Chapter 127: Breaking 700 Million

As a holding company under Jiang Heng, Broad Sodium Film Industry is already quite famous; setting up a branch is a piece of cake, and within a few days they obtained the business license and launched the website as quickly as possible.

After all, Jingcheng's universities are clustered with abundant talent; as long as you're willing to spend money, there are plenty of top technologists.

Moreover, the site itself is simple, and Jiang Heng has already handled the name, LGGO, page design, rating rules, and other non‑technical matters.

Yu Dong, watching it, was dumbfounded and wondered, "Aren't you a film director?"

How do you still have time to study a website!

If you knew a bit more computer tech, you could make one yourself!

Little did they know that Jiang Heng's computer skills are ahead of his time.

Regarding the site's manager, Yu Dong recommended a friend's daughter named Li Xiaobai, a computer‑science graduate with some management experience who previously worked at the telecom bureau.

Jiang Heng followed the procedure to meet her, found her fairly sharp, gave her a brief orientation, and then appointed her.

At first Li Xiaobai was rather nervous, fearing that her poor leadership would ruin the company.

But after getting hands‑on at the new company, she realized Yu Dong had actually found her a retirement‑type job!

Director Jiang had completed all the site's designs, and she grew more and more fond of it, finding no room for improvement.

A professional team handled the technical side, so she didn't have to worry; she only needed to manage the company's daily affairs.

This is… just too comfortable!

She immediately led the staff to promote it while creating film entries.

In the Tianya Forum's film & TV section, an ad titled "Douban—The Most Professional Movie Review Site" was posted everywhere.

The moderator didn't notice at first; by the time he realized and tried to delete the post, several hours had already passed.

Yet his deletion acted like hitting a virus; more and more ad replies kept coming, forcing him to mute keywords.

The situation on Maopu was similar; within a day, many netizens who liked reading reviews and discussing dramas discovered Douban.

When they searched Douban and found they could rate, write reviews, and short comments for movies they liked, they instantly felt a sense of belonging.

They hurriedly called friends, inviting online pals to post and rate on Douban; by the end of the first month after "Pishan Rescue Mother" premiered, Douban had become the hottest review site.

Jiang Heng's several works also received scores: "The Matrix 1" 9.4, "Prehistoric One Hundred Million Years" 8.5, "Lion‑Camel Ridge" 9.1, "Pacific Rim" 8.9, "Pishan Rescue Mother" 8.3.

Some netizens questioned whether Director Jiang's works were rated too high.

But seeing that the top rank was Thus output: Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" 9.6, and "Teahouse" and "Flower Wreath Under the Mountain" both 9.5, they thought the site's ratings were fairly impartial.

Then many college students watched Zhou Xingxing's "A Chinese Odyssey: The Great Sage Marries" and saw it at only 9.0, hurriedly got classmates to help rate, raising it by 0.1.

In fact, Douban's emergence didn't greatly affect "Pishan Rescue Mother"'s box office.

After all, in 2002 the domestic netizen count was limited, and most people were still influenced by mainstream media.

Mainstream media, aiming to "protect and escort the Chinese‑language film market," also tried their best to give "Pishan Rescue Mother" positive publicity.

The reason is that Jiang Heng's box office accounts for a huge share of the entire Neidi film market's annual revenue; officials want year‑over‑year growth, so negative talk won't do.

Moreover, after China joined the WTO, the economy improved over the past two years, and some agencies and companies resumed the old practice of exclusive bookings.

As a result, "Pishan Rescue Mother"'s box office, from the day of release, surged as if injected with adrenaline.

China Film cares most about this; making money is one thing, but the main focus is impressive results, pushing hard toward 700 million.

However, after a month of release it had only reached just over 670 million, so they decided to postpone another month before pulling the film.

Thus "Pishan Rescue Mother" stayed in theaters for an extra month and ultimately earned 721 million at the box office.

The day after the box office broke 700 million, Han Sanping was unusually excited, China Film's executives were jubilant, all saying they should celebrate lavishly with a proper banquet.

A bunch of people talked a lot, but nothing was particularly original.

Someone said, "Hey, if you want lots of creativity and ideas, it has to be Director Jiang; we should ask him!"

Han Sanping was just about to call Jiang Heng, so he dialed and conveyed everyone's ideas.

Jiang Heng thought briefly and said, "Fine, we can use crystal to arrange seven or eight zeros together; on the day of a press conference we'll invite some media friends and, in front of them, smash the '700 million' symbol, representing our box‑office breaking the 700 million mark!"

Han Sanping's eyes lit up at the suggestion.

"Ah, you truly live off creativity; this idea is brilliant, perfectly in sync! All right, just wait for me to arrange it!"

After hanging up, Han Sanping relayed Jiang Heng's idea, and the senior executives in the room were overjoyed.

One number per crystal; that should hold nine people, and I could even get up and swing a hammer to show my face.

The group started discussing; some suggested inviting CCTV reporters, as the movie channel would surely come.

Others proposed bringing Zhang Yimou and Thus output: Chen Kaige over; both make blockbusters—one releases during the Spring Festival, the other is a China Film investment slated for next summer—so it would excite them and provide a chance for promotion.

Han Sanping heard this and was unsure whether the idea was good or bad.

Zhang Yimou's relationship with Jiang Heng is decent; he's attended several of Jiang's new‑film premieres and even paid a high fee to have Jiang appear in "Hero," so he should be willing to come.

As for Thus output: Chen Kaige, after "Farewell My Concubine" made him world‑renowned, he's carried an air of arrogance ever since.

Originally, as the hype of "Farewell My Concubine" faded, his recent works this year have received average reviews and box office, and Thus output: Chen Kaige has become much more silent.

Unexpectedly, after Douban posted that "Farewell My Concubine" scored 9.6, becoming the highest‑rated Chinese‑language film and was reported by the media, Thus output: Chen Kaige's arrogance flared up again.

At some of his small gatherings, his assessment of Jiang Heng wasn't very high.

Having him attend the "Pishan Rescue Mother" celebration banquet won't cause any trouble, right?

Han Sanping was also undecided, but since everyone else said so, he also wanted to use the chance to promote "Wu Ji," after all it's his own production, so he called Thus output: Chen Kaige.

"Alright, once you've finalized it, tell me, I'll definitely go!"

After the call ended, Chen Rong asked what the matter was.

Thus output: Chen Kaige explained the situation, and Chen Rong wondered, "Aren't you the one who hates Jiang Heng the most? Why go to his celebration and watch him bask in success!"

Thus output: Chen Kaige proudly said, "He's just a kid, only good at special effects, knows nothing of art; I just want to tell him"

"Movies aren't made that way!"

(End of Chapter)