Chapter 297

The domestic market is not yet like North America; North America has a weekend box office chart, which is relatively authoritative and has good reference value.

Currently, it is difficult to even fully calculate the daily box office in the country, and there are many small local cinemas that are not networked, making statistics both complex and troublesome, and not necessarily accurate.

Many times, a film's box office performance is announced by the production company or the distribution company itself.

Of course, things like the total market breaking the single-day box office record don't need to be announced by the production company itself; many people can check it.

The first-day box office of 'Inception' breaking 40 million dropped the jaws of all domestic filmmakers, and then, there was realization and excitement.

So the single-day box office limit for a film could be this high!

So the domestic box office market could be this good!

Those who knew a little bit about the inside story almost didn't doubt the performance of 'Inception'.

This could be corroborated.

Because starting from July, it was no longer the domestic film protection month, and coupled with the fact that everyone knew Cao Yang's 150 million investment 'Inception' was about to be released, very few new films were released during this period.

So after entering July, the daily total market never exceeded 10 million, hovering in the millions.

By the 14th, the box office market went straight up in a line, and the total daily box office exceeded 50 million, creating the highest single-day box office record in domestic history.

Everyone understood which film brought this sudden extra 40 million plus.

Even if one wanted to smear it, one couldn't.

At the Wulong Karst in Shancheng, the film's major martial arts scene was being filmed: ten thousand horses galloping, the royal family on an outing. At this juncture, a tragic assassination storm was brewing unnoticed, with the spearhead pointed directly at General Jielun.

Old Mouzi sat behind the director's chair, watching martial arts director Cheng Xiaodong directing everyone, and finally breathed a sigh of relief after filming this thrilling shot.

"Rest for half an hour."

Old Mouzi shouted. Filming such thrilling fighting scenes was very exhausting mentally and physically, so whenever a good shot was taken, there would be a longer rest period.

Gong Li was wearing an imposing ancient costume, which further highlighted her queenly demeanor.

However, at this moment, she was holding her phone, having lost her usual aura, and instead walked quickly to Old Mouzi's side, saying: "My assistant just took a call; it's about yesterday's box office."

Old Mouzi's spirit lifted, and he recovered from his half-asleep state in the director's chair, sitting up straight.

During this period, he had to film during the day, and after finishing the daily filming plan at night, he had to study the Olympic Games proposal, almost working until the early hours every day, so he would use every spare moment during the day to rest.

"How is it?"

He had attended the premiere of 'Inception' the day before yesterday and had his own opinions about the film.

He felt that this film of Cao Yang's, even if placed in Hollywood, was a top-tier work, so he really wanted to know what kind of performance it could have domestically.

"Yesterday, the domestic market broke 50 million, creating a record."

Gong Li said with a complex expression.

"Fifty million?"

Even Old Mouzi couldn't help but exclaim.

He vaguely remembered that the previous domestic single-day market box office record was over 30 million, so this increase was a bit much.

"What about 'Inception'? Did it break 35 million?"

Just then, Zhou Runfa pushed the door open from the super-luxury motorhome provided to him by the crew and shouted something in Cantonese to Cheng Xiaodong not far away; Old Mouzi didn't understand.

However, afterwards, Zhou Runfa and Cheng Xiaodong came over together. He held up his phone and shook it, first adding a modal particle in Cantonese, and then said to Old Mouzi and Gong Li:

"I just got the news, Director Cao Yang's 'Inception', yesterday's box office was 41 million!"

Then, he asked Old Mouzi: "Director Zhang, you went to the premiere; is that film really that good?"

Cheng Xiaodong next to him smiled bitterly and shook his head, whispering: "41 million, unimaginable."

Old Mouzi was silent. He sat in the director's chair for a while, then rubbed his face hard with both hands and let out a long breath.

"That film is very creative and subversive, and it's arranged very cleverly; perhaps it will create a box office miracle."

"Domestically?"

Zhou Runfa added.

"Globally!"

Old Mouzi said without hesitation.

For a moment, everyone was speechless, but no one left; they just didn't know what to say.

Not far from them, there was a small actor—to be specific, she used to be an extra, but because she had established a relationship and gotten along well with the crew's assistant director, she became Gong Li's light stand-in.

Don't look down on being just a light stand-in; for an extra actor, this was definitely a huge step forward.

A light stand-in was actually also Gong Li's body double, mainly helping to test positions and test lighting, so that Gong Li didn't have to consider these "tedious" things anymore.

As Gong Li's light stand-in, as long as Gong Li didn't wrap up filming, she could stay with the crew, and her income was much higher than being an extra before.

She was considered quite lucky; that assistant director wasn't the type to turn his back on people, and had really put in a lot of effort for her.

At this moment, listening to the words of several people who were "unreachable" in her eyes, she didn't have much of a feeling; those things were too far away from her.

What she envied most was Zhou Runfa. She had heard from the assistant director that Zhou Runfa's salary was 40 million, and he had to stay in a five-star hotel, open seven rooms, and provide a super motorhome—not for living, but mainly for using the toilet.

Of course, the latter part of this sentence was said jokingly by the assistant director who had a good relationship with her.

Regardless of whether it was specifically for using the toilet, that big motorhome was something she could see and touch. It was said that the rent for such a super motorhome was particularly expensive, almost ten thousand yuan a day.

There was no comparison; other people's toilets were much more expensive than her current self.

"Zhang Tian'ai, come, let's walk through the position first, find the best angle."

The executive assistant director over there called her.

"Coming."

She stood up very nimbly and acted very obediently.

According to the assistant director who had a good relationship with her, the executive assistant director had great power, and she must not offend him.

She had always remembered the words of that assistant director, and she specifically had a small notebook to record the people in the crew who couldn't be offended.

Actually, it wasn't just domestically; 'Inception' was also a big hit in North America, and the box office was also very good. More importantly, the word-of-mouth was simply heaven-defying.

As long as anyone had seen this film, there was almost no bad review.

Columbia added several hundred more theaters for 'Inception', totaling 4,060, which was a treatment only super blockbusters received, and only when the film company was very optimistic about it.

Only the Hollywood Seven could do this; other smaller film companies couldn't possibly manage such a large scale.

In the first three days of the weekend, 'Inception', as a film that wasn't a sequel, was definitely a big seller in North America, achieving a total box office of 98 million dollars.

"A bit of a pity it didn't hit 100 million."

Columbia Pictures executive director Tom Rothman said at an internal company meeting, grinning and slapping the table.

It could be seen that he was really regretful, otherwise his mouth wouldn't have been grinning so wide.

(End of chapter)