Chapter 560

In another timeline, special-effects blockbusters went from being chased by audiences to being despised by them, which was just over a decade.

By 2025, people were too lazy to even go to the cinema.

One reason is the rapid development of short videos, which is indeed more interesting.

But ultimately it's still the industry's problem—there are too many bad films, which have scared audiences away; no director or actor is trustworthy, and there are far too many cases of reputational collapse.

As for the 2015 film Heavenly General Heroic Army, Brother Cheng Long perhaps wanted to act it well, but he couldn't overcome the film's many fatal flaws.

On top of the impact of special-effects blockbusters, the action scenes in this film are just so-so, really nothing to see.

In the previous life, this film grossed over 700 million, but this time, if Heavenly General Heroic Army dares to be released in the Spring Festival slot, competing with Three Body 2 and West Hong Kong City's richest person, grossing five hundred million would be good.

The problem is that this film's total investment has already reached 400 million; if it only makes 400 million at the box office, investors would likely lose even their underwear.

This is also the fundamental reason why companies like Huayi, China Film, and Yao Lai decided to move up the release.

Cheng Long certainly has some influence, but he is merely the lead actor; after the several producers agree, they will definitely move up the release, and Cheng Long cannot stop it.

But once that situation arises, everyone's face will be somewhat awkward.

Jiang Heng thought for a moment and then advised: "The film Three Body 2 is very likely the peak of my career; even my previous and later works, when they encounter it, must avoid its sharpness!"

Furthermore, if Brother's film doesn't compete with mine for box office in the Spring Festival slot, perhaps we could sell a bit more and push the record even higher!

Upon hearing this, Cheng Long indeed became much happier, raised his wine cup and drained it in one gulp: "Also, Three Body 2 will definitely set a record; although my film won't grab much box office, gaining an extra one or two billion would be good!"

Jiang Heng said: "If your Heavenly General Heroic Army moves up, I'll easily gross over four billion!"

Brother Cheng Long choked on hearing that; forty billion—he didn't dare dream of a single film grossing over forty billion in his lifetime. After taking a sip, he suddenly said: "Can my action comedy be combined with special effects?"

Jiang Heng laughed: "Perhaps we can give it a try!"

Cheng Long, hearing that, seemed thoughtful and actually began to ponder this matter!

Brother, most of the time, is still quite pragmatic; after returning, he communicated with Huayi, Shanghai Film, and Yao Lai, and the matter of moving up the release passed smoothly, whereupon he immediately increased publicity efforts.

In order to let the film attract more attention from fans, Cheng Long also invited Jiang Heng to attend the premiere of Heaven Descends Heroic Army.

Jiang Heng found it hard to refuse, so he brought Zhang Ruoxian along to attend.

The reason is simple: to warm up for the upcoming releases of Three Body 2 and West Hong Kong City's Richest Person, Zhang Ruoxian is the female lead in both films, so she definitely needs to be brought out for everyone to get to know her.

At the premiere venue, they were showing the finished version of Heavenly General Heroic Army; Jiang Heng thought it was boring, but Zhang Ruoxian found it lively.

Of course, after the film ended, Jiang Heng asked her what she thought; the girl pondered and still just said the two words 'lively'.

One week later, Heavenly General Heroic Army premiered, taking in only 120 million on opening day, which was less than Xu Ke's Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, and couldn't even compare to Zhang Yimou's The Great Wall.

Worse still, the reputation—its opening score on Douban was only 5.8, almost sinking into the ranks of bad films.

Wang Zhonglei and the others were extremely fortunate; with this opening day box office and reputation, if they waited for the Spring Festival slot to release, they would definitely be crushed by Three Body 2!

As for low-budget comedies like West Hong Kong City's Richest Person, Wang Zhonglei and the others still didn't take them seriously.

But the Happy MaXia team cared a lot and were full of confidence in the film's box office performance.

The Spring Festival of 2015 fell on February 19; the premiere of West Hong Kong City's Richest Person was scheduled for February 8, Three Body 2 for February 12, and the venue for both was arranged at the Olympic stadium.

From this venue arrangement, one can see that the promotional investment for West Hong Kong City's Richest Person exceeds that of Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, showing that Love Faction: Outstanding Rising Film Company is more optimistic about this film. From the market side, they also find this curious, and can only conclude that Jiang Heng is determined to heavily promote Zhang Ruoxian! In the blink of an eye, it was February 8, the day of the premiere of West Hong Kong City's Richest Person.

Zhang Ruoxian came to the Love Faction: Outstanding Rising Film Company after having breakfast, starting makeup and styling. As the female lead, she had to walk the red carpet together with the film's Jiang Heng.

Her parents, younger sister, and younger brother also arrived at the venue, preparing to witness her important moment.

After so long in the entertainment industry, her starring film is finally about to be released, and the whole family is overexcited.

"Wow, sister, you're so beautiful, like a bride!" Zhang Ruoxian's younger brother said.

"Sister, will you marry Director Jiang when the time comes?" her younger sister asked softly.

Zhang Ruoxian's cheeks blushed slightly, and she hurriedly told them not to talk nonsense.

Not long after, Jiang Heng entered, wearing a custom-made suit, looking increasingly handsome.

"Uncle, Auntie, hello; younger brothers and sisters, hello!" Jiang Heng greeted politely.

Zhang Ruoxian's parents were very restrained, but her younger brother and sister were very bold.

"Are you my brother-in-law?" the little girl asked.

Jiang Heng just smiled and rubbed her head, saying, "You'll find out later!"

He then took Zhang Ruoxian's hand, and they left together by car, heading straight for the Olympic stadium.

Zhang Ruoxian's parents and younger brother and sister followed behind, taking the remaining cars to arrive at the venue together.

Because of Jiang Heng's title as producer, plus the venue being relatively large, Love Faction: Outstanding Rising Film Company actively invited many reporters and guests to the scene, and the audience turnout was also high; the atmosphere was no worse than Jiang Heng's previous special-effects blockbusters!

A reporter, while taking photos, exclaimed: "Director Jiang, this is you forcibly promoting Zhang Ruoxian!"

"Yeah, it was originally a medium-low-budget film, but this scene is comparable to a special-effects blockbuster!"

"Looking at this situation, she will become the boss's wife of Love Faction: Outstanding Rising Film Company!"

"Zhang Ruoxian, and that milk tea sister named Zhang something, are both pretty impressive!"

"This is what they call a hero finding it hard to pass the beauty's gate!"

As the reporters were discussing, Jiang Heng had already linked arms with Zhang Ruoxian, and they stepped onto the red carpet together.

In an instant, the flashbulbs lit up the whole place, and the sound of click-click clicking filled the venue.

After a while, the host on the red carpet, Xie Nan, said: "Welcome, Director Jiang Heng, Miss Zhang Ruoxian; we can see that the scale of this premiere is very large, obviously surpassing the treatment warranted by the film's investment scale. Director Jiang, could you say why that is?"

After Xie Nan finished speaking, he gazed at Zhang Ruoxian with a smiling face.

Jiang Heng chuckled: "That's right, because I think this is a very good comedy film, so I wanted to use a larger scale and more publicity to let everyone know about this film."

Oh, iQiyi's earlier productions "Lost in Thailand" and "Heart Blossoms on the Road" also did pretty well, but they don't seem to have had such a big scale—could it be because of a certain person? (End of chapter)