Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Chapter 986 I Want Industrial Light & Magic
The first-week box office of "The Lord of the Rings" was still within Jimmy's expectations, but the IMAX box office accounted for more than he expected.

Out of the 500 million US dollars box office in the first week, nearly 900 million US dollars came from the IMAX theater.

You should know that the number of IMAX screens is very small. There are only commercial IMAX screens open to the public for less than 70 yuan in North America, which means that in less than three days, each IMAX screen contributed an average of nearly 13. box office in dollars.

This result also shocked the major theaters. Many people never imagined that IMAX movie tickets are so expensive, which is several times that of ordinary movie tickets.

In fact, when IMAX first started to promote, many movie theaters went to IMAX to inquire about prices, but after hearing the high price of renovating an IMAX theater, many people were deterred.

IMAX theaters are very different from ordinary movie halls, and have high requirements for space, especially the height, so it is very difficult to renovate the original ordinary movie halls.Many movie theaters lack basic conditions even if they want to renovate.

Generally, IMAX charges a design and construction fee of 240 million US dollars for the renovation of a theater, and another 120 million US dollars for the installation of an audio-visual playback system, which adds up to 360 million US dollars.

This is still the price after the discount. When there was no discount before, it was 500 million US dollars.

The reason for the discount is also because IMAX hopes to quickly open the market.

Facts have proved that the effect of price cuts is quite obvious. Otherwise, there would be no more than 60 commercial IMAX screens open to the public in North America.

But even though the fee has been discounted and the price has been reduced by hundreds of thousands of dollars, many theaters are still unwilling to renovate. After all, 360 million dollars is not a small amount of money, and later maintenance also costs money.

The most important thing is that this is only the cost of the theater itself, and the cost of each subsequent broadcast will be higher than that of ordinary theaters. If no one buys tickets, it can be said that it is a loss for one broadcast.

When movies such as "The Martian" were made into IMAX before, they were not as lively as this time. There are two reasons. One is that the number of IMAX screens opened in the second half of this year has increased a lot. Before that, the number of theaters was simply not enough. Not many viewers watched IMAX.

In October, there were only more than 40 open IMAX screens in North America, but by the end of November, in less than two months, it had increased by 20 yuan.

In addition, the IMAX effects of the previous movies are not as shocking as the visual effects of "Lord of the Rings" this time. "Lord of the Rings" often has that kind of grand picture, which is especially suitable for the large format of IMAX theaters.

The combination of various reasons made IMAX suddenly explode.

Those theaters will also do the math. Although the renovation cost is high, the profit is also high. The daily turnover of a single hall can reach tens of thousands of dollars, which is simply a cash cow.

Now the major theaters are already worrying, because the profits of movie tickets are getting lower and lower, and everyone is looking for a way to increase the price of movie tickets, so the performance of IMAX this time makes the major theaters very interested.

It was also on the fourth day that the news about the IMAX box office hit hit the major newspapers. Many newspapers put photos of movie fans queuing at the entrance of the cinema to buy tickets on the front page.

With such a good opportunity, box office.com will certainly not miss such a good promotional opportunity, and directly put out the slogan "If you buy an IMAX movie ticket, come to the box office".

And the phone calls between IMAX and Deep Space Company have also been blown up during this period, and they are all here to inquire about the IMAX theater.

……

In Manhattan, inside Yiyi Tea House, Spielberg and George Lucas sat around a square table, and the three raised their teacups at the same time.

Jimmy laughed, "Let's use tea instead of wine to celebrate IMAX's phased victory."

"congratulate."

After putting down the cup, George Lucas looked at the deep space building under construction opposite him through the window, and said with a smile, "I know why you want to open a tea house here, because you can watch the construction of the deep space building here every day. , Don’t you feel a sense of accomplishment watching the building slowly build up?”

It was the first time for George Lucas to come to Yiyi Tea House. Before that, he had heard that Jimmy opened a tea house here, but he had no time to come.

"See what's the point of building a building. I open this teahouse to kill you. Remember to pay the tea money when you leave." Jimmy joked.

George Lucas shrugged his shoulders, "No problem, collect deep space points, the deep space points you gave me have not been used yet."

Jimmy nodded and smiled, "You can also collect points, this cup of tea you drink is [-] points."

"Forget it then." George Lucas pouted, "[-] points can be exchanged for a lot of things, I'd better keep them for other things, for example, go to box office.com to exchange for IMAX movie tickets. less sheets."

Spielberg said with a smile, "IMAX's order volume will definitely increase sharply during this period of time. We must be prepared. Now we are still a bit slow in transforming the theater."

Jimmy said with a smile, "Slow down, slow down, it's pointless to go too fast. Now there are still fewer movies that are willing to make IMAX movies. We don't have enough equipment for renting out. Wait until the order for this part comes up. It's not too late to speed up."

"As long as you have a plan, in this year's film market, you, Deep Space, are the absolute winners. Now it seems that the top three box office of the year should be yours. Next year's Oscars, Saturn Awards, you will definitely appear in the same frequency." very high."

Jimmy shook his head, "The Saturn Awards are definitely fine, but the Oscars are fine."

Spielberg and George Lucas smiled, and they also understood what Jimmy meant. These three films had a high box office and should have been nominated for many Oscars, but they definitely won't get many awards in the end. Awards like best picture are even more impossible.

Oscar does not favor films such as "The Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter", and "Shrek". This year's "A Beautiful Mind", "Beautiful Love", and "Moulin Rouge" should be more popular with the Oscar organizing committee. Welcome, these few movies in deep space can probably win some awards in technical awards such as visual effects, costumes, and makeup.

"I heard, "Warcraft 3" has been made?" Spielberg asked.

As a game fan, he paid attention to these things.

Jimmy nodded, "It has indeed been made, and the official release time will be announced at the annual meeting."

Spielberg rubbed his hands, "Leave me a copy then."

"No problem, I also want to tell you a piece of good news, that is, besides "Warcraft 3", we also have [-] games. When you go to Jinling for the annual meeting, you can experience it." Jimmy said with a smile .

"One point five?" Spiberg showed a puzzled expression, "What does this mean, one is one, two is two, why is there still one point five?"

"It's [-] models. One is a game made by Xueleshan, called "My World". It has already started to promote a few days ago, and it will be officially released on the space on the game theme day of the annual meeting. The other half It has only been a few days since the production of the model, and a semi-finished product should be released at the annual meeting." Jimmy explained.

It’s okay if he doesn’t explain, but Spielberg became even more confused when he explained, “I only made it for a few days, and a semi-finished product can be produced by the annual meeting? What kind of game is so fast, like Lianliankan?”

Jimmy waved his hand and said, "It's not the same as Lianliankan. This is a relatively large game, but it's based on "Warcraft 3", so it's very fast to make. I don't know much about technology, so I should just change some Just the parameters."

"What kind of game?"

Jimmy kept it off, "You will know when the time comes, this game is YU's idea."

Spielberg said with a smile, "I'm more interested if you say so. His ideas can always surprise people. Are you sure you can play them at the annual meeting?"

Jimmy nodded and said, "The other two models are definitely fine, and this half model should also be able to play."

"What kind of game is Sierra's Minecraft?" Spielberg asked again.

Jimmy thought for a while and concluded briefly, "It's a sandbox game."

"Oh, it turned out to be a sandbox game. Xue Leshan hasn't made this kind of game before."

As a veteran game enthusiast, Spielberg certainly knows what sandbox games are. This kind of game has been around for many years, but the term sandbox has really come out in the past two years. It is a relatively new term. Players really don't necessarily know what a sandbox is.

Jimmy nodded, "Xue Leshan has never made this kind of game before, and this is also an attempt."

"Sandbox games are not easy to make, but once they are done well, they will be very popular. For example, "The Sims" released at the beginning of last year, I heard that it has sold more than 500 million copies, which is a very scary figure. .”

It is indeed a very scary number. In the past few years, there are not many computer games that can match the sales of "The Sims".

It is said that when Electronic Arts was making the game "The Sims", the goal was to sell only 16 sets, but now the sales of the first set alone have exceeded 500 million sets, which is the three or four expected by Electronic Arts. ten times.

It is precisely because of the popularity of "The Sims" that this type of sandbox game has become popular. This year, various simulation games have appeared in the game market, such as "Sim Campus", "Sim Town", "Sim Family" , "Simulated Marriage" countless.

However, because they are all hot works, they are all done in a hurry, so the quality is very poor. Apart from "The Sims", there are no other impressive sandbox games.

When Jimmy said that Sierra was making a sandbox game, Spielberg's first reaction was that Sierra was also following the popularity of "The Sims", but this popularity was too late, "The Sims" is the most popular The time should be from the second half of last year to the first half of this year, and now the popularity has dropped a bit.

The one that gets the most attention now is "Plants vs. Zombies" made by Deep Space Corporation. This game has directly brought the tower defense game back to life, and some new and old tower defense games have popped up one after another.

However, although the game "Plants vs. Zombies" looks simple, it is extremely difficult to do. Many games cannot learn the essence and have no sense of experience.

It is normal for Spielberg to have such an idea. In fact, when Xueleshan officially announced on the Deep Space Tribe that they are about to release a sandbox game, many netizens suggested that Xueleshan was rubbing against "The Sims". ", after all, Xue Leshan has no experience in making such games before, so there is no reason to suddenly create a sandbox game, and it is quite fast.

Jimmy probably also saw Spielberg's thoughts, and said with a smile, "YU also gave a lot of opinions on this game, and they were key opinions. It was inspired by YU that Roberta decided to make this game." game."

Sure enough, when he heard that YU was involved, Spielberg's expression immediately changed.

"Really? Yu really participated? Then I have to look forward to it."

George Lucas observed Spielberg's expression changes, and said with a smile, "Sure enough, the name YU is easy to use. I see what products you will promote in Deep Space in the future. You don't need to say anything, just say it." As long as YU participates, everyone will definitely buy it."

"YU's name is of course useful, after all, he has never disappointed people. And I believe that since he has participated, it will definitely not be some hype-making work."

"You have finally spoken out your true thoughts. If Jimmy hadn't said that YU was involved, you must have thought that Xue Leshan was taking advantage of the popularity of "The Sims."

Spielberg smiled, holding a teacup and said, "Come on, let's drink tea."

……

Spielberg sat in Yiyi Tea House for more than an hour, and left early because of something, leaving George Lucas and Jimmy behind.

Jimmy asked for a new cup of tea for George Lucas, "This is my own collection of West Lake Longjing, which is very rare."

George Lucas looked at the hot tea in front of him and said with a smile, "There is a Chinese idiom called Niu Chew Peony, if you give such a precious tea to a person like me who doesn't know much about tea, it should be Niu Chew Peony. "

Jimmy smiled and said, "Your Chinese level has improved a bit. As for this tea, sometimes you just drink it for an atmosphere. It doesn't matter whether you understand the tea or not. What matters is the atmosphere. Even if what I brought out today is not a good Longjing, as long as you believe It is Longjing, so it has the value of Longjing."

George Lucas waved his hand, "Jimmy, don't do this with me, tell me quickly, what do you want to do."

He knew Jimmy too well. As soon as Spielberg left, Jimmy would change him a cup of tea. He must have something to tell him. He didn't like to go round and round, so he asked Jimmy directly.

The directness of George Lucas was also expected by Jimmy, so Jimmy also said very directly, "I want Industrial Light and Magic."

Although it was George Lucas who asked Jimmy to order directly, George Lucas was stunned when he heard this.

(End of this chapter)