Chapter 103: Let the Wives Fight!
"The first day box office for painted skin breaks 23 million, setting new historical records for first-day and single-day box office!"
"Reporters interviewed several cinema managers, who all stated that painted skin showings were completely full, with tickets hard to come by!"
Early in the morning, the industry was stunned, as if by an aftershock, by the glittering box office of painted skin.
Everyone knew that the box office for painted skin would not be low.
After all, even Six Princess continuously reported the grand occasion of painted skin for three days in the China Film Report program.
The Premiere was even more star-studded, comparable to a film festival.
But no one expected it to be this high.
From the moment Li Chen woke up in the morning, his phone hadn't stopped ringing.
The box office of painted skin was simply too dazzling.
This was still a Thursday, and the first weekend hadn't even arrived; who knew how many more records would be broken then.
Now, industry insiders are all optimistic that painted skin might break two hundred million.
Li Chen will become the second member of the 'Two Hundred Million Club' after Zhang Yimou.
Indeed, it's still Yi Mou and the two Lis!
Wang Changtian's laughter was hearty: "My brother, I owe you a big favor this time, hahaha."
It was Enlight Media's first time independently promoting and distributing a major film, and the saying 'fame and fortune' was absolutely true; Wang Changtian was overjoyed from the bottom of his heart.
Early in the morning, he received two more promotion and distribution contracts for other films!
"What's this about owing or not owing? If it weren't for your great effort, the box office wouldn't have this splendid result today," Li Chen said with a smile.
Wang Changtian felt comfortable, thinking that Li Chen knew how to conduct himself, understanding the principle of 'one good turn deserves another'.
"If you really feel you owe me a favor, just send a host to my company's annual meeting."
"What's the big deal? I'm just about to sign a few new talents; I'll send one over to you."
"You mean that 'Cat Man Host Competition' of yours?"
"Yes, I'll have my assistant send the information to your company later; just tell me which one you like."
Li Chen smiled: "Why does that sound so strange? If my wife heard that, I'd be standing at attention!"
"Hahaha, my brother, I didn't realize you were a henpecked husband," Wang Changtian teased.
After hanging up, a few moments later, the information for several hosts was sent over.
Li Chen glanced at it, and Xie Nan and Liu Yan, two of Enlight Media's 'Three Treasures', were prominently listed.
After a moment's consideration, Li Chen chose Liu Yan.
Although Xie Nan was first place, her future was much smoother than Liu Yan's.
As for Liu Yan, Li Chen liked to help those in need.
No sooner had he hung up with Wang Changtian than Han Sanping's call came in.
"You kid, you have such a good mindset. I'm over fifty, and I stayed up half the night waiting for the data. The first call went to you, and you were off!"
"Han Dong, don't stay up late; it's bad for your health. When I saw the comments yesterday afternoon, I knew what to expect; the box office wouldn't be bad, it was just a matter of how high it would be," Li Chen said with a smile.
"Less nonsense. By the way, when can we finalize the project we talked about the other day?"
"Still discussing it, wait a bit longer."
After hanging up, Li Chen sighed softly.
He sighed for Old Han, wondering if Old Han would still be so straightforward in finalizing the investment for the thieves project after the release of The Promise.
Just thinking about it, Old Han seemed too difficult!
Xiang Huaqiang wanted to meet him in the evening, also bringing Andy Lau along, but Li Chen pushed it to next week to schedule a time.
Xiang Huaqiang also readily agreed.
Chen Kaige was incredibly excited, as if painted skin was his own film.
The box office of painted skin was like a shot in the arm for him.
Even painted skin, with a budget of one hundred million, was so fierce.
Then what kind of scene would The Promise, which he had prepared for three years, conceived over a thousand days and nights, and cost 350 million, create?
An empty city might not even be enough to describe it.
"Hong, we can expand our publicity efforts further; add a few more press conferences in first-tier cities," Chen Kaige said excitedly.
"Hmm, I was thinking the same thing. I didn't expect painted skin's box office to be so impressive."
"However, their publicity was indeed very thorough; you could even see their promotional materials on planes, trains, and ships."
"If we had known, we could have done the same."
"Then our The Promise would be even more unimaginable," Chen Hong also said with infinite longing.
This was the couple's heartfelt sentiment at the moment; even Han Sanping had called earlier, full of excitement.
The three of them were like good talents meeting, agreeing without prior consultation.
After all, the cast of The Promise was indeed one or two levels higher than that of painted skin.
Spanning China, Japan, and Korea, it included popular superstars from all three countries, and even young idols like Nicholas Tse and Cecilia Cheung.
Early in the morning, Zhang Weiping had a toothache, a sour ache.
He had a bad premonition that riding alone for thousands of miles might be in trouble.
It wasn't that his brother, Zhang Yimou, wasn't capable; it was just that the enemies were all too fierce.
The casting for Thunderstorm could no longer be left to Yi Mou's whims.
Immediately, Zhang Weiping called his brother, Zhang Yimou.
Over the phone, the two discussed the box office of painted skin, and Zhang Yimou was quite open-minded.
This indicated that the domestic market was getting better and better, and painted skin, in all aspects, was indeed very brilliant.
The main storyline was clear and concise, the lead actors' performances were all online, and the visual colors and music were hard to fault.
"Yi Mou, you need to seriously consider the actors for Thunderstorm."
Zhang Weiping suddenly said this, and Zhang Yimou hadn't quite reacted yet.
"What do you mean, Weiping? What's wrong with the actors? Both Gong Li and Chow Yun-fat are good actors!"
Over the phone, Zhang Weiping sighed and muttered a few words before saying: "Yi Mou, I didn't say they aren't good actors, but they are getting old after all, and they might not attract young audiences!"
Zhang Yimou finally came to his senses, his face devoid of a smile, and he grumbled: "Who are you planning to force into the crew?"
"Jay Chou!"
After hanging up, Zhang Yimou was truly fed up. The script was already revised, and suddenly a character had to be added, which meant he had to revise the script again.
But the other person was his long-time partner and brother, and Zhang Yimou didn't want to make things unpleasant over this matter!
On the other side, Zhang Weiping, who had hung up, sensed Zhang Yimou's dissatisfaction, but he didn't care!
But Zhang Weiping forgot a saying: a dike of a thousand miles can be destroyed by an ant's nest.
Once the seed of dissatisfaction is planted, it will take root and sprout, eventually breaking through the soil, and that will be the time when the two Zhangs go their separate ways.
With a cold snort, Zhang Weiping muttered to himself: "Can Liu Ye compare to Jay Chou? If I listened to you, we'd be finished sooner or later!"
Some rejoiced, while others worried.
"The first day box office for perhaps love is 850,000!"
"As of 7:00 PM yesterday, the box office for Yonghua Cinema, the top-grossing cinema in Shanghai, was only 8,000 RMB! Chen Kexin suffers a Waterloo."
This was a resounding slap in Chen Kexin's old face.
However, this wasn't the first time; yesterday, he had already slapped himself.
Yesterday, at the Premiere in Shanghai, facing a reporter's question asking him to choose between box office and Oscar.
Chen Kexin seemed to have completely forgotten what he had said before.
He frankly stated that if he had to choose one, he would rather choose the box office: "The Oscar only has over seven hundred judges, but the box office has hundreds of thousands of people."
This immediately surprised netizens, who sarcastically implied that Chen Kexin was deliberately trying to curry favor with moviegoers.
In the large hotel suite, there were only Chen Kexin and his girlfriend, plus a small life in her belly.
That young man was really right; they truly didn't consider perhaps love an opponent!
Wu Jingru, who was already showing, and her boyfriend were silently speechless; the first day box office of perhaps love was too embarrassing!
Chen Kexin sighed, not knowing what to say.
He was confident in perhaps love, but without comparison, there was no harm.
Coupled with his girlfriend's previous 'silly' actions, it was likely that mainland cinemas had even more legitimate reasons to lower the screening rate for perhaps love.
On one side, tickets were hard to come by, and scalpers made a fortune; on the other, there were only a few scattered people, not even reaching 50% occupancy.
Wu Jingru forced a smile: "It's okay, we still have the Oscar!"
Chen Kexin was a bit deflated. Although the box office generally had no impact on the Oscar, it was indeed very disheartening.
This film, perhaps love, was destined to suffer a heavy loss!
Li Chen's words at the painted skin Premiere were now like marijuana, consuming Chen Kexin's heart.
It seemed he also had to make a blockbuster!
As she spoke, Wu Jingru's mind once again turned to The Promise, which was also competing for the Oscar.
Since the box office was already lost, then the Oscar absolutely could not be lost.
"Wang Xuebing and Fan Bingbing's hotpot romance, angrily confronting reporters: What does it matter to you whether we're in a relationship or not!"
"At the perhaps love Premiere, Huang Xiaoming had quite the 'lucky' encounter!"
"Zhou Xun's wardrobe malfunction at the Shanghai Premiere!"
“Are you stupid?” Yang Siwei was a bit angry at her lack of ambition, and since she was familiar with Fan Xiaopang, she didn't bother with pleasantries.
Fan Xiaopang was a little confused and smiled, “What’s wrong? What’s not right so early in the morning?”
“Is it me who’s not right, or you?” Yang Siwei said helplessly, “Haven’t you seen what they’re saying about you online?”
Fan Xiaopang knew she was referring to what happened last night.
She had even argued with her boyfriend about it last night, and later she left the hotpot restaurant first.
After waiting for a long time, her boyfriend didn’t come downstairs, which made her so angry that she turned and left!
Fan Bingbing was a bit flustered and pursed her lips, “You don’t know how annoying those reporters were last night?”
“I don’t need to know! There are no reporters who aren’t annoying! The question is, what do you do?”
“Even if you want to retort, retort effectively. Look at what you said? ‘Whether I’m in a relationship or not, what does it have to do with you?’”,
“Who do you think you are? An ordinary person? Since you’ve entered this industry and live under the spotlight, don’t expect to have any personal privacy!”
“I really don’t know if your agent is just slacking off!” Yang Siwei cursed unceremoniously.
Fan Xiaopang was speechless after being lectured by Yang Siwei.
Actually, the persona of Fan Ye was just a persona; Fan Xiaopang privately had nothing to do with the word ‘Ye’ (Master).
It was only because of good marketing and operations that there were those deceptive lines like, “I don’t marry into a wealthy family; I am a wealthy family myself.”
Yang Siwei didn't intend to let her off so easily, as this person might become her artist in another year.
However, after a scolding, Yang Siwei was not as angry and added, “No matter how much you hate those reporters, can’t you act?”
“At the very least, you can pretend, right?”
“My boss also hates reporters, but when has he ever met reporters without playing tai chi? Or just muddling through?”
“Look at my boss’s attitude towards scandals; he has never admitted to them, nor has he ever denied them. Learn from that, okay?”
“You and that person have already been caught red-handed, I don’t know what you two are thinking, still playing dead! Do you think not admitting it means it doesn’t exist?”
Fan Xiaopang was also speechless, thinking of her boyfriend’s attitude, and then of Liu Yifei’s potential boyfriend, Director Li.
Suddenly, she slumped onto the bed as if all her strength had been drained.
Hearing no sound on the phone, Yang Siwei dropped a line, “You think about it carefully, my boss is looking for me, hanging up!”
It was the end of the year, and the company employees were all beaming with joy, as the box office for the first day of painted skin was once again in the red.
This year, the company had been in the red from beginning to end, a continuous streak of success.
After eating at Miss Liu's house, Li Chen was a bit restless; his future mother-in-law was very strict and wouldn't let Miss Liu stay over at his place.
Li Chen wanted to have sex during the day, but Miss Liu was shy and refused outright!
This made Li Chen feel as if he had entered a Buddhist monastery.
As the two entered the door, Li Chen wrapped his arm around Miss Liu's waist and kissed her without a word.
Heavy breaths brushed against their faces.
“Xixi, tonight, come back later,” the intermittent words accompanied Miss Liu’s down jacket naturally falling off.
“Hmm? Hmm, no, no, I can’t…”
Miss Liu pushed Li Chen away forcefully, causing him to stumble.
Li Chen immediately stepped forward, wrapped his arm around Miss Liu’s waist again, and gazed at Miss Liu’s rosy, tempting face: “Why not!”
“My, my relative is here,” Miss Liu stammered for a long time before squeezing out a few words.
After saying that, she turned and quickly fled out the door, afraid that if she stayed any longer, she wouldn't be able to control herself.
Li Chen, at this point, was blinded by lust and hadn't understood yet.
He chased after her, asking, “Your relative? Who? Your aunt?”
It seemed Miss Liu didn’t have any other relatives besides an aunt.
“My great aunt.”
“You have a great aunt? Who are you kidding?”
Before he finished speaking, Li Chen reacted; great aunt, wasn't that 'great aunt' (a euphemism for menstruation)!?
Damn it, Miss Liu was playing word games with him! He was truly lust-crazed and had lost his mind, not even realizing this!
He secretly noted down the date, vowing never to make such a mistake again.
The next day, the painted skin box office continued to rise, reaching 24.75 million.
Saturday, 26.87 million.
Sunday, 25.56 million!
At this point, the industry was filled with nothing but astonishment!
Because painted skin had broken three more records, one of which was painted skin's own single-day box office record.
The other two were the opening weekend box office record and the fastest to break 100 million box office record!
Previously, Zhang Yimou’s Hero took seven days to break 100 million, while Li Chen’s painted skin only took four days!
Now, no one doubted whether painted skin could reach 200 million, but rather whether it could surpass 300 million!
The internet was flooded with news about painted skin.
Many people also imitated Zhou Xun’s ‘lotus rising from water’ scene, and of course, some made parodies.
Li Chen saw a familiar face, the Qiang Tribe Twin Fiends!
Yang Di, one of the Twin Fiends, was draped in a layer of cheap white gauze, wearing a center-parted wig, imitating Zhou Xun's scene emerging from the water.
This guy was indeed born to thrive in Variety shows.
The download count was quite high, and Li Chen just smiled.
He remembered ‘A moutou Caused by a Bloody Case’ which was about to emerge, and he broke into a cold sweat for Han Sanping.
For six consecutive days, the box office of perhaps love was still less than six million.
Chen Kexin and his wife were frantically promoting it as if they were mad.
Chen Kexin’s pregnant girlfriend was also busy, promoting perhaps love on shows with her belly out.
However, she never mentioned painted skin, probably because she was too embarrassed to, given painted skin’s double success in box office and critical acclaim.
Even many directors in Hong Kong jumped out to comment on painted skin.
Among them, Wang Jing even called out names directly.
“Zhou Xun is not a great beauty; if I were to rate her, at most 70 points, but her acting is 100 points.”
“She’s clearly not at all sexy, yet she played Xiao Wei, the fox spirit, with such charm and seductiveness, to the core!”
Although Sandra Ng no longer dragged painted skin into it, she set her sights on another Oscar competitor: The Promise!
On the sixth, an entertainment news instantly topped the headlines.
“Sandra Ng Revealed in ‘She, He, Her’: The Promise is Not Good, Cecilia Cheung Has Fake ‘Big Breasts’”
As soon as the news broke, it immediately caused a huge uproar.
First, Cecilia Cheung’s agent, Xiang Tai, expressed strong dissatisfaction.
She immediately jumped out to feel it was unfair to Chen Kexin?
“He spent so much effort making a good film, and I heard the reviews are quite good, and it’s representing Hong Kong at the Oscar.”
“The Promise also represents China at the Oscar; isn’t it great to have a Hundred Flowers bloom?”
“There’s no need to be so vulgar, stepping on others to promote yourself, right? You got a cold shoulder in front of painted skin, so you think you can curry favor with The Promise?”
Xiang Tai was not one to be trifled with, and more cutting remarks followed.
“I'm not scolding Sandra Ng, it’s just that if I were Chen Kexin, I would be very angry.”
“Because Sandra Ng has vulgarized the whole matter. She has a child, so she should be more broad-minded, otherwise it’s not good for the child.”
Miss Liu, a bystander, complained, “She’s too, too, why bring up someone’s child?”
Miss Liu was very confused, not knowing how to describe it, but still felt that Xiang Tai had gone too far.
Li Chen also hated this approach; no matter how adults bicker, don't drag in their families, especially children.
“Alas, neither of them is easy to deal with, but I’m truly envious!” Li Chen said with a theatrical expression.
“What are you envious of?” Miss Liu asked curiously.
“I envy that he has a good wife; the man doesn’t even need to step forward, and the woman comes out to fight.”
“You see, I let Sandra Ng imply I have a fragile ego, and I can’t argue with a woman. I’m at a disadvantage because I don’t have a wife!”
“Don’t you think so, Xixi?”
Miss Liu laughed, “Didn’t Director Chen’s wife also not say anything?”
Li Chen scoffed, “Perhaps she hasn’t seen it yet, otherwise, Director Chen’s wife is not to be trifled with either.”
“Look at Nicholas Tse, the little heavenly king from Hong Kong, didn’t he obediently back down a while ago?”
Miss Liu smiled like a spring begonia, understanding perfectly what her boyfriend meant.
It seems her official girlfriend status means she can’t pretend to be deaf and mute next time…
Li Chen was right; Chen Hong was busy preparing for The Promise press conference in Dalian and hadn't noticed the news online at all.