Chapter 1149

The Benedictine neighborhood of East Beverly Hills.

The time is July 25th, Saturday.

After attending the premiere of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" on Wednesday night, Jack Achievement flew to Los Angeles and settled in the mansion he just bought last year.

Near noon.

I just saw the sample of "Phantom Agent" sent by Hong Kong with Bill Michanik, the president of Disney Pictures. The assistant came to remind me that the guests had arrived one after another.

No matter what the reputation in some aspects is, Jack Cheng is definitely a person with high emotional intelligence, and he is the kind who really looks like a big brother.

Realizing that more and more Chinese-speaking filmmakers have entered Hollywood in the past two years, and many of them are here recently, Jack Cheng deliberately took this opportunity to gather everyone together to connect with each other and help each other more or less in the future.

Fa Ge was the first to arrive, along with Michelle Young, one of the heroines of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

Greeting everyone, Jack Cheng did not forget to introduce Bill Michanik to the two of them.

Bill Michanik had already heard some news about the first-day box office of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in the morning, and he was quite enthusiastic about Fa Ge and Michelle Yang.

Afterwards, Jeter Lee, Mr. Xu and some other Asian faces who had been in Hollywood but hadn't made a name yet arrived one after another.

Jeter Lee doesn't mention it.

In addition, Mr. Xu, taking advantage of this wave of Chinese-speaking filmmakers going to the United States, recently successfully signed a film contract with Warner. The actor is Warner's direct-line action actor Steven Seagal. He is currently writing the script. The initial idea roughly tells a story about the cooperation between the police in Hong Kong and the United States to fight terrorism. This setting is mainly to be able to shoot in Hong Kong, which I am familiar with. It is expected that there will be funds from the other side of the ocean to participate, and the budget is about 25 million US dollars.

In addition to some Hollywood natives that Jack Cheng has known in the past few years, when it was past 12 o'clock, the lobby of the villa was already bustling with activity, and even Danny Morris, the president of New World Pictures, rushed over.

This is a buffet.

Seeing that everyone had started to move, Jack Cheng, as the host, hadn't said a few opening remarks, and the atmosphere gradually became subtle.

Because the most dazzling Chinese-speaking filmmaker in Hollywood has not yet arrived, it is White Pigeon Wu, who has sold "Broken Arrow", "Mission: Impossible 2" and "Face Changing" consecutively.

Those who are more perceptive can actually find out that for the premiere of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" on Wednesday, Jeter Lee specially flew from China to support him, but White Dove Wu, who is in North America, did not attend. Even if Baige Wu's recent actions make it clear that he has no intention of cooperating with Daenerys Entertainment anymore, but this is a compatriot's film after all, and regardless of Daenerys Entertainment's factors, we should support each other after all.

And this time, Old Monster Xu.

In "The True Colors of a Hero" back then, it was hard to describe the grievances and grievances. Now that Old Freak Xu has entered Hollywood following in the footsteps of others, it is hard to say what White Dove Wu will be thinking.

Until a quarter past twelve, White Pigeon Wu finally came slowly.

After all, it is the high pole of Chinese filmmakers in Hollywood at this time, whether it is Jack Cheng and others or many Hollywood natives have stepped forward.

"I'm so sorry, Aaron, there's a meeting in the morning, and there's a traffic jam on the road," White Pigeon Wu repeated his apologies. Seeing Bill Michanik, he became enthusiastic again: "Bill, I didn't expect you to be here .”

"It's nice to see you again," Bill Michanik also shook hands with White Dove Wu with a smile, and then said, "Wu, about the "Double Crisis" project, how about we talk about it some time?"

With a smile on Baige Wu's face, he refused but was not polite at all: "Bill, I think we should not waste time, I hope to have absolute control over my projects in the future, you obviously can't give this, can you? "

"It can be discussed. I talked with Mr. Messier in France on the phone."

"Sorry, I've actually negotiated a script with Paramount," Baige Wu interrupted directly, and motioned to the side: "Also, I'll go say hello to Ah Fa and the others."

Bill Michanik watched Baige Wu leave, and he could only regret it.

Immediately after seeing Danny Morris, the president of New World Pictures, who was indifferent to the arrival of Baige Wu, it was inevitable to feel a little gloating.

With the domestic box office of "Face Changing" is about to exceed 200 million, White Pigeon Wu is very popular in Hollywood recently. Daenerys Entertainment has single-handedly cultivated this big-name director, but now she just watched him leave without trying to keep him. Nick, a traditional Hollywood executive, seems very unwise.

On the other side, White Pigeon Wu greeted everyone and came to Brother Fa, apologizing again: "I've been busy recently, Ah Fa, and I couldn't attend the premiere of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", I hope you don't mind. "

There was nothing unusual on Fa Ge's face, he seemed to be in a good mood, and said with a smile, "It's okay."

Baige Wu didn't intend to talk about it too much. In fact, if he wanted to go, of course he could find the time. It's just that he has made three big-selling movies for Daenerys Entertainment, and he doesn't intend to let the other party take advantage of him. , Baige Wu firmly believes that he can still do well without Daenerys Entertainment.

Recently, Baige Wu has successfully signed two film contracts with Paramount, one is a gunfight action movie co-produced by Fa Ge, and the other is a project he personally directed, called "American Police Officer", which is similar to "Desperate". The idea of ​​"The End of the World" tells the story of a policeman who discovers all kinds of hidden plots in the process of chasing down and fleeing criminals who crashed and escaped.

Except that Paramount has locked down the soup in "The Fugitive"

M. Lee Jones, other aspects of his director have considerable power, including the final editing rights. And the budget is also very generous and directly gave 100 million US dollars, which is the same as "Changing Face".

Compared with the constraints of cooperating with Daenerys Entertainment, this is the working state he wants most.

When a person is very successful, he will gradually look away from many things. After a round of greetings, White Pigeon Wu also took the initiative to chat with Old Freak Xu, with the intention of clearing up the past, expressing that if there is any need in Hollywood, just talk to him. Say hello to Yunyun himself.

As a result, the atmosphere of the reception was quite harmonious.

When several big names got together, the topic unknowingly talked about some recent movies.

"Golden Harvest's "Phantom Agent", I have also paid attention to it, it should not be finished yet, right?"

"It was just finished last week, and it's in the post-production stage," Jack Cheng said: "Mr. Zou asked someone to send over the sample, and Mr. Michanik and I just watched it this morning. After all, the cooperation on "Police Story 4" is very pleasant."

White Pigeon Wu drank some wine, was in high spirits, and talked eloquently: "The strategy this time is actually very good. The two protagonists are Hong Kong stars and Hollywood actors. However, Haonan's reputation is a little lower, so it's better to add some money to find Hua. Zai or Wei Zai, and the heroine, Jiang Anqi..."

Speaking of this, Old Wu didn't get dizzy after all, stopped in time, and said: "In short, the strategy of combining Chinese and Western is very correct, just like Aaron and Ajie's "Rush Hour" and "Taken". While working hard, one should do as the Romans do, Li’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a counter-example in my opinion, bringing a pure martial arts movie to Hollywood is simply reckless, how could it be successful?”

After hearing Baige Wu's words, the acquaintances around had strange expressions on their faces, but they didn't refute anything.

Bill Michanik, who stayed behind, couldn't help but said, "Wu, do you know the box office of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" on the first day?" Answer: "With 143 screens, the box office on the first day was US$1.65 million, which is also Paramount's "Hamburger Story", which opened yesterday, with 1,887 screens and only US$1.07 million on the first day."

143 screens, 1.65 million on the first day.

1887 screens, 1.07 million on the first day.

The contrast is strong.

Even if many on-demand films are inevitably high due to the small number of screening halls, it is rare for the halls to break 10,000 on the first day, not to mention the latter part of the summer period such as the non-awards season. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" earned 1.65 million on the first day, and it may be between 7 million and 8 million in the first week.

Many Chinese-language films may not have a total box office of seven or eight million in North America, but this is just the expected first-week screening result of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

Thinking of Baige Wu's evaluation just now, the atmosphere suddenly became a little awkward.

In the end, it was Jack Cheng who smoothed things over: "Daenerys has spent so much effort on publicity. It should be better at screenings. What can be done at the box office with more than one million yuan depends on the follow-up."

Brother Long wanted to save face, not to mention that everyone knew that this was a step, and everyone agreed. Bill Michanik just now also wisely didn't say anything more, after all, they may cooperate in the future.

When Baige Wu almost made himself unable to step down, the whole Hollywood gradually paid attention to the box office trend of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

Even though many people thought that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" would sell well based on various feedbacks in advance, but with only 143 screens, the box office grossed 1.65 million US dollars on the first day, which still exceeded almost everyone's expectations. .

The weekend passed in a blink of an eye.

On Monday, July 28, the box office statistics were released. The final three-day box office of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was 4.96 million U.S. dollars, surpassing "American Pie" with an average of nearly 35,000 U.S. dollars, and entered the three-day weekend box office. Fifth place on the list, behind "Independence Day", "Spawn", "Nothing to Lose" and "Tornado".

Subsequently, after a full week from July 25 to July 31, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" earned $7.53 million at the box office, still ranking fifth on the list.

A single venue is close to 53,000 US dollars.

Daenerys Entertainment followed up in time, and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"'s super high first-week screenings became a hot spot for more media attention, and at the same time, it once again created a word-of-mouth effect among the audience.

On August 1, a new box office week begins.

Due to the strong feedback from the screenings in the first week, Daenerys Entertainment adjusted in time, directly expanding the scale of more than 1,500 screens originally planned for the first week of large-scale release to 1,863 screens, and plans to consider adding more according to specific circumstances.

Subsequently, the box office potential of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" officially began to be released.

Faced with the attack of two new films and other old films on August 1, under the continuous ferment of heat, from August 1 to August 7, the first week of large-scale production, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" finally Successfully won a box office of 29.13 million US dollars!

It directly won the first place in the weekly box office list.

Perhaps the weekly box office of other films less than 30 million US dollars can only be regarded as mediocre, but for a Chinese-language film breaking into Hollywood, it is still a Chinese-language film with a literary and artistic orientation. The box office of 29.14 million US dollars is completely a phenomenon-level dark horse. .

Counting the first week of screenings, the cumulative box office of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has reached 36.67 million U.S. dollars in just half a month since its release.

Moreover, unlike "Spawn" which dropped 53% in the first week to $27.55 million in the first week, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" will obviously go a long way, and it is even very hopeful that it will become the first film to achieve a box office of over 100 million in North America. Chinese films.

Originally in "Independence

After "Day", Hollywood thought that Daenerys Entertainment would stop, and give everyone some room to play. After all, starting from "Face Changing", as of July 31, Daenerys Entertainment related films have already got the 1997 summer file With 10 consecutive single-week box office champions, no one expected to jump out of such a dark horse as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

On August 8th, another box office week opened, and the number of screens of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" increased significantly again, reaching 2,393 yuan. In order to maximize the film's box office potential, the film's publicity and distribution investment was also added to the film production. Costs were flat at $15 million.

New York.

If the filming process of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is so tiring that people don't want to live, the intensive promotional schedule restarted in the past two weeks has made Li Youhu tired and happy.

After more than a year of hard work, it was finally not in vain.

To be precise, the harvest is rich.

Not only has she quickly become a well-known Chinese actress in North America, but even in China, she has become famous as quickly as Jiang Anqi in the first half of the year, and she is more popular than Jiang Anqi. After all, Jiang Anqi only played one role in "Hurricane Rescue". Point of the vase, she is indeed very heavy on the heroine.

"Private Interview with Kangxi Weifu", which is currently on the air, because of her participation, even if it is not in the story unit of her character, with the promotion of Jinshu, the ratings have also increased significantly recently.

The release date of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which has been undecided in China, was also quickly decided following the success of the film in North America, and it was set for September 5th.

An executive from Daenerys Entertainment also said that this time is even expected to win her an Oscar nomination in next year's awards season, at least a Golden Globe nomination. Whether it is an Oscar or a Golden Globe, Li Youhu would have never even dared to think about it a year ago.

Saturday, August 9.

After two weeks of promotional schedule finally came to an end, Daenerys Entertainment threw a celebratory party for the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" crew at an Upper West Side hotel.

Dressed up to attend the evening, Li Youhu finally saw a certain man who hadn't shown up for a while.

Simon has been going around all over the place recently, and he just flew over from Los Angeles today.

When Li Youhu approached with a slightly long silver low-cut dress skirt, he could only hear someone discussing with Ang Lee about the release of the film in China.

"The Chinese schedule of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was indeed deliberately delayed by me. Although it is a Chinese film, this film was shot for Western audiences from the beginning, and it is more suitable for release in North America first, and then feedback to China. If it was shown in China first, the audience there would not like this style too much." Simon said, feeling Li Youhu approaching in a light scented wind, he took him over, turned his head to sniff, and smiled He switched to Chinese: "Very fragrant and very white."

How can there be such a greeting?

Li Youhu gave someone a coquettish look, but leaned obediently by his side, consciously acting as a vase.

Simon did not ignore Mr. Yu who was following behind Li Youhu: "You are also beautiful tonight."

Really dishonest.

Teacher Yu slandered.

At least you can boast that you are both fragrant and white. She is wearing a black dress, which is more skin-friendly than Li Youhu's silver.

Thinking so slightly resentfully, Teacher Yu wasn't so bold as to stick close to him like Li Youhu. He just let himself smile at him politely, and greeted Li An before turning to the man again: " Let’s talk, I’ll go to...that, get something to eat.”

After speaking, he turned and left.

I didn't hear someone's persuasion, and the slight resentment intensified for some reason. Of course, I definitely won't take the initiative to go back.

Simon watched Teacher Yu turn around and turned to Li Ang again. Since he changed the Chinese, he did not change it, and then asked, "By the way, is the preparation of "Ice Storm" going well recently?"

"It went well," Li An also changed his Chinese, and said, "Also, the intern sent by Daenerys is nice and very thoughtful."

Li An was naturally talking about the unique Xu.

Simon took advantage of the situation: "If you think it's good, you can help him in the future, and act as a producer for his future debut. According to the Chinese saying, this is called passing on the torch, right?"

Li An was indeed very satisfied with that intern. He was a little surprised and inexplicably touched when he heard Simon's words of "passing the torch".

After chatting a few more words, Li An took the initiative to get out of the way.

Simon brought Li Youhu to a buffet table, picked some food together, and asked with a smile: "How do you feel recently, isn't it very floating?"

"That's right," Li Youhu nodded subconsciously, then quickly denied, "I'm not floating."

"It's okay, it's a normal reaction to float around at this time."

As Simon spoke, he thought of Baige Wu.

He already knew about Baige Wu's signing of the film contract with Paramount, and he had also seen the script of "American Police Officer" that Wu would know personally.

Basically, it followed the story of "The Fugitive" a few years ago. The plane crashed and escaped, and the murderer was reversed. It also made Simon think of another "Prison in the Air" that was supposed to be released this year but was dropped by butterflies. After checking, I found out that it is a new script written by the screenwriter of "The Fugitive", similar to a routine, and I eat my own money. Once you are familiar with Hollywood, you will get used to it. All kinds of splicing and miscellaneous, innovation is not easy on the one hand, and it is safer to do so on the other hand.

Looking back, I also found that I had a little memory of this movie in my previous life. Without more information, the movie's box office prospects can be imagined.

In any case, this story is quite suitable for the white pigeon

Wu came to shoot.

As for the future?

It doesn't matter if you don't meet, if it collides with a film under Daenerys Entertainment, Simon will not be polite.

Li Youhu didn't know what Simon was thinking, but he also understood that the man was teasing, so he didn't continue to deny it, but said: "I still feel like a dream. I went to Cannes in May, and the audience responded very well, but at that time they It is said that the box office in North America is only about 50 million, but now, everyone is saying that it is expected to exceed 100 million, and it is incredible that a Chinese martial arts can break 100 million in North America."

After Simon picked out some food, he led Li Youhu to a round table in the corner of the banquet hall, sat down and said, "I can only say that it just happened to be the right time. If there is such a good film in the future, it may not be sold in North America." 100 million at the box office."

Li Youhu had just picked up a piece of crab cake with a fork, but he stopped and asked curiously, "Why?"

"The reason is very complicated, and you don't understand it even if you tell me."

Li Youhu pouted, but didn't ask any further questions.

In fact, Simon was also a little surprised by the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

In order to avoid the "Titanic" at the end of the year, Simon put "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in the summer file. Without the help of the awards season, he was prepared that the box office of this movie will shrink compared to before.

Looking at it now, not only will it not shrink, it will even be higher.

As for the reason.

Very complicated.

The first is the environment.

The current North American film market is still in an era where all kinds of films can be sold as long as they are good enough, and audiences are willing to buy tickets for various films to enter the theater. Therefore, unpopular literary films such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" also have blockbusters. soil.

Simon has been quietly suppressing and delaying the rise of the blockbuster era in recent years, and the key is to maintain this diversity.

However, the trend is hard to stop.

In a few years, not only the overseas art film market will shrink sharply, but North America will be the same, and even the diversity of the film market will suffer even more. Only super blockbusters and low-budget horror films that are small and big can live well. For other types, one or two dark horses can only be regarded as accidents.

The Oscars will also become niche due to the loss of diversity in the film market, and even go for self-entertainment.

It can be said that now is the last good era of literary films.

Secondly, the reason for the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is the resurgent kung fu craze in North America.

In this regard, "Red Zone", "Rush Hour", "Black Man", "Taken" and so on in recent years are all beneficiaries.

However, kung fu is still no match for superheroes.

It's better at this stage, Simon is also deliberately suppressing the DC movie universe. In the future, Transformers, aliens, and all kinds of superheroes who fly into the sky and escape from the earth will swarm, and kung fu will lose its charm.

Again, it is Daenerys Entertainment's strong and flexible publicity capabilities.

Just to mention one detail, since last year, Simon has actually been laying the groundwork for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which is what allowed Ang Lee to get an Oscar nomination for "Sense and Sensibility" for best director. In the original time and space, Ang Lee's film adaptation of this famous book was nominated for best picture, but missed the best director option.

In order to enhance Ang Lee's reputation and increase the publicity of this year's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Gaomen Films specially won the best director nomination for Ang Lee last year.

Finally, it is the novelty-seeking psychology of North American audiences.

The scenery in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is beautiful, and the fighting is fierce, which North American audiences have never seen before.

After this head soup, if someone does the same thing, it will not be so easy to attract the audience.

Of course, the basis of all this is that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" itself is a very good movie.

In the discussion about the North American success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", there is always the fact that this movie was successful only after catering to the tastes of Western audiences, so that later on, many major oriental directors imitated each other and applied various Western styles such as "Hamlet". The classic template shoots Chinese blockbusters, trying to cater to Western audiences.

Actually not.

The part of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" that caters to Western audiences is actually a common human emotion.

Li Mubai and Yu Xiulian have a restrained yet tacit relationship.

Yu Jiaolong is unruly and arrogant, pursuing freedom under the surface, admiring and yearning for the stronger.

Even Li Mubai's insistence on revenge.

These are easy to understand, and they are not deliberately catered to the West, but emotions that everyone can understand.

It is also worth mentioning that many people regretted that Jeter Lee was not able to appear in this movie, which reduced the hero's force value and greatly reduced the action scenes. But in fact, if Jeter Lee really played it, it might fail. Because the action scenes are overemphasized, it is likely to obscure the director's expression of the emotional core of the film.

It is conceivable that Jeter Lee will definitely not be able to play Li Mubai, who is overwhelmed by the cold and reveals exhaustion and forbearance portrayed by Brother Chu.

Lacking emotional expression and turning into a more pure martial arts film, it is difficult for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to receive a classic-level super high evaluation from Western critics. If such a niche film lacks public opinion support, the box office cannot be too high.

All in all, the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is still the result of good timing, favorable location, and harmonious people.