Chapter 54: Securing Investment

Having not seen each other for over a month...
Couples in the passionate phase of a relationship naturally have an endless stream of trivial and sweet nonsense to share!
If two people in love suddenly see one of them turning apathetic, completely losing that spark of feeling for you, it proves that you have lost your charm and attraction!
The two counted on their fingers and figured out that Shen Yan would be returning to Beijing tomorrow night...
They could meet up then!
However, Chinese Paladin 3 had been getting quite a bit of buzz lately...
So they would probably have to meet in secret!
After all, Long Kui was still rather popular...
The premiere round of Chinese Paladin 3 was broadcast directly across major regional television stations rather than national satellite networks, yet it achieved an average rating of 11% and ranked as the ratings champion across seven major cities.
Simultaneously broadcast online...
Its click-through rate broke new records for Youku's platform.
Even so, the friction between Chinese Entertainment and Yang Mi was already becoming apparent at this point!
Basically, almost all the promotional posters for Chinese Paladin 3 omitted Yang Mi's character Tang Xuejian, as if Xuejian had never even existed...
"I'm in Changsha and I'll be recording Day Day Up tomorrow... I'm just dropping by for a performance... singing a song to promote it..."
"Hua Jie helped arrange it; she has a pretty good relationship with Mango TV..."
Then Shishi asked, "Why isn't it Happy Camp?"
Shen Yan shook his head: "...How would I know? Maybe they look down on me? After all, I'm not Zhang Jie!"
"I recommended your songs to so many people!"
"Thank you, Wifey..."
"Who's your wifey~ Shameless!"
"Shall I call someone else's wife then?"
"You dare!"
After bickering back and forth for an entire hour, Shen Yan finally hung up the phone...
Back in the room, Ji Xiang was on a phone call.
Shen Yan continued typing his web novel chapters...
Fortunately, he had stockpiled over a hundred thousand words in advance, which was enough to sustain the updates through this busy period—no matter how exhausted he was, Shen Yan would always write at least one chapter before going to sleep...
A web novel author's dedication at its finest!
By the way, following the release of the EP Shen Yan, the average subscription count, monthly votes, and recommendations for The Lord of the Mysteries had all seen an increase.
After all, Shen Yan had exposed the fact that he was the internet persona "Fried Husky"!
Many media outlets had reported on it, and most importantly, Qidian had provided official promotion as well...
—The Lord of the Mysteries had also smoothly dominated the top three most popular search terms on Baidu Novels...

The simplified Chinese publication rights for The Lord of the Mysteries had already been successfully negotiated, featuring an 11% royalty rate and an initial print run of 155,000 copies...
The comic adaptation rights had been sold as well...
Even the game adaptation rights had attracted inquiries!
However, they were all from small companies, so Shen Yan had declined...
In any case, the revenue brought to him by The Lord of the Mysteries far surpassed other industries so far, since the monthly royalties from the novel were solid, hard cash!
And this money was completely independent of his agency revenue splits...
After all, it was a novel written before signing his management contract...
Ji Xiang hung up the phone, smiled at him, and said, "We're heading back to Beijing tomorrow night, and we have an event the afternoon after..."
"What's up? Anything special?"
"I'm going with you to the premiere of The Message!"
"...A Huayi Brothers movie?"
"Yes!"
"OK!"
......
Day Day Up... there wasn't much to say about it. Shen Yan merely dropped by for a quick transition to sing the song Mountains and Seas, without participating in the rest of the recording...
Even so, Shen Yan was already quite satisfied!
One must remember that the overall ratings performance of Day Day Up in 2009 was exceptionally brilliant.
Its average rating across thirty-one provincial capitals and municipalities nationwide for the entire year was 1.91, with a market share of 4.59%, consistently ranking in the national top three for its time slot and trailing only Happy Camp among regular programs...
To briefly interject, the average rating of Happy Camp was 2.68%, with a market share of 6.4%...
In 2009, the highest-rated episode of Day Day Up was when the cast of Let's Watch the Meteor Shower made a guest appearance...
It set a staggering rating record of 3.98%, with a market share approaching 10%...
Even with a 1.91% rating, the promotional effect was more than enough...
Wrapping up the promotion, Shen Yan followed Ji Xiang to pay a visit to Day Day Up's producer Zhang Yibei before leaving Changsha...
......
Li Bingbing was firmly established among the top-tier leading actresses at this point.
A first-line actress...
One of the "Four Dan and Two Bing", after all!
To be completely honest, however, her biggest drawback was her lack of an innate superstar aura.
Her acting skills weren't bad, but she wasn't the kind of actress who would truly stun an audience; she was merely someone who delivered highly competent performances within the safe confines of a script.
She lacked a distinct, irreplaceable value.
Large-budget films driven by female protagonists were simply far too rare in the market.
Therefore, actresses usually had only a few options:
First, to act as a decorative vase in male-dominated blockbuster films, sharing in the dividends brought by high box office earnings and massive public attention.
Second, to choose relatively low-budget chick flicks, carving out a niche in the romance film market dominated by female audiences; the box office didn't need to be astronomical, as long as the return on investment ratio was reasonable, allowing them to film one after another.
Third, low-budget arthouse films that didn't necessarily guarantee high box office returns, where investors were often satisfied simply by breaking even or taking a slight loss.
Even if actors took a pay cut to star in them, as long as their acting received critical acclaim, it was entirely worth it, helping them maintain their artistic prestige and market value.
Almost everyone operated this way!
As for chick flicks, Zhang Ziyi had pioneered the trend by dabbling in Sophie's Revenge...
Then Li Bingbing starred in I Do...
To be honest, Li Bingbing was quite suited for chick flicks; her appearance wasn't breathtakingly peerless, but her height, temperament, and acting skills were all well-suited for portraying those types of urban heroines...
Regrettably, she hadn't encountered the right scripts during her prime years...
She had rarely acted in contemporary urban film and television dramas, especially films—aside from Waiting Alone, which was decent...
A film like The Message was an extreme rarity!
Furthermore, she was already approaching forty years of age.
Truth be told, she ought to have pursued the dignified mature-woman path, akin to Jiang Wenli or Qin Hailu, but she remained unwilling to settle, eager to compete for the glamorous leading-lady status in fashion and beauty, harboring an overly inflated self-perception...
These past two years were indeed her peak period, with The Message and Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, and she had even replaced Zhang Ziyi to star in Wendi Deng's film Snow Flower and the Secret Fan...
When she accepted roles nowadays, they were primarily filtered and vetted by her sister Li Xue...
The script for Architecture 106 was exceptionally good.
In web novel terminology, it possessed the intrinsic quality to surpass one hundred million at the box office!
The current Chinese film market essentially mirrored the remark made by Wu Hehu, the boss of Shanghai United Circuit: ordinary audiences nowadays simply loved watching films featuring "action and fighting, noisy chatter, and lighthearted comedy."
Indeed, those twelve characters served as the twelve-word mantra governing the relationship between Chinese film creation and the market during this phase.
As long as the foundational craftsmanship was adequate, given the current market capacity, the box office was guaranteed to break one hundred million.
If even the basic craftsmanship was lacking, shouting commercial slogans or waving the banner of high art was completely useless!
However, Li Xue suspected that Li Bingbing might not be keen on taking this script, for the simple reason that the most engaging part of Architecture 106 centered on youth, while the adult segments held little dramatic interest...
Which essentially meant having Li Bingbing act as a supporting vehicle to prop up younger actors!
Nevertheless, Ji Xiang proposed that Li Bingbing could serve as the producer for the film, while also securing a hefty salary of 1.7 million yuan for her.
Li Xue was slightly speechless: "You want me to ask my sister to pull in investments, and then turn around and pay her a massive salary?"
"Yes!"
"...Do you intend to bypass Huayi Brothers with this film?"
"Mhm, I've discussed it with the screenwriter; we'll find a Taiwanese or Hong Kong director to helm it, and leave the distribution to Enlight Pictures..."