Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Zhang Shuo and Qu Lingbei could hardly believe their ears after receiving Lu Chengyu’s call. Mr. Lu actually contacted the theater so quickly, and the other party was even the famous domestic Yuhe Cinema. This was beyond their expectations.
“This Mr. Lu is really not a simple person.” Qu Lingbei thought of Lu Chengyu’s usual behavior. The other party was a very graceful and easy-going young man. The crew, from the director to the handyman, seemed to have a good impression of him.
Moreover, this person knew the disadvantages of laymen guiding professionals. When filming the movie, he never gave them instructions, nor did he let the screenwriter modify the script just because an actor was pleasing to him. This was really rare in the circle.
In this circle, to put it bluntly, except for a few famous screenwriters, other screenwriters were mostly forced to change the script. Even the male lead could become the second male lead, and the female lead could become the third female lead. They originally thought that Lu Chengyu wanted to play by himself, so he did this. But in fact, he was not very interested in filming, and even only played a small supporting role for the sake of image and cost saving.
“He is capable, but as long as I look at his face, I unconsciously think of him as a college graduate,” Zhang Shuo scratched his head, “Then shall we send the things over now?”
“If we don’t send it over, will you keep it for yourself?” He remembered that the promotional poster was designed by the person contacted by Mr. Lu, “Hurry up and move the things to the car.”
The two moved the brochures and posters to the somewhat broken van, and then drove all the way to Yuhe Film and Television City. When they arrived at the destination, they saw Lu Chengyu waiting for them at the gate.
“Thank you for your hard work,” Lu Chengyu walked over to the two of them and helped carry a box of things, “I’ve already contacted Brother Zhuang, we’ll go up now.”
Zhang Shuo followed him nervously, and after entering the elevator, he asked anxiously, “Mr. Lu, how many shows will the owner of the cinema arrange for us every day?”
“Are you worried?” Lu Chengyu turned around and saw that Zhang Shuo and Qu Lingbei were both nervous, so he smiled and said, “I trust you very much. Even if they arrange fewer shows at the beginning, they will definitely add more shows later.”
Zhang Shuo and Qu Lingbei blushed when they heard this, but they felt that Mr. Lu’s words were sincere and didn’t sound like he was comforting them at all.
When the three of them arrived outside Zhuang Yu’s office, they saw that the door of the office was not closed and Zhuang Yu was talking to someone on the phone.
Lu Chengyu took the two of them back a few steps, and after Zhuang Yu hung up the phone, he went forward and knocked on the door frame twice, and said from outside the door: “Brother Zhuang, are you still busy?”
“Xiao Lu?” Zhuang Yu saw Lu Chengyu, smiled and let the three people in. After a few words, he led the conversation to the main topic and began to talk about profit sharing and publicity.
Now the cinema chain did not get much money, and Zhuang Yu had no intention of competing with Lu Chengyu for interests in this area. Because Yuhe had many cinemas of its own, the main topic he and Lu Chengyu discussed was the cinema profit sharing.
Zhang Shuo and Qu Lingbei watched Zhuang Yu and Lu Chengyu calling each other brothers while talking about profit sharing with a smile. It was obviously a very gentle scene, but they felt a sense of confrontation.
“Okay, that’s it. Brother Zhuang helped me so much this time. I am very grateful in my heart,” Lu Chengyu sighed, “It’s really difficult to invest in movies nowadays. After all the expenses, I can get more than 35% of the box office revenue, which is pretty good.”
“There’s nothing we can do about it. The investment and construction of cinemas is not easy. It takes tens of millions to build a small cinema, plus large and small projection equipment and other facilities,” the two of them had obviously reached a consensus, but Zhuang Yu also sighed, “It’s not easy for us. We are also trying to make a living.”
Lu Chengyu nodded, looking like a fellow sufferer.
Zhang Shuo: “…”
Qu Lingbei: “…”
When these two people said this, did they really consider their feelings?
On the 14th day of the eighth lunar month, which was also the 30th day of the ninth lunar month, at 11 o’clock in the evening, “Flying Bird” was released silently. At this time, the promotional posters of this movie were hung outside the cinema. Although the director and actors were unknown to everyone, because the posters were very eye-catching and of good quality, some couples who had already started their vacation bought tickets for this movie with a dispensable mentality. But despite this, the attendance rate was less than 20%, which seemed very deserted.
However, from the beginning to the end of the movie, almost no audience left early, and there were bursts of laughter from time to time. The atmosphere was so warm that it didn’t seem like a low-attendance show.
When the movie was halfway through, some people started posting on Weibo, talking about the funny and humorous movie “Flying Bird”, but because there were few people posting on Weibo, it didn’t cause any response. When the movie was played till the second half, there were more and more contents about the movie on Weibo.
“Lulu Lulu: Oh my god, I must be watching the movie in the wrong way. I seem to see the Q University campus grass-level academic bully who was very popular some time ago appear in the movie. The male god looks so handsome with glasses that he almost makes me cry. This movie is so funny. I will call my friends to watch it again tomorrow.”
Lulu Lulu was also a well-known Weibo account. After she posted this Weibo, some people said that it was a marketing Weibo, and some people became interested in this movie and asked who filmed it under the Weibo.
By the third day, “Flying Bird” had become a hot topic on Weibo. Some people even started to make memes with the male protagonist in the play and the image of the tall, rich and handsome man played by Lu Chengyu, and used them to make fun of the fans and the tall, rich and handsome man.
But no matter what, the picture of Lu Chengyu wearing gold-rimmed glasses and gently pushing up his glasses with his right index finger in the play had been circulated like crazy on Weibo.
At this time when many big movies were gathered, this low-budget movie had carved out a bloody path for itself. The original showing rate was less than 20%, but it was full every time. Many theaters began to add more shows for this movie. But despite this, some people complained on Weibo that they went to queue up to buy tickets at 1 pm, but ended up buying tickets for the 12 o’clock show, and then expressed the hope that the theater would continue to add more shows for this movie.
The additional screenings showed how popular this movie was. Some media people jokingly called “Flying Bird” a black bird that came out of the film industry this year. Some experts came out to study why this movie became so popular. Some people said that this kind of low-level comedy movie was just a box of fast food, which looked interesting but actually had no nutrition.
However, this statement was quickly pushed back, and netizens even ridiculed the expert for criticizing for the sake of criticizing, and it was possible that he did not even finish watching the movie. Because even ordinary people could see that the director and screenwriter used this comedy movie to shoot the spirit and helplessness of the lower-class characters, as well as the protagonist’s optimistic attitude towards life, and to create a satire against certain behaviors in society. Therefore, this was a good movie that conveyed a positive spirit from beginning to end, humorous and witty, but full of spirit.
“This kind of movie that can convey spirit and is humorous and relaxed is obviously a good work, but in the eyes of some people it has become worthless garbage. Perhaps in the eyes of some people, if the investment in a movie is not over 100 million, the actors are not big names, and the style is not literary, it is not a good movie. I wonder if experts and professors who have such views are the tragedy of the film industry or black humor?” This was what a folk film critic said on Weibo, and this Weibo quickly attracted many people to forward and think about it.
On the fourth day of the movie’s release, some people began to reveal that the total investment of “Flying Bird” was less than 3 million. In order to save costs, everyone from the director to the crew’s handyman played various passers-by in the play.
The male lead Gao Boyang joked on Weibo that the most valuable thing in the whole crew was the sports car driven by the tall, rich and handsome man. If there was a problem with the car, they couldn’t afford it even after selling all the things in the crew.
Someone asked him on Weibo, how did the crew find this limited edition sports car when they were so poor?
Gao Boyang replied that the investor borrowed it from a friend, but he didn’t mention who the investor was or who he borrowed the car from, but the fans were not interested in the investor. Anyway, in their impression, most of the investors’ appearances could be automatically mosaiced. Even if there were good-looking uncles, they were all from a certain family, and no one would care about this.
The most popular couple in this movie was not the male and female protagonist, but the male protagonist and the tall, rich and handsome man who had just a few scenes. It must be said that in this realistic society where looks were valued, having a handsome face was still very advantageous.
The number of fans on Lu Chengyu’s Weibo had risen to several million in just a few days, and enthusiastic girls called him a male god. However, some male fans seemed to be not so polite to him. They praised him for his good acting, those who liked to tease and hate the rich called him a tall, rich and handsome man who should be burned to death, and those who were jealous of him… called him a pretentious man.
However, given that most of his fans on Weibo were cute and tough girls, most of the time, these male compatriots would be beaten to a pulp by the girls’ strong and rich Chinese language skills.
Therefore, Lu Chengyu’s favorite thing to do in recent days was to browse the comments on Weibo to see cute girls fighting against men who found faults with him. However, it was precisely the girls’ strong fighting power that made him determined to be as warm as the spring breeze to his female compatriots in the future, otherwise it would be a tragedy if these female compatriots became the bone-chilling cold wind.
“My great Chinese girls are so great!” He sighed for a moment, and he couldn’t help but post such a Weibo, and then sadly found that his wretched factor was unconsciously spread because of this Weibo. Fortunately, most people thought that he was thanking the female fans for speaking for him, such that many girls praised him for being cute under this Weibo.
However, even so, some unknown creatures still appeared under the Weibo.
Three hours after this Weibo was sent out, he accidentally saw a comment. The comment should be from a man. The other party’s words meant that Lu Chengyu was deliberately trying to please women, and said how superficial Chinese women were, and only looked at appearance and whether the other party had money and were not as virtuous as women in a certain country, and even used words like “female concubine” to describe women.
Although he was a man, most of the girls around him were very nice, and his mother was also a very good person. Those men who looked down on women or even cursed women in their words and deeds, the first person they should feel sorry for was their mother who gave birth to them and raised them. Such people must be losers no matter how successful they became in the future.
“Niannian Youyou: I have loved to please people since I was a child. I liked to please my parents when I was a child, please my teachers when I was studying, and please my boss and colleagues after graduation ╮(╯_╰)╭. But friends who curse others, please remember, think about the woman who raised you before you open your mouth. Cursing people will not make you look tall but will only make you look unbearable. For me, pleasing others is respect and cherishment, because only when you respect others will others respect you.”
This paragraph, which was similar to self-mockery and admonition, had attracted many people to forward it, and many male compatriots also stand on his side. A male comedian who had teased him a day ago also forwarded this Weibo and wrote this sentence when forwarding it: Male god, I want to please you too.
This statement, of course, attracted a group of people’s good-natured ridicule, and Lu Chengyu’s status as a male god was officially determined.
Some male fans who didn’t like him originally found out after reading his previous Weibo posts that he didn’t show off his wealth, didn’t boast about himself, and didn’t pretend to be bourgeois. Instead, he posted some interesting professional theories and local delicacies in a serious manner. And these places were almost never high-cost venues, but roadside stalls or small restaurants. As a result, many male fans also had a good impression of him, and the title of “pretentious guy” gradually became less popular. Of course, there were a few exceptions who deliberately found fault.
He looked at the lively Weibo posts, smiled, and closed the Weibo.
He opened the largest public forum in the country and posted what he had prepared before. The good movies had already been released, and some good movies were just about to begin.
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