Chapter 369: The Wind

The next day, Seeing Yan Li learned the opening-day box office figures for "The Wind."

16.21 million!

This figure is acceptable, especially since "Dawn 1949" barely reached ten million, while "The Wind," with 15% more showings, earned 30% more at the box office.

If this figure holds steady today, it will be crucial for National Day holiday screenings.

China Film Group can offer some early support to "The Wind," but ultimately, box office numbers will speak for themselves.

If "The Wind" fails to perform, China Film Group would never ignore its own interests to force-push it.

Not even China Film Group—but even Yi An's own theater chain—would leave theaters empty and refuse to make money; if the film loses money, and the theater chain loses too, wouldn't that be double loss?

Fan Xiaopang, watching the spectacle, was delighted—he was a veteran distributor with judgment on trends and scheduling, and he called Seeing Yan Li specifically to congratulate him.

"It looks like 'The Wind' will be the top-screened film for National Day; 'Dawn 1949' probably can't even surpass 'The Founding of a Republic.'"

"If it doesn't hit thirty million in the first three days, even with National Day efforts, it'll barely break a hundred million—haha, Hua Yi has really messed up this time."

"The Wind," being a spy thriller, has limited action scenes and isn't especially high-budget among blockbusters; most spending went to actors, sets, and promotion, with the official figure at 85 million, though actual total cost was under 70 million.

"Dawn 1949" is different—it involves assassination and anti-spy plotlines, with plenty of fight scenes, gunfights, and explosions, and its shooting schedule was longer than "The Wind's."

Hua Yi claims an investment of 120 million; insiders say it exceeded 100 million.

The actual inflation is unclear, but it's likely higher than "The Wind's."

Wang Zhonglei, producer of "Dawn 1949," stated in an interview that the box office target was to guarantee 200 million and aim for 300 million.

With this momentum, if it doesn't deliver during National Day, hitting 200 million will be difficult.

When one is down, one hopes others are worse off—Fan Xiaopang was gleefully delighted.

"Has 'The Wheat Field' broken ten million yet?"

Looking at Fan Xiaopang's cackling, Seeing Yan Li said one sentence that shattered him.

"Dawn 1949" is being crushed by "The Wind," but breaking a hundred million isn't hard—it can still climb higher; even if it loses, Hua Yi won't lose much.

In contrast, "The Wheat Field" hasn't even broken ten million yet—it's dead and buried; Bo Nuo has no room to complain.

"..."

Fan Xiaopang fell silent for a moment, then hung up; Seeing Yan Li sneered—he wanted to watch the show, did he?

After answering a few more congratulatory calls, Seeing Yan Li finished each conversation and then listened to the detailed promotional plan for "The Wind."

Overall, Weibo is the focus, with ground promotions, word-of-mouth support, and precise targeting of elements like dual soldiers, main melody, emotion, and suspense.

"…We combined efforts with Weibo, building momentum through two directions: celebrities and word-of-mouth… We held VIP screenings, leveraging the influence of Weibo influencers to promote the film, while inviting multiple creators to participate in online interviews on Weibo, directly interacting with netizens and encouraging them to rate and write reviews."

"…As of now, related topics for 'The Wind' have approached fifty million views, consistently ranking on Weibo's trending list; with National Day approaching, we expect another surge."

"…For offline promotions, considering National Day travel, we placed ads at train stations, highways, and taxis, specifically targeting students and white-collar workers for holiday promotion."

"…Cinema displays, touring roadshows, print media, TV variety shows, and cross-promotions are all fully underway, with comprehensive contingency plans prepared."

"Our goal is to reach 200 million in box office before National Day ends."

Seeing Yan Li calculated silently—this goal wasn't unrealistic, and the probability was significant.

If this goal is achieved, "The Wind" still has at least one more month of screening time—300 million isn't out of reach.

Earlier this year, "Crazy Stone" already hit 300 million; if Yi An delivers another 300 million, who could stop Yi An from winning?

By the way, "October Siege" is a New Year film, likely to release in December, and must be counted toward 2009.

Strictly speaking, Yi An was also one of the producers and distributors of "The Founding of a Republic."

If handled well, Yi An could occupy the top ten—or even top five—spots on this year's mainland box office chart.

Wow—in preparation for next year's IPO, achieving such major results this year means Yi An's financial statements will look exceptionally good.

Seeing Yan Li was in good spirits and made promises.

He would coordinate Weibo and other hard-to-access resources for the crew; if "The Wind" crew pushes hard for 300 million, he and the company would not hesitate to award bonuses, and promotions and salary increases are highly likely.

Next year, with Yi An's IPO, funding will be more abundant, and they'll hire aggressively.

If "The Wind" becomes a hit, those core staff who've contributed to the company and have ability will naturally rise in rank.

…

Under Seeing Yan Li's direct oversight, the "The Wind" crew, along with Yi An and Weibo, fully mobilized, waiting only for National Day.

On September 30, "The Wind" earned 17.8 million, ranking first among all films released that period.

Fan Xiaopang, Li Bingbing, and Sun Honglei divided into three teams, launching the largest-scale roadshow tour during National Day; even Seeing Yan Li himself, as producer and supervisor, gave interviews to media, discussing "The Wind's" production.

In two days, tens of millions in box office were enough for "The Wind's" word-of-mouth to begin spreading.

Weibo ratings have opened, currently holding an 8.2 score—the third-highest among domestic films released this year, behind only "The Founding of a Republic" and "Crazy Stone."

Hmm, the 8.9 score for "The Founding of a Republic" is somewhat questionable.

According to some Weibo users' leaks on other platforms, negative reviews were censored and deleted, and the number of raters seemed abnormal—suspected to be manipulated by Weibo's backend.

Without manipulation, there's no choice; internet culture is now severely toxic—if some people start stirring up negative narratives, Weibo will suffer the consequences.

So it's not unreasonable for some internet platforms to cold-handle related works or even censor comment sections.

Some idiots don't realize the danger and love to self-destruct; but it's not enough that they destroy themselves—they drag others down too; platforms don't want to die with these idiots, so they must protect themselves.

This time, Weibo simply lacked experience.

Next time a similar situation arises, just don't open ratings at all—wait until the storm passes, then open them; by then, most raters will be normal viewers, avoiding idiots seeking attention.

"The Wind," with its subject matter, also attracted some idiots trying to gain visibility.

But with "The Founding of a Republic" absorbing the heat, and "The Wind" itself being more commercial and better handled, most people still gave normal reviews.

As long as no one recklessly stirs up controversy, whether praising or criticizing the film itself, Weibo ratings objectively reflect public opinion—even for Yi An's films.

For a film rating platform, the most important thing is fairness and objectivity; special circumstances are unavoidable, but for normal films, there's no need to tilt the scales.

Weibo and Yi An share only one boss and hold minority stakes in each other—they are strategic partners, not one company.

Even if they were one company, each department and division still centers on its own business development.

Weibo's film ratings have other development plans; they wouldn't deliberately favor Yi'an's projects and undermine their own foundation.

Even if this lawsuit reached Seeing Yan Li's side, there was no backing down, so Yi'an's project received no special treatment on Weibo's ratings.

Therefore, the Weibo rating for *The Wind* was largely objective and fair.

Even on Douban, which had declined but was still considered more "professional," *The Wind* scored 7.9.

Considering Douban's tendency to deduct points for domestic films and especially for main-theme films, this score isn't low at all.

【Seeing Yan Li is truly talented—his last film, *Painted Skin*, made Double Bing fight over a man; this one, *The Wind*, lets Double Bing play lesbian. Looking forward to his next film: will Double Bing chop men together?】

【Holy shit, I always thought Double Bing were rivals, but now I actually think they're a perfect match】

【Haha, finally someone understands our Bingbing fans—Double Bing are sworn enemies and each other's best, made for each other】

【Bingbing is awesome, awesome Bingbing—right now, the only person I want to kill is Yan Dog】

【Early good friends, then went their separate ways, then fought over men, then cooperated due to interests and various reasons, delivering one great film after another, loving and killing each other, entangled endlessly—has anyone thought of making a drama about them?】

【Go to Double Bing—everything's about them; now that *The Wind* is hot, plenty of big writers will start writing again】

【Just praising Double Bing? No one praises the plot? The suspense atmosphere is excellent, the production is top-notch—it's a major breakthrough for domestic film genre development】

【I watched *Dawn 1949* first and thought it wasn't as bad as online said; then I watched *The Wind*—truly amazing】

【Too bad the Japanese soldier wasn't played by Seeing Yan Li—I really wanted to see him torment Double Bing】

【Sun Honglei looks more like a villain than any villain—he almost fooled me into thinking he was the bad guy until the end】

【The final climax felt awkward; everything else was decent】

【Awkward your mom*****—you **** don't even know what faith means, I*****】

【...】

Seeing Yan Li also carefully read the related comments and reviews—the overall reception was still good.

It was normal for some to dislike the theme or style, point out flaws, or think the film wasn't perfect—no movie ever pleases everyone; Seeing Yan Li had seen this many times.

As long as the general public's overall evaluation was good, that was enough—to use it as a catalyst to attract new audiences.

October 1st, National Day

Seeing Yan Li received an invitation to attend the military parade live and participated in the National Day gala that evening.

When he returned home from the National Day gala, he received *The Wind*'s opening-day box office figures.

39.51 million!

Total box office had already approached 75 million; if nothing unexpected happened, tomorrow would likely break 100 million.

Breaking 100 million in four days was even faster than *Crazy Stone* by one day, mainly thanks to the National Day holiday slot.

Seeing Yan Li checked the box office for *The Founding of a Republic* and *Dawn 1949*.

The former's total box office had already surpassed 300 million; after two weeks in release, it achieved a box office rebound on National Day, even surpassing *Dawn 1949*.

The latter's box office was still under 50 million—remember, it had premiered one day earlier than *The Wind* and had effectively withdrawn from the National Day battle.

Seeing Yan Li hadn't expected Huayi to be this pathetic.

He had *confidence* in *The Wind*, but also thought Huayi wouldn't do too badly; he originally considered the National Day battle hoping both sides would stir up hype.

Now he even felt disdain for Huayi—if it weren't for the awkwardness of directly opposing *The Founding of a Republic*, he'd already switched sides.

The promotion for *The Wind* had begun abandoning National Day battle-related press releases.

Since no competitive momentum existed, talking about a battle anymore would just let Huayi take advantage—declaring victory and belittling them was enough.

Huayi had also abandoned some battle promotion; they'd been crushed too badly—further promotion would just invite humiliation and harm their upcoming IPO.

October 2nd, *The Wind* broke 100 million; the crew had already begun small-scale celebrations of victory.

Fan Xiaopang and Li Bingbing even, unusually, interacted friendly on Weibo outside of work-related system prompts, chatting about their respective roadshows.

Remember, the two had starred together in *Painted Skin* and *The Wind*; most Weibo posts involving each other were purely official promotional content.

Fan Xiaopang occasionally posted selfies or group photos, but had never posted a private, one-on-one photo with Li Bingbing on Weibo.

Whenever they appeared together, it was either event photos or stills from the film—maximally, behind-the-scenes footage shot by the crew.

Li Bingbing was even more so—she rarely posted photos, perhaps due to her blog habits, favoring textual expression.

Under these circumstances, the fact that Double Bing could interact publicly and friendly revealed exactly how they felt.

After *Painted Skin* became a huge hit, Double Bing had already delivered an excellent performance, but still faced various criticisms—accusations of viciously competing for Seeing Yan Li's attention, claims that their success was just luck, and so on.

This time with *The Wind*, Seeing Yan Li didn't act; Double Bing carried the film alone, and they restrained gossip and hype, focusing instead on performance and the film itself.

Under these circumstances, *The Wind* exploded, and Double Bing rose to become the highest-grossing female duo in mainland China, even the entire Chinese-language film industry.

How happy they felt inside!

The sky was clear, the ground bright, and the other didn't look as hateful as before.

Not only the two stars themselves, but even their usually brawling fans abandoned past grudges and began uniting to attack the Four Dan.

"Four Dan, Double Bing" had been called for so many years—it was time to change the name to "Double Bing, Four Dan."

Among them, the first targets were Xiao Yanzi and Young Master Zhou.

On one hand, both had long-standing rivalries with Double Bing.

Xiao Yanzi had old grudges with Fan Xiaopang from *My Fair Princess* and had clashed fiercely earlier this year over the Weibo Goddess title.

Young Master Zhou and Li Bingbing, over the Huayi top actress title, had been in constant conflict for years.

On the other hand, both had also entered the National Day slot—one as the female lead of *The Wheat Field*, the other as the female lead of *Dawn 1949*—complete losers crushed underfoot; Double Bing fans wouldn't hold back their mockery.

The Four Dan fans weren't just passive victims—they fought back too.

But Double Bing's hard numbers spoke for themselves; no matter what tricks the Four Dan fans used, Double Bing were undeniably the best-performing female stars in film over the past two years.

Fan Xiaopang's team even unprecedentedly proposed the achievement of "Billion-Yuan Box Office Queen."

*Red Cliff* Parts I and II totaled over 500 million; *Painted Skin* earned 240 million; plus *Mo Gong*, *Love in the Time of Peach Blossoms*, *Tokyo Trial*, and *The Wind*, expected to surpass 300 million.

Fan Xiaopang's total box office as lead actress was about to reach 1 billion yuan, making her the first female actress in Chinese-language film history to achieve this feat.

The moment this title was uttered, a wave of murmurs erupted.

Li Bingbing immediately followed up: with The Painted Skin and The Wind Rises as base, her box office exceeded 500 million, and she also starred in Cell Phone, The Forbidden Kingdom, and No Man's Land.

Although it didn't reach one billion, it was close enough; she was confident she would soon achieve a new breakthrough, so she'd first launch a marketing campaign.

After all, Fan Xiaopang has never won a prestigious award as Best Actress, yet she's still called the Billion-Dollar Actress.

She at least holds two genuine Hundred Flowers Awards for Best Actress!

Zhang Ziyi wasn't afraid of comparison; just the global box office of Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, converted, already exceeded one billion RMB.

But Fan Bingbing's fans quickly replied: Sorry, we're counting only mainland China.