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

Chapter 249 Spring Festival Gala
After December 2013, the domestic film market became the domain of "Infinite Terror 3".

In movie theaters, the vast majority of films showing are "Infinite Terror 3".

The audience members who entered and left the movie theater were all talking about "Infinite Terror 3".

After a month in theaters and grossing 1.6 billion yuan, "Infinite Terror 3" has also received a delay key, meaning it will continue to be shown in theaters.

Overseas, "Infinite Terror 3" also performed very well at the box office. In Japan, a small country, it grossed nearly 10 billion yen after a month of release.

In North America, after a month of release, the film grossed $130 million and will continue to be shown in theaters.

Compared to China, where a movie typically has a one-month run, movies in North America often have much longer run times, with some lasting two or three months, and others even six months.

It's fair to say that "Infinite Terror 3" has been incredibly popular worldwide, rivaling "Iron Man 3" which was released over half a year ago. In fact, in China and other East and Southeast Asian countries, "Infinite Terror 3" has performed even better at the box office than "Iron Man 3".

At this point, almost everyone knew that the movie "Infinite Terror 3" was a huge hit.

Everyone started paying attention to, being optimistic about, and even envious of the [Infinite Terror] series project.

Countless people want to participate in the "Infinite Terror" film series and want to get involved in the investment.

Meanwhile, many people in Hollywood have already started eyeing the film rights involved in the "Infinite Terror" series.

Many Hollywood entertainment companies have tried to buy the rights to films like "Final Destination" and "Jurassic Park," which are related to the production of subsequent "Infinite Terror" films.

However, no one was willing to let go, because everyone knew that as long as they held onto the copyright, they could definitely use it to their advantage to invest in and produce the "Infinite Terror" film series, which would surely make them a fortune.

These entertainment companies that hold the copyrights are absolutely thrilled with the "Infinite Terror" film series.

After all, the copyrights of series like Iron Man and Marvel are all in their own hands. Whether it's investment or anything else, outsiders have very little chance to get involved.

However, the Infinite Terror series is different. Because the film and television rights for the Infinite Terror series are held by different entertainment companies in Hollywood, they all welcome the Infinite Terror series movies very much, and they even hope that the Infinite Terror series can achieve more and higher box office results.

Given this situation, surprisingly, no one in Hollywood was willing to sabotage the "Infinite Terror" series.

After all, the "Infinite Terror" film series has inadvertently brought together numerous entertainment companies, forming a united front.

In fact, many entertainment companies or agents from Hollywood secretly traveled to China to contact Zhang Heng, the author of "Infinite Terror," in an attempt to purchase the subsequent rights to the novel.

However, the copyrights for the sequels and spin-offs of "Infinite Terror" were all bought by Li Boda in advance, and at a considerable price, so these people ultimately had to return empty-handed.

However, it can't be said that they all came up empty-handed. These people began to tempt Zhang Heng, hoping that when Zhang Heng wrote about movie worlds in his future works, he would write about movies whose copyrights they owned.

After all, if the horror movies featured in Zhang Heng's subsequent novels are based on their films, then when the "Infinite Terror" movie is made, they'll have to collaborate with them to acquire the film rights. Whether the "Infinite Terror" production team pays a high price for the rights or has them invest in the film rights as equity in the "Infinite Terror" movie, they'll profit.

Zhang Heng also took the opportunity to eat a lot, leaving his mouth greasy.

At this point, Zhang Heng was practically the envy of all online novel authors.

Zhang Heng's success was largely due to his novel being chosen by Li Boda and adapted into a film.

Therefore, more and more online writers are starting to write their books on the Mofang Literature website.

Ultimately, this led to a huge change in the entire landscape of online literature.

One is extremely powerful, and the rest are just so-so. Even Shanda Literature was crushed into nothing.

Meanwhile, some online literature websites that were already very small in scale have closed down one after another.

At this point, Magic Cube Literature was like Penguin in the field of communication software, almost becoming a monopoly.

In fact, after the explosive popularity of "Infinite Terror", many people have started to pay attention to online novels. Many companies have tried to stockpile the copyrights of online novels, and some directors have even started to take a liking to a certain novel and then adapt it into a movie or TV series.

Because of Li Boda's involvement, the film and television copyrights of online novels have begun to receive attention, and the copyright prices have started to rise rapidly. Even the subscription price has started to increase.

This made many online writers feel genuinely grateful to Li Boda.

Of course, Li Boda was aware of all of the above. After all, Mofang Literature was his company, and he was well aware of its development. In fact, he had been quietly promoting the development of online literature behind the scenes.

After all, Li Boda really liked and appreciated the imaginative ideas in online novels.

Just like the character Chu Xuan.

Only online novels could create such a character.

Li Boda also hopes that, with the development of online novels, even more outstanding characters than Chu Xuan will emerge. In the future, whatever Li Boda desires, he can find it entirely through online novels.

……

In the blink of an eye, the New Year of 2014 has arrived.

After two months in theaters, "Infinite Terror 3" has finally been taken off the screens.

The final box office of "Infinite Terror 3" in China reached 2.3 billion yuan, meaning that it earned over 300 million US dollars domestically alone. (The first film to surpass 2 billion yuan at the Chinese box office was in 2015, so this figure is quite reasonable, as the record was broken a year and a half earlier.)
This figure far exceeds the box office of "Iron Man 3" in China, where it only grossed $3 million.

However, Iron Man 3 grossed $300 million in North America, a figure similar to that of Infinite Terror 3 in China.

In North America, "Infinite Terror 3" only grossed a little over 100 million US dollars.

So, while the box office figures for "Infinite Terror 3" and "Iron Man 3" were reversed domestically, their total box office figures were roughly the same.

In fact, Infinite Terror 3 grossed significantly more in Asia than Iron Man 3.

Iron Man 3, however, grossed significantly more at the box office in North America, Europe, and other regions and countries than Infinite Terror 3.

When Infinite Terror 3 finally finished its run in theaters, its total global box office was almost the same as Iron Man 3, less than 1.3 billion US dollars.

The two films had roughly the same total box office, but their domestic box office was slightly higher.

However, the total box office of "Infinite Terror 3" speaks for itself, so the "Infinite Terror" series, as a major IP, is indeed the envy of many.

Meanwhile, the box office success of "Infinite Terror 3" in China has made Hollywood and other regions realize just how huge the Chinese film market is.

As a result, many Hollywood movies have started to incorporate Chinese elements, such as Chinese kung fu, or have Chinese stars or people of Chinese descent make cameo appearances or play roles in their films.

Of course, a more radical approach was to choose to collaborate with Chinese directors and co-produce films. For example, Zhang Yimou's "The Great Wall" had already been contracted by two Hollywood companies to co-produce the film.

However, none of this has anything to do with Li Boda for the time being.

Or rather, Li Boda himself ignored the outside world; whenever Hollywood or anyone else tried to approach him, Li Boda turned them away.

Because at this time, Li Boda had already started participating in CCTV's Spring Festival Gala.

That's right, Li Boda is participating in CCTV's Spring Festival Gala again.

Li Boda had previously participated in CCTV's Spring Festival Gala twice. This time, he hadn't originally planned to participate in CCTV's Spring Festival Gala.

However, due to the success of "Infinite Terror 3" and the explosive popularity of the movie "Chu Xuan", CCTV's Spring Festival Gala was very eager to have Li Boda. So they invited Li Boda more than once. They even told Li Boda that he didn't need to rehearse. They could just select the program and go on stage on New Year's Eve.

You should know that the CCTV Spring Festival Gala is a very strict and large-scale stage.

They even offered such conditions; it wouldn't be right for Li Boda to refuse. After all, Li Boda had participated in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala twice before, so they had some connections. He couldn't very well refuse the CCTV Spring Festival Gala outright.

Therefore, Li Boda agreed to participate in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

Although CCTV Spring Festival Gala said that Li Boda did not need to participate in the rehearsal, Li Boda still participated in two rehearsals.

After all, the order of appearance, the time of appearance, the total length of the program, and other aspects still need to be considered.

Besides Li Boda, Zhao Liying was also invited to the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Not only Zhao Liying, but also Yan Kuan, Huang Xiaoming and others were invited.

After all, with such amazing success, it would be strange if CCTV didn't invite them to the Spring Festival Gala.

Li Boda originally planned to invite Zhao Liying to appear on a show together, but after discovering that Zhao Liying had already received an invitation to appear on a show with Huang Xiaoming and Yan Kuan, Li Boda gave up the idea of ​​participating in the show with Zhao Liying.

Then Li Boda chose Niu Li, a regular performer on the Spring Festival Gala, and Lei Luosheng, a veteran actor who had participated in the Spring Festival Gala many times. He was the father-in-law who was once hit on the head by Huang Hong.

The program that Li Boda and his two companions were to perform on the Spring Festival Gala was a skit.

A short skit about quitting gambling.

The reason for this is that Li Boda had previously performed magic on the Spring Festival Gala stage.

The skit is about Lei Luosheng, the father-in-law, who has become addicted to gambling. His daughter, Niu Li, seeks out Li Boda, a magician, hoping that Li Boda can use magic to wake Lei Luosheng up and make him understand what it means to be a gambler who is cheated nine times out of ten and will inevitably lose in the long run.

The main attraction of this show is, of course, Li Boda's magic performances. Using tools such as playing cards, mahjong tiles, and dice, he demonstrates various ingenious control techniques, showing the audience why nine out of ten gamblers are cheating and why long-term gambling inevitably leads to losses.

Li Boda employed all sorts of cheating methods, such as swapping cards and stealing cards, to create a variety of ingenious schemes.

When Li Boda performed the skit, the person in charge of the Spring Festival Gala immediately saw the light and made the decision to include the program in the Gala.

On the eve of Chinese New Year, backstage at the Spring Festival Gala.

As soon as Li Boda arrived, a lot of people surrounded him, greeting him warmly as if he were an ancestor—no, they were even more so than if they were an ancestor.

Li Boda wasn't surprised by this, after all, he was now a highly sought-after figure both domestically and internationally.

These people came to Li Boda to build relationships and get close to him, mainly just to make Li Boda remember them.

However, the security work for the Spring Festival Gala was done very well.

In no time, security guards came out, separated the people, and escorted Li Boda to the dressing room, and then things finally calmed down.

Niu Li and Lei Luosheng, who were following Li Boda, looked at him with envy in their eyes.

The level of achievement that Li Boda reached is something they could never attain in their entire lives.

However, the fact that they now have the opportunity to cooperate with Li Boda is already a great fortune for them, and thinking about it this way, they feel a sense of pride.

At eight o'clock, the Spring Festival Gala finally began, starting with a grand song and dance performance as the opening ceremony, followed by the appearance of the five hosts on stage.

Li Boda sat in the dressing room, watching the Spring Festival Gala through the TV in the dressing room. He felt very relaxed and not nervous at all.

In contrast to Li Boda's relaxed demeanor, his two partners, Niu Li and Lei Luosheng, were quite the opposite. Even though they had participated in the Spring Festival Gala many times, they were still nervous, their palms sweating, and they would occasionally look down at the script, afraid that something might go wrong.

After four performances, it was Li Boda and his group's turn to appear.

That's right, Li Boda's skit was the fifth to appear.

The main reason for this decision was to take into account Li Boda's own ideas. Li Boda wanted his program to be scheduled earlier, since he wanted to finish the performance sooner and relax sooner.

Before the show started, we could only stay backstage, where there were so many people and it was all very chaotic.

After the show, whether you leave the TV station or sit in the audience watching the show, you feel much freer.

Therefore, the first skit program of the Spring Festival Gala was Li Boda's program.

While the fourth performance was still underway, Li Boda, Niu Li, Lei Luosheng, and the others were already prepared.

After the host announced their show, "Nine out of ten bets are rigged, and those who gamble for a long time will inevitably lose," the lights went out, and Lei Luosheng, accompanied by the background room, rose up from below the stage.

Then Li Boda and Niu Li appeared from another stage.

"Brother Li, I'm counting on you this time. You have to show me your best skills and let my dad know that gambling is a dangerous thing to do; it's all a scam..."

"Don't worry, I'll show your dad what it means to bet nine out of ten times it's rigged and that you'll always lose in the long run."

The conversation between Li Boda and Niu Li reveals the main storyline: Niu Li's elderly father was scammed and became addicted to gambling, prompting her to seek out Li Boda, a magic master, to help her father quit gambling.

Subsequently, Li Boda began to demonstrate various astonishing techniques, such as cutting cards, exchanging cards, and stealing cards.

The various fraudulent methods were dazzling, leaving Lei Luosheng completely bewildered.

This also left the audience in the stands and those watching on television completely bewildered.

This makes many people realize that ordinary people like them are just fools in the hands of professionals. They can be easily fooled and made to lose money. There is no such thing as probability. Even if you win, it is because they let you win so that you can become addicted.

After watching this program, many people began to avoid gambling altogether.

Of course, these are all normal people. There are also some who are not so normal, but they can't help but have their eyes light up. Since Li Boda's gambling skills are so good, if they learn them, they will definitely win when they go to the casino!
So these people began to try every means to learn Li Boda's gambling skills, and some even started to think about how to get close to Li Boda and become his apprentice.

Although this group is a minority, it does exist.

After all, the world is so big and full of wonders.

Li Boda was unaware of this. After the skit ended, he sat in the audience section at the front of the stage, intending to watch the Spring Festival Gala live.

After all, on New Year's Eve, Li Boda usually just stays at home watching the Spring Festival Gala.

Watching the Spring Festival Gala at home is the same as watching it live, so I might as well stay and watch it live; it's more lively.

However, after Li Boda arrived at the front of the audience, some people began to quietly run towards him, trying to get close to him, making it impossible for Li Boda to watch the show in peace.

In the end, I had to resort to some tricks to reduce my presence so that I could watch the show in peace.

(End of this chapter)