Benedictine neighborhood in east Beverly Hills.
The time is Saturday, July 25th.
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 purchased last year.
It's approaching noon.
I had just watched the "Phantom Agent" samples sent from Hong Kong with Disney Pictures President Bill Michanick, and my assistant came over to remind me that the guests had already arrived one after another.
No matter what the reputation is in some quarters, Jack Cheng is definitely a person with high emotional intelligence, and he is really the kind of big brother.
Realizing that more and more Chinese-speaking filmmakers have entered Hollywood in the past two years, and many of them have been here recently, Jack Cheng specially took this opportunity to gather everyone together to connect with each other, so that they can help each other to some extent in the future.
The first person to arrive was Fa Ge, who also brought with him Michelle Young, one of the heroines of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
Everyone greeted, and Jack Cheng did not forget to introduce Bill Michanik to the two of them.
Bill Michanick had 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 Young.
Subsequently, Jet Lee, Mr. Xu and other Asian faces who had not yet made a name for themselves in Hollywood arrived one after another.
Not to mention Jet Lee.
In addition, Mr. Xu, taking advantage of this wave of Chinese-speaking filmmakers coming to the United States, recently successfully signed a film contract with Warner. The leading actor is Steven Seagal, a direct action actor owned by Warner. He is currently writing a script. The initial concept roughly tells a story about the cooperation between the police in Hong Kong and the United States to fight against terrorism. This setting is mainly to be able to shoot in Hong Kong, which I am familiar with. It is expected that funds from across the ocean will also participate, with a budget of about US$25 million.
Coupled with some Hollywood natives that Jack Cheng has known in recent years, when the time passed 12 o'clock, the lobby of the villa was already bustling and lively. Even Danny Morris, the president of New World Pictures, rushed over.
This is a buffet reception.
Seeing that everyone was already moving, Jack Cheng, as the host, had not said a few opening remarks, and the atmosphere gradually became subtle.
Because the most dazzling Chinese-speaking filmmaker in Hollywood at the moment has not yet arrived, it is Bai Ge Wu who has been selling "Broken Arrow", "Mission: Impossible 2" and "Face/Off" consecutively.
Those who are more discerning can actually find that Jet Lee flew from China to attend the premiere of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" on Wednesday, but Baige 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, this is a film for compatriots after all. Putting aside the factors of Daenerys Entertainment, they should support each other after all.
And this time there is Old Monster Xu.
In "A Better Tomorrow" back then, it was hard to describe the grievances and resentments in just one sentence. Now that Mr. Xu is following in the footsteps of others and breaking into Hollywood, it's hard to say what Baige Wu will be thinking.
It wasn't until a quarter past twelve that the white pigeon Wu finally came.
After all, it is the high pole for Chinese-speaking filmmakers in Hollywood at this time, and both Jack Cheng and others and many Hollywood natives have stepped forward to welcome it.
"I'm so sorry, Aaron, there was a meeting in the morning, and there was a traffic jam on the road." Baige Wu apologized repeatedly, and when he saw Bill Michanik, he warmed up again: "Bill, I didn't expect you were here too. .”
"Nice to see you again," Bill Michanik also smiled and shook Baige Wu's hand, and then said, "Wu, regarding the "Double Jeopardy" project, how about we take some time to talk about it?"
Baige Wu had a smile on his face, but he was not polite at all when he refused: "Bill, I think we should not waste time. I hope to have absolute control over my own projects in the future. You obviously can't give me this, right? "
"We can talk about it. I have a phone call with Mr. Messier in France."
"Sorry, actually I have already negotiated a script with Paramount," Bai Gewu interrupted directly and gestured to the side: "Also, I'm going to say hello to Afa and the others."
Bill Michanik watched the white pigeon Wu leave and could only regret it.
Then he saw Danny Morris, the president of New World Pictures, who was not far away and was indifferent to Bai Ge Wu's arrival, and he inevitably felt a touch of schadenfreude.
With the domestic box office of "Face/Off" about to exceed 200 million, Baige Wu has been very popular in Hollywood recently. Daenerys Entertainment has single-handedly cultivated this famous director, but now they are watching him leave without trying to retain him. In Micha Nick, a traditional Hollywood executive, seemed very unwise.
On the other side, Baige Wu greeted everyone, came to Fa Ge, and apologized again: "I've been a little busy recently, Fa, and I couldn't attend the premiere of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." I hope you don't mind. "
There was nothing strange about Fa Ge on the surface. He seemed to be in a good mood and said with a smile: "It doesn't matter."
Baige Wu didn't mean to talk about this matter anymore. In fact, if he wanted to go, he could certainly find the time. However, he has already made three blockbuster movies for Daenerys Entertainment. He has no intention of letting the other party take advantage of him anymore. Even though he knows the current influence of Daenerys Entertainment in Hollywood, with the blockbusters of three movies , Baige Wu firmly believes that he can still do well without Daenerys Entertainment.
Recently, Bai Ge Wu has successfully signed two film contracts with Paramount. One is a gunfight action movie with Fa Ge as the producer, and the other is a project he directed personally, called "American Police", which is similar to "Desperado". The concept of "End of the World" tells the story of a police officer who discovers various conspiracies while chasing down criminals who escaped from a plane crash.
Except that Paramount has locked in Tommy Lee Jones in "The Fugitive", he has considerable power as a director in other aspects, including the final cut. And the budget is also very generous and directly given 100 million US dollars, which is the same as "Face".
Compared with the various constraints when working 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 greeting everyone, Baige Wu also took the initiative to chat with Mr. Xu for a few words, with a sense of burying the hatchet, saying that if he needs anything in Hollywood, he can talk to him Say hello yourself and so on.
The atmosphere of the reception became quite harmonious.
When several big names got together, the topic unknowingly turned to some recent movies.
"I've also paid attention to Jiahe's "Phantom Agent", but it shouldn't be finished yet, right?"
"We just finished filming last week and are in post-production," said Jack Cheng, "Mr. Zou sent someone a sample. Mr. Michanik and I just watched it this morning. After all, it was a pleasure working together on "Police Story 4."
Bai Ge Wu drank some wine and talked in high spirits: "The strategy this time is actually great. The two protagonists are Hong Kong stars and Hollywood actors. However, Haonan's reputation is a little lower, so it is better to add more money to find Hua. Zai or Wei Zai, and the heroine, Jiang Anqi... "
At this point, Lao Wu did not faint from drinking, and stopped in time, saying: "In short, the strategy of combining Chinese and Western is very right, just like Aaron and Ajie's "Rush Hour" and "Taken", we go to Hollywood When you are working hard, you should do as the Romans do. In my opinion, Li's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a counterexample. Bringing a pure martial arts movie to Hollywood is simply messing up. How can it be successful?"
After hearing what Bai Ge Wu said, the acquaintances around looked a little strange, but they didn't refute anything.
However, Bill Michanik, who was still staying, couldn't help but said: "Wu, do you know the first-day box office of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"?" When Baige Wu looked at him with confusion, Michanik took the initiative to reveal The answer: "143 screens, the box office on the first day was 1.65 million US dollars. Paramount's "Hamburg" also opened yesterday, 1887 screens, the first day box office was only 1.07 million US dollars."
143 screens, 1.65 million on the first day.
1,887 screens, 1.07 million on the first day.
The contrast is intense.
Even though many on-demand movies are inevitably very high due to their small screenings, it is rare for them to directly break 10,000 on the first day, not to mention it is not in the late summer period like the awards season. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" earned 1.65 million on its first day, and may have between 7 million and 8 million in its first week.
The total box office of many Chinese-language films in North America may not be seven to eight million, but this is just the estimated first-week screening performance of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
Thinking of Bai Ge Wu's comments just now, the atmosphere suddenly felt awkward.
In the end, it was Jack Cheng who smoothed things over: "Daenerys has spent so much effort to promote it, and it deserves better screening results. What more than one million yuan can do at the box office, the key lies in the follow-up."
Brother Long has to give him face, not to mention that everyone understands that this is a step, and everyone agrees. Bill Michanik just now also had the sense to say nothing more, after all, they may still cooperate in the future.
When Baige Wu almost made it impossible for him to get off the stage, the whole of 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 do well based on various prior feedbacks, with only 143 screens, it earned US$1.65 million at the box office on the first day, which still exceeded almost everyone's expectations. .
The weekend went by in a blink of an eye.
On Monday, July 28, the box office statistics were released. The final box office of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in the first three days was US$4.96 million, surpassing "American Pie" with an average of nearly US$35,000, and entering the three-day weekend box office. It ranks fifth on the list, behind "Day Alone", "Spawn", "No More" and "Twister".
Subsequently, a full week passed from July 25 to July 31, and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" grossed US$7.53 million at the box office, still ranking fifth on the list.
Each venue costs close to $53,000.
Daenerys Entertainment followed up in a timely manner, and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"'s extremely high first-week screenings instantly became the focus of more media attention, and at the same time once again produced a word-of-mouth effect among audiences.
On August 1, a new box office week begins.
Due to the strong feedback from the first week of screenings, Daenerys Entertainment made timely adjustments and directly expanded the originally planned scale of more than 1,500 screens in the first week of large-scale release to 1,863, and plans to consider additional additions based on 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 many other old films on August 1, under the continued fermentation of heat, from August 1 to August 7, the first week of large-scale production, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" finally Successfully earned a box office of US$29.13 million!
Directly taking the first place in the weekly box office list.
Perhaps other movies' weekly box office of less than 30 million US dollars can only be considered average, but for a Chinese-language film that broke 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 phenomenal dark horse level. .
Including the first week of screenings, the cumulative box office of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has reached US$36.67 million in only half a month of release.
Moreover, unlike "Spawn", which had a first-week US$7.55 million and dropped 53% in the second week, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" will obviously have a long-term future, and is even very hopeful to become the first film to achieve a box office of over 100 million in North America. of Chinese films.
Originally, after "Day Alone", Hollywood thought that Daenerys Entertainment would stop and give everyone some room to play. After all, starting from "Face/Off", as of July 31, Daenerys Entertainment-related films have already been released. In the summer of 1997, it topped the box office for 10 consecutive weeks. No one expected that a dark horse movie like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" would emerge.
On August 8, another box office week began. The number of screens for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" increased significantly again, reaching 2,393. In order to maximize the film's box office potential, the film's publicity and distribution investment was also added to the film's production. The cost was a flat $15 million.
New York.
If the filming process of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was so tiring that people didn't want to live anymore, in the past two weeks, the intensive promotion schedule for the restart made Li Youhu both tired and happy.
More than a year of hard work has finally paid off.
To be precise, the harvest is huge.
Not only has she quickly become a famous Chinese actress in North America, but also in China, she has become famous just like Anqi Jiang in the first half of the year, and she is even more popular than Anqi Jiang. After all, Anqi Jiang only had one scene in "The Rescue" Ordered the vase, she was indeed a very heavy heroine.
The currently airing "Kangxi Private Interview", because of her participation, even if it is not the story unit of her character, with the promotion of Jinshu, the recent ratings have also increased significantly.
The release date of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which has been delayed in China, has been quickly decided upon with the success of the film in North America, and is set for September 5th.
An executive from Daenerys Entertainment also said that this time it is even expected to win her an Oscar nomination during next year's awards season, at least a Golden Globe nomination. Whether it was an Oscar or a Golden Globe, Li Youhu wouldn't have dared to think about it a year ago.
Saturday, August 9th.
After a two-week promotional schedule following the release, Daenerys Entertainment hosted a celebration party for the crew of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" at an Upper West Side hotel.
Dressing up to attend the evening, Li Youhu finally met again a certain man who had not shown his face for a while.
Simon has been traveling around a lot lately, and he just flew over from Los Angeles today.
When Li Youhu approached with the skirt of a slightly longer silver low-cut dress, he could only hear someone discussing the film's release in China with Ang Lee.
"The China schedule of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was indeed deliberately delayed by me. Although it is a Chinese-language film, this film was shot for Western audiences from the beginning, so it is more suitable to be released in North America first and then fed back to China. If it is released in China first, the audience there won't like this style too much." Simon said, feeling Li Youhu approaching in a faint scent of wind, casually holding him over, turning his head to the side, sniffing, and smiling Changed to Chinese: "Very fragrant and very white."
How can anyone say hello like this
Li Youhu glanced at someone charmingly, but he leaned beside him obediently, consciously acting as a vase.
Simon did not ignore Teacher Yu who was following Li Youhu: "You are also very beautiful tonight."
How insincere.
Teacher Yu slandered.
At least she should praise herself for being fragrant and fair. She was wearing a black dress, which looked better on her skin than Li Youhu's silver dress.
Thinking so slightly resentfully, Teacher Yu was not bold enough to stick to Li An like Li Youhu did. He just curled his lips and smiled politely at him, then said hello to Li An, and then turned to the man again and said: " You guys chat, I’ll go... um, have something to eat."
After saying that, he turned around and left.
Not hearing someone's plea to stay, the slight resentment became aggravated for some reason. Of course, he would definitely not take the initiative to go back.
Simon watched Teacher Yu turn around, then turned to Ang Lee again. Since he had changed to Chinese, he did not change it, and then said: "By the way, has the preparation for "Ice Storm" gone smoothly recently?"
"It went very well," Ang Lee also switched to Chinese and said, "Also, the intern sent by Daenerys is good and has great ideas."
Li An was naturally talking about the unique Xu.
Simon took advantage of the situation and said: "If you think it's good, you can help him in the future and serve as a producer for his debut film in the future. According to Chinese parlance, this is called passing on the fire from generation to generation, right?"
Ang Lee was indeed very satisfied with the intern. Hearing Simon's words of "passing on the fire", he was slightly surprised and at the same time inexplicably touched. He hesitated for a moment and nodded quickly: "Okay."
After chatting for a few more words, Li An took the initiative to get out of the way.
Simon took Li Youhu to a buffet table, picked some food together, and asked with a smile: "How are you feeling lately? Are you feeling pretty?"
"Yes," Li Youhu nodded subconsciously. After realizing it, he quickly denied, "I'm not drifting."
"It doesn't matter. It's a normal reaction to float at this time."
Simon said, but what he thought of was Baige Wu.
He already knew about Bai Ge Wu's signing of a film contract with Paramount, and had also seen the script of "American Police" that Wu was about to know personally.
Basically, it follows the story of "The Fugitive" from a few years ago, with a plane crash and escape, and the pursuit of the murderer reverses course. It also reminded Simon of another "Prison in the Sky" that was supposed to be released this year but was canceled. After checking it, I found out that it was a new script written by the screenwriter of "The Fugitive". It was similar to a routine where you eat your own money. Once you are familiar with Hollywood, you will get used to it. The various splicings are mixed. On the one hand, innovation is not easy, but on the other hand, it is safer to do so.
After some backtracking, I found that I had some memory of this movie in my previous life. Without any more information, I can imagine the film’s box office prospects.
In any case, this story is quite suitable for Baige Wu to film.
As for what the future holds
It doesn't matter if you don't meet him, Simon won't be polite if it conflicts with a film under Daenerys Entertainment.
Li Youhu didn't know what Simon was thinking, but he also understood that the man was teasing him, so he didn't continue to deny it. He just said: "I still feel like I'm dreaming. I went to Cannes in May and the audience responded very well, but at that time they It was said that the box office in North America could only be about 50 million, but now everyone says it is expected to exceed 100 million. It is incredible that a Chinese martial arts film can exceed 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. After sitting down, he said: "It can only be said that it is just the right time. If there is such a good film in the future, it may not be able to be sold in North America." It has a box office of 100 million."
Li Youhu had just picked up a piece of crab cake with his fork. Hearing this, he stopped and asked curiously: "Why?"
"The reason is very complicated, and even if you tell me, you won't understand it."
Li Youhu pouted, but did not ask further questions.
In fact, Simon was a little surprised by the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
In order to avoid "Titanic" at the end of the year, Simon put "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" on the summer schedule. Without the support of the awards season, he was originally prepared for the movie to have a smaller box office than 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 general environment.
The current North American film market is still an era in which films of all genres can be successful as long as they are good enough. Audiences are also willing to buy tickets for various films. Therefore, unpopular literary and artistic films such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" also have a chance to sell well. soil.
Simon has been quietly suppressing the rise of the blockbuster era in recent years, all in an effort to maintain that diversity.
However, the trend is hard to stop.
In a few years, not only the overseas literary film market will shrink significantly, but also North America. The diversity of the film market will be even more severely affected. Only super blockbusters and low-cost horror films that are small and big can survive. In other types, the emergence of one or two dark horses can only be considered an accident.
The Oscars will also become niche because of the loss of diversity in the film market, and even tend to entertain themselves.
It can be said that this is the last good era for artistic films.
Secondly, the reason for the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is also the resurgent kung fu craze in North America.
In this regard, "Red Zone", "Rush Hour", "Dark Man", "Taken", etc. in recent years have all been beneficiaries.
However, kung fu is still no match for superheroes.
It's a little better at this stage. Simon is also deliberately suppressing the DC movie universe. In the future, Transformers, aliens, and various flying and escaping superheroes will swarm, and kung fu will also lose its charm.
Once again, it’s Daenerys Entertainment’s strong and flexible publicity capabilities.
Just to mention one detail, Simon has actually been laying the groundwork for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" since last year. It was "Sense and Sensibility" that got Ang Lee an Oscar for Best Director nomination. In the original time and space, the film adaptation of Ang Lee's masterpiece was nominated for Best Picture, but missed the Best Director option.
In order to enhance Ang Lee's reputation and increase the publicity stunt of this year's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Gomen Pictures specially obtained a Best Director nomination for Ang Lee last year.
Finally, there is the curiosity of North American audiences.
The scenery in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is beautiful and the fighting is very sizzling. These are things that North American audiences have never seen before.
After this headache, if someone does the same thing, it will not be so easy to attract the audience.
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Of course, the basis for all of this is that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" itself is a very good movie.
In discussions about the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in North America, it is always said that the film was successful because it catered to the tastes of Western audiences, so that later many great Eastern directors followed suit and used various Western films such as "Hamlet" Make Chinese blockbusters based on the classic template, trying to cater to Western audiences.
Actually that's not true.
The part of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" that caters to Western audiences is actually a common human emotion.
There is a restrained and sympathetic relationship between Li Mubai and Yu Xiulian.
Yu Jiaolong's pursuit of freedom under the appearance of being unruly and arrogant, and her admiration and yearning for the stronger.
Even Li Mubai's insistence on revenge.
These are easy to understand and are not deliberately catering to the West, but are emotions that everyone can relate to.
It is also worth mentioning that many people regretted that Jett Lee failed to star in this movie, which reduced the hero's strength and action scenes. But in fact, if Jet Lee really acted, it might fail. Because excessive emphasis on action scenes may obscure the director's expression of the emotional core of the film.
It is conceivable that Jet Lee will definitely not be able to play the Li Mubai portrayed by Brother Fa, who is not only in the cold but also tired and forbearing.
Lacking emotional expression and turning into a more pure martial arts film, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is unlikely to receive high ratings at the classic level from Western critics. If such a niche film lacks the support of public opinion, it is unlikely that the box office will be too high.
All in all, the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is still the result of the right time, location, and harmony.