Chapter 115: Box Office Boom and Bonuses
"Everyone, thank you for your hard work this time. I will give you a big red envelope when the movie is released."

On the evening of the 13th, Liu Zhou and his group hurried back to Beijing after their roadshow in Chengdu. When the plane landed, it was already past two in the morning.

This time, Liu Zhou took several leading actors to visit a total of twelve cities, which took a full ten days, and Chengdu was the last stop.

Including Liu Zhou, everyone was excited at the beginning, but then gradually became tired.

However, although they were physically tired, they were full of energy every time they went to the cinema and interacted with the audience.

This also made Liu Zhou feel very gratified.

Now seeing that the eyes of several people were bloodshot and they looked exhausted, Liu Zhou didn't say anything more. It would be better to get down to business.

Unlike later generations, celebrity actors are still quite mysterious to ordinary audiences, and everyone is curious about them.

Every time I go to a city’s cinema and meet the audience, I can attract a small wave of movie-watching craze.

In later generations, people have become accustomed to celebrities and have no sense of mystery or curiosity about them. In fact, because of the frequent reports of the various embarrassing things of celebrity artists, people have no good impression of this group of people.

So when a celebrity actor comes to a movie theater for a roadshow, the audience may think that your voice is too loud and is ruining their chance to watch the movie, so they may boo you off the stage.

It’s not like now, no matter which actor or celebrity people see, they are extremely curious as if they were watching a peep show.

This is also Liu Zhou’s first large-scale roadshow in the industry, meeting the audience up close, which also makes the roadshow particularly effective.

"The Piano Tuner" has been released for ten days and the box office has exceeded 30 million, with an average daily box office of 3 million, which once again shocked the entire industry.

The outside media also reported the news extensively and highly praised the movie "The Piano Tuner".

Not only that, because Liu Zhou is no longer shooting a love movie this time, "The Piano Tuner" also has a certain depth. Alumni of some academic institutions such as the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy are no longer silent and have publicly supported this movie.

In fact, these people have always been paying attention to Liu Zhou. After all, he is a rare famous director in the Central Academy of Drama, and he is also highly recognized by the old dean Xu Xiaozhong.

But what makes them angry is that Liu Zhou seems to have always been immersed in his comfort zone and has been making those very shallow love movies.

If it weren't for the consideration of the Central Academy of Drama and President Xu, many people would have criticized Liu Zhou long ago.

Now Liu Zhou seems to have finally come to his senses and is no longer obsessed with those meaningless commercial films.

Although "The Piano Tuner" is not an art film, it at least has more depth and is a good start.

That's why they are so generous with their praises, and some of them actually like this movie very much.

This group of people may not be very famous, but they have a certain status in the industry, so whatever they say will be published in the media and newspapers.

More media coverage is equivalent to maintaining or even increasing the popularity of "The Tuner" in disguise.

This is reflected in the box office: ten days after the film was released, the decline in box office was not very large, and it still maintained a level of more than two million per day.

In response to this phenomenon, Liu Zhou also specially arranged for staff from the studio's publicity department to conduct a questionnaire survey.

Liu Zhou discovered that in addition to a portion of people who were attracted by media reports, a larger portion of people watched the show twice or even three times.

After watching the movie for the first time, they had quite a debate about whether the hero was blind in the end, and the twists and turns of the plot in which the hero and the doctor kidnapped the rich man's wife.

So they go to the cinema for a second or even third time, trying to sort out the clues.

This also made Liu Zhou sigh that it was not that the audience did not like to go to the cinema, but that there were no good movies on the market.

If the quality of a movie is good, people will still be willing to go to the cinema to watch it, whether it is from the mainland or Hong Kong.

But after seeing the survey results, Liu Zhou became even more angry at those pirated products.

Liu Zhou is sure that there are definitely many audiences who are willing to watch the movie a second or third time, but those who go to the cinema again must be only a small part.

Most people probably buy pirated discs, fast forward and rewind, and watch them over and over again carefully, wouldn't it be possible to see it more clearly?

If it weren't for these pirates, the box office of "The Tuner" would definitely be higher.

But even so, the box office of "The Tuner" has already shocked many people.

On the 21st day after the movie was released, the box office of "The Piano Tuner" officially exceeded 50 million, becoming Liu Zhou's third movie to exceed 50 million at the box office.

But 50 million box office is obviously not the limit of "The Tuner". Now everyone is looking forward to when it will break 60 million box office.

However, at this point, the potential of "The Tuner" seems to have finally been exhausted, with daily box office revenues less than one million and attendance at less than three floors.

At this time, Han Shanping took action again and extended the screening time of "The Tuner".

Time slowly came to April 8th, and "The Piano Tuner" was finally closed with a total box office of 61.2 million.

At this moment, major media outlets began to report on the incident on a large scale again, but this time, their reports mainly focused on Liu Zhou.

"The Tuner" grossed 60 million yuan at the box office, Liu Zhou broke the box office record again!"

"Three movies grossed 160 million at the box office. Liu Zhou's road to fame!"

"Liu Zhou, the box office king!"

"The ten great details of "The Tuner", Liu Zhou's meticulous thinking logic!"

"Liu Zhou, the youngest director in mainland China!"

……

After the movie was released, Liu Zhou, who had been wildly praised by the media, was now staying in a small courtyard in Dengcao Hutong.

In addition to him, there are Qin Hao and several other leading actors in "The Tuner".

Liu Zhou is here to fulfill his promise.

It will take another month or two to share the profits from the movie, but Liu Zhou feels that they should be allowed to share the joy of the movie's success now.

So Liu Zhou used his own money to give out red envelopes to a few people first.

When several people came to Liu Zhou's courtyard, they were a little dumbfounded when they saw the stacks of blue hundred-yuan bills covering the table.

They had never seen so much money.

Especially the stacks of cash neatly laid out in front of you are extremely visually impactful.

Liu Zhou looked at the shocked expressions of the others and said with a smile:

"Don't worry about it, the money is all yours!"

"Old Liu, is this money for us?" Qin Hao asked uncertainly.

"Yes, these are all for you. When we came back from the roadshow, I said I would give you a big red envelope. These are your red envelopes!"

"Liu Zhou, I thought you were just giving it as a token of your appreciation, but I didn't expect you to give so much." Zhang Tong continued.

"If you think it's too much, I can give you less."

"You wish! If you dare to give it to me, I will take it!"

"Then I won't say any more nonsense and will just give you the money directly."

After saying that, Liu Zhou took out the largest pile, pushed it in front of Qin Hao and said:

"Mouse, these are yours, a total of 800,000!"

Then Liu Zhou pushed the remaining three piles in front of Zhang Tong, Tian Zheng and Tang Wei and said:
"This is yours, five hundred thousand each!"

This amount of money was ten times their salary, except for Tang Wei, who was a newcomer and received a little less salary, only 30,000. But she had a lot of scenes, so it was not appropriate to be too partial when giving out bonuses, so she was also given 500,000.

At this moment, she was looking at the five thick stacks of cash in front of her. She felt excited and happy, but also a little nervous. For a moment, she seemed to be staring at the money in a daze.

Tian Zheng and Zhang Tong were also very happy. This might be the most money they had ever earned.

Qin Hao was probably the most relaxed among them. He did not hide his happiness at all and said loudly:
"Pah, I have to count this money carefully, and see if I can count it until my hands cramp."

Zhang Tong looked at Qin Hao's rude appearance and said with a bit of disdain:

"Qin Hao, are you dirty? You actually used your hands to dip into my saliva!"

"Hey, you don't understand this, it feels better to count money this way."

"Where did you get this twisted logic?"

"Zhang Tong, you can try this too, maybe you will feel different, haha!"

Liu Zhou interrupted them with a smile:
"It is important to deposit this money in a bank now. It is not safe to carry so much cash on you."

"That's right, Lao Liu, do you have any sacks here?"

"no!"

"How are we going to get all this money back?"

"You are stupid. Who told you to take it all away at once? Or you could go home and get a sack first." Tian Zheng replied contemptuously.

"Yeah, why didn't I think of that!"

"Don't worry, I have a special box for money here, and I have already contacted the bank. They will deposit the money for you directly, so you don't have to worry about it."

Hearing Liu Zhou's words, Tang Wei secretly breathed a sigh of relief, while Qin Hao smiled and said:

"Hehe, Old Liu, you are so considerate!"

"Get lost, why do these words sound so different when they come out of your mouth?"

"Hahaha!"

Zhang Tong and Tian Zheng couldn't help but laugh.

After a while, the bank staff drove over, checked the money and asked a few people to sign, then left.

The few people didn't stay here for long. After sitting for a while, they said goodbye and left one after another.

However, Zhang Tong was the last one to leave. After they all left, he said to Liu Zhou:

"Liu Zhou, many companies have contacted me recently and want me to sign with them."

"Are you still working alone?"

"Yeah, otherwise why would I be so confused!"

"You are not confused now!" Liu Zhou said with a smile.

With the huge box office success of "The Piano Tuner", in addition to Liu Zhou, the actors in the drama also received a lot of attention.

None of them were well-known before, but now they can be said to have become famous overnight.

Tian Zheng was really just a passerby before, and few people knew him, but now he has gained a certain fame in the industry.

Tang Wei, a newcomer who has not yet graduated from college, has also gained a large number of fans thanks to her sweet and pure appearance in the movie.

However, the ones who attracted the most attention were Qin Hao and Zhang Tong.

One is the absolute male lead of the movie. In this movie, Qin Hao showed his acting skills to the fullest!
It is not only loved by the audience, but also highly recognized in the industry.

As for Zhang Tong, her role is similar to Tang Wei's, but she is an important character in promoting the development of the story, and her role is relatively more outstanding.

In addition, Zhang Tong fully demonstrated her perfect figure in the movie, which also attracted a large number of fans. The attention she received can be said to be second only to Qin Hao.

"It's all thanks to you, otherwise I'd still be running around the crew!"

"Aren't we friends? It's only natural for us to lend a helping hand. Since so many companies have contacted you, what do you think?"

"I haven't decided yet, but can I sign with your studio?"

"Sign with my studio? My studio doesn't have many projects right now. If you sign with my studio, I can hardly guarantee that you will have enough roles to play."

"It doesn't matter. If there's nothing to do, I can go to your drama troupe to act in a play. And acting in your play is better than acting in ten plays outside."

"Okay, since you're not worried about not having any roles to play, then sign it. At least I won't cheat you, and I won't let you get cheated, haha!"

"Then Boss, could you please let me treat you to a meal?"

"You don't have to call me boss in private. It sounds weird. You don't have to eat out. Now that you've received such a huge bonus, why don't you spend some money?"

"Money won't run away. You can spend it anytime. Today is my first day in your studio. Please give me some credit."

"Okay, but to avoid trouble, just order some food at the restaurant at the entrance of the alley. Their food is pretty good, too. You pay for it then."

"No problem!" Zhang Tong said happily.

"But we agreed not to drink!"

Hearing this, Zhang Tong couldn't help but think of the night when Liu Zhou got drunk, and his chest and face felt hot.

"Then don't drink. It's no fun to drink since you can't drink that much."

"It's pointless to expose people's shortcomings."

Seeing Liu Zhou pretending to be angry, Zhang Tong couldn't help but chuckle.

After lunch, Zhang Tong did not stay here for long, but went to Zhou Shan Studio to sign the agency contract.

Before we knew it, Liu Zhou already had four artists under his management: Zeng Li, Qin Hao, Zhang Tong and Tang Wei, and none of them played small roles.

Now Zeng Jia should no longer have to complain about having too much free time.

Liu Zhou has already become famous for the huge success of "The Tuner". In line with the principle of keeping a low profile, he didn't want to hold a celebration banquet.

But Han Shanping was unwilling to do so and insisted on organizing a celebration party for a movie that was worthy of a 60 million box office.

Due to the dismal box office market in mainland China last year, he would definitely not allow such a situation to happen this year.

Liu Zhou's "The Piano Tuner" can be said to have given a very good start to the film market in 2002, so it's worth celebrating!
Han Shanping also helped a lot in the box office of "The Piano Tuner" which exceeded 60 million.

Not only did they extend the screening time of the movies, but they also kept the March schedule entirely to themselves, without releasing a single movie in March.

So Han Shanping's face must be given, and he is also doing this to save face for himself.

Although Liu Zhou was a little tired of such social events, he still attended the event in his best attire with the film's main creators.

At the celebration banquet, Liu Zhou received a bunch of business cards, and people came to him one after another to discuss cooperation.

In order to survive in this circle and do well in it, Liu Zhou had to greet everyone with a smile. By the time the celebration banquet was over, his face was twitching.

(End of this chapter)