Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 372 If you want to hit me, you can just do it.
Liu Yifei scolded Li Qiutang: "Why didn't you buy it when it was gone?"

Li Qiutang then blamed Liu Yifei: "I thought there were still some left. You were at home, didn't you know to buy them?"

Liu Yifei fell silent, touching her stomach. "I hope I'm not pregnant." Then she punched Li Qiutang's arm. "You still want it even if you don't?"

Li Qiutang held Liu Yifei in her arms, making no mention of the fact that Liu Yifei herself had said it was okay half an hour earlier.

"It's okay, if you get pregnant, just have the baby. We're about to get pregnant anyway."

After cuddling for a while, Li Qiutang wanted to play again, but Liu Yifei said, "Flying for over twenty hours and still not jet-lagged, you have too much energy."

"I'm having lunch in Toronto right now, and I'm not tired at all."

Liu Yifei refused Li Qiutang's request, citing a lack of equipment, but accompanied Li Qiutang in another way.

Li Qiutang stroked his girlfriend's head; he especially liked Liu Yifei's hair.

For the next two days, Li Qiutang stayed home to adjust to the time difference, while Liu Yifei went out to work.

Since the start of this year's Lunar New Year film season, most people have been happy, and several highly anticipated blockbusters have achieved good box office results.

After being banned for four years, "No Man's Land" has finally seen the light of day again, grossing 4 million on its first day and breaking 2400 million in its first week. While it may not be fair to say that it has lived up to the blood and tears of the past four years, it certainly lives up to the expectations of its investors.

But the banning of "No Man's Land" seems to have broken Ning Hao's backbone, and it seems that Ning Hao's spirit for making movies has been lost.

When "The Golden Era" was released last year, audiences began to question whether Ning Hao had lost his creative spark.

Even without Liu Yifei, the glamorous "The Four Great Constables" still managed to make a lot of money. The concept of the show was quite good, and it didn't rely too much on the actors' own appeal. Jiang Yiyan's portrayal of Wuqing was also quite good.

The second film grossed 2600 million on its opening day and 9000 million in three days. The second and third films were shot together, but it remains to be seen whether the second film can break even and allow money for post-production on the third film.

However, the second film clearly went too far and received even more negative reviews than the first film.

"Deng Chao's good reputation among the partners was completely wasted on 'The Four 2'."

"Jiang Yiyan's long-standing efforts to cultivate an intellectual and artistic image were all for nothing in 'The Four 2'."

Regardless of its box office performance, "The Four 2" remains firmly in first place among period dramas during this year's Lunar New Year season.

Because it's the only period drama in this year's Lunar New Year film season.

Just like a certain martial arts film, it is the only martial arts film in film history to be scheduled for the Spring Festival, so even if it only sells one ticket, it is still the champion of film history.

Andy Lau's investment in "The Storm" also made him money and helped him regain the reputation he lost on "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains".

The real killer weapon of this year's Lunar New Year film season is, of course, Feng Xiaogang's "Personal Tailor"!
Feng Xiaogang's comedies haven't lost their appeal; they're invincible during the Lunar New Year season.

Despite the fact that "Personal Tailor" was previously criticized for its excessive product placements, which were considered shameless—the film was already making a profit through product placements and trailers even before filming began.

However, "Personal Tailor" still secured the top spot at the Lunar New Year box office with an opening day gross of 84 million yuan, and after four days of release, it has raked in 320 million yuan.

This is the kind of exciting performance that the Lunar New Year film season should have.

It seems like everyone is making money during the Lunar New Year film season, but a crisis is lurking beneath the surface.

There aren't enough movies in December!
From November 29th, when "The White Storm" kicked off the Lunar New Year film season, to December 31st, only 18 films were released this year.

This is far lower than the 25 films produced in the same period last year.

The highest single-film investment was actually "The White Storm," at 120 million yuan, which is half the cost of "Back to 1942" last year, making it the lowest-budget film in the Lunar New Year season in the past three years.

With only one period drama remaining, *The Four 2*, and renowned directors like Zhang Yimou, Tsui Hark, Chen Kaige, Jiang Wen, and Li Qiutang all absent, Feng Xiaogang now faces competition from Ning Hao, Chen Musheng, and Chen Jiashang. Feng Xiaogang will likely lament his loneliness at the top. Along with the disappearance of these directors, top actresses have also vanished: the "Four Dan and Two Bing" (referring to four top actresses and two top actresses from Taiwan), Shu Qi from Taiwan, and the newly crowned box office queen Liu Yifei. These eight are now recognized as top actresses in the industry, and all eight are peacefully celebrating the New Year, none of them appearing in the Lunar New Year film season. Yao Chen from *Firestorm* has become the Lunar New Year queen, playing pretend with Bai Baihe, Nini, Jiang Yiyan, and Jing Tian.

This can only mean one thing: the Lunar New Year film season in December is cooling down.

Which period saw the temperature rise?

It's the Spring Festival film season!

"Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" has completely ignited the Spring Festival film season, with four blockbusters already crowding the first day of the Lunar New Year next year.

Even Autumn Pictures has abandoned its December release date and moved the third film in the Sky Tree Project, "Ex-Files," to the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Tian Yusheng was terrified; his debut film was going to be released during the Lunar New Year season, competing with a host of blockbusters.

But the company told him to relax. They had already seen the film and felt that "Ex-Files" was relevant to the current dating and marriage situation of young people and could be a box office hit. Combined with the popularity of the Spring Festival season, the company gave a minimum guaranteed box office of 1 million yuan.

"Ex-Files" was originally intended to be released on Singles' Day this year, but Singles' Day went crazy this year. The 11th was a Monday, and on Friday the 8th, 10 movies squeezed in, all trying to replicate the success of "Love is Not Blind".

On the 25th, Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei spent a special Christmas.

"You bastard." Liu Yifei felt that Li Qiutang was fooling her. "The special thing you're talking about is bringing me to see the edited sample of 'The Invisible Guest,' right?"

The editors of "The Invisible Guest" had a tough time; it took five months since filming wrapped to complete the final cut.

“What’s the point of a date like this, eating out and watching a movie?” Li Qiutang pulled Liu Yifei’s hand and walked into the editing room. “Let’s have a date that suits our status, that would be much more interesting.”

"You've never been inside an editing room, have you?"

"I'm an actress, what am I doing in the editing room?" Liu Yifei rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Let me introduce you to the editing room. It's very interesting. The success of a movie depends half on the editing..." Li Qiutang indeed led Liu Yifei on a tour of the editing room.

Now it's all digital editing; back then, when shooting film, you really used scissors. "That was real editing."

Liu Yifei was quite interested. Li Qiutang taught her how to use the editing software and even showed her a clip of a bad video so she could try it herself.

"You're so stupid." Liu Yifei was a complete digital idiot; she had no idea how to use such a high-end gadget as an editing console.

"Never mind, let's go see the sample footage. It's my first time seeing it too."

They pulled a blanket over their legs, snuggled together, and intently watched the sample footage on the screen.

It was rough, but Liu Yifei was captivated by it: "Teacher Xi Meijuan is amazing! Xiaoming is holding his own against her at all."

Li Qiutang said, "Xiaoming gets stronger when facing strong opponents. If the opponent is good, he can give high-quality feedback. If the opponent is slacking off, he won't take it seriously either."

"What about me? What about me?"

"What are you arguing about?" Li Qiutang refused to answer the question.

You said my acting is bad!

"I don't!"

"You have it!"

"I didn't. If you want to hit me, just do it. There's no need to make up this excuse. Ah—" Liu Yifei bit Li Qiutang's hand.

(End of this chapter)