Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 625 Victory Celebration Banquet for "Train to Busan"
Hilton Hotel, Beijing

All the spotlights in the banquet hall were focused on the center of the stage. The clinking of gilded cutlery and champagne glasses, along with the laughter of the guests, all indicated that this was a carnival for "Train to Busan".

At the center of the stage, the ice sculpture of the number "8 million" was particularly eye-catching—fine silver foil was frozen in the light blue ice block, and sunlight shone on it through the floor-to-ceiling windows, making the string of numbers seem to float in a halo, reflecting the smiles in the eyes of everyone present.

Zhong Lifang and Ning Hao, dressed in burgundy dresses, walked onto the stage under the watchful eyes of the crowd and received the crystal hammer from the staff.

The two felt the coolness of the ice sculpture's surface and exchanged a knowing glance.

"Three countdown!"

The host's voice carried throughout the venue through the speakers, and the audience instantly fell silent, with only the click of camera shutters echoing in the air.

"3-2-1!"

As the words fell, two crystal hammers struck the corner of the "8" simultaneously, and a crisp cracking sound instantly rang out.

Pale blue ice cracked along its veins, and silver foil fell with the ice fragments, like a miniature silver snowfall.

A burst of applause erupted from the audience. Some people raised their phones to record the scene, while others cheered loudly. Even the investors sitting at the main table stood up, smiling and raising their glasses towards the stage.

Li Ming sat at the back of the banquet hall, his fingers unconsciously gripping the stem of a wine glass, the cold glass making his fingertips tingle.

He looked at Zhong Lifang on the stage, surrounded by applause—she was bending down to pick up a small piece of ice sculpture, her smile bright and relaxed, a look he had never seen before when he was at Little Horse Galloping.

Memories suddenly surged up, and scenes from the past flashed before my eyes.

They were once the most compatible partners.

Back then, at the Little Horse Galloping event, Li Ming and Zhong Lifang made a gentleman's agreement.

Li Ming was responsible for creative work, while Zhong Lifang was in charge of all other company management.

Back then, the two were confidants, friends, and partners.
Xiaoma Benteng is his company, but he trusts Zhong Lifang's abilities and entrusts her with core areas such as human resources and finance.

Zhong Lifang also did a great job; under her leadership, Xiaoma Benteng is thriving.

Li Ming always said, "Li Fang is the sharpest knife in my hand," but he never expected that one day this knife would leave his sheath.

Because of Wu Baige, the two had their first disagreement.

Then the rift widened, and finally one day, they went their separate ways.

Li Ming secretly hoped that Zhong Lifang would turn back after hitting a wall, but unexpectedly, Zhong Lifang was doing very well at Xingchen Entertainment.

It's somewhat like how someone who leaves their own little pond can "transform into a dragon upon encountering favorable winds and clouds."

She actually turned a project like "Train to Busan" into a blockbuster that grossed over 8 million yuan.

Someone in the audience shouted, "President Zhong is amazing!" She smiled and waved, just like she did back in Little Horse Galloping, but with an added touch of independent and sharp spirit.

Li Ming's Adam's apple bobbed. He took a sip of champagne, the cold liquid sliding down his throat, but it couldn't suppress the surging bitterness in his heart—it was like watching a tree he had planted with his own hands being transplanted to more fertile soil by someone else before it could even bloom and bear fruit. Now it was flourishing, but he could only stand at a distance and watch.

However, she quickly concealed her negative emotions. Zhong Lifang's current status was no longer that of the little girl who needed his promotion.

He straightened his suit jacket, put on a perfectly timed smile, and clapped along with the people around him, even clapping a few more times than others, until his palms were slightly red.

As the celebration on stage ended, Zhong Lifang walked off the stage surrounded by a group of people. Just as she took the coat handed to her by her assistant, she saw Li Ming walking towards her.

"Mr. Zhong, congratulations."

Li Mingxian extended his hand, his tone revealing nothing unusual, only a sincere smile, "8 million in box office revenue, this is a major breakthrough in our industry."

Zhong Lifang was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and shook hands with him: "President Li, you're too kind. The management experience you taught me back in Xiaoma Benteng has been a great help this time."

This was their first meeting since they parted ways, yet their way of addressing each other was much more distant.

Li Ming took the initiative to make amends, and Zhong Lifang seemed to have forgotten the unpleasantness of the past.

Li Ming wanted to say something more, but he found that Zhong Lifang was surrounded by people who came to congratulate her in the blink of an eye.

Li Ming stood there, watching her back, picked up his wine glass and took another sip. He couldn't help but feel a pang of regret—the company's film investment this year was profitable entirely thanks to Zhong Lifang's initial arrangements.

Xiao Ma Benteng only started getting involved in film production this year. At that time, Zhong Lifang was in charge of managing the company's affairs and invested in many film projects.

Through comparison, Zhong Lifang discovered that if each film had an investment of 4000 million yuan, it would need about 1400 million yuan in publicity expenses, and the final box office would need to be over 1.5 million yuan to break even.

According to calculations, the films invested in by Xiaoma Benteng are all mid-budget films with production costs between 2000 million and 3000 million yuan and publicity costs between 1000 million and 2000 million yuan.

This reduces the risk of not breaking even.

At the same time, Zhong Lifang innovatively added several provisions to the agreement: joint account management, priority repayment, and a guarantee of cost plus 20% profit repayment amount.

This makes Xiaoma Benteng invincible.

Take, for example, "Metallic Attraction: Kung Fu Cyborg," a project by Galloping Horse and directed by Jeffrey Lau, which was released on August 18. It was completely overshadowed by "Train to Busan."

The production cost was close to 100 million yuan, and it was invested and produced by six companies including LeTV Entertainment, Pegasus Entertainment, and Mei Ah Entertainment. However, it only grossed 52.1 million yuan at the box office, which can be described as a huge loss. But Pegasus Entertainment managed to become the only one among all investors who did not lose money and even made a profit, thanks to its priority repayment agreement.

Actually, it wasn't just "Metallic Attraction: Kung Fu Cyborg" that suffered. Most of the movies released in August were affected. If they encountered a blockbuster like "Train to Busan," they might be lucky enough to last for more than ten days, but if they were unlucky, they would only last a few days in theaters.

Thinking of all this, Li Ming smiled bitterly again: He really shouldn't have been greedy; he should have avoided the summer season.

When the release date for "Metallic Attraction: Kung Fu Cyborg" was set, there was discussion about whether it should have been released during the summer season.

The summer movie season in July and August generally saw good box office performance. Although this year is no longer a protection month for domestic films and there is competition from foreign films, people still have high hopes.

The main issue is that Zhang Chen doesn't have any movies released.

The consensus in China is not to compete with Zhang Chen's films at the same time, otherwise you won't even know how you died.

Zhang Chen's "White House Down" is scheduled for release in June this year, and everyone thought this was an opportunity.

July featured a sci-fi film by a new director, while August saw the release of China's first zombie film.

Since they're all uncertain types, we can compete for them!
But I never thought about why Zhang Chen would give way to these two movies?

Because people know that these two movies are powerful enough.

The films "Gravity" and "Train to Busan" dominated the summer box office.

All the films released during the same period were completely slammed. This year's summer movie season wasn't a protection period for domestic films, but even Hollywood movies were still thoroughly crushed.

Paramount's "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" had a production cost of $1.75 million, but its domestic box office only reached 6000 million yuan, while "Train to Busan" grossed 8 million yuan at the same time.

Train to Busan has so many gimmicks:

The first zombie movie in China;
The director is Ning Hao;
China-South Korea co-production;

Tom Cruise attended the premiere;

A combination of factors resulted in a box office of 8 million yuan.

Ning Hao became the second director after Zhang Chen to have a box office gross of over 8 million yuan.

He didn't break any box office records. The first film to break 8 million yuan at the box office was Pacific Rim, and the domestic box office record holder is 2012. But the gimmick of being the second director in China to break 8 million yuan at the box office is impressive enough.

In fact, up to September 2009, the highest-grossing film was "Train to Busan." If it had maintained that position for a few more months, "Train to Busan" would have been the highest-grossing film of the year.

Ning Hao walked through the crowd, constantly receiving congratulations from those around him.

It seems that he has secured his position as the second-largest company.

Guo Fan is such a strong newcomer. His first movie grossed over 5 million yuan. Fortunately, he also performed well, and "Train to Busan" broke 8 million yuan.

In fact, even he himself couldn't understand why "Train to Busan" could break 8 million.

Movies are sometimes really mysterious.

He admitted that "Train to Busan" was a good film, but he was sure it wouldn't reach 8 million; he originally estimated the box office to be around 4 million.

Hu Jun was also receiving congratulations from people in the crowd.

He has two movies released this August.

He collaborated with director Ning Hao on "Train to Busan" and with director Liu Zhenwei on "Metallic Attraction: Kung Fu Cyborg".

Unfortunately, "Metallic Attraction: Kung Fu Cyborg" was a complete flop. With an investment of nearly 100 million, it only grossed 50 million at the box office, losing a fortune and receiving terrible reviews.

From Hu Jun's perspective, "Metallic Attraction: Kung Fu Cyborg" isn't as bad as people online say.

As a comedy film, it's acceptable; the problem lies in its marketing.

The distributor actually compared this movie to "Transformers," which whetted the audience's appetite and raised their expectations to a very high level. But when they finally watched it, they were told, "Is this what you're showing me?"
The huge psychological gap naturally led to a flood of negative comments.

If you do nothing, you won't die.
Looking back, Hu Jun realized that if the distributor had handled the distribution properly and hadn't resorted to such underhanded tactics, the film's box office performance might have been much better.

Zhang Chen was chatting with Zheng Changsheng.

Jung Chang-seong appeared very excited. "Train to Busan" has performed exceptionally well in South Korea, with attendance exceeding 1200 million, making it the highest-grossing film of the year in South Korea.

The original top spot was held by "Haeundae," released in July, with 11 million viewers. Everyone thought "Haeundae" would be the year's box office champion, but then "Train to Busan" suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Crucially, Train to Busan received surprisingly good reviews.

The media has praised it as a zombie film with heart.

In the history of human cinema, Train to Busan is truly a very unique zombie film. What is memorable about the movie is not the zombies, but human emotions, or rather, humanity!
Sisterhood, love, father-daughter relationship, selfishness and betrayal, selflessness and dedication~
Hu Jun's acting in this film was phenomenal. Even the xenophobic South Korean audience had to admit that Hu Jun's performance was outstanding, even overshadowing their award-winning actor Hwang Jung-min.

Furthermore, although both are zombie movies, the zombies in Train to Busan are different from those in Resident Evil; at least, the zombies in Train to Busan run incredibly fast.

This is actually the biggest positive aspect of the entire film.

People are already tired of the slow-paced zombies in movies like Resident Evil. The fast-paced zombies in Train to Busan bring a greater sense of novelty to the audience, and the viewing experience is also more tense and exciting.

Actually, the concept of fast zombies wasn't first introduced in "Train to Busan." "28 Days Later" in 02, "28 Weeks Later" in 07, and "Dawn of the Dead" in 04 all featured fast zombies, but in terms of influence, "Resident Evil" had the greatest impact.

People are used to the elderly zombies in "Resident Evil", so when they suddenly see something like "Train to Busan", it's very exciting. And when "World War Z" comes out a few years later, they are even more amazed.

Only after the bigwig Zheng Changsheng left did several Korean actresses dare to approach him. It's easy to guess that they were all there to inquire about the female lead for Mission: Impossible 4.

Im Yoon-ah and Ha Ji-won are both actors in "Train to Busan," so it's perfectly reasonable for them to appear at the film's wrap party.

Zhang Chen replied to Lin Yoona's self-recommendation email immediately, but that's impossible~
You're dreaming!
As a newcomer who has just started acting, you want to land the leading role in a Hollywood A-list production? Your appetite is too big.

As for Ha Ji-won, that's impossible too.

In reality, it's unlikely that Zhang Chen would give such an important role to a Korean actor, since Chinese actresses aren't all dead.

Even if China doesn't have suitable actresses, he will look for them among European and American actresses, and he will never let the Koreans benefit from them.

Ha Ji-won also roughly knew that she had no chance. That day, she followed her manager's arrangement and flew to Los Angeles to see him off.

Unexpectedly, there was already someone in Zhang Chen's room.

Lily Collins was inseparable from Zhang Chen for those two days, and Ha Ji-won couldn't find a chance to be alone with Zhang Chen at all.

"Director Zhang~"

No one could occupy Zhang Chen for long. Lu Zheng and Jing Tian walked over gracefully, holding wine glasses.

"From what I've observed, Director Zhang is the most popular person in this banquet hall."

"That can't be, Director Ning Hao is probably the one who should be."

"It's my fault for not knowing how to speak, Director Ning Hao certainly isn't, but Director Zhang is definitely the most popular person among the actresses in this banquet hall~"

Even Zhang Chen didn't know how to defend himself now, because it was the truth.

Before Lu Zheng could exchange a few more pleasantries, Jing Tian impatiently asked, "Director Zhang, have you read the materials I sent you? What do you think of me?"

For the first time, Zhang Chen felt that Jing Tian's big eyes were quite intimidating; they were staring at him with great anticipation.

Zhang Chen didn't want to discuss this in this setting, but so far, Jing Tian was indeed the most suitable candidate, so he could only say, "We'll send you a formal audition invitation in a couple of days."

Although everyone tacitly agreed that Zhang Chen would be in charge of casting the female lead, the necessary procedures still had to be followed, at least to satisfy Tom Cruise.

Otherwise, if you just randomly pick someone, it's disrespectful to the film project and to everyone involved in the film.

(End of this chapter)