Become famous another day.

"What do you think of this drama?" Lu Yanhe asked Yan Liang.

Yan Liang nodded.

"Lian Bei is very good at capturing details," he said. "Moreover, he pays special attention to leaving a blank shot between each scene. I like his design very much. He said that this is a symbol that distinguishes "The Banquet" from other dramas."

"That's good. If nothing goes wrong, The Chinese Paladin will be broadcast this summer. Let's see if the summer season can attract more students who are on vacation at home to watch this drama." Lu Yanhe said, "Linghe will come to you later and sign a supplementary agreement with you. Based on the peripheral development you make for the character in the drama, you can enjoy a 20% share of the profits. The number is the same for me and Li Zhibai. Let me tell you first."

Yan Liang nodded, indicating OK.

"Is Linghe planning to develop peripheral products around "Legend of Sword and Fairy"?"

"Yes." Lu Yanhe nodded. "This drama is very suitable for peripheral development, especially in September when the school starts. We have already talked to the 'Bai Xing' stationery company that I endorse. A Fairy Sword themed stationery set will definitely be released. In addition, some daily necessities and fast-moving consumer goods brands have also contacted us. The market is even more enthusiastic than I imagined."

"After all, this is the first time for the three of us to act in a play together." Yan Liang said with a smile, "I am looking forward to how this play will be broadcast."

"I am looking forward to it too." Lu Yanhe said, "I am now wondering if we can use the window period of the summer vacation to get these students to sit in front of the TV again and help us create a record for the ratings."

Yan Liang hesitated for a moment and said, "Will the students be willing to sit in front of the TV and watch TV?"

"Not necessarily." Lu Yanhe said, "Nowadays, many students' Internet time is strictly controlled by their parents, but watching TV is not so strict. This time, "Chinese Paladin" will also leave a 24-hour window for the TV station, just like "Friends."

"Are you serious about breaking the ratings record?"

"Yeah." Lu Yanhe nodded. "Because the online broadcast data of "Chinese Paladin" must be very good, there is no doubt about that, I am not worried at all, and "Chinese Paladin"... its fan attribute may be stronger than popular sitcoms like "Friends" and "Wulin Wai Zhuan". If this show can spread by word of mouth among students, and they discuss and watch it together, then the ratings will be much better than "Friends" and "Wulin Wai Zhuan". Adults always have a lot of other things to do, but the life content of students is much purer."

Generally, students, especially those in middle and high schools, are not allowed to go out at night. If they are not allowed to go out, then they can only stay at home, right?
Option one, learn.

Option two is to go online - with parental permission.

Option three, watch a TV series that is very popular among classmates.

Of course, different people definitely have other different options. But generally speaking, there are definitely these few categories. In fact, option three itself is not an option. To make it one of the options is what Linghe and Yuehutai need to do seriously during this period of time.

Lu Yanhe believes in the fan stickiness of "Chinese Paladin". Maybe many people would say, in this time and space, without games, how can this drama be so popular... To be honest, how many viewers of "Chinese Paladin" have played games? It has been popular for so many years, and it must be because the story itself is touching.

Yan Liang did not expect that Lu Yanhe had such high expectations for "The Legend of Sword and Fairy".

In fact, according to current market standards, the drama "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" is indeed not a record-breaking drama in terms of story theme and style.

In the current market, the hottest ones are either the realistic dramas that can spark social discussions and have high popularity among the public, or the ancient idol dramas (including the fairy tales), or the two sitcom series written by Lu Yanhe, "Friends" and "Wulin Wai Zhuan". Others, even "The Mountain" starring Yan Liang and "The Seventeenth Floor" starring Lu Yanhe himself, can only be said to be vertical hits, and have not become phenomenal works.

The so-called phenomenon must have left a strong mark in the social trends of that year.

If the target of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" is the young market, Lu Yanhe feels that it can only be a hit drama, but it is difficult to differentiate itself from other dramas. Even though the three of them are the main actors in this drama. However, if this drama can attract a large group of people to become fans of this drama,

To put it bluntly, the audience of "Tiny Times" is definitely the most "narrow" one, but even though it has been more than ten years, it is still alive and well in this lively online world, "discussed and updated". "Tiny Times" can actually prove a fact, that as long as a group of fans firmly support and love a work (rather than just chasing after popularity), it can survive.

Compared with "Tiny Times", "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" has a much better reputation.

Lu Yanhe believes that "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" is definitely not the most watched TV series this year. However, if we really want to talk about a TV series that has brought about a social phenomenon, at least in terms of being the most popular TV series among students, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" can definitely compete.
-
As the post-production of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" was completed and the film was delivered, the second installment of payment from Yuehutai, Aurora Borealis Video and Icefield Video finally came.

The first payment is received when filming starts, the second payment is received when the film is delivered, and the third payment is received when the show is aired.

The largest payment is the one made when the film is delivered.

The three companies paid 2.5 million yuan for the copyright of the film, plus the first payment of 1 million yuan, a total of 3.5 million yuan. Once the series is broadcast and the third payment is received, the revenue of this drama will reach 4.2 million yuan.

According to their cooperation agreement, they will need to pay "incentive copyright compensation" based on different broadcast performances during the popular period (within 90 days after the online broadcast). In the highest case, the total amount will be as high as 1 million. This means that the drama can earn 5.2 million in revenue during its first broadcast period.

This figure will break the purchasing price of domestic TV series.

After all, this is no longer the era of "nouveau riche" with hot money pouring in.

A few years ago, as long as it was a top-tier starring role or a big drama with more than 3.5 episodes, it could basically be sold for more than 2021 million yuan (for example, according to BJ Jetsen Century’s 3.5 financial report, the revenue brought by the drama "Ace Troops" reached million yuan).

Now, all major platforms have collectively entered the stage of "reducing costs and increasing efficiency". The fact that "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" can still be sold at such a price can only be achieved with the support of screenwriter Lu Yanhe, the three leading actors, and a top director like Luo Yuzhong.

For other S+ dramas, in the current environment, it would be considered very good if they can sell 3 million.
-
However, Yuehutai and his men obviously would not sign a contract that would put them at a disadvantage.

Such a drama was targeted by major brands as soon as it started filming.

They have to pay Linghe an advance payment, and advertisers also have to pay them an advance payment in order to compete for advertising space for the show.

Lu Yanhe specifically told them that the publicity should focus on students, especially junior and senior high school students.

They also attached great importance to Lu Yanhe's suggestions.

After all, Lu Yanhe's "propaganda suggestions" have repeatedly created "propaganda miracles."

After some discussion and communication, the three parties determined the broadcast schedule for the TV series, which was finally edited into 32 episodes.

One episode per day, each episode is 40 minutes long, so it can be finished in time for the summer vacation.

The slogan they used in the first round was:

This summer, let us return to the world of classical immortals!

Later, Chen Yin, one of the producers of the drama, accepted an interview program on Yuehu TV. Fifteen minutes into the show, he mentioned with a smile: "The core of this drama is young chivalry. It is not a love drama. It is like the classical fairy tales we read when we were young, about a group of passionate, flesh-and-blood boys and girls trying their best to save the people."

"It's very suitable for young people. It was the kind of TV show I wanted to watch the most when I was in school. It talks about slaying demons and monsters, justice, loyalty, and righteousness. It's also youthful and passionate. It's a dream that everyone may have had in their hearts, the kind of dream that only teenagers have."

"Our broadcast schedule is one episode a day, so parents don't have to worry about their children spending too much time watching the show. Spending 40 minutes watching one episode in the evening will not affect their studies or rest."

Everyone was stunned.

Because it has been a long time since a TV series has so openly targeted the student group as its promotional target.

why?
A very important reason -

Everyone has reached a consensus that young people have long abandoned television.

This is especially true for the student group.

More importantly, compared to a huge viewing market, the student group is actually not that large.

Why does "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" have such a focus in its promotion?

Film and television companies in the industry are talking about this.

Many people are puzzled by Linghe's behavior.

However, everyone soon put this confusion behind them.

As soon as the news about "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" came out, it was immediately listed on the hot searches on various platforms.

Yuehu TV first announced four times a day during its own advertising time that "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" will be broadcast during this summer season -

The first round of trailers is only 5 seconds long, and the main focus is on director Luo Yuzhong and the all-star cast to create momentum.

The Northern Lights video and the Ice Field video both opened pop-up windows, inviting users to make reservations for the show, and the keyword information in the pop-up window was also "this summer."

This is obviously a warm-up.

Just a warm-up?

Nowadays, more and more TV series are being released out of the blue. Unfortunately, the number of episodes of TV series has been reduced, with a maximum of 30 or less episodes, and generally, they are finished in more than half a month. In such a time window, in such an era of information explosion, it is indeed difficult to produce a hit drama.

If you don't preheat and promote the show in advance, let more people know about the show before it airs, look forward to it, expand the basic base, and then wait to use large-scale promotional resources to "snowball" after it airs, the two-month broadcast period in the past could make a high-quality snowball roll bigger and bigger, but now the broadcast period is so short that no matter how good the quality is, the time it can roll is ultimately limited.

However, due to the instability of the broadcasting environment and the fact that online broadcasting platforms have joined the TV station war, scheduling a release date for each TV series seems to have become an increasingly difficult task. Being able to schedule a release date four or five days in advance is a remarkable thing.

This year there is only one drama like "Legend of Sword and Fairy" that was scheduled to be released a quarter in advance for preheating.

It can do this because the drama "Chinese Paladin" is a big hit, and its production company Linghe has a lot of say and can influence the platform's schedule. Therefore, in this case, the drama can be included in the schedule of the three companies one quarter in advance, and the corresponding publicity plan can be made according to this schedule.

Lu Yanhe's emphasis on this drama has also made the three platforms place high hopes on this drama.

Even if Yuehu TV has a 24-hour window period, each episode needs to be broadcast on Yuehu TV for 24 hours before it can be put online on the video platform.

Lu Yanhe has always emphasized: "In this era, if you are still worried about the diversion of TV viewers, then you are too unconfident. If the TV station can set a record for ratings, it will only make the audience of this drama bigger, rather than reduce the audience of the video platform."

The problem with TV dramas today is not that they are competing with each other for audiences, but that other forms of entertainment are competing with TV dramas for audiences.

The biggest difference between the Chinese market and the American market is that the American market has been opened up bit by bit over decades or even hundreds of years, and its potential has been clearly measured over such a long period of time. However, the Chinese market is a hidden iceberg. You think you have seen an iceberg and think it is already very large and is the ceiling of the industry. In fact, as long as you can really stimulate this market, you will find that the iceberg is really just the tip.

The fact that Nezha 2 took the ceiling from the top of the tallest building directly to the stratosphere proved this point. The fact that Capernaum, a movie that seemed to have no box office success, sold hundreds of millions of copies in China also proved this point.

In the United States, there are a large number of audiences with fixed movie-watching habits, so for many films, the box office model can be estimated based on market rules. But in China, sorry, unless you hear that a certain film is good, not so many audiences will go to the cinema regularly to watch a movie.

The same is true for TV dramas now.

If you want to attract a large number of people to watch a TV series, you have to do the same as "My First Half of Life" and "Kuang Chuan", where ordinary people are discussing the show. On the subway, many people's mobile phone screens are filled with the show. This requires a huge audience base.

And this requires time to ferment.

There are too many people in China and too much information on the Internet. It will take time to break through.

"Storm" didn't become that popular the day after it was aired.
-
Soon, a self-media called "Relics Story" under "Tiaoqilai" announced that it would join hands with the crew of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" to tell the "relic stories" of the filming locations of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy".

The self-media platform “Stories of Relics” has more than three million fans.

This kind of promotional model does not require the film company to pay any promotional fees.

Many of Linghe’s film and television dramas’ publicity resources are obtained through resource exchange, which saves costs and achieves the goal.

This is also because "Legend of Sword and Fairy" has its own traffic, and with it, the related content of "Relics Story" will also attract many new fans.

This is of course just the beginning.

Not long after, Jiangzhi, one of the filming locations of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", released a cultural and tourism promotional video.

In the video, internationally renowned geographical photographer Geo Hines shot a video of the Haolan River, one of the filming locations of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy".

The video is 3 minutes long.

In the morning, the sea is misty and vast, in the afternoon, the light spots are jagged, and at dusk, the fishermen sing in the evening. In the dead of night, the breeze blows on your face, and an old man in a boat fishes with a lantern.

This video is both a promotion for Jiang Zhi’s cultural tourism and a promotion for “The Legend of Sword and Fairy”.

Because at the end of this video, the video screen gradually turns into ink, and then several characters from "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" appear in the ink painting, and then gradually render into a real picture.

On a boat, Li Zhibai and others were either sitting or standing, full of high spirits.

That was a clip from "The Legend of Sword and Fairy".

This video was pushed across the entire network.

From an official perspective, this is a local cultural and tourism promotional video, but they invited an internationally renowned geographical photographer to shoot it, which gives it international communication value. Therefore, official media accounts, large and small, have been reposting and liking it.

For the general public, this video is indeed very beautiful.

This plan was proposed by Lu Yanhe——

He thought of this because he recalled a very popular local cultural tourism promotion video he had seen before, which was about Dongjiang Lake in Chenzhou, Hunan. At that time, there was a animated picture that was popular all over the Internet - when the morning light rose, water smoke and morning light blended together, and the fisherman raised his arm and waved his net, spreading out like a skirt under the golden sunlight.

As a tourist city, Jiangzhi has invested heavily in cultural tourism.

"Wulin Waijia", "Love Letter" and "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" were filmed here one after another, making it famous.

Jiang Zhi naturally attached great importance to the propaganda ideas proposed by Lu Yanhe.

So, Lu Yanhe invited someone to shoot the video, Jiang Zhi paid for it, and finally the video was put online and promoted across the entire network.

This is another form of free-rider publicity.

Jiangzhi Culture and Tourism also followed up with an advertisement: In Jiangzhi, feel the classical Chinese fairy-tale spirit.

A good way of publicity must be mutually beneficial and win-win.

Find common ground and collaborate with each other.

Throughout March, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" carried out a large wave of publicity from multiple technical aspects such as theme and scene selection, but did not mention the story and character settings.

This is a gradual process.

If you throw everything out at once, what is the point of promoting it later?
Now all we need to do is make many people have an impression of the drama "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" and generate some interest in it.

For the industry, what people are talking about more is the promotional rhythm and scale of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" in March, which did not cost the film company much in terms of publicity and marketing expenses.

Use the power of others to gain advantage and piggyback on publicity.

If it were another drama, such a scale of publicity would not be possible without eight figures.

What is even more surprising to the industry is that despite the popularity of "Legend of Sword and Fairy", it did not focus on the stars, nor did it shift the focus to the promotion of the plot of the drama.

It's all about creating an atmosphere——

All aspects of the drama "Legend of Sword and Fairy" are of high quality.

Such a waste.

This is a common feeling among many film and television companies.
-
Lu Yanhe didn't care. He even told all the actors of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" that before the crew officially started promoting the show, no one should mention "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" or their participation in the show in public.

A drama must maintain a sense of mystery, as mystery is the source of anticipation.

The show hasn't even started yet, but you've already been teasing me about it. Who's interested in watching your show episode by episode?

The thing that Lu Yanhe doesn't understand the most about the promotion of various TV series, especially movies, is that basically the most eye-catching part in the movie must be the most widely circulated on the Internet. To be honest, this has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it is more popular, but the disadvantage is that after watching this highlight, will people still want to watch this drama again?
Or after watching the highlights, do you feel a sense of satisfaction? -
In early April, Lu Yanhe flew to the United States to promote the movie "Buried" with Li Zhibai.

This movie is coming out.

This time, Parameter finally gave it a try, and it will be released simultaneously in 24 places around the world.

The promotion of "Buried" is not in the same way as that of a blockbuster movie, but it still has to go to several places. In addition to the United States, it will also hold premieres in the United Kingdom, Spain, China, and Japan - of course, not the kind of large-scale premiere like a grand ceremony, but mainly a media event held for the media.

The promotion of this movie is very unified around the world.

Promotional point 1: The hit of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The second promotional point is the theme of this movie: Can a man trapped in a coffin escape before his oxygen runs out?
Linghe was responsible for the domestic distribution of Buried. The same was true for the promotion. Lu Yanhe emphasized that the promotion of this film could praise Li Zhibai's one-man show, but "his acting skills" should never be used as the main promotional point. Because for such a genre film, no one would go to the cinema to watch it just because Li Zhibai's acting skills were off the charts.

This is Li Zhibai's one-man show. His fans will definitely go to the cinema to support it without any publicity. The focus of the film's publicity is on those who are not Li Zhibai's fans but are fans of horror movies.

The key is whether we can attract them into the cinema.

The last stop for Lu Yanhe and Li Zhibai’s propaganda is China.

The question that the media is most interested in is how much they think the movie "Buried" will sell at the box office.

Lu Yanhe was a little speechless and said, "The harder you promote our movie, the more box office we can sell."

The main reason is that the movie "Home Alone" performed so well at the global box office that the Chinese media are very curious about whether the movie "Buried" can replicate the miracle of "Home Alone".

This can also be easily overrated.

Sure enough, the media immediately asked this question.

"Do you think Buried can surpass the performance of Home Alone?"

Lu Yanhe shook his head and said directly that he could not.

There was an uproar.

"Why? Is it because the quality of the movie Buried is not as good as Home Alone?"

"Because every movie is unique and its achievements cannot be replicated, I don't make any movie to surpass my previous one." Lu Yanhe said, "Buried will not be the goal of any of my subsequent works."

During the promotion period of "Buried Alive", the program "The Voice of China" was launched.

Deng Lu, the producer of "The Singer of China" who took over Xin Zixing's production, asked if it was necessary to promote it in conjunction with "Buried Alive".

Generally speaking, you should not miss such promotional resources that come to your door for free.

However, Chen Yin, who has worked with Lu Yanhe in promoting film and television dramas for several years, now wholeheartedly agrees that if promotion cannot have a positive effect, it is better not to promote it.

"Buried Alive" and "The Voice of China" have nothing to do with each other.

So, Chen Yin directly refused.

However, Chen Yin suddenly thought of something, found Lu Yanhe, and said that he hoped to perform the theme song of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" in the last episode of "The Voice of China".

The last episode of "The Voice of China" was broadcast at the end of June, which happened to be the concentrated promotion period for "The Legend of Sword and Fairy".

Lu Yanhe thought this was quite suitable.

"Okay." He nodded, "Let Li Zhibai sing his character's theme song."

"Xiaoyao Tan".

This is an original song that has not yet been released, but it was first sung in the last episode of "The Sing China", which is great.

Chen Yin immediately went to discuss Li Zhibai's schedule with Lin Suyang.
-
Soon, "Buried" was released around the world.

in the country, this is Li Zhibai's second starring movie released.

Moreover, it is a real one-man show.

Just as Lu Yanhe guessed, Li Zhibai's fans were very supportive, and the box office on the first day directly reached 1.1 million yuan. This was not the Spring Festival period or any other big period, but just an ordinary Friday in the off-season of April.

Of course, this also caused the daily box office on Saturday to decline, to only 9200 million, which is a relatively rare trend.

However, despite this, the box office performance of over 2 million in two days can still be said to be very good.

The most crucial thing is the box office performance on Sunday.

If the box office can reverse the decline on Sunday, it means that the film will have a more promising performance in the market. If it continues to decline, the trend of this film will be a bit dangerous.

At this time, the Friday box office in North America also came out.

"Buried" finally opened in 920 theaters and took in $520 million on Friday, which was a huge hit and gave Parameter a surprise that was both unexpected and unanticipated.

The reputation of the Sundance Film Festival still has a strong dominance in the North American market.

This movie, from the director to the leading actors, is not well-known. Only the screenwriter Lu Yanhe is well-known in North America. However, screenwriters cannot carry the box office. There are only a handful of people who can achieve the level of J.K. Rowling.

Parameter Arranging "Buried" to be screened at the Sundance Film Festival was a step that seemed to be taken correctly.

During the promotion period of "Buried", both the media and the audience were frantically discussing how "different" this movie was.

This is no ordinary thriller.

This is well worth going to the cinema to see.

Only in a dark movie theater can one feel the shadow of death and pressure brought by the cramped space.

All in all, with the regular promotion in North America, "Buried" has indeed attracted many viewers of this type of film, who are willing to go to the cinema as soon as possible to see what this film is about.

On Saturday, box office was roughly the same as Friday, with a rough estimate of approximately $515 million.

However, the response to the movie on social media has been overwhelming.

Many people are discussing this "unusual" movie.

At the same time, China’s Sunday box office came out, 8400 million RMB, which still did not exceed Saturday’s box office, but the total box office was close to 3 million.

For "Buried", the production cost of this film did not exceed 150 million US dollars, but the cost of global publicity and marketing exceeded 700 million US dollars - perhaps many people would think that this is putting the cart before the horse, as the production of the film only costs so little, but the publicity and marketing cost several times the price.

However, this movie is so special. It's not that Lu Yanhe and Parameter are unwilling to spend more money on the production of the film, but that this movie only needs this much money to produce.

If you want to achieve great results with small efforts, then the publicity and marketing must be large-scale.

Are they really waiting for the audience to spread the word of the movie through word of mouth?
In fact, the first weekend performance of "Buried" not only made Linghe decide to further increase publicity funds and carry out subsequent publicity in China.

Parameter also decided to further increase publicity funds to promote and market the film globally.

"Buried" earned $1374 million in its first weekend. According to the box office model of this type of film, this movie can earn at least $3000 million in North America.

At the same time, the film also performed well at the box office outside of North America (excluding China, the same below), with a total of roughly 2300 million US dollars in the first weekend.

Especially in Asia, more than half of the 2300 million US dollars came from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. On the contrary, its performance in Europe can only be described as average.

Of course, a film whose production and publicity costs combined are only about 10 million US dollars can achieve such box office results, which is enough to label itself as "small wins big".

Although this film only ranked third in North America, losing to two other films starring A-List actors, including the box office in China, the film's first weekend box office reached 8000 million US dollars, firmly sitting on the throne of the global weekend box office champion.

Although Parameter can only enjoy a small share of the box office revenue in China, compared to the cost, the film can still make tens of millions of dollars for them - and this is just the revenue from the theater box office.

Lu Yanhe fulfilled what he said to Zeby Doyle.

Lu Yanhe sent another email to Zeby Doyle: If you were willing to open "Buried" directly in more than 3,000 theaters, the box office might have exceeded 100 million in the first weekend.

When Zeby Doyle saw this email, he really didn't know what to say for a moment.

Can he say that Lu Yanhe's hypothesis will never come true if it hasn't happened?

Lu Yanhe sent another email: If I were you, at this time, you should find a few good roles from Parameter's later projects and invite Li Zhibai.

Just as Lu Yanhe had said to Li Zhibai before.

When "Buried" is released, Li Zhibai will become famous all over the world.

This movie and this character focus entirely on Li Zhibai.

His relaxed, natural and unobtrusive performance advantage was fully demonstrated in this cramped space and on the screen.

To say that his acting is mature is not the case.

But Li Zhibai's performance is so immersive; his style comes naturally once he gets into the performance state.

Lu Yanhe couldn't do it, and Yan Liang couldn't do it either, they were both gifted.

Li Zhibai did not make himself act mature, nor did he completely change his image to play another person in this movie.

He used Li Zhibai's personality to enter the personality of this character.

If people who have watched the original version of "Buried" watch his performance again, they will wonder why the roles are so different. Li Zhibai's performance is completely that of a young man, while Ryan Reynolds' version is more mature.

However, people in this time and space have not seen Ryan Reynolds' version, so there is no comparison, and Li Zhibai's version is the first version.

How should I describe Li Zhibai's performance in this movie? It's just like Keanu Reeves in "Speed". Men find him charming, and women also find him charming - of course, the definition of charm is different for men and women.

But Li Zhibai's popularity is unanimous around the world.

It's really unfair to say the least.

Some actors have starred in several movies that have had a global impact, but when it comes to fans and popularity, they can only be described as mediocre. This is due to both the actors themselves and the limitations of the movie genres.

For some actors, even if the box office of a movie is not that high, at least not to the record-breaking level, they can become an instant hit just because of the type of movie and the type of role they play.

Li Zhibai is the latter.
-
Li Yuefeng: Friend, when will you write a script for me? Friend!

Lu Yanhe looked at the message Li Yuefeng sent him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

He replied: I will definitely find you if I find a suitable one.

Li Yuefeng: They are all suitable. I have good acting skills and I can handle any type of role!
Lu Yanhe: Yes, it will happen. Don’t worry. You are so popular now, why are you in a hurry?

Li Yuefeng: ...Compared to you guys, how can I be called famous?

All Lu Yanhe could say was: You are already very famous, and if there is a script suitable for you, I will definitely find you.

The global box office success of "Buried" came less than two months after the release of "Home Alone".

Lu Yanhe has achieved two consecutive successes in such a short period of time. Apart from anything else, for Hollywood companies, these two films were released by different companies, directed by different directors, and starred by different actors, which proved the role he played as the only intersection between the two films - screenwriter.

Why is it that even though Sweet Chalamet has achieved good box office results in so many movies in a row, he still cannot compare with those A-List actors in terms of pay? Because he has not yet proved his importance to the box office. Whether it is "Little Women", "Dune" series, "Wonka" and "Rock Poet: Legends Unknown" (complaint, the Chinese translation is really bad), the box office of the movie does not use him as the core selling point.

Why was Jennifer Lawrence able to ask for such a high salary later? After starring in a series of movies represented by the "Hunger Games" series, she took on an R-rated comedy, "Don't Be Weird", and the salary offer was $2500 million. Maybe the number on the final contract was reduced, but it certainly wasn't much, and the cost of the entire movie was only 4500 million.

Why can she get such a high salary for this non-commercial R-rated comedy?

Because the only selling point of the movie is her. Apart from her, there is no famous director and no other famous actors.

In fact, such a very ordinary R-rated comedy sold nearly 9000 million US dollars worldwide. Although the box office was not as high as everyone expected, the film company must have made money by selling other copyrights such as streaming media (the name Jennifer Lawrence can make the film report a high price in all aspects of copyright fees) -

Emma Stone, who has won two Oscars for Best Actress, has not received more than 10 million US dollars in salary so far.

Things like film pay are determined by the market.

Moreover, it is not enough to be tested once, you have to be tested again and again. The more times you are tested, the higher your pay will be, until it reaches the ceiling of this industry.

After all, if the market doesn't buy it, Nicolas Cage will have to simply reduce his salary by half.

The market buys it, as is the case with Jennifer Lawrence, breaking industry conventions and the production company obediently signing the check.

Is there any other actress who could ask for a high price of $2500 million to act in a low-budget R-rated comedy like "Don't Be Weird"?
According to the information currently available, the answer is no.

Darren Wilson told Lu Yanhe: From now on, I will not agree to any offer for your script that is less than 1000 million US dollars.

Lu Yanhe couldn't laugh or cry.

A $1000 million offer?
This is almost a price that only Hollywood's top screenwriters can sell for.

Martin Scorsese's movies, if they were scripts written by him, would cost about the same.

However, even if such a price was offered, Lu Yanhe might not sell it.

He wanted something else.
-
When Li Zhibai starred in the movie "Buried", his salary was only 50 US dollars.

And now, his salary offer in Hollywood has reached 150 million US dollars.

As fast as a rocket.

Hollywood responded very quickly, and many scripts came to us immediately.

Li Zhibai returned to China with the script. While reading it slowly, he sent a message to Liu Manbo: "Have you finished revising the script of Flying on the Grass? Can we start filming this year?"
When Liu Manbo received this news, he felt mixed emotions.

Li Zhibai has become so popular that Liu Manbo thought he would give up the project of "Flying on the Grass", but he is still thinking about it.

After the failure of "Nineteen Years of Crime Records", Liu Manbo got the second chance to direct "Flying on the Grass" with the support of Li Zhibai. Without Li Zhibai's support, Liu Manbo would definitely not have been able to get the second chance to direct so quickly.

Liu Manbo took a deep breath and sent a message to Li Zhibai: The script will be finalized this month and filming will definitely start this year!
Li Zhibai: That’s fine.

Li Zhibai said again: Have you seen "Buried"?
Liu Manbo: I saw it, your performance was amazing.

Li Zhibai: I think the part where I was obsessed in "Flying on the Grass" could be inspired by the anxious state in "Buried Alive"?
Liu Manbo: Let’s give it a try then?

Li Zhibai: OK, let's find some time to meet recently? I have some ideas to discuss with you.

Liu Manbo: OK. (End of this chapter)