Chapter 365 Combating Piracy
With the arrival of the next week, "The Return of the King" began its North American promotion tour.
This North American announcement will only last for a week, after which the crew will be split into two. Some of them went to Europe for promotion, and the other part went to Australia, island countries and other regions for promotion.
The most surprising thing is that "Return of the King" arranged a two-stop promotional tour in Monk Hai, the capital of China.
Gilbert Jr. will not be participating in North American promotions and will join the cast in the UK. The British royal family is preparing to receive the "Lord of the Rings" crew, and the Queen will award little Gilbert a knighthood.
Today's British knighthood is more of an honor, designed to reward people in the scientific community, entertainment industry, etc. who have made outstanding contributions to the British country.
Little Gilbert was able to obtain a knighthood not only because of the success of the "Lord of the Rings" series and its promotion of British literary culture.
There is also "Harry Potter", an increasingly influential IP, which was also created by little Gilbert.
Prince Charles is a fan of "Lord of the Rings", while Queen Elizabeth prefers "Harry Potter" despite her age. So mother and son discussed together and simply awarded little Gilbert a knighthood.
After that, little Gilbert will go to China to participate in activities in Beijing.
When "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers" were released previously, the crew did not come to China for promotion, but it was time for "The Return of the King" to come.
There are actually very few Hollywood blockbusters that come to China for promotion these days, or almost none.
But as time goes by, the Chinese market will become more and more prosperous, and there will be no shortage of Hollywood movies coming to China for promotion in the future.
Even hosting a premiere here is not impossible.
Pixar Animation Studio. With the development of Apple's business, Steve Jobs rarely sits at Pixar and only visits occasionally.
Coincidentally, Steve Jobs was at Pixar Studios these two days.
At this time, Pixar Animation Studios was holding a meeting. In this dynamic and creative company, even if Steve Jobs was involved, the meeting would not be too serious.
Creative Director Ed introduced the situation in a relaxed tone: "At present, Disney is undoubtedly the most sincere party.
They will make certain concessions at the box office. "
Steve Jobs asked, "What about peripherals?"
The profitability of animated movies at the box office has never been strong. The real strength is actually the profitability of its peripheral products.
Ed shook his head and said: "Disney is unwilling to make concessions, but I think they won't hold on for long before they agree to our conditions."
Pixar and Disney still have one remaining animated feature film distribution contract. At this time, Pixar Animation Studio undoubtedly has the ability to change the situation in Hollywood.
Ed asked Jobs: "Steve, I heard that Director Gilbert Jr. has a very good personal relationship with you. Do you think he will lean toward you?"
Jobs thought for a while, shook his head and said, "No, he, like me, will not bring personal emotions into business cooperation."
Although other companies are also actively approaching Pixar Animation Studio, Jobs himself is more accustomed to working with Disney.
However, when it comes to interests, if a company offers better conditions, Jobs would not mind if Pixar cooperates with another company.
At the end of the meeting, in addition to this year's Pixar projects, everyone was still discussing things related to "The Return of the King."
Ed said: "There is no doubt that little Gilbert is an excellent creative person. Steve, maybe you can let little Gilbert come to Pixar Animation Studio to take a look when he is free.
I think he would like the creative atmosphere here. "
Steve Jobs thought it was reasonable: "Yes, he is a shareholder and board member of Disney, and his words can influence the decisions of Disney executives to a certain extent." "By the way, I heard that "Return of the King" did well at the box office?"
"It's not just good, it's an explosion, isn't it? Not only the box office, but the sales of peripheral products are also setting records."
All Pixar creators are full of admiration for little Gilbert. Creators understand creators best, and everyone has heard of the difficulty of the "Lord of the Rings" project.
But watching little Gilbert work, it was so easy and joyful, and he completed this project effortlessly, which is really amazing.
With the arrival of the working day in North America, the film's box office on Monday dropped 47% to US$22.895 million. The decline in box office on weekdays is inevitable, and this decline is a relatively healthy range.
After that, "Return of the King" showed a steady decline, and did not suddenly fall into decline. It received US$20.152 million, US$19.377 million, and US$18.854 million respectively in three working days.
The total box office received in four working days was US$81.278 million. Including the first weekend box office, the seven-day box office in North America has reached US$236 million.
But this will not be the end. Las Vegas handicap has long refused to accept the handicap of "Return of the King" exceeding 500 million US dollars in North America and 1.2 billion US dollars globally.
The media and malicious film company executives who had previously denigrated that "The Return of the King" would plummet at the box office collectively fell silent at this time.
Everyone is not a fool. At this time, everyone understands that "The Return of the King" is invincible.
What makes other Hollywood film companies the most envious is the huge weekly income of "Return of the King".
Since the release of the film, peripheral product stores across North America have even been hard to find, and fans' requests for more stock have continued to form a torrent.
Although I expected the peripheral products to be popular, I didn't expect them to be so popular.
Disney and Warner Pictures have already communicated with factories in China, which are already producing peripheral products in three shifts to meet the huge gap in the peripheral market.
Because of the huge gap, the huge demand, and the huge profits it brings, many people have taken the risk and made pirated peripherals.
Regarding these piracy, Disney and Warner struck hard and severely cracked down on a group of pirate dealers.
This does not mean that there is no piracy in areas with a strong sense of authenticity.
The current situation is that genuine products are in short supply, creating a huge market gap. If someone wants to buy it, someone will want to sell it, so it’s not surprising that piracy occurs in North America.
And these pirates are basically from Mexico. Taking advantage of Mexico's labor cost advantage, they have many small workshops that specialize in pirated Hollywood peripheral products.
It's just that because border control is still strict now, pirated goods rarely flow into the North American market. On the contrary, in Latin America, piracy is rampant.
However, now small workshops have spread to the Texas area, causing Mexican pirated goods to become a more serious phenomenon than Mexican drugs for a period of time.
Faced with this situation, major Hollywood companies are working together to combat piracy.
Although I can't stand the huge sales of "Return of the King" peripherals, the studio executives with brains at this time know that now is not the time to be jealous.
Everyone should unite to fight against piracy crimes.
It is worth mentioning that "Return of the King" went to Mexico City for promotion. Latin America showed its enthusiasm. About 100,000 fans blocked the crew in Plaza Cala where the promotion was held.
If the Mexican police hadn't rescued them in time, I'm afraid the crew would have been trapped there for a long time.
The past two days have been a bit busy...
(End of this chapter)