Chapter 289: The Peak of the World

With little advertising and no major marketing strategies, the film was released around the world within ten days. Before July arrived, its global box office had quietly surpassed 200 million, maintaining an extremely stable revenue stream.

Even after blockbusters like Titanic were released in July, it failed to be displaced from theaters, continuing to perform well across global cinemas with remarkable consistency.

Just as people relaxed after the summer holiday season, they discovered that the film “Reincarnation” was still being shown in a few theaters, its box office revenue quietly reaching over 1 billion in just over two months. As other big films left theaters, this film rapidly expanded its screening locations due to its consistently high box office performance.

People became interested and did some research, only to realize it was Xiao Ran’s previously overlooked new work. When audiences flocked to the theaters, the box office saw an extraordinary surge—between late September and October, it experienced an unimaginable rapid rise.

This surge lasted at least half a month, generating at least $700 million globally in that time. Strangely enough, this film, which premiered a month earlier than Titanic, stayed in theaters even longer.

From June to January of the following year, it sparked another wave of interest worldwide, lasting half a month and generating another $400 million. It wasn’t until February that the film finally left theaters after 230 days of showing, becoming the longest-running film in history. Its box office revenue surpassed Titanic’s record, reaching an unprecedented $2.4 billion.

According to Phantom Planning Department’s global surveys and various analyses, aside from these two peak periods, the film’s average attendance rate was 85%, with the lowest rate still at 70%. No wonder it managed to maintain rapid growth despite going unnoticed.

What’s more, surveys showed the film had a very high repeat-viewing rate—at least 90% of viewers watched it twice or more, and nearly 30% watched it four times or more. It’s no surprise it achieved such high box office numbers.

In Hong Kong, with a population of less than 6 million, the film attracted 10 million viewers, generating nearly $200 million in box office revenue. On the Chinese mainland, it broke historical records, achieving $400 million in revenue. In the United States, it even shattered Titanic’s $600 million record, reaching an astonishing $800 million.

Global film companies claimed it was impossible, but calculations showed everything was indeed real. It was obvious that such a high repeat-viewing rate would lead to tremendous box office success.

Most importantly, this film takes an extreme opposite path to Titanic—one is overly vulgar, the other extremely refined. One relies on scale and grand spectacles to win; the other depends on its plot and absolutely classic scenes. Moreover, don’t forget that its action sequences are sure to make anyone exclaim in delight, and globally, there has been no negative criticism regarding its action scenes.

Such figures shocked the world, and they also left Xiao Ran utterly amazed. He originally thought Titanic’s achievements were an unattainable benchmark, never expecting that he would set a new world record that would remain unsurpassed for the next thirty years.

What’s most terrifying for global film companies is that these two films, which achieved unbreakable box office heights, are both works by Phantom. This means that just from distributing these two films, Phantom earned approximately 30% in profits—over a billion dollars. Meanwhile, Sony’s massive empire doesn’t even make a billion dollars in profit in a whole year (based on real data).

Don’t forget about video tapes, merchandise, and television broadcast fees—over five years, these three sources generated at least another billion dollars in profits. It’s no exaggeration to say that Phantom created two “Golden Roosters.” Just Xiao Ran’s 10% share from this film amounted to a staggering six hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

However, Cameron was extremely frustrated. Titanic required an investment of 800 million Hong Kong dollars, and his salary accounted for over 20% of that amount, at the cost of his share in profits. Fortunately, Phantom later generously gave him a reward of ten million dollars, which somewhat alleviated his frustration.

Reincarnation became one of the textbooks used by film schools around the world to teach how to balance commerce and artistry. Its two most celebrated chase scenes have been repeatedly hailed by filmmakers as unsurpassable classics. Despite much more advanced technology today, countless people have tried to imitate and learn from them over the past twenty years, yet no one has been able to achieve the level of complexity and intensity in chase scenes achieved by Xiao Ran using simple techniques.

On the film ranking website founded by Phantom and IMDb, Reincarnation’s rise was unimaginable—just three months after its release, it climbed to number one, surpassing films like The Godfather. It didn’t drop to second or third place until three years later and remained in those positions ever since.

Of course, all this happened later. After the film was released, Xiao Ran felt as though all his inspiration had been drained by it. He thought that even if he didn’t retire, it would likely take at least two years to regain his form.

Less than a week after the release of “Reincarnation,” Soros launched a fierce attack. In less than an hour, the Hang Seng Index dropped by over 200 points. When Xiao Ran heard the news and rushed to Fang Xiaoqiang’s command room, Fang Xiaoqiang was standing with his hands behind his back, deep in thought, while many people in the room were methodically carrying out operations.

Fang Xiaoqiang suddenly turned to his trusted assistant and said, “A’gui, wait and see. Soros is testing our financial limits.”

“It dropped by over 200 points in just an hour. If we don’t act now to buy up stocks, I’m afraid the public’s confidence will be shattered soon!” Xiao Ran smiled as he walked up to Fang Xiaoqiang. He wasn’t questioning him but raising a point: “If we wait until then to act, things will get complicated!”

“Brother Ran, you’re here?” It had to be said that Fang Xiaoqiang, fully focused on the stock market, was extremely endearing, with an indescribable sense of authority. He turned to look at Xiao Ran, shook his head, and said, “Soros is testing us. He can’t figure out exactly how much money we have, but he knows we’re aware of the financial power behind him. So, before the final showdown, he’ll definitely try to understand our financial situation!”

Financial resources! Xiao Ran stroked the beard on his lips and fell into thought. It wasn’t that Shadow couldn’t afford the money—it was just that the time for that in his plan hadn’t come yet. The reason he deliberately only invested 40 billion dollars was to confuse Soros.

With his status as the world’s richest man, his resources were definitely more than 40 billion dollars. This meant Xiao Ran still had strength left, and don’t forget—the World Fund, which controlled 20 billion dollars, hadn’t moved yet. Soros was meticulous; he surely wouldn’t overlook this.

Xiao Ran had prepared for this long ago. Even though 40 billion dollars had already been invested, he could deploy more money whenever needed, as he still had that amount under control. But all of this wasn’t his ultimate goal—it was about maintaining control.

Now that Soros couldn’t figure out his true strength, he surely wouldn’t act rashly, especially since Fang Xiaoqiang, an extremely famous master, was on his side. Thus, everything depended on when Xiao Ran and Fang Xiaoqiang would reveal their strength. In finance, at critical moments, even a difference of 10 billion dollars can determine success or failure.

“Moreover, the World Fund has been conducting investigations these days!” At these words, a smile appeared on Fang Xiaoqiang’s face as he looked at Xiao Ran and said, “Now everyone knows that Shadow is fighting against international speculators, and 80% of them believe you can handle this situation. So, the public’s confidence is very high. We can use this confidence to withstand Soros’s test this time!”

Xiao Ran became interested. Thinking about how, despite being just an ordinary person, he had earned the trust of five or six million people here, he felt lucky and moved. He clenched his fist tightly, determined to stop the financial crisis at all costs.

Soros was indeed very confused at the moment. As Fang Xiaoqiang had predicted, he was trying to force Xiao Ran to reveal his financial bottom line. He knew Fang Xiaoqiang would surely see through his tactics, but seeing through them didn’t necessarily mean having a solution. The worst thing in the securities market was catastrophic panic—once such panic spread, few could turn things around.

So, he was confident he could force Xiao Ran to act; to curb the panic, he had to intervene. Yet things turned out far beyond his expectations. Fang Xiaoqiang not only stayed inactive but even avoided his usual confrontations, allowing Soros to pour in billions of dollars in just one hour. This left him utterly puzzled, and what happened next in the stock market further confused him. After those billions were invested, there was indeed a significant drop, but the rate of decline quickly slowed down.

After ordering his assistants to stop attacking, he fell deep into thought. He wasn’t in Hong Kong—had never even been there—so it was hard for him to understand why the people of Hong Kong held such respect and faith in this locally born world’s richest man and film genius. If he had been there, he might have understood the reason.

There was no sign of resistance to this challenge in the morning, and by afternoon, still unable to figure anything out, Soros decided to take a risk and try to force Xiao Ran to reveal his bottom line before the handover. Looking up at Raphael, who was waiting for instructions, he ordered, “Attack!”

Under the onslaught of massive capital inflows, the exchange rate between the Hong Kong dollar and the U.S. dollar plummeted, and the stock market continued to decline. Though not quickly, by 4 p.m., it had already dropped by 400 points.

At the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, all traders stared at their screens, hoping to spot the funds of “The Phantom.” But all they saw were countless unidentified foreign funds pouring in. Their faces gradually turned pale. With market closure approaching, if those mysterious funds made a final push before closing, it would become a nightmare for the people of Hong Kong.

What was Xiao Ran doing? At that moment, countless people in Hong Kong who watched the financial and stock markets closely were sweating profusely, wondering inwardly. They all knew that without Xiao Ran’s intervention, those mysterious funds would have long turned the Hong Kong market into chaos. Was Xiao Ran planning to back down now?

At 4:17 p.m., Soros finally saw a promising result—Fang Xiaoqiang had finally moved, pouring in $5 billion to crush the Hong Kong dollar in the financial market. At the exchange, many traders excitedly shouted, “The Phantom has struck!”

All the staff in the area cheered loudly. No one was concerned anymore about why Xiao Ran had waited so long to act; as long as he intervened now, that was enough. Thanks to their actions, the exchange rate saw a significant rise as “The Phantom” continued to invest heavily.

The speculators who had been watching closely finally joined in, driving the exchange rate even higher. The stock market also rose sharply as a result, with the Hang Seng Index and futures rising by 100 points in just 15 minutes—proof of the people of Hong Kong’s confidence in Xiao Ran.

Soros was extremely disappointed; he couldn’t understand how, with such a huge amount of capital invested, he could still be defeated by Phantom. It was definitely not a pleasant day for him, as he lost $200 million in just one day.

But it clearly didn’t matter much. He immediately ordered his assistants to stop making large-scale attacks and instead engage inprobing battles battles with Phantom. The day still ended on a downward note for people across Hong Kong and the world, but the locals seemed unconcerned, as Phantom’s funds stepped in at the last moment to reverse a 200-point decline.

Fang Xiaoqiang was also unbothered; this was just a relatively larger confrontation. Nevertheless, the trading volume that day still set a new record for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, reaching over 100 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Soros wasn’t worried either. He gradually shook off his negative mood and muttered to himself, “This battle is between the two of us!”