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

Chapter 230 The Battle for the Sequel
"Dear Li, when are you planning to film the second part of 'Infinite Terror'? I've already prepared the money." The Lionsgate executive was exceptionally enthusiastic upon seeing Li Boda, giving him a big hug right away.

"The script for the second part of 【Infinite Terror】 is still being written. As for when it will be filmed, we'll have to wait until the script is finished before we can say for sure," Li Boda explained with a smile.

“Dear Li, we can definitely start the project first, and we can refine the script after the project is approved.”

"I don't think that's a good idea. After all, nobody knows when the script for the second part of Infinite Terror will be written. If there's anything wrong with it and it needs to be revised repeatedly, it might delay the filming time, which would be worse."

"My dear, you're not thinking of cutting ties with your best partner, are you?" the Lionsgate executive couldn't help but ask.

【Infinite Terror】is a very good project. The movie 【Infinite Terror】 grossed 410 million US dollars worldwide, while its investment was only 90 million US dollars. After deducting the cost, the profit was about 30 to 40 million US dollars. Even though this money needs to be shared by many people, it is still not a small amount.

Most importantly, the DVDs of "Infinite Terror" sold extremely well in North America, generating nearly $100 million in profits from DVD sales alone. Even with a small share of the profits, Lionsgate and Legendary Pictures were still raking in the cash, since North America was their territory.

So, Lionsgate invested five million US dollars in the movie "Infinite Terror," but earned nearly twenty million US dollars in profit.

Such a lucrative project is something that neither Lionsgate nor Legendary Pictures would want to miss out on.

So Lionsgate and Legendary Pictures came to China one after the other to find Li Boda, intending to finalize their investment in the second installment of "Infinite Terror," and this time, they even planned to invest more money.

"Don't worry, of course not, of course not! After all, [Infinite Terror] still needs you guys to be able to be released in North America. So I won't abandon you guys," Li Boda said.

"Haha, dear Li, you're right to think that way. In fact, if it weren't for our efforts behind the scenes, 'Infinite Terror' wouldn't have been able to be released in North America so easily. In fact, its box office in North America would have been discounted. It was because we monitored the theaters that we were able to get the real data," the Lionsgate executive said happily.

"That's why I believe we need to continue our cooperation."

"Yes, dear Lee, you've said too much. So, how much is the expected investment for the second part of 'Infinite Terror'? One hundred million US dollars? Lionsgate can invest thirty million US dollars, and if you can't get that much investment, we can invest even more."

“No, no, no, thirty million US dollars is too much, too much of a share. You have to understand, there were seven investors in the original Infinite Terror. So if we're making Infinite Terror 2, I still hope that all seven of us can continue to work together. Of course, if anyone wants to withdraw, I won't object, but if they don't withdraw voluntarily, I absolutely will not reduce their share or even prevent them from investing,” Li Boda explained.

"No, dear Li, I think you should broaden your horizons. We don't need that much investment from China. With you in China, that's enough. As for the rest, Lionsgate can take on much more..."

For the second installment of "Infinite Terror," which hasn't even been officially launched yet, many people have already approached Li Boda. Those who didn't invest in the first installment want to step in and invest in the second part of "Infinite Terror," such as Huayi Brothers.

Those who invested in the first film want to invest in the second film as well, and also want to get a larger share.

In fact, Li Boda's investment proportion was indeed a bit too large.

When the first film, "Infinite Terror," was initially unable to secure investment, Li Boda took half of the 600 million investment. In addition, he also bought the rights to the "Infinite Terror" novel, the rights to "Resident Evil" and "Alien," and paid for directing, etc. In reality, Li Boda accounted for approximately 55% of the investment.

The remaining six companies will divide up the 45 percent.

Now, those six companies that were previously involved want to take a cut from Li Boda's 55% investment share.

However, Li Boda himself was not very willing.

After all, it's not like Li Boda can't come up with the money.

In just one year, 'Magic Cube Technology' has made a considerable profit.

As for the total investment in the second part of "Infinite Terror"?
It's not really certain yet, but if we calculate based on filming costs, the filming cost of the second movie will be much less than that of the first movie.

At least the second part only involves one movie, "Ju-on".

Not only did the copyright fees drop by millions of dollars, but the actors' salaries also decreased significantly.

Actors in small countries are paid much less than Hollywood actors.

Hollywood stars earn three to five million US dollars per movie, while actors in Japan earn the same amount, but in Japanese yen. The difference is enormous.

It's fair to say that just the actors' salaries in the movie's background story alone could save $20 million.

While Huang Xiaoming and Zhao Liying's salaries will certainly increase significantly, it will definitely not be as exaggerated as an increase of 20 million US dollars.

However, as is customary, sequels generally have a larger budget than the first film.

Li Boda publicly quoted a budget of 100 million US dollars for the second installment of "Infinite Terror," and no one else would object; the budget would be calculated exactly as 100 million US dollars. Of course, the production team had a producer, so at least on the surface, that 100 million US dollars had to be genuinely spent.

However, this was not a problem for Li Boda at all.

If Li Boda really did quote a $100 million investment, then whatever the cost of making the movie, Li Boda could simply say that the rest would be used for special effects.

After all, Li Boda's own special effects are quite good. When he was doing the special effects for the first part of "Infinite Terror", the quoted price was only one-third of the normal price. Li Boda could have easily changed the price to match the outside price.

So if Li Boda really wanted to spend that hundred million dollars, he could easily spend it all.

As for the script for the second part of "Infinite Terror", Zhang Heng had actually already written it. However, because Li Boda wanted to expand the "Infinite Terror" film and television world as much as possible, Zhang Heng made a lot of revisions and improvements to the novel "Infinite Terror". Therefore, Zhang Heng couldn't help but ask for the script for the second part of "Infinite Terror" back, intending to revise and improve it again.

Li Boda naturally had no objection to this.

Meanwhile, Li Boda took the opportunity to begin a series of tasks within 'Magic Cube Technology'.

First, the architecture and performance of the 'Cube 4th Generation' phone were modified and improved, and the phone system was updated, in an effort to create a classic 'Cube 4th Generation' phone.

Based on the abilities revealed by the character Chu Xuan, Li Boda's task of perfecting and upgrading the 'Rubik's Cube Generation 4' machine was not particularly difficult.

In addition, Li Boda is also upgrading the technology of his special effects company.

Since the release of "Infinite Terror", many domestic projects that need special effects have come to 'Cube Special Effects' company.

Li Boda naturally wouldn't turn away these projects. After all, the special effects company had already been established, and it would be a real loss if they didn't take on some projects to recoup their costs.

Li Boda's 'Rubik's Cube Effects' company has a level of expertise that has been highly praised by all who have worked with them.

However, Li Boda was not entirely satisfied, as the upper limit of the 'Rubik's Cube effect' was still somewhat lacking compared to the top-tier special effects from Hollywood.

This time, Li Boda has upgraded the special effects technology again, bringing it up to, no, surpassing, the level of special effects in Hollywood.

However, whether it's the phone or the special effects, having Li Boda do both by himself is ultimately a bit slow and takes a bit more time.

It's normal that Chu Xuan, who played Li Boda in "Infinite Terror," wasn't the main character, as his feedback ability was a bit weaker.

Li Boda quietly began working on mobile phones, improving their special effects.

The actors in the movie "Infinite Terror" have all taken off this time.

Before the release of "Infinite Terror", Zhao Liying was approached by several film companies, including Zhang Yimou's. However, at that time, these films were just taking a gamble, and the salary offered to Zhao Liying was not very high.

But this time it was different; Zhao Liying's salary increased several times over.

Originally, Zhao Liying's salary for a movie was only around one million yuan. Now, someone invited Zhao Liying to make a movie, and her salary has suddenly increased to five or six million yuan.

Besides Zhao Liying, Yan Kuan, Huang Xiaoming, Liu Shishi, Hu Ge, and even Chen Weiting, their salaries have skyrocketed, and they have also received a lot of offers to star in movies.

It can be said that these people are currently the most popular group of artists. Even Jackie Chan and Jet Li need to temporarily lay low for now.

With just one movie, they practically became top stars in the industry.

Most importantly, these people have already gained some fame abroad, even in Hollywood, which is what makes celebrities envious the most.

Therefore, at this time, many more actors in the industry frantically tried to find Li Boda and establish a relationship with him, hoping that they could get involved in the filming of the second part of "Infinite Terror" and play a role or something.

Even Zhang Ziyi, who is said to have become an international superstar and a Hollywood star, began to try every means to meet with Li Boda.

After all, Zhang Ziyi is known as "International Zhang" to the outside world, but in reality, she's just so-so. She doesn't really make it big internationally. Now that there's the "Infinite Terror" series, Zhang Ziyi really wants to get involved so that she can truly live up to her title of "International Zhang".

(End of this chapter)