Chapter 54 Not Just Anyone Can Play a Taoist Priest Exorcising Zombies: Comparison Highlights the Gap

There was even more that Chen Mo never expected.

*Mr. Vampire* had officially premiered in Hong Kong a few days ago.

Perhaps it was because audiences over in Hong Kong genuinely harbored a deep interest in films themed around corpses, geomancy, and the supernatural, the movie surprisingly raked in a box office of nearly one million Hong Kong dollars on its very first day.

Do not mistake this daily box office figure for being low; in reality, it was by no means low at all.

As word of mouth began to ferment, the box office trajectory of *Mr. Vampire* steadily climbed higher and higher.

By the day of the Winter Solstice, the daily box office of *Mr. Vampire* in Hong Kong hit a brand new record, astonishingly soaring to three million for the day.

Within a full week of its theatrical run in Hong Kong, its cumulative box office climbed to an imposing figure of over eight million.

Coupled with the tradition of tomb sweeping observed in Hong Kong during the Winter Solstice, *Mr. Vampire* completely blew up in popularity as a result.

Back in the Mainland, people these days did not actually care as much about geomancy and such matters as folks in Hong Kong did. Hong Kong was truly different; they placed a much higher value on these aspects, and a great many people genuinely believed in them.

Therefore, the bizarre occurrences taking place around graveyards in the Mainland were also happening over in Hong Kong, and to an even more absurd degree.

Because there were actually people running off to consult "grandmasters," inquiring about matters concerning burial sites like the "dragonfly skimming the water" or the "snowcap resting on the peak," and the renowned "grandmasters" would reply that what the movie depicted was entirely correct and indeed the case.

For a time, regardless of whether their family ancestral graves were actually dragonfly-skimming-the-water sites, everyone simply felt that "snowcap resting on the peak" sounded extremely auspicious, and moreover, it did not require spending all that much money. So what were they waiting for? Whatever else they might use to seal the tombs, they certainly could not use cement and concrete!

Unknowingly, Hong Kong and the Mainland suddenly engaged in a mutual resonance.

This resonance primarily referred to the fact that after *Mr. Vampire* had screened in Hong Kong for a week, its box office reached over eight million.

Once Orange Sky Golden Harvest published this piece of news, it immediately prompted various media outlets to report on it.

Although it was already the year 2011, in truth, no matter how high Mainland films scored at the domestic box office, they almost always struggled to secure impressive box office figures over in Hong Kong.

Even high-profile blockbusters spearheaded by top Hong Kong directors and major stars, such as *Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame*, only managed to pull in just over ten million at the Hong Kong box office.

Thus, the box office performance of *Mr. Vampire* could truly be called stunning!

In fact, let alone the Mainland media, even Orange Sky Golden Harvest themselves never imagined that *Mr. Vampire* would prove to be so immensely popular in Hong Kong.

Orange Sky Golden Harvest quickly arranged for the distribution and screening of *Mr. Vampire* in Taiwan and several regions across Southeast Asia.

Time passed quickly.

By the time Chen Mo returned to his hometown to celebrate the Lunar New Year, the online streaming box office of *Mr. Vampire* on the Mainland had already broken through the 40 million mark. However, its daily box office had already plummeted below six figures, dwindling to just tens of thousands of yuan each day.

Conversely, the theatrical box office figures from its releases in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and various Southeast Asian regions greatly exceeded everyone's expectations.

It brought in over 18 million in Hong Kong, secured over 40 million New Taiwan Dollars (equivalent to 12 million) in Taiwan, and when combined with the Southeast Asian box office earnings, the total box office for *Mr. Vampire* was on the verge of breaking the 100 million threshold!

It is fair to say that not only did Orange Sky Golden Harvest fail to anticipate this, but even Chen Mo himself never saw it coming.

Following the spread of this news, Chen Mo's reputation soared to even greater heights.

Furthermore, the massive commercial success of *Mr. Vampire* in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia also fostered a major misconception among many people: the notion that internet-released films could launch a counterattack against traditional theatrical lines and achieve stellar results.

For a time, online movie projects sprang up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

During the Spring Festival holiday, the three major video streaming platforms released a batch of six rushed internet movies in one go.

However, facts proved that the miracle of *Mr. Vampire* was not something that could be replicated by just anyone.

Those six hastily produced online films were rushed out purely to cash in, so their fate was entirely predictable—audiences were not fools.

The combined total box office of all six internet movies over more than half a month did not even reach ten million.

This drove many netizens, who had originally held high expectations for online films, to curse them with venomous fury.

"*Mr. Vampire* made me naively believe that all internet movies were worth anticipating, but in the end, what a damn mouthful of shit I was fed!"

"The crucial point is, isn't this bandwagon-jumping just too disgusting? If you want to ride the coattails, fine, but how on earth can this garbage even be called a zombie movie? And what's with that zombie-slaying Taoist priest acting so wretched?"

"There is simply no comparison, completely incomparable!"

"After watching Uncle Ying's zombie-slaying Taoist priest, everything else just feels thoroughly awkward! It really is true that without comparison, there is no harm!"

"Ain't that the truth? My brain automatically compares them to Uncle Ying, and the gap is glaringly obvious!"

Indeed, the success of *Mr. Vampire* led these six hastily assembled online films to uniformly mimic the zombie movie genre, even copying the character setups down to a master accompanied by two disciples.

Yet the resulting product was something audiences, having just feasted on a gourmet delicacy, found utterly impossible to swallow.

The higher their anticipation had been beforehand, the more repulsive they found it now.

At this juncture, the three major video streaming platforms promptly released news regarding the upcoming production of a *Mr. Vampire* sequel, which served to somewhat appease the injured feelings of the audience.

However, the director for this installment was changed to Uncle Ying.

Meanwhile, Chen Mo had successfully finalized his collaboration with Enlight Pictures regarding *Love Is Not Blind*.

What caught his eye was Enlight Pictures' distribution capability. Last year, a cinematic disaster as terrible as *A Chinese Odyssey 2010* was somehow aggressively pushed by them to a box office of over 100 million, which demonstrated that Enlight Pictures' distribution prowess was genuinely exceptional.

Compared to Chen Mo shooting *Mr. Vampire*, the investment structure for *Love Is Not Blind* was vastly more complicated.

It was not that Chen Mo failed to recognize the film's potential; naturally, he would have loved to hog all the profits for himself just as he did with *Mr. Vampire*, but that simply wasn't realistic.

Because *Love Is Not Blind* was a theatrical release, it involved far too many moving parts, such as publicity and distribution.

When it came to publicity, it wasn't a matter of simply paying money to secure channels from people; very often, it required trading equity stakes in the investment.

Of course, ceding a portion of the investment shares did mean Chen Mo could save himself a great deal of trouble, leaving him solely responsible for directing a good film.

Although Chen Mo was not yet considered a major director within the current film industry, the project for *Love Is Not Blind* began circulating within industry circles the moment it was officially greenlit and its financing was secured.

Consequently, even before Chen Mo began the casting process, people began approaching him one after another to probe for information.

The first person to show up surprised Chen Mo, yet upon reflection, it felt entirely within reason: Wang Jinghua, widely hailed as the premier agent in the entertainment industry.

Given Wang Jinghua's connections and influence within the entertainment circle, Chen Mo was not at all surprised that she had caught wind of the news right away.

In fact, Chen Mo had already guessed which actor Wang Jinghua intended to recommend.

To be honest, regarding *Love Is Not Blind*, Chen Mo actually felt that Bai Baihe delivered a rather stellar performance in it, and the same went for Wen Zhang.

However, the latter was someone he would absolutely never use, and moreover, Chen Mo already had his own candidate in mind to replace him. As for the former, Chen Mo felt somewhat conflicted.

Chen Mo acknowledged Bai Baihe's acting skills, but the "one-finger Zen" scandal from his past life remained fresh in his mind, leaving an impression far too deep and causing him a degree of hesitation. To put it simply, he was being overly fastidious; after all, things like her scandals hadn't even happened yet in this timeline.

As for the potential replacement for Bai Baihe, it turned out to be a classic case of enemies crossing paths: Wang珞丹 (Wang Luodan).

Yet this character was someone Chen Mo was equally incapable of employing; she was also one of the core members of the notorious "Stabbing Alliance" group back then!

Chen Mo had also considered little Zhao, but ultimately discarded the idea. There was no helping it—little Zhao was simply too petite! He always felt she lacked the aura of an older, left-on-the-shelf single woman.