On Saturday, 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' earned 110 million at the box office in a single day. On Sunday, it dipped slightly, earning 105 million.
Compared to '5 Centimeters per Second', its momentum wasn't quite as strong.
After all, although '5 Centimeters per Second' didn't have a strictly defined single protagonist, the actors who portrayed the male and female leads during their youth, high school years, and adult lives were all well-known figures in the Xia Nation film industry.
In contrast, although Shen Liqian had great popularity in 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet', her fame was mainly limited to the television industry.
In the film industry, her drawing power still needed time to build.
Moreover, if one compared the emotional impact of the two movies overall, '5 Centimeters per Second' undeniably delivered a stronger shock.
So Su Yan could understand why the opening-week results of '5 Centimeters per Second' had been better.
However, within the same release window, 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' still suppressed both 'Immortal Mountain' and 'The Truth' with overwhelming advantage.
The opening weekend totals of the three films were:
'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' — 306 million, ranking first.
'Immortal Mountain' — 235 million, ranking second
'The Truth' — 196 million over three days
From this opening-weekend performance, the possibility of 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' eventually surpassing '5 Centimeters per Second' in total box office was relatively low.
But the key point was—
If 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' successfully suppressed 'Immortal Mountain' and 'The Truth', then the structure of the summer movie market was basically settled.
'5 Centimeters per Second' would finish as the seasonal champion with a total box office of 1.43 billion.
The film currently ranked second in the summer box office—'Windmill'—had only reached 1.18 billion so far.
And strictly speaking, even its second-place position wasn't safe.
Although 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' probably couldn't beat '5 Centimeters per Second', it had a very strong chance of competing with 'Windmill' for the runner-up position.
The opening-weekend performance of the two films had been very similar.
On Monday, media outlets across the Xia Nation began publishing headlines.
📰The summer box office battle is essentially over! '5 Centimeters per Second' has basically locked in the championship.
📰A true genius—someone truly born for the film and television industry!
📰Last year, Su Yan's first film 'The Garden of Words' finished third in its season. This year, '5 Centimeters per Second' and 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' may take first and second place in the summer box office—an unprecedented genius screenwriter in the Xia Nation film industry over the past decade!
📰With three consecutive films possibly surpassing 3 billion total box office, Su Yan may become the youngest and fastest screenwriter in Xia Nation history to achieve this milestone.
📰Not yet twenty-five years old, yet already achieving enormous success in both television and film—Su Yan is unquestionably the number one genius screenwriter in Xia Nation's history.
📰'5 Centimeters per Second' is like a powerful medicine that explodes at the end. 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' is like slow poison that makes you lose faith in love after finishing it. Su Yan's two romance films left his Xia Nation fans emotionally shattered this summer.
📰A screenwriter who has never written a single happy ending since his debut—the title "King of Emotional Devastation" truly belongs to Su Yan. Let's look forward to the 'Rurouni Kenshin' movie releasing next February, and the fantasy TV drama 'Fate/Zero' premiering in January!
📰Search trends for Dimensional Pictures and Su Yan continue to rise, while the runtime structure of 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet', similar to '5 Centimeters per Second', sparks heated debate.
📰Once considered cannon fodder for next year's Spring Festival season, 'Rurouni Kenshin' is now being treated by major Xia Nation studios as a serious rival.
In Tokyo, on the set of 'Rurouni Kenshin'.
The Monday box office figures for 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' were also released.
Even though it was a weekday, the film still earned over 46 million in a single day.
As the female lead of the film, Shen Liqian had clearly been in excellent acting form these past few days.
Although 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' hadn't surpassed Su Yan's other film '5 Centimeters per Second', she was already very satisfied with the results.
After playing Akana Rika, her popularity in the Xia Nation television industry had skyrocketed to the very top tier.
But in the film industry, she was still a newcomer.
With the current box office numbers and word-of-mouth for 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet', there was a very high probability that the final total would exceed 1 billion.
What was there for her to be dissatisfied about?
Shen Liqian was now an artist under Su Yan's company.
Together with Gu Qingyuan, she was among the actresses that Su Yan valued the most.
Although the recently signed Zhuang Yuxin was also gaining huge popularity within the company—
Her mixed heritage was both her strength and her limitation.
How many roles suitable for mixed-heritage actors could Su Yan realistically write?
Su Yan's main market was the Xia Nation.
Occasionally, including a foreign-looking character in a drama was fine.
But doing it constantly was impossible.
So if Su Yan started another film project in the future, his first choices would almost certainly still be her and Gu Qingyuan.
Shen Liqian brushed aside the hair near her ear, took a deep breath, and walked toward Su Yan.
"Teacher Su Yan, you were amazing! That fight scene just now was incredible."
Even though she knew Su Yan was practically immune to flattery—
She still occasionally praised him.
"Hmm… it could actually be even better," Su Yan said as he took the towel she handed him.
"But if I move any faster, the stunt performers won't be able to keep up with my movements."
Although Su Yan's agility had improved due to the system, and he understood the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū techniques—
Compared to Kenshin in the movie, stamina was still a problem.
Himura Kenshin could fight hundreds of enemies and still keep going.
But Su Yan, who spent most of his time writing scripts in an office, was already sweating after half an hour of action scenes.
"Here, drink some water."
"Thanks."
"Teacher Su Yan, you must be hungry. I brought some pastries—would you like to try one?"
"Oh, sure. I'm actually a bit hungry."
"Teacher Su Yan, do you think my performance as Kamiya Kaoru today had any problems? For example… was I acting a bit too gently? Should my gaze be firmer?"
"I think it was very good," Su Yan said.
"Better than the original… well, very close to how I imagined Kamiya Kaoru."
"But Shen Liqian, you should prepare yourself."
"When you play this role, Kenshin fans will definitely compare you with Yukishiro Tomoe."
"And in this series, Yukishiro Tomoe is a female character that simply cannot be surpassed."
"You should prepare yourself for criticism from Tomoe fans."
"I'm mentally prepared for that," Shen Liqian nodded.
When she first read the 'Rurouni Kenshin' script, she had already realized something.
Compared with Yukishiro Tomoe, Kamiya Kaoru's character indeed lacked some charm.
But the script was the script.
Her job wasn't to criticize it.
Her job was to act the role well.
In truth, Su Yan was quite satisfied with Shen Liqian's portrayal of Kamiya Kaoru.
In the previous world's live-action 'Rurouni Kenshin' films, the actress playing Kaoru had looked quite different from the manga version.
To put it bluntly, her appearance had been somewhat lacking.
Compared with the actress who played Yukishiro Tomoe, the difference was obvious.
But in the Xia Nation version—
At the very least, Shen Liqian's appearance as Kamiya Kaoru was absolutely convincing.
She was tall, elegant, and looked very compatible standing beside Su Yan.
Not far away, other members of the crew quietly watched the conversation between Su Yan and Shen Liqian.
In the entire 'Rurouni Kenshin' production team, Shen Liqian was practically the only person who dared to casually approach Su Yan during breaks.
Even the director felt slightly intimidated.
Although Su Yan had a good temper, his status was different.
Especially for professionals from the Sakura Island region, hierarchy was deeply ingrained.
With Su Yan's triple identity as screenwriter, lead actor, and investor, even the director didn't dare speak loudly in front of him.
But watching how easily Su Yan and Shen Liqian chatted—
The crew couldn't help letting their imaginations wander.
'5 Centimeters per Second' and 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' had already achieved such results.
So what about the 'Rurouni Kenshin' currently being filmed?
After it was released during the Spring Festival season—
Would its results be even better?
For the next period of time, Su Yan traveled back and forth between the 'Rurouni Kenshin' set and the 'Fate/Zero' production team.
After 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' premiered, he no longer needed to travel around the Xia Nation hosting fan meetings for promotion.
He could fully focus on filming the two projects.
Meanwhile, the box office for 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' continued steadily climbing.
Four hundred million.
Five hundred million.
Six hundred million.
Although daily earnings gradually decreased as time passed—following normal box office patterns—the same was true for other films in the same release window.
So 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' firmly held the daily box office champion position.
At this point, the summer season outcome had no suspense left.
August passed.
September arrived.
When '5 Centimeters per Second' finally left theaters, its total box office reached 1.46 billion.
It hadn't crossed the 1.5 billion mark.
But it was still the summer box office champion.
Meanwhile, 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' continued steadily accumulating its total.
Media outlets across the Xia Nation were now mainly focusing on the battle between 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' and 'Windmill' for second place in the summer box office rankings.
Without Su Yan stirring things up further, the entire film and television market gradually calmed down.
Because of Su Yan's influence, the quality of TV dramas across major networks had improved significantly.
Ratings were also rising.
Seasonal champions often finished their broadcasts with ratings around 4.8%–4.9%.
However, Su Yan had been quiet in the television industry for quite some time.
He was now mainly producing S-level dramas, each with production cycles lasting half a year or longer.
Movies were inserted between those projects.
Although these works were extremely high quality—
Compared with the massive output he used to have, his fans felt somewhat unsatisfied.
["It's already September… sigh."]
["And we still have four months before Su Yan's new drama… that's painful."]
["No choice. The old sadist is focusing on quality now. Back then, something like the 'Rurouni Kenshin' TV drama had a great story but average production values. It could be praised, but not legendary. From 'Tokyo Love Story' to 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica', he's been improving both script quality and production quality. Otherwise, how could breaking 6% ratings be so easy?"]
["But I still want the old days when he released three or four dramas a year. That was heaven. This year, we only got 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica', then nothing. Even with two movies this summer, one per month isn't enough. One per day would be better!"]
["What can you do? His writing speed and especially filming speed have limits."]
["Actually, the dramas from the three major TV stations this year have been pretty good. Much better than previous years. It's just… compared with Su Yan's works, there's still a gap."]
["Sigh… It's September. Accept reality. From now until 'Fate/Zero' airs in January, Su Yan's discussion popularity will gradually drop."]
["Brothers, let's gather on the forum again in January!"]
["I'll go play the games I've been wanting to play. See you all when 'Fate/Zero' starts next year!"]