"Damn, that was awesome!" a guy with his girlfriend exclaimed from behind Ye Tian. "Do you know how hard that kick was? I know a guy who practices routines, and he only succeeded at a similar move once in his life, and that move was only a tenth as difficult as this one!"
The girl didn't understand the technicalities. She simply found Ye Tian's movements beautiful, each move and stance breathtaking, and couldn't help but cheer.
"Who is this actor? He's so cool!" a teenager said to his friend. "I'd be satisfied if I had just a tenth of his swagger!"
However, the next move sent the entire audience into a frenzy. Ye Tian, holding a Xiu Chun Dao, danced with it, creating a flurry of blade light that deflected all the incoming projectiles.
Usually, such fantastical action sequences could only be achieved with special effects. Yet, Ye Tian's move was entirely performed, then replayed in slow motion.
Every movement was incredibly fluid, a pleasure to watch, inspiring silent awe and then applause.
"This can't be special effects! I work in special effects, and this is something they can't create!"
After watching for ten minutes, Ye Tian was speechless. A third of the scenes featured him, reducing the original male lead to a mere supporting character. Even more outrageous, while the AI characters resembled Ye Tian, the added special effects made them appear even more handsome and cool.
The girls in the cinema had stars in their eyes, so captivated by the characters' coolness that they were practically drooling, wishing they could jump into the screen and kiss them.
Yan Ruxue rested her head on Ye Tian's shoulder and smiled, "Tian Ge, you're so handsome, so cool. I'm really smitten."
Ye Tian chuckled, "You edited me, the number two, into the number one lead. Won't the original protagonist protest?"
Yan Ruxue replied, "Why would he protest? Years from now, he'll realize that appearing in the same movie as you was the most glorious moment of his life."
Finally, the movie ended. The audience, still discussing the film, left the cinema.
Outside, Yan Ruxue took out her phone to check the day's box office results. She found that the movie "Urban Mystique" had topped the headlines, with many influential figures commenting and sharing similar opinions: the plot was average, but the action choreography was sky-high, even surpassing that of a legendary action actor from history.
"Wow, the box office has broken eighty million, over thirty million more than the second place!" Yan Ruxue exclaimed happily.
Ye Tian asked, "How do cinemas split the revenue?"
Yan Ruxue explained, "The algorithm is quite complex. Cinemas get a little over forty percent, we get just under forty percent, and the rest goes to taxes and fees. For this movie, we'll get around forty percent."
Ye Tian mused, "We could build our own cinemas."
Yan Ruxue gave a wry smile, "We're a small company, we don't have the capital for a cinema chain."
Ye Tian stated calmly, "Building cinemas doesn't cost that much."
Yan Ruxue rolled her eyes, "A decent cinema would cost tens of millions to invest in."
Ye Tian inquired, "This cinema looks good, how much did it cost to build?"
Yan Ruxue replied, "About forty to fifty million."
Ye Tian calculated, "So, if we build ten thousand cinemas, that would be four to five hundred billion."
Yan Ruxue's beautiful eyes widened, "Ten thousand? My heavens, Tian Ge, there are only just over nine thousand cinemas in the entire country!"
Ye Tian countered, "Ten thousand is too many, let's start with three thousand."
Yan Ruxue gave him a sidelong glance, "That's a heavy asset investment, and the returns are actually quite average. Spending so much money, it would be better to film more movies."
Ye Tian smiled, "That's true. Do you have any new filming plans?"
Yan Ruxue nodded, "Tian Ge, for the next movie, I want to aim for Hollywood!"