National Day ended rather quietly, much to the obliviousness of many people.
The most eye-catching incident throughout the holiday was Huo Yuanjia’s performance box office.
Huo Yuanjia’s popularity led to an outright explosion in the box office. Cinemas were packed like sardines, regardless of the cinema company and its location!
During the seven days of National Day holidays, Huo Yuanjia’s box office performance exceeded 500 million. It should be pointed out that Huo Yuanjia’s prospects were not originally that optimistic, or else the figure would only be even higher!
As for I am Hero, its initial popularity soared two days before the holiday but did badly at the box office several days later. Its reputation was also getting worse, and the total figure it managed to get in the box office was just over 90 million.
The two films fired shots at each other before their release. Shi Lei mocked Y’s Kungfu, while Wu Han clashed with Y. Chen Feng was also not on good terms with Li Tai. Those incidents ensured that both movies could not coexist!
However, no one thought that Huo Yuanjia could destroy I am Hero so brutally.
It caused an uproar throughout the entire film industry!
A script provided by a newcomer; a director who had just entered the film industry; a couple of film stars past their prime; a group of actors who were not even stars at all—to think that all those elements produced such a high-quality movie!
Some professionals even analyzed Huo Yuanjia and figured out that its investments did not cross the 30 million mark. The reason for that was because there was no money spent on it other than a few special lenses and props!
It was completely unimaginable for such a low-cost movie to make 500 million in the box office within a mere seven days!
That was practically 17 times the budget!
Most importantly, that was not the end of things. Many people predicted that Huo Yuanjia’s meteoric rise was far from over. It was only a matter of time before the box office broke through 1 billion!
At that exact moment, everyone thought of a word—Y!
The letter Y once again proved to be a miraculous one!
He could create such a mind-blowing script within such a short time simply because he was angry at Shi Lei. Y was certainly a genius among geniuses.
On the other hand, I am Hero spent 50 million in total just to hire film stars, not to mention all those special effects that were put in to try and please the masses. It was announced that the total investment was more than 100 million!
It was undoubtedly going to be a loss.
The public initially thought that Huo Yuanjia’s popularity correlated to the National Day screenings. They believed that its performance will face a slow decline after the National Day holidays were over.
However, the reality was anything but that!
Many people went traveling during National Day and did not watch movies. After the holidays were over, countless people around them were singing Huo Yuanjia’s praises, prompting them to buy tickets immediately!
Despite the end of the holiday, the tickets from Monday to Friday were all sold out—a rare sight indeed!
An apt description of the situation was ‘spectacular’. No movie could block out Huo Yuanjia’s limelight during that period of time!
On the contrary, the number of people watching other movies began plummeting, making for a very strange situation throughout many cinemas.
Huo Yuanjia’s halls were chock full of people while other halls were empty!
Many people watched once, then twice, and even thrice!
In response to that phenomenon, cinemas immediately made a joint announcement to add on more showtimes on top of the original quota. Huo Yuanjia took up with 80% of showtimes!
The cast and crew of films that were released at the same time as Huo Yuanjia were all feeling bitter.
Whenever a movie was released, the one thing that cast and crew feared most was a sudden craze, as it would suck up large audiences and cause other movies at the same time to suffer setbacks in the box office. If anyone had the bad luck to run into such an unreasonable situation, there was nothing one could do except admit that luck ran out!
It reached an extent where some soon-to-be-released movies announced delays in their premiere, supposedly to avoid Huo Yuanjia’s prominence!
Many were glad to hear that.
[F*ck! Another showtime for Huo Yuanjia, gotta hurry and get tix!]
[I knew that Huo Yuanjia’s showtimes will increase. Its reputation is really off the charts!]
[I ready to watch it a third time so Huo Yuanjia can defeat foreign devils in the end. The higher the box office, the better!]
[TCH! I watched it four times already during National Day! Once with my girlfriend, once with my classmates, once with my brother, once with my parents!]
[Even my parents said this movie was good and interesting.]
[Everyone! Listen to me! Keep watching it more! Make it reach the top of the box office! Let’s show it to the foreigners!]
[Well said, my man upstairs! Let’s all unite! I’m ready to support by buying another ticket!]
…
There were too many elements integrated within Huo Yuanjia, including Kungfu, dignity, and a generous dose of patriotism!
It stirred up the passion within their blood! They vowed deep down to make a point to all the foreigners!
The magnitude of the situation was a rough slap in the faces of I am Hero’s crew and cast.
It was especially so with Shi Lei, whose face felt incredibly hot. Under his Weibo was a group of people taunting, [Does your face hurt?]
Despite also knowing Kungfu, it was not difficult to see who was better from watching both movies. His skill was too far below that of Y’s, and Y did not even show himself at all. Y was simply an action guide, yet it was already enough to produce such a marvelous movie!
Shi Lei could taste the bitterness in his mouth and could not help but feel regret.
If he did not hop on the bandwagon and ridiculed Y, Y would never have risked coming up with the movie and Huo Yuanjia would never exist. After all that happened, he did nothing but shoot itself in the foot!
Chen Feng was having it even worse than him. I am Hero’s decreasing showtimes means that it was only borrowed time before being removed. Out of his 30 million investment, he might probably only get back two or three million. Calling that loss terrible was a gross understatement.
It was equivalent to being one foot out of the entertainment circle. After all, it was a herculean task to make a good movie with that kind of money alone. Even if he tried pulling in investors, the ordeal he went through would probably make investors lose confidence in sponsoring him.
Ye Lingchen paid no such attention to any of those, however.
Having already spent time with his parents during the holidays, he was ready to go back to university.
However, Xiao Feifei called Ye Lingchen early in the morning.
“Congratulations, Great Screenwriter Ye” Xiao Feifei teased, “Wait, I think I should call you Rich Man Ye now.”
“Sister Feifei, what’s going on?” Ye Lingchen smiled bitterly.
“You really don’t know? Or are you playing dumb with me?” Xiao Feifei giggled and began explaining, “You’re famous now, you’re already ranked as a first-class screenwriter with one single movie. Huo Yuanjia’s box office performance has already exceeded 500 million. You’re gonna be rich!”
“That much?” Ye Lingchen raised his eyebrows slightly since he still had 500 million yuan on him. Did he have a lucky streak recently?
“Yeah. You’re a screenwriter-cum-director, and you’ve invested another ten million yuan in it. You’ll probably get a minimum of thirty percent of the box office earnings!” Xiao Feifei gasped and exclaimed, “If the box office rushes past one billion, you’ll get three hundred million! My debut was so long ago, I’m gonna be dumped out in the streets and forgotten!”
