228: Chapter 229 Movie Release

All performances had concluded, and it was time for the final voting segment.

This time, the results weren't announced backstage by the director, but rather in front of the audience on stage.

The four singers stood on stage as the director walked to the front, holding the night's results in his hand.

The entire audience watched the stage nervously. The director tried his best to suppress his excitement; he had nearly jumped for joy when he first saw the results.

The director picked up the microphone, and the moment he began to speak, the entire venue fell silent.

"Tonight's champion is..."

The director drew out the last word, making everyone's hearts hang in suspense. Levi felt as if his heart was about to leap out of his chest.

The eliminated singers also watched the director nervously, but the most shocked person among them was Lu Qingyu himself.

The director thoroughly enjoyed this moment. Seeing how nervous everyone was, he felt like keeping them in suspense a bit longer.

Levi desperately hoped the name the director would utter was his own, but in the next moment, he felt as if he had been struck by a bolt from the blue.

The director pronounced the three words with perfect clarity: "Lu Qingyu."

"Congratulations to Lu Qingyu for becoming the annual grand champion of King of Singers."

Fireworks erupted on stage, and the audience burst into a jubilant frenzy.

Levi's face turned pale; he had truly lost.

Lu Qingyu deserved the title!

The director couldn't help but step forward to give Lu Qingyu a hug; this man was practically his savior.

"Thank you, Qingyu, thank you."

Lu Qingyu's fans witnessed his victory; whether they were at the venue or in front of their screens, every single one of them was happy and proud of him.

As expected, Lu Qingyu never disappointed his fans.

That single night, the King of Singers Program Production Team occupied fourteen or fifteen hot search topics, with seven or eight related tags. Lu Qingyu had officially become a top-tier A-list star. Whether it was his own strength or his commercial value, none of his contemporary actors were his match.

After the program ended, Su Jixing received countless invitations. This time, any of the resources they were offered would be the envy of others.

Any ordinary star would have certainly struck while the iron was hot, but Lu Qingyu was no ordinary star.

Just when everyone thought he would take on many projects to make money, he quietly disappeared again.

This was because he needed to focus on his film and television projects.

Six months later, Lu Qingyu's film projects were completed one after another, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Su Jixing asked, "Qingyu, are we really not saving two movies to release next year? I heard many big directors have officially announced their film projects, and they'll likely be released in these two months. Won't we be at a disadvantage competing against them?"

Big directors' projects usually came with their own built-in traffic, and the actors in Lu Qingyu's film projects weren't particularly famous. Su Jixing feared their movies wouldn't be able to compete with the star power of others.

Lu Qingyu shook his head. "No need. Releasing them together is fine."

If they didn't reach a net income of 1.5 billion USD this year, they could always film a few more movies next year, but Lu Qingyu felt these six movies were quite enough.

Seeing that Lu Qingyu had made up his mind, Su Jixing nodded and went to handle the relevant procedures and contact cinemas for the release.

The next day, Magic Paradise officially announced six movies. Usually, an official announcement starts with a trailer while the release date remains to be determined.

However, Magic Paradise directly released the premiere dates for all the movies.

Magic Paradise's move was massive, sparking immediate discussion among netizens.

[Ever since I saw avatar from their company, I've been looking forward to their work. I didn't expect them to release so many movies at once.]

[The poster designs are so cool. It's Magic Paradise's usual sci-fi style; I'm looking forward to it.]

[I don't recognize any of these stars; it seems they haven't been in any famous movies.]

['iron man'? The name sounds a bit silly. It's actually starring Donnie? I heard he offended a big director; wasn't he blacklisted?]

Donnie had been following the news online closely lately. Magic Paradise had sent him word that the iron man movie he starred in was about to be released. This was his first work since being blacklisted; whether he could make a comeback and return to the public eye depended entirely on this project.

During these six months, Magic Paradise had basically no major business operations.

Morgan had been quite attentive to Magic Paradise's every move at first, but they had been filming for six months without a single release. Morgan had recently stopped paying much attention to them, so when he suddenly heard Magic Paradise was scheduling releases in cinemas, he even celebrated for them.

"They finally have films being released. If they didn't, I'd start to suspect they were going to give up on the bet early."

Monica said, "President, I think I should talk to the cinema owners."

Monica was more cautious than Morgan. Magic Paradise had made such a huge bet with them and filmed so many works; if one of them became a massive hit, wouldn't it threaten them?

Morgan said with a face full of disdain that their bet was for 1.5 billion USD in net income. For a movie, after deducting production costs, actor salaries, cinema shares, and other expenses, the net income only accounts for about 30% of the total revenue. In other words, Lu Qingyu had to earn 5 billion USD within two years.

Never mind Lu Qingyu and his Magic Paradise; even a big player like Warner couldn't possibly earn 5 billion USD in two years.

Morgan felt he understood Lu Qingyu's plan perfectly. Wasn't he filming so many movies just to win through volume? But had he considered that not every movie makes money? What if he loses money instead?

"No need. That kid Lu Qingyu can't pull any tricks. There's less than a year and a half left in our bet; it's simply impossible to achieve a net income of 1.5 billion USD."

Monica asked, "So we'll just do nothing?"

Morgan replied, "The intermediary for this bet is Kane Bailey. We can't go too far."

Thinking of this, Monica also gave up the idea of causing trouble. If Lu Qingyu couldn't produce the 1.5 billion plus 5 billion USD in assets, Kane Bailey would have to pay on his behalf. If Kane Bailey found out they were playing dirty behind the scenes, he probably wouldn't let them off easily.

The first movie to be released was "iron man." On the first day of its release, Morgan even had flower baskets sent to the cinemas.