The director starts by learning from the abilities of renowned directors.

Chapter 109 Box Office, Tricks, Shock

The film's plot unfolds along two parallel storylines, one of which follows two bumbling thieves, Hu Guangsheng and Li Gensheng. Hu Guangsheng's storyline is full of laughs: during a robbery, he shoots, startling his accomplice, Li Gensheng, and during their escape, he tells Li Gensheng to release the clutch, resulting in the motorcycle crashing into a telephone pole.

The funniest part was the scene where the two of them escaped to Ma Jiaqi's house and then treated their leg injuries.

"This might hurt a bit?"

"This doesn't hurt!"

As a result, while Hu Guangsheng was in excruciating pain in the film, the audience in the theater was so amused they almost died laughing.

Ma Jiaqi asked Da Tou to sprinkle the powder on, and Hu Guangsheng then asked, "Does this hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt!"

Then Hu Guangsheng almost died from the pain again, and the theater erupted in laughter once more.

Hu Guangsheng, in pain, threatened to shoot Ma Jiaqi dead.

The film gives Ma Jiaqi a close-up shot here, without a single line of dialogue. Through the visual language and Wan Qian's acting, the audience can clearly feel Ma Jiaqi's inner thoughts at this moment: she wants to die. Rather than living a crippled and undignified life, she would rather let these two stupid thieves kill her!

Hu Guangsheng and Datou only robbed mobile phone models. The video of their robbery was posted online, leading to ridicule from the entire internet and causing the two bumbling thieves to lose all their dignity.

At the same time, a dripping sound came from under Ma Jiaqi's wheelchair; she had lost control of her bladder.

When Da Tou saw this, he offered to change her diaper, and Ma Jiaqi's dignity was shattered at that moment.

"Don't look at me—what are you going to do? Don't touch me! Try touching me! Try it! You dare come any closer and try it! Don't look at me—don't come any closer—I beg you, please don't come any closer—get lost—it's none of your business—"

At that moment, everyone in the theater was moved. Many people looked at Wan Qian in the front row, impressed by her acting skills. Her performance in "Mr. Donkey" was already memorable, and now she has another role in "The Nameless".

Hu Guangsheng felt pity and agreed to give Ma Jiaqi a ride home.

"What would you like to do before you die?"

At this moment, an interlude begins:

The light falls on your face, you're as lovely as ever, every inch of you is captured in the camera. In the next shot, Hu Guangsheng and Datou carry Ma Jiaqi to the rooftop. The two find a ladder, secure her to it with ropes, and take photos of her standing. Then they lay Ma Jiaqi flat on the rooftop, pose her in various ways, and take photos from above.

The storyline comes to a close, and Ma Xianyong comes to see Ma Jiaqi. It turns out that the reason Ma Jiaqi is disabled is because her brother Ma Xianyong caused a car accident while driving under the influence of alcohol. Ma Xianyong's wife died on the spot, and his sister Ma Jiaqi was disabled.

Hu Guangsheng had already agreed to help Ma Jiaqi die. Ma Jiaqi was saying goodbye to her brother and showing concern for his life, which made Ma Xianyong feel uncomfortable.

So Ma Jiaqi said, "Ma Xianyong, you're so mean! Are you out of your mind? You just need me to yell at you to feel better, don't you?"

"that is!"

"Don't think you can rise to the top just by saying a few nice words. Remember, I am what I am today because of you. You deserve to be a widow with no one to care for you and to be a bachelor for life."

Ma Xianyong outside the door: "Wrong, that's right, that's the real you."

Inside the door, Ma Jiaqi was both crying and laughing. She turned to Hu Guangsheng beside her and said, "I forgive him."

This segment had a nuclear-like effect; the audience's emotions were completely drawn in by Wan Qian's performance.

When Wan Qian laughs in the movie, the audience laughs along; when Wan Qian cries in the movie, the audience cries along.

The storyline reaches its final conclusion, everyone gathers together, and each person faces their own end. Hu Guangsheng and Datou are arrested, and Ma Xianyong is shot.

Ma Jiaqi saw the painting left by Hu Guangsheng. It was very ugly. The painting depicted two small figures, a man and a woman, walking hand in hand on a bridge. There was also a line of text on the painting: "I want to walk the rest of the bridge with you."

The audience suddenly remembered that when Hu Guangsheng wanted to throw Ma Jiaqi off the building to end her life, he had said something like this: "Once we cross the bridge, it's the end of the story."

In an instant, a strong emotion surged through the audience. Everyone felt their noses sting and as if tears were about to fall.

In the end, everyone found their own reconciliation.

Ma Xianyong was shot but did not die and continued to work as a security guard at the construction site; Ma Jiaqi moved in with Ma Xianyong; Hu Guangsheng worked hard to learn nursing in prison in order to reduce his sentence; Datou proposed to Xiamei in prison, and after Xiamei was released from prison, she returned to her hometown to start a legitimate business and take care of Datou's parents.

As the movie ended, the applause in the screening room lasted for a long time.

Shen Qing led the main cast back onto the stage. Shen Qing remained the focus of media attention, but Wan Qian also garnered significant attention this time, with media eagerly bombarding her with questions about her character portrayal. Zhang Yu's acting was also highly praised by the media. The media were particularly interested in his background; everyone was unfamiliar with this actor, and the fact that such a relatively unknown actor had delivered such a moving performance fueled their curiosity about his experiences.

The next day.

The film was officially released nationwide.

Multiple media outlets provided coverage of yesterday's premiere, and audience members who attended the premiere and watched the film also shared their opinions online.

"The Unknowns, a delightful surprise."

"Shen Qing has once again proven that he can handle a variety of genres, while Wan Qian and Zhang Yu have demonstrated just how moving the stories of ordinary people can be."

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"A truly amazing film; Shen Qing's ambition is on full display in this movie."

"A film about ordinary people and dignity, a film you absolutely cannot miss."

"I saw Shen Qing, he's still so handsome. I cried buckets during the movie segment at the end, but don't get me wrong, it's a really good comedy."

"When Ma Jiaqi was posing for photos on the rooftop, some viewers were laughing, some were crying, some started laughing and then started crying, and some started crying and then started laughing."

"I must state: this is a very, very good comedy film, don't be scared by comments like 'It made me cry.' In every way, it's an extremely good comedy film, but comedies can be touching too, right?"

"Ready to watch it again tomorrow."

Shen Qing continued to lead the main cast on promotional tours, and judging from feedback from various parties, the film seems to be receiving very positive responses.

On the 18th.

The film's opening day box office figures are in: 2650 million.

Wan Qian breathed a sigh of relief. This was already the best result among the movies she starred in, and it also exceeded the opening day box office of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by more than 1 million.

On the 19th.

According to the box office data from the previous day, the film grossed 2980 million yuan.

On the 20th.

The box office figures for the third day of the film's release are in. The film grossed 3015 million yuan on the 19th.

As of 24:00 on the 19th, the film's total box office revenue for the first three days of its release was 8645 million.

Meanwhile, media outlets reported the opening week box office results of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," which was released on the 15th. As of 24:00 on the 19th, the film had been released for a total of 5 days, accumulating a box office of 1.23 million yuan.

The media has already published headlines: Last week's box office data is fresh out of the oven, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" raked in 1.23 million yuan, and director Shen Qing's "The Unknown" earned a whopping 8645 million yuan.

Upon seeing the related reports, Shen Qing hurriedly contacted Chen Zhixi.

"What's wrong with that media outlet? Our movie was only in theaters for 3 days last week, while Harry Potter 6 was in theaters for 5 days. Comparing the box office of the two movies together will mislead the audience."

"I'm contacting the other party to handle this, and the media outlets we have good relations with are already providing explanations."

"How much did Harry Potter 6 gross in its first three days?"

8650.

"They have 5 more than us!" Shen Qing exclaimed in surprise.

"Nobody expected this movie to be so amazing!" Chen Zhixi said.

"Forget it, let's not worry about it. As long as we don't compare it to other films, the box office performance of 'The Unknown' is already quite good. It made 2650 million on its opening day and has a chance to reach 3 million."

The internet has become quite lively.

"Actually, it's normal that Shen Qing didn't beat Harry Potter 6 this time. The investment is on a completely different level. One might only have 3000 million RMB, while the other has 2.5 million USD."

"It's not exactly a loss, is it? Didn't it beat 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' at the box office on its opening day?"

"It's precisely because the opening day box office was a success, but the box office for the first three days was a failure, that we say Shen Qing actually lost this time. The success on the opening day means that Shen Qing has many fans who are willing to spend money to support her. The failure in the cumulative box office for the first three days means that the quality of the film did not meet expectations and the word-of-mouth was not good."

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"The Unknown's reputation is absolutely phenomenal, okay?"

"The Unknown has a Douban rating of 8.4, and Harry Potter 6 also has a rating of 8.4, so it's actually a tie."

"It's strange. The Unknown was released two days later than Harry Potter 6, but the number of ratings for the two films on Douban is about the same, and the Unknown even has a little more."

"I just went to check, and it really is! Do you guys think the box office figures for 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' might be inaccurate?"

"It's very likely that when I went to the cinema today, far more people bought tickets for 'The Unknown' than for 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'."

"That's definitely not normal."

"Many people around me watch 'The Unknown,' but very few watch 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.'"

"The same goes for people around me."

After seeing the reports that "The Unknown" lost to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" at the box office, Lu Chuan felt extremely pleased. However, when he saw that netizens were actually questioning the box office performance of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," Lu Chuan couldn't help but secretly scoff. He couldn't resist posting a blog entry about this phenomenon.

Immediately following this, CCTV published a report: "Harry Potter 6" Opening Weekly Box Office in Mainland China Was Inflated.

On Wednesday, July 15th, *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince* will be released simultaneously in Chinese cinemas with its global release.

Recently, some Shanghai media outlets reported that "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" easily grossed 1.23 million yuan in its opening week in mainland China. However, after summarizing the actual box office figures from major cinemas and analyzing authoritative data, it can be seen that the "1.23 million yuan opening week box office" claim is largely inflated. The accurate opening week box office for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" should be 85 million yuan.

After seeing the report, Lu Chuan was stunned for a moment and silently deleted the blog post that she had already written several hundred words.

"So, Harry Potter 6's box office in its opening five days was 85 million?"

Chen Zhixi called specifically to discuss this matter, and Shen Qing asked the question mentioned above.

"Yes, I've verified it with President Han. According to the most accurate figures from the Special Fund Office, 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' grossed 85 million yuan in its first five days, while our film grossed 86.5 million yuan in just three days in its first week."

"They actually overstated the amount!"

"Actually, it's not that much, Mr. Shen. These days, inflating box office figures by 50% is common practice in the industry; inflating it by 100% is even more common."

There are quite a few of them.

"As I said before, regardless of whether others are exaggerating or not, and regardless of why everyone is so keen on exaggerating, we will only take care of ourselves and we will never exaggerate."

"certainly."

The internet exploded on China's internet.

In fact, inflating box office figures is an extremely common practice at this time. Almost 90% of movies do this. This kind of thing is not unusual. What is unusual is that "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" actually beat Shen Qing's "The Unknown" after inflating its box office figures. After the inflated box office figures were excluded, the final result was that "The Unknown" won the box office of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" in 3 days compared to "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" in 5 days.

"Huh? I just heard people discussing this morning that Shen Qing lost to *Harry Potter 6*, so that's how he lost?"

"How can we lose when our box office in one day is more than our opponent's box office in five days?"