HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 326 [326] Two films dominate, taking the top two spots at the Hong Kong box office?
Hong Kong.

Qi Yuan and the cast and crew of "Bouquet" held a roadshow to boost ticket sales.

At the event, Qi Yuan sang "Baby" to liven up the atmosphere, eliciting screams from Hong Kong movie fans.

After the roadshow, Wang Jing met with Qi Yuan that evening at the Tai Ping Restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.

Wang Jing is a regular customer here, so he's in charge of taking orders.

Wang Jing ordered several dishes from the waiter. After the waiter left with the menu, he said with some envy, "Brother, you're really something! You starred in the two highest-grossing Chinese films this year. You've made a fortune."

The player with cheat codes, "Life and Death Choice," is not included in Wang Jing's statistics.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon appealed to foreign audiences, but its box office performance in China was mediocre. Chinese audiences really didn't like this film. If it weren't for its huge box office success abroad and its Oscar win next year, it would never have been elevated to such a pedestal in China.

Excluding the two films mentioned above, the two highest-grossing films this year, "Infernal Affairs" and "Bouquet," both starred Qi Yuan.

Qi Yuan didn't take any salary for filming these two movies; he exchanged them all for film shares. How much money did he make?

Wang Jing was itching to collaborate with Qi Yuan on a film.

Qi Yuan thought the same way, and the two hit it off immediately, which led to today's dinner.

However, Wang Jing and Qi Yuan had some differences in their ideas. Wang Jing wanted to cast Qi Yuan as the lead actor, but Qi Yuan didn't want to act and only wanted to give the Starry Sky Group project a chance.

Last time, Lee Hsin made a trip to South Korea and bought the film and television rights to a bunch of novels and comics, including "My Sassy Girl".

"My Sassy Girlfriend" is a web novel. The author, who is not worldly-wise, sold the copyright for 200,000 yuan.

Riding on the success of "Bouquet", Qi Yuan plans to add fuel to the fire by casting Fan Bingbing in "My Sassy Girl", which will solidify her position as a leading lady and make her a shining star in East Asia.

After the dishes were served, Qi Yuan tried the baked crab shell and roasted pigeon, both of which are signature dishes of Taiping Restaurant and tasted good.

Wang Jing skimmed through the script and, as a pure businessman director, judged that the project had potential.

"Not bad, it has a strong commercial feel. If you and Fan Binbin act in it and I direct it, it will definitely be a box office hit."

Qi Yuan shook her head: "Binbin can act, but I won't."

Qi Yuan has already ventured into the Western music scene, making ordinary domestic films somewhat of a chore for him.

His salary for filming "Bouquet" rose to ten million, and now it's even more expensive.

How many film crews in China can afford to hire him?

Even if a production team were to spend ten or twenty million to hire him, it would still be a waste of time and resources.

How much money has he lost in the past few months?
Qi Yuan readjusted his career plan. Ten years ago, he would basically not consider taking on domestic films or TV series. If he had to take on one, he would only do a cameo role.

Ten years ago, the domestic market was too small to support a film with a box office of one billion yuan.

Zhang Yingmou's "Hero," Chen Kaige's first super commercial blockbuster, is a project that could be recorded in the history of Chinese-language cinema, so I might as well participate. But I really can forget about the others.

Wang Jing took a bite of food, and Qi Yuan didn't want to make movies anymore, which didn't surprise him much.

"It seems the outside speculation is true; your songs are making a lot of money overseas."

"It's so-so. We sold about two million copies in Europe and America, but only made eight or nine million before taxes. For a 'new singer' like me in the European and American music scene, writing both lyrics and music, I can only get about 17.5% of the record revenue. The superstars there can get 25%, so there's still a lot of room for improvement."

Qi Yuan sighed sincerely.

Fatty Wang on the other side almost lost his composure.

He was worth over 100 million yuan in the early 1990s, and he might be a little richer than Qi Yuan now, or at the very least, he's on par with Qi Yuan.

Even someone as wealthy as him was somewhat taken aback by Qi Yuan's Versailles quotes.

"Holy crap! A single English song can rake in eight or nine million in Europe and America, and what about in Asia? Over ten million? And then there are all sorts of royalties. You call this 'so-so'?"

Wang Jing thought to himself, "It's a good thing you were born late. If you had been born twenty years earlier, you would definitely have been locked in a recording studio by those Hong Kong big shots and exploited every day."

This is making money faster than a printing press. Wang Jing is a businessman, and he's quite sensitive to money-making matters, so he asked a follow-up question.

"How much will you price that EP you're about to release?"

Qi Yuan casually replied, "The standard edition is $8.99, and the deluxe edition is $12.99."

Wang Jing: "..."

Holy crap! Warner Bros. is fucking shady!

Wang Jing roughly estimated that, according to Qi Yuan, they could get about 17.5% of the record's selling price.

If this EP can sell two million copies in the European and American markets like the previous single, Qi Yuan can get close to 26 million.

What if this EP could sell three million, four million, or five million copies?

What the hell!

After calculating, Wang Jing was stunned. If it were him, he wouldn't want to make domestic films either, but he might consider Hollywood films.

Earning US dollars is so appealing!
Having roughly learned about Qi Yuan's income in the Western music scene, Wang Jing wisely refrained from inviting Qi Yuan to act in movies again.

"Don't worry, I'll invest a little in this film, and you can invest a little. I'll make it well and won't let you and Fan Binbin down."

Wang Jing made a solemn promise.

In recent years, his films have gradually stopped performing well at the box office in Hong Kong, a far cry from the early 1990s.

He also wanted to make a movie with better reviews.

He also knew that Qi Yuan had just promoted Fan Xiaopang to the ranks of top actresses, and Fan Xiaopang needed a good film to solidify her position.

If he dares to cheat in this kind of situation, he'll really get beaten up.

Wang Jing knows exactly when it's okay to slack off and when it's not.

In his own words, the investors just wanted to make some money and didn't care whether the movie was good or bad, so he just put on a show.

If an investor has artistic aspirations and is willing to invest more money, he can also be more serious.

……

On November 24, the box office results for "Bouquet" on its first day of release in Hong Kong were released: HK$517 million.

After Media Asia released this data, the Hong Kong film industry was in an uproar!
Are you kidding me? The Hong Kong film industry in 2000 is going to be dominated by a mainland Chinese?

The second highest-grossing film in Hong Kong this year is "Needing You..." starring Andy Lau and Zheng Xiuwen, which grossed approximately HK$3500 million.

At this rate, "The Bouquet" is very likely to overtake "Needing You...", and Qi Yuan will occupy the first and second place in this year's Hong Kong box office rankings.

Hong Kong media are in an uproar!
Even Li Lianjie, the strongest player in mainland China, wasn't this formidable in Hong Kong.

Li Lianjie's films have consistently been overshadowed by Stephen Chow and Jackie Chan at the box office, making it difficult for him to reach number one.

You've managed to take the top two spots?
[Two films dominate! Will Qi Yuan sweep the box office and claim the top two spots?]

[A box office money-printing machine; the only one who can defeat yourself is yourself.]

[A powerful outsider suppresses a local tyrant; no one in the Hong Kong film industry can rival Qi Yuan!]

……

With the help of the movie "Bouquet" and media hype, Qi Yuan's two new songs began to soar on Hong Kong radio stations, with "You're Beautiful" and "Baby" breaking into the top ten of the radio charts.

These are two English songs! Even Michael Jackson would pale in comparison to Cantonese and Mandarin songs, so why is Qi Yuan so amazing?

(End of this chapter)