CEE started with Nortel lecturers

Chapter 330 The achievement of China and the United States blossoming is achieved!

Jimmy Tonight Show is NBC's flagship late-night show, with a regular audience of almost 800 million viewers.

Every November in North America, there are a large number of films competing for the Olympics. If "The Invisible Guest" hadn't been a huge success in Toronto, it might not have had the chance to appear on this stage.

After all, NBC has so many movies to choose from!

At the headquarters of Lionsgate Pictures in Santa Monica, California, President Frank Gusta was sitting in his office early in the morning. His expression was a little anxious, and he looked at the office door from time to time.

Not long after, there was a knock on the door, and then the female secretary walked in.

"Sit down, Trish." Frank tried to sound natural.

Trish, Frank's secretary, took out the folder from her bag and sat down.

"Boss, I've got yesterday's single-day box office statistics."

"Tell me about the release of the three new movies."

Trish glanced at the numbers on the document and said, "Warner Bros.'s "Gravity" opened in nearly 3000 theaters, with a first-day box office of $2387 million! Columbia's "Captain Phillips" opened in 268 theaters, with a box office of $95 million. US$100! Our "Invisible Guest" has 98 theaters, US$!"

"9800 US dollars per hotel per day?" Frank knocked on the table lightly, "Not bad, a bit higher than I expected."

In view of the huge honor "The Invisible Guest" won in the early stage of the film, this time it will be screened on a small scale.

It is foreseeable that the film's box office in a single theater will be very popular. According to Lionsgate's predictions, the film's box office in a single theater during the first three days of the first weekend should be more than 2 US dollars. Now it has exploded to 9800 US dollars on the first day. Usually it will be more than 3 US dollars on a Saturday. It will be higher than Friday, and the box office of a single theater on the first weekend can hit the US$ mark.

The box office of a single venue in a single day exceeds 10,000 yuan, which is something that only a top Hollywood director can achieve!

For example, Nolan and Spielberg.

Judging from this situation, 100 theater chains will inevitably be unable to meet market demand.

Thinking of this, Frank then asked: "Other statistics."

"The average attendance rate of "Gravity" is 70%, and the audience's positive rating is 87%. According to the analysis agency's opinion, the box office should surge after the first week..."

“Let’s focus on ‘Captain Phillips’, that’s what we should be concerned about!”

Bill knocked on the table with some dissatisfaction.

"Gravity" should be a box office hit. It's a science fiction masterpiece with an investment of 1.5 million, and two major movie stars, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, are joining it. It's strange that the box office is not high!

"The attendance rate of "Captain Phillips" is 49%, and the audience's positive rating is 82%. However, there are too few theaters and the situation is not clear; the attendance rate of "The Invisible Guest" is 80%. The audience's favorable rating is 92%, and the audience's reputation is overwhelming. Several market analysis institutions believe that if we expand the release, the box office is likely to experience rapid growth."

Expanded release?

There were so many things to consider, Frank asked, "What about the moviegoers?"

"Of the 210,000 viewers who walked into "The Invisible Guest" yesterday, roughly 70% were viewers over the age of 40, and less than 20% were students. Most of the viewers basically gave the film a thumbs up. Good reviews.”

First of all, the number of suspense theaters is limited. Those who want to support the film are often die-hard fans of this type of drama film, or fans of the movie queen Sha Liz, and the audience is relatively limited.

The purpose of this is to try to prevent non-genre film lovers from blindly buying tickets from entering the theater of "The Invisible Guest", thus forming a high audience reputation in the early stage.

Coupled with publicity and promotion, it is enough to whet the appetite of many people.

Movie fans are blind and crowd-pleasing. When a person sees a film that he thinks is wonderful, he will always recommend it to the people around him, and those who accept the recommendation will often have preconceived opinions, thus further improving the good audience reputation. Spread out.

In addition, "The Invisible Guest" is inherently honorable, and it has been hyped and promoted by Lionsgate Pictures in various ways before it was released.

According to Frank's previous idea, wait until the market is almost ready and then expand the release. By then, it will definitely explode with huge energy.

Therefore, Frank did not adopt the secretary's suggestion to expand the number of screenings for the time being.

As a result, by Tuesday night, more than half of the 100 theater chains showing "The Invisible Guest" were even rarely full.

You know, it is not popular in the United States to buy tickets online, and there is no half-price discount for students. They often call in advance to book tickets when watching movies.

So it’s really rare to have a full house!

When Frank called Gu Zhongyu to congratulate him, his tone was calm but he couldn't hide his inner joy.

After all, it’s been a long time since a suspense film sold out in the North American market!

And on Wednesday, "The Invisible Guest" received box office data of US$100 million in 125 theaters, and the box office of a single theater exceeded US$!

This result is enough to rank among the top 20 in the weekly box office rankings!

November in North America is the absolute best month for film critics. Around Thanksgiving, a large number of films are released for the Olympics!

In fact, starting from the awards season in the second half of the year, the spring of professional film critics begins!

Regarding "The Invisible Guest", professional film critics have already been gearing up and preparing to work hard.

Many film critics couldn't wait to go to the theater to watch this film as soon as the screening started.

It has only been three days since the movie was released, and relevant comments about "The Invisible Guest" have appeared on the social platform columns of many well-known film critics.

"There is an obvious mentoring relationship from Hitchcock in this movie, which can be said to be rare. It first throws out a plot that you can think of, allowing you to guess how the incident will develop. In the development of the incident When it really meets your imagination, you will lower your expectations and precautions for the movie, and this is the moment when the movie starts to shine. If the context of this movie is described as a road, it can be described like this : When you think you have reached the end, the starting point has just begun...

"The Invisible Guest, the whole story depicts two women, and the men are just supporting roles. The two women are portrayed in the same way, with suppression first and then promotion. The characters are brought into the male-dominated society and the audience has a strong understanding of the existence of women. Among the stereotypes, be it the femme fatale or the cowardly mother. Without these stereotypes, the story of the male protagonist blaming others would not be true. It is a very clever technique..."

"The male protagonist and villain played by Chinese actor Gu Zhongyu is eye-catching. I always thought that Asian actors can only rely on kung fu or ethnic characteristics to act in Hollywood. It turns out that I was wrong, and the screenwriter is actually him. A Chinese person is How do you write such a script with European and American social characteristics?"

In addition to posting film reviews on the Internet, these film critics also expressed their opinions in newspapers and magazines. A bunch of praising film reviews appeared in major newspapers.

Without Lionsgate's request, many theaters offered to screen "The Invisible Guest"

The theater chain is very clear that this movie definitely has huge box office potential!

So, naturally, starting from November 11th, the movie's screening scale doubled several times to 7!

With the rapid increase in the number of people watching the film, the audience reputation of "The Invisible Guest" will inevitably decline, but everyone who has watched the film has a consensus that this is a very good film!

"The lawyer is pretending to be a lawyer is actually not difficult to guess, but that is not the point. The point is the relationship between "narration" and "truth". In the absence of a chain of physical evidence, every narration of the male protagonist is actually self-consistent and Established, but maybe none of them are true. This is really thought-provoking. How much of the truth we identify and grasp is controlled by narrative?"

"After watching a movie, I didn't realize that the old man was played by Shalizi!"

Although the audience's opinions are varied, they are basically supportive of the movie. "The Invisible Guest" was a complete hit in North America! This is not over yet. Three days after it was released in North America, the film was released in mainland theaters and instantly became a dark horse in the November blockbuster war!

Even though there were Hollywood blockbusters "Thor: The Dark World" and "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" in the same period, "The Invisible Guest" benefited from the box office performance of starring Gu Zhongyu in the past two years and the super high performance of the TV series "Descendants of the Sun" Popularity, it also received nearly 2% of the film schedules on the first day.

Moreover, Gu Zhongyu is uncharacteristically playing a villain in the movie this time, which has become a major selling point of the movie. Whether they are his fans or passers-by, they are willing to go to the cinema to find out what is going on, even if they are little Heizi who want to write a movie review. He, don't you have to buy a ticket first and take a look.

As the movie was released, its box office and reputation continued to rise. One week after its release, the film not only ranked first in box office and reputation in the same period, but also broke a series of box office records for Sino-US co-productions in China. The attendance rate also ranks first on many days.

The box office in the first three days was close to 3 million, which has broken the box office record for domestic suspense films. It is also far ahead in terms of film schedule, surpassing the second-ranked "Thor 1.5" by 2 percentage points!

Those movies that have not yet been released have chosen to change their schedules to avoid being a victim.

Now China and the United States are really blooming!

……

"Mr. Gu, do you know the first week box office results of "The Invisible Guest"?" Frank's voice on the phone was trembling.

"I'm not sure, but it should be around 500 million!"

Gu Zhongyu had already finished filming and left the crew. He was discussing matters related to Running Man with Wang Shicong and others from Blueberry TV. He suddenly received a call from the boss of Lionsgate and had to lower his voice to ask.

"Five million? Of course it's more than that. If it's five million, do you think I will call you specifically?"

Frank on the opposite side was a little dissatisfied. Before Gu Zhongyu could speak, he had already taken the initiative to break the news: "1500 million US dollars! If everything goes well, our movie is likely to exceed million US dollars in North America!"

"Are you sure? It will earn $100 million at the box office before the Oscars?"

Gu Zhongyu was also startled, and his voice could not help but rise an octave higher.

This box office performance is almost catching up with that of the Mainland. Gu Zhongyu is not very popular in North America, and although Shalizi is an Oscar-winning actress, her appeal at the box office is not strong. However, she actually got a box office of 100 million US dollars. ?

The box office trend of a feature film like "The Invisible Guest" is finally predicted based on the number of theaters it is shown in and the number of nominations before and after. Unlike commercial blockbusters, once the Oscar nominations are announced, "The Invisible Guest" will only be able to win Nominations will generally increase the box office. If you are lucky and really win the Oscar, then it will be distributed and most countries around the world will introduce this movie!

But it's rare for a movie like "The Invisible Guest" to earn $100 million before the Oscars begin.

After all, the final investment for this movie was only over 10 million US dollars, most of which was the remuneration for Shalizi (the price of friendship obtained by Gu Zhongyu selling meat). Even if the publicity expenses are included, it does not exceed 20 million.

Putting down the phone, Gu Zhongyu suppressed his inner joy, but Mr. Wang opposite him still saw the uncontrollable rise of the corners of Gu Zhongyu's mouth: "What's wrong?"

"It's okay, let's continue discussing our topic."

After all, this is a formal occasion, so it's really not appropriate to talk about your own movie.

"We have reached an agreement on the four candidates, Mr. Gu, Mr. Wang, Deng Chao, Chen He, Wang Baoxiang, and Zheng Kai. What we are discussing now is the female MC and the other two male hosts. As far as we know, the Bai Lu you proposed is I am your assistant, a complete amateur, and I am afraid I am not suitable to be a permanent guest!"

Wang Jun, Blueberry TV is responsible for the main planning of the Running Man project. He insists on the formula of the original time and space. Regarding the list of candidates provided by Gu Zhongyu, except for Deng Chao and Chen He, everyone else has doubts. The first one is Bai Lu.

"She is still a student at Nortel, and she also participated in Tang Yan's new drama "Why Shengxiaomo". By the time the first episode of Our Running Man is aired, the TV series has almost started airing, so she can't be considered an amateur..."

"Why is the Shengxiao Silent" that Tang Yan has been thinking about is about to start filming. This will be Bai Lu's debut film. Gu Zhongyu doesn't plan to let her become a star in one film, so it is better to start slowly from a supporting role.

Gu Zhongyu gave them a brief introduction to Bai Lu, and at the same time assured them that the effect of Bai Lu's variety show would definitely exceed their expectations. If you don't believe it, you can give it an interview and see.

Wang Jun shrugged. Since Gu Zhongyu said so, it was hard for him to refute others. After all, it was a mule or a horse. Just lead him out and run around.

"As a candidate for this ability user, Yu Bo is too low-key. We think Li Chen is more suitable. He is very strong and looks like an ox!"

"Li Chen is very strong, but his character is not good. How dare you use such a person?"

Gu Zhongyu retorted directly, "You guys don't do your homework. You don't know that labor and management are tired of this person, right?"

"Yu Bo has acted in popular dramas such as "Water Moon Cave" and "Xiao Shiyi Lang". In terms of popularity, he is just as high as Li Chen. In terms of skills... I don't think anyone in the entertainment industry can compare with him. of!"

"Then choose him!"

"As for the other MCs, I suggest you choose from Sha Yi, Huang Bo, Dapeng, Xue Zhiqian, and Da Zhang..."

"Wait a minute, Mr. Gu, you seem to have forgotten someone!"

"Who have you forgotten? These are the people on the list. Do you have any other ideas?"

"No, Teacher Gu, we mean you!"

Wang Jun looked at Gu Zhongyu with a smile.

"I?"

Are you fucking kidding me?

I am the boss of Zongheng, and I take care of Wanji every day. There are so many things waiting for me to do, and so many movies waiting for me to shoot. Do you think I will be the resident MC of an outdoor variety show?

Gu Zhongyu thought he heard wrongly at first.

When several people from Blueberry TV nodded in agreement, Gu Zhongyu realized that these people were serious. They really wanted him to join Running Man!

Wang Jun stared at Gu Zhongyu eagerly.

Thank you very much for thinking so highly of me, but I really don’t think it’s appropriate!

"Yes, Teacher Gu, just participate. With your fame, you can definitely increase the ratings and influence!"

Unexpectedly, Wang Sicong, who didn't mind watching the excitement, actually started to persuade him. In fact, if conditions allowed, he would like to be a permanent guest.

Gu Zhongyu looked at Wang Shicong, who looked a little unnatural, and then looked at the people from Blueberry TV who looked expectant.

"Have you already hooked me up?"

"Indeed!" Wang Shicong nodded.

Let me go, you actually admitted it?

So shameless!

I asked you how to sell it for 200 million!

In the previous life, Blueberry TV went to Hanguo SBS TV station to buy the copyright of Running Man, and it only cost 1.2 million. It also came with the original PD Zhang He who was experienced in production, and a bunch of cameras and editors!

Why are you willing to pay 200 million to buy theirs this time? Gu Zhongyu has already been included in it!

(End of this chapter)