The next day, The Eternal Beauties premiered in over a hundred cinemas across the capital, drawing crowds with unprecedented enthusiasm. To secure a ticket, many fans queued outside theaters before dawn; some even brought bedding to camp out in front of the box offices overnight. Getting a ticket was as difficult as snapping up a train seat during the Spring Festival. Despite increasing the number of morning and late-night screenings, theaters struggled to meet the overwhelming demand.
Shortly after, major cities like Modu, Tianjin, and Baiyun followed suit with a one-day delay, seeing even more explosive popularity than the capital. Following this, cities across every province and prefecture began their own screenings. According to incomplete statistics, within just one week, the box office for The Eternal Beauties surpassed twenty million, setting a historical record. At the time, cinema tickets in major Chinese cities cost only about one yuan, and were as low as fifty cents in smaller towns and counties. This box-office miracle eclipsed the record previously held by a Hollywood blockbuster imported to China, and that was a film that had been touring the country for three months!
The Eternal Beauties became a sensation, and Director Liang Zijin, screenwriter Li Da, and lead actress Bai Shanshan, along with the rest of the crew, skyrocketed to fame. They began receiving all kinds of invitations—from within the film industry and beyond. Irrelevant social and commercial requ…
Chapter 361