Chapter 453: Guo Fan's Choice and Renewed Conflict

Inside the chairman's office at Shanhe Building.

Wei Jin looked at Guo Fan with a smile on his face.

"You kid, you've rested long enough this time, haven't you? I sent you a message to start work and you didn't even reply?"

"Hehe, President Wei, I took advantage of graduation to go back to my hometown. I'll be settling down in Beijing from now on."

Wei Jin nodded to show he understood. Guo Fan was from Shandong, and since joining the company, he had been busy with projects during both Spring Festivals, so he really had little time to spend with his family. Now that he was on break, he naturally had to go back and visit. Without further ado, he took two scripts from his drawer and placed them on the table.

"Take a look first and choose one yourself."

"Alright."

Guo Fan picked up the scripts and began to flip through them carefully.

Wei Jin also took this opportunity to pay attention to the film market.

Since Pacific Rim finished its theatrical run, Storm had successfully become the brightest star of the Summer Slot.

As of now, after 10 days of release, the box office had crossed the 200 million mark, and weekday box office figures were still holding steady around 15 million.

However, the word-of-mouth online could only be described as mediocre; the rating on Yinxiang Net barely crossed 7 points, making it one of the poorer scripts provided by Wei Jin in recent years.

It was fortunate that there were no overly strong competitors in this time slot, otherwise, the box office results would have been hard to say.

That film from Enlight Media, The Four, had seen its box office gradually decline after crossing the 200 million mark, dropping to around 3 million per day. Currently, it had been released for over twenty days, with a box office reaching 238 million.

However, there was still one full box office week left, so hitting the guaranteed target of 250 million shouldn't be a problem.

On the other hand, the animated film Ice Age 4 was performing quite strongly, raking in 125 million at the box office over its first three-day weekend, breaking the animation record set by Kung Fu Panda 2 a few years ago.

The remaining films set to be released in August, such as The Silent War, People Mountain People Sea, and The White Storm, had also entered the final sprint stage, with promotional efforts in full swing.

Among them, The Silent War had already held several premieres in major ticket-selling cities across the country, such as Beijing, Guangdong, and Shanghai, since two days ago, creating quite a massive momentum.

In terms of promotion, they were also playing up the gimmick of having Best Actor and Golden Horse Best Actress winners Zhou Xun and Liang Caowei join the cast, along with the spy novel Dark War, claiming it to be the number one Republican-era spy drama, even more suspenseful than The Message.

That film, People Mountain People Sea, was using the gimmick of winning the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice, which had also attracted quite a bit of attention.

The White Storm, produced by Golden Harvest, did not engage in these flashy things; it relied on traditional ground promotion, online publicity, and film trailers.

The meticulously edited promotional trailer had been released early, and the effect was very good, especially the segments where the three male leads were acting against each other, which could be said to have fully captured the audience's attention.

"Five years! Do you know how I've spent these five years? Do you know?"

"..."

The cold wind blew away the loneliness; Gu Xiaozhang and Liu Shimin both lowered their heads, their faces full of guilt.

"A-Wei..."

The enthusiastic citizen Best Actor Liu called out to Zhazha Hui, who was turning to leave.

"A-Wei is already dead, you chose this, idol!"

Zhazha Hui was very angry and also very aggrieved, gritting his teeth with a ferocious expression, "I've set my mind on Duan Kun, even Jesus can't keep him, I said it!"

"You chose this, idol!"

This trailer was very short, but the brainwashing effect was unexpectedly good, especially Zhazha Hui's desperate and ferocious expression, which left a deep impression on netizens.

So much so that many netizens cut this segment to use as memes, and Zhazha Hui's mesmerizing performance was everywhere on the internet.

Looking at the data on Yinxiang Net, which showed that over a hundred thousand people wanted to see it, Wei Jin nodded with satisfaction.

This film originally had some logical flaws and the dialogue was a bit dragging, but when he adapted the script, he made some adjustments. During the final editing, he also offered many suggestions, cutting out many long and tedious parts, and finally compressed the finished film to just over 90 minutes.

In this way, the pacing of the film became much simpler and faster, focusing mainly on the brotherhood between men and exciting action scenes.

Looking at it now, the effect was quite good, and Wei Jin also began to look forward to the final box office.

Withdrawing his gaze, Wei Jin looked up at Guo Fan, only to see that the latter had already placed the script on the table and was sitting upright.

"How is it? Have you chosen?"

"President Wei, I've chosen. This one."

Looking at the script Guo Fan was pointing at, Wei Jin was a bit curious, "Why choose this one?"

"President Wei, I don't have a formal background, and my grasp of characters, emotions, and plot is relatively weak. I still hope to practice more in this area, so I chose this soft sci-fi romance film..."

Wei Jin nodded. The two scripts he gave this time were one hard sci-fi and one soft sci-fi.

The former was relatively more demanding of a director's organizational skills and technical support, meaning it won through visual effects; the latter focused more on plot control, or to put it bluntly, it relied on the setting.

Originally, Wei Jin thought that after Ex Machina, Guo Fan would choose the hard sci-fi film, but he didn't expect him to be quite clear about his own shortcomings.

"Alright, I intended to give you this script last year. It doesn't look too late now. Seize the opportunity well."

"Hmm, then I'll go back first and thoroughly digest the script."

"Hey, don't rush. Come with me. The finished film of Dixing Yinxing has just come out. You, as the assistant director, should take a look too."

Guo Fan, who loved sci-fi, his eyes lit up upon hearing this, "Alright."

The two walked all the way to Shanhe Ink. Wei Jin wasn't in a hurry; instead, he went to check on the post-production status of The Wrath of Vajra.

As expected, Lu Yang really had a lazy temperament; the post-production editing was moving slowly, and he even requested rendering for certain shots in an action movie, which was truly a bit extravagant.

"When exactly will it be finished?"

"Uh... probably in another half a month..."

"Alright, keep up the good work. I'll pick a good time slot for you next year."

Lu Yang rolled his eyes upon hearing this, "Senior brother, you've said this several times already. I can't swallow this pie of yours..."

"Hey, you kid..."

After a laughing scolding, Wei Jin and Guo Fan headed toward the small screening room. Unexpectedly, Lu Yang followed them. "Senior brother, I've been editing all morning, let me clear my head, hehe..."

Wei Jin shook his head and ignored him, walking into the screening room on his own. He nodded to the staff, and soon the screen lit up.

The runtime of the finished film Dixing Yinxing was only a little over 90 minutes, which was relatively short among Wei Jin's films.

But Guo Fan and Lu Yang watched it with great interest, especially Guo Fan. He had participated in almost the entire process of this film. He felt a bit awkward during filming, but he didn't expect the finished effect to be so shocking.

Especially that 13-minute continuous shot, it was simply breathtaking.

Guo Fan had a premonition in his heart that this film was likely to become a new milestone for hard sci-fi.

Wei Jin was unaware of Guo Fan's inner monologue; he was focusing more on the sound effects, visuals, and editing. After all, besides wanting to reclaim the box office record, he was also hoping to take home a few more Oscar Little Gold Men.

Overall, he was very satisfied with the final cut, and now he was just waiting for the opening screening at the Venice Film Festival to become an overnight sensation.

As the film came to an end, Lu Yang began to shout and holler.

"Senior brother, this film of yours is too awesome! If you used 3D and IMAX effects, wouldn't it crush Pacific Rim? You really hit the jackpot, Guo Fan, as an assistant director, you might just leave your name in film history."

Listening to Lu Yang's endless stream of chatter, Guo Fan and Wei Jin exchanged a glance, truly feeling a bit helpless about this live wire.

"Alright, arrange for it to be sent for review."

Hearing the big boss's instructions, the two staff members in the screening room nodded.

"Understood, President Wei."

Regarding the approval of Dixing Yinxing, Wei Jin was not worried in the slightest; after all, ever since The Martian, his sci-fi films had been given the green light all the way.

It was just that Wei Jin didn't expect Huayi to actually join forces with several top production companies to pull off something big.

"Today, Huayi, in conjunction with Bona, Xingmei, and several other companies in the industry, proposed consultations to the theater chains, intending to adopt the betting model of Shanhe Media, striving to have films such as Chinese Zodiac, Aftershock, and The Guillotines receive a higher box office split."

Once the news broke, the industry was immediately unsettled, and there was much discussion online as well.

"Since November last year, this is already the third time the producers have started negotiations with the theater chains. Can they succeed?"

"With Zhang Dapao in the past and Wei Jin later, and now Huayi taking the lead, the production industry is indeed being suppressed too miserably."

"It feels very difficult. The theater chains aren't stupid. They have to give some support to the films participating in the bet, so these few are likely to have a hard time."

Wei Jin had to admit that Huayi choosing this timing did have a certain advantage; after all, Pacific Rim had just finished its run, and the 47.5% split was still fresh in everyone's memory.

But he was not optimistic about the result.

The reason Shanhe Media was able to obtain the tiered split model was that it had built its golden reputation from the 300 million era to the 600 million era, then to the 1 billion era, and even broken domestic box office records multiple times.

Coupled with having Shanhe Cinema Line and Wanda Cinema Line as insiders, and after Zhang Dapao pried open a gap, it was only by occupying the right time, place, and people that the rules were set.

And whether it was Cheng Long, Feng Dapao, or Chen Kexin, none of them had yet proven themselves in commercial box office; at the very least, the 500 million threshold was still very high.

As for bringing up Feng Dapao's Aftershock to make a point, the theater chains would have to recognize that achievement, wouldn't they?

Furthermore, Zhao Feng not calling Wei Jin could also indirectly confirm that the theater chains' attitude on this matter was almost unanimous.

Just as Wei Jin expected, the replies from the eight major theater chains came very quickly, and they issued a joint announcement unilaterally the next morning.

"After consultation, we unanimously believe that films such as Aftershock and Chinese Zodiac do not currently meet the conditions for signing a tiered split. Because according to the agreement, the box office must be higher than 500 million for the split ratio to undergo a substantive change."

"Looking at the past achievements of these directors, we do not believe there is a need to adjust the split ratio at this time. We suggest that the producers produce more high-quality films and come back to negotiate when their historical box office performance is better."

The wording of this announcement was still polite, and it left some room at the end, which could be considered giving the producers some face, but Feng Dapao still felt that he had been greatly humiliated.

This was clearly saying that his Aftershock's performance was heavily padded, and without administrative guidance, he, Feng Dapao, was really not a 500-million-yuan director.

"F*** their mothers, these sons of b******, they only know how to look down on people."

Looking at Feng Dapao, who was furious in his office, Wang Zhonglei's expression was also not good. He had thought this request was not too high, but he didn't expect it to be rejected; however, he could still control himself well.

"Forget it, Xiaogang. Since the theater chains won't loosen their stance, there's nothing we can do this time. But you must put effort into the promotion this time. When the box office comes out, slap their faces hard. Try to exceed 1 billion, and then we'll see what they have to say."

Taking a deep breath, Feng Dapao suppressed his anger.

"I know. This time I will lead the team myself and run across the country. Isn't it just 1 billion? I don't believe it."

In fact, if only Wei Jin enjoyed this privilege, Feng Dapao might not necessarily be so angry; after all, the former had always maintained the box office record, and he acknowledged that.

But what were Wu Ershan and Xu Laoguai? Didn't they just get lucky and get a good script? Feng Dapao believed that if it were him, he could do the same.

"Damn it!"

Seemingly because being rejected by the theater chains was a bit of a face-slap, in order to divert attention, Huayi announced a new piece of news in the afternoon.

"Directed by the up-and-coming director Feng Delun, with Kung Fu Hustle veteran Hong Jinbao serving as action director, the second installment of the Tai Chi series, Tai Chi 2: Hero Rising, with a total investment of over 220 million, is set for release on November 1st."

Once the news broke, the industry indeed began to discuss it.

"Speaking of which, Huayi really has a lot of films in the second half of this year. Several films were scheduled from the National Day Slot all the way into the New Year Slot, one after another, without any breaks. Only Shanhe Media has this kind of scale, right?"

"Hehe, that's normal. After all, it's an old private company. However, for a series like Tai Chi, using this relay model for release should have good results."

"It's hard to say. Tai Chi 0 competed with Bottom-tier Girl. If the first one's performance isn't ideal, the second one might be dragged down."

Wei Jin agreed with this point immensely. Liang Jiahui was indeed impressive, but to say he could carry Yang Ying was absolutely impossible.

After all, this was a woman who had left countless talented actors helpless! Speaking of which, Yang Ying really had good skills; she had Huang Xiaoming infatuated with her. With the latter sparing no effort to pull strings, a female actress who clearly had no representative works had actually established a Studio just like that, becoming one of Huayi's partners, and her status had soared straight up.

When she established her Studio at the end of June, she even sent a congratulatory letter to Shanhe Media, expressing her hope for a chance to cooperate in the future.

At the time, it made Wei Jin laugh. One had to know that the Studio bosses who could deal with Shanhe Media were at least top-tier artists in the industry. Suddenly having Yang Ying mixed in felt very incongruous.

One could only say that this woman was indeed very shrewd; she really used all of Huang Xiaoming's connections.

I wonder if Huang Xiaoming will regret it in a few years. (End of chapter)