Chapter 697: Chapter 697

Faced with the artist’s complaints, Director Wilson just laughed it off, not worried at all, "I thought it would add a bit of spice, and the audience reacted well. If it weren’t for the fact that selling sex appeal too much would devalue it, I’d have you perform this at every roadshow."

He Jinxia: "...I don’t ."

Director Wilson patted her shoulder and swayed his body: "Young lady, if you’ve got it, flaunt it. Don’t be shy!"

He Jinxia looked at him expressionlessly: "No, I choose to refuse."

Wilson was met with a flat refusal and touched his nose, "Alright, just this once, it absolutely won’t happen next time!"

He Jinxia looked at him skeptically several times.

Wilson immediately said: "Don’t you Huaxia people like to swear oaths? I swear it absolutely won’t happen next time."

Only then did she reluctantly believe him.

Because they were surrounded for over half an hour, Wilson chose to call the police to clear the crowd, and they left smoothly with the police escort, heading to the next roadshow location.

The media journalists followed right behind, their faces alight with excitement, having hit the jackpot with "High School Musical!"

Suddenly, several sensational headlines popped into their heads—

"’High School Musical’ is awesome, using police cars to clear the way!"

"He Jinxia stirs a fangirl frenzy again, flaunting a great figure during her clothing tease!"

"Pinning the male idol against the wall is recreated—’High School Musical’ pulls off a divine move!"

The journalists felt it themselves; for the sake of box office success, "High School Musical" had gone all out, and so had He Jinxia!

Any spare time was spent in the car, and by the time they got out, they arrived in another city. Stepping onto the ground, they were ready once again to throw themselves into the promotional activities of the roadshow.

This afternoon’s roadshow still included dancing, but unlike the morning’s arrangement, the movie scene being recreated wasn’t the wall pin, but He Jinxia’s boxing performance in the film!

In the movie, she showed off her figure for effect.

In the morning, for promotion, she showed off her figure again.

But for this afternoon’s roadshow, He Jinxia wasn’t willing to compromise herself, firmly refusing the plan to show off her physique.

She wore a tight outfit but still made her boxing look fierce and vigorous!

Ola had also arranged a solo dance for her, which was a dance scene from "High School Musical" as well.

Besides that, the surprise treat for everyone at this roadshow was He Jinxia’s additional skill—Chinese Martial Arts!

This surprise was something Wilson had discussed with her in the car on the way here, to have He Jinxia perform with a whip on the spot. Get full chapters from novᴇlfire.net

At that time, He Jinxia said: A whip performance is no big deal, but she was very skeptical whether it could really be considered a surprise treat?

After all, Chinese Martial Arts had nothing to do with "High School Musical." It only served to highlight her personal charm, and it might not necessarily help the box office.

In response, Wilson had a good attitude: "You’re already a face of the movie crew. The more famous you are during the promotion, the more people will go see the movie."

He Jinxia glanced at Ola sitting in the front row and frowned, lowering her voice to inquire:

"But the lead actress in this film is Ola. Don’t you think that the way the supporting actress is completely overshadowing the lead can be disadvantageous when it comes to award selections?"

Before filming started, Xie Jiahui had let slip that this could become a dual lead actress movie, but in the end, when she joined the film crew, that assumption did not materialize, and Ola remained the core first-billed lead actress.

Even though her screen time was increased later on, it was still within reasonable limits, with Ola appearing in the scenes a good several dozen minutes more than her.

If it had been a slightly famous star, seeing the director arrange it would probably have led to a dispute by now. The supporting actress outshining the lead signifies the lead is weak!

But Ola was just a newcomer, perhaps not yet signed with an agency, and didn’t understand the rules of the entertainment circle, so she executed the director’s promotional plan as is, without any doubt.

He Jinxia viewed Ola as her friend and didn’t want her to come back with complaints after coming to her senses later on.

Director Wilson pondered for a while and said, "Actually, the production team is using you as the promotional face, and Ola is aware of it. Moreover, it was her who first brought up this proposal."

"Because I wanted to surprise the movie fans and inject some new vitality into the youth movie genre, I took on an acting lineup that is almost entirely made up of newcomers.

They have neither fame nor other works—only you are the exception, still very famous in Huaxia, so using you for the initial publicity is normal."

He Jinxia paused, "You mean, Ola is aware and agreed to it, didn’t she consider the consequences of doing this?"

From the front row, Ola’s voice came over, carrying a cheerful laugh: "Jinxia, I know. I’m also very clear that doing this would lead to people calling me garbage, saying I don’t have a strong presence, saying I don’t deserve to be the lead...

Let them say what they will; it doesn’t concern me, and what they say isn’t without reason."

Ola turned her head to look at He Jinxia, smiled slightly, and said: "I’ve seen the movie. During filming, I could feel that you were performing better than I was. Once the movie came out, that feeling became even more apparent. But I don’t regret sharing the stage with you at all."

Her tone shifted, speaking earnestly: "Everything is for the betterment of ’High School Musical.’ A little sacrifice from me doesn’t matter; one day, I will be able to hold up the promotion on my own!"

A smile spread across He Jinxia’s face as she sincerely said, "I believe that day won’t be far off."

The afternoon’s roadshow also received a very enthusiastic response. Although there weren’t any scenes filled with girlish charm, it was apparent that He Jinxia’s display of Chinese Martial Arts at the end shocked everyone else.

By the end of the roadshow, the box office results for the first day of ’High School Musical’ were out—

The first day yielded 250 million in box office sales!

According to the ticketing software, tomorrow’s box office wasn’t expected to drop below 200 million either!

This was certainly a great start!

The reason the box office managed to hit this mark was also related to extensive pre-release promotions. Many who found the trailer exciting couldn’t help but go watch the movie first.

Yet, many more were waiting for online reviews before deciding whether to go and see it.

Upon learning of the box office numbers, Ola even believed for a moment that ’High School Musical’ would maintain such sales every day.

Looking at it this way, it wasn’t about breaking the 7 billion mark; even surpassing 10 billion seemed possible!

He Jinxia smiled and enlightened her: "If the initial high sales are due to extensive marketing and promotion, most films will see a decline later on, unless the reputation is very solid, which can lead to a box office burst even higher than the premiere. But this is very rare."

Ola frowned slightly, sounding regretful: "’High School Musical’s’ reputation should be very solid, right..."

He Jinxia raised her eyebrows, as she couldn’t comment on this point; being a part of the cast, she inherently had a favorable opinion.