China Entertainment Mythology 2004

Chapter 275 Little Red Flower's Strong Performance

On April 4, the movie "Send You A Little Red Flower" held a grand premiere ceremony in Beijing. In addition to director Li Mu, starring Li Mu, Liu Yifei and other related creatives, China Film Group Chairman Han Sanping, Guangzhi Media Chairman Wang Changtian, Producer representatives including Bona Pictures Yu Dong, Vice President of Wanda Cultural Industry Group Ye Shun, and Chairman of Xiying Group Yan Yiyun also made an appearance.

Liu Yifei strongly recommended "Send You A Little Red Flower" and its original novel "Incomparably Beautiful Pain" to the audience, and said that when she read this novel for the first time, she was sure that she wanted to play the heroine in the book Hazel, but at that time she knew that this was almost impossible, because when the film project was approved, it was already determined that the hero and heroine in the original novel would be used.

Until one day Li Mu suddenly told her that "Incomparably Beautiful Pain" was going to be filmed in two versions in the United States and China.

After speaking, Liu Yifei held the microphone and looked affectionately at Li Mu beside him.

Li Mu picked up the microphone and said: "Actually, the American version, that is, "The Fault in Our Stars" was launched at the beginning of the project. Neither I nor the company's senior management had much hope for the film's box office in the mainland. Sales in the mainland are very mediocre, there are very few fans of the original works in China, and the actors and actresses are not well-known in China. It was not until later that I found out that Yifei really wanted to act in this movie, so I thought, why not just make two versions in China and the United States. ?”

"The American version relies on the huge fan base of the original book in North America, while the Chinese version relies on Yifei's box office appeal, so that it can fulfill Yifei's wish and maximize the box office potential of this story. He Le Why not?"

Liu Yifei interjected: "This story is so touching, I have been sad for a long time about the experience of the hero and heroine in it, but you only want to use this story to make more money."

After Liu Yifei finished speaking, everyone's eyes fell on Li Mu's face.

Li Mu raised the microphone and said: "Because I make more money, I can make more films that I and the audience like, and I can do more meaningful things."

Then Li Mu officially announced on behalf of the film studio that he would donate part of the box office proceeds after the film's release to charity foundations to help those who are fighting against the disease.

Well, their speeches were actually prepared in advance.

4 month 26 day.

Directed by Li Mu and starring Li Mu and Liu Yifei, the film "Send You A Little Red Flower" was officially released nationwide.

At this time, the American version of "The Fault in Our Stars" has been released for a week. Although this version has not been released in China, the content of the film has already been sent back to China. At this moment, the plot of the film is everywhere on the Chinese Internet According to the feedback, among them, the box office hit in North America, crushing Tom Cruise's new film "Oblivion", and the rave reviews abroad have made domestic movie fans excited about the upcoming "Little Red Flower".

But at the end of the tragedy, spoilers such as the hero's final cancer recurrence and death have discouraged many movie fans who could not accept the tragedy ending.

Many fans who are even die-hard fans of Liu Yifei said that they can't accept this kind of tragic movie. Of course, she likes Liu Yifei very much and is willing to spend money to support her idol, but she really doesn't plan to go to the theater to watch it. There is a high probability that she will buy a ticket but not watch it, because she has a strong empathy ability, and she is afraid that she will be sad and brooding for a long time after watching the film.

Similar situations are not isolated cases. There are indeed many movie fans who know that the movie has been well-reviewed and that it is a good movie, but they will not watch it just because it is a tragedy.

In addition, there are still quite a few movie fans who would watch a certain tragedy movie if they heard it was good, but they would feel very regretful in their hearts, maybe it would be great if the ending was changed to a happy ending ah!

This resulted in a large number of people who wanted to watch the film but could not accept the tragic plot and did not watch it on the day when the film was officially released nationwide. The sad and tragic mood of abuse entered the movie fans in the theater.

As a result, when the film was actually screened nationwide, when the audience saw that the hero had relapsed cancer, and when they saw the touching eulogy written by the hero and heroine for each other in advance, everyone was moved and couldn't accept the hero's death from the bottom of their hearts. When the fact that the protagonist is about to die, the finale finally came.

The eccentric writer suddenly brought news of the new CAR-T therapy, and the hero became the first batch of volunteers in the world to accept the clinical trial of CAR-T therapy and successfully cured the cancer. (The 2022 million injections of anticancer drugs that will be screened in 120 belong to the same therapy)
After watching the ending, almost all movie fans who already knew the plot in advance were dumbfounded.

"what's going on?"

"What about the death of the male protagonist that was agreed, and the female protagonist who is in pain? What about the tragic ending? That's it?"

"What the hell is CAR-T therapy? Is it made up by the movie? Is it so magical?"

"I have all the tissues ready, but you show me this?"

"It's so fake. From the end of the movie, it was laying the groundwork for the hero and heroine to die, but after laying the groundwork for a long time, a new anti-cancer therapy came at the end?"

"This is completely different from "The Fault in Our Stars"!"

"Damn, I almost didn't get caught by Director Li, but in the end, the hero and heroine finally defeated the illness, isn't it good?"

From the end of the first movie, film critics from all over the country began to take action, and the comments on "Little Red Flower" on the Internet began to grow rapidly like a blowout.

"The first 99% of the film is very similar to the American version of "The Fault in Our Stars", but there is a twist in the last 1%. Please forgive me for spoilers. Everyone knows that the last male lead in the American version is dead. Yes, but our "Little Red Flower" did not. The last male protagonist of "Little Red Flower" received CAR-T therapy and survived successfully. I also checked it on the Internet. This therapy is really not invented by the director. , Just last year, the first batch of volunteers in the United States have officially accepted the clinical trial of CAR-T therapy. As for the therapeutic effect of this therapy, it is still unknown. I hope it will be as amazing as described in the movie. "

Many movie fans who had doubts about the film's tragic color were immediately excited when they saw the overwhelming reports on the Internet. These people posted one after another saying:
"I heard that the ending of Liu Yifei's new film "Little Red Flower" is not a tragedy? So everyone knows why I love director Li Mu so much? It's because he really knows what the audience likes to watch. Is the tragedy compelling? The tragedy is more classic? NO ! I love to watch the family reunion! Don’t say anything, just buy a ticket to support!”

"Some people say that it's unreasonable that the male lead didn't die in the end. What I want to say is, why is it unreasonable? Isn't this the meaning of continuous scientific progress? Anyway, I think this kind of adaptation is quite good."

"Do you know how uncomfortable my chest was when I saw the eulogy written by the hero and heroine for each other in advance, but I knew the hero was about to die? As a result, a CAR-T therapy suddenly came in the last few minutes, which is top-notch. Reversal, at that time I suddenly felt a particularly huge sense of satisfaction, the feeling of ups and downs is really just one word-exciting!"

"I didn't understand the abrupt reversal. In fact, CAR-T therapy is not abrupt at all. The daughter of the writer who the hero and heroine went to see together died of cancer, so the writer's temper is so weird. Before Recalling that the writer often used medical advances to encourage his daughter suffering from cancer. There must be a solution in the future. When I was here, I was thinking, the writer’s daughter has not waited, if the hero and heroine can’t wait, then what’s the point of arranging the hero and heroine to meet the writer? I didn’t expect it to be really guessed by me!”

"Similarly, I vaguely guessed that the male lead was going to be cured by a new treatment, but I had heard that the American version had a tragic ending, so I couldn't believe it. I didn't expect Li Mu to actually change the ending. "

Regarding the writer who brought the new CAR-T message therapy mentioned by film critics and netizens, in the original work, the heroine’s favorite book is called "Majestic Sorrow", which tells a very real cancer patient However, the story ends abruptly at the most critical part. No one knows what the final outcome of the anti-cancer hero in the book is.

So the hero and heroine sent emails to the author to ask about the ending of the protagonist in the book. Unexpectedly, they got a reply from the author unexpectedly, and invited them to Amsterdam to tell them face to face.

In fact, the reason why "Majestic Sorrow" came to an abrupt end at the end was because the author's daughter had died after failing to fight cancer.

And it was not the author himself who invited them, but the author's assistant, who hoped that the arrival of the hero and heroine would save the author from the grief of losing his beloved daughter.

It's a story of saving each other.

Looking at it this way, the film's final turn is actually not too abrupt, because the film has already had a lot of foreshadowing before.

Soon the Douban score of the film came out, 7.9 points, which is 0.2 points lower than "The Fault in Our Stars". Looking at the reviews, many fans with low scores are complaining about the new treatment at the end, but under the review The comments are often "So the hero is not dead? It seems worth going to the theater to watch!".

In short, while the final happy ending disappointed some movie fans, it also successfully attracted many viewers who like happy endings to finally enter the theater.

There are gains and losses.

The final report card was announced, with 2862 million yuan in zero games and 1.754 million yuan in box office on the first day.

The next day was Saturday, and the single-day box office rose sharply, reaching 2.178 million yuan.

The third day was Sunday, and the box office fell back after reaching its peak, and finally earned 1.713 million yuan.

In this way, the three-day premiere of "Little Red Flower" plus the zero-point show earned a total of 5.931 million yuan, and the box office performance was quite strong.

The fourth day was Monday, and the single-day box office dropped a lot, and finally harvested 1.27 million yuan.

At the same time, the box office results of the second weekend of "The Fault in Our Stars" have finally been revealed.

In the three days of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, "Luck of the Stars" earned a total of 2470 million US dollars at the box office in the North American market, successfully winning the box office championship.

Cruise's "Oblivion" continued to be runner-up, with a weekend box office of 1950 million US dollars.

The third is Paramount Pictures' "Men and Money Robber", with 1475 million US dollars.

The box office of US$2470 million this weekend, plus the US$5687 million last weekend, plus the box office obtained from Monday to Thursday, so far, the cumulative box office of "Lucky Star" in the North American market has officially exceeded the US$1 million mark, reaching 1.0847 million Dollar.

In addition, in overseas markets other than North America, the country with the best box office performance of "Lucky Star" turned out to be Brazil. As of the second week, the film had a total box office of 3118 million US dollars in Brazil.

In addition, there are 1942 million U.S. dollars in the United Kingdom, 1513 billion U.S. dollars in Mexico, 1222 U.S. dollars in Australia, and 1120 million U.S. dollars in Germany.

As of the weekend of the second week, the film has made a total of 3.04 million US dollars in box office worldwide.

With a production cost of less than 1000 million yuan and a publicity cost of 5000 million US dollars, the global box office broke through 3 million US dollars in just two weeks. It is predicted that the final box office is very likely to be between 3.4 and 3.7 million US dollars - "Luck of the Stars" is undoubtedly It has been a huge success.

In particular, the feat of the film overpowering Cruise's "Oblivion" has become a good talk in the industry.

Back to "Send You A Little Red Flower".

This time Li Mu is not only the director, but also the starring role, and co-starring with Liu Yifei, so this time naturally became Li Mu's hardest promotional film.
Since the film was released, Li Mu and Liu Yifei have embarked on a large-scale road show, from Beijing to Shanghai, from Yangcheng to Goose City, and then from first-tier cities to second- and third-tier cities. The city advertises.

When interacting with movie fans, Li Mu found that many people were very concerned about the treatment that cured the hero's cancer at the end of the movie.

"Director Li, does this kind of therapy really exist in the world?"

"Yes, and the first clinical trials started last year."

"Does Director Li think this therapy will really work?"

"The prospects are very bright, but I heard that it is not suitable for all cancers, nor is it suitable for all people."

"How long does Director Li think this therapy will be popularized?"

"I can't say that well. After all, I am not an expert in this field. Maybe five years, maybe ten years, but if it is really effective, it will definitely become popular in the future."

"If it's really that effective, will it be very expensive by then?"

"It will be very expensive in the early stage, and it is not impossible for a needle to cost 10,000+ or ​​even more."

"10,000+ per injection? That's too expensive, how can ordinary people afford it?!"

"Is it really that expensive?"

……

Going to many theaters every day, one city in one or two days, this wave of roadshows made Li Mu and Liu Yifei very tired.

However, there are still some differences between the two, that is, Liu is still in the mood to ask for homework at night, while Li Mu is really a little depressed.But looking at the pitiful expression of the person in front of him, and the small movement of biting his lip, Li Mu really couldn't say the word "no", so he had to throw himself on the bed and leave the rest to the other party up.

Anyway, Li Mu doesn't want to move anymore, and she doesn't want to move if she wants to. Now that men and women are equal, the law doesn't stipulate that men must be on top.

……

In addition to promoting "Little Red Flower" during this period, Huashang Media has another key film that has entered the intensive promotion period before its release--"The Hunger Games 2", also directed by Li Mu and starring Liu Yifei, The film's global release date has been set for May 5.

May 5 is the day when the Marvel movie "Iron Man 3" will be released worldwide. Although Li Mu and the publisher are full of confidence in "The Hunger Game 3", there is no need to fight with Marvel to lose both because after many discussions After that, the producer, producer, and distributor of the final film unanimously decided to let "The Hunger Games 2" avoid the edge of "Iron Man 2" and release it 3 weeks later.

(End of this chapter)