Chapter 133: You truly have no fear of being hauled in for questioning, do you? New Year release box office results are in (Extended chapter, requesting subscriptions)
Su Mu’s sudden fame astonished a great many people.
Across the more than 9.6 million square kilometers of China, the odds that a celebrity filming somewhere would discover an ancient tomb beneath his feet seemed even slimmer than winning the lottery.
The whole thing was utterly absurd.
So at first, some online users remained skeptical.
After all, manufactured personas were commonplace in the entertainment industry.
Fake academic credentials, fake backgrounds, fake skill certificates—even lip-syncing.
There was no guarantee that Su Mu’s discovery was not merely a publicity stunt designed to attract attention.
But then the official Mojian government account published a statement confirming it.
A professor from the history department of Capital University also posted his thanks.
Someone further pointed out that Scandal Lord had been the first to break the news. And surely that long-standing gossip account had no reason to fabricate a persona for Su Mu, did it?
With those two independent confirmations, it seemed impossible to find any remaining cause for doubt.
Apart from the fans’ excitement and comments, many people outside the entertainment industry had also begun to take notice and voice their opinions.
It was like a single stone tossed into a thousand-layered lake. Within just a few days, more and more people began expanding on the topic.
[Online comments:
Su Mu has single-handedly made our history textbooks more difficult. Thank you.
I’ve seen people show off their driving skills and cooking skills, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone show off his archaeological skills. Without genuine ability, he absolutely couldn’t have done it.
Su Mu must have inherited some ancient legacy from our ancestors. I’m truly on my knees. All I can say is that Su Mu is incredible. Scandal Lord should investigate his background.
As a history professor, allow me to offer an objective statement: the ancient Zhen people of Mojian have always been a subject of study for us. There are very few written records concerning Princess Zhenqian’s grand tomb. This is unquestionably a major discovery, and Su Mu has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of Chinese history!]
From fans to passersby, and finally even professional historians had joined the discussion.
It was quite the explosive development during the New Year holiday season.
Originally, everyone had expected the next few days to be dominated by several New Year films competing for attention.
Instead, a large portion of the public had been drawn toward Su Mu.
Their anticipation for Ghost Extinguishes the Lamp, a tomb-exploration film, had also increased considerably.
After all, its star had genuinely discovered a grand tomb.
Just thinking about it was thrilling.
For a time, all kinds of rumors and stories began circulating online.
And the more bizarre those stories became, the more people were reminded of just how extraordinary Su Mu was.
Could he really be a Captain of the Golden Touch?
...
Su Mu spent several days resting in Galaxy City.
He paid little attention to the increasingly outrageous rumors and stories spreading online.
He knew that more than half of them were the handiwork of Little Junjun.
Sun Liaojun was highly skilled at publicity.
He usually planned every subsequent step before releasing any news.
Moreover, no one knew that Scandal Lord had already joined forces with Su Mu.
That made it even easier for him to stir things up.
Back in Mojian, he had deliberately refrained from releasing the news immediately.
The main reason had been to consider how to make the attention last longer and penetrate more deeply.
After Sun Liaojun’s planning, they ultimately decided to use this opportunity to give Su Mu another layer of mystery. The more mysterious he appeared, the harder it would be for his fans to look away.
As long as there were stories and substance, people would continue discussing Su Mu.
That move had practically made him the ace fighter among scheming publicity experts.
For Su Mu, however, it was undeniably a good thing.
Once Ghost Extinguishes the Lamp was released, he would have firmly established himself as the king of this genre.
From then on, whenever anyone thought of tomb-exploration films, failing to think of Su Mu first would probably be impossible.
...
...
[Male Artist Panel]
Strength: 25.1
...
Brain Computation: 35.5
Skill Points: 30.94
[Speech Proficiency Level 3: 3,653/5,000 — Master Craftsman]
[...]
Inside his room, Su Mu organized his proficiency panel.
His attributes had not changed for the time being.
Over the past month or so, however, he had made considerable progress in his acting-related proficiencies.
Level 4 required ten thousand completions. His facial-expression control had already reached the nine-thousand mark. With just a little more effort, he could advance to Level 5.
Emotional control, behavioral imitation, diction, and script comprehension were progressing a little more slowly, but all four had surpassed five thousand completions.
Only his kissing technique had made no progress at all.
The current Su Mu was gradually gaining a deeper understanding of acting.
He had begun to realize that acting had merged with his nerves and blood.
In the past, he had considered the acting people did in daily life to be nothing more than pretense and hypocrisy. The more one acted, the more exhausted one’s heart became.
But now that he had reached this level, things were entirely different.
Su Mu had practically developed a conditioned reflex.
He no longer needed to consciously direct himself from within. His face could naturally produce the precise expression required.
Even his nerves seemed capable of making predictions in advance.
Perhaps this was the strongest state before Level 4 reached perfection.
No matter how complicated his emotions were, his expression could still accurately follow and convey the surrounding situation.
He had genuinely achieved the state of being outwardly one thing and inwardly another.
“Open ten blind boxes.”
After thinking it over, Su Mu decided to open ten more.
He currently had 34.94 skill points, which was already an impressive rate of growth.
After all, each completed proficiency practice increased his total by only 0.01.
Even a thousand practices yielded merely ten points.
[Opening blind boxes...]
Novels: The King’s Avatar; The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles
Songs: A Night in Ulaanbaatar; Chaser of Light; Meteor Shower; Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Items: One piece of chewing gum; one throat lozenge; one beauty mask
[Guarantees facial nerve responsiveness, makes expressions more natural, and prevents any loss of attractiveness.]
Attributes: +5.0
Looking at the blind-box results, Su Mu sighed helplessly.
As expected, luck had its peaks.
The previous draw might have been excellent, while this one could be quite ordinary.
He had not obtained a script, but he had drawn two novels instead.
In a sense, however, that was still acceptable.
There were more options available.
He could follow Director Dong Xuefei’s example, publishing works while also adapting his own material.
Alternatively, Su Mu could simply pay a screenwriter to adapt one of the novels into a script. That would work just as well.
As for the songs, Meteor Shower was the only one with particularly strong practical value. Paired with his previous script, Meteor Garden, it formed a natural set.
The others were also good songs, but most of them would not be useful for the time being.
He would simply keep them in reserve.
The item this time was something new: a beauty mask.
After returning from Mojian, Su Mu had indeed felt that his face was somewhat dry and stiff. He could try the mask that evening.
As for the final five attribute points, Su Mu added them directly to Brain Computation.
He could worry about everything else later. Increasing his intelligence came first.
The back of his head began to itch.
[Current Brain Computation: 40.5]
...
The next day.
Su Mu went to the studio.
In two days, he would fly to the Capital City film base to continue shooting Ghost Extinguishes the Lamp.
Sun Liaojun and the rest of the publicity department would not be accompanying him this time.
Therefore, before leaving, he still had to give instructions concerning various minor matters.
“The Grave Exploration Chronicles?”
“When did you write this?”
Su Mu said, “Oh, I wrote it casually when I was bored some time ago. What’s wrong? Do you think we can publish it?”
Qian Jida: “...”
Little Orange: “...”
Little Li: “???”
Little Zhang: “!!!”
Everyone stood frozen in place.
They had all read the opening chapters, and all they could say was that the writing was truly excellent.
Boss, surely you hadn’t actually been part of that line of work before...
Sun Liaojun said, “No! Anyway... anyway, it definitely can’t be published right now.”
Su Mu looked at Sun Liaojun’s tense expression in confusion.
“Why not? It’s just a novel. We publish it, develop the intellectual property rights, and adapt it into a film or television project. Wouldn’t that be great?”
Sun Liaojun’s face darkened.
It would indeed be great. Of course he understood the adaptation value the novel would possess if it became popular.
But the problem was, did Su Mu have no idea what his current situation was?
He had just helped Su Mu generate a huge wave of attention. Everyone was discussing his identity and whether his ancestors had truly been Captain of the Golden Touch.
At a time like this, remaining somewhere between mystery and obscurity was ideal.
Fans could speculate wildly, while the relevant authorities would not find anything particularly suspicious.
But if Su Mu suddenly pulled out a copy of The Grave Exploration Chronicles, and it was written with such convincing detail and overwhelming realism, the nature of the matter would change completely.
Wouldn’t that be the same as telling the entire world that he was genuinely a tomb raider?
Sun Liaojun coughed.
“Boss, I don’t think we can publish it for now. Think about it. You’ve just become famous because of this incident, and now you’re bringing out The Grave Exploration Chronicles. You might end up being invited in for a cup of tea. Attention is one thing, but too much can be counterproductive.
“Of course, if you really want to publish it, that’s easy enough to solve. It just can’t be published under your name. Use someone else’s name. As long as you aren’t listed as the author, there won’t be a problem.”
Su Mu smiled.
“That’s simple. There are so many people in our studio.”
Little Orange raised her hand.
“Me! Me, me, me! I love writing more than anything!”
Su Mu pressed down on her head.
“Don’t jump around. You’re not suitable.”
Little Orange stared at him.
“Why not? I want to become a writer too!”
Su Mu said, “You’d be fine as a sitter, but forget about becoming a writer. This subject doesn’t suit you.”
Little Orange pouted.
“Hmph. Then who do you think is suitable?”
Su Mu said, “Let Master Zhu take the spot.”
Little Orange: “...”
Master Zhu: “All right.”
...
...
Several days later.
Su Mu once again flew to Capital City with Qian Jida and Little Orange.
After meeting up briefly with Xu Jiang, they entered the production team and began filming the remaining scenes of Ghost Extinguishes the Lamp.
At the same time...
The New Year holiday films were released across the board.
Although Su Mu’s trending news had arrived with considerable force, the cinema chains would not disrupt their schedules because of it.
Several films officially opened.
Over the following week, everyone began paying attention to the performance of this year’s New Year releases.
During filming, Su Mu deliberately bought several tickets and went to see a few movies himself.
He watched all the films Zhang Huaimou had mentioned earlier.
Director Gu An’s Trouble in Donglin.
Director Wu Dongsheng’s The Millennium.
And, of course, Dong Xuefei’s Ode to a Fading Romance.
New Year films covered different genres every year: slice-of-life dramas, comedies, and romances.
Generally speaking, comedies were the most popular.
After that came the cast and the film’s publicity hooks.
This year, however, it was obvious that none of these directors had gone out of their way to create gimmicks surrounding their content.
The only real point of interest was the controversy between Lin Haoming and Su Mu.
Once the first week had passed, the box office figures also began to be tallied.
Every year during the golden holiday period, the ranking of films released at the same time became a topic of great interest.
To a certain extent, it also reflected the broader economic climate and consumer spending power of the new year.
Therefore, it was not only film and entertainment gossip outlets that paid attention.
Many people in investment banking and finance also took a look, checking whether figures had risen or fallen compared with the previous year.
Box-office statistics for a film were generally calculated from its release until it was taken out of theaters, a period of roughly one month.
There were exceptions, of course. If a film company submitted an application to the relevant authorities, its screening period could be extended. Such cases were treated as individual circumstances.
Most rankings, however, were based on the box office earned over approximately one month.
Seven-day box office:
Gu An’s Trouble in Donglin: 97 million
Wu Dongsheng’s The Millennium: 95 million
Dong Xuefei’s Ode to a Fading Romance: 99 million
Huang Li’s Celebrating the New Home: 37 million
Geng Xing’s Guide to the Martial World: 47 million
[...]
...
...
Inside a studio at the Capital City film base, Xu Jiang looked at his phone.
“To be honest, this year’s box office figures are somewhat low. That may have something to do with the subject matter. Gu An’s film is actually very good, and the content is solid, but there are no major stars in the cast, so the box-office gap hasn’t opened up.
“If none of them broke one hundred million in the first week, this year’s total probably won’t be especially high either. At best, the stronger films may cap out at four or five hundred million.
“Of course, it’s only the first week. There’s still a chance that one of them could suddenly take off during the second or third week.
“Su Mu, Lin Haoming’s film could very well rise unexpectedly. I had someone make inquiries, and the Aura Cinema chain has given it quite a substantial number of screenings.”
Su Mu had just finished filming a scene and come down to rest.
Xu Jiang immediately began analyzing the situation for him.
After looking over the box-office figures online, Su Mu wore an envious expression.
“That’s the life. You can make a small fortune in a single week. That would be enough to keep me busy for an entire year.”
“...”
Xu Jiang was speechless.
Wasn’t Su Mu focusing on the wrong thing?
Shouldn’t he be paying attention to the box-office figures and thinking about what kind of New Year film he would need to make in the future to surpass Lin Haoming?
Even if Lin Haoming did not make much of a breakthrough this year, there was still a very high chance that his film would earn four or five hundred million.
What if Su Mu made a film that earned only a few tens of millions and failed to cross the one-hundred-million mark? Wouldn’t that become a laughingstock?
There were countless films in previous years that had earned only a few tens of millions.
Xu Jiang said, “Su Mu, don’t look at things too optimistically. Box office is box office. Even if you’re the production side, the money you actually earn can’t possibly be that amount.”
Su Mu smiled.
“I know, Director Xu.”
He understood that much.
Normally, 5 percent of the total box office had to be paid into the special film-industry development fund, while another 3.3 percent went to the state in related taxes. Only after that could the remaining revenue be divided among the various parties.
Net box office equaled 91.7 percent of the total box office.
Of that amount, cinemas took 50 percent, while cinema chains took 7 percent.
The remaining 43 percent went to the production company and distributor.
Normally, the distributor would take 10 percent of the net box office as its distribution agency fee.
In other words, if you were an investor or part of the production side, your actual box-office income amounted to only 33 percent of the net box office.
Of course, that was merely the standard ratio. There were many unconventional arrangements as well.
For example, there might be an additional performance-based wager agreement, or other revenue-sharing proportions.
Xu Jiang looked at Su Mu.
“You don’t seem very anxious. Be honest with me—have you already made some plans?
“But I have to remind you not to treat the film market as something simple. Who knows what the New Year market will look like at the end of this year? The competition will be fierce, and the methods available to the capital groups are numerous. If several competitors are released during the same period, raising your box office will be extremely difficult.
“Unless...”
Su Mu asked, “Unless what?”
Xu Jiang said, “Unless it’s a dark horse, a massive breakout hit. Something like that could cut down anyone standing in its way. But who would dare claim that his own film was guaranteed to explode? I doubt even Zhang Huaimou would dare say that.”
Su Mu smiled.
“Look at that. Isn’t this a coincidence?”
I dare.
P.S. Thank you all for your support. There will be another update later. I’ll include a free chapter afterward so you can take a look at the figures.