HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 410 [410] Just kick this box office poison out!

Riding this wave of opportunity, Qi Yuan once again dominated many news headlines in mainland China, Hong Kong, and the United States.

Artists who plan to release new albums or have new movies ready to be released soon are all stunned.

Qi Yuan, you scoundrel! You can't even keep quiet during your opening concert. Do you own all the newspapers in the country? It's a huge struggle for us to get on the front page, but for you, it's as easy as eating and drinking.

There was nothing they could do; they had no choice but to accept it.

Who can blame Qi Yuan for having an unfair advantage?
"Rush Hour 2" is Jackie Chan's peak, and also the peak of Chinese actors in Hollywood. He caught this wave of popularity.

He made headlines again in the US, and given his knack for generating buzz, all the right factors combined made it difficult for him not to become the center of attention.

……

Hong Kong.

Zhou Ruifa is very irritable lately!

During his time back in Hong Kong, he saw Qi Yuan occupying the pages of Hong Kong newspapers more than once.

First, he swept all the major awards at the Taiwan Golden Melody Awards, then he retired at the age of 32 to receive the Hong Kong and Taiwan Music Awards, then he held a concert for 70,000 people with Latin pop star Shakira as a guest performer... Now, another lucky star has come along and remotely helped Jackie Chan defeat "The War of the Monkey King".

If these events, along with Qi Yuan's success in Europe and America, only made Zhou Ruifa a little envious, then what truly made him hate Qi Yuan was the trigger from a few days ago.

When reporters interviewed foreign tourists, one of the questions they asked was which Chinese superstars the tourists recognized.

Cheng Long was mentioned the most by foreign tourists, followed by Qi Yuan and Li Lianjie, while Zhou Ruifa was not recognized.

This caused Zhou Ruifa to break down his defenses, and he began to consider himself an international superstar in China.

When domestic film crews want to hire him, he puts on airs and demands high pay and benefits, using his international superstar status to inflate his price.

As a result, a reporter's interview exposed his true colors as an international superstar. Doesn't he have any pride?

At best, this is a loss of face; at worst, it will affect his commercial value in China.

Once his international superstar image is shattered, no one will pay attention to him when he tries to act high and mighty in China.

Although this street interview was initiated by media reporters and had nothing to do with Qi Yuan.

However, Qi Yuan's fans have become somewhat arrogant recently, and they've made some noise about Li Lianjie and Zhou Ruifa, but that's not all.

Popular celebrities usually have arrogant fans, especially young and ambitious artists like Qi Yuan who have become famous internationally.

In the eyes of these fans, Li Lianjie and Cheng Long are both just so-so.

No matter how much you praise Li Lianjie's status as the king of B-movies, he can't compare to the leading man in A-movies. To put it nicely, his DVD sales are better than his box office sales; to put it bluntly, he lacks commercial value and can't attract enough viewers to the theater.

Li Lianjie has never acted in a major A-list production, and there aren't many other reasons. There's only one: Hollywood doesn't believe he can carry A-list films.
In Europe and America, Qi Yuan far surpasses Li Lianjie in terms of commercial value.

Even Jackie Chan wouldn't dare say he can outperform Qi Yuan now, because Qi Yuan's records are selling too well.

Cheng Long's advantage lies in his early start in Europe and America, and currently more people know him than Qi Yuan.

If Qi Yuan can maintain his consistent performance, he might be able to completely surpass him in a year or two.

In response to the comments from Qi Yuan's fans, Zhou Ruifa's fans disagreed and engaged in a war of words with Qi Yuan's fans.

Ultimately, this affected the person in question. In addition, Zhou Ruifa already disliked Qi Yuan, and with old grudges and new hatred added to the mix, his feelings towards Qi Yuan escalated from dislike to disgust!
Just when Zhou Ruifa was in a bad mood, his wife, who was also his agent, Chen Huilian, brought even worse news.

"Director Chen looked at the terms we offered, and his wife gave us her reply. She said that even if your salary and benefits were halved, they wouldn't consider hiring you." Zhou Ruifa was furious: "How dare he!"

The gist of the matter is roughly as follows.

For a long time, mainland investors have had a biased view of Hong Kong and Taiwanese stars, especially those like Chow Sau-fat who have worked in Hollywood.

Investors heard that Zhou Ruifa would be staying in China for quite some time, and they hoped that Chen Kaige could invite Zhou Ruifa to join them, forming a powerful duo with Qi Yuan.

Chen Kaige gave the investors face by allowing his wife and producer, Chen Hong, to contact Chen Huilian.

As a result, Chen Huilian's opening remarks left Chen Kaige and his wife speechless.

Zhou Ruifa, taking advantage of the huge overseas box office success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and its Oscar win, demanded a sky-high salary of eight million US dollars.

High pay is just one of the conditions. He also wants to stay in a hotel of a certain level, use a vehicle for transportation, and prepare a 10-meter RV for him to use for toileting... The various requirements cannot be written down on an A4 sheet of paper.

Chen Kaige was stunned.

He asked his wife to meet with Zhou Ruifa to give the investor face, but Zhou Ruifa treated him like a great traitor.
He is the top director in mainland China and the only winner of the Palme d'Or in the country. With "Bouquet", he became the top commercial director in mainland China. The film has grossed more than 3.6 million yuan in Asia and its broadcasting rights have been sold to many countries.

He cast Zhou Ruifa in a film and paid Zhou Ruifa a fee, so the director has to kneel down for him?

Furthermore, Qi Yuan did not ask for an eight million dollar salary, nor did he make any demands. His accommodation and meals were arranged by the production team.

You're some nobody who's known abroad, what are you pretending to be an international superstar for? Are you more famous than Qi Yuan overseas?
Chen Kaige told Chen Hong at the time that he would reply to Zhou Ruifa's agent that he would not use Zhou Ruifa even if the conditions were lowered by half, and that he would not use Zhou Ruifa in any of his future films.

If it weren't for his status as a cultured person, Chen Kaige would have definitely sworn a few curse words back.

"Did they really say that?"

Zhou Ruifa was furious!
He asked for the same price in Hollywood, so what does Chen Kaige mean by that? Does he think he's not worth eight million?

Chen Kaige has a great influence in the domestic film industry. Zhou Ruifa was criticized by Chen Kaige, but he did not speak out.

First, foreign tourists didn't recognize him, and then the top director in mainland China declared he would never use him. These two events happening in quick succession will definitely damage his commercial value.

But secrets don't stay hidden forever. Both Chen Kaige and Zhou Ruifa had people around them who knew about this.

It's unclear which side's mole leaked the information.

[The "God of Gamblers" has asked for eight million US dollars; Chen Kaige declares he will never use him again!]

Is Chow Shui-fat, who achieved great success with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," really worth eight million US dollars?

[The "God of Gamblers" angers Chan Kai-ge, who then directly attacks Chow Shui-fat!]

These exposé articles have sent shockwaves through the entire Chinese entertainment industry!

This was definitely a major news story in the Chinese film industry in 01.

One is the top director in mainland China, and the other is an 'international superstar' who has been working in Hollywood for several years. When the two have a conflict, the topic immediately becomes a hot one.

……

Qi Yuan, who was in Beijing preparing for her second concert with 70,000 attendees, was delighted to hear the news.

Although he didn't know why Chen Kaige was dealing with Zhou Ruifa, he felt that Chen Kaige was right to kick out this box office poison.

(End of this chapter)