1990: Starting from Baojia Street

The reason why Zhang Yiwu said during the interview that he would sue the Yangtze Evening News was because there was recently news that Han Shaogong was going to sue him, and he was just taking the opportunity to mock Han Shaogong from a distance.

The reason why he was so arrogant was that he was sure that Han Shaogong would not really sue him, and he naturally would not really sue the Yangtze Evening News.

……

Zhou Yan went to October magazine on December 31st. Their magazine was also on the North Third Ring Road, and it only took Zhou Yan a few minutes to drive there.

Although Zhou Yan and his colleagues called Zhang Shouren "Editor-in-Chief Zhang", Zhang Shouren had only been the chief editor not long ago. Moreover, their magazine's office was small, and Zhang Shouren, as the chief editor, did not even have an independent office. He could only work in the hall like other editors.

But he is the chief editor after all, so his workstation is more spacious than that of ordinary editors, and his position is very good, in a corner inside.

After meeting Zhou Yan, Zhang Shouren exchanged a few simple pleasantries, and then couldn't wait to ask, "Where is the manuscript?"

Zhou Yan took the manuscript out of his bag. Zhang Shouren took it and sat down on the bench. He said to Zhou Yan, "Find a place to sit. I'll take a look at the manuscript first."

"Yeah." Zhou Yan nodded and sat down on the stool next to him.

Although Zhang Shouren was reading the manuscript, he still had the energy to talk to Zhou Yan, "You've been having a lot of trouble with Zhang Yiwu from Yanda recently."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "They are the ones who scold me, and I haven't said anything back."

"You were right not to talk back. I have been worried these days that these things would affect your writing. Now it seems that you are confident enough. Not only are you not affected, but your manuscript was submitted even faster than expected. Oh, by the way, how is the movie box office? Has it been affected?" Zhang Shouren asked with concern.

Zhou Yan nodded, "Yes."

After hearing Zhou Yan say that the movie box office was affected, Zhang Shouren looked up at Zhou Yan and then comforted him, "Sometimes it's inevitable to encounter such things. I didn't expect Zhang Yiwu's article to cause such a big wave, and even the Literary Gazette got involved. I don't know much about public opinion control. Will the box office be affected?"

"Mr. Zhang, you misunderstood." Zhou Yan laughed, "The movie box office has indeed been affected, but it is a positive impact. The box office during this period is higher than we expected."

Zhang Shouren was surprised. He didn't expect the movie box office to be higher because of this incident. In his opinion, Zhang Yiwu had already criticized the movie so much that readers would probably not go to the cinema to watch the movie after reading Zhang Yiwu's article.

"Well, in that case, that's good."

The box office of "Time Traveler" is indeed better than Zhou Yan and his team had imagined. The data they have obtained show that in the past period of time, the box office of the movie has reached 21 million yuan, and the number of moviegoers is about to reach 3 million.

The real data must be better than this, because the data has a lag and they have not received some of the data yet.

According to the current situation, there is no doubt that the box office will exceed 30 million, and the possibility of exceeding 40 million is also relatively high.

Although a group of critics led by Zhang Yiwu have been continuously publishing articles criticizing "Time Traveler" and criticizing the film harshly, major newspapers have never stopped reporting news about the film's box office.

"Time Traveler" was screened in a wide area this time, basically covering major cities in the country, with many screenings and high ticket prices. But even so, tickets were hard to come by in some cities in the first few days.

Movie tickets in some cities have been hyped up. For example, in Shanghai, tickets for some showtimes have been sold for 17 yuan, more than twice the average ticket price.

If a person opens the "At Your Service" newspaper first one morning and sees the articles by Zhang Yiwu and others, he would probably think that Zhou Yan has suffered a Waterloo this time and his new movie has been a complete flop.

But when he turned around and saw the reports about the box office of "Time Traveler" in other newspapers, he found that the box office of the new movie was not bad at all, but very good.

The effects produced by the two public opinion battlefields are completely different.

But no matter which public opinion battlefield it is, the ultimate goal is to make more people pay attention to the movie "Time Traveler".

As long as enough people pay attention to the movie, more people will naturally go to the cinema.

……

Zhang Shouren had discussed the rest of the novel with Zhou Yan in advance, so he didn't read it carefully this time. He spent about ten minutes going through the rest of the manuscript. After making sure there were no major problems, he put the manuscript away and said to Zhou Yan, "I took a rough look and there should be no problems. I will try to find time to review it today, and then have them start proofreading tomorrow. There's no need to rush for the rest of the things, your manuscript has been scheduled for the March issue."

This novel will be serialized in "October". The first issue will not have too much content. The manuscript of tens of thousands of words that Zhou Yan gave them before is more than enough for them.

Now that Zhou Yan has completed the later drafts, Zhang Shouren only needs to review them again to make sure there are no problems, and then he can directly confirm the content of the previous layout.

The previous typeset content has already been proofread, so Zhang Shouren said there is no need to rush for the subsequent work.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Well, I have completed my task now, and I will leave it to your company later."

"We can't say that we will be completely handed over to them. There may be some parts of these manuscripts that need to be revised, but the content should not be too much."

There were also some revisions to the previous manuscript of tens of thousands of words, but they were very small and did not involve the core content, so they could basically be resolved through telephone communication.

Zhou Yan nodded. "Well, if you have any questions, just tell me. If we can't communicate on the phone, I'll come over. It's not too far away anyway."

"If not, I can go find you." Zhang Shouren smiled and asked Zhou Yan, "I saw on the news that Han Shaogong wants to sue Zhang Yiwu. Is this true?"

Zhou Yan shook his head, "I'm not sure either. Chairman Han has already returned to Qiong Province."

Zhang Shouren sighed deeply, "There have been too many messy things in the literary circle recently, and it just happened to be during the Writers' Congress. What are you going to do about Zhang Yiwu's matter? Are you going to ignore it?"

Zhou Yan shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really care. I don't mind if everyone quarrels a little."

Zhang Shouren looked at Zhou Yan with a smile, "You should have been the protagonist of this incident, but why do you look like a bystander, watching the fun from the sidelines?"

"It's mainly because of me. I'm not good at talking. Even if I want to argue with someone, I don't know how to do it. In the end, I will definitely be the one who suffers. It's better for me to be a bystander."

"Although you don't argue yourself, there are people who help you argue. Do you know that Luan Shuhai?"

Zhou Yan shook his head, "I really didn't know him before."

"He is also a young critic who graduated from Yanshi University. He should be Su Tong's junior. They probably know each other."

"Oh, I haven't heard Teacher Su mention it." "I read his article, it makes a lot of sense, and I agree with many of the views. As for Zhang Yiwu, his level may not be that bad, but he may have a problem with his mentality. There are many literary researchers in our country who can't bear to do academic research, but instead are jealous of the fame of writers, so they do some bizarre things. There are many such people, and they may form a force."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I am here to watch the fun and see who else will show up."

You can find out how many fish are in the pond by throwing a bomb into it.

Seeing that Zhou Yan was so calm, Zhang Shouren didn't say anything else. The two chatted about the manuscript of "Don't Let Me Go" for a while, and then Zhou Yan got up and said goodbye.

……

Coming out of October magazine and passing by the Yanjing Film Studio, Zhou Yan drove straight in.

He has special privileges in the Yanjing Factory. Normally, even people in the factory find it difficult to get their cars in, but Zhou Yan's car can be driven in directly, and the guards even recognize his car.

Even if he drove a car he had never driven before, he could get in as long as Zhou Yan showed his face.

After entering the yard, Zhou Yan went directly to the factory director's office.

Han Sanping was writing something. When he saw Zhou Yan coming, he warmly asked him to sit down and asked him what kind of tea he wanted to drink. "I have some Houkui tea. Can I make some for you?"

"I don't mind." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

"Then I'll make you some Houkui tea." Han Sanping said with a smile as he made tea for Zhou Yan, "Just ten minutes ago, I got the news that the box office of Time Traveler has exceeded 26 million."

"Third brother, you are the one who gets the news the fastest." Zhou Yan gave a thumbs up.

"I can't help but care. This Lunar New Year box office was my idea. The next few days are New Year's Day, so there will definitely be a wave of box office revenue, but after New Year's Day, the box office revenue will probably drop rapidly, after all, piracy is also going to start."

Generally speaking, at this time, piracy will begin to spread on a large scale and the box office of the movie will be affected. This is the law of the market and they cannot avoid it.

The New Year's Day days are basically the last big wave of box office for the movie. After these days are over, the final box office of the movie will basically be determined. Unless there are any special circumstances later, there should not be any major changes.

Zhou Yan nodded, "At least now it seems that our goal can be achieved."

"No problem at all." Han Sanping smiled heartily.

The goal he had set for the film was to achieve a box office of 35 million RMB, and given the current situation, there would be no problem in exceeding 35 million.

After handing the tea to Zhou Yan, Han Sanping smiled and said, "We can say that we have won a victory this time. I estimate that the box office of Time Traveler may even exceed that of The Chorus."

"Of course I hope the box office is as high as possible. Sister Feng promised me to donate pianos. Now it seems that she will definitely have 20 pianos."

"Of course there are. With the addition of the 20 pianos Xiaoxian donated earlier, your school now has more than 40 pianos. The principal must be very happy."

"It's mainly because the students are happy. The pianos donated this time are not bad. They are much better than the junky ones in the piano room."

"You have made a great contribution." Han Sanping smiled and said, "If the box office of Time Traveler exceeds 50 million RMB, I will hold a celebration banquet. What do you think?"

Zhou Yan thought for a moment and said, "I think we should not hold a celebration banquet yet. After all, the premiere ceremony was just over not long ago."

"I was a little hesitant because I just finished the premiere, but if the revenue really exceeds 50 million, I would feel a little regretful if I don't hold a celebration party."

Zhou Yan certainly understood Han Sanping's feelings. He had put a lot of thought into this Lunar New Year box office. If the box office of the movie could exceed 50 million RMB, it would mean that he had won a great victory this time. In that case, of course he had to publicize his achievement.

Han Sanping's original intention was to promote the Lunar New Year box office, and he certainly would not miss such a good publicity opportunity.

"I think we should not hold a celebration party this year. Let's wait until the movie is released in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan, and the box office exceeds 100 million RMB, then hold a celebration party."

"We have to wait until it's released in Japan." Han Sanping was obviously a little unhappy.

"Of course, if Hong Kong and Taiwan perform well in the future and reach 100 million earlier, that's fine too."

"Combining the box office revenue in Hong Kong and Taiwan, is there a hope of exceeding 100 million RMB?" Han Sanping asked.

"Well, there is hope."

"Time Traveler" wants to achieve a box office of 100 million RMB in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland. In the future, it will mainly depend on the performance in Hong Kong, because Taiwan has the box office potential.

However, the box office in Hong Kong is difficult to predict. It's no problem to make 40 or 50 million in one go, but if it fails to make it in one go and is withdrawn early, the box office may only be a few million.

So Zhou Yan could only say that there was hope, but he couldn't be sure how big the hope was.

Han Sanping was a little tempted after hearing what Zhou Yan said. After all, the film would be released in Hong Kong and Taiwan soon, so he wouldn’t have to wait long for it to be released.

If the box office revenue from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan can really exceed 100 million RMB, then holding a celebration banquet will be more meaningful and more eye-catching.

"In that case, let's wait and see how Hong Kong and Taiwan perform in the future." Han Sanping took a sip of tea from his cup and said, "I just want to ask you something. Xiao Can has applied for a project in the factory. Do you know about this?"

Zhou Yan nodded, "He did tell me about this, but I haven't read the script yet."

"I've read the script, it's pretty good. Since you know about this, I'll just approve it. The factory has a quota, and the cost he wants is not high, only 800,000, which the factory can meet."

Although Xiao Can is from Yanjing Factory, he works closely with Zhou Yan, so Han Sanping is willing to give Xiao Can a target for Zhou Yan's sake.

Zhou Yan thought for a moment and asked, "Do you have his script?"

"Yes, I'll show it to you."

Han Sanping stood up and took out a script from his desk drawer. (End of this chapter)