Chapter 624

This wave of "Limit Foreign" has even affected Hong Kong, with Hong Kong media calling it a policy of isolationism.

The U. S. media, the New York Times, said this is suppression of American TV dramas, sparking public outrage.

Even the Wall Street Journal said users will flee overseas, and this "Limit Foreign" policy won't achieve its intended effect.

It's all just sour grapes—nothing can be done; this is the inevitable trend.

Of course, this "Limit Foreign" wave has indeed caused a surge in users for non-mainstream platforms like cloud storage and pirated content, but these too must be eliminated—just not yet addressed.

Rules are gradually refined; they cannot be perfected overnight.

The film industry has just undergone a wave of regulation, and streaming platforms are now about to face another.

The former was sparked by capital-driven, reckless ticket-padding and fake box office figures; the latter was sparked by the Principal, who openly declared "Limit Foreign!"

Ordinary people don't understand the connection between the two—it's fundamentally a battle over interests among capital groups.

But this struggle has wiped out countless small content creators; recently, Monster Hunt peaked at 180 million yuan in a single day.

Its total box office over eight days exceeded one billion yuan; the actual true box office figure is known only to them.

They even announced it online: "Monster Hunt broke ten billion yuan in eight days, and is expected to surpass Gravity!"

Gravity once broke 3 billion yuan; Monster Hunt's performance makes it nearly impossible to reach that level.

Blowing smoke? Anyone can do that.

The Pancake Hero peaked at 150 million yuan in a single day, with a total of over 700 million yuan over eight days, but this film quickly lost momentum—it truly sucked.

Together, these two films surpassed 300 million yuan in daily box office.

Add to that Monkey King: Hero Is Back, which consistently earned 30–50 million yuan per day, though its numbers have since declined; its total box office now exceeds 1.1 billion yuan, making it the highest-grossing film.

But Monster Hunt will soon catch up.

These three films each surpassed 400 million yuan in daily box office, collectively taking nearly 3 billion yuan from the entire July summer season.

Just in this one month, the numbers are still rising.

Other films released simultaneously have become cannon fodder; ten thousand yuan is already a good result—like Eagle of Nusu, which earned only a few hundred yuan.

The Love Magic Hairdresser earned about 20,000 yuan per day.

Aside from being poorly made, these films are all casualties of the box office war, with no chance of recovery.

The market is only so big; ticket-padding requires real purchases and real attendance, inevitably leaving no screening slots for other films.

Daily box office exceeding 400 million yuan has shown capital the immense potential of the film market.

Moreover, nearly all Hollywood films released this summer were wiped out—films like Blood Money, Divergent, The Imitation Game were all major Hollywood productions.

But their box office was dismal, suffering the worst defeat in history, marking a landmark event in the full rise of domestic films.

Sina reported: "The 2015 summer season saw Hollywood blockbusters falter, while Chinese-language films offered a full-course feast of genres!"

NetEase Finance: "Worst summer season in a decade? Hollywood's box office in China plunged 18% year-over-year!"

Jiemian News: "'Tap Water' Strikes Back: How did Monkey King: Hero Is Back use word-of-mouth to defeat Hollywood's Best Special Effects?"

Compared to last year's Godzilla, Transformers 4, Maleficent, and Edge of Tomorrow, this year's Hollywood films are completely inadequate.

Especially in the second half of the year, domestic films suddenly surged.

This year, Hollywood's film and television content isn't just restricted—it's been utterly crushed by domestic productions.

This is the result of the entire Chinese-language market and sustained top-down promotion to revitalize the cultural industry.

Those directors only blabber endlessly, constantly criticizing censorship; without state-driven support for domestic film and television, they'd have no future—they'd be dragged back to their poor old days.

A film market where a movie earns hundreds of millions or tops out at tens of millions—how many filmmakers would want to go back?

There's no other reason—they simply don't make money. Making blockbusters requires a market and economic foundation to support them.

Ordinary people don't understand this; they just hate Fang Hong, accusing him of destroying healthy competition in film and television and claiming he shouldn't restrict overseas dramas.

There's certainly a lot of agenda-driven noise here.

Fang Hong doesn't care; this is a path that must be taken. It's impossible to neglect one's own film and television industry while handing money to Hollywood—it makes no sense.

At the very least, his actions have caused domestic film and television content investment to grow by over 200%; for example, if previously there were 10 baseline projects, now there are 20 more—30 total.

With massive capital investment, film and television productions needn't fear lack of buyers; streaming platforms will demand vast amounts of new content—even garbage.

As long as it's made, someone will buy it, because policy ensures the market vacuum left by overseas dramas will be entirely filled by domestic ones.

Put simply, the entire film and television industry will enter its second golden age; last year there were only 5,000 film and television production companies, this year it will exceed 10,000.

The number of film and television industry workers, once only 700,000–800,000, is conservatively estimated to rise above 1.5 million.

Next year and the year after, it will surpass 2 million.

With so many people to feed and such a huge cake, would you hand it over to overseas dramas?

Even America's own film and television market relies on bleeding the International Market to grow; we can only circulate internally. If we don't restrict now, how will we ever grow?

Not to mention, his own background actor registration has over 100,000 members—many had no work, but now many will be assigned jobs.

Royalty fees have risen, and some of that money will trickle down; of course, this applies to Fang Hong's own film and television projects—others only benefit top-tier stars.

This is also one reason why star salaries have skyrocketed later on.

Of course, this was unavoidable; Fang Hong still proposed restricting overseas dramas to bring them to the same level.

At least we have linguistic and cultural advantages—if we can't win this, we're just incompetent.

Although netizens and audiences curse him, even media with no stake in this criticize him—after all, they have no vested interest—the entire film and television industry must thank him.

Because he was the one who started it, who proposed "Limit Foreign!"

But these people remain silent, enjoying the convenience Fang Hong brought and choosing silence.

Later, a film and television worker named Qiang Ge said on Douyin: "Now that the film and television industry is so prosperous, with such high star salaries and so many workers, we all owe thanks to the Principal."

If he hadn't proposed Limit Foreign, platforms would still be buying overseas dramas—why? Because you just buy them and put them online; the audience is huge, just like Hollywood films, already market-tested, no risk of loss.

If that's the case, why invest at all? Buying directly is so much easier. Capital doesn't care where a drama is produced—if people watch it, they buy it. That's all there is to it.

You don't know: before, many people watched Korean dramas, American dramas—TV screens were filled with Korean, American, and even Thai dramas!

If we don't impose restrictions, our own film and television industry won't be able to develop—it's already behind, so it would fall even further behind.

On the International Market, recently The Conjuring 2's box office performance remained strong; this film, like other films in The Conjuring Series, used extremely clever scare sequences.

We won't talk about the plot—it's mainly about scaring people.

This film was released on June 19 and had been screening for about a month.

The North American market earned $102 million; the second-largest market was Mexico, which took in $12.3 million; other International Market performances were average.

Total box office reached $306 million; previously, The Conjuring 2 also earned over $300 million, which foretells that The Conjuring Series is as solid as an old dog!

As long as this series keeps being made, it won't lose money.

The Conjuring 2 still earned $76.5 million in profit sharing, roughly 530 million.

The United States-based Zhong Family company is controlled by a Cayman Islands offshore entity, so it has certain tax avoidance strategies; it also has domestic operations in the United States, and copyrights are not counted.

This money will still reach Liu Tianxian.

Getting it to her is simple—she originally held a position with the Zhong Family and has held it for many years.

From now on, Liu Tianxian will pay Yu Xian's salary; previously, Fang Hong gave him pay arbitrarily, without any standard.

Liu Tianxian set her own standard: give him 5% of the box office—$300 million means $15.3 million, over a hundred million.

Giving him so much at once surprised Yu Xian greatly; previously, the Principal gave only a few million, at most ten million, and that was only during high-box-office periods.

This film's box office just surpassed $300 million, not exceptionally high, so Yu Xian called Liu Tianxian.

"Should I start calling you General Manager Liu now?" Yu Xian joked.

"No, you should call me Mrs. Fang, hahaha." Liu Tianxian laughed loudly.

"Then I'll still call you Immortal Sister." Yu Xian wouldn't give Fang Hong any chance to pretend.

"Oh come on, I'm already a married woman—still Immortal Sister? Just call me by my name." Liu Tianxian's tone was playful.

"No matter how you change, you're still our Immortal Sister," Yu Xian said.

"Oh, your mouth is so sweet—Fang Hong should learn from you, make him cheer me up every day." Liu Tianxian spoke with a laugh, clearly in good spirits.

Now she had no worries, no pressure, lived carefree every day—her mood naturally became Shuchang.

This was just returning to her original personality; she had always been this funny and lively, never pretentious, though her neurotic tendencies still remained.

"That's acceptable," Yu Xian laughed.

"Hehehe," Liu Tianxian chuckled, then asked: "Did you call for a reason?"

"You sent me the payment—I saw over $15 million, so I called to ask," Yu Xian didn't specify, letting Liu Tianxian speak.

"All these years you've worked hard; back then, Chang'e and Jade Rabbit needed development, funds were tight, but now things are looser, so I gave you a bit more according to the percentage—take it and use it freely. After all, you're nearly thirty, you should think about personal matters. I noticed the girl you brought before was quite nice—Guo Biting, right?" Liu Tianxian spoke seriously now, like an older sister.

She was referring to the kiss Yu Xian had shared with someone at her wedding.

"Yes!" Yu Xian said, touched.

"What are your thoughts? Have you decided on her, or are there other options?" Liu Tianxian asked.

"Not decided yet—I'll keep looking," Yu Xian said.

"Looking more is fine—beauty is secondary; what matters is character and personality, since it's for life," Liu Tianxian said.

"Mm, I know."

Yu Xian felt deeply moved; since his entire family was gone, no one in the world cared about his major life matters—yet Liu Tianxian was thinking about him.

This touched him deeply.

(End of Chapter)