The Hong Kong film industry was in a slump.

With the development of special effects technology, Hollywood's commercial blockbusters were becoming more and more powerful. In addition, the rise of the film industries in neighboring countries and regions further squeezed the development space of the Hong Kong film industry.

In particular, pirated DVDs were everywhere, like a readily available and massive film library, which was far more convenient than going to the cinema, making business even more difficult.

These factors combined led to a decline in the size of the Hong Kong film industry. Many companies, following the old formula, found that after filming, they ultimately lost everything.

To put it bluntly, the Hong Kong market was too small.

In the past, they could make a little money with low costs, but now audiences were tired of the same old fighting and killing, and the lack of innovation gradually made them lose the motivation to go to the cinema.

The Myth was different.

Including promotion and publicity costs, its total investment had reached as high as HK$80 million.

With Su Yehao's help in promotion, it had received widespread attention since its inception, to the point where this film was even called "the savior of the new century" by some veteran Hong Kong directors.

Other companies weren't as rich as him. The highest-grossing local blockbusters each year were at most HK$30 to 40 million. In the early years, they could still make some money in the surrounding markets, but in recent years, this trick no longer worked. Audiences didn't buy it, and no one dared to take such a big risk.

However, Tian Yu Entertainment behind The Myth was not short of money. It could also use Su Yehao's channels to directly build it into a representative of Hong Kong and mainland co-productions, and promote it through the Internet in markets such as the island next door, Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea, basically bypassing the limitations of traditional media.

The film was famous even before its release, and the cinemas were naturally willing to help arrange more screenings, winning over the works launched by other film companies from the very beginning.

Most importantly, Nangong Tian had personally admitted to the public that the concept of The Myth movie was completed by Su Yehao himself.

As everyone knows.

As long as Su Yehao was interested in a project, he had never failed until now. Even if he casually released an album, its sales could exceed those of many first- and second-tier singers. Some well-meaning media even booked him as this year's "Newcomer King" in the Hong Kong music scene, eagerly wanting to see Su Yehao take the stage to receive an award.

A super-rich man with a net worth of more than 10 billion US dollars crossing over into another industry was itself a news item worthy of attention. Many potential viewers had already had their appetites whetted, looking forward to the release of The Myth movie.

Colleagues in the Hong Kong film industry also went to the cinema today.

They always felt that Su Yehao's operation had a bit of a Hollywood film company flavor. Not only was the investment scale large, but he was also frantically spending money on promotion. Therefore, they were eager to understand whether this set of combination punches would be compatible and whether it could open up a new path for the development of the Hong Kong film industry.

When Su Yehao took Nangong Tian and Jiang Yu's family, and called on Second Aunt, Su's father, and others to book a cinema to watch a movie.

Also in the cinema at the Sihai International Center Plaza in Casino, a middle-aged man wearing a鸭舌帽 (ya she mao, peaked cap) was queuing up to buy popcorn and Coke.

His name was Liu Zhenwei, one of the most famous directors in Hong Kong, who had directed Casino Raiders, A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box, A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella, and played the Bodhi Master in them himself.

Since moving to Canada to live three years ago, he had been resting for a long time. This time, he came to Casino at the invitation of an old friend, to relax and talk about the filming of a new film.

The original A Chinese Odyssey was not well-received, and the media called it a box office failure. Although it successfully allowed the filming party to recover costs, it was still a big difference from other films starring Stephen Chow.

The main reason he was called back by his old friend this time was because the A Chinese Odyssey series, which had been proven to be a failure, sold quite well on DVD, a case of "losing at the starting line, winning in the long run", and was deeply sought after in the mainland market.

Since he decided to come out of retirement again, and it happened to be Chinese New Year in Casino, how could he not watch the blockbuster that his friend called a masterpiece?

The rich always like to enter the film industry as a hobby, and they can be divided into two types of people.

One is that they have so much money that they don't know where to spend it, so they just砸(za, throw) a little to have fun. The second is to use it as a stepping stone, but that door is in the hearts of many girls who want to be famous.

By the same reasoning, there are also many rich women who choose to spend money after falling in love with male stars.

Liu Zhenwei knew something about Tian Yu Entertainment, and naturally regarded the Prince Hao, who was being hotly discussed by the people around him, as the kind of person who just 砸(za, throw) a little money and hooked up with some beautiful girls, so he didn't dare to have too much expectation, only hoping that he wouldn't waste his time sleeping in.

He had been playing麻将(ma jiang, mahjong) until midnight last night, and was also affected by jet lag, so he was sleepy at the moment.

He had just bought the two-piece set of popcorn and Coke for watching a movie, and started queuing up to check his ticket and enter the venue. Not long after he sat down, the cinema suddenly darkened, and Tian Yu Entertainment's opening title appeared on the screen.

The opening title was created by Studio Ghibli, the animation studio founded by Hayao Miyazaki. The content was two girls playing happily on a cliff by the shore. The picture was full of flowers and green grass, and large white clouds in the sky. It had the characteristics of Hayao Miyazaki's animated films. In the end, they joined hands and jumped on the back of a pink whale, while waving to the little boy on the shore. The four characters "Tian Yu Entertainment" appeared below.

The short fifteen-second opening title cost a total of one million Hong Kong dollars.

Without asking, one would know that Nangong Tian had strongly requested that the handsome little boy at the end be added, and the prototype was none other than Su Yehao.

Any audience who knew something about their relationship could guess what it meant. News about Su Yehao traveling with beauties often appeared in newspapers. The amazing thing was that they no longer hid it at all.

The layman watches the excitement, the expert watches the doorway.

Liu Zhenwei smiled happily, thinking that it was worthy of being the richest man in Hong Kong, rich and generous, even the opening title was so willing to spend money. He took a sip of Coke and muttered to himself, "The money is spent in irrelevant places, it would be strange if the movie is good..."

In fact.

Tian Yu Entertainment was just rich and generous. The opening title had already been customized and was not included in the film production cost at all.

Moreover, some of Su Yehao's own advertisements didn't cost any money for some distribution channels, and they weren't included in the total cost of external publicity. If they were all cashed in, they would be worth at least 20 million Hong Kong dollars.

The movie begins.

The scene opens with the beautiful scenery of the desert near Crescent Lake. The army led by Andy Lau goes to greet the princess of another country.

Someone comes to snatch the bride. After the hero saves the beauty, Andy Lau suddenly wakes up and starts an investigation for the real dream, looking for clues all the way.

The ancient and modern narratives are intertwined. Compared with Jackie Chan's version of the usual fighting scenes, this version has a solid and delicate plot, a bit like Raiders of the Lost Ark. During the investigation, they encounter bandits looking for the elixir of life, go through hardships to find the destination, and finally discover that the heroine has been waiting for love for thousands of years.

Director Liu Zhenwei unconsciously fell into it. By the time the movie was over, he found that he still had more than half a bucket of popcorn left. He had been busy watching the screen the whole time.

This made Liu Zhenwei smile wryly, thinking that he was lucky that his friend only asked him to remake Casino Raiders. This kind of emotionally delicate adventure movie really can't be made casually. It obviously took a lot of effort.

Su Yehao also finished watching the movie. He had been holding back from watching the finished product before, and today was a treat.

He had to admit that the one he invested in was obviously much better. It was an adventure film in the guise of a mythical love story. The foreshadowing of the love scenes was adequate. The ancient memories were also streamlined into many murals and historical documents to avoid confusing the primary and secondary.

Especially at the end, when the heroine chooses to continue waiting and stays in the collapsing heavenly palace, Jiang Yu and her mother secretly wiped their tears together. A thousand years of waiting, a heart-stirring love was destroyed in one morning, which was extremely lethal to women.

The little girl was very speechless.

It was normal to make Jiang Yu's mother cry, but Jiang Yu had seen it several times and still hadn't developed immunity.