Chapter 47: Performance

The production cost of *Crazy Stone* had already been leaked during its promotional phase.

An eight-million production budget, compared to the current box office, is simply a windfall.

From filming to release, *Crazy Stone* took less than half a year to create such massive profits; how many publicly listed companies have such performance?

For a time, the film and television industry was in a state of agitation once again.

There were many who were envious and jealous, and the state media even used this to encourage the active development of the film and television culture industry, causing a large amount of private capital to surge into this sector.

Regarding the box office of *Crazy Stone*, many media outlets interviewed directors or companies that were set to release new films this year.

Director Chen waved his hand grandly, "Once *The Promise* is released at the end of the year, everyone will know what a true blockbuster is."

"I have watched *Crazy Stone*. As a young director, Ning Hao handled it well. Lin Nan is the most outstanding director and screenwriter of the young generation; his script for this film is first-class."

Zhang Yimou accepted an interview amidst his busy schedule.

Most directors were full of confidence in their own films.

*Seven Swords* has Xu Ke, *Perhaps Love* is a collaboration between Chen Kexin and Zhou Xun and Jin Chengwu, and *The Myth* is a project controlled by Emperor Group and China Film Group, with the backing of Jackie Chan, so they were also full of promises.

Regardless of how the outside world reported it, Lin Nan stayed very low-key at school or the company, occasionally checking on the box office data.

By the twelfth day, *Crazy Stone* still had a box office of nearly seven million, already surpassing *Return to Youth*.

Ning Hao became famous in one battle, and among the leads, Huang Bo benefited the most, having already received many film offers.

The industry is now waiting to see the final results of *Crazy Stone*, and the person discussed the most is still the film's presenter, producer, and screenwriter, Lin Nan.

Exactly how many times the eight-million investment will return can be revealed in a few more days.

As the distributor, Enlight Media made a killing in terms of reputation.

Before this, the promotion and distribution of domestic films with over a hundred million in box office were almost all handled by the major film groups.

As a private enterprise, this was the first time Enlight Media had fully operated the promotion and distribution of a high-grossing film, and it was a low-budget breakout hit.

Wang Changtian has been in high spirits these past few days and has invited Lin Nan several times, but the latter really had no time.

Ever since the day the box office of *Crazy Stone* broke one hundred million, he had no spare time.

President Ren of Shanghai Film Group came to the company in person; Lin Nan accompanied him for the whole morning, and China Film Group, hearing the news, also came to join in the excitement.

He also met with the Western Film Group from his hometown, but they really had no resources worth mentioning, so they could only deepen their relationship, as they were fellow countrymen after all.

Huayi once again extended an olive branch to Lin Nan, expressing a strong desire to invest in his next film, no matter how large the scale.

Wanda's cinema chain is a subsidiary business of their commercial real estate, but they are eyeing the cultural industry covetously; this time, the screen allocation for *Crazy Stone* was significantly high, and they also mentioned the matter of investment when meeting Lin Nan.

Famous agents, actors, stars, and talent agencies have almost worn out the threshold of Lin Nan's company during this period, and even some companies focused on television dramas have met with Lin Nan.

Being not very good at interpersonal communication in business has always been Lin Nan's shortcoming, so he has also been very exhausted these days.

The company's employees, however, were more excited than the last; they had seen many big figures these days, and most importantly, this year's year-end bonus was going to increase again.

Because the company has few people, Lin Nan is very generous; he has not been stingy when giving out year-end bonuses over the past two years. Having sold the copyright of *Return to Dust* at the beginning of the year, plus the currently screening *Crazy Stone*, this year's bonuses will definitely not be small.

"None of you be smug, I'm talking to you; you've come in to refill the water three times in half an hour. Is Liu Dehua really that good-looking?"

Lin Nan scolded a young receptionist until her cheeks turned red before stopping. Others on the side even jeered, "He is just handsome."

With the continuous growth of the *Crazy Stone* box office, the Shanghai International Film Festival sent an invitation to the crew.

The film festival was originally scheduled for late June, so sending an invitation at this time was actually not in accordance with the rules.

Lin Nan understood the reasoning behind it.

Although the Shanghai International Film Festival was recognized as an A-list film festival by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations in 1994, it has really lost face for an A-list film festival over these years, to the point where it is not even favored by its own people.

Not to mention the slow development over these years, it also committed a common mistake: it likes to give awards to foreign films to improve its own image, and the domestic films that win are often unknown ones, feeling like it's following the style of the Golden Rooster Awards.

In the past two years, the domestic film industry has developed rapidly, but prolific directors like Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaogang have never been to the Shanghai International Film Festival, so one can imagine why.

If you get an award outside, you are still discriminated against at home; who would be willing to take that kind of frustration?

Lin Nan does not want to go. He is already a Silver Bear-winning director; even if he goes, it would be as an award presenter or a judge, or it would be guaranteed that they would give him an award. However, he seems to have heard that Jiang Wenli is one of the judges for this session.

Seeing that Ning Hao seemed a bit tempted, Lin Nan could not refuse, "You want to go?"

Ning Hao nodded. He did want to go; although this film festival's way of doing things is a bit unreliable, it is an A-list film festival after all. What if they could win an award?

*Crazy Stone* achieved a win-win in both word-of-mouth and box office, and he still wanted to give it a try.

"If you want to go, then go. I won't be going." Lin Nan made his stance clear.

"Then what if *Crazy Stone* wins Best Screenplay?"

"If it wins, you can accept it on my behalf, but I can guarantee there is a ninety percent chance it won't happen.

Don't you see who the chair of the main competition section and the chair of the newcomer award section are?

It's Director Wu and Section Chief Jia! They are both people obsessed with drama films."

Drama films are generally films adapted from real-life events that are not easily noticed by most people, and this is even more so domestically, almost to the point of paranoia.

This is also the reason why Lin Nan was praised by those "old seniors" for *Return to Dust*.

Ning Hao still wanted to try. There had been too much praise around him lately, and he wanted to see; if he happened to win an award, wouldn't that be icing on the cake?

Ning Hao said with a smile, "I'll go and try. Whether there's an award or not, I'll just take it as expanding my network. They should want to go too."

"Fine, you contact Huang Bo and the others yourself, and give them a reply over there while you're at it."

Since Ning Hao had said so, Lin Nan had nothing more to say.

The Shanghai Film Festival should not see any real improvement until next year, when the presidium undergoes a major overhaul.

Ning Hao went back to contact the leads, told them about the film festival, and asked them to keep their schedules open.

*Crazy Stone* was still screening, with a box office less than one-third of its peak, when good news came back from the Cannes Film Festival.

*Shanghai Dreams* was shortlisted for the main competition section, and just like *Peacock* in Berlin, it was highly praised by the jury.

Its premiere was also held at Cannes.

Online, there were the usual daily box office figures for *Crazy Stone*, but news about *Shanghai Dreams* also followed.

Lin Nan saw the promotional poster, taken at the Cannes Film Festival. On it was the fresh-faced Gao Yuanyuan, who already had the bearing of the great beauty she would become. She looked very comfortable and aesthetic; no wonder so many men liked her.

This year, the performance of Lin Nan's company was brilliant; among the many companies in the film and television industry, he was the most eye-catching one, speaking only of films.

Huayi participated in the investment of many films this year, and the film and television industry is a high-risk sector; whether they can make a profit remains an unknown.

Only by counting the endorsements and announcements of the large number of actors and stars under them could Huayi's book performance allow it to sit firmly in the position of the leader among private enterprises in the film and television industry.

But compared to Lin Nan's achievements in the past six months, the two Wangs felt uneasy. They had spread their business so wide and had so many staff, and only after being busy with this and that did they achieve these results.

Looking at Lin Nan's side, he just made one film and sold the copyright, then invested in another, and got so much; anyone would feel psychologically unbalanced if they were in their shoes.

Watching the box office of *Crazy Stone* soar day by day, everyone in the circle could calculate how much money Lin Nan could make; he was the sole presenter.

People who had designs on Lin Nan's next film increased a lot. Everyone discovered that so far, the most expensive film Lin Nan had made only cost twenty million, which was *Return to Youth*. The costs of other films were not high, but all of them were profitable, and quite profitable at that.

"People who eat alone will have no friends."

Some old seniors gave Lin Nan pointers, saying that to make a living in this circle, one needs to be united.

Lin Nan thought about this problem; it seemed that the last two films were indeed a bit glaring.

*Return to Dust* and *Crazy Stone* were both independently invested and produced by him, and the results were too good, which stimulated his peers.

This industry is just like this: if you are too poor, no one pays attention to you; if you are too good, you can't eat alone. There are really too many annoying things.

Soon, Lin Nan threw this matter to the back of his mind.

Ever since signing the contract with Lionsgate, they had been paying close attention to Lin Nan's situation in the country. After learning about the box office of *Crazy Stone*, they also sent a congratulatory message and spoke about the filming situation of *Dead Silence*. Currently, everything was going smoothly, and James Wan was filming with great dedication.

Winning big with small investments is Lionsgate's specialty. B-grade films have low investment, short cycles, and fast releases, and they can also harvest the box office. This is the style Lionsgate likes; *Crazy Stone* is of this type, the difference being that Lionsgate prefers horror films.

"When the time comes, there will also be a place for you in the promotion. I hope you are aware of this." The people at Lionsgate said this to Lin Nan.

"Of course, I am also an investor, and I have an obligation to cooperate."

Lin Nan was thinking about his next film: should he continue with low-budget films, or do something big?

Winning big with small investments is very exciting, and having done two in a row, he was a bit addicted, but what director can refuse a big production? None.

Mentioning big productions, they are nothing more than science fiction, fantasy, or epic films that are expensive in special effects, high in investment, long in cycle, and require a large amount of preparation work and post-production teams.

They require the director to have strong on-site organizational skills, and even require a supporting director team to assist. The key is whether the current market can support profitability; it is hard to say.

Lin Nan has to think carefully about what type of film to choose for his next one.

From China Film Group, Lin Nan obtained a set of data, which was the current number of cinemas and screens under the major domestic cinema chains, as well as the expected increase.

*Hero* had a thirty-million-dollar investment, and its profit also relied on the global box office and copyrights. The cost of *House of Flying Daggers* was also over thirty million dollars, and its profit still had to rely on the global market.

Although two or three years had passed, the number of domestic screens added was still difficult to support a big production.

"Better wait a bit longer."

Looking at the data in front of him, Lin Nan dismissed the idea of a big production.

He had more than once brushed off China Film Group and Shanghai Film Group by saying he would do a big production next time; now it seems he will have to wait at least another year.