Chapter 528: Wei Jin's Drop of Kindness, Fan Bingbing's Repayment of a Gushing Spring

Just as Wei Jin expected, as the first female director in the country to reach 500 million, Xue Xiaolu's drawing power was still very strong.

Coupled with the addition of Yang Mi, the film's screen allocation was not low, and the first-day performance of *Beijing Meets Seattle* was quite good.

"Following *Love is Not Blind*, Director Xue Xiaolu has achieved another great success. *Beijing Meets Seattle* raked in 39.86 million in box office on its first day, with Yang Mi and Yu Hewei interpreting a story of love and redemption."

"*Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons* has raked in 400 million in 5 days; Zhou Xingxing has become a box office guarantee, and the lead actor Wen Zhang's market value has multiplied."

"*Sophie's Revenge 2*, produced by and starring Zhang Ziyi, with the addition of Wang Lihong and Zheng Kai, reported a first-day box office of 7.88 million, falling short of expectations."

"The Spring Festival Film Season market has hit a new high, approaching the 130 million mark!"

"."

With this, all the films for the Spring Festival Film Season have been released.

*Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons* was undoubtedly the strongest, but what the industry envied most was *Beijing Meets Seattle*.

Because the production cost of this film was the lowest among all the films in the Spring Festival Film Season; even including promotion and distribution, it was only 40 million.

"Jia Jie, 39.86 million, it's approaching 40 million!"

As the lead actress, Yang Mi couldn't help but shout excitedly in the nanny van after finishing a roadshow.

"Yes, Mimi, 39.86 million, and the film's word-of-mouth is very good, not a bit worse than *Love is Not Blind*; the daily box office will definitely climb higher and higher."

"Even if *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons* takes the lion's share, it basically won't have much difficulty breaking through 500 million; the goal of 600 million is really very likely to be achieved!"

Speaking of this, Ceng Jia looked at Yang Mi even more excitedly, "Mimi, this will be another representative work of yours; do you know what that means?"

"A representative work, two big-selling films as the lead actress? Does it mean my commercial value will increase significantly?"

Yang Mi's eyes flashed with brilliance as she muttered to herself.

"Yes, two films that carry the box office on their own are rare in the country. After this, we can quote your external acting fee at 15 million."

"15 million? Doesn't that catch up to the Four Dan Actresses?"

"Mimi, don't underestimate yourself. Which of the Four Dan Actresses has your ability to carry the box office? Of course, that's not the most important thing."

"The most important thing is that, just like the big actresses, we can use your personal influence to participate in the investments of production companies and film and television companies, step by step turning the Studio into a corporation, and making it bigger and stronger!"

"Yes, Jia Jie, we must make it bigger and stronger!"

Yang Mi swallowed Ceng Jia's bait; at this moment, she even felt that without that man, she, Yang Mi, would also become big capital.

Wei Jin could not get Yang Mi's dream, and at this moment, he received a congratulatory call from Xue Xiaolu.

After exchanging congratulations, Teacher Xue stated her purpose.

"Wei Jin, when I wrote the script, I had already planned for a sequel. Before the results came out, I was a bit anxious, but now I finally have a count. For the sequel, I hope you will continue to support me."

"No problem, Teacher Xue, I couldn't ask for more."

How could Wei Jin refuse? This was sending money to him.

To put it bluntly, although *Beijing Meets Seattle* had just been released, according to its 7.5 rating on Yinxiang Net, it would definitely make a huge profit.

With two films in hand, where couldn't Xue Xiaolu raise funds? Of course, Wei Jin had not treated her unfairly; even though Xue Xiaolu was not a signed director of the company, this film still gave her a base salary of 2 million and a 3 percent share of the distributable box office.

Don't underestimate the 3 percent; even calculating based on the guaranteed 500 million result, the production side would get nearly 200 million, and Xue Xiaolu alone could get 6 million just from the share.

Perhaps, this was exactly the reason why Xue Xiaolu was willing to continue the cooperation.

"By the way, Teacher Xue, is the script already ready?"

"It's still just a rough draft for now. I'll polish it after I finish my upcoming art exam work."

"It doesn't matter, Teacher Xue, take your time. When I return to the country, I will come to appreciate your masterpiece."

"Good, and I also wish you success at the Oscar."

"Thank you."

Hanging up the phone, Wei Jin was in a great mood and celebrated with his big sister that night.

The Spring Festival holiday passed in a flash.

In the film market, the trend of *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons* was indeed sharper than *Lost in Thailand*.

Even in terms of daily revenue alone, *Pacific Rim* couldn't keep up with it, second only to *Gravity*.

In 7 days, it raked in 520 million at the box office, leaving all other films in the Spring Festival Film Season far behind and easily taking the championship throne.

Following closely behind was *Beijing Meets Seattle*; although it was a romance film, thanks to good word-of-mouth, it raked in 133 million over three days.

Looking at the data for these two films, countless production companies in the industry were envious.

Because in just these few days, both of Shanhe Media's films had already recouped their costs and even achieved profitability; it was too exaggerated.

Han Sanping was depressed again and again; in just two months, he had missed out on three big-selling works: *Lost in Thailand*, *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons*, and *Beijing Meets Seattle*. Thinking about it was blood and tears.

Han had already made up his mind to be shameless from now on; he would pester them until he got a share, no matter what.

By comparison, Old Wang from Fiber was in high spirits; although *Journey to the West* had nothing to do with him, Fiber had a 20% share in *Beijing Meets Seattle*.

"The 10 million back then was really a huge profit, hahaha."

The 63rd Berlin International Film Festival came to an end; that film *Promised Land* didn't have very good luck, only taking home the Special Jury Prize.

Wei Jin met Francis, who had rushed back, on the set. He had originally intended to comfort her, but the latter was much stronger than he had imagined, and no disappointment could be seen at all.

Come to think of it, she had been in the industry for nearly thirty years; what kind of storms hadn't she seen?

Taking advantage of the time while Francis was putting on makeup, Wei Jin browsed the domestic news and didn't expect to see some bizarre things.

Perhaps out of jealousy, or perhaps because their brains were sick, some art-house directors in the film circle opened fire on *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons*.

The reason was also very simple: there were some thrilling and terrifying scenes in the film that made many children watching the movie cry.

For example: the scene with a terrifying corpse hanging in the fireplace; the scene where the fish demon opens its bloody mouth to eat a human head; the scene where the female demon eats human flesh with a knife and fork... Lou Ye, Wang Xiaoshuai, and others used this topic to talk about the issue of film rating again, taking the opportunity to make trouble.

"When I was watching the movie, I heard many children crying. I am very ashamed. I don't understand why the uncles don't implement a film rating system? Are they afraid? What exactly are they afraid of?" "A legal binding mechanism, administrative supervision, and an industry-self-regulated film rating system should be established. Only in this way can we protect the next generation!"

Honestly, Wei Jin felt that this group of people had become obsessed; attributing everything to the film rating system only proved their own incompetence.

If this continues, this group of people is likely to ruin themselves.

Putting away his thoughts, Wei Jin looked toward the set and saw that everything was ready.

Taking a deep breath, Wei Jin cleared his mind, picked up the megaphone, and issued his instructions.

"Action!"

Just as Wei Jin had anticipated, after being provoked twice in a row, the General Administration held a meeting the very next day, where Director Tong cursed up a storm.

"In the same censorship environment, why can some directors make box-office hits? Why can others win awards at international film festivals? Yet some other directors only know how to blame everything on the system—if the box office fails, it's the censorship's fault; if they don't win awards, it's also the censorship's fault? This only proves one thing: incompetence! Or perhaps, these people's motives were never pure to begin with; they just wanted to film bad things to build up their own image?"

These words were heavy indeed, even bordering on being cruelly cutting.

The next day, Wei Jin received a call from Ning Hao, who spoke about the aftermath of the incident.

It was said that the projects previously finalized by Wang Xiaoshuai and others had all fallen through.

Furthermore, the support funding that certain directors had received was completely cut by the General Administration.

This included projects with state-owned enterprise investment, which were directly withdrawn, leaving the other investors unable to sit still and decisively fleeing.

Good grief, people with no talent really aren't worth respecting; the higher-ups couldn't even be bothered to appease them, instead pulling the rug out from under them—take it or leave it!

As a listed company, Huayi announced its financial report for the previous year after the Spring Festival.

Last year was a bad year for Huayi, with several films suffering losses, but thanks to the development of the real estate industry, net profit still reached 224 million, a significant increase compared to the year before.

However, the stock price fell sharply, dropping more than 6 points that day.

This was because, along with the financial report, changes in senior management were also announced.

Chen Guofu, the gold-medal producer who had worked diligently at Huayi for 7 years, had resigned before the new year, and the person taking over was actually Gu Changwei, who only excelled at art-house films.

Although Huayi held an emergency press conference stating that they would continue to invite Chen Guofu to serve as a producer for subsequent projects and that there would be no shortage of future cooperation, the shareholders still didn't buy it.

Honestly, the industry had long sensed Chen Guofu's departure; after all, everyone knows how cruel the entertainment industry is.

The two-part *Tai Chi* series he helmed was a crushing defeat, and only by resigning could he maintain his dignity.

What surprised Wei Jin, however, was that after considering the olive branch extended by Shanhe Media for a full month, Chen Guofu actually refused.

"Lao Chen, did he join Wanda?"

"President Wei, he refused Wanda as well. From what I understand, Chen Guofu reached an agreement with capital from Taiwan and started a company together."

Hearing this, Wei Jin felt a slight sense of regret.

He had never been satisfied with the company's film production department because there was no one capable of taking charge.

He had already approached Zhong Lifang many times, wanting to find a tool person, but the woman insisted on staying on the Xiaoma carriage and wouldn't get off.

That was why he had previously arranged for Chen Zhiming to approach Chen Guofu; after all, the man had been in the industry for many years and certainly had the ability.

Who would have thought the man didn't want to work for others anymore? What could be done? "Forget it, let's leave it at that for now."

Hanging up the phone, Wei Jin didn't dwell on it and continued with the new shoot. Filming time passed quickly, and late February arrived quietly.

In the film market, *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons* continued to charge ahead, unstoppable.

Eleven days after its release, the box office had surged to a high of 800 million.

However, as work gradually resumed after the Spring Festival, the market inevitably softened, and the single-day box office for *Journey to the West* fell back to around 40 million.

*Seattle* had been released for a week and remained in second place, with the box office reaching 252 million and maintaining around 25 million per day.

The box office for *Proposals*, starring Huang Bai, also smoothly reached 120 million.

On the other hand, Zhang Ziyi's *Sophie's Revenge 2* didn't make much of a splash; after nearly 10 days, the box office had barely crossed 60 million.

Of course, the most astonishing one was Zhen Zidan's *Together*.

Nearly 10 days after its release, the box office hadn't even reached one million; it was directly abandoned by theater chains, and its screenings were almost entirely cut.

The leads, who had been acting affectionately at the premiere, were already tearing into each other, as no one wanted to take the blame.

After all, once you become box-office poison, it has a huge impact on your own status and resources.

Just at this time, Huayi announced a piece of news.

"The comedy film *Personal Tailor*, written by Wang Shuo, directed by Feng Xiaogang, and featuring the participation of many stars and big names such as Ge You, Fan Wei, Song Dandan, Bai Baihe, Li Xiaolu, and Zheng Kai, will begin filming next month."

Immediately after, Feng Dapao also further confirmed this fact on Weibo.

"Last year's *Back to 1942* added a burden to all the viewers who walked into the theaters. Today, I'll use Weibo to wish everyone a Happy New Year in advance. We'll see you at the end of the year for the New Year Slot!"

Once the news broke, Huayi's stock price immediately soared in response; it could truly be described as magical.

Just before the Oscar ceremony, Wei Jin finished the location shooting in South Dakota and had just returned to Los Angeles when he received a call from Fan Bingbing.

Thinking of the allure of this seductive woman in bed, Wei Jin simply couldn't hold back.

However, Fan Bingbing was indeed formidable; she was very capable of catering to Wei Jin's preferences.

Dressed in a fiery red, form-fitting dress, paired with 5D ultra-thin translucent black silk stockings, and wearing a pair of sky-high heels with black soles and red edges, her long, beautiful legs were pulled taut. Wei Jin didn't even wash up; he took her right then and there.

At this moment, Fan Bingbing was pressing her hands against the opaque floor-to-ceiling glass, her legs slightly bent, her knees turned inward, and her feet in high heels were already trembling.

Looking at the reflection on the glass of that charming, flushed face and those soul-stirring, classical phoenix eyes, Wei Jin stood behind her, his hands gripping her round, perky buttocks wrapped in black silk, probing wildly at the crotchless opening of the stockings.

At one moment, Wei Jin noticed the woman in the reflection biting her red lips, her brows tightly furrowed, her nostrils emitting whimpering sounds from time to time, and he knew the critical moment was approaching.

(End of this chapter)