Not long after Chi Ying finished tidying up, Lu Wei and Tan Yi arrived in a rush, looking as though they’d traveled through the night. She hadn’t even finished breakfast yet.
Tan Yi, ever thoughtful, had brought a generous breakfast with him. There were both solid and liquid dishes, along with several cups of soy milk. Every cup had been carefully sealed with plastic ties to keep it from spilling.
Lu Wei, on the other hand, came barreling in empty-handed, his face shiny with grease as he bounced over with both hands tucked under his arms.
Although Song Lin had already bought breakfast for everyone, that didn’t stop her from teasing him.
“You really don’t treat yourself like an outsider, do you?”
She lifted her chin toward Tan Yi.
“Look at him. After this movie, he’s practically become everyone’s heartthrob. See how considerate he is? Then look at you. No wonder you’re still single.”
Lu Wei truly didn’t stand on ceremony. He reached into the plastic bag in front of Chi Ying, grabbed a meat bun, and stuffed it into his mouth.
“So what if I’m single?” he mumbled around the bun. “Old Tan’s this considerate, and he still hasn’t managed to get even half a girlfriend.”
Song Lin rolled her eyes.
“That’s because he’d rather have no one than settle.”
Chi Ying looked at Lu Wei.
“Did you stay up all night? Your face is so greasy…”
Lu Wei only grinned sheepishly.
Just as she’d guessed.
Chi Ying was speechless. Perhaps because she’d already lived through one lifetime, her mentality was much steadier. Out of everyone present, she was actually the calmest.
Tan Yi asked, “Want some rice porridge? I bought some.”
When Chi Ying shook her head, he immediately handed her a cup of soy milk instead.
“This one’s not hot. It’s warm. I know you don’t like it bland, so I asked the vendor to add sugar.”
Smiling, Chi Ying accepted it. The temperature and sweetness were just right. She took several long gulps in succession.
Seeing that it was still early and it was the weekend, with most of the neighbors probably still sleeping in, Chi Ying quietly closed the half-open door.
The room became even stuffier.
With four people crouching inside, there was barely enough room to move.
“What if we install an air conditioner?” Chi Ying suddenly suggested.
She’d grown used to having air conditioning everywhere in her previous life. Conditions like this were genuinely hard to endure.
Song Lin looked at her in disbelief.
“An air conditioner? Why bother? The weather’s about to cool down, and we’ll be out on the road promoting the movie anyway. We won’t even get to use it. When I wanted to buy a cellphone before, you told me to save money because it wasn’t that useful. Isn’t an air conditioner even less useful? We’d even have to arrange for the power company to upgrade the electrical capacity.”
Back then, installing an air conditioner wasn’t as simple as buying one and putting it in. The building’s wiring couldn’t handle the load. They had to schedule an appointment with the power bureau, have workers install a dedicated power line, and increase the electrical capacity.
Otherwise, even if the unit was installed, it couldn’t be used. The moment it was turned on, the entire building’s electrical system would overload, plunging everyone into a blackout.
If someone actually did something that inconsiderate, the neighbors would probably surround their door and curse them out.
“Installing an air conditioner is for my own comfort. Buying a cellphone is for everyone else’s convenience. How are those the same?”
Tan Yi and Lu Wei burst into laughter.
Before long, everyone’s pagers started going off again.
Unable to hold it in anymore, Chi Ying complained to Song Lin.
“You loudmouth. Just how many people did you tell about this?”
Song Lin giggled.
“Not that many. Just everyone from our film crew. The teachers, our junior classmates, the lighting crew, the art department…”
Chi Ying covered her face.
“Fine. Let’s stop hiding in here. Once we’re done eating, let’s head over to the center.”
Originally, since it was the weekend and everyone had been under pressure for so long, they’d agreed to sleep in and get some proper rest. They had arranged to meet in the center’s conference room sometime after nine that morning, without setting a strict meeting time.
Yet when Chi Ying and the others entered the conference room at 8:30, Sun Yanyan and the others had already arrived. Not long afterward, Director Han also showed up. Everyone was beaming with excitement.
According to the plan, they would spend the weekend getting organized.
Starting Monday, they’d begin promotional roadshows around Beijing, focusing on upscale cinemas in non-university districts with large audiences.
In fact, beginning the previous evening, cinemas that hadn’t paid much attention before had gradually come to their senses. They’d all been shocked by the opening day’s box office receipts.
Thinking it was worth a try, theater managers everywhere started requesting permission from higher-ups to have the film’s male and female leads appear for promotional events to boost interest.
Director Han and the people at Huaying ignored them completely.
They had to stick to the original promotional schedule. Otherwise, next time, no one would want to cooperate with them.
Starting the following Thursday, the entire creative team would begin a nationwide promotional tour.
Their first stop outside Beijing would be Su Province.
During the initial distribution of film prints, Su Province had shown exceptional support, requesting the largest allocation of all—six prints—and distributing them across a wide area.
The latest reports showed that despite having a weaker economy than Shanghai, Su Province’s box office had actually surpassed Shanghai’s, becoming the second-highest in the country, behind only Beijing.
As the saying went, people help those who help them.
Since they’d offered such strong support when the film was still unproven, it was only right to return the favor by giving them priority.
Starting Saturday morning, everyone at Huaying Group responsible for the film was overwhelmed with work.
Lei Dongming had barely enjoyed a full day of celebration before becoming completely swamped.
The first batch of film prints simply wasn’t enough.
Managers of film distribution companies across the country were complaining nonstop, especially those regions that had initially taken only one or two prints. They were being openly berated by their own subordinates as “incompetent” and “useless.”
Ignoring the fact that it was the weekend, they all started making their moves.
Saturday, November 7
Wedding Wedding defied the usual trend.
Instead of dropping, its daily box office climbed from 1.07 million yuan on opening day to 1.48 million yuan.
Sunday, November 8
The box office continued to rise, reaching 1.79 million yuan for the day.
Movie theaters across the country erupted like pots of boiling water.
Everyone was wondering the same thing.
At this rate, wouldn’t the film break 30 million yuan in a single month?
And this was achieved during the initial release, with only a little over thirty film prints in circulation.
What would happen if they produced more prints and expanded into more regions?
Under current conditions, one print could serve at most five theaters simultaneously, and that was only if the print runners worked at full capacity.
Labor was cheap at the time, so people were willing to do it, but this was already the absolute limit.
By Sunday, the film’s distribution had already reached maximum capacity.
In provinces with only a single print, screenings were already being interrupted because the print couldn’t arrive in time, and furious audiences nearly smashed up the theaters.
The projectionists were beside themselves as well, cursing their bosses alongside the audience.
“Idiots! That’s money slipping through our fingers!”
Even provinces with two prints were struggling to keep up.
Employees at every level were exhausted and full of complaints, yet none of them wanted to pass up such an effortless opportunity to make money.
Lei Dongming’s phone practically rang off the hook.
Some of the more composed regional managers had managed to stay calm on Saturday night.
But after seeing Saturday’s box office numbers on Sunday morning, they couldn’t sit still anymore.
They immediately drove to Beijing with their staff and camped outside Huaying, waiting to corner him.
Meanwhile, the female general managers were feeling rather pleased.
They had requested the largest number of prints in the first round, so their distribution kept pace with demand. Screening efficiency was excellent, and the box office climbed to a new level every single day.
Watching the numbers rise was immensely satisfying.
The women even kept in touch with one another.
“I told you this movie was good. We all have good instincts. Every theater under me is fully booked, and attendance keeps climbing.”
“Exactly! Even I underestimated it. Looks like I asked for too few. I only requested four prints. You ladies had real guts asking for six.”
“Then hurry over to Lei Dongmin and ask for more before those smelly men beat you to it.”
“Good point. I’m leaving right now.”
“I’m coming too. My staff have already started grumbling. We haven’t had any interrupted screenings yet, but if attendance keeps increasing…”
“Let’s all go together!”
…
Across the country, with the exception of Guangdong Province, where audiences had more access to Hong Kong and Taiwanese films and the response wasn’t quite as spectacular, Wedding Wedding had already matched the screening popularity and box office performance of last year’s Lunar New Year releases in every other province and city.
Only a fool would refuse to make money.
It was only November, and profits were practically falling from the sky.
What was there to wait for?
Film companies from every region rushed to Huaying in a frenzy, all demanding additional prints.
It didn’t matter how many they’d received in the first round.
Now everyone had the exact same request.
More screenings.
More prints.
Lei Dongming had originally thought Chi Ying’s movie would merely serve as a warm-up before the Lunar New Year season.
Judging from its momentum, Wedding Wedding had already surpassed the opening-day box office of Ma Yuanchao’s Lunar New Year blockbuster.
A warm-up?
It had exploded.
Everyone wanted a bumper year.
Huaying’s film laboratory immediately began working at full capacity to produce more prints.
But film prints were expensive, delicate things.
The production process involved many steps. It wasn’t something that could simply be churned out overnight. Otherwise, each print wouldn’t cost well over ten thousand yuan.
So the regional managers simply gathered outside the film lab and began arguing fiercely among themselves.
If things dragged on any longer, it looked like they might actually come to blows.
Lei Dongming was both delighted and furious.
He was delighted because the movie had become a massive hit, proving that his judgment had been correct. It would now be much easier to push forward with commercial filmmaking.
He was furious because the people under him were all causing trouble.
Who told you all to be so stingy in the beginning? Every last one of you only wanted one or two prints. Now that you’ve seen everyone else making money, you’re all camping outside my door crying your hearts out…
However, when Lei Dongmin noticed that even the female general managers who had originally requested the most prints were standing among the crowd laying siege to the place, those words of reprimand died on his lips.
“Wait a second.” One of the male managers protested. “Why are you ladies here causing trouble too? You already took so many prints in the first round. You’re under no distribution pressure. What are you doing here?”
One of the women pursed her lips.
“What can we do? The public loves the movie. We’re just serving the people. We have to make sure everyone gets the chance to watch a good film.”
“Serving the people? You’re serving the renminbi!” another male manager shot back. “Don’t any of you cut in front of me! I only got one print at the beginning. No matter what, I should be first in line this time!”
…
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