Entertainment: Who still wants to fall in love when there are cheats?

Chapter 199 Headache
"Boss, you're really amazing. Not only did you come up with such a great idea for promoting the movie, but you also managed to make a profit without spending any money." Sister Wang looked at Li Boda with eyes full of admiration.

"I didn't think that much about it. At first, I was just promoting the movie. I posted the video of Wang Baoqiang drinking milk online. Then I found out that some people seemed to be imitating it, so I had a flash of inspiration and decided to create a challenge to let everyone participate. Who knew that Mengniu would take notice of it?" Li Boda said with a smile, spreading his hands.

"That's why I think you're even more amazing, boss. You can come up with an idea casually and win several times by sheer luck. Sure enough, boss, you're incredibly lucky! I was absolutely right when I first saw it."

Seeing Sister Wang like this, Li Boda couldn't help but laugh.

Next came the milk-drinking challenge and negotiations with Mengniu. Li Boda once again entrusted these matters entirely to Sister Wang.

Li Boda only paid attention to the post-production of "Lost in Thailand" and didn't care much about anything else.

The main reason is that as the milk challenge grew bigger and bigger, it eventually became known to almost the entire country.

It's just that the internet isn't developed enough yet; otherwise, this kind of challenge might have been broadcast all over the world.

As the origin of this milk-drinking challenge, the movie "Lost in Thailand" naturally spread quickly.

Almost everyone across the country knows that a movie is about to be released.

This publicity effect is even stronger than the two previous film promotions Li Boda did.

Those in the entertainment industry, seeing the promotional effect, felt a sense of awe and admiration for Li Boda's promotional abilities.

Li Boda promoted three films under the banner of "One Cut of the Dead!" using a promotional method that most people would never imagine: mobile phone advertising. The results were phenomenal; a low-budget film with an investment of only a few million yuan achieved such high box office returns.

Then came "Nightclub," a film with even lower production costs and an even lesser-known name, which Li Boda used as a parody video. He managed to rake in 60-70 million at the box office.

Now, the movie "Lost in Thailand" has launched a milk-drinking challenge, making the whole nation aware of the existence of this film.

It's easy to imagine that as long as the quality of the movie "Lost in Thailand" is not bad, its box office will definitely not be low, and it may even directly break 100 million yuan.

Three times in a row, each time using a different promotional method, and each time the results were outstanding.

This led many directors, producers, and distributors to secretly contact Li Boda, trying to get some good publicity methods from him.

However, Li Boda rejected all of these offers.

After all, while Li Boda's ideas were indeed his, there was also a certain amount of luck involved in the publicity methods he devised.

Besides, promoting your own movie is troublesome enough; why would you go and come up with promotional methods for someone else's movie? Are you crazy?
At the same time, many people also wanted to cooperate with Li Boda.

They want to invest in Li Boda's next film.

After all, the success of the three films was largely due to Li Boda, so the success rate of Li Boda's next films will definitely be extremely high.

This is definitely a money-making project, and a particularly lucrative one at that. How could others not be envious?

Companies like Huayi Brothers, Enlight Media, Orange Sky Entertainment, and Bona Film Group started frequently contacting Li Boda, trying to inquire when he would make his next film and whether he needed investment. Some even tried to persuade Li Boda to raise the budget for his next film, suggesting he not always make low-budget movies but also make some big-budget productions.

After all, low-budget films have such low costs that it's difficult for others to get involved.

However, for big-budget, high-production-value films, there are many more people willing to invest.

After hearing what they said, Li Boda couldn't help but be tempted.

He also has big investments and big projects!

[Infinite Terror] Ah!

Li Boda had always wanted to film this, but the cost was simply too high, and he never had the chance.

Therefore, Li Boda directly stated that he does indeed have a large project with an investment of 600 to 800 million.

However, after Li Boda announced the number, everyone else shut up!

No one talks to Li Boda about starting a big project anymore.

The main problem is that the number is simply too large.

According to their thinking, Li Boda has a big project, worth about 100 to 200 million, which should be enough.

After all, these are roughly the figures for large domestic projects.

Take last year's film "Red Cliff" for example. It had a large investment—600 million yuan—but that 600 million yuan was used to make "Red Cliff" a two-part film. In other words, the total investment for the film was only 300 million yuan.

Li Boda, on the other hand, directly asked for six to eight hundred million. That number is just too big, isn't it?

Li Boda was speechless and helpless when he saw that these people were scared away by his offer.

As expected, the "Infinite Terror" project is still a bit premature at this point.

Regardless, Li Boda's desire to film "Infinite Terror" grew even stronger. So, Li Boda contacted Zhang Heng directly.

"Huh? I write a screenplay?" Zhang Heng's eyes widened, looking completely astonished.

“Yes, you wrote the novel ‘Infinite Terror’, right? Who knows this novel better than you? If you write the screenplay, you can guarantee that it will be faithful to the original.” Li Boda nodded and said.

"But, but I've never written a script before. I have no idea how to write a script!" Zhang Heng was tempted, but also a little hesitant.

This is also the normal thought pattern for most otaku; even if they are attracted, they will hesitate because of fear.

“It’s okay. You take charge of the script’s direction, and I’ll find one or two professional screenwriters to assist you in the writing.”

"But--"

“You wouldn’t want your novel to be messed up by other screenwriters, would you?” Li Boda said in a slightly threatening tone.

"Then, then I'll give it a try?" Zhang Heng was even more tempted after hearing Li Boda's words.

"It's settled then. By the way, how about 100,000 for your scriptwriting fee? After all, you've never written a script before, and for a newcomer, 100,000 is already quite a high offer."

"One hundred thousand—no problem!" Zhang Heng nodded vigorously.

Money is not important at all; what matters is being able to participate in the creation of the script for "Infinite Terror".

This was very novel for him, and it was also a kind of affirmation for him.

So, Li Boda asked Sister Wang to find two decent screenwriters in the industry to meet with Zhang Heng and then work on the script for the novel "Infinite Terror".

Meanwhile, the release date for the movie "Lost in Thailand" also needs to be set.

However, Li Boda and his team encountered a problem when choosing a release date for "Lost in Thailand".

how to say.

In December 09, there weren't many movies released that posed a threat, in the eyes of Li Boda and Sister Wang.

Zhang Yimou's "A Simple Noodle Story" is one, and "The Storm Riders 2" is another, after all, the Storm Riders series is still very popular. This applies to both the previous "Storm Riders 1" and the Storm Riders TV series.

Then there are several other movies, such as "Bodyguards and Assassins".

The competition is quite fierce.

However, Li Boda was not keen on having "Lost in Thailand" released in December.

As long as it's this time of year, it's not yet the Spring Festival travel rush.

The Spring Festival travel rush usually lasts from mid-January to late February, so releasing a film like "Lost in Thailand" during this period would be more in line with reality.

However, in January 2010, there was a movie that made Li Boda and Sister Wang feel like they were facing a formidable enemy: Avatar.

The director of Avatar is James Cameron, the director of Titanic.

Consider the movie Titanic, which grossed over 1.3 billion dollars. To date, no other film has surpassed its box office.

Now, its director, James Cameron, is bringing another blockbuster, and it's rumored to be a 3D movie. It's easy to imagine how many viewers will rush to the cinema to see this film after Avatar is released.

It's worth noting that when Titanic was first released, its box office remained incredibly stable even until it left theaters. For a period in the middle, the daily box office was almost flat, with the same amount each day. It almost never followed a downward trend.

What about Avatar?

Following Avatar, it is said that Confucius, with an investment of 150 million, will be released at the end of the month.

What should we do with "Lost in Thailand"? Should we release it at the end of the month, competing with "Confucius"? Or should we skip January and release it directly in February?
However, releasing the film in February almost meant missing out on the best time during the Spring Festival travel rush.

So Li Boda is really having a headache right now, a really bad one.

It wasn't just Li Boda; Sister Wang was the same.

"How about we release this movie in February?" Third Master Han suggested.

After all, China Film Group is also an investor in this film and has a say in it.

“But the timing isn’t right! Actually, around January 10th would be the best time to release it, but unfortunately, Avatar will only have been out for a week then—” Li Boda suddenly looked at Han Sanye: “Sanye, why don’t you do something to move Avatar’s release date back a bit? Move it to February?”

"...Get out of here! The release date for Avatar has already been set. What's the point of moving it? If it hadn't been set in the first place, it could have been moved a little, but this is already a done deal. How can it be moved?" Han Sanye rolled his eyes, ready to curse.

(End of this chapter)