Chapter 544: Refusing Bad Films, Release

Although he had promised Liu Shishi he would accompany her, Wei Jin couldn't just stay at home doing nothing, not to mention the young girl was exhausted and still sleeping in.

Therefore, Wei Jin went to the company early in the morning, intending to continue the editing work.

On the way, Wei Jin paid attention to industry news, and sure enough, he saw that the headlines had been refreshed.

"*So Young* opening day box office reported 44.2 million, the best-performing film since the Spring Festival slot!"

"Zhao Yanzi surpassed Lin Yufen to become the female director with the highest opening day box office in Chinese film history!"

"*Sakra* is released today, Wang Baoqiang and Vincent Zhao stage a peak showdown..."

"*Sakra* average cinema screening rate is as high as 29%, midnight box office 4.57 million..."

Wei Jin looked at the reports online and laughed directly. The female director with the highest opening day box office, Zhao Yanzi's buying of this draft was truly six.

Afterward, he paid attention to the word-of-mouth of *So Young*, and seeing the score of 7.9 on Yinxiang Net, Wei Jin knew that Enlight Pictures or Zhao Yanzi had already been brushing scores.

However, on the first day of release, it could still hold up, but it wouldn't work at all after waiting a few days.

In fact, to use game terminology, fan films are equivalent to early-game heroes, and they are scum after level 7.

In contrast, *Sakra* takes the route of word-of-mouth fermentation, equivalent to mid-to-late-game heroes.

And according to this midnight box office, the results shouldn't be bad, and who will win is still unknown.

Wei Jin was busy editing in the company, and Liu Shishi slept until the sun was high before getting up.

After a simple wash, she changed into a tight sportswear and started exercising in the practice room specially prepared in the villa.

Liu Shishi knew very well that to occupy a place in Wei Jin's heart, besides her sincerity and gentleness, this dance foundation also played no small role.

Therefore, she had never dropped her basic skills over the years. No matter how busy she was, she had to spend an hour or two practicing every day.

Dance, yoga, a whole set down, it was already close to one o'clock at noon.

While Taozi brought lunch, she also brought a message that surprised Liu Shishi a bit.

"You mean Edko sent an invitation? What is the specific content?"

"Hmm, Sister Shishi, according to the script outline, it is a Wong Fei-hung theme. The female lead requires martial arts or dance foundation. They think you are particularly suitable..."

Taozi, while eating, told the general situation, and then looked at Liu Shishi with a bit of expectation.

"Sister Shishi, what do you think?"

"130 million production cost, the director is not a newcomer, benchmarking against the *Ip Man* series, it sounds quite good..."

"You also think it's good, right? I've watched all the previous works of this director. The ones he cooperated with were Aaron Kwok, Zhang Jiahui, and other acting schools. His ability in Hong Kong is quite strong."

Liu Shishi was indeed tempted, especially Edko was willing to let her convert her salary into investment, which meant that the studio could also participate in the film project.

However, she was also clear about her own weight and didn't make a decision blindly.

After Wei Jin came back for dinner in the evening, Liu Shishi brought up this matter.

"Wong Fei-hung series?"

Wei Jin muttered, a film floated in his mind, which was probably *Rise of the Legend*.

"Hmm, they said it would start filming around August, and my schedule is quite suitable. Brother, what do you think?"

Wei Jin shook his head: "Shishi, don't take this film."

"Good, Brother, I listen to you."

Liu Shishi didn't have half a hesitation, nodded directly and agreed, but her face couldn't hide her curiosity: "Brother, can you tell me why?"

Wei Jin held the girl in his arms and explained: "Shishi, for the theme of Wong Fei-hung, what is the first thing you think of?"

"Jet Li? Rosamund Kwan?"

"Look, this is the problem. The original film was too classic, and the character image was too deeply imprinted in the audience's heart. Old bottle with new wine, it can't be filmed with new ideas. If it's not good, it will destroy the classic, and at that time..."

Wei Jin didn't finish his words, Liu Shishi had already thought of *A Chinese Ghost Story* from two years ago, and the look of Wang Likun being mocked to the point of autism, couldn't help but shiver.

"Brother, I understand."

"Hmm, understand is good. Don't be anxious about films, come steadily. As for the follow-up, I will arrange it for you if there is a chance."

Liu Shishi looked at Wei Jin's serious look, kissed him on his clean forehead, and then stared straight at him: "Brother, I'm not anxious, I just want to be able to stay by your side all the time..."

Sincerity is always the killer move. Wei Jin soon couldn't hold up against the hot love in the little girl's eyes, immediately got up from the sofa, and walked toward the bedroom holding the girl. Perhaps knowing that after a short reunion, they would be separated, even though the two had fought half the night the day before, Liu Shishi was still quite crazy last night, as if she wanted to fill all the blanks of these few months.

Finally, they fought until one or two in the morning before falling into a deep sleep.

Wei Jin slept especially sweetly this night, until he was woken up by a phone call in the morning.

Gently moving away the snow-white lotus arm that Liu Shishi had placed on him, he picked up the phone on the bedside table and saw that it was Lu Yang's call.

After connecting, he heard Lu Yang's voice, trembling with excitement: "Senior Brother, it exploded, the opening day box office was 43.78 million!"

"Brother, is the opening day box office so high?"

Perhaps because the phone sound was too loud, Liu Shishi was woken up, hugging Wei Jin from behind, her voice revealing a bit of laziness.

"Uh..."

Lu Yang on the other end of the phone was slightly startled. He seemed to have heard this quite recognizable voice.

Wasn't it Liu Shishi, who was chatting with Wei Jin on the phone during the post-production of *Sakra*? As a pure love warrior, Lu Yang secretly despised his Senior Brother, then coughed lightly: "Senior Brother, I'm rushing to the airport, the signal is a bit bad, let's stop here..."

After speaking, he didn't even wait for Wei Jin to answer and hung up the phone directly.

"..."

Wei Jin was speechless by this guy. He called to wake me up?

"Brother, with this opening day box office, wouldn't it be possible to reach 700 million?"

Liu Shishi was a film newcomer, but the box office trajectory of *Witch* basically followed the rule of 15 times the opening day.

"Shishi, it's not calculated like this. We also have to consider the competitors in the same slot, as well as the film's word-of-mouth. It can't be generalized. Let me see..."

Saying that, Wei Jin logged into Yinxiang Net. He noticed that *Sakra* had a score of 7.6, which was not low for a Hong Kong-style action film. Last year's *SPL 2* score was 7.8.

In addition, the comments from netizens were mostly positive.

"The action scenes are quite exciting, fist-to-flesh is very satisfying!"

"Combining martial arts with investigation can be considered a beneficial attempt for kung fu films. It can be seen that Director Lu Yang really likes it..."

"Wang Baoqiang is really dedicated, his kung fu has improved a lot, and his acting is also very explosive. The fighting in the small street is very exciting, and the climax is also hearty, worth watching..."

"Violent, exciting, fighting is satisfying, the plot is smooth, recommended!"

"..." Although there were some nitpicking, most of the evaluations were fair. Especially for several action scenes, the audience gave a very high evaluation. It seems that this adaptation was still very good.

"Hmm, according to this score, 500 million is definitely stable, and 600 million is also possible. However, 700 million is estimated to be very hanging..."

"Why?"

"In a few days, *Iron Man 3* will be released."

"Is this iron man so powerful?"

Liu Shishi was a bit puzzled. *Iron Man 2* didn't make any splash in the country either.

"You'll know when the time comes..."

Wei Jin didn't explain too much, but asked about Liu Shishi's arrangements.

"I made an appointment with Mom and Dad to eat at noon. Brother, do you want to go together?"

Liu Shishi said, looking at Wei Jin with some expectation.

"Uh... this... let's forget it. The film post-production is coming to an end, I have to hurry up..."

Liu Shishi heard this, a look of disappointment flashed on her face, but she quickly adjusted and smiled: "Hmm, Brother, your business is important, then I will make breakfast for you now."

Saying that the little girl wanted to get up, Wei Jin quickly pressed her down, "Shishi, sleep a little longer. Otherwise, if Mom and Dad see you haven't rested well, they will feel heartache. As for breakfast, the driver has already bought it for me."

Seeing the little girl still wanted to say something, Wei Jin kissed her on her clean forehead and said in a deep voice: "Just like this, listen to me."

"Alright then, Brother."

The box office of *Sakra* and *So Young* was biting very tightly.

Thanks to word-of-mouth fermentation, the next day, the box office of *Sakra* hit a new high, reporting 47.4 million.

After the first weekend, the film grossed more than 91 million, which could be described as very bright.

And that *So Young*, as expected of a fan film, showed strong dominance in the early stage. After three days of release, the box office had broken 150 million.

Although the film had only been released for three days, Zhao Yanzi had already become famous in one battle, almost being held to the sky by the circle.

What "genius director," "first female director in the country," etc., titles seemed to be placed on her head without money.

Enlight Pictures even issued a notice, stating that the current box office share and patch advertisements had already recovered the film's cost.

For a time, youth-themed fan films became a hot category in the circle.

At the same time, *Witch* finished its last weekend and was taken off the screen, with a box office of 502 million.

A hot-selling film had too many benefits for the creative team.

Dante Lam had been rising steadily since cooperating with Golden Harvest, and now he went a step further, entering the 500 million director club.

Although the ceiling of the domestic box office was constantly being pulled up, 500 million was still a very high threshold. Currently, the directors in the Chinese film circle who had won this honor were not even double digits.

Therefore, the Hong Kong circle was extremely excited, and the related reports were much more straightforward and explicit than in the mainland.

Liu Shishi also leaped to become a 500-million-box-office female lead, firmly securing her position as one of the Four Young Dan Actresses. While Tangren's Miss Cai was busy rushing to Beijing to attend the celebration banquet, she didn't forget to arrange company publicity, and related press releases were flying everywhere.

However, this also made more female stars have a desire for works produced by Shanhe Media, and have a greater thought about climbing into Wei Jin's bed.

The scale of the *Witch* celebration banquet was not small.

When Wei Jin finished his work and arrived at the Imperial Hotel, there were already many guests at the scene.

Top companies like China Film Group, Enlight, Huayi, Bona, Wanda, etc., all sent people over.

There were also quite a few star artists coming to join in the fun, and Tangren almost moved out in full force.

Even Hu Ge, who was participating in the performance of *A Dream Like a Dream*, came specifically to join in the fun.

"President Wei, congratulations on the big box office sale..."

"Thank you all for joining in the fun!"

The successive congratulations sounded, and Wei Jin could only respond one by one.

After some pleasantries, Ye Ning pulled Wei Jin to the side and chatted about the project they cooperated with before.

That *New Police Story 2013* wrapped up at the end of March and was currently in post-production, expected to be completed before July.

Listening to Ye Ning's meaning, he intended to release it in the New Year slot.

"President Ye, *Edge of Tomorrow* will likely be scheduled for late December. What do you think?"

"This is a good thing. The New Year slot is a popular slot globally..." Speaking of this, Ye Ning suddenly reacted and laughed: "What? Why did Shanhe's film not schedule December? I thought you and I had a tacit understanding, haha... Fine, then listen to President Wei, put it in the first ten days of December."

Listening to this, Wei Jin was a bit embarrassed and quickly apologized: "This matter is my fault. I've been busy with film post-production since I came back and forgot to communicate with President Ye. My fault..."

"Eh eh, President Wei is being too polite. It's all a small matter, haha..."

The chat with Ye Ning didn't last long, because Shi Nansheng and Dante Lam had already greeted the main creators of the crew to walk onto the stage.

Liu Shishi, in a black one-shoulder pleated skirt, was very dazzling on the stage.

After talking about a lot of feelings and insights, Shi Nansheng and Dante Lam took the main creators to smash the ice sculpture symbolizing the box office.

Wei Jin didn't play fake either, directly giving out red envelopes.

Because this film was produced by Golden Harvest, it was also released in Hong Kong and Taiwan synchronously, but the box office performance in the two places was not too good, and both had long been taken off the screen, with a cumulative box office of less than 40 million RMB.

Even so, even counting the publicity costs, the total investment of *Witch* did not exceed 50 million, and the box office share of the two sides and three places alone exceeded 220 million.

Counting the patch advertisements and product placement advertisements, as well as the box office share of Taiwan and Hong Kong, after deducting the distribution costs, the net profit of the producer was at least 180 million, which could be called a blood profit.

If you count the Golden Harvest stock price driven by the film's box office performance during this period, it would be even more incredible.

So Wei Jin was quite generous, from producer Shi Nansheng, director Dante Lam, and film main creators, to the entire production team, all had it.

Even the media reporters who arrived had red envelopes. Although the amount was not large, it could be considered following the joy.

Wei Jin had maintained such a good relationship with the media over the years, which was not without reason. The media received the travel expenses, and would say some good words, which was also the hidden rule of the industry.

"President Wei is atmospheric!"

The 8 million red envelopes sent out that night had already firmly reserved the headline of the entertainment section the next day.

"Everyone eat well and drink well, don't return until you're drunk tonight!"

After some liveliness, Wei Jin took Liu Shishi back to the Xishan Villa.

Just after entering the house, the little girl couldn't wait to stick to him. Separation was imminent, so she had to seize the time? So this night, the two fought half the night again... (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 545 =====