Chapter 706: Show first, see first
Heping Cinema, located on Zangxi Road, HP District, Shanghai, is the first commercially operated IMAX cinema in Shanghai and even the mainland.
The cinema has two IMAX screens, and all equipment is imported from Canada.
The screen is 15 meters high and 20 meters wide. It uses 70MM15 perforated film. The picture is extremely clear and equipped with a 12,000-watt stereo sound, which has great audio-visual impact.
However, these two IMAX theaters can only show some documentaries and the like. After all, there are not many real IMAX movies.
However, the release of "Batman Begins" in the mainland in 2005 still allowed many people to experience the excellent viewing effects of IMAX.
This time "The Dark Knight" was released simultaneously in mainland China and North America, and both Heping Film and Television released advertisements early to promote the IMAX effect.
Two days before the film was released, 85% of the tickets for the midnight show plus the first week's show were sold. The midnight show is less than two hours away and all tickets for this week have been sold out.
Due to the time difference, midnight in Shang Hai happens to be the morning time in North America, so mainland movie fans can see "The Dark Knight" earlier than North American movie fans.
Liu Xiaojun has been a loyal fan of Little Gilbert since the beginning of the "Lord of the Rings" series. When he was in college, he went to the cinema to watch the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and he remembered little Gilbert's name ever since.
Later, he did not miss any of the films such as "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Warriors", and "The Last of Us", and he also met his girlfriend Zheng Xiaowen.
The release date of "The Dark Knight" coincides with the May Day holiday. As working people, the two obviously do not have any extra money to travel.
So the couple decided to go to the cinema to watch a movie and booked tickets for the midnight show of "The Dark Knight" at the IMAX theater a week in advance.
“I heard them say that this movie has to be watched in an IMAX theater to enjoy it.” Zheng Xiaowen was a little excited.
"Yes," Liu Xiaojun was also looking forward to it: "I watched "Batman Begins" in the IMAX theater at that time."
"How's the effect?"
"Of course it's great. Although the ticket price is more expensive than ordinary theaters, I think it's very cost-effective."
"I think so too."< br>
Not only did the two of them look forward to it, most of the people who chose the IMAX theater had watched "Batman Begins" before, and some were inspired by the publicity.
It was time to enter the theater soon, and Liu Xiaojun and Zheng Xiaowen lined up to enter the No. 1 IMAX theater.
In mainland markets where movie-going habits have not been cultivated, the average person cannot go to the cinema more than a few times a year. Therefore, it is very important to choose movies. After all, unlike TV series, movies cannot be watched at any time.
So big directors and attractive stars are the guarantee of box office, and the audience naturally has trust in these people.
In addition, Hollywood films can easily conquer the Chinese market because of their sophisticated production.
Little Gilbert happened to be a great director, and the Hollywood films he directed were very, very popular.
Liu Xiaojun also observed and said to Zheng Xiaowen: "It seems that there are still a lot of people. I don't think there are any empty seats."
Zheng Xiaowen was not surprised at all: "It's normal. Director Gilbert Jr. is the Hollywood director we are most familiar with. What's more, he helped us speak for all the things that happened this year.
I think many movie fans also use this Let’s repay him in a way!”
Indeed, little Gilbert’s appeal in the Chinese market is very high, even higher than that of Hollywood’s top stars.
Even colleagues in Hollywood find this quite incredible. Why does little Gilbert have a higher appeal than Tom Cruise?
But this is indeed the case. If you want to talk about who is the favorite Chinese film director among Chinese movie fans, you may not be able to tell why. You have to argue.
But if you ask who their favorite foreign director is, most people will choose Gilbert Jr.
Just before the release of "The Dark Knight", "Forbes" released a list of Chinese celebrities. Little Gilbert overtook Uncle Motoyama and became tenth on the list.
Don’t be surprised that a foreigner is on the list. After all, Lianjie Li and Yifei Liu can also be on the list, so there are no restrictions.
This shows one thing. Little Gilbert is far away in Hollywood, and his influence spans the Pacific Ocean and has gained huge popularity in China.
So it goes without saying why his movies are so popular in China, he always wins. Liu Xiaojun and Zheng Xiaowen had a great time watching IMAX movies this time. The use of IMAX technology in "The Dark Knight" this time was even more shocking than the previous one.
However, what attracted the two of them was not only the stunning IMAX effects, but more importantly the story of "The Dark Knight".
Back at the rented house, although the two were a little tired, they still discussed the film enthusiastically.
“I have never seen a superhero movie like this before. I have also seen "Spider-Man" and last year's "Iron Man".
But I dare say that these two The super impact movie is not as good as "The Dark Knight"" Liu Xiaojun vowed.
Zheng Xiaowen agreed: "Indeed, I thought this movie, like other Hollywood commercial blockbusters, was mainly about refreshing.
But I didn't expect that it was refreshing, but it was a different kind of refreshing.
The theme is heavy and profound, It brings up issues worth thinking about and discussing.
As expected of Gilbert, he is a great director in Hollywood.”
Liu Xiaojun smiled: “My favorite is the Batmobile and the film. Batbike.”
Zheng Xiaowen rolled her eyes at Liu Xiaojun: "Don't think about it, we can't afford it. But..."
This work was compiled and uploaded by Liujiu Bookstore~~
"But what?"< br>
“You can still buy the model.”
“Really? Thank you, my wife.”
Liu Xiaojun is beaming. He likes to buy some movie peripherals. If you really can’t afford it, you can just buy a fake one.
In fact, at Shanghai Global Port, there is a Batmobile specially shipped from North America, as well as two Batmobiles. These are real guys. They were placed in Global Harbor to promote the movie.
Because of its cool shape, it attracts many tourists to watch and take photos.
A rich second generation took a fancy to this Batmobile and Batmobile and wanted to buy them for collection. In the end, after some enthusiastic negotiations, he settled the deal directly at a price of 9.35 million RMB and shipped it back to his home garage after the exhibition.
The news spread along the Pacific Ocean to Los Angeles. After returning to Los Angeles from Chicago, Little Gilbert took the creators to record "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
Return to the studio in the afternoon to prepare for the final work before the North American release.
Little Gilbert specially asked him to report the box office situation in Asia to him, so little Gilbert saw the box office in Asia immediately.
The box office of the island country is just like that, and superhero movies are ignored in the island country. So even if Little Gilbert's island women worked hard to promote it, they only received $3.27 million for the midnight show.
South Korea is not bad. Although the market is small, it also contributed 1.22 million US dollars in the midnight box office.
The rest of Hong Kong, Taiwan and several Southeast Asian regions combined, creating a midnight box office of US$2.25 million.
However, in the Chinese mainland market, Little Gilbert was a little surprised. The midnight show actually took in US$3.35 million, equivalent to more than 22 million RMB, which is quite a high box office figure for a midnight show.
The Chinese mainland market has been in a rising stage in recent years, and the market capacity has continued to expand, but the number of viewers at midnight shows is actually not large.
Being able to create this midnight data proves little Gilbert’s appeal there.
One of the data comes from the IMAX company. There are five IMAX theaters in mainland China, and the midnight show has achieved 100% attendance.
IMAX is not only developing the North American market, but also exploring other markets around the world, with the Chinese market being the top priority.
According to IMAX, a theater company there saw the outstanding performance of IMAX theaters and planned to fully represent IMAX theaters in mainland China.
Of course, the two sides are still in contact.
(End of this chapter)