Fooling Huayu for Thirty Years

Chapter 541: A Decade of Planning, Ushering in a Sci-Fi Era! Cloverfield 2 Surpasses 100 Million Views!
"In my plan, it would be good if this movie could gross 30 to 40 million yuan at the domestic box office."

"So now it's far exceeding expectations?"

"Yes."

In the early morning, sunlight shone on Ma Xun's muscular physique as he made a phone call while gazing at the persimmon tree outside.

He really hadn't taken care of this tree; after all, he didn't really know how to care for it.

He built the grape trellis over there, and he also likes this persimmon tree.

However, you don't need to worry about it; it will produce results on its own.

Of course, Ma Xun wasn't looking to eat any big persimmons.

But right now, there are still six fruits on this persimmon tree, these six...

Two are the largest, two are of average size, and two are small.

What's the situation?
Why does it seem somewhat similar to last night?
Ma Xun rubbed his eyes and realized there were no big persimmons anywhere.

That's right, it's winter now, so no matter how amazing this persimmon tree is, it can't bear any fruit.

I must have misread it, but this misreading...

I couldn't help but glance back at the three people still asleep behind me... They really underestimated me, Ma!

"Hello? Boss, are you still there?"

"Of course it's still there, please continue."

This call was an overseas call, and the person on the other end was Cherie Chung in the United States.

She worked with Anne Hathaway on the distribution of Cloverfield 2.

The current situation is completely beyond our expectations!
Ma Xun's original plan was actually very clear.

That is, they intend to use "Cloverfield 2" to try and win the Saturn Award in the United States.

It should be emphasized that although the Saturn Awards are not particularly influential in China, they are still an American film and television award.

More importantly, the Saturn Awards themselves are very biased towards science fiction and horror films.

These two are quite important categories. In terms of the Oscars, it's really not easy for science fiction and horror films to win awards.

This is, of course, relatively speaking. In reality, the current Oscars still tend to favor biographical films.

Therefore, the Saturn Awards are a good complement to the Oscars, since this award is mainly for science fiction and horror.

And if Ma Xun wins the Saturn Award, then...

What is the current situation in China?
There is a strong tendency to idolize foreign things online, with various influential figures spreading all sorts of rumors.

Why did the power go out for a sparrow?

And then there are those oil-paper packages found near German sewer pipes...

There are countless examples of this kind of thing.

The situation is even more serious in the film and television section.

It's not just online; there are many who think that watching Hollywood movies makes them superior to those who watch domestic films.

Let's talk about the ratings on Douban.

Hollywood films get at least a point or two extra, right? Everyone knows that.

The key point of this matter is not actually the quality of the movie.

Double standard!

Even though some of your movies are terrible, they still get pretty good ratings.

Many bad foreign movies can still get a 6 out of 10.

But for our domestic films, if they can get a score of 6, then they are considered pretty good.

We acknowledge that we are currently lagging behind Hollywood, but that's no excuse for double standards.

Even many of Zhang Yimou's films don't get high ratings.

Regarding this phenomenon... although Ma Xun is now running this website himself, he doesn't intend to control the score.

We need to manage some malicious ratings, such as various bot accounts, and we definitely need to guard against those.

But if you try to force a score control... Ma Xun knows that twenty years later, "Hot and Spicy" was a score control project, and so was "Half River Green".

We all know this movie is pretty bad, but originally, a bad movie is a bad movie, at least it can be shown as bad on third-party platforms.

Some movies are wrongly accused, but others are not.

But what would moviegoers think if a film that we all know is terrible had its ratings controlled even on third-party platforms?
They could only conclude that all those movies were probably bad.

Distrust of rating systems renders many film previews and pre-release promotions ineffective.

Losing public trust is truly unacceptable.

That being said, since Ma Xun doesn't intend to use score manipulation to address the disadvantage of Chinese films in the rating system...

How to do?
Let's do it this way now!
The fact that my film won an award in the United States is quite convincing, isn't it?

Since there are quite a few people on the internet who are so eager to patronize Hollywood movies, let's make Hollywood movies with our Chinese team as the main force!

Yes, Cloverfield is a Hollywood movie, but the team behind it is all my people.

Even Scarlett Johansson, who seems to be a Hollywood star, fell for my suit pants.

Ahem... let's not talk about that anymore.

So, I hope to win another important award in the future.

What do you say?
Well, actually, Ma Xun's main purpose was not to slap those who fawn over Hollywood movies in the face. After all, liking Hollywood is not a crime, and Ma Xun has never thought so.

As long as you don't apply double standards, it's fine to like whatever you want.

Ma Xun's real goal was actually to set up a plan!

If Cloverfield 2 wins an award, it will have created a huge impact, and the third Cloverfield movie will be a sci-fi blockbuster!
A Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster made by us Chinese!

In other words... a genuine Sino-US co-production!

In fact, Ma Xun's ambition behind this plan was... he intended to usher in the era of science fiction films in Chinese cinema!
Yes, including having Bingbing deceive Zhang Ziyi before.

Because Zhang Ziyi does have a certain international influence.

Moreover, Zhang Ziyi was originally cast in Cloverfield 3, where she played a scientist.

However, the third Cloverfield film will be a blockbuster, which means that production will definitely take a long time.

It could take two or three years at the fastest, or five or six years at the slowest.

This is all normal, after all, it's a blockbuster.

So what about such a 'time cost'?
Ma Xun is also ready; it's a chick flick starring Bingbing and Zhang Ziyi.

So, the whole plan is as follows.

Ma Xun first launched a chick flick, using this low-budget film to make a fortune.

The money earned was then invested in the blockbuster film "Cloverfield 3".

This period of time is roughly 3 to 5 years.

No problem, during this period, there are not only chick flicks, but also upcoming blockbusters such as "The Warlords," "Assembly," and "Red Cliff."

That's it!

It can be said to be a very perfect plan.

That's why Ma Xun tried to fool Martin Scorsese before.

Yes, that's right, this plan is indeed full of positive energy, but to succeed...

We still have to keep bluffing!

And then... at that moment, those six big persimmons... oh no, it was Jingwen, Yuanyuan, and Yang Rong who woke up. "Brother Ma, why... why didn't you rest a little longer?"

"Um, about today..."

"Or perhaps we should..."

What more can I say?

Ma Xun is a man of action.

"Now that we've won a resounding victory, we should celebrate it to the fullest."

Before he could finish speaking, he started tasting the persimmons again.

……

a few days later.

Enlight Media.

"what is this?"

"Boss, haha! This is the video we made, take a look."

"video?"

"Old Hu has made another move, and we've gained a new group of brothers."

"brother?"

On New Year's Eve, Ma Xun engaged in a fierce battle with American sex symbol Scarlett O'Hara.

In the following days, she made cameo appearances as Zhang Wuji, Zhou Zhiruo, and Zhao Min, and also played Yang Rong.

She did indeed come to work with dark circles under her eyes.

But it's nothing, it just means that I, as the boss, am quite overworked.

Shouldn't subordinates share the burdens of their boss?
Now, someone has come to share the burden; that person is Gong Ge'er.

Gong Ge'er's appearance earlier was quite helpful to Ma Xun.

DiliDili has already taken off.

Of course, it is currently still in a loss-making state, but the loss is not much.

It's nothing, that's just how these kinds of websites are.

The key point is that Gong Geer also helped him bring in Lao Hu.

Actually, if it weren't for Ma Xun, then Lao Hu's "The Suppression of Bandits in Wulong Mountain" would have been sold to Liujianfang for about 300,000 yuan.

Such a high-traffic video only sold for 300,000. There's nothing we can do about it; these days, it's hard to monetize traffic.

Therefore, Lao Hu's involvement is a win-win situation for everyone.

But now?

What video is this?
After Ma Xun inserted the USB drive that Gong Geer had brought into the computer, then...

If the world ends, is owning a house something to be proud of?

This... is the same old parody style.

But it quickly became clear that this was a publicity stunt for our "Cloverfield 2".

The house in the title is, of course, the apocalyptic castle from the movie, and "very awesome" means that the female lead killed the male lead.

It's very interesting, but the key point is...

"What should we really believe? Sometimes, we only believe what we want to believe."

Hey! They even elevated it!
Ma Xun immediately smiled at Gong Geer with satisfaction, "Not bad, you've got something."

Gong Ge'er scratched his head, "Hehe, thanks boss, here's the video."

"Push! Push it hard! We should also cooperate with other portal websites."

Goodness, they're really going all out!

Gong Geer was naturally even happier, and then he began to introduce those 'brothers'.

"what?"

When Gong Geer mentioned the name Guo Fan, Ma Xun was clearly taken aback.

"This guy……"

"No, I watched the music program he did. I didn't expect him to be so talented."

"Haha! He's incredibly lucky to have earned the boss's favor!"

Gong Ge'er's flattery was quite something.

But in Ma Xun's heart... he was overjoyed!
With Guo Fan's appearance, wouldn't that complete the final piece of the puzzle for my future plan?

Yes, someone has to start this science fiction era.

And that person should ideally be Guo Fan!
It's not that Ma Xun is praising this person, but rather that Ma Xun actually saw some things in the original timeline.

That is to say, the movie "The Wandering Earth" originally had no prior experience.

So, it's been ten years!
Yes, exactly ten years.

The Wandering Earth was filmed in 2017.

Thinking of this, Ma Xun felt a surge of energy welling up inside him.

"Gong Ge'er, you tell those guys that in ten years, we will definitely usher in the era of Chinese science fiction!"

What this means is...

"Okay! Boss, I understand!"

Gong Ge'er at this point does not fully understand what Ma Xun means.

He just felt that Guo Fan and his gang had finally found a good home.

The key point is that everyone really loves science fiction movies.

For now, let's see the power of this short video!
……

The Spring Festival is in February this year, so there is still plenty of time in this month.

It was during this time of anticipation for the festival that things began.

A short video suddenly appeared!

"Still so funny!"

"I must say, they really grasped the key points!"

"Scarlett Johansson looked absolutely stunning in that white tank top in that movie!"

"Don't be so lewd!"

"The key point is that this movie also received good reviews in the United States!"

"Yes, I have friends in America who all say this movie is good."

Although it's a parody video, this parody is different from the previous ones; this time, the focus is on saying that the movie is really good.

As a result, its reputation improved further!

Don't forget, many people think this movie is a Hollywood blockbuster.

So, on Douban... 8 points!
Cloverfield 2 has received an 8 out of 8 ratings!

The gold content is quite good.

This, of course, further boosted box office revenue!
It was late January 2007.

Cloverfield 2 has officially surpassed 100 million yuan at the box office in China!
(End of this chapter)