director of the millennium

Turn back the time a little bit.

Just when Wu Yuan stayed at home, hugged his daughter and called her "Dad" every day, expecting his daughter to learn to call her.

On February 2020, 2, the 10nd Academy Awards ended just a few days ago.

Director Wu Yuan has already packed up and returned to China on a private plane, but the "Bruce Lee" film project has not been disbanded. It has even entered a more critical period.

Today's "Bruce Lee" movie can be said to have both popularity and awards. The last piece of the puzzle for the movie's large-scale release has been completed.

Yes, "Bruce Lee" has never been released widely in North America.

As I said before, this movie is a small-scale awards-winning film that relies on word of mouth.

Although it is said to be "relying on word of mouth", in fact, it is also a small-scale release that makes it easier for the capital behind it to build word of mouth.

This kind of hype was first done by Hollywood, as early as the 1970s and 1980s. Movies that wanted to win awards would first be released on a small scale in a few dozen or a hundred theaters, and then money would be paid off to bribe film critics to write articles praising the artistry.

It doesn’t mean that movies made in this way are necessarily of poor artistic quality or that the movies are not good to watch.

There are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people. If the film were released on a large scale from the beginning, public opinion would definitely not be controlled, and it would not be convenient to rush for awards and hype.

At the same time, if a biographical film like this is released on a large scale without any fame, it will all depend on whether the "biographical protagonist" himself is famous enough to attract audiences to the cinema.

This is completely different from winning an award first and then using the influence of the award to launch a large-scale campaign to get higher box office results.

That's the case with Bruce Lee.

After the Oscars were announced, although this film only won the second Best Director Award, the news of the film's winning quickly sparked a storm of discussion in North America, even more so than "Parasite," which won the Best Picture Award.

Realistically speaking, "Parasite" is a Korean movie after all. It has nothing to do with skin color or race. It's just that North American movie fans have preconceived ideas and will pay more attention to movies from their own country.

Yes, "Bruce Lee" is a local film in the eyes of North American movie fans.

Although the leading actor and director of this movie are both Chinese.

But the story takes place in the United States, Bruce Lee himself is a very famous legendary Kung Fu star in the United States, and Wu Yuan is a Hollywood director certified by Americans, so this movie is naturally a Hollywood movie.

Plus, this movie was invested by Disney, which makes it even more authentic to the Star-Spangled Banner.

The Oscars are watched by tens of millions of North American viewers every year!

Disney is also very experienced. On the day after the Oscars, it vigorously promoted "Bruce Lee" both online and offline. The scripts were written long ago, and only the "Best Director" award was confirmed at the end.

So, on February 2, more than 10 cinemas across the United States replaced their posters with new "Bruce Lee" release posters.

On the Internet, all movie-related websites and information have also followed up with the latest information on the release of "Bruce Lee".

Because the premiere of this movie had already taken place, at an art theater in New York at the time. After all, one of the requirements for Oscar nominations is that the movie must have been shown in North America to be eligible (in theory, it can be shown in only one theater in the United States).
So "Bruce Lee" is a movie that was released in December in the United States.

But the real large-scale release only started on February 2th.

Overnight, more than 2000 cinemas and nearly movie screens began to schedule screenings of "Bruce Lee".

The audience who watched the live broadcast of this year's Academy Awards ceremony and saw Wu Yuan winning the Best Director Award were indeed curious about the film. After casually checking the screening schedule of the cinema near their home, they bought two movie tickets and prepared to go to the movie with their partners or family.

After so many years of development, cinemas in North America have also been connected to online ticket purchases, which can be purchased on some ticketing websites or the theater’s own online website.

However, because North America has not experienced the series of online service website markets that have rapidly developed through mobile payments, such as the group shopping wars, food delivery wars, taxi wars, and online ticketing wars in China, Americans are still not very accustomed to ordering movie tickets online.

On the contrary, in China, there is a new generation of people who are willing to go to the cinema to watch movies. They were forced to go to the cinema again after enjoying the online ticket purchase at five or ten yuan per ticket due to the money-burning war between Meituan, Maoyan and other platforms. They are now very accustomed to online ticket purchase.

Therefore, most ordinary people in the United States are still accustomed to buying tickets directly at the cinema.

I can only say that habit is a terrible thing, and it is deeply rooted and difficult to break.

But this did not affect the rapid growth of the box office of "Bruce Lee" in North America.

With the influence of winning the Oscar, Bruce Lee's own fame, Wu Yuan's fame and reputation, and the nostalgia for Hollywood in the 1960s and 1970s brought about by "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".

Under the influence of various factors, although the large-scale release of "Bruce Lee" did not deliberately shout slogans for promotion, its box office results were very gratifying.

When the film was released on a small scale in more than 400 theaters, it grossed a total of just over million U.S. dollars in North America, which is a pretty good box office result.

For example, "The Wandering Earth" was released in more than 140 theaters in North America and ultimately earned more than 500 million US dollars.

But on February 2th alone, "Bruce Lee" earned $10 million in North America.

Although it cannot be compared with those commercial blockbusters that easily earn 30 to 50 million US dollars on the first day, 20 million US dollars on the first day is definitely a good result, especially when the cost of this movie itself is not high.

On the second day of its release, "Bruce Lee" once again won a daily box office of 1820 million US dollars, and the total box office was close to million US dollars.

The total cost of the film, including the money spent on award-winning public relations, was only $4000 million.

Judging from the current box office growth trend, "Bruce Lee" should have no problem grossing over 1 million in North America, and 3 million in the world. The final total box office will most likely be around million US dollars, and even if it doesn't reach that, it won't be too far off.

In other words, even if "Bruce Lee" spent a lot of money on award-winning public relations, the movie would not lose money, but could even make a fortune!
This is why even the Big Six in Hollywood have to strive for Oscars from time to time. Winning this thing can really increase the box office! (The premise is that it must be a movie produced by Hollywood itself.)
Wu Yuan, who only received the box office summary information half a month later, was also very happy to see this result.

After all, he can also get 10% of the box office share!

Spend other people's money to make a movie for yourself, win awards for yourself, and finally get 20 million US dollars. Anyone who gets this good thing will be happy! (End of this chapter)