This star is going to the moon

Chapter 495 A single domestic film can gross 10 billion? The Federation and the Chinese are conspiring to deceive the whole world!

For many Chinese people, the Spring Festival is much more important than New Year's Day, because they feel that the new year doesn't begin until after the Spring Festival.

Of course, the main reason is that there is only a three-day holiday for New Year's Day.

The Spring Festival holiday is seven days long.

With the development of the times, people's leisure activities during the Spring Festival have also changed a lot. Now, many families go to the cinema to watch movies during the Spring Festival.

This has made the Spring Festival film season, much like the strategically vital Xuzhou region, a "must-win film season."

Actually, there wasn't a Spring Festival film season in China at first; we were just learning from the US.

In 1997, more than 300 cinemas in the United States premiered the same movie simultaneously for the first time—Paramount Pictures' "The Godfather"!
In the past, Hollywood movies would typically be screened first in major cities like New York and Los Angeles, and then the copies would be transported to other regions for screening after a period of time.

That unconventional simultaneous release led to the film's unprecedented success. "The Godfather" not only grossed $1.3 million at the box office that year, but also sparked a "phenomenal" wave of discussion.

Film distribution companies realized that when a film becomes a cultural event attracting widespread public attention, its market impact will be amplified many times over.

Thus, the concept of movie release schedules gradually began to take shape.

Subsequently, as film distribution mechanisms and marketing have been further improved, the "release date" aspect has received increasing attention.

In the US film market, for example, the summer, fall and holiday seasons are the most important, with the number of films released during these three seasons accounting for almost 70% of the total number of films released throughout the year.

The summer movie season, also known as the "summer movie season," is the highest-grossing period of the year.

The first true summer blockbuster was "Jaws," which premiered in 1975!
The fall and holiday seasons, boosted by Christmas, New Year's Day, and the Oscars, become even more significant.

Chinese moviegoers' understanding of "release dates" basically began with Hong Kong films.

Since the 1980s, every year-end, some stars in the Hong Kong entertainment industry would spontaneously get together to film movies with auspicious phrases such as "Gong Xi Fa Cai" (Wishing you prosperity) and "Jia You Xi Shi" (Happy Family Events) without paying any remuneration.

The content is mainly comedy, and it features well-known celebrities.

These films were the prototypes of the early "Lunar New Year film season".

In 1995, "Rumble in the Bronx," starring Jackie Chan and Anita Mui, was introduced to mainland China as a "Lunar New Year film" and ultimately grossed 95 million yuan at the box office.

This was second only to the Hollywood blockbuster "True Lies," starring Schwarzenegger, which grossed 1 million at the box office that year.

That was also the first time that mainland audiences experienced "Lunar New Year films" in cinemas.

Later, "The Dream Factory" became the first true "New Year's film" in mainland China, and also opened up the mainland New Year's film market.

The concept of "Lunar New Year film season" has gradually taken shape, generally referring to the film season from late November of the current year to early March of the following year, which lasts for about three months.

In the following years, Feng Xiaogang's comedies such as "Be There or Be Square", "Endless Love" and "Big Shot's Funeral" were released during the Lunar New Year season and became the box office champions of the year.

"Feng's comedies" once became synonymous with the Lunar New Year film season.

However, although later films have diversified from a single "comedy for the New Year", the mainland film industry has not yet formed a clear concept of "Spring Festival film season" due to the influence of the traditional custom of family reunion during the Lunar New Year.

At that time, many cinemas would choose to suspend operations due to the decrease in moviegoers during the Spring Festival.

Moreover, cinema staff also need to go home for the Lunar New Year.

As for cultivating the habit of watching movies during the Spring Festival, we must mention the Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster "Avatar".

Although the film was released a month before the Spring Festival that year, it still managed to gross 100 million yuan during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday in 2010 thanks to its powerful sensational effect!
Ultimately, Avatar grossed 13.39 billion yuan in its initial run in mainland China, becoming the first film in the Chinese-American film market to break the 1 billion yuan mark.

This has also gradually helped audiences develop the habit of watching movies during the Spring Festival.

Then in 2013, Chinese New Year movies were released.

That is Director Chow's "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons".

It was officially released on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and earned 5.25 million yuan during the Spring Festival. It eventually became the highest-grossing film in mainland China for the year with a total box office of 12.46 billion yuan.

At the same time, the concept of "Spring Festival film season" was officially born.

The time span of the Spring Festival film season is consistent with the Spring Festival Golden Week holiday of that year, and usually six to eight Chinese-language films are scheduled to be released on the same day as the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Now, in 2022, the "strongest domestic film" predicted by all sides has landed in the Spring Festival film season!
Lu Yun had considerable confidence in "The Wandering Earth 2: The Ladder Crisis". After all, they had all seen the finished film in the cinema at the premiere. Compared to the amazement of others, Lu Yun nodded frequently.

Because he kept comparing it to "The Wandering Earth 2" from his previous life.

Victory!

The previous "The Wandering Earth 2" was a full episode, lasting 173 minutes.

This is after 80 minutes of footage were cut.

In this life, Lu Yun picked up those 80 minutes of plot and made the overall story more complete.

Then it was divided into two parts, making the time and information density of each episode more user-friendly for viewers.

Furthermore, the special effects and investment amount in this film have reached a new level. While it may not be comparable to the groundbreaking special effects of "Avatar," it is certainly on par with that level.

Although Avatar is a movie from more than ten years ago, there are not many Hollywood movies with special effects that can reach that level now, in terms of its superb special effects.

After all, Hollywood's film special effects level in recent years is similar to that of the United States.

It looks flashy and fancy, but it's actually slowly declining!

In addition, this version of "The Wandering Earth 2" has a huge advantage over the previous one, namely, the fame, acting skills and influence of the lead actor Lu Yun are extremely huge!

And the result of all of these things coming together is...

[The Wandering Earth 2: The Ladder Crisis breaks box office records on its opening day, reaching 11.98 billion RMB!]

Wow, it broke the previous single-day box office record of 10.11 billion yuan held by "Detective Chinatown 3"!

Wow, I knew it was awesome, but I didn't expect it to be this awesome!

[How much did Detective Chinatown 3 ultimately gross? Over 5 billion?] [Pretty much. Its box office was mainly affected by the terrible plot; otherwise, if it had grossed 1 billion on its opening day, the final box office would definitely have been much higher.]

[The Wandering Earth 2: The Ladder Crisis has been released and scores a high 8.6! It's very good, and its box office growth is sure to be explosive!]

[Gui Gui, are you sure you won't create a miracle by making a single movie gross 100 billion yuan?]

Wow, does that mean Lu Yun can join the "10 Billion Yuan Box Office Actor Club" with just this one movie?

[That seems unlikely. Can the domestic film and television industry really support a single film grossing 10 billion yuan?]

【Why not? Did anyone think that a domestic film like Wolf Warrior 2 could reach 60 billion yuan in box office revenue? That was five years ago!】

[That's right. "The Wandering Earth 1" grossed 65 billion yuan. Now, the sequel has been upgraded in every aspect, and with the backdrop of the space race and the super fame of Lu Yun, it's all in the right place at the right time. I feel there's a high probability it will reach 100 billion yuan!]

[Haha, if it ends up above 95 billion, people will definitely push it to 100 billion, don't worry!]

[That's right, there are quite a few people with obsessive-compulsive disorder in our country. If we were really just a little short of reaching 100 billion, we definitely would have pushed it to the top.]

The final box office prediction for "The Wandering Earth 2: The Ladder Crisis" on the box office app has changed; it's now 103 billion yuan!

Wow, I didn't expect the predictions to get so aggressive.

Comrades, have you forgotten that *The Wandering Earth 2: The Ladder Crisis* is being released globally? It also premiered simultaneously in North America today, opening in 3500 theaters, roughly the same number of theaters as other Hollywood sci-fi films.

Indeed, Hollywood's own sci-fi films typically open in at least 3000 theaters, while big-budget sci-fi films by top directors open in at least 4000 theaters. Previously, "The Wandering Earth" only opened in a few dozen theaters. The fact that this film is being compared to the number of theaters showing for their own decent sci-fi films... what are the Americans doing?

………………

"I'm sure that the Federation is ostensibly confronting the Chinese, but in reality, it's colluding with the Chinese to deceive the whole world!"

As "The Wandering Earth 2: The Ladder Crisis" finished playing in an ordinary movie theater in an ordinary small town near New York, a fat, bearded man from the Federation stood up from his seat and shouted.

His words were immediately echoed by the surrounding crowd.

Of course, the reason why no one objected and no other audience members felt they were being noisy was mainly because it was a small group movie-watching event, and they had booked the entire theater.

They are all enthusiasts of various conspiracy theories, and "Unsolved Mysteries of the World" is a must-read for them.

They came to see "The Wandering Earth 2: The Ladder Crisis" to uncover the truth!
"That's right, that's right. If the Federation was at odds with the Chinese before, then starting with this movie, the Federation has joined forces with the Chinese. Otherwise, they wouldn't have offered such favorable terms!"

"Then my guess should be correct. The Federation's great technological development in the last century was due to obtaining alien technology, which enabled them to defeat the old bear. When the old Chinese wanted to participate, they were refused by the Federation. So they began to develop their own technology and sent agents to steal the Federation's technology. Now they have obtained even more advanced alien technology on the moon. The Federation wants to share the technology, so they have no choice but to lift the sanctions and blockades against the old Chinese to show their sincerity!"

"That makes sense! I knew that the technology from half a century ago was simply not enough to send people to the moon. It was only natural that Old Bear failed. The Federation obtained a broken alien spaceship and hid it in Area 51, which is why they had the technology to send people to the moon. However, the Federation went to the near side of the moon several times, so they didn't find the source of the alien technology. This time, the Chinese found the source of the alien technology on the far side of the moon, which is why the Federation lowered its stance and cooperated with the Chinese, hiding the existence of aliens from the world!"

"That's right. Human technology is too primitive. It's impossible for such an illogical technological explosion to occur. Combined with the Federation and the Chinese's evasive attitude, there must be external forces involved!"

"Unfortunately, we are too lowly in status and our voices are too weak, so no one listens to us."

"As long as we keep speaking out, we will eventually get noticed by more people. I already have 140,000 followers on Twitter."

"We can definitely expose the lies of the Federation and China, and expose the deceit of the entire world..."

"The Federation and China have become the new world's two poles, and they've joined forces..."

"Dangdang!"

The theater doors suddenly burst open, and a middle-aged Black woman pushed in a cleaning cart, yelling, "Johnson, it's you again! The movie's over, so hurry up and take your weirdo friends home!"

“Go home and find your mothers, and ask them to tell you new ‘alien’ bedtime stories!”

"Get moving, get moving! I need to clean up, the next wave of viewers is coming in!"

"A generous gift of crabs, Aunt Susan!"

Federal fat man Johnson pointed at the black woman and shouted, "I'm going to file a serious complaint against you!"

"Guys, let's go!"

The others immediately chimed in, "Yes, let's go, let's ignore this old woman who can't see the truth!"

"We're talking about saving the world!"

"The environment here is too bad, let's go to our secret base..."

A group of people walked past the Black woman, talking loudly, and then left the theater toward what they called their "secret base."

Don't be fooled by their claims that one second they're shouting to "break the world's two poles from deceiving all of humanity." In reality, they're just a group of marginalized people, like "amateur scientists" in a science fiction movie.

Unless there is some sudden global crisis, they are of no use at all.

Some of them even become screenwriters, and when they have the opportunity to write science fiction scripts, they will incorporate themselves into the stories and play a huge role in advancing the narrative.

Just like in those ancient Chinese stories, fairies, fox spirits, and female ghosts all fall in love with down-on-his-luck scholars.

Because that was a story written by a down-on-his-luck scholar.

Johnson and the others walked out of the theater, where a group of people were already waiting, discussing excitedly.

"Look at that big poster, those two are Simon and Armstrong, who are commercial astronauts from our Federation working for Blue Star Space Company. They've already been to space! And now they're movie stars!"

"I'm so envious! I also studied aerospace engineering and I can fly planes. I wonder if Blue Star Aerospace will continue to recruit commercial astronauts in the future?"

"Come here, David! I've already seen it once. This movie is amazing, even more amazing than Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters. Especially since its core is no longer about a few weirdos saving the world while fooling around and having sex, but a truly professional team of all humanity!"

"Yanzi, over here, Director Guo and Lu Yun are simply amazing! They've managed to get the film released in a rural place like ours. We don't need to go all the way to New York anymore!"

"Yeah, the trailer got me really excited. I felt it was worth the trip to New York. I didn't expect Hollywood to give us 3500 screens this time, and we can actually watch it right here at our school!"

"It seems our country has indeed become powerful, and our culture has officially begun to go global. It feels like we're making efforts in all aspects..."

(End of this chapter)