Chapter 348 "Terror Cruise" North American Premiere
When Monica heard this, a thick smile appeared on her face, and then she pretended to be amused and said: "Shu, if... I am innocent Invite you to dinner?”
Wang Shu also knows how to speak nicely, and responded directly: “It is an honor for me to have dinner with a beautiful woman.”
Those words. Monica felt a spring breeze in her heart when she heard that, with a hearty smile on her face, but she pretended to be sad and said, "I am too old to be as good as you young people."
Wang Shu pretended to be angry. Said: "Walking on the road, those girls in their twenties are not as young and beautiful as you. Who said you are older? Who am I to worry about."
"Keke." Monica couldn't help but smile from ear to ear when she saw Wang Shu looking so serious.
Wang Shu said at the right time: "I'll go back to the RV to get ready. I'll see you later."
"Well, see you later." Monica responded with a smile.
After the repairs, the afternoon shooting became busy again.
Robert Downey Jr., who plays opposite Monica, was a little surprised when he found that Monica was in better condition than in the morning.
How did he know that Monica would change like this? It was entirely Wang Shu who made a small effort for her.
Monica saw the surprise in Donnie's eyes and just smiled proudly without explaining.
At the end of the day's work, Monica did not go back early. Instead, she waited for Wang Shu to finish work and approached her and said, "Shu, I've been waiting for you for a long time. Let's go have dinner together."
"Okay. "Yes." Wang Shu responded with a smile, and then said, "Wait for me to go back to the RV and change clothes."
"Okay, I'll wait for you."
Wang Shu changed his clothes and followed Monica to the place to eat.
He is not familiar with Los Angeles, so he relies on the other party to lead the way.
Considering that Wang Shu is Chinese, Monica specially chose a Chinese restaurant.
The two of them were eating and chatting, and the atmosphere was quite harmonious.
"Monica, are you free on October 30th?" Wang Shu asked suddenly after taking a few bites of food.
When Monica heard this, she subconsciously thought that Wang Shu wanted to date her, and replied slightly awkwardly: "Shu, I have a family."
When Wang Shu heard this, he already understood that the other party had misunderstood. , quickly interrupted: "Monica, you misunderstood."
"I asked you if you have time. I want to say that there will be a movie directed by me in American theaters on October 31st. I hope you can come and support me.”
It is undeniable that after "Terror Cruise" landed in American theaters, Wang Shu could not get a share of the box office regardless of its size.
However, if the box office is too high, it will appear that he, a great director, has no face.
And if the box office is high, it will show that he is a great director.
Therefore, he wanted to drag Monica to the premiere to build momentum for him.
In his plan, he will invite not only Monica, but also Matt Damon and Kristen.
In the past, Monica, Matt Damon, and Kristen Bird would not be interested in this unknown Chinese director.
Now these people happen to be starring in the American version of "The Tuner" directed by him, so they can definitely use this opportunity to smooth things over.
Monica was suddenly enlightened after hearing Wang Shu's explanation. At the same time, she asked with an unnatural expression: "October 30th? Aren't you going to be filming on the set?"
"I will ask for one or two when the time comes. It’s a holiday.” Wang Shu said with a smile.
Hearing this, Monica knew that the crew would stop working at that time, and then smiled and said: "As long as the crew is not filming at that time, I can go."
After saying that, she asked again He asked, "What movie? Is it the one you won the award at the Venice Film Festival?"
"No." Wang Shu shook his head, and under Monica's doubtful gaze, explained, "It's another one. A movie, a commercial film shot in my own country, will premiere in Los Angeles on October 30 and then be released in the United States.”
"By then, there should be two thousand screens."
"Two thousand screens?" Monica was a little surprised when she heard this.
In the United States, many films can only be released on a small scale, let alone Chinese-language films from the East.
"Yes, Warner is responsible for distribution, and there should be two thousand screens." Wang Shu explained with a smile.
Monica suddenly felt enlightened when she heard that Warner was responsible.
Warner is a giant American film and television company. It is distributed by Warner. As long as it works hard, not to mention 2,000 screens, even 5,000 screens are not a problem.
There are only a limited number of screens on the market, and there are many movies produced by Hollywood.
Therefore, it is impossible for any movie to be released on 5,000 screens. Two thousand screens is already an extremely impressive number.
Of course, if the movie has a high box office and can make money after its release, then it can start with 2,000 screens and expand to 5,000.
On the contrary, if the attendance rate of a released movie is not high and the theater chain cannot make money, it can also unilaterally release the movie.
The same is true for domestic entertainment. There are only so many screens, and it is always the strong ones who get the chance to be released in theaters. At the same time, the strong will kill, and the winners will all kill.
For example, in the Spring Festival at the end of 2023 in the original timeline, due to the release of many blockbusters, the movie "Defiant 2" appeared in theaters, and the movie was announced and converted to an online movie. .
It also appeared that the movie "Mr. Red Carpet" dropped from more than 10% of the film schedule to 0.3%, and then chose to withdraw from the screening.
This is the opportunity for the "strong ones" to get a theatrical release, and the "strong ones" will all kill, and the winner will all kill.
"Defiant 2" couldn't get a good schedule in theaters, and it was a blockbuster when it was released. It might as well be a gimmick to convert it to an online movie.
"Mr. Red Carpet" has a good schedule and film schedule, but the attendance rate is not high and the box office revenue is sluggish. Its schedule and film schedule were quickly occupied by movies with high attendance rates in the same period. In order not to directly close the coffin lid, it chose to release Withdraw file.
In this era, the media industry’s method of creating information islands has evolved from “closing key information” to “providing massive amounts of information.”
Compared with the former, the latter obviously has all-round advantages.
For example, through massive information disclosure, the publisher’s intention of using public opinion means to attract negative reviews is greatly avoided, which greatly avoids the audience’s resentment.
It also improves the difficulty of audience retrieval by giving massive amounts of information. To put it simply, it means to use a large number of good reviews, neutral reviews, and indifferent negative reviews to drown out the negative reviews that really hit the point, allowing the audience to You can't really know the real quality of the movie before watching it, and you can't make a warm sound after watching the movie.
At the same time, various "exploding points" are created through massive amounts of information.
In this era, the reasons for audiences to enter theaters are quite diverse. They no longer judge the quality of a movie solely by its director and cast, as in the past.
In this era, the reason why many viewers enter theaters is not just the quality of the film, but may be a certain value recognition, a certain popular star, an opinion leader, or simply go to the theater to relax.
Under the intensive push of massive information, the "hot spots" and selling points of a movie from beginning to end were exhausted, and finally all the viewers of the movie found the way to buy tickets and go to the theater. reasons.
Then the herd mentality, or a combination of it, caused more people to walk into the theater and buy tickets.
Under the intervention of this highly organized and rigorous means of public opinion, publicity has completely crushed the quality of the work and has become the most critical factor in determining the life or death of a movie.
The cost of publicity and distribution therefore far exceeds the production cost of the film, becoming the largest portion of a film's budget.
For example, for the movie "Hot", the production scale of the movie obviously does not cost much to produce, but its overwhelming publicity and distribution costs are definitely comparable to the publicity and distribution costs of a first-tier major production.
It turns out that this method is indeed extremely useful.
The movie "Hot and Spicy" earned 2.7 billion at the box office.
Similarly, there is also the comparison between "Man Jiang Hong" and "The Wandering Earth 2".
"Man Jiang Hong" has a box office of 4.5 billion.
"The Wandering Earth 2" has a box office of 3.5 billion.
The film quality of "Man Jiang Hong", which was released at the same time, beat "The Wandering Earth 2".
As a reborn person, Wang Shu understands the importance of propaganda better than anyone else.
It is precisely because of this that when he made the big production "Terror Cruise", the publicity and distribution costs exceeded the production costs.
With the reputation accumulated in the past and the overwhelming publicity, the effect is remarkable. With the movie "Terror Cruise", he sits on the throne of the number one director at the single-film box office in mainland theaters.
National advisor Zhang Yimou is not as good as him.
Seeing that Monica was silent, Wang Shu thought she was confused, and then smiled and said, "Warner also participated in investing in this movie."
"So, although the distribution fee is quite high, it is not too high."
Hearing this, Monica suddenly realized again.
If Warner was solely responsible for distribution, then two thousand screens would definitely cost a lot of money in distribution expenses.
Chinese-language films have never been able to sell high box office sales due to their limited audience in the United States.
This makes the producers unwilling to spend huge distribution fees for theatrical distribution in the US market.
Because the money spent on distribution may not be recovered at the box office, and it will end up losing money over time.
Under this situation, even if most Chinese-language films land in American theaters, they will be released on a small scale.
And if it is released on a small scale, the box office will not be very high.
The box office will not be very high, and it will give American audiences a feeling that Chinese-language films are very different.
Vicious cycle.
"I wish the movie a big hit at the box office." Monica smiled and raised her glass.
Wang Shu raised his cup and clinked it with it, then shook his head and said: "The audience for Chinese-language films in the United States has always been very limited, and the box office is not much higher."
This is the truth. , Monica couldn’t open her eyes and tell lies, so she said: "The movie has not been released yet, everything is possible, no one can be directly sure."
Wang Shu smiled after hearing this and didn't say much. .
Monica’s words were obviously words of relief, but the next words were a bit off.
The two then chatted for a while while eating and ended the meal.
"Shu, I will go to your movie premiere on October 30th." Monica said with a smile before leaving.
"Thank you." Wang Shu said sincerely.
After hearing this, Monica waved her hand towards Wang Shu with a smile, and then left.
As she said to Wang Shu at the dinner just now, she is a married woman with a family, not a single woman.
Although in August 2013, Monica and her husband Vincent officially announced their divorce.
At this moment, we are indeed together.
Moreover, the two gave birth to their second daughter, Leonie, in 2010.
Furthermore, there is a big age gap between Wang Shu and Monica.
Wang Shu is 21 years old and Monica is 41 years old, a full 20 years apart.
It is said that time makes people grow older. Although Monica is 41 years old, her charm is still the same as before, and she is still one of the sexiest actresses in the world.
Another week passed, and Christine joined the crew for filming again.
“Little K.”
When Wang Shu saw Christine, he shouted subconsciously.
小 is the Chinese pronunciation, and K is the letter sound.
"Little K?" Kristen asked with strange eyes, imitating Wang Shu's pronunciation.
Although she didn't understand the meaning, she guessed that it was calling someone's name.
And shouting at her must be calling a woman's name.
Wang Shu looked into Kristine's eyes and instantly understood that Kristine had misunderstood him as another woman and called her by the wrong name.
So he explained in Chinese and English: "Little K, is your name."
"Xiao means little girl, and K is the initial letter of your name."
"Together, it is Xiao K."
"It is a kind and simple name."
When Christine heard this, she immediately understood that this was the nickname Wang Shu gave her.
At the age of 17, she went her own way and was a bit rebellious, so she immediately rolled her eyes.
Obviously, I have no interest in this Chinese nickname.
Seeing this, Wang Shu changed the subject and asked: "Have you had breakfast?"
Kristen nodded and said: "Eat a little."
Wang Shu heard this and did not persuade the other party to eat more.
Because actresses need to maintain their figure, they must control their diet.
Advising actresses to eat more is a very disrespectful act.
It is even said that many actresses do not decide whether to eat or not, but the agency decides.
Many managers will constantly warn their artists not to eat to avoid getting out of shape.
The topic changed with the question "Have you had breakfast?" Wang Shu then chatted with Christine for a while, and then the day's work began again.
In a blink of an eye, October 30th is here.
After Warner's promotion and promotion, "Terror Cruise" officially premiered in Los Angeles theaters and landed in U.S. theaters.
October 31, 2007, is Halloween Eve in the United States, which is the most lively day of this festival.
On October 30th, there is actually a very strong Halloween atmosphere.
However, Halloween is not a legal holiday in the United States and is not a holiday.
Just like the Chinese Ghost Festival in China, there is no holiday!
Normally, this holiday period is not suitable for movies to be released in theaters.
Because movies usually have the highest attendance at night, and Halloween events are also held at night.
In this way, there is an overlap, which affects the movie's attendance.
But if it had not been chosen during this time, "Terror Cruise" would not have had 2,000 screens in North American theaters.
Wang Shu is not Zhang Yimou or Li Yu.
He is unknown in the United States and does not have such a big name at all.
On the day of the premiere, the stars were not bright at all.
The leading actors Gong Li and Liang Jiahui were present, but other actors did not come to the United States due to work schedules.
Moreover, even if Zhou Xun and others all came to the scene, the stars would still not be bright.
Because this is in the United States, not at home.
The actor's reputation is not high.
(End of this chapter)