Six days later, Dongfang Yuqin came to report and moved into the villa.
Li Zetian signed a non-disclosure agreement and contract with her, hired her as a secretary for the time being, and then threw her a lot of information, so that she could first familiarize herself with the business content. Li Zetian plans to train her for a period of time, and then depending on the situation, see if she is capable of serving as the CEO of Times Technology Company.
…
Li Zetian is now starting to read a lot of books on artificial intelligence, which is the main development direction in the future. Research in this field includes robotics, language recognition, image recognition, natural language processing and expert systems, etc., involving philosophy and cognitive science, mathematics , Neurophysiology, Psychology, Computer Science, Information Theory, Cybernetics, Uncertainty...
Li Zetian said that "the pressure is huge", it seems that one person is poor, and he is afraid that it will be difficult to complete.
On a sunny afternoon at the end of August, Li Zetian was swimming in the pool when George Lucas suddenly called to say that the post-production of "Star Wars" had been completed and was ready for release.
"George, bring the film to me, I have a small home theater."
"Okay, Chronos, I'll send it over in person right away to talk to you about something by the way."
"Um."
Beverly Hills is too close to Hollywood, and in less than an hour, George Lucas arrived at Li Zetian's house.
After a simple greeting, everyone went directly to the home cinema.
Li Zetian called Yu Jingqiu and Dongfang Yuqin to watch the movie together.
The first "Star Wars" was shot very wonderfully, similar to the one in Li Zetian's impression, but with a few more things, such as Apple's Apple-ll and Walkman, and the special effects shots were added, but it made the movie more difficult. It looks more colorful and technological sense.
When Yu Jingqiu and Dongfang Yuqin were watching the movie, they made sounds of surprise from time to time. It can be seen that this movie should be a success!
Afterwards, when everyone answered the living room, Li Zetian poured a glass of water for George Lucas and said, "George, the filming is good, I like it very much! By the way, didn't you say you have something to talk to me about? What is it? "
George Lucas shook his head and sighed, "Twentieth Century Fox is not optimistic about "Star Wars", our movie has just been shot, and they have not even done much publicity, they are ready to arrange the release. network]"
"No publicity?" Li Zetian frowned when he heard the words.
"It can't be said that there is no publicity at all - just a few Star Wars movie posters on the door of the cinema. However, it is extremely bad that 20th Century Fox has only assigned us a dozen cinemas... "George Lucas When he said this, he almost had a tone of despair.
In my past life, I divided more than 30 movie theaters. In this life, because Apple invested, the number of movie theaters has been divided even less.
Li Zetian scolded inwardly, but on the surface he forced his composure, patted George Lucas on the shoulder, and comforted: "It doesn't matter, I believe that "Star Wars" is a very good movie. More and more people will go to the cinema to watch our films! Twentieth Century Fox will naturally add more screens to Star Wars at that time.”
"hope so."
George Lucas finished speaking and took a sip.
Li Zetian asked, "George, are you planning to make a second Star Wars movie?"
"If the movie is popular, of course I will!"
"Hehe, that's it, I'm looking forward to our cooperation again!!"
Li Zetian reached out and shook hands with him.
The copyright of "Star Wars" belongs to the Star Wars Film Company. Whether the second film is made or not, it is up to Li Zetian who will be the director, but he is more inclined to let George Lucas shoot because George Lucas His understanding of Star Wars is unmatched by anyone else. Moreover, the previous life has also proved the success of George Lucas!
It didn't take long for George Lucas to leave.
"There is no market for sci-fi movies in the United States, and it is only natural that 20th Century Fox does not value Star Wars. There are only a dozen theaters in the United States, and I am afraid it will be difficult to make a return..." Yu Jingqiu said.
"Dare you bet me? I think "Star Wars" will swept the world, with a box office of more than 100 million US dollars." Li Zetian laughed, he said a very conservative number, the global box office of this movie in the previous life reached a shocking global box office. More than 775 million US dollars, close to 800 million US dollars, of which the US box office is as high as 460 million US dollars.
Yu Jingqiu obviously didn't believe it, "Just bet! What are you going to bet on?" She raised her head and said.
Li Zetian smiled and whispered in her ear.
Yu Jingqiu blushed instantly, and gave Li Zetian a coquettish look.
"Do you dare?"
"What's not to dare? However, you haven't said, how will you be punished if you lose!"
"If I lose, I will listen to you!"
"Then I have to think carefully about what kind of tricks can punish you! Don't complain then!"
Li Zetian smiled smugly at this moment, thinking of Yu Jingqiu agreeing to his bet, every pore in his body became excited.
…
On September 10, "Star Wars" was officially released.
Due to the lack of vigorous publicity and the fact that the number of screens is only a dozen, the box office of "Star Wars" was terrible on the first day, and it was less than 20,000 US dollars in one day.
Surprisingly the next day, almost all Star Wars movie theaters were filled with people.
"I want a Star Wars movie ticket!"
"I want two Star Wars movie tickets!"
"I want two Star Wars movie tickets too!"
"… "
In less than an hour, the Star Wars movie tickets for the day were sold out!
Those who did not buy tickets sighed or complained.
"Fuck, it's sold out. I still want to see what this movie is about! My friend said that "Star Wars" is super good, and he bought three tickets and it seems that three times is not enough!"
"My classmate also said that "Star Wars" is super beautiful. The movie has unprecedented space scenes and complicated galaxy struggles, as well as super cool laser swords. I strongly recommend it to me! Oh, I can't imagine that I can't buy tickets. !"
"Brother, let's go to other cinemas together, do you have any tickets?"
"OK!"
"… "
A lot of people went to other movie theaters, which unfortunately didn't show Star Wars at all.
Everyone couldn't help but complain, how come such a good-looking movie is only shown in more than a dozen cinemas, is the film distribution company's head show funny
One day passed, and the next morning, the cinema was still open, and more people came to line up. The long line of dozens of meters was shocking!
Passers-by were amazed: "What's the situation, what movie is so good, there are so many people queuing up before the movie theater opens!"
The insider told these passersby: "The best-looking and coolest sci-fi movie "Star Wars" in history, it is said that a scalper ticket has been fired for $50 a piece!"
The passers-by widened their eyes and couldn't believe it.
"I didn't lie to you! Don't you know, so far, there are only a dozen movie theaters in the United States showing this movie, and the value is in short supply! The whole day's tickets are sold out in the morning! Look over there, The spectacle of queuing has attracted reporters!"
On the fourth day of the movie's release, according to word of mouth, "Star Wars" became even more popular, and the hundreds of meters long queues at the entrances of various cinemas blocked traffic.
That night, local TV stations did a special report on Star Wars, and media newspapers also did a report on Star Wars.
Twentieth Century Fox soon convened a meeting.
A middle-aged man looked at Alan Ryder Jr., the CEO of the film company, and said excitedly: "Mr. Alan Ryder Jr., a dark horse has appeared, a movie dark horse has appeared!!! That sci-fi movie "George Lucas" Star Wars is almost full, and there are hundreds of people queuing at the entrance of the cinema in the morning, occupying several streets, which is too exaggerated, and this is something I have never seen in my decades of practice!"
In the conference room, many people looked very surprised and talked a lot.
Little Alan Ryder thought for a while, then said solemnly: "Make 500 copies of the film immediately and distribute to 500 cinemas!"
"Yes!!!"
By the end of the week, Star Wars had grossed $550,000 on just a dozen screens.
In the second week of the release of the "Star Wars" movie, the number of screens in "Star Wars" finally increased to as many as 500. Although the number of screens is still relatively small compared with other movies, George Lucas is very happy. , satisfied. This means that Star Wars is a success, and not only can it pay off, it may even make a lot of money.
However, Star Wars is clearly more than George Lucas and everyone else imagined.
As before, there were long queues at the gates of many cinemas, and more than 500 cinemas were almost full.
A week later, "Star Wars" made a box office of 15.8 million US dollars, directly winning the box office champion of the week!
"Fuck, "Star Wars" is so fierce!!!"
Everyone at Twentieth Century Fox was shocked.
Little Alan Ryder waved his hand, "Another 2,000 copies!!!!"
"Yes!!!"
So, in the third week of Star Wars, the number of screens became more than 2,500. The cinema occupancy rate is over 90%, and there is no doubt that Star Wars once again won the box office of the week, with a box office of 70.2 million US dollars this week!
At this moment, Twentieth Century Fox was speechless and immersed in great grief. I thought to myself, if I was willing to make additional investment, the copyright of "Star Wars" would belong to me! ! !
Deep resentment!
I'm so sorry!
However, it is not the nature of the company to make money without making money.
Cinema companies came to the door one after another and asked Twentieth Century Fox to give them copies of the film.
So, Little Alan Ryder waved again, "Another 2,500 copies!"
In its fourth week, Star Wars reached an eye-popping five thousand-plus screen count. A lot of people were waiting for Star Wars to hit the box office, and Star Wars didn't let them down, grossing $114 million this week.
"Star Wars" has exceeded 200 million US dollars at the US box office within a month of its release!
Twentieth Century Fox's share price has doubled!
Due to the repeated close-up shots of Apple-ll and Walkman in the film, the sales of these two products increased sharply during this period, which greatly improved the brand awareness of Apple. Wall Street estimated that the market value of Apple was 7 billion US dollars. , an increase of $1 billion from the last financing!
Thomas Rockefeller, like Twentieth Century Fox, was green with regret. The investment that 20th Century Fox is unwilling to make is risky and understandable. But Thomas Rockefeller took the initiative to give up the Star Wars film company, which regretted it to death.
"Star Wars is a big box office hit and has taken America by storm. Chronos should be complacent now..." Thomas Rockefeller said with a wry smile.
In fact, Li Zetian is really proud now. What he is proud of is not how much "Star Wars" made for him, but Yu Jingqiu lost the bet and has to fulfill the bet.
"You, you go take a shower first, I'll brush my teeth..."