Chapter 516 Changes
Not only "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" was released in early May, but also several small and medium-budget films were released, giving the audience more choices.
If you don't like "Star Wars" movies that much, you can also choose these movies to watch.
The most popular among them is undoubtedly the American version of "Midnight Bell 2" which won the runner-up position. The film was released together with "Star Wars: Episode III" and received a box office of US$35.07 million in its first weekend due to the huge power of "Star Wars" .
Another movie is "Sin City" starring Jessica Alba. This low-budget crime film took in $29.125 million at the box office in its first week, ranking third.
After leaving the "Fast and Furious" series, Jessica Alba can be considered a masterpiece, just like Kate Beckinsale's "Underworld".
After Sheena Boone got the opportunity with Little Gilbert, she immediately communicated with Kate Beckinsale and asked her to strive for this role.
Kate Beckinsale still has some questions: "Don't I have to accompany little Director Gilbert?"
"Do you want to go?" Sheena Boone asked.
Kate Beckinsale hesitated for a while and then whispered: "I don't want to go, but if you want me to accompany you, I can go."
"I knew you would say that," Sheena Boone rolled her eyes and said, "No need, roles in big projects and big productions like this can't be obtained just by going to bed. You just need to prepare well for the audition."
"Oh!" Kate Beckinsale turned her beautiful neck and lowered her head, seemingly determined: "I will definitely get this role."
Regardless of Kate Beckinsale's mental journey, in the second week, "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" undoubtedly topped the weekly box office for the second time.
Everyone knows that "Star Wars: Episode III" is very powerful, so all major productions avoided it for two weeks.
The new film released this week is actually "Memoirs of a Geisha" starring Kokusai Zhang. Maybe it was because Shu Chang and Bing Bingli starred in the "Mystery of the Spell" series and became prosperous, so the international chapter was not willing to accept it.
But the positioning of "Memoirs of a Geisha" is wrong. It was moved to the summer release. A film like this should be released during the awards season, and maybe it can win one or two awards.
Sure enough, the first three days only had 680,000 US dollars, and the bloody reality dealt a heavy blow to the international chapter.
At this moment, International Chapter also understood that it was not because of the craze for popular Chinese stars in Hollywood, but because the producer of the "Mystery of the Spell" series, Gilbert Jr., was so awesome.
He was actually able to launch an international action star, Cheng Long, and two international movie stars, one big and one small, under a situation where Chinese people generally have a low status.
It would be a lie to say that he is not jealous. Jiji Zhang often fantasizes about how great it would be if he were Bingbing Li. He is much more reliable than finding a boyfriend who is a Hollywood producer.
Now in China, when big directors have suitable roles, the first thing they think of is Bingbing Li and Shu Chang, followed by other actresses.
There is no way, compared to her, a fake international movie star, the two of them are real, and the director is not a fool.
This kind of status cannot be obtained by going to two red carpets abroad. It must have real achievements. The two "Mysteries of the Spell" combined have generated a box office of 1.16 billion U.S. dollars, and the third one will be released this year.
This made Bingbing Li and Shu Chang become the two actors with the highest box office starring movies starring mainland stars, making many stars jealous and jealous.
It is worth mentioning that Guo Fan has now become a very popular new star director in the Chinese mainland film industry.
The black humor comedy "Weird Man" directed by him was adapted from real events and actually earned 73 million RMB at the box office during the Spring Festival.
This was in 2005. It was very difficult for a domestic film to make over 100 million yuan these days, not to mention that a novice director achieved this result at the age of 25.
Although this film has influenced many people, Guo Fan still attracted the attention of many film companies and big bosses, as well as the media.
Among them, Guo Fan's most famous nickname is probably the Chinese version of Little Gilbert.
Because little Gilbert also directed movies in his twenties, achieved great success, and embarked on the road to becoming a world-class director. It is rumored that Guo Fan is still a student of little Gilbert, so this nickname is worthy of his name.
As the Chinese film market enters an era of commercialization, it doesn't matter who Guo Fan offends. What matters is that he can make money, and he will be popular when he makes money.
Now it's good. Guo Fan doesn't have to worry about investing in his next movie. What he should worry about is who to reject investment from and what kind of movie to make.
As for those who have been offended, it actually doesn't matter, because most of them have been rectified by the superiors and have become much more honest, and will not be in any danger for the time being.
However, Guo Fan recently chatted with Liu Ji about his next project and said that when he wanted to make a science fiction film, he encountered strong opposition from Liu Ji.
"Think about little Gilbert, did he start with a big production? He also did it step by step. "Shark Beach" was followed by "Death Comes", and then "Speed"." Liu Ji earnestly advised .
"But," Guo Fan explained: "It doesn't have to be a big production to make a science fiction film, it can be just as big as the imagination!"
"But there is no soil!" Liu Ji said: "We do not have the soil for domestic science fiction films, and many viewers do not believe that we can produce science fiction films.
Even if it is really done, if the box office is not good, the audience will immediately lose trust in this subject.
So we are pragmatic and wait for the right time. "What's the right time?" "Guo Fan asked.
"Waiting for the day when we become truly powerful, that day is the time for you to shoot a science fiction film." Liu Ji said.
Guo Fan understood. He had heard people say before that movies are a mirror of a country, which can fully reflect the country's spiritual civilization and its overall national strength.
In the 1980s and 1990s, mainland directors could only film the bad human nature of people in poor areas and go abroad to win awards and make foreigners happy.
Later, the film market became commercialized and Hollywood blockbusters invaded, dazzling the audience. Suddenly, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was not only a box office success, but also won awards, instantly setting off a wave of costume blockbusters.
This wave is now at its peak, and every director wants to try it. Their main goal is to make movies to make foreigners happy, because mainland audiences have lost interest after watching many similar films.
The success of "The Promise" proves this point.
What's even more amazing is that the first and second male lead in the movie "The Promise" are actually Zhang Dongjian and Hiroyuki Sanada, while Hong Kong star Nicholas Tse is actually the third male lead, which fully reflects the perception that Chinese people are third-class citizens outside.
And this incident illustrates a problem, that is, lack of confidence, and this lack of confidence often has deep-seated reasons.
Because I am not confident, I have to think about the opinions of foreigners in everything I do. This is the general environment of Chinese-language movies today. Celebrities who usually go abroad for a while will immediately become international superstars when they come back, and their status will rise by more than one level.
It's the same as returning from overseas. They all think that returning from overseas is a sign of lack of confidence.
Of course, at this time, foreign countries are indeed better in many aspects. This is an objective fact.
Guo Fan doesn't think about such profound questions. What he thinks is, if little Gilbert is Chinese, can he bring any changes to Chinese movies?
What Guo Fan didn't know was that little Gilbert was once real, but he didn't bring about changes and didn't have the ability.
Now that he has that ability, he is already a well-established and famous Hollywood director. Saving and changing Chinese-language films has little to do with him.
If it is related, it probably also affected Guo Fan's life trajectory and caused quite a shock to the Chinese entertainment industry.
"Memoirs of a Geisha" was released together with "Monster Granny" released by New Line Cinema. This film made a box office of US$29.306 million in its first week, easily crushing "Memoirs of a Geisha".
However, the two films have different schedules. After its first week, "Memoirs of a Geisha" was released in just over 300 theaters and was canceled.
There is no way, theater chains are the most realistic, and it is normal for the number of theaters to be cut due to poor box office.
In mid-May, "War of the Worlds" produced by DreamWorks, directed by Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks, will be released.
When the film was promoted in advance, it received unanimous praise from media critics, saying that it was another ambitious masterpiece by Spielberg after "Jurassic Park".
However, the audience didn't seem to buy into the movie, with mixed reviews and an anticlimactic ending that disappointed the audience.
Although the film took in a box office of US$64.438 million in its first week and became the weekly box office champion, the box office curve is not very healthy. By weekdays, box office declines reached 50 percent.
In this summer season where the first week is becoming more and more important, the first week box office of a major commercial production can often account for more than one-third of the film's overall box office.
Calculated based on this data, the North American box office of "War of the Worlds" is estimated to be only about 180 to 200 million US dollars. If you want to make back the money through the box office, you have to count on the overseas box office.
And this type of film is not like the "Star Wars" series, and there is no hope for peripheral products. You have to obtain copyright through copyright.
To put it simply, although "War of the Worlds" will not lose money, it will be a bit difficult to save DreamWorks from its predicament.
A generally accepted truth that has been discussed repeatedly in the film industry is that once a film company is saved by one movie, there is usually no need to save the film company.
Obviously, under the siege of the major giants, DreamWorks has reached its end. Either this year or next year, DreamWorks will be disbanded.
Another fact is that Hollywood film company executives suddenly discovered that Spielberg's magic failed.
This once all-powerful super director seems to have reached the end of his career as a director, with each film he directed not being as good as the last.
Everyone ages, and Spielberg is no exception. After the first week of "War of the Worlds", the New York Times reviewed Spielberg's directorial career in detail with the title The End of an Era.
This is like putting a final word on Spielberg's coffin and an epitaph, except that Spielberg may not be happy with it.
No one is willing to admit that he can't do it anymore, especially a proud and arrogant person like Spielberg, who will definitely prove himself.
He believes that he is still one of the best directors in Hollywood.
(End of chapter)