan in two or three years.

But now that Yuan Yuanjie was pregnant, she couldn't be running around, so it could only be given to the other three consorts.

It was just that he still needed to ponder a bit on who exactly to give it to.

"By the way, Boss, when do you think it would be appropriate to discuss the specific division of investment equity?"

"Hmm, let's see. I happen to be going to attend the opening ceremony of the Venice Film Festival, so I'll take a trip to North America while I'm at it."

After some deliberation, Wei Jin gave his answer; he could just take this opportunity to send Da Meiyuan to North America to nurture the fetus, killing two birds with one stone and having a legitimate reason.

"Alright, Boss, I will notify Warner Bros."

Afterwards, Hunter also took the opportunity to report on some other work.

That low-budget thriller *The Shallows* had been released in North America for four weeks, with a box office reaching 119 million USD, and the global box office currently at 168 million, with the final total expected to be around 180 million.

Compared to the 15 million USD production cost and less than 6 million USD in marketing costs, the net profit for *The Shallows* project was at least over 50 million USD.

Although it couldn't compare to the earnings brought by several horror film series, a return rate as high as 350% was definitely a huge profit.

*Taken 3* had completed all production and was scheduled for release on October 12.

To be honest, this release window wasn't particularly good, but there was no help for it; the competition in the North American autumn season this year was particularly fierce.

*Skyfall*, *Life of Pi*, *Dixing Yinxing*, *The Hobbit*, *The Great Gatsby*... they had almost carved up the entire November and December schedule.

However, Summit Entertainment was very open-minded about this; series films didn't rely too heavily on release windows, and with the backing of the first two, he believed the box office wouldn't be too bad.

In addition, Summit Entertainment's projects for the second half of the year had also been finalized; Hunter intended to take advantage of the global success of *The Hunger Games* to launch the second installment, striving to develop this series at a frequency of one film per year.

Wei Jin had no objections to this; after all, in a few years when the North American market shrank, this series might be hard-pressed to achieve such brilliant results, so developing it early meant earning money early.

After hanging up the phone, Wei Jin sat in his office lost in thought.

"One big, two small—who exactly should I choose?"

As time entered late July, *Storm* was officially released.

Although it was a pure Hong Kong film, thanks to the influence of the production company, the high production costs, the positive media reports after the premiere, and the drawing power of Liu Tianwang, the cinema chains were relatively optimistic.

They generally gave it a screening rate of over 25%, and the Shanhe Cinema Line and Golden Harvest Cinema Line even gave it 35%.

This made quite a few Hong Kong directors feel a bit jealous, as their films couldn't get such good screening rates.

And *Storm* did not live up to this treatment, with a first-day result of 23.7 million, strongly taking over the daily championship from *Pacific Rim*.

However, the performance of *Pacific Rim* was still eye-catching; even after entering the extension period, it maintained around 15 million per day, and the current box office had reached 1.467 billion, with it expected to cross the 1.5 billion mark by the end of this weekend.

And *The Four*, which was squeezed by the screening rates, actually had a quite resilient box office performance; currently in its 15th day of release, the box office had already broken 180 million, and the daily box office still maintained seven or eight million, which made people in the industry click their tongues in wonder.

However, once one thought about how the genres of the two films were completely different, it was barely acceptable.

As for that film *Dawangdang* starring Yang Mi, it had even less impact.

This wasn't to say that *Dawangdang* performed brilliantly; it was precisely because it was too rotten. It originally only had a daily income of two or three hundred thousand, and it had dropped to below 100,000, so it really didn't have much of an impact.

Currently, this film had been released for 15 days, and the box office still hadn't broken 50 million; compared to the production plus marketing cost of over 30 million, the loss was a certainty.

During this time, Yang Mi had been keeping a low profile filming on set, and she even rarely posted on Weibo, focusing on the "you can't see me" approach.

Wei Jin didn't put too much thought into the film market on his side, and took the weekend to accompany Jing Tian for her birthday.

Her 24th birthday, her zodiac year, seemed a bit livelier than in the past.

Many of Jing Tian's friends and classmates came to Dongshanshu to attend this birthday banquet; Qingzi, Gao Ye, Zhu Yilong, and other company artists were all there, and there were also many former classmates from Beijing Film Academy.

Jing Tian was still in the kitchen preparing dinner with the nanny, and Wei Jin acted as the host, chatting with her group of friends.

Compared to that birthday party five years ago, these artists had already stepped into society and entered the film and television industry, so they seemed relatively less reserved and could chat a few sentences with Wei Jin.

"Qingzi, your scenes are finished?"

Facing the boss's inquiry, Qingzi revealed a sweet smile on her face, "Senior, not yet, I estimate it will be until the middle of next month."

Wei Jin nodded; although *Hello Old Times* was a youth campus drama, the shooting cycle for TV series was relatively longer, so three months seemed standard.

"How about you, Gao Ye, what have you been busy with lately?"

"President Wei, my announcements have just finished, and I plan to take a good rest for the next month..."

Looking at Gao Ye, who seemed a bit embarrassed, Wei Jin laughed; was he really that afraid that he was a slave driver?

"Hmm, balancing work and rest is good; don't make yourself too busy."

Afterwards, Wei Jin chatted a few more sentences with Zhu Yilong; since *Hello Old Times*, the latter had become completely popular and had steadily entered the ranks of second-tier male actors.

However, he had a clear plan for his subsequent career; apart from running announcements, he spent most of his time taking classes at the company's artist training center to enrich his acting experience and hone his acting skills, hoping to enter the big screen as soon as possible.

Wei Jin was very encouraging about this.

After chatting with his own artists, Wei Jin didn't neglect the others either, and chatted a few words with everyone to some extent.

Because he had seen several of Peng Guanying's works in his previous life, Wei Jin had a pretty good impression of him, so he chatted a bit more with him.

When he graduated, Peng Guanying didn't choose Starry Sky Culture, but signed a film and television contract with Mango TV, starting from a modeling route, then participated in Wen Zhang's *Naked Marriage Era* last year, and appeared in the urban emotional drama *Baby Difficult to Raise* jointly created by CCTV and Mango TV in the first half of this year.

Although he was inferior to Zhu Yilong, Qingzi, and others, Peng Guanying's development among the 2006 class of Beijing Film Academy was still quite good; at least he wasn't short of acting contracts. After the warm dinner, everyone dispersed one after another, and Wei Jin presented his gift.

"Tian Tian, hurry and open it to see if you like it?"

"Mm."

Upon hearing this, the young girl happily took the small gift box, and after nimbly unwrapping it, her eyes instantly lit up.

"Brother, this bracelet is so pretty, hurry and put it on for me."

"Alright."

Wei Jin carefully put the Givenchy bracelet on the young girl; the platinum chain and the inlaid sapphire shone against each other on Jing Tian's fair wrist.

"It really is quite nice; it seems my taste is still decent."

"Brother, you really are full of yourself."

"What? You don't like it? Then give it back to me."

A mischievous smile appeared on Wei Jin's face, and as he spoke, he reached toward the girl's wrist, looking as if he were about to snatch it back.

Jing Tian nimbly pulled her hand back, hiding it behind her back, her little mouth pouting high. "There's no such thing as taking back a gift that's already been given; it's mine now."

"Haha, I'm just teasing you."

After being lovey-dovey for quite a while, the two curled up on the sofa to watch a variety show, which was none other than *Keep Running*.

The fourth season of *Keep Running* had already been airing for over a month, and it had currently reached its sixth episode, with an average viewership rating of 3.37 and a peak rating breaking 4.

This result seemed slightly worse than last year's, but both the television station and the production team were very satisfied.

After all, the competition nowadays was too intense; variety shows that could break a 2 rating were already extremely rare in the country.

For example, that show *If You Are The One*, after being sold exclusively to Jiangsu TV, had seen its ratings drop to around 1.5 over the course of two years.

Yet even so, this program remained the trump card of Su Province TV.

In comparison, *Keep Running*, which had already launched four seasons, could still maintain a rating above 3, which could be called a miracle.

While watching the performance of the several main cast members after the lineup adjustment, Wei Jin stroked Jing Tian's slender, full thighs and her soft, well-shaped breasts.

After watching the hour-long program, Wei Jin was generally quite satisfied; the performances of the several newly added main cast members were all pretty good.

Deng Chao replaced Liu Feiren to become the "Power Player." Although there was still a gap in ability, it was precisely this less-than-obvious advantage and his own comedic attributes that made the show even better to watch.

After all, it was indeed a bit over the top for professional athletes to participate in reality shows, and sometimes even the production team couldn't keep them in check.

Meanwhile, company artist Li Xian replaced Luo Jin, focusing on a "pretty boy" persona, serving as a substitute for the original cast member Lu Han.

Nazha's performance was also quite good; she firmly carried out the "Stupid Beauty" route and could be called a "game black hole," providing quite a few laughs for the show.

Just as he turned off the television, Wei Jin saw that Jing Tian in his arms had already leaned in, her pretty face flushed red as blood.

"Brother, I want..."

Looking at the girl's beautiful eyes that seemed as if they were about to drip water, Wei Jin's mouth curled up slightly, a playful look appearing on his face as he whispered into the beauty's ear, "Tian Tian, what do you want?"

"Brother, you are truly wicked."

Jing Tian lightly bit her red lips and hammered her soft fists against Wei Jin. This man was just too wicked; he had been teasing her for over an hour, and he was still asking her what she wanted? Gently grabbing the girl's soft, powerless hands, Wei Jin gradually leaned in toward that exquisitely beautiful face.

Feeling the man's breath, Jing Tian let her hands wrap around Wei Jin's neck, and her watery, large eyes slowly closed.

"Mmph."

Entering the weekend, the heat of the Summer Slot seemed to have been fully activated.

Over the two days, *Storm* continued to rake in 58.4 million, and for the first three days of the weekend, the box office had already crossed the 80-million mark, closing at 82.1 million, which was incredibly strong.

Crucially, the word-of-mouth online was also decent, with a 7.3 rating on Yinxiang Net, which was considered quite good for a pure Hong Kong police-and-thief film.

This meant that the box office for this film was basically stable; barring any major surprises later on, 200 million was definitely no problem, and even 300 million would be quite easy.

Fiber's *The Four* was also doing okay, with 21 million reported over the two weekend days, and the total box office had already crossed the 200-million mark.

Fiber high-profilely issued a press release: "Celebrating *The Four* box office breaking 200 million, closing at 201 million, congratulations to Director Chen Jiashang, Bai Bin, Deng Chao..."

However, this news didn't cause much of a splash in the industry, and there weren't many related media reports because all the headlines had been given to *Pacific Rim*.

Over the two weekend days, *Pacific Rim* raked in 43 million at the box office.

With this, the total domestic box office broke through to 1.51 billion! "The Sino-US co-produced sci-fi blockbuster *Pacific Rim* has broken 1.5 billion at the domestic box office, winning the revenue-sharing bet!"

"Production parties including Shanhe Media, China Film Group, and Wanda Pictures will split revenue with the theater chains at a ratio of 47.5%!"

"*Pacific Rim*'s global box office has broken 580 million USD, successfully ranking among the top ten global box office hits of 2012."

A large number of celebrity artists and industry companies also posted their congratulations on their respective Weibo accounts.

Although some production companies were a bit unhappy and jealous, a 47.5% revenue split was definitely the highest in the history of the production industry and theater chain splits, and it was worth celebrating.

Wei Jin also received quite a few congratulatory calls on his end, including one from Han Sanping.

"Wei Jin, this celebration banquet must be held in a big way, hahaha."

Through the phone, Wei Jin could feel Han's joy, so he decided to add more fuel to the fire.

"Chairman Han, the budget for *Edge of Tomorrow* is out: 170 million USD. The negotiation time is scheduled for the end of next month."

As Wei Jin expected, the moment Han Sanping heard this number, even his breathing became heavy.

"Good, good, good. Notify me when you set off; I will arrange for people to follow along. When the time comes, you must help out with China Film Group's share..."

Han Sanping knew very well that China Film Group's bargaining power was weak, and the three domestic parties had to band together to advance and retreat in order to occupy a dominant position in the negotiations.

"Don't worry, Chairman Han, I understand. As for the celebration banquet, leave it to China Film Group."

"You can rest easy on that, just leave it to me, hahaha."

(End of chapter)