China Entertainment Mythology 2004

Chapter 249 The North American box office runner-up of Shark Beach, surpassing "Ice Age 4"

7 month 24 day.

A movie theater in Shanghai.

Yang Mi and director Guo Fan participated in the film road show together.

The audience is a crowd of excited and screaming people, and the host is holding a microphone to interact with the film creators on the stage.

"Hello, Yang Mi."

"Hello host."

"We saw that you have a very exciting surfing clip in the film. I think the audience friends at the scene must be like me, very curious about how these clips were shot."

"Well, this role is indeed the most difficult role I have ever filmed, but this does not include most of the surfing scenes in the film. Almost all the surfing scenes in the film were done by the stuntman Yang Xue. She is The world-renowned surfers, including the two foreign actors who were eaten by sharks, are all top surfers in the world, watching them surf with my stuntmen, my eyes were filled with admiration."

"Can you tell me about the difficulties you encountered during the filming process?"

"Actually, there are many, such as taking shots of the seabed in a 4-meter-deep water tank, and when the helicopter took me on a reef less than 400 square meter 1 meters away from the shore for aerial photography. At that time, I was the only one around, and I really felt inexplicable fear in retrospect, but it also fit the mood of the heroine at that time."

"The most difficult thing is to grasp the heroine's state of mind, the most instinctive fear, and the desire to survive. Director Guo Fan has helped me a lot..."

Next, the host continued to interview Guo Fan, the director of "Shark Beach".

……

The box office of "Shark Beach" three days before its release was 5700 million, 7400 million and 7700 million respectively. The cumulative box office in the first weekend was 2.08 million.Although the results are still not as good as "Painted Skin 6.1" released last month, they are already quite good. After all, the two films are very different in terms of film ratio and cast lineup.

After the movie was released, Yang Mi followed director Guo Fan to go on road shows every day, and then on July 7th, in Shanghai, the audience congratulated Yang Mi's new film on the North American box office chart.

The box office data in North America comes out later than in the mainland. Yang Mi paid attention to the North American box office of "Shark Beach" two days ago. The film grossed 788 million US dollars on its first day in North America. Said that the box office results were not too bad, and then she focused on the domestic road show, until this moment the audience congratulated the film on the North American box office list.

Isn't it not bad?How did you get on the list?Is it true?

Yang Mi was a little uncertain.

"Huh? Is it on the North American box office chart?"

This is the latest news, and this is the first time Yang Mi heard it. He looked at director Guo Fan with some doubts. It was also the first time Guo Fan heard the news. Then several people walked off the stage to look at the audience's mobile phones. , "Shark Beach" really made it to the North American box office list, and it ranked quite well, ranking second in the North American box office list this week.

The champion is "Batman Prequel 3: The Dark Knight Rises" directed by Nolan, with a cumulative box office of 1.61 million U.S. dollars in the first weekend; "Shark Beach" ranked second, with a cumulative box office of 2180 million U.S. dollars in the first weekend; "Ice Age 4", which accumulated US$2072 million this weekend; fourth is "Spider-Man 4: The Amazing Spider-Man", which accumulated US$1089 million this weekend.

It needs to be explained that the reason why "Shark Beach" surpassed "Ice Age 4" and "The Amazing Spider-Man" at the weekend box office is not because its film quality is higher, but simply because "Shark Beach" is a newly released film. , while the latter two films have been released for 2 and 3 weeks respectively.

In short, the film starring Yang Mi has entered the North American box office chart, and it is still the runner-up!

Although the runner-up's box office is only a little over one-eighth of the champion's box office, is it a shame that "Shark Beach" lost to "Batman Begins 3: The Dark Knight Rises"?Not at all!

What's more, although the latter two films have been released for 2 to 3 weeks, it seems that they won't be able to win, but still the same sentence, the film starring Yang Mi alone beats "Ice Age" at the North American box office. " and "The Amazing Spider-Man" are two big IPs!How many domestic films have achieved this step?

Finally, I truly understand why domestic actors are desperately fighting for the roles of Huashang films. This is not a film directed by director Li Mu himself, but a new director, Guo Fan. , so it easily made it to the North American box office list?
Zhou Xingzhi's "Kung Fu" has a total North American box office of just over 1700 million U.S. dollars, and "Shark Beach" has 2100 million in three days.

The audience asked Yang Mi how she felt about this. Yang Mi acted calmly on the scene, and she said some unmistakable routines, such as playing her own role wholeheartedly. As for the box office, she didn’t think so much. Yes, but as soon as she returned to the hotel, when she was the only one left in the room, Yang Mi immediately revealed her true colors.

I saw her throwing herself on the big hotel bed, and then began to roll back and forth, with the quilt between her legs, her face buried in the quilt, and then giggled.

"It will be great when I can star in a film directed by Li Mu himself."

After tossing and tossing for a long time, Yang Mi finally calmed down, and then thought longingly.

"Shark Beach" has a box office of more than 2100 million US dollars in the first weekend, and she is already like this, but Liu Yifei's "The Hunger Games 1" has a box office of 1.88 million US dollars in the first three days of the weekend!
"I don't know how she reacted at that time."

Although the box office of "Shark Beach" in the first weekend is not as good as that of "Painted Skin 2", its overall box office trend is obviously stronger than that of the latter. This phenomenon becomes especially obvious in the second week of the film's release. The daily box office of "Painted Skin 2" has dropped to 3000 million yuan, while the daily box office of "Shark Beach" barely touched the 5000 million threshold.

In the second week, Maoyan Films increased the film's predicted total box office in the mainland to 7.2 million yuan, an increase of [-] million yuan from when the film was just released.

Then time entered August, the film "The Fault in Our Stars" was officially announced to be completed, and Li Mu, Liu Yifei and some crew members set off to return to China.

After returning to China, according to the usual practice, most of the post-editing work of the film was handed over to his own team, and Li Mu himself shifted the focus of his work to "Send You A Little Red Flower".

Not long after returning to China, director Shen Junsheng came to him.

"Hey, Mr. Li, it's been a while since I finished filming "Returning to 20 Years Old". Shouldn't you also give me a job? You know, I have a restless temper."

Director Shen smirked as soon as he entered the door.

Li Mu raised his head and asked, "Why are you still short of work? Based on your previous achievements, the director may not say that you will be scheduled for 3 years, at least 2 years should be fine."

Shen Junsheng said: "To be honest, there are quite a few scripts out there, but most of them are not very good in quality. Mr. Liu also found me a few scripts, some of which are not bad, but if you can choose the script you like, who will shoot it?" Others."

Li Mu shook his head with a smile upon hearing this.

In the past two years, Shen Junsheng's box office appeal has already become No.1 under Li Mu, from the first two films of the "囧" series to the unexpected global hit "Time and Space Traveler", as well as the mainland and South Korea and other Asian markets. For the vulgar "Back to 20", Shen Junsheng's director's total box office has even surpassed the older generation of top directors such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and Feng Xiaogang. to satisfy his personal vanity.

But at the same time, he is also very clear about how his achievements come from. Mr. Li Muli has a lot of top-level scripts in his hand, and the best ones must be filmed by Mr. Li himself. level" script?
You must know that these so-called "sub-level" evaluations are relative to top-level scripts such as "Inception", "The Martian", and "Gravity", and if they are compared with other scripts, then these so-called The "sub-level" script is still the top script!

In the past, these sub-level scripts that Mr. Li didn't have time to shoot were given priority to Shen Junsheng to shoot, so he became one of the most box-office appealing directors under Mr. Li in China.

So, what should he do if Shen Junsheng wants to maintain his current status, or even reach a higher level?
Of course, continue to fight for the "sub-level" script in Mr. Li's hands!
"Let me think about it." Li Mu said.

Shen Junsheng is better at shooting comedy movies. When it comes to comedy movies, the first thing Li Mu thinks of is the movies of Happy Twist and Shen Teng. Anyway, he is too busy, so he should choose some directors for the company to shoot. .

The question is which one to choose?

Soon Li Mu thought of the movie "The Richest Man in Xihong City" starring Shen Teng and Song Yunhua.

Li Mu himself liked this film very much, and even once wanted to shoot it himself, but I remember that this film was faced with plagiarism controversy many times when it was released.

At first, some netizens said that it plagiarized the Hollywood film "Brewster's Millions", but later found that the film studio had purchased the relevant copyright.Later, it was said that it plagiarized the 2015 script "The Heir to the Property: "We Are Rich"" by a certain screenwriter surnamed Wang. Later, after a court trial, the screenwriter surnamed Wang was finally judged to lose the lawsuit.

In addition, it is said that it plagiarized the work "The Way of the Dragon" of the same year. In short, the setting of "the more you spend, the more you spend" is quite common, which means that this film must face a series of problems when it is made. dispute.

Therefore, in Li Mu's opinion, it is better to shoot this movie earlier than later, and it is better to hand it over to others than to shoot it yourself.

As for the copyright of the adaptation of the Hollywood film "Brewster's Millions", Li Mu has already held it in his hands.

"In 1985 there was a Hollywood film called "Brewster's Millions". Have you seen it?" Li Mu asked.

Shen Junsheng said: "I have the impression that the protagonist is a second-rate baseball player. He had a bad time at first, and then he suddenly learned that some relative of his left him a large inheritance. Mr. Li, is this the one you are talking about? "

Li Mu nodded and said, "I always think this movie is very suitable for remaking into a domestic movie, so I bought the adaptation rights of the movie."

Shen Junsheng asked: "Li Mu wants me to remake this film?"

Li Mu nodded: "It's been a while since the script was written, I'll get someone to bring it to you later."

Shen Junsheng nodded: "OK."

When leaving Li Mu's office, Shen Junsheng still had doubts.The script is already in his hands, but he hasn't had time to read it yet, but he has seen the original adaptation of the script, and in his impression "Brewster's Millions" is not a wonderful movie.

The original film is still very ordinary, let alone a remake?

It seems that I have only heard of bad remakes of classic movies, but I have never heard of remakes of very ordinary movies into classics, but since even Mr. Li is optimistic about this movie...

"Forget it, don't think about it, let's talk about it after going home and reading the script!"

As soon as I left the office, I didn't expect to run into Director Guo Fan who was also looking for Li Mu. After a brief greeting, Director Shen Junsheng left, and Director Guo Fan stepped into Li Mu's office.

"Guo Fan is here, sit down!"

"Mr. Li."

""Shark Beach" was shot very well, which is impressive."

"Mr. Li has won the prize."

"I'll just say it straight, I'm here to talk to you about the new movie."

Guo Fan's eyes lit up, he was about to ask Mr. Li Mu about this matter.

The success of "Shark Beach" has greatly boosted his confidence, and now he is already gearing up, but it would be best for Mr. Li to arrange a sci-fi job for him, preferably similar to "The Martian" or "Gravity" Such a work of science fiction!

Making sci-fi movies is a life ideal he has established since he first watched "Terminator" directed by Cameron.

Li Mu didn't hold back, and directly told Guo Fan the name of the film that director wanted to give him to direct - "Space Passenger"!
The original time and space of the film starred Star Jue Chris Pratt and big cousin Jennifer Lawrence. The main plot tells the story of 5000 space tourists traveling to another planet in a spaceship.

The male protagonist wakes up from hibernation due to an accident, and the spaceship is still 90 years away from the destination planet. The male protagonist cannot bear the loneliness that will last for 90 years, so he wakes up the female protagonist played by the big cousin from hibernation .

At the beginning everything was fine, the two people who could not hibernate and were destined to spend their lives on the spaceship could only rely on each other, so the two began to do it non-stop, covering every corner of the spaceship, until the heroine found out that She was deliberately awakened by the male lead.

The script was created as early as 07. Of course, Li Mu bought the film copyright of this script immediately.

In the original world, the film's reputation is mediocre, not bad, but it can't be said to be excellent, with a Douban box office of 6.9 and an IMDB score of 7.0.

The box office is also mediocre, not bad, but I can't say how outstanding it is. The global box office exceeds 3 million US dollars. It is definitely worth a shot, but if Li Mu personally shoots it, it doesn't mean much.

Guo Fan is one of the few directors in China who can make sci-fi movies, so Li Mu decided to hand over the script to him to direct.

In the office, Guo Fan became excited when he heard the name "Space Passenger". This is definitely the sci-fi movie he has been thinking about, right?
He was right to sign with Huashang Media!
It is still the old rule to ask the assistant to hand over the script to Guo Fan. It is not necessary to read the script in the office. You have to take it home and read it slowly. He called over to study the details of the shooting together.

After director Guo Fan left, Li Mu thought about the starring lineups of the two films by himself.

In fact, Li Mu thinks that Xia Zhu in "The Richest Man in Xihong City" is quite suitable for Liu Yifei to play. Li Mu also arranged this way when he wanted to shoot this film himself, but since he has handed over the script to director Shen Junsheng filming, then there is no need to continue starring Liu Yifei.

It is indeed suitable for Liu Yifei to play Xia Zhu, but there are actually many actresses who can play this role. In contrast, there are not many actresses who can play the heroine of "Space Passenger".

"Space Passenger" is a sci-fi blockbuster for the global market, and Li Mu must consider the feelings of the global audience.Speaking of which, the role of the heroine in the film itself is not difficult to play. What is difficult is that the heroine must have a certain box office appeal around the world.

In fact, Liu Yifei is not the best candidate for the heroine of "Space Passenger" in terms of the role itself, but if the acceptance of global movie fans is considered, it is obvious that Liu Yifei is a very suitable candidate.

(End of this chapter)