Chapter 513: Having Fought for Half a Lifetime, Can't I Enjoy Myself a Little?

Although the first-day performance of *Lost in Thailand* approaching 40 million was not bad, it was still hard to say what the final box office trend of the film would be.

Because the daily earnings of both *Dixing Yinxing* and *Chinese Zodiac* were still very stable at the moment, and *The Grandmaster* was still to be released, *Lost in Thailand* did not hold a clear advantage.

Many people in the industry were mocking, saying Wei Jin's tone had been too big at the beginning, and this time he might get slapped in the face.

However, unexpectedly, after the word-of-mouth for *Lost in Thailand* fermented, it began to show its power on the second day, with the single-day box office soaring to 58.8 million, directly snatching the single-day champion title from *Chinese Zodiac*.

In the first two days of the weekend, *Lost in Thailand* raked in over 100 million at the box office, demonstrating powerful dominance.

Affected by this, the single-day box office of both *Dixing Yinxing* and *Chinese Zodiac* inevitably dropped.

By comparison, *Dixing Yinxing* was still doing alright; after all, it had already reached the final stage of its release, and even if the single-day figure dropped to around 25 million, with the New Year's Day holiday approaching, breaking records would be easy.

On the contrary, *Chinese Zodiac*, whose momentum had originally been surging, was directly interrupted, plummeting from a high of over 50 million to around 35 million.

At this moment, the industry felt a bit sorry for Huayi.

Relying on the strength of *Chinese Zodiac* over the past week or so, Huayi's stock had already risen by a large margin; although it still failed to fill the wound caused by *Back to 1942*, it had at least made up for quite a bit.

Watching *Dixing Yinxing* come to an end and *Chinese Zodiac* about to have a long run, they never expected to be suppressed by a low-budget comedy film again.

Now, not only was the 1-billion goal hopeless, but the stock price was likely unable to move either.

Just at this time, China Film Group, Wanda, and Shanhe Media simultaneously announced a document, adding more fuel to the New Year Slot.

"Approved by the General Administration, *Dixing Yinxing* has received an Extended Key for a period of 30 days!"

Looking at the document with the red stamp on the China Film Group official website, companies in the industry wailed.

"Damn it, one month, this is going to eat into the Spring Festival Film Season, are they crazy?"

"Sigh, the General Administration's current consideration is that the strong stay strong, and the winner takes all."

"This is unfair, too unfair; they already got 47.5%, and they still want to dominate the market, it's too much."

Regarding this, the cinema chains had no objections.

Because no matter what, it was a win-win situation; on the contrary, the ticket prices for 3D and IMAX theaters were higher, and the cinema chains earned more.

As for the audience and film fans, almost all of them were in support.

Wei Jin ignored the noise from the outside; he was currently attending a seminar held by the General Administration.

Two hours later, Wei Jin followed Han Sanping into the office with a look of utter listlessness.

"Han Dong, in the future, can you not call me for these kinds of things? It really affects my mood."

Han Sanping sat in the boss's chair with a commanding posture and shot Wei Jin a glare.

"What do you think? Is it appropriate for you, the director, screenwriter, and producer, not to come? Why didn't you complain when Director Tong was there just now? I think you shared quite well on stage."

With nothing to say, Wei Jin could only vent his anger on Han Sanping, walking straight to the tea cabinet by the side of the office, opening the top drawer, and starting to rummage.

Wei Jin was not interested in Western drinks like coffee or milk tea, but because he spent a lot of time with Ceng Li, he preferred drinking tea.

As the head of a state-owned enterprise, Han Sanping had a lot of good tea in his office that couldn't be bought outside, and if he had the chance, he certainly wouldn't miss it.

"Hey, you brat, that's enough, leave some for me."

Wei Jin didn't speak for a long while; Han lowered his head to process some documents, and when he looked up and saw his bandit-like behavior, he couldn't help but twitch his mouth.

"Han Dong, don't be so stingy. Good things are meant to be shared. Try this cup of tea I brewed; is it more fragrant than what you usually drink?"

Han Sanping shook his head and smiled, taking the teacup handed over by Wei Jin, smelling the tea fragrance first, then taking a small sip, and after savoring it carefully, he teased: "Hmm, the tea brewed by a billionaire is indeed quite good, haha."

Facing the rare humor of Han, Wei Jin couldn't handle it and could only shake his head with a wry smile.

After Shanhe Cinema Line went public, it was invincible; the first week's increase exceeded 200%, and even with the price fluctuation limits in the second week, it still soared by more than 50%, with its current market value breaking the 50-billion mark.

During this period, major financial media outlets had been digging into Wei Jin's net worth, almost stripping him bare, which went against his consistent style of not flaunting wealth.

Seeing that Wei Jin didn't respond, Han Sanping didn't want to talk about it either and turned to other topics.

"By the way, you're going to North America in a few days, right?"

Wei Jin held the teacup and took a light sip, "Yes, the Hollywood awards season has already started, I have to go over and show my face. Does Han Dong want to go together?"

"Forget it, I'm an old man, I won't go. Let La Vice Chairman go with you."

Hearing this name, Wei Jin remembered the middle-aged man he had seen twice in Venice.

This person was originally the deputy general manager of the China Film Group Import and Export Company, later served as the Vice Chairman of China Film Group, and was also in charge of overseas copyright matters, and had also had some dealings with Shanhe Media.

Unsurprisingly, this should be the one who would take over from Han Sanping in his past life. He wondered if, with his own help in this life, Han could sit for another term.

"When do you plan to leave?"

"I'll go after attending the premiere of *The Grandmaster*."

Back in Cannes, Wong Kar-wai had a bit of a connection with Wei Jin, so he couldn't easily refuse this kind invitation; however, it was only a half-day affair anyway, so it wouldn't delay anything.

In addition, Ceng Li had also received a warm invitation from Zhang Ziyi, so she would just happen to accompany Wei Jin.

But come to think of it, Wong Kar-wai was really popular in Europe; as a direct descendant of the Cannes Film Festival, he was actually invited by the Berlin International Film Festival this year to serve as the Pingshutuan chairman, and *The Grandmaster* was also invited to be the opening film of this year's festival, though it would not participate in the competition for the Main Competition Section.

It was a pity that Chinese-language films were a bit miserable this year; very few received nominations, and not a single one was shortlisted for the Main Competition Section.

Otherwise, Wei Jin would have liked to see if Wong Kar-wai would pull some fancy tricks again; that would have been really fun.

"Wei Jin."

Han Sanping was drinking tea when he suddenly had an idea: "Tell me, should we push the box office of *Dixing Yinxing* a bit higher?"

As soon as Wei Jin heard this, he knew that Han Sanping was still obsessed with the 2-billion goal.

The total box office for the fourth week of *Dixing Yinxing* was 237 million, a drop of over 50%, and the downward trend had already appeared.

Even counting the subsequent New Year's Day holiday and the one-month extension, the industry judged that the film's final box office would be around 1.8 billion, because the market had an upper limit after all.

The 5-billion box office that could be achieved in later generations was due to the economic environment and cinema construction having multiplied several times by then.

However, for a film that could be recognized by the market, there were still ways to push the box office higher. For example, if the superiors took the lead and organized some government agencies and public institutions to watch the film in the form of a task, the film's box office would naturally increase by a large margin.

"Forget it, Han Dong."

Wei Jin smiled and shook his head: "It's already been extended; if we do group bookings again, the optics would be too ugly. Feng Dapao's *Aftershock* is still fresh in our memory. Now that the film market is developing so well, the box office will only get higher in the future, so there's no need to be criticized."

"Alright then, I'll listen to you."

Although there were some regrets, Han Sanping finally nodded; after years of cooperation, he had sufficient confidence in Wei Jin.

That was the confidence brought about by Wei Jin creating miracles and breaking records time and time again.

"Since 'Big Shot', you've rested for more than half a year, right? Besides the English-language award-chasing film, are you not considering any Chinese-language films this year?"

"I have one, there's a romance film in the second half of the year."

Upon hearing this, Han Sanping knew Wei Jin was going to promote a woman again, and he felt a bit of frustration that he wouldn't live up to expectations: "Why make a romance film? You're still young, can't you think more about focusing on your career?"

Wei Jin shook his head: "Han Dong, you are getting old; you don't understand the romances of young people. For me, career and women—both must be grasped, and both must be firm."

To use the words of Uncle Liu, I've fought for half my life, can't I enjoy myself now?

Han Sanping: "0.0"

As the end of the year approached, there were many things to do at the company. After returning from China Film Group, Wei Jin summoned Chen Zhiming to hear many work reports and also arranged many tasks.

After all, before Da Meiyuan gives birth, there is a high probability he will have to stay in North America for a long time.

It was just unexpected that when chatting about the annual meeting arrangements, the two subsidiaries, Shanhe Technology and Shanhe Ink, actually pulled a big stunt on him.

"You're not joking, is that really what they requested?"

"Yes, the hundreds of people in both companies have a very unified opinion; they must have discussed it in advance. They hope that during the company annual meeting, we can have a girl group perform, haha."

Chen Zhiming held it in for a long time, but finally couldn't help it and laughed out loud.

"What about other departments? Do they have any requests?"

"There are no specific requests, everyone just hopes the year-end bonus can be a bit more."

"That's no problem."

This year, Shanhe Media made a fortune, so Wei Jin naturally wouldn't be stingy in this regard. He immediately waved his hand: "Year-end bonuses will be calculated based on four months of salary. As for the lucky draw, let's increase it from ten million to twenty million."

"What about the girl group?"

"Hmm, did they say which girl group they want to participate?"

Wei Jin thought for a moment and decided to satisfy the requests of these brothers who followed him to conquer the world. After all, what's wrong with engineering nerds liking girl groups?

"The opinions on this are not very unified; they are all over the place: South Korea's Girls' Generation, f(x), KARA, T-ara, and Japan's AKB48..."

Good heavens, Wei Jin was stunned just listening to it. Sexy, charming, cute, two-dimensional—they had everything. Is this damn thing trying to catch them all?

Don't let a few people be sent away after one annual meeting, right? "President Wei?"

"Then let's pick one from Japan and one from South Korea. Have the branch office negotiate for the South Korean side, and for Japan, contact Toho; the price should be easy to negotiate."

"Good, I'll go contact them now. Once the guys know, I'm afraid they won't be able to sleep from excitement these next few days, haha."

The apocalypse in the Mayan prophecy was, after all, a scam; the Earth, which has existed for billions of years, still ushered in a brand new 2013.

Every year, the New Year's Day mini-holiday is quite a feast for the film market.

"Lost in Thailand" showed the strength of a dark horse, hitting a new high on New Year's Day, raking in 68.4 million in box office and occupying half of the market share.

Four days after the film's release, it reported 225 million, with an unstoppable momentum.

However, at this time, the focus of everyone's attention was not here, because all the major portal websites and entertainment headlines were full of news about "Dixing Yinxing".

"'Dixing Yinxing' reported 28.6 million on New Year's Day. 26 days since release, the cumulative box office reported 1.568 billion, breaking the domestic film record and topping the box office charts!"

"A new film box office record has been born: 'Dixing Yinxing', 1.568 billion. From now on, every day will be a new record!"

"Director Wei Jin has once again broken the domestic film record. Is the global goal of 1 billion USD still far away?"

Although it had been expected, the industry was still quite shocked.

No extensions, no block bookings—just like that, cleanly and with overwhelming momentum, it strongly broke the record during its theatrical run. It was truly too terrifying.

A large number of stars, artists, directors, and producers in the industry sent congratulations via Weibo, WeChat, and phone calls. Even his mentor Tian Zhuangzhuang, who was filming "The Distinguished Citizen" in Jilin Province, called.

Besides congratulating him, Tian Zhuangzhuang still advised Wei Jin to be low-key, to settle down, and to stay calm, and not to be blinded by the voices from the outside world.

"Teacher, don't worry, I won't stop my steps for this little achievement."

Wei Jin said this with sincerity. Where is the box office now compared to later? In a few years, four or five billion will appear, so he naturally won't be arrogant.

"Hmm, as long as you know what you're doing. I have another matter for calling this time."

"Teacher, please speak."

"The school plans to hire some outstanding alumni to return to the school to serve as guest lecturers and guest professors."

"Teacher, are you joking? Didn't I refuse that back when we were doing 'The Martian'? Didn't you support me then?"

"That was about staying at the school; this is a guest position, it's different."

"Then, Teacher, what do you mean?"

"Someone from the school will contact you later. My thought is that you are turning thirty this year. Although you are still a bit young, there shouldn't be any problem with getting a guest professor qualification. With your current achievements, there won't be any criticism."

"Anyway, it's just a title. You only need to take some time out of the year to give a few lectures. It only has benefits for you, no harm. Most importantly, the things you want to do will be much easier with the school's support."

Wei Jin had to admit that Tian Zhuangzhuang's suggestion was very reasonable.

Starting a new film festival from scratch is not a simple matter; it involves all aspects. With the school's support, it could help resolve some invisible resistance, so he nodded and said: "Teacher, I will consider it carefully."

(End of this chapter)