322. Mission Completion Status: Unnamable

If topping the global box office for a day is luck, and for a week it's skill, then for a month it's generally considered dominance.

During the off-season for movies, it's not difficult to stay at the top of the box office for several days in a row, and sometimes you can even make 10 to 20 million a day.

However, at the end of the year, with Christmas and New Year's Day approaching, there were quite a few competitive films, but "The Demon Tide" was still like an unstoppable pack of wolves in the movie, sweeping everything away.

Attentive viewers have also compiled reviews of Lu Ban and "Demon Tide" from the New York Times and other media outlets.

When The Demon Tide announced its simultaneous global release, their headline read, "An unknown director from the East attempts to expand overseas."

When the trailer for "The Demon Tide" was released, clashing with the release date of "Speed of Death 11," and after the release of "The Cry" and "The Mouth of the Madman," the headlines of these media outlets changed to "An unspeakable source of terror is approaching the West Coast."

The day before the film's release, newspapers and news outlets began reporting on the headline, "Arrogant filmmakers occupy Times Square."

When the box office results for the first day of release came out, "The Demon Tide" lost to "Speed of Death 11" by a margin of 20 million. The media quickly changed the headline of the news to "Lu Ban's First Defeat in the Metropolis".

Now, a week later, when "The Demon Tide" topped the global box office for a week and was about to make history, many media outlets immediately changed their tune and began to praise Lu Ban's great achievement. In their reports, it has become "Director Lu Ban has injected a shot in the arm into the global film industry".

Domestically, even many foreign dignitaries have said this, and some stubborn people can only follow suit and praise it.

As for "Speed of Death 11," its box office performance declined significantly after a week of release, but it still maintained its second-place position.

The main reason is that the special effects of "Demon Tide" completely subverted the audience's worldview. It's like you've played pixel-style games your whole life, and suddenly you're given a copy of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim with high-definition texture mods. After watching "Demon Tide" and then watching "Speed of Death 11", everything feels fake.

Therefore, the box office success of "The Demon Tide" ironically led to the box office failure of "Speed of Death 11".

The box office, which was originally projected to reach 8 billion yuan, may now be subject to a reduction.

Looking back, Lu Ban's praise for the movie at the time seemed sarcastic and cynical no matter how you look at it.

One week, two weeks, three weeks.

Three weeks later, "The Demon Tide" still holds the top spot on the global daily box office charts.

During this period, various idol dramas, foreign romantic films, and Indian musical sci-fi films attempted to challenge the position of "Demon Tide," but all failed.

For one day only, despite taking the top spot at the global box office, "The Demon Tide" failed to achieve the number one position at the box office in any single country.

That was in Japan, where a nationally popular anime movie was released. Because the movie tickets included a concert lottery ticket, and there were four different kinds of special offers that required buying four tickets to get, it beat "Demon Tide" to become the number one anime of the day in Japan.

However, the impact is not significant.

Lu Ban still respected his seniors. There was no need to dwell on some records; let's leave them for future generations to break.

A month later, the movie's key expired, and Lu Ban did not choose to extend the screening for another month because he had already made enough money.

In just one month, "The Demon Tide" held the title of the world's highest-grossing film for 29 consecutive days, with a cumulative box office of 13.9 billion yuan in China, which is close to 2.17 billion US dollars at the current exchange rate, ranking fourth in film history.

The reason it's so popular is twofold: firstly, the groundbreaking special effects of "Demon Tide" overshadowed all other films of its time; secondly, there were no extended screenings, and the film's special effects cannot be fully appreciated on a computer screen, so viewers who want to see it have to go to the cinema within this month.

The third point is that this movie truly broke out of its niche.

Discussions about this movie are raging on both Weibo and Twitter, especially in countries with more repressive societies where everyone follows the crowd, such as island nations. If you don't watch this movie, you won't have anything in common with the people around you and you'll be isolated and bullied. In this situation, the box office of "The Demon Tide" is soaring like it's on steroids.

The public, both domestically and internationally, loves creating spectacles and setting records. Everyone is eager to get involved, so many people who don't usually pay attention to these things also go to the cinema, boosting box office revenue.

To break records, you really need to break out of your comfort zone.

Ultimately, "The Tide of Demon Tide" grossed 6 billion yuan in China, becoming the highest-grossing film in the country.

Even overseas media outlets that had been boycotting Lu Ban Lu Ban acknowledged him in their headlines on the day "The Demon Tide" was taken off the screens.

"The Supreme Lu Ban will create his own box office legend today."

Lu Ban also became the highest-grossing director and actor in China with three films that grossed over 1 billion yuan in a single year.

Despite numerous media outlets requesting interviews with Lu Ban, he declined them all.

Lu Ban gave the employees of Silent Media a month-long vacation and fifty months' worth of bonuses before returning home.

Laika was the first to come closer, snorting and rubbing against me like a pig.

When Lu Ban was traveling all over the world doing publicity, Qin Tiantian would feed it.

After some time, the time-traveling Hound that once struck fear into the hearts of people from other lands has now become a chubby corgi.

"Indeed, the most frightening thing in this world is not monsters, but women."

Lu Ban agreed wholeheartedly, and Laika, who was standing to the side, also nodded.

"What? You're saying she keeps feeding you things, and even tempts you with canned food when you can't eat anymore? How can there be such a vicious woman in the world!"

Looking at Laika, who was uttering incomprehensible mutterings, Lu Ban translated.

"Don't worry, I'll help you lose weight. In a few months, you'll be a slim and handsome dog again!"

He rubbed Laika's head and then went back to his room.

[Works that have launched a cinematic universe: 1/1]

Earnings: 500,000,000/500,000,000

Congratulations on completing your Career Development Task!

Settlement will now commence.

[Mission Exploration Progress: 120%]

[Task Completion Status: Unspeakable]

[Strike while the iron is hot and show the world that your limits are far greater than this. Before an unprecedented and most shocking cinematic experience, the audience cheers and celebrates. A legendary film that inherits the past and the future is born in your hands.]

[Gained Silence Points: 50,000]

Settlement complete

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Experience extraordinary lands, encounter extraordinary people, and embark on extraordinary adventures. Every journey has an end, and we believe you will gain something from it.

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