The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 481
After the premiere of "Inception" in China, Chen Jingxing and the main cast members split into two groups and started the overseas road show. They ran around East Asia, South Asia, and Australia. It took about a week and then they came together again and came to North America. .

North America, as the largest ticket warehouse in the world, can’t be set at random. Even though October has already passed the summer vacation, it can be considered as the off-season before Halloween, but the movies are still very crowded.

Firefly and Universal also made a lot of efforts to avoid a longer time, and it was released on a large scale in North America eight days after the premiere in China.

Moreover, [-] theaters have actually been scraped together, which is also in line with the tradition of A-level blockbusters opening on Fridays, which is worthy of the volume of "Inception".

However, because there was also a super-English blockbuster "Wrath of the Titans" released at the same time, although "Wrath of the Titans" had been released for a week when "Inception" premiered, it still had a lot of movies.

The competition is strong and the North American market is huge, so Chen Jingxing and the main creators have to stay here for at least three or four days to promote.

In particular, those who are well-known overseas such as Chen Jingxing and Luo Chen have to accept a lot of interviews.

Luo Chen even wants to appear on several talk shows and TV shows.

Chen Jingxing's current status is no longer suitable for TV shows. After all, there will be no Hollywood directors who will appear on talk shows frequently during film promotion. This is an actor's responsibility.

Big directors generally only accept some more friendly interviews, newspapers and magazines with higher standards or video interviews from some movie websites.

Although Pan Yueming has gained some overseas fame because of "Suspect Tracker", but his English is not very good, so he has no choice but to appear on the show.

Although Luo Chen did not come from a highly educated background, he could only speak some Korean a few years ago. However, since the filming of "Fatal Identity", his popularity has flown abroad. After he began to accept some international brands' endorsement cooperation, his English has gradually improved. Out.

When it came to "Signal", I even came to North America to do publicity, interviews, and shows.

Language is difficult to learn but not difficult to master, at least it is not difficult to achieve communication.

If you don't learn the language environment for more than ten years, you may not be able to communicate, but with the language environment, you are even forced to practice, so the learning speed is very fast.

Although Luo Chen's last movie released in North America was "Signal" a few years ago, as an internationally renowned movie star of the younger generation in Huaguo, he still often comes to Japan, Korea, Europe and the United States, and has frequent business activities.

"The box office is out! 1678 million US dollars! It surpassed "Wrath of the Titans" and won yesterday's box office champion."

In the first-class cabin of the plane, Luo Chen flicked his phone, a little surprised: "It's hundreds of thousands more than the data given by Universal before, not bad."

"In this case, it feels like 1.5 million is hanging around?" Pan Yueming said with some regret.

Before coming to North America, he also had some understanding of the North American market. After all, it was his first commercial blockbuster, and it was released on a large scale in [-] theaters in North America. Most of the domestic actors would be excited.

According to his understanding of Hollywood, usually for commercial blockbusters, the box office in the first week often accounts for one-half to one-third of the total box office.

According to this mathematical model, the box office of "Inception" on the first day was only 1678 million. I am afraid that 1.5 million is a relatively optimistic result.

Chen Kun reassured: "1.5 million is already very good, and it is also 10 billion yuan. We are foreign original films, and we cannot use the sequels of "Matrix II" or the momentum of "Gravity" as an analogy."

"But doesn't it mean that "Inception" has a particularly good reputation?" Zhou Dongyu said unwillingly: "A movie with a good reputation can have a better box office curve in any market, and it may be able to go for a longer line."

"Word-of-mouth is indeed quite good." Luo Chen also echoed: "I just checked imdb and it got a score of 9.4. This score is quite high. Many movie critics have also released movie reviews. Let me see..."

"...Inception doesn't feel like a movie at times, it's a world where the theater screen is like a dream in your head. It's unbelievable. I love 'dreams' 'At every moment in the movie, the movie is a dream, and Chen Jingxing knows this very well."

Luo Chen read a comment through a slow translation, and added with some complacency: "Karin James of Newsweek, she is one of the top film critics. I remember she praised it when "Signal" was released, but It’s not as highly rated as this time.”

Everyone else turned their attention to Chen Jingxing, who was also swiping his phone. Obviously, Chen Jingxing was the expert in predicting the box office.

After all, almost all the films they have made have been released in the North American market.

Chen Jingxing shook his head: "It's hard to say. The box office forecast cannot be judged by listing the favorable factors. Word-of-mouth can only be counted as a favorable factor, but it may not be able to offset the negative factors."

"Unfavorable factors?" Luo Chen was a little strange: "I don't think there are any disadvantages in "Inception"."

Chen Jingxing said succinctly: "It's too complicated, or this movie is a bit mind-boggling."

In Chen Jingxing's view, the unfavorable factor of "Inception" at the box office is not because the actors are not well-known. Or abroad.

The real disadvantage of "Inception" is brain-burning, which is a brain-burning plot praised by many fans and audiences.

Chen Jingxing's previous film works are not without so-called brain-burning types, such as "Comet" and "Fatal Identity", "Signal" and "Source Code" can actually be counted, and "Matrix" is not without people saying that brain-burning.

But in Chen Jingxing's eyes, apart from "Comet", these movies are really not too brain-intensive.

Even if there are some difficult-to-understand concepts and a slightly complicated plot, the rhythm and amount of information are appropriate.

For example, "Matrix" has a lot of information, but the pace is not fast, and the narrative structure is not complicated.

And "Inception" happens to have a complex narrative structure and an overwhelming amount of information, and it is also matched with a super fast rhythm, which does not allow the audience to have much time to digest.

This makes "Inception" less friendly to many viewers.

Of course, this is also the reason why many movie fans are excited and named gods.

For many people, especially young audiences, the refreshing movie-watching experience of "Inception" is based on its just right brain-burning plot.

Just right refers to brain-burning but enough is enough, making you feel that it is strenuous enough, but it can also be done.

It is a state of being at a critical point.

Taking one step forward to the level of "Mulholland Drive" will have the effect of dissuading most of the audience, and it will not make the audience feel a kind of incisive consumption of a large number of brain cells. The exhilaration of puzzles.

This kind of exhilaration is to make the audience work hard, and after stepping on their feet, they will have a feeling that I am so smart.

But for many viewers who read less films, "Inception" may appear too complicated and unfriendly, thus reducing the movie-watching experience.

It has nothing to do with being smart or stupid.

It is related to the amount of film reading or viewing habits.

For example, some people do not often watch movies or TV series, and they will feel uncomfortable when they first come into contact with such fast-paced and high-information movies.

There are also people who can watch movies and TV dramas without their brains, or are used to watching movies and TV dramas without their brains.

For example, many people do housework or other things while watching movies and TV series.

Or the habit of watching dramas cultivated under the influence of a water-filled drama that plays at triple speed or skips 10 minutes and can keep up with the plot.

For them, film and television dramas are just a relaxing pastime, or watching movies is a purely social activity, kissing me and me, swiping their phones, it doesn't matter what is on the screen.

When you get used to this mode of watching dramas with low brain power, when you suddenly encounter a movie with a huge amount of information and a fast pace, if you miss a scene, you may not be able to keep up with the plot, and you don’t know what it’s doing. The movie experience will naturally not be good.

"Inception"'s fast editing, narrative rhythm and too much information are indeed a hindrance to many viewers.

At the premiere, the moviegoers were basically fans, or at least young people, so the feedback from the first few rounds was very good.

But as more and more audiences of different age groups and groups watch "Inception", this kind of word-of-mouth communication will be hindered.

The reality also proves Chen Jingxing's point of view. The cumulative domestic box office reached 13 billion in the eight days of its release. Although it is still the biggest winner of the National Day file, it is basically impossible to 30 billion according to the current box office curve.

However, it didn't affect word of mouth too much, and the ratings basically didn't change. After all, viewers who like to comment on Douban usually don't have these problems.

(End of this chapter)