However, this was ultimately Tianxing Entertainment’s own decision, and despite much external discussion, it could not be influenced or stopped.
At this time, Su Yu, who was diligently preparing works for his painting and calligraphy exhibition at home, did not expect Shengshi Fenghua and Liu Xialai to act so quickly.
However, he didn't think it was a big deal.
After all, this 97-episode, 45-part TV series, from preparation to filming and production, was estimated to be completed by May or June of next year; it was impossible for it to be finished immediately after the project was announced, as it wasn't a movie, which wouldn't be that fast.
Time flew by, and soon it was December 31st, the last day of 2013, and the annual New Year's Eve battle among the major TV stations was about to raise its curtain.
Looking back at last year, the ultimate winner of the New Year's Eve battle was Jinling TV, and Su Yu’s participation was undoubtedly a key factor in their victory.
But this year, the situation was completely different; starting from the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala, Su Yu had chosen Yanjing TV, and this New Year's Eve Gala was no exception.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala, Yanjing TV, with Su Yu's help, rose unexpectedly and successfully claimed the top spot in viewership.
For this New Year's Eve Gala, everyone speculated that it might replicate the glorious scene of the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala.
Jinling TV, Fruit TV, and several other veteran TV stations were truly distressed by this; they couldn't help but secretly wonder: “Why can’t Su Yu ‘spread his blessings’ a bit? Is it because the treatment and appearance fees we offered weren’t generous enough?”
In reality, the reason was very simple: it was just because Yanjing TV was closer to home, and this seemingly simple reason left other TV stations helpless, which was incredibly frustrating.
However, because Tianxing Entertainment's artists and singers had chosen Yanjing, Jinling, and Fruit TV during the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala, Su Yu actually played a game of “spreading his blessings” this time.
Tianxing Entertainment's singers were very evenly distributed among the six TV stations hosting New Year's Eve galas: Yanjing, Jinling, Magic City, Shenzhen, Blue TV, and Fruit TV.
This arrangement made Jinling, Fruit TV, and other stations even more depressed, but on second thought, it was quite good; everyone could compete with real skill and effort, and apart from Yanjing TV, which was 'cheating,' the competition among the other stations could be considered fair.
However, to the great surprise of netizens, Su Yu did not sing a single new song in this New Year's Eve gala battle; instead, the works of other songwriters from Tianxing Entertainment appeared on stage one after another.
Even Su Yu and Han Jiangxue each performed works by Tianxing Entertainment's songwriters.
No one would believe that Su Yu couldn't write new songs; that would be a joke.
But such a development truly felt somewhat surreal.
After all, when had anyone ever heard Su Yu perform works by other songwriters?
That night, on the stage of Yanjing TV, Su Yu's finale song, “Fireworks,” was precisely a work by Dong An, Tianxing Entertainment's newly promoted gold-medal songwriter.
Of course, Dong An was only responsible for the composition, while the arrangement and other work were jointly completed by other songwriters from Tianxing Entertainment.
This arrangement seemed to be sending a strong signal to the outside world: Tianxing Entertainment's Music Department, even without Su Yu's personal involvement, could operate completely independently and efficiently, and even continue to thrive in the music industry.
In addition to Dong An, the successful gold-medal songwriter, Qin Hua and Liang Xiaorou, also songwriters from Tianxing Entertainment, had outstanding performances at this New Year's Eve Gala.
Han Jiangxue, Li Xiaohan, and other female singers performed Liang Xiaorou's works, and the stage effects were stunning, with their strength not to be underestimated.
It can be said that this New Year's Eve battle among the six major TV stations was more like a grand display of strength by the songwriters of Tianxing Entertainment's Music Department.
This made other entertainment and music companies both envious and jealous, their mouths watering.
In fact, ever since Su Yu emerged in the music industry and dominated, they had begun to focus on cultivating their own songwriters, attempting to cope with the fierce market competition.
However, they seemed to inherently lack this gene; not only were they unable to compete with Su Yu in terms of works, but they also lagged far behind in talent cultivation.
What angered them even more was that these songwriters who had emerged in Tianxing Entertainment simply couldn't be poached, which drove them crazy and made them complain: “These people are lunatics! Are they not even making money anymore?”
As the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2014, the New Year's Eve galas of the six major TV stations also successfully drew their curtain.
Without a doubt, Yanjing TV, with the support of Su Yu and Han Jiangxue, won the final victory in this New Year's Eve battle by an extremely narrow margin.
This was not due to a decrease in the popularity of Su Yu and Han Jiangxue or low stage viewership; rather, Yanjing TV's other programs lacked competitiveness compared to those of the other leading TV stations.
Fruit TV, Jinling TV, Blue TV, and Magic City TV all had their own stable viewership.
Although Yanjing TV cannot yet compare with these leading TV stations, such results are enough to make all the staff of Yanjing TV very satisfied.
After all, they were already working hard to catch up; you can't get fat from one bite, and as long as there is progress, it is something to be happy about.
And with the arrival of the 1st, the overseas first-week box office of “monkey king: hero is back” and the global first-week box office of “the truman show” were also hotly released.
Due to cultural differences, “monkey king: hero is back,” which achieved an excellent box office of 2.3 billion in Asian regions, did not continue its glory in Europe and America.
Its first-week box office was only 73 million US dollars; however, this “only” statement was merely a modest expression from Tianxing Entertainment's Film and Television Department.
In the eyes of domestic counterparts, the box office performance of “monkey king: hero is back” overseas was already a huge success, and everyone was eagerly anticipating whether this domestic animated feature film could break the 100 million US dollar mark when it finished its run overseas.
As for “the truman show,” its global box office growth momentum was even more unstoppable, like a wild horse unbridled, galloping all the way.
In China, “the truman show” was like a dazzling box office bomb, with its first-week box office powerfully breaking the 1 billion chinese yuan mark, its momentum truly astonishing.
And in the overseas market, it went even more “crazy,” raking in over 200 million US dollars in excellent box office, a result that not only broke the record for domestic films' overseas box office without a doubt, but also directly doubled the original record!
Moreover, this record continues to be refreshed as the film remains popular, with no sign of its growth momentum stopping.
Recalling how Su Yu confidently declared at the premiere that he would achieve 100 million US dollars in overseas box office, many people secretly mocked him for being crazy, even thinking he was arrogant and didn't know his place.
However, the facts gave these doubters a resounding slap in the face, as the film easily achieved this goal on its third day of release.
Those voices of doubt have long since disappeared, and everyone can only silently lament Su Yu's another glorious victory in their hearts; he once again became the focus of the film industry, winning everything.
