In mid-August, the promotional campaigns for three films in the Xia Nation film market—' We Made a Beautiful Bouquet', 'Immortal Mountain', and 'The Truth'—launched in full force.
Su Yan, Shen Liqian, and other core members of the production team followed the scheduled plan and set off for Hudu, the Imperial Capital, and several coastal cities to promote 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet'.
Back in June, when Su Yan was promoting '5 Centimeters per Second', many people in the Xia Nation film industry didn't take him very seriously.
It was true that 'The Garden of Words' had achieved great results the previous year, but the competition during this year's summer film season was no weaker than last year's.
But after '5 Centimeters per Second' exploded in popularity, although many old figures in the film industry felt unhappy about Su Yan's rise, the managers of major theater chains and well-known cinema owners in big cities across the Xia Nation welcomed him warmly.
At the promotional events, signed gifts were distributed—behind-the-scenes photo collections from the filming of 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet', as well as photography albums that didn't reveal spoilers.
During this mainland promotional trip, many professionals in the film industry also expressed their desire to cooperate with Su Yan in the future.
After all, the ones who disliked Su Yan were mostly film producers. They had always looked down on someone like him who crossed over from the television industry.
But distributors and theater chains didn't care about that.
As long as your work had popularity, fans willing to pay for it, and the ability to make money, then you were the boss—the perfect partner.
So in just one month, the treatment Su Yan received while promoting '5 Centimeters per Second' and 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' was completely different.
Every day, he had endless social engagements to attend, endless business cards to accept. Whether they knew him or not, people kept asking if he had plans for a new film after 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' was released.
Did he need investment?
Did he consider changing the distributor for the 'Rurouni Kenshin' movie scheduled to be released in February next year?
After Su Yan demonstrated his market appeal through '5 Centimeters per Second', capital from all corners of the Xia Nation film industry rushed toward him like animals catching the scent of prey.
Strictly speaking, the promotional activities for 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' themselves weren't particularly exhausting.
But dealing with all those industry figures was mentally draining.
Even with Shinozaki Ikumi accompanying him and taking on a large portion of the workload, the two of them were still struggling to keep up.
So on August 16th, they set off for Tokyo.
Because the final stop of the promotional tour…
Was in Tokyo.
Su Yan had already been filming dramas in Tokyo for one or two years.
After leaving the Hudu Film Studio and choosing real-location filming, the production costs of his works increased somewhat, but the quality of the series improved visibly.
However, after spending a long time filming in Tokyo, large numbers of Su Yan's fans often gathered near the branch company's office.
Especially now, with 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' about to premiere.
The streets were packed with fans waiting downstairs outside the company building, and promotional posters for the film covered both sides of the road.
Across both the mainland and the Sakura Island region, the enthusiasm of Su Yan's fans had been completely ignited.
Even though the movie hadn't been released yet, everyone inexplicably had enormous confidence in Su Yan.
The online popularity of 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' continued to climb day by day.
Among the three big-budget films and four small-budget films releasing on August 20th, it had already vaguely become the number one in buzz before the premiere.
[Something feels off… the hype for Su Yan's new movie is insanely high! Even my boyfriend, who never watches dramas or movies and only cares about games, asked me if we should go watch it together.]
[The old sadist has already made a name for himself in the film industry. '5 Centimeters per Second' has surpassed 1.4 billion at the box office. If the weekend numbers in the next week or two stay strong, it might even hit 1.5 billion. With Xia Nation media reporting on him nonstop, of course, his new movie will be hot.]
[I thought after watching '5 Centimeters per Second', everyone in Xia Nation would avoid his movies out of fear. Turns out we're all just volunteering to get emotionally destroyed.]
[I've followed Su Yan's works for years now. The routine is always the same—watch it, curse him, then rewatch it two or three times later, praise it, and finally start looking forward to his next work.]
[He's produced fewer TV dramas recently, but keeps releasing movies. Maybe in a few years, his title of Xia Nation's TV ratings king will turn into the Xia Nation box office king.]
[Before Su Yan rose to fame, I never understood what a genius was. Now I get it. Achievements others can't accomplish in a lifetime—he did it with just his second movie, breaking the billion mark while simultaneously producing a bunch of films and TV dramas.]
[Sigh… the only thing that bothers me is that he's been too focused on creating lately and neglected acting. I still love watching dramas where he stars alongside Shen Liqian and Gu Qingyuan. If he acted in '5 Centimeters per Second' or 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet', the popularity and results would definitely be even higher.]
[He's human, not a god! Who can write several scripts a year, compose tons of soundtrack pieces, and still star in all those productions? It's not like he can create clones of himself.]
[If you want both quantity and quality, you have to give up something. I'm not a huge fan of the male lead actor in 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet', but as long as he performs well in the movie, that's good enough.]
[If you want to see Su Yan acting again, wait for the big ones—'Fate/Zero' airing in January next year and the 'Rurouni Kenshin' movie releasing in February.]
[If Su Yan can win the summer box office championship this year, I can guarantee that next year's 'Rurouni Kenshin' movie won't be some minor player in its release window. Dimensional Pictures will then have the qualifications and strength to push it for a huge box office run during the Spring Festival season.]
[Exactly. Theater chains won't give too many resources to production companies without historical results. The performance of Su Yan's current summer film directly affects how much confidence the industry and theater chains will have in 'Rurouni Kenshin' next Spring Festival.]
[Only two or three days left before 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' premieres. Let's push harder! '5 Centimeters per Second' has already passed 1.4 billion. As long as 'The Truth' and 'Immortal Mountain' don't surpass it, the summer box office champion will be Su Yan.]
[Think bigger—what if 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' also performs amazingly? Maybe its box office could even surpass '5 Centimeters per Second'.]
[You guys really dare to dream.]
In the few days before 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' premiered, Su Yan's fanbase was far more active than usual.
As Su Yan's right-hand partner in the company, Shinozaki Ikumi began to feel a sense of nervousness she hadn't experienced in a long time.
In the television industry, Su Yan was already practically in a league of his own.
When his dramas aired, the question was no longer whether they could take first place in ratings.
The question was whether they could break his own previous records.
But in the film industry, even though his previous two movies had performed very well, strictly speaking, the two of them had only just stepped out of the newcomer phase.
Winning the box office championship for the release window…
Of course, Shinozaki Ikumi wanted that.
During dinner, she was absent-minded, constantly searching on her phone for news about the two competing films, checking whether any online trolls had started attacking 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet', ready to respond immediately if necessary.
"Alright, now we just have to see whether any dark horse appears on the 20th," Su Yan said with a smile during their after-work dinner gathering that evening.
"You shouldn't be so anxious."
"I know what you're saying makes sense… but it still irritates me somehow. You're clearly the big boss—why are you always so calm?" Shinozaki Ikumi said, taking a deep breath.
"Well… because we're still young," Su Yan replied.
"If this work doesn't reach our expectations, then we'll just charge toward the goal again with the next one."
"You always have that sense of crisis that if we don't do well this time, there might not be another chance."
"That's unnecessary."
"Even if this one doesn't succeed, I'll just make something even better next time."
"Even though we're on the same team… I really hope one day another genius appears in the Xia Nation and grinds you into the dirt, just so you understand how cruel this market can be," Shinozaki Ikumi joked.
Su Yan smiled when he heard that, but didn't continue the topic.
After dinner, they each went home.
The next day, they appeared on a Tokyo television variety show to carry out the final round of promotion for 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet'.
Soon, the time arrived on August 20th—
The premiere day of 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet'.