I Inherited 5,000 Years of Family Property-Chapter 547 - 545: I Sincerely Cut Down an Aircraft Carrier

Wang Ling's outrageous asking price had nearly every cinema cursing him as a profiteer.

Indeed, the "Three-Body" books sold well, but its film adaptations had never been tested in the market. Who knew if anyone would actually buy tickets? With such high licensing fees, if no one watched, they might not even recoup the cost.

Moreover, those familiar with "Three-Body" knew all too well just how vast its worldview was. To date, humans had not touched upon the true second or four-dimensional space. How, then, were they expected to film the related content that came later on?

Even if the first installment did not involve such grand visuals, the demands it would place on the actors, the filming process, the technology, and the post-production were undeniably immense challenges.

If it was well-made, it could indeed be a masterpiece.

If not, it would basically be no different from "Dou Qi's Equine Transformation" and "Fortress of Intellectual Disabilities" – not just subjected to harsh criticism but potentially a disaster in terms of profit.

However, faced with this kind of package deal, they were helpless. What could they do about it?

In the end, cinema after cinema paid a hefty price for the rights to these works and, as per Wang Ling's demands, scheduled "Three-Body" at the highest screening rate.

Of course, due to these exorbitant licensing fees, the ticket price for "Three-Body" was double that of other films. They had given up hope of making a profit and only hoped that the box office revenue from other popular films could offset the costly fees.

Their investment did not disappoint, as the pent-up enthusiasm from moviegoers over the course of more than a week was quite frightening. Due to the high scheduling rate, presale tickets were at least twice the usual amount, which greatly relieved the cinema owners.

Presales exceeded the previous release by 30%, a growth rate that was quite pleasing.

As for those who couldn't get presale tickets, they started to wonder, were these people crazy? They should have increased the scheduling rate for popular movies, but instead, they gave the highest rate to a Huaxia production.

Can Huaxia people even make sci-fi movies?

In the eyes of most foreigners, Huaxia's filmmaking supposedly blew most of its budget on casting, leaving just pennies for special effects, a practice that had long been criticized.

Because of Wang Ling's previous threats, these people did not know that the delay of those popular films was intended for foreign markets to accept the "Three-Body" movie.

"Could this really be a masterpiece? Otherwise, why would they have such confidence to place it in such a prominent position?"

Many of those waiting tried watching the film.

Not looking would not matter, but one look was like opening the doors to a new world.

Not to mention the effort Zhang Menglong put into casting for this film, but he also invested a huge sum to construct the massive project that was Red Coast Base.

The final filming and special effects teams were top-level, and he adhered to one principle: if it could be done without special effects, he absolutely would not use them!

Most importantly, Zhang Menglong made virtually no alterations to the original text, something almost impossible for any film adaptation.

This resulted in the film's runtime reaching a staggering four hours. The final visual effects were undoubtedly stunning. Four hours without a dull moment made one marvel at the breadth of Huaxia's imagination and the excellence of the production team.

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Where there was a first group, there was a second group. The effect of word-of-mouth was terrifyingly effective. Though the price was high, the film's duration was twice as long as other hot films, which was not unacceptable.

The first day, a theater that could hold fifty people had only seven or eight attendees.

The second day, surprisingly, the occupancy rate reached 50%.

By the third day, it was fully booked.

"Three-Body" spread like a viral phenomenon across the world, captivating audiences not just with its vast universe, but also with its deep analysis of human nature and grounded presentation of scientific concepts.

After one week, "Three-Body" had surpassed "The Avengers" in total global box office revenue, creating a cinematic miracle!

"Add more screenings! Give me more screenings!"

Businesspeople chase profit, and without the restrictions of the cultural authority, cinema owners had only one belief: "money."

They now felt as though they were fools. Wang Ling had practically given this film to them for nothing, asking for only 2% of box office share — and they had all refused.

Now, not only was the licensing fee a major expense, but also the box-office revenue split was exorbitantly high. When adding up the national box office, we earned at least several billion US dollars less.

If we had known it would be like this, even if it meant going against the Culture Bureau, we would have taken on this film!

The explosive growth of "Three-Body"'s box office caused one sci-fi storm after another in the domestic market, prompting its investors, Zhang Menglong and Wang Ling, to be invited to a live interview show.

"Mr. Zhang, we meet again," the host was once again Sa Xining, whom he had met before.

"Yes, we meet again," Zhang Menglong replied politely.

"The last time we were on the show together was when you won the Nobel Prize in Physics, and to think, less than a month later, and for a completely unrelated theme—the movie industry—do you have anything you'd like to say?"

"Not much," Zhang Menglong said, "I just don't want people to think that I'm someone who relies on his looks to make a living. I rely on my talent."

"Hahaha, talent? Or do you mean financial talent?"

"To be honest, even if you have money, can you win a Nobel Prize in Physics? Can you produce such a high-quality movie?"

"Indeed, I admit that Mr. Zhang is a man who can surpass me in both looks and talent."

...

"Actually, there are many details in this work that are worth taking the time to analyze slowly. However, as the host, today I have a personal question I hope Mr. Zhang can answer."

"Please ask, Teacher Sa," Zhang Menglong said.

"How exactly was the scene with the 'Guqin Project' filmed?"

The so-called "Guqin Project" was that epic scene from the first film.

On Judgement Day, the Three-Body Organization ETO's seaward fleet base was crossing the Panama Canal when it was sliced into 50 cm iron pieces by nano-material „Flying Blade".

All the members of ETO were bisected at the waist, and the entire ship disintegrated.

In the movie, this scene felt so realistic that it gave people chills.

"Did you use a new type of special effects set for that? Was it filmed using the same methods as when 'Titanic' sank?" asked Sa Xining. When 'Titanic' was made, a certain scale model was built to film the sinking scene, and he speculated that a similar technique might have been used this time.

"Oh, that scene? That wasn't done with special effects, I actually cut a real aircraft carrier!" Zhang Menglong spoke as if it were a very ordinary matter.

Sa Xining: ≡;°д°)

Audience Member A: "What the fuck?"

Audience Member B: "Jiangzhe swear word!"

Audience Member C: "Magic City swear word!"

Audience Member D: "Northeast swear word!"

"This... this is truly unimaginable," Sa Xining said, his eyes wide and his mouth agape.

"That 'Flying Blade' is a super high-strength graphene material developed by Jiangnan University of Science and Technology. Its fineness is ten times smaller than the 'Flying Blade' in the original text, and four times stronger, but getting the Panama Canal to let us film this scene took quite an effort!"

"The Judgement Day you saw was a retired aircraft carrier that I bought and modified; it cost about 5 billion US dollars!"

"I rnmmp!"

"Abababa."

...