China Entertainment's Standout

Chapter 638: Flowers bloom outside the wall, and the fragrance is inside the wall, Hollywood's money printing machine

The fourth day of the Lunar New Year.

The afterglow of the Spring Festival's excitement has not yet faded.

I don’t know when the Sino-US co-production of Journey to the West by Mr. Liu will come to fruition, but let’s first take the monkey stick to London, England.

During the three days of the Spring Festival, China's movie box office topped the world and became the world's largest box office.

Among them, "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" made the greatest contribution, and the box office on the third day of the Lunar New Year remained stable at 1.05 million.

Just when the industry was celebrating.

Zhou Yutang briefly left the film roadshow team and appeared at a cocktail party on the other side of the ocean.

China's entertainment tycoon arrived in Hollywood, and countless phone calls and invitations poured in instantly.

Most people here don’t know Zhou Yutang’s personal contact information, so the phone number of his Hollywood spokesperson Zou Zhongyan has almost become a hotline.

The night before the Oscars, Warner Bros.’s little master of palace fighting specially organized a welcoming banquet for him.

Perhaps because of the household registration issue, the mainstream media will not report it extensively, but people in the North American entertainment industry all know how powerful this young Oriental media tycoon is.

After all, his brilliant record in Hollywood is well documented.

The Voice of China, which is popular all over the world, is also making a lot of money in North America.

He also played a major role in several blockbuster movie series that raked in the North American box office with small investments and also played a key role in helping Warner Bros. become the top of the Big Six.

Warner's Palace Fighting Champion's attitude was unusually enthusiastic: "Zhou, congratulations, the Chinese movie is a big hit at the box office, and 50 Shades of Grey is also a very successful project."

"We should be congratulated."

Zhou Yutang had a faint smile on his face.

He took the lion's share of the profits for this project, and Warner, which was responsible for the distribution, also made some profit later.

"Yes."

Warner Palace Fighting Champion smiled so hard that his mouth almost reached his ears. He put his arm around Zhou Yutang's shoulders and said, "For the last two novels, I think we can also prepare the sequels."

North American audiences have shown an unusually strong interest in this erotic film of an extremely large scale.

It was released in 2830 theaters and earned $860 million at the midnight box office, ranking first in the late-night box office in February in history!

The second highest late-night showing for an R-rated movie in history, only lower than The Hangover Part II’s 2 million!
The film grossed $8170 million in the North American market in just three days over the weekend, topping the box office charts.

Then it became unstoppable, breaking opening records in 11 overseas markets, including Italy, Argentina, Poland, etc., but it was a flop only in Japan.

There’s no way around it; European and American audiences who have never seen the world find it very exciting.

People in Japan are already used to it, and there are even more perverted things.

But no matter what, it swept the global film market within a few days, and the total global box office in ten days has reached 3.08 million US dollars.

Moreover, due to its bold subject matter, it caused a public outcry around the world and can be said to be a phenomenal movie.

Zhou Yutang, the man behind all this, had just finished talking to the Warner boss when he was approached by the fat man Harvey Weinstein:
"Hey, Zhou, you're an incredible guy, you know what Hollywood calls you now?"

"Walter?"

"They call you the money printing machine from the East."

"."

Zhou Yutang smiled helplessly to save face, but he actually didn't get the self-righteous humor of these Westerners at all.
"Harvey, long time no see."

"Haha, just kidding. Congratulations on your box office success."

Laughing loudly, Harvey gave a warm hug as if he was an old friend he hadn't seen for a long time.

Looking at the young and handsome Oriental man in front of me, it was like looking at a money printing machine emitting golden light, and even the tone of his voice was unconsciously flattering.

"Weinstein will be your most loyal partner and can get a lot of things done for you, you know..."

"If I need you, I'll find you."

Zhou Yutang responded with a smile.

Every circle has its own operating rules.

Although Harvey is notorious, he has been operating in Hollywood for many years, and when it comes to public relations skills, I'm afraid no one can match him.

His classic move was to push the Queen to win the Oscar for Best Actress.

He was entrusting Xushe to Fatty Harvey, which made old Bob uneasy.

Perhaps it was because he saw the fat guy Harvey, who was having a good chat with Zhou Yutang, smiling ostentatiously, that Old Deng smelled a hint of danger.

If Zhou Yutang needed to rely on his resources to pave the way for himself when he first entered Hollywood, the situation had quietly changed after he became famous.

Hollywood right now is like a bitch.

Showing beauty to Zhou Yutang without reservation.

As long as he wants, it would not be difficult for him to manage the six major A-level film projects in Hollywood.

"Bob, don't worry about gains and losses."

Zhou Yutang's deep eyes seemed to be able to see through people's hearts. He patted Lao Deng's broad shoulders, with a faint smile on his handsome face:

"Mr. Zou had a pleasant experience working with you in the past and recognized your character, so he introduced you to me. There is an old saying in our Celestial Empire."

"Cover Wei Junjie carefully?"

"Has friend, true to its word."

Hearing the strange Chinese accent coming out of Lao Deng's mouth, Zhou Yutang shook his head and smiled: "When we first started working together, I said that we are friends and we want to make money together. I will definitely keep my word, so you can rest assured."

Bob nodded repeatedly, with an expression of confusion and awe on his face.

He didn't quite understand the true meaning of this sentence, but based on the English context of the second half of Zhou Yutang's sentence, he roughly knew what he meant.

"Yeah! We'll be friends forever!"

After taking a reassurance pill, Lao Deng's mood became high again. He raised the red wine glass in his hand towards Zhou Yutang and said, "Cheers to our friendship."

"How did the discussion go about that thing I asked you to do?"

"I have made all the arrangements for what you asked me to do. You can meet privately at the reception after the Oscars to discuss the details."

Old Bob patted his chest to assure himself, and said with a smile: "I don't think anyone can refuse you."

"To our friendship."

At this time, a smile gradually appeared on Zhou Yutang's face, and he raised his glass to him.

Tonight is a private welcoming banquet, but many celebrities have come.

After listening to Zou Zhongyan’s work report, Zhou Yutang gave further instructions.

Zou Zhongyan is from a prominent family and has strong professional abilities. She certainly cannot be said to be the son of a tiger father and a dog daughter.

But when it comes to comprehensive ability, Gan may not be so sure.

Zou Wenhuai has given his daughter many opportunities.

He personally took care of her for several years, taught her step by step, and handed over the operation of Jiahe to her. It can't be said that there was no improvement, but it can be said that it almost went bankrupt.

Zou Wenhuai, an old and experienced man, arranged such a way out for his daughter.

Don't have too many ideas of your own, just hold on to Zhou Yutang and do things according to his will. Zou Zhongyan is also doing very well.

After all these years of cooperation, I can say that they have been working diligently and conscientiously, which is more than enough for us to maintain the success we have achieved.

But it would be a bit too much to rely on Zou Zhongyan to navigate the muddy waters of Hollywood.

"Boss, you need a pawn in Hollywood, so you picked old Bob?"

It is said that birds of a feather flock together. After staying with Zhou Yutang for a long time, Ni Ni has become a sinister person.

“He’s a good fit.”

Zhou Yutang was sending a message to Liu Shishi.

Because of the time difference between the two sides, Yijie is still filming on the set late at night.

His main focus is definitely on domestic entertainment, but making US dollars is also very tempting.

In Hollywood, there must be a trustworthy local boss watching over things.

Zou Wenhuai's old friend Old Bob is a very suitable candidate.

He has rich experience in the world and has been able to stand firm in Hollywood for decades. The connections and resources he has at his disposal make him very suitable to stand in front of the stage and handle some troublesome matters for Zhou Yutang.

During the cooperation between the two, Zhou Yutang occupied an absolutely dominant position.

If Bob puts his mind to his work, then we can all remain good friends.

If he had any hidden thoughts, Zhou Yutang would not have such a friend.
It is said that red energy nourishes people.

This does make sense.

Teacher Fan is no longer the maid Jinsuo in the early years. Now she is more beautiful than all the big stars and is the wealthy Fan Ye in her own right.

The same is true for Liu Yifei and Liu Shishi. The two Lius are extremely popular and extremely beautiful.

But in such a huge entertainment industry, there are always people whose fates are ups and downs.

For example, the beloved of Mr. Yang of Juli Group, the former popular actress Huang Shengyi.

When Zhou Yutang listened to Ni Ni's report, he felt puzzled: "What is Young Master Yang doing? He wants me to take Huang Shengyi to walk the red carpet."

Young Master Yang definitely doesn’t have Zhou Yutang’s personal phone number.

After calling his work number, Ni Ni pursed her lips and chuckled, "Boss, I heard that you can set any conditions you want. What do you think?"

"If you're not familiar with me, don't get involved."

Zhou Yutang was too lazy to pay attention and started to look at the domestic box office data trends.

"Zhou Chu" still topped the list, but the box office on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year dropped to 9543 million.

Despite its explosive reputation, it was inevitable that the box office performance would weaken due to the film's subject matter.

A large number of audiences with families prefer the family comedy "The King's Man 2".

——Even though the word of mouth for this movie is terrible, its box office performance is very stable and there are always new viewers joining in.

Jackie Chan's "Skyfall" only earned a little over 4270 million on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. On the contrary, "Wolf Totem" bucked the trend and closed at million.

After glancing at the box office data, Zhou Yutang asked, "How's today's schedule?" Ni Ni stopped laughing and reported seriously, "I'll be doing styling in the morning, and there's an interview with the movie channel at noon, and in the afternoon."

The fifth day of the new year.

The 87th Academy Awards red carpet ceremony was held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

The red carpet was star-studded with superstars.

In order to leave beautiful shots on the red carpet, female stars from all walks of life went all out.

Jennifer Lopez, who was involved in the nude photo scandal some time ago, was quite eye-catching in her gorgeous translucent tulle dress today.

Queen Cate Blanchett showed off her beautiful back in a black dress, Nicole Kidman showed off her slim figure in a hollow see-through black dress, and Scarlett Johansson was big and white.
Dakota Johnson, the heroine of "Fifty Shades of Grey", another project he managed, appeared on the red carpet with her mother Melanie Griffith.

Melanie won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and was nominated for an Oscar in 1988 for "Working Girl". Dakota can be said to come from a family of performing arts.

The former Hollywood child star is wearing a sexy red dress today, which reminds people of her hot performance in "50 Shades of Grey", which makes people imagine a lot.

Zhou Yutang was enjoying the feast when he suddenly received a message from Ni Ni.

It is said that Huang Shengyi suddenly fainted and is now being sent to the hospital by ambulance.

Walter!?
Only after walking down the red carpet did Zhou Yutang have time to enjoy the show.

Mr. Yang has done a lot of outrageous things. Juli Film and Television has previously issued an official announcement saying that a major Sino-US co-production project is in preparation.

The male lead is Tom Hanks, and the female lead is naturally Mr. Yang’s beloved Huang Shengyi.

Today it was said that there was an award-winning actor to lead the team, and Xiao Huang’s fans have been looking forward to it for a long time.

Zhou Yutang rarely gossiped: "Will Tom appear today?"

"nonono!"

Hollywood gossip old Bob quickly responded to the message: "Tom has not appeared on the Oscars red carpet for many years. He is now on vacation abroad with his family."

"That would be interesting."

Zhou Yutang had never paid attention to it before, but now he flipped through the news about Mao Xiaoyu’s group of melon-eating girls and couldn’t help laughing.

As for Huang Shengyi's fame, it was actually before Liu Shishi's.

Before Yi Jie made her debut and was still dancing ballet at Beijing Dance Academy, Huang Shengyi had already starred in Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu".

The scene of her crying in a white shirt is so pure and innocent, and it is the white moonlight in the hearts of many young boys.

It was also very popular at the time.

However, after that, she got together with Master Yang of Juli, and worshipped the King of Northeast as her master, and was involved in all kinds of low-level marketing hype.

There is not a single work that is worth showing off.

Young Master Yang also truly loved her, and he took good care of her and put a lot of thought into her.

Huang Shengyi didn't have any works this time, and she came to walk the red carpet just for free. After arriving in Los Angeles, she first said that her dress was lost, and then she fainted in the hotel while putting on makeup before going to the red carpet, and had to be sent to the hospital for treatment.

"This is really embarrassing."

Zhou Yutang looked at Huang Shengyi's painful expression on the real-time news release as if he was looking at a red-nosed clown.

Even Da Mimi and Tang Yan sent messages wanting to be the first to know the news.

While chatting with them, the award ceremony began.

Lady Gaga threw away her gloves, adopted a dignified and elegant style, and reproduced the classic segment of "The Sound of Music" on the stage.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of "The Sound of Music". This musical film received ten nominations at the 38th Academy Awards and ultimately won five awards.

Zhou Yutang tapped his knees lightly with his fingers, admiring quietly.

Soon, after the singing and dancing performance, the award ceremony officially began.

"Citizenfour", which highly restored the entire "Prism Gate" incident, won the Best Documentary Feature.

Then came the appetizers like Best Live-Action Short Film, Best Animated Short Film, and Best Animated Feature Film.

This year's "Red Ling" lost to the Polish film "Sister Ida" in the competition for Best Foreign Language Film.

The live camera focused on Zhou Yutang, but his expression remained calm.

Well, Anna, the heroine of "Sister Ida", is Jewish.
The artistic component is very high.

Many big directors regard Hollywood as a holy land and dream of winning an Oscar.

He was not happy about it.

He deserves the award, and he will definitely do his best in public relations.

If there is little hope, then just let it be.

This year I just came to see the fun and discuss some business.

The movie "Birdman" became the biggest winner, winning four major awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Screenplay.

Julianne Moore, who missed the Oscar award four times, finally won the Best Actress award for the film "Still Alice".

This person is truly a great god.

In the movie, she plays a successful woman with Alzheimer's disease, and her acting is really good.

She has previously won Best Actress awards at the three major film festivals: Cannes, Berlin and Venice, as well as an Oscar. She can be said to be the first person to win the Grand Slam!
The Best Actor award went to Eddie Redmayne for "The Theory of Everything."

What Zhou Yutang cares more about is that "Whiplash" won two awards tonight: Best Supporting Actor and Best Editing.

"Congratulations, Damian."

"Thank you."

When Whiplash director Damien Chazelle met Zhou Yutang at the cocktail party after the Oscars.

No surprise, but a little surprise.

"Wow, the famous Mr. Oriental Miracle, I'm honored to meet you."

"Me too."

Zhou Yutang held Damian's hand, and they hugged each other affectionately with a smile on his face: "Whiplash is a very good movie, I personally like it very much."

The shy but paranoid boy trained intensively like a madman and burned himself out in order to improve his skills.

It's depressing and dull, crazy and sharp, but it can make people excited.

This movie is very much to Zhou Yutang's liking.

"Thank you, it's a pleasure."

"I think it's time we talked about that musical project."

"I'm surprised you're interested in this type of project."

Damian's eyes lit up. "That project was even earlier than Whiplash. Many people said that my idea was an old-fashioned one that no one cared about."

“That’s because they have no vision.”

"I think so too."

Damian spread his hands and said, "I must admit that the script's presentation style is a bit old-fashioned and does not conform to the mainstream aesthetic..."

“But this is what I want.”

Zhou Yutang smiled calmly: "Lady Gaga's performance tonight was wonderful. Musicals always have the power to move people, don't they?"

Since he wanted to make money from America, he really put in a lot of effort to study the North American film market.

The cultural backgrounds of the two sides are different. For example, domestic audiences are not very receptive to films such as musicals that combine singing and dancing with plots, and the market prospects are still unclear.

But there may be room for a comeback in Hollywood.

As early as the 1930s and 1940s in Hollywood, musicals were already a rare commodity, and in the 1950s and 1960s, many classics were produced.

Such as "Chicago" and "Moulin Rouge" have received rave reviews.

With Bob as the go-between, reaching a cooperation was easier than expected. After the two met and exchanged ideas, it can be said that they hit it off immediately.

Damian didn't expect that happiness would come so suddenly.

There is such an angel who provides positive emotional value and is willing to invest 30 million US dollars to help pursue the dream.

It also gives most of the power over the script, casting, filming, etc.

There couldn't be a better outcome.

Damian was afraid that the God of Wealth would run away, so he signed the contract that night.
"Wish us happy cooperation."

"Happy cooperation!"

"Boss, why did you decide to invest in a musical?"

"Every type of movie has its own specific audience."

Zhou Yutang cut the steak with a knife and fork, and then put it into his mouth.

Chew it a little, and the wonderful taste will instantly burst and spread in your mouth.

Top-quality ingredients can always make people happy.

Of course, what makes him even happier is that "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" and "50 Shades of Grey" dominated the film markets in Asia and North America respectively.

"50 Shades of Grey" benefited from Valentine's Day marketing and had a huge box office in its first week. Now entering its second week, the momentum has clearly declined, but it still sits firmly at the top of the North American box office market.

According to feedback from Warner's data department, the global box office is expected to exceed 5 million US dollars, and a sequel has been put on the agenda.

"Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" relied entirely on the contrast of its worse peers to maintain a stable box office trend. On the fifth day, the box office closed at 8530 million, sweeping the Chinese film market with an overwhelming momentum. It has become a phenomenal domestic crime film.

These are two films of different themes, but what is similar is that they are both successful to some extent.

Musicals are another genre.

The second film written and directed by Zhou Naicha, "The Rooftop Love", is a commercial musical with a strong Chinese flavor.

Although he failed to achieve satisfactory results, Zhou Yutang was inspired and prepared to conduct an experiment in Hollywood.

So Zou Zhongyan started to research the market and finally set his sights on Damian.

This type of movie requires little investment, has huge returns, and has great potential.

(End of this chapter)