Chapter 159

With the female lead role confirmed, the preparatory work for Inception was basically completed.

The Matrix Revolutions, while hotly released, suffered many negative reviews.

The reason is also simple; ultimately it's just not exciting enough.

For some viewers, what they subconsciously want to see is the Zion rebels destroying the robots' rule, restoring human dominion over Earth, and returning to a blissful era when machines would not awaken.

But the result was that the seemingly omnipotent savior Neo from the first two films, in order to save the Matrix and Zion, sacrificed himself to destroy the virus Smith.

Then, the Matrix continued to control all humanity except the Zion rebels, giving a somewhat half-hearted feeling.

Fortunately, in the domestic market, it completely swept aside competition, with over 70% of screenings allocated to The Matrix Revolutions, and many units bought out entire showings, causing the film's box office to grow explosively.

This money will be split into two parts: half used to purchase ambulances for impoverished areas, and half to build elementary schools.

When the news that Jiang Heng would donate the domestic box-office revenue share of The Matrix Revolutions was reported, it again sparked a viewing craze, with many viewers going to theaters for second and third viewings, driving the box office to surge again, successively passing the 600 million and 700 million marks and rushing toward 800 million.

Moreover, July 25 was the release date of Columbia Pictures' Bad Boys II, which historically ranked 11th for the year.

However, its style was completely different from the first two films, and Jiang Heng dared not say it would definitely succeed.

Earlier, Pirates of the Caribbean premiered on July 9; as the series' opening installment, its box office performance was mediocre, with an opening weekend of only $46 million, which cannot compare to the second film's $135 million and the third film's $114 million opening weekends.

However, Han Sanping always had some reservations; first, he wanted to see how The Banquet's box office would do before saying more.

Furthermore, in history, The Matrix Revolutions premiered on November 5, 2003, and on the 7th, New Line Cinema's seventh-ranked annual release Elf opened, greatly squeezing the box office space for The Matrix Revolutions.

"The domestic film market is so good now that in just a few years, nobody will regard two or three hundred million as much; with this amount of money, you couldn't even make a weight-loss film!"

This time the situation also didn't improve much; the film was released globally simultaneously on July 18.

Jiang Heng then vaguely said, "Well, I did have that thought, but after thinking it over, I decided against it!"

Inside the office, Han Sanping leaned on the sofa and chuckled, "You, you have a kind heart, but you don't realize how many greedy people there are in this world; they just love someone like you who's rich and kind-hearted!"

Moreover, many netizens posted requests for help, some claiming their parents were seriously ill, others claiming they or their children were sick, hoping Jiang Heng could give them some money to help them get through the crisis.

The Matrix Revolutions thus struggled hard amidst the encirclement of big films in the North American market.

Secondly, they are still willing to cooperate with Jiang Heng.

Fortunately, there is a one-week gap, so the impact is not as great as that of Elf.

Han Sanping wondered, "What kind of weight-loss film costs so much? Is it a superhero weight-loss film?"

After careful consideration, Jiang Heng finally announced that he would donate all of the domestic box-office revenue share from The Matrix Revolutions to medical and educational causes in impoverished areas.

After talking with Jiang Heng a lot, Han Sanping's mind also gained many advanced concepts.

Upon hearing this, Han Sanping inevitably felt somewhat disappointed.

If Neo could, like Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, lead humanity in a stirring war against the machine city, perhaps the series could still be continued.

Immediately a possibility came to mind: "You won't, will you, stay in Hollywood all the time?"

One hundred million, two hundred million, three hundred million, five hundred million—these thresholds were as flimsy as paper, easily broken through.

Online, it sparked even broader discussion, with most netizens holding an admiring attitude toward Jiang Heng's actions.

However, some also posted claiming Jiang Heng was pretentiously generous.

After finishing filming Inception in Hollywood this time, he also needed to assess the situation before considering when to return to China to film.

The box office trend of The Matrix Revolutions has already become somewhat weak; according to media estimates, the final box office will be around six hundred million, barely reaching seven hundred million.

This time it was Han Sanping's turn to wryly smile: "You call two hundred-odd million, nearly three hundred million, 'within one's ability'? Do you know how envious everyone is?"

If one truly wanted to donate, they should give away the global income of The Matrix Revolutions to help more people in need; the domestic market's box office is nothing, amounting to less than a hundred million US dollars.

In the domestic market of 2003, that really was a huge sum of money.

What they were waiting for was not Jiang Heng's feedback, but the urban management officers.

Once this news was released, it instantly caused a public uproar.

In the media, praise still dominated, especially some television outlets that repeatedly reported on it.

Jiang Heng thought to himself, "This will cause the overall index to keep falling; only someone with a screw loose would go public now—if you want to list, you'd have to wait for the big bull market of 06 or 07!"

Jiang Heng spent considerable effort before managing to fool this bunch of people.

Jiang Heng thought to himself, "I know some people are envious, that's why I want to expand my fame and influence!"

During filming, he also agonized for a while before deciding to stick with the original version.

After all, although The Matrix Revolutions is somewhat flawed in its ending, the series as a whole has very high completeness, and in history it also had a global box office of 427 million US dollars.

Recently, China Film Corporation has indeed received many scripts for big-budget films, and Chen Kaige has even finished revising the script for Legend of the Monkey King.

Han Sanping therefore thought it unreliable, so he didn't bring it up again, but instead asked what to film after finishing Inception.

Moreover, some extremists went to the address of Love Outstanding Rising Film Company to hang banners seeking help.

"Well, I really haven't thought much about it; this time going to Hollywood is to film, and also to rest a bit, as work these past few years has been too busy, leaving me a little tired!"

Of course, the film's action scenes and audiovisual effects are still super shocking, but in terms of plot it has not reached nor exceeded audience expectations.

Meanwhile, the media began calculating in newspapers that Jiang Heng's donation this time definitely exceeded 250 million.

Since he decided to list Love Outstanding Rising Film Company, many capable people have come knocking, some wanting to buy Jiang Heng's shares, others guaranteeing to get the company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange within a year.

In terms of making money, it's really too stable.

Jiang Heng's fans naturally could not tolerate such remarks, posting and arguing, the debate getting louder and livelier.

In this life, with the addition of the Neidi market, the hope of making 500 million US dollars is still great; as long as we can make some money, that's fine.

Jiang Heng gave a helpless laugh and said: "I'm just doing what I can; I really didn't think so much!"

Jiang Heng laughed and said: "Definitely not; Neidi is what I value most. With the rise of Chinese-language cinema, how could I be missing?"

Han Sanping thought it over, agreed, raised his teacup, and said: "Then I wish you smooth sailing this time!"

(End of chapter)