Famous! Ch.233

Chapter 233 – Before the Premiere

As a historical film, The Sovereign Descends the World should not have been one of the most highly anticipated movies in any given release slot, regardless of its scheduled premiere date.

That should have been the case—except the film’s lead actor was Lu Xu.

Everyone knew that Lu Xu had taken on a historical film, but the industry remained in a wait-and-see mode regarding its prospects.

In other words, they were letting Lu Xu test the waters first. With his participation, a genre that had previously been cold and overlooked might just be revitalized.

It wasn’t that people in the industry were particularly superstitious about Lu Xu—it was just that his uncanny luck was truly hard to ignore.

Originally, no one wanted to believe it, but Lu Xu had never failed since his very first movie. His success rate was 100%, and his failure rate was 0%.

If he had been a newcomer just starting out, it might have been easier to dismiss. But Lu Xu had already accumulated eight or nine films by this point, all of which had achieved both box office success and critical acclaim. If it had been any other actor, such a record would have sounded like pure fantasy.

From Feather of Youth, a film about a badminton player, to Observing the Stars at Night, which was released shortly after the disastrous flop of Sanzu River, and even Clay Man, a low-budget one-man show where he was the sole actor—under normal circumstances, these films would have struggled to make 1 billion at the box office. Yet, Lu Xu had managed to push their revenue ceilings several times higher.

Moreover, Lu Xu had a proven ability to ignite interest in certain genres. Themes that previously lacked actors willing to take them on had gained popularity after he starred in them, leading to the emergence of more and more high-quality films.

Just as the industry had treated Code A77 and Clay Man with caution, they approached The Sovereign Descends the World in the same way—waiting until its official release before drawing any conclusions.

Ultimately, The Sovereign Descends the World was scheduled for a Spring Festival premiere.

The production team had discussed the release date with Lu Xu. Chang Aiwei had considered both the National Day holiday and the Spring Festival over three months later. However, for The Sovereign Descends the World, a National Day release would have been too rushed, leaving insufficient time for promotion.

Although marketing was not the decisive factor in box office performance, the team preferred to be thorough in every aspect to ensure there would be no regrets when reviewing the results.

After careful deliberation, The Sovereign Descends the World was ultimately scheduled for a Spring Festival release.

Lu Xu remained calm about the decision. It wasn’t his first time having a film released during the Spring Festival. In fact, one could argue that his films had a higher likelihood of premiering during this season compared to other time slots. Regardless of the release date, he firmly believed that in the end, quality was what mattered most.

Liu Rennong no longer held sway over the film industry, so while slot allocation was still influenced by certain factors, it was not as blatant as before. The number of screenings a film received was now more aligned with its overall box office performance.

While Lu Xu was at ease, the director and producer were still somewhat uncertain.

The release date had been decided, but Chang Aiwei had no confidence in how The Sovereign Descends the World would perform in that slot.

Producer Yu Liang could only offer words of reassurance: “We’ll see how things go when the time comes. If necessary, we can always…”

Yu Liang didn’t finish his sentence, but Chang Aiwei understood the underlying message.

For the The Sovereign Descends the World team, securing Lu Xu as the lead was undoubtedly a huge advantage. The film had received an extraordinary amount of attention, and Lu Xu’s own star power would bring in a dedicated audience.

Of course, challenges remained.

Precisely because Lu Xu was the lead, the film’s “extraordinary” level of attention could also make people forget that The Sovereign Descends the World was, at its core, a historical film—one that belonged to a niche and relatively cold genre.

Lu Xu had previously starred in films that grossed 5.5 billion and over 4 billion at the box office, with his baseline hovering around 2 billion. His track record in the film industry was so strong that, despite The Sovereign Descends the World being a niche historical film, industry professionals, audiences, and critics alike still regarded it as a grand epic.

In other words, The Sovereign Descends the World faced immense box office pressure.

Chang Aiwei naturally hoped that this pressure would turn into motivation, pushing the film’s box office numbers higher and higher. Only then could his dream of turning it into a film series become a reality.

At the same time, he was also worried—higher expectations often led to greater disappointment.

Box office performance was simply too unpredictable.

…

In December, The Sovereign Descends the World released an early teaser trailer.

By this point, films scheduled for the Spring Festival release window had already started ramping up their promotional efforts. Since The Sovereign Descends the World starred Lu Xu as the lead and Zheng Xiao as the second male lead, the film had already garnered extraordinary attention, even though Chang Aiwei was not the type of director who liked to spend heavily on marketing.

In fact… some industry insiders had already started predicting that the Spring Festival box office champion would be a battle between The Sovereign Descends the World and Dragon Palace.

Chang Aiwei: “…I feel like I just woke up and the Spring Festival has already passed.”

It was still only December, with dozens of days left before the holiday, and the movie hadn’t even premiered yet. But people were already making box office predictions—could they not put so much pressure on him?

It was worth mentioning that Dragon Palace was one of the few large-scale fantasy productions to emerge in the industry since Observing the Stars at Night. Its visual effects budget had even surpassed that of Observing the Stars at Night. The production team was counting on making a huge profit during the Spring Festival season. Ideally, it would surpass Observing the Stars at Night, but if not, they at least hoped for a box office performance on par with it.

After Observing the Stars at Night swept up 5.5 billion at the box office, the film industry did produce several fantasy films, two of which performed decently. However, none of them had investments on the same scale as Dragon Palace.

Dragon Palace even carried on the dual-male-lead formula of Observing the Stars at Night, taking the theme of brotherhood to an even greater extreme. While Observing the Stars at Night focused on breathtaking mountain landscapes, Dragon Palace created a mysterious and dazzling underwater world.

Even though the Spring Festival season was still some time away, Lu Xu kept coming across ads for Dragon Palace promoting its theme of “a brotherhood that transcends species.”

Lu Xu: “…”

Did it really matter whether brotherhood transcended species or not?

No one ever questioned whether the four disciples of Journey to the West embodied brotherhood, and the Great Sage had far too many cross-species brothers to count.

That said, Lu Xu didn’t mind Dragon Palace using this marketing approach—as long as it didn’t take shots at Observing the Stars at Night. Since both were fantasy films with substantial budgets, comparisons were inevitable.

Observing the Stars at Night might find the comparisons annoying, but from Dragon Palace’s perspective, the existence of Observing the Stars at Night also placed immense pressure on them.

As for box office competition, that was unavoidable.

Let’s be honest—every movie wanted to hit 5 billion+ in revenue. Claiming otherwise simply meant it wasn’t possible to achieve.

…

The moment The Sovereign Descends the World released its trailer, it immediately sparked a massive wave of attention.

Chang Aiwei hadn’t expected this at all.

At the time, he was in discussions with theater chains about the premiere event. For the production team, a premiere was undoubtedly a great promotional tool, and the theaters were more than happy to cooperate—after all, Lu Xu and Zheng Xiao were notoriously difficult to book for appearances.

Nowadays, roadshows were becoming more frequent for film crews, allowing deeper engagement between the production team and the audience while giving the creators a chance to interact directly with viewers.

Chang Aiwei had considered the possibility that audiences might find The Sovereign Descends the World too visually solemn or the plot not lively enough. At the very least, the trailers the team had released so far had an overall serious tone.

But no matter how he tried, the director simply couldn’t edit the film into something more lighthearted. The finished product had a distinct style, and the trailer naturally reflected that.

In short, he personally believed the response to the trailer might be underwhelming.

And then—

[Look at that imperious gaze!!!]

[Ahhhhh! Could Emperor Lu Xu be any more handsome?]

[Wow wow wow! Lu Xu has played psychopaths and villains before, but rarely this kind of aloof ruler. His historical costume look is seriously amazing!! He exudes nothing but the majesty of imperial power and absolute control.]

[That subtle, almost-smiling expression—seriously, no wonder the grand eunuch bowed so hard his forehead bled. Lu Xu truly captures that cruel, untouchable aura of the imperial family! Super impressive!!]

[Ahhhh, a brand-new Puppy role appears again! This new character suits him so well!! I’ve always wanted to see Puppy in a historical role, but historical films are just so rare these days.]

[Snow-covered landscapes, palace gates, the emperor… The cinematography is stunning! I’ve decided—even if it’s just for the visuals, I have to watch this movie!]

[Count me in!]

[Seeing Lu Xu’s look in The Sovereign Descends the World, I can’t help but rant again—some productions, and I won’t name names, really need to stop casting guys with sharp monkey-like features and rodent faces as emperors. Some people just… don’t look like royalty even in a dragon robe.]

[Agreed!!!]

Chang Aiwei was completely stunned by the enthusiasm in the comments. He had never expected that just a few minutes of a teaser trailer could generate such an overwhelming response from the audience.

Even if not every one of these excited viewers actually went to see The Sovereign Descends the World, as long as even one-tenth of them did, it would still bring in a considerable box office revenue.

And yet… no matter how he looked at it, the trailer had only shown Qi Yi’s daily imperial attire. Why were the comments this intense?

“Maybe… because Lu Xu’s previous costumes weren’t as good-looking?”

Chang Aiwei silently searched for Code A77, zoomed in on Lu Xu’s stills, and asked, “This is what you call ‘not good-looking’?”

The person who had spoken fell into silence.

“Maybe we’re just getting old and don’t really understand the fashion trends of young people anymore?”

Chang Aiwei gave a quiet nod of agreement.

All in all, for the production team of The Sovereign Descends the World, any level of buzz was a good thing. It was far better than being ignored.

After the trailer was released, Lu Xu played along by posting a selfie—along with a still from the film showing him seated on the dragon throne while Zheng Xiao, portraying Hu Qing, knelt in submission.

The fans: “…”

[Zheng Xiao is about to enter the battlefield.]

[You two just go ahead and fight already, I can’t stop laughing.]

[Watch out, Zheng Xiao might steal your new bike again. You’ll be left in his dust.]

[Guess he didn’t run enough last time.]

As soon as Lu Xu posted, Zheng Xiao immediately responded with a big question mark and tagged him:

[We were once comrades in the same production, why must we turn against each other so soon?]

[Fight! Fight! We’re here for the drama!]

Lu Xu then quietly replied:

[Turn against each other? I was just thinking about roast chicken.]

The fans: “…”

It was clear now—both of these guys from The Sovereign Descends the World weren’t exactly normal.

But after their little performance on Weibo, the movie’s search volume skyrocketed. The teaser had already included a scene where Qi Yi and Hu Qing shared the screen, yet their gazes never met.

Qi Yi, the ruthless emperor, looked into the distance, his gaze unfocused.

Hu Qing, on the other hand, appeared outwardly submissive, but for a fleeting moment, the scheming in his eyes was just as chilling.

Although the audience still had no clue about The Sovereign Descends the World’s plot, they knew one thing for sure—Lu Xu’s Qi Yi and Zheng Xiao’s Hu Qing were bound to have some intense on-screen confrontations.

[Can’t wait! Supreme was so long ago.]

[Supreme barely had any interaction between these two, just a little bit. I’m so excited to see the cold emperor vs. the cunning minister dynamic. Feels like Zheng Xiao’s playing the big boss, and Lu Xu has to rack his brain to deal with him.]

Zheng Xiao silently screenshotted this comment and sent it to the group chat:

[What do you think? Will the audience curse us out after they watch the movie?]

Lu Xu: […Very likely.]

[But that ending fits the characters. Against absolute power, little schemes are completely useless.]

Zheng Xiao: [That’s true.]

[Even if people get mad, they won’t blame me.] Lu Xu’s next words made Zheng Xiao roll up his sleeves. [They’ll just say you were too weak.]

Zheng Xiao: [Alright, come out and fight me.]

[Nope, I’m not stupid.]

[Come out!]

[No, never.]

…

Time flew by, and the long-awaited Spring Festival season finally arrived. Excited moviegoers began stepping into theaters to watch The Sovereign Descends the World.

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