Daniel eventually succeeded in becoming a disciple because he promised to donate $10,000 in tuition to the sect annually. Song Hua was satisfied and accepted this foreigner as his younger brother, though he never understood why Daniel wanted him as a brother. The $10,000, however, was very real.
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan did not become disciples. It wasn't that they found the act too shameful, but rather that they found Song Hua to be rather unreliable.
Since Song Hua was a disciple of Wudang Mountain, they figured there must be more accomplished brothers there. At the very least, Zuckerberg intended to find time to visit Wudang Mountain and seek discipleship.
Priscilla Chan, however, was the least interested in cultivation among the three. She was more interested in seeing the spectacle. Now that she had seen it, it was time to leave.
In the end, Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan departed, while Daniel stayed behind, intending to receive his master's tutelage day and night. He had learned about Chinese traditions and knew that disciples were expected to live with their masters, which was called being part of a sect.
Well, Song Hua generously agreed to the monthly accommodation fee of $1,000.
While Zuckerberg was in pursuit of the legendary Eastern mysterious power, on the other side, the movie "Journey to the Misty Realm" was showing signs of a small breakthrough.
Many cinema owners were surprised to find that during this period, which usually had low foot traffic, the audience was continuously increasing. These audiences were specifically coming for this movie, which had not been well-regarded before.
On the third day after the movie's release, a news headline appeared on Tomato.com: "Tomato.com: 95% Positive Reviews, World's Strongest Fantasy Movie Born."
By this time, Tomato.com had become the world's largest movie review website. Many users visited Tomato.com daily to find high-scoring movies and check the accompanying reviews, thereby discovering excellent films to pass the time.
Fantasy films were a key target for many people. After all, compared to obscure art films, fantasy films with their grand productions, special effects, and epic scenes were the favorites of countless ordinary viewers.
Then they saw this suddenly appearing news about the highest positive review rate.
The positive review rate calculation on Tomato.com was quite stringent. Tomato.com offered two different rating methods: professional reviews and audience reviews. Both audiences and professionals could rate from 1 to 10, generating independent professional and audience scores.
However, the positive review rate was aggregated by combining both audience and professional scores. Only users who gave a score of 9 or above, meaning a 9 or 10, were counted as positive reviews.
In other words, among all the viewers and professionals who rated this movie, over 95% gave it a score of 9 or higher. This was an incredibly remarkable statistic.
The second-ranked movie, "The Lord of the Rings," currently had a positive review rate of only 89% on Tomato.com. This new movie had surpassed "The Lord of the Rings" by 6% in its positive review rate!
It was truly the number one fantasy film.
In fact, even if this positive review rate were applied to all movies, it would still rank in the top 10. Above it were top-tier masterpieces like "The Godfather" and "The Silence of the Lambs."
Such a highly rated film appearing on Tomato.com and receiving homepage promotion naturally piqued the curiosity of countless users.
Then, looking at the comments below these positive reviews, they were uniformly "strongest fantasy in history."
Or "Mysterious Eastern fantasy, opening up an unimaginable world for you."
Or even "Although I didn't understand it very well, I was greatly shocked," and so on. The positive reviews were incredibly high. This piqued the interest of many who were initially uninterested in the movie, leading them to cinemas to see what kind of film this was.
This was actually the advantage of having fewer initial viewers.
When a movie is first released, if the audience numbers are not high, it is a bad thing. But in a way, it can also be a good thing.
As Boss Huang had analyzed before, because only people interested in Eastern fantasy films would watch the movie at the beginning, and the overall base of these people was relatively small, they could give a relatively high score.
It was like movies such as "Brokeback Mountain." If extensive promotion was not conducted, only gay people would watch it initially, and they would find the movie very good, leading to high online ratings.
When more people were drawn to watch the movie because of these ratings, many ordinary viewers would find it difficult to accept and give relatively poorer scores, thus lowering the overall rating.
"Journey to the Misty Realm" was similar. The 95% positive review rate was primarily because the audience who watched it first were those interested in Eastern fantasy. Coupled with the film's genuinely excellent quality, the positive reviews were abundant, even surpassing the pinnacle of fantasy films, "The Lord of the Rings" series, which was not surprising.
Gu Yuan believed that as more ordinary viewers watched the movie in the future, this rating would likely decrease.
Thus, at least from this point forward, the reputation of "Journey to the Misty Realm" began to further ferment, and many viewers who had seen it couldn't help but actively recommend the miraculous Eastern movie to their friends.
Following this, the box office for "Journey to the Misty Realm" began its astonishing turnaround.
On the first day of its release in the US, "Journey to the Misty Realm" grossed only about $5 million.
By the second day, the box office increased to around $5.2 million, totaling $10.2 million for the two days. Based on this data, the movie's total box office was estimated to not exceed $30 million.
However, on the third day, the movie's box office surged to $7.2 million, and on the fourth day, it reached $8.3 million.
Then came the fifth day, which was also the day of the major口碑 (kǒu bēi - reputation/word-of-mouth) explosion. In a single day, it generated $15 million in box office revenue, more than doubling the previous day's earnings.
This enormous increase surprised cinema owners, who promptly increased the screening rate for "Journey to the Misty Realm."
There were no major blockbuster movies in the current release schedule. Since "Journey to the Misty Realm" was performing so well against the trend, there was no reason not to capitalize on it and increase its screen time.
Thus, a rare scene in film history occurred. Normally, a movie would have its highest screening rate on its opening day.
However, "Journey to the Misty Realm" achieved its highest-ever screening rate on its seventh day of release, reaching a remarkable 41%. This meant that 41% of all cinemas in North America were showing "Journey to the Misty Realm."
This screening rate was maintained for about a week until new movies were released, which then squeezed its screening percentage, causing the rate for "Journey to the Misty Realm" to gradually decline.
But during this week, "Journey to the Misty Realm" managed to rake in $250 million at the box office. Moreover, the daily box office revenue was higher than the previous day, and the trend of box office growth continued for two whole weeks.
It wasn't until the 16th day, with the arrival of the Christmas season, that the daily box office began to decline due to the impact of a large number of new blockbuster films. But this was still an incredibly impressive figure.
The Hollywood media, which had previously ignored "Journey to the Misty Realm," began to heavily report on its box office success. This was a key reason for the continuous rise in box office revenue in the second week. With constant media coverage, audiences curious about this film that was performing against the trend flocked to cinemas to witness this legendary Eastern fantasy blockbuster.
Then everyone was stunned. They hadn't expected the film to be so grand and magnificent, with such a soul-stirring worldview. Countless Americans were captivated by this magical world from China, becoming organic promoters of the movie, actively or passively recommending it to those around them.
Unfortunately, "Journey to the Misty Realm" was ultimately limited by its subject matter.
Although many people chose to watch the movie out of curiosity for Eastern fantasy, more people hesitated and chose to forgo it after seeing it was an Eastern fantasy film, unwilling to waste time on a genre they weren't interested in.
Therefore, on the 16th day, the daily box office finally saw its first decline, dropping from $31.2 million on the 15th day to $27.32 million on the 16th day, and further to $21.6 million on the 17th day.
As a result, many film critics confidently wrote articles stating that "Journey to the Misty Realm" had entered a downward trend. While its total box office might exceed $400 million, it had essentially lost the possibility of breaking $500 million.
It would be a film that made its mark in the 2004 film history, but in the grand scheme of cinematic history, it would only be considered a movie with good box office performance.
"What a shame. This movie is really good. When I left the cinema, I was willing to pay $10,000 to see the sequel immediately!" said a renowned film critic in an interview on a variety show.
"And if the sequel were to be released next month? What do you think the box office for the sequel would be?" the host asked curiously.
"It would definitely explode! Breaking a total box office of $500 million would be normal. But that's just speculation; the sequel will probably have to wait until next year. I hope most audiences won't forget this movie by then. I, for one, will definitely go see it!" the film critic said happily on television.
However, at that time, almost all viewers treated this as a normal joke. Although many viewers who had seen the movie were eagerly anticipating the sequel, no one truly believed that the sequel would be released the following month.
Then, on the 20th day of "Journey to the Misty Realm's" release, almost all film-related media and magazines featured a prominent report.
"Journey to the Misty Realm Part 2 to be released on January 1, 2005."