Fooling Huayu for Thirty Years

Chapter 535: Before I Met You - The Highest-Grossing Domestic Romance Film?!

Bingbing's arrival was, of course, due to the Cloverfield 2 incident.

Although she herself understood that it was impossible for her to film any more works after the Cloverfield series.

There's no way around it; in the previous film, the ending was a nuclear bomb.

But I was unwilling to accept it.

Even though I can't film any more movies after this, I still need to ask Brother Ma to give me more resources.

Bingbing clearly benefited from the success of "Cloverfield," which was indeed well-made and became a dark horse after its release.

So, going forward, Bingbing plans to focus primarily on developing her career in film.

Ma Xun was fully aware of her thoughts.

In particular, Bingbing brought a baby with her when she arrived.

Oh, is this your son Chengcheng?
To be honest, Ma Xun is quite something; he only cares about giving birth, not raising them.

But in fact, many wealthy people are like this.

Do you remember Saint Seiya?

It's likely that in twenty years, many people won't remember the early settings of this comic.

In other words, Saint Seiya, Shiryu, and Hyoga are actually brothers.

They were all the illegitimate children of the wealthy man who adopted Saori.

This is the setting of the comic.

It seems there are over a hundred illegitimate children.

It was only when it was adapted into the animation that it was changed.

Perhaps they felt that this setting was rather 'amazing'.

But little did they know, this was actually the reality.

Rich people like to have children. Not to mention Elon Musk, it seems that he has several illegitimate children all over the world.

They didn't mention the old sect leader Haha's affair; the main focus was on the collapse of one character's persona.

Some wealthy people even have children everywhere for evil purposes.

For example, many years later, a wealthy man posted around the world looking for children he had never met. He had started a donation program years ago, and the tadpole had traveled all over the world.

Immediately, someone pointed out that this was most likely not about finding an heir, but rather about targeting the parts of those young people.

Let's talk about the search for the child. It's already quite a bizarre story, isn't it?

But some people have been able to analyze the 'truth' behind this bizarre incident!
This shows what?
Clearly, there's probably more than one case!

Moreover, when it comes to the illegitimate children of some of our country's wealthy individuals...

Many of them hold foreign citizenship.

Why is this so?
You take care!
That being said, Ma Xun is different from these wealthy people.

At the very least, Ma Xun has absolutely no intention of transferring domestic assets; in fact, he will invest the money he earns overseas back into China.

Naturally, his children didn't pursue foreign citizenship.

As for Bingbing's son Chengcheng, it wasn't that Ma Xun forced her to have him; it was her own choice.

To put it bluntly, Chengcheng's birth was driven by a certain purpose.

Ma Xun naturally had no choice but to retain some of his traits as a father.

But don't say it yet.

Now Bingbing has brought her child over, and Ma Xun is holding him in his arms.

I really felt a warm feeling in my heart.

At this moment, even a person with a heart of stone would be moved?

Or perhaps... Ma Xun couldn't help but think about Chengcheng from the original timeline.

"This little guy is quite cute."

"of course."

"Are you planning to let him enter the entertainment industry in the future?"

"It's all up to you, Brother Ma, to make the decision."

It must be said that Bingbing is very tactful and knows when to advance or retreat, and this one sentence also demonstrates her extremely high emotional intelligence.

To put it bluntly, even if you don't want to acknowledge him, it's still your son, and you get to decide.

It may seem like they're shirking responsibility, but in reality, they've taken a step further.

Ma Xun, however, was one step ahead and simply changed the subject.

"You did a good job with Zhang Ziyi's matter."

"Oh, thank you, Brother Ma, then..."

"She's actually reached a dead end in Hollywood, but your appearance will give her a very good hope. You two should seize the opportunity."

Ma Xun's words sounded both uncertain and certain.

Bingbing was still a bit unsure, so she continued to ask, "But this movie..."

Yes, her ultimate goal is still resources.

Ma Xun knew he needed to give Bingbing some incentives.

"Actually, we can start now and make good use of Zhang Ziyi's fame and popularity. I actually intend to make good use of her, which is why I asked you to do this."

"Then..." Bingbing's heart started racing.

Ma Xun finally said, "Go find some scripts, such as lighthearted urban movies that focus on humor and everyday life."

what?
What movie is this?
“Brother Ma, this, this pair of Zhang Ziyi looks like…”

"Overkill?"

Ma Xun's question surprised Bingbing.

Because that's exactly what Bingbing was thinking.

Ma Xun laughed and said, "Only by using a great talent for a small purpose can you achieve a dimensional reduction attack. Think about it, a very famous star who has always been making big productions, even super big productions, but suddenly one day, she makes a very simple low-budget movie."

Do you think this in itself isn't news?

Upon hearing this, Bingbing suddenly realized!

"That's right! Why didn't I think of that before!"

As for Zhang Ziyi right now, she seems to be still hanging in the air.

In the Chinese entertainment industry, although she has never won a Best Actress award from the three major European awards or the Oscars, she has attended them and even served as an award presenter.

In short, her label is "big star".

In the minds of Chinese people today, Zhang Ziyi must be in blockbuster movies!

But what is the real situation?
The movies she did in Hollywood weren't big-budget films.

Moreover, Ma Xun was very clear about this.

Later, a type of film emerged, which the industry calls "chick flicks." These films are led by actresses, but these actresses have to be good-looking, have some acting skills, and, most importantly, the films have to be relatable and entertaining.

In Ma Xun's view, the most crucial aspect of this type of film is...

Low cost.

That's right, chick flicks have very low production costs, and... they're easy to make a lot of money from!

For example, the later very famous film "Love is Not Blind".

This film didn't cost much to produce, but after its release, the investors made a fortune, which convinced Perfect World to get into the film industry.

But actually!

Zhang Ziyi is the true founder of chick flicks in the Chinese entertainment industry.

This isn't just something Ma Xun made up; she couldn't make it in Hollywood, so she came back and filmed "Sophie's Revenge".

Don't underestimate this film; it also features the director that Ma Xun mentioned before, a "celestial being" in the entertainment industry.

But this movie really did make a lot of money.

They even made a second one.

Bingbing appears in the second part.

In this film series, Zhang Ziyi adopts a naturally innocent and adorable girl-next-door persona.

Honestly, Zhang Ziyi was already 30 when she filmed "Sophie's Revenge" in the original timeline.

It seems like she's trying to look younger than she is.

However, her acting skills are indeed very good. Even in roles that are very different from her own persona, she can still play them very well.

But to be honest, this film, "Sophie's Revenge," is somewhat adapted from the British film "Sophie's Diary."

They've stopped pretending; the female lead is simply called Sophie.

But it's hard to call it plagiarism, because "Sophie's Diary" is quite unique; the plot is determined by audience votes.

There have been serious attempts to adapt it in China, but none of them were successful.

The opportunity is great right now.

Zhang Ziyi is still very young. If she were to star in a chick flick now, she wouldn't need to act young at all.

Well, there's something strange about it, though: the actresses who play the "chick flick" in chick flicks are often quite old.

The initial founder was Zhang Ziyi, but Bai Baihe later dominated the chick flick genre.

Bai Zhichan actually got married quite early. In fact, she and Zhang Ziyi are from the same generation, not a few years younger.

Conversely, if a chick flick were to actually cast a young woman in her early twenties, it might not necessarily become a hit.

Isn't that strange?

Even Ma Xun couldn't figure it out.

That's okay. You don't need to figure it out completely; you just need to know how to do it.

Now let Bingbing persuade Zhang Ziyi, and then everyone can make a low-budget chick flick.

This thing requires low input and yields high output.

Ma Xun made a fortune with minimal effort.

Moreover, Bingbing was very satisfied.

Killing multiple birds with one stone!

Hmm, Bingbing's swaying butt is indeed very tempting.

……

Zhang Ziyi has been tricked, and the outside world doesn't know about it yet.

It's Christmas time now.

Everyone knows what they should do.

Dating, shopping, watching movies...

According to something mentioned in a comic book.

Mating around Christmas time has a higher success rate.

Okay, this is definitely something without any official data.

But it seems to make a lot of sense.

At times like these, the perfect movie to watch is a romance movie!

Although "Curse of the Golden Flower" had achieved great success before.

It has broken box office records one after another, and its box office has now exceeded 200 million!
But right now, the movies you should be watching most are romance movies!

"I know, Me Before You is the best!"

"Then go and take a look."

"Huh? Why are there so many people in line?"

"I do not know either."

Wow, cinemas are really busy these days; you have to queue to watch a movie.

That's normal, considering it's Christmas.

This festival was created through the combined efforts of many businesses.

The goal is to attract couples to come out and spend money.

Watching movies is definitely one of them.

In this way, "Me Before You" has already made a strong impression in terms of word-of-mouth in the past two days.

How can you not watch a movie like this?
So, after the two days of Christmas had passed, some media people suddenly discovered a good news story.

"Me Before You" surpasses 7000 million tickets after Christmas!

"Breaking the box office record for domestic romance films? It's already broken 70 million, 100 million is just around the corner!"

"Me Before You" is a different kind of romance film!

Yes, the box office has actually jumped to this level!
7000?
"Curse of the Golden Flower" only made 8000 million in its first week!
Yes, that makes sense. "Me Before You" isn't actually in its 'first week'. Generally, the 'first week' refers to the weekend, which is two or three days.

"Me Before You" has actually been released for more than four days.

but!

This box office performance is truly astonishing!

Clearly, cinemas also made adjustments to their film schedules for this Christmas season.

After all, it's better to make money from a pair.

But it seems that...

Is it really going to break box office records?

The highest-grossing domestic romance film is just around the corner!

(End of this chapter)