hollywood melon man

Chapter 115 First meeting with the Chinese audience
  Little Gilbert moves into a new house and lives a chic life.

Far away on the land across the Pacific Ocean, something related to him also happened.

After signing the film import contract, after some arrangements, Gilbert Jr.'s "Iron Fist", as the first officially imported film, met the Chinese people in mainland cinemas.

In fact, mainland audiences are no longer unfamiliar with Hollywood movies. In 1978, the old film "Modern Times" met mainland audiences.

This was also the first time that a Hollywood film was screened in the mainland, but since then, it seems that not many Hollywood films have been screened in the mainland.

Since then, through the radiation of Hong Kong Island's piracy market, many people have become aware of movies such as the "Terminator" series, "Robocop", and "Lethal Weapon".

But the piracy market is not theaters after all, and Hollywood movies have not entered the mainland film market for a long time.

Therefore, strictly speaking, "Iron Fist" is the first Hollywood movie that was officially introduced through official channels and released in the same year.

Moreover, although the split ratio is not high, "Iron Armor" is also the first imported split film.

Thursday, August 1994, 8, was a very ordinary day, no different from any other day.

"Iron Armor and Steel Fist" was grandly screened in 57 cinemas in six major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuwei, Jinling and Hangcheng.

In order to expand its influence in the mainland, Warner Pictures also specially gave China Film Group, which was responsible for the introduction, two mecha models.

One is Master Bao with Chinese elements, and the other is a tall and mighty two-headed warrior from the Twin Cities.

Fortunately, these sugar-coated bullets from the opposite side did not corrode the hearts of some people at China Film and Television, so the two robots were successfully placed in front of a cinema in Beijing, leaving the people of the capital stunned.

Everyone came curiously to see this tall and powerful machine, and then lamented the gap between the two sides.

Later, because there were so many people visiting the two robot models, and some people were trying to touch them, the cinema had to send people to stand guard to guard the two mecha models.

The mecha models have security guards, which is the first time I’ve seen them.

The publicity effect of the two mechas is huge. When everyone sees these robots, they will ask the theater staff what they are.

The theater staff replied: "This is a robot from a Hollywood movie, so precious!"

"Does your cinema show this movie?" asked one of the onlookers.

"Of course, otherwise why would we show off?"

After hearing the affirmative answer, some of the people with reasonable conditions gritted their teeth and immediately bought tickets to watch the movie in the cinema, becoming the first audience to watch a Hollywood movie.

This view shocked the Chinese audience who had never seen a similar film before.

The film's passionate fighting scenes, realistic and exaggerated special effects, coupled with the noisy West Coast rap and rock music, gave a great shock to Chinese audiences in this era who did not have rich entertainment options.

It can be said that this is a feeling of reshaping the world view, and the impact is huge.

This is the output of Hollywood film culture. Through movies, people in this land are full of fantasies about the dreamy country on the other side of the Pacific.

And now the United States can indeed be called a dream country.

Guo Fan, now fourteen years old, is still in junior high school. During the summer vacation, he begged his father to take him to the capital for some fun.

In a movie theater in the capital, he saw the models of Master Bao and the Warriors of the Two Cities, and the boy's affection for them emerged.

Two movie tickets were not expensive. Unable to bear Guo Fan's behavior, Guo's father had no choice but to buy two movie tickets and watched his first movie in the cinema with Guo Fan.

Of course, it’s not like I haven’t seen other movies before.

It's just that this "Iron Fist" was the first movie that the father and son went to the cinema to watch.

In the cinema, watching the passionate movie content, Guo Fan's entire outlook on life seemed to have been reshaped.

Unlike others who began to have fantasies about the country on the other side of the Pacific after watching the movie, Guo Fan thought:
  Can I be a director when I grow up? After becoming a director, can you make a movie like this?
  After leaving the cinema, Guo Fan raised his head and said firmly to his father: "Dad, I want to be a film director in the future."

Father Guo was stunned for a moment, then said with a smile: "If you want to be a director, you have to study hard."

A young Chinese movie fan planted a seed in his heart.

Little Gilbert didn't expect that he would enlighten a young movie fan. If he knew, he would also smile. At least it's not a bad thing, right?
  Back in North America, after the end of July 24th, "Iron Fist" has completed its twelfth week of theater tour.

After twelve weeks, the remaining screening time of the film has nothing to do with the distributor and the producer. The next box office generated will belong to the theater chain.

As of July 1.81, the North American box office of "Iron Fist" was million.

Although the more than one million box office generated after July 24 is included in the box office results of "Iron Fist", all of them belong to the theater chain.

So the second division of accounts is easy. Out of the 12 million box office generated, the producer and distributor received 3 million US dollars, which is indeed not much.

Coupled with the first North American theater chain split, the cost has still not been recovered through the North American box office.

However, the money for North American video tape and television rights was quickly received, and in the end it was still profitable based on the North American market.

In addition, although most of the profits from the peripheral markets of "Iron Fist" belong to Disney and Warner, Melon Studio and eight other small investors can also get some benefits.

The most critical thing is that as "Iron Fist" gradually ends its screenings around the world, the overseas box office has begun to settle.

Although this settlement process may take up to half a year, the overseas box office is as high as 2.43 million. According to the accounting ratio, a total of more than million US dollars in box office will be divided among several major investors. In addition, there are regional copyrights in other countries, which are also a source of income.

In short, although this "Iron Fist" did not reach Gilbert's expectations, it was in line with the normal market performance of a commercial film.

It can't be said to be as profitable as "Speed", but at least it didn't make a loss and made a profit through the box office.

Next comes the long process of dividing accounts and the period when peripheral income slowly increases over time.

After paying a little attention to the situation and learning that the film was at least profitable, Gilbert Jr. urged Disney and Warner Pictures to quickly pay their share of the box office.

At the same time, after high-level discussions between Warner and Touchstone Pictures, the "Alcatraz" project was pushed to the early project approval stage.

The film was also officially renamed "The Island". Little Gilbert also registered a Facebook account and released the concept trailer of the film through Facebook.

It's just a hand-drawn sketch, but it attracted many fans to watch it and follow little Gilbert's Facebook account.

Little Gilbert was able to attract traffic to the small companies he invested in, and the results were pretty good.

Little Gilbert's new project has naturally attracted the attention of all Hollywood.

Spielberg, who planned to set up DreamWorks to compete with the giants, specifically found Gilbert Jr.

"Little Gilbert, are you interested in handing over your new project to DreamWorks?" Spielberg went straight to the point.

"Uncle Steven, is this your own idea? Or is it DreamWorks's?" Little Gilbert asked.

"It's mine," Spielberg was very direct: "It's also the idea shared by Jeffrey and David."

Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen are both Spielberg partners. Jeffrey Katzenberg resigned from Walt Disney Studios this year, and David Geffen, a well-known entertainment company The boss is still gay.

These three people announced that they would jointly found DreamWorks Film Company, determined to challenge the old Hollywood order and become one of the new giants.

However, the old forces in Hollywood will not watch the birth of a new giant, and will inevitably block DreamWorks in all aspects such as resources and channels.

So Spielberg thought that DreamWorks couldn't rely on him alone. It needed other talented directors who could sit in.

There weren't many of them, but Spielberg thought Gilbert Jr. was a suitable candidate.

That's why he came to see little Gilbert with hope and used his personal relationships to persuade little Gilbert.

But little Gilbert was unmoved: "Uncle Steven, you have to know that I am happy to cooperate with Disney and Warner.

DreamWorks is a new company, and it is unknown in terms of distribution channels and peripheral channels. I can't take risks. "

Spielberg was a little disappointed, but he still tried his best to persuade: "Little Gilbert, are you willing to work for these giants for the rest of your life?
  Don’t you want to be the boss and control your own movies? Come to DreamWorks and you will have this opportunity. "

It has to be said that what Spielberg said is still very provocative, and he seems to have seen through the restless heart of little Gilbert under his gentle appearance.

But for little Gilbert, even if he wanted to be independent and go it alone, DreamWorks would not be his first choice.

There are three giants of DreamWorks, so the position of boss cannot be passed to him, and he doesn’t want to be the fourth boss.

Moreover, running a film company and making movies are completely different things. Together with the three giants, DreamWorks eventually retired sadly and fell into the fate of being divided up by the giants.

Even if little Gilbert has the advantage of foresight, the giant is not a fool.

A good tiger cannot defeat a pack of wolves, not to mention that the giants are a pride of lions that is bigger than the pack of wolves.

Therefore, little Gilbert felt that it was better to be cautious and wait for the opportunity.

Therefore, Gilbert Jr. resolutely rejected Spielberg's invitation and had no intention of participating in the dispute between DreamWorks and the traditional Hollywood giants.

Spielberg didn't blame little Gilbert. This was a normal reaction. He could understand little Gilbert's worries.

After dealing with Spielberg, Gilbert Jr., under the arrangement of Warner and Disney, held a project launch conference and announced that preparations for the new project "The Island of the Dead" had officially begun.

"This is a very refreshing action movie. I hope to bring a different action movie experience to the audience." Gilbert Jr. said at the press conference.

Before the project launch conference, agent Sheena Boone helped Gilbert Jr. negotiate a contract as director, screenwriter, and producer, with a base salary of US$1000 million.

In addition, if the film's North American box office exceeds US$100 million, it will receive a 5% box office share, with a maximum cap of 15%.

Compared with the previous contract for "Iron Armored Steel Fist", this treatment is basically unchanged, which means that the share of the contract has increased a bit.

The main reason is that Melon Studio will continue to participate in investment, and therefore, Gilbert Jr. has made concessions in terms of personal treatment.

After the press conference, preparations for the film officially began, and team members began to return to the crew.

First of all, the first question is who should be chosen for the role of British agent Mason.

　I checked a lot of information, some said it was "The Fugitive", and some said it was "True Lies".

　　However, according to the Yangma Movie Channel, the first Hollywood movie released in the mainland was the 1936 movie "Modern Times", which was released in 1978.

　　If book friends know earlier, please tell me in the comment area.

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)