hollywood melon man

Chapter 248 Fanatic gangster fan

"Godzilla" also proves that it is not that simple for a movie from a foreign culture to succeed in North America.

"The Matrix" also has many foreign cultural elements, a large number of Chinese elements, Kung Fu, Buddhism, Taoism and other theories.

But these elements are just a point in the film, not the main elements.

The main elements of "The Matrix" are actually Western universal values, and they have a strong Christian overtone.

Neo is called the savior. What is the savior? Isn't it God?

The matrix enslaves mankind, and God comes to save mankind. It is a very cliché and practical Hollywood drama.

This is also the fundamental reason why "The Matrix" is popular in North America. It is not about the so-called Eastern Buddhism and philosophy, nor the kung fu elements. At its core, it is still the traditional Hollywood style.

However, few people can see through the essence. Many people think that the success is because director Gilbert Jr. used a lot of foreign culture, even Chinese culture that is not popular in North America.

Therefore, when "Godzilla", a film representative of island culture that is more popular than Chinese culture, hits the streets, many people will be confused.

This has always been one of the key ticket warehouse cities in North America. Almost every film that aims to be a hit at the North American box office will use this place as a focus of promotion, and "The Matrix" is no exception.

But this can easily give people the illusion that Japanese culture can adapt to the needs of the North American market.

Charlize Theron still seems to understand: "But I saw that the poster of "Godzilla" is pretty good. It looks like a Tyrannosaurus rex, and it feels like "Jurassic Park"."

Charlize Theron still doesn't understand why "Godzilla" hit the market, but she doesn't bother to think about it. Anyway, "The Matrix" was a hit, and she has become one of the most watched actresses in Hollywood.

"Did you expect this?" Charlize Theron asked little Gilbert who was looking out the window while looking at the newspaper article that repeatedly emphasized the attributes of "Godzilla".

But doubts remain doubts. In order to completely defeat "Godzilla", the media affiliates of the two film companies have not relaxed.

"what happened?"

After "The Matrix" became popular, Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron immediately became popular across the United States.

As the third week of the North American summer season approaches, the crew came to Chicago, the crime capital, for promotion.

It's a pity that the film company didn't think clearly and make better plans, making the MonsterVerse movie a bit unsystematic, otherwise it should have achieved better results.

When several cars before and after the crew were heading to the premiere, they were surrounded by a lively crowd and could not move.

Everywhere they go to promote, the two of them can create a large-scale fan effect and sensation.

However, after the crew came to Chicago, they encountered a lot of trouble.

Disney and Warner were also confused about this, because they thought "Godzilla" was really marketable, but they didn't expect it to be so vulnerable.

Little Gilbert smiled and said: "Dear, Columbia Pictures' judgment is actually right, Japanese culture is very popular in North America.

What we have to do is very simple, just keep emphasizing that "Godzilla" is a non-Western product. "

In fact, there has always been a trend of monsters in North America. "Jurassic Park" was a movie based on this trend, and it also achieved great success.

"Look, you said it yourself is very similar to "Jurassic Park."" Little Gilbert said, "So this movie is just a poor imitation of "Jurassic Park." The imitation is not much better than the original. normal."

But the monster trend is not a trend of imitation. If "Godzilla" wants to succeed in the North American market, it must have its own characteristics.

A very direct way is to constantly remind movie fans that "Godzilla" is a foreign product and a monster of the islanders.

The monster movie universe in the previous life did a good job. Although it was not too successful, the fusion of Godzilla and King Kong brought Godzilla into the mainstream market in North America.

Enthusiastic fans kept banging on the glass, so scared that the creators didn't even dare to get out of the car or open the window.

The key point is that most of these movie fans are people with tattoos and fierce faces, and they don't look like a good person.

The security team hired by the crew had never seen such fans before, and they were immediately too frightened to protect them. They stepped aside and watched as several cars were surrounded by these fierce and enthusiastic fans.

Assistant Anna was also a little panicked: "Boss, we seem to be surrounded by gangs."

"Gangsters?" Little Gilbert was shocked: "What do they want to do? Blackmail us? Collect protection money?"

"Isn't it possible?" Anna was also a little unsure: "I have never encountered anything like this before. I have already called the police, and the Chicago Police Department is sending police support."

"Let them hurry up, otherwise we will be here today." Little Gilbert urged.

"Yes," Anna quickly called and asked the Chicago Police Department to come quickly for support.

"It should be fine," little Gilbert said, holding Charlize Theron's hand: "If it was kidnapping, extortion, blackmail or something like that, it wouldn't make such a big noise."

Charlize Theron said she felt at ease: "With you by my side, I'm not worried at all."

Since he can't go out for the time being, it's rare for little Gilbert to appreciate the urban wonders of Chicago.

Some people say that Chicago has 30,000 police officers but 100,000 gangsters.

This is a bit exaggerated, but it can also illustrate the rampant power of Chicago gangs from the side.

But there is a limit to this kind of rampage. These gangs usually bully ordinary people, do smuggling, and collect protection fees.

But they never mess with those who are famous and have high status, and they have a very clear bottom line.

Obviously, the top gang leaders also know that once these people are touched, the federal government will definitely destroy them.

The federal government doesn't care about ordinary people, but if the federal government doesn't care about these rich and famous people and allows gangsters to extort money, the foundation of North American society will collapse.

Therefore, little Gilbert is not very worried about his own safety. As long as gang members are not stupid, they will not threaten his personal safety.

As expected, the Chicago police attached great importance to the incident and quickly assembled a team of capable police officers to rush to the scene with unprecedented efficiency.

In order to maintain order, the police chief also called the mayor of Chicago and asked him to allow the state National Guard to enter Chicago to maintain order.

Considering "The Matrix" and Little Gilbert's influence across the United States, there's also Little Gilbert's identity as the Squidward. Once little Gilbert had an incident on his own territory, his position as mayor of Chicago would also be over, so the mayor of Chicago quickly agreed to the police chief's plan.

But the Chicago mayor and police chief discovered that this was just a false alarm.

The gang did not take any more actions. Instead, several gang bosses quickly appeared and evacuated the younger brothers.

He looked at the middle-aged bald tattooed white man in front of him happily, holding a book and waiting for his signature.

There were also several bigwigs from the Latino, Italian, and black communities on the side who looked like fans, and little Gilbert felt very magical.

It turns out that these gang bosses are all his fans, and the reason why the gangsters are dispatched is to chase stars.

The bald man in front of him apologized embarrassingly: "I'm sorry, Director Gilbert, I couldn't get a ticket for the show, so I had to make this decision."

Using gangster boys to chase stars for himself, this gangster boss is probably going to be on the celebrity list in the gang world.

What else could little Gilbert say? Don't you agree? So I happily agreed to Boss Hei's request for autographs and photos.

Not only that, Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron also fulfilled the requests of several gangster fans, taking photos, signing autographs, and taking photos.

When the Chicago Police Chief led a group of police officers to the scene, they were all dumbfounded.

Didn't it say that the gang was planning to kidnap the crew of "The Matrix"? What is this harmonious scene in front of you?

The Chief of the Chicago Police Department was puzzled, and then he was pulled into a group photo with the crew members and gang bosses in a daze.

After signing autographs and taking photos, the gang leader and his younger brothers retreated, avoiding conflicts with the Chicago police and highlighting the good image of a law-abiding gang.

The next day, this special photo of the group photo made the front page headlines of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and other mainstream North American media.

The title and content are very interesting. Generally speaking, "The Matrix" uses the charm of the movie to greatly ease the conflicts between the Chicago police and gangs.

This incident has also become a hot topic among movie fans. It turns out that the gangsters surrounded the creator of "The Matrix" because they were chasing stars. This was something no one expected.

This matter itself does not require any embellishment. If it is reported as it is, it would be difficult for people to believe that it is true unless they see it with their own eyes.

Perhaps affected by the news about gangsters chasing stars, "The Matrix" has maintained a relatively healthy box office decline in its third week.

"The Horse Whisperer," a new film released this week, starred Scarlett, but the film received poor reviews and failed to have an impact on "The Matrix."

This makes The Matrix achieve its third consecutive North American summer box office title this week with a weekly box office of 3770.6 million.

As for "The End of the World", although it did not win the weekly box office championship, it still firmly occupied the runner-up position, with a box office of US$3057.8 million this week.

"Godzilla" flopped on the street this week, only taking in a box office of US$1015.3 million. It is predicted that the North American box office will not exceed US$ million.

Originally, even if "Godzilla" was not popular, it shouldn't have achieved this result.

In Little Gilbert's impression, the North American box office of this version of "Godzilla" in his previous life at least exceeded 100 million US dollars.

However, under the influence of the butterfly effect, "Godzilla", which was sandwiched between two blockbusters, suffered a disastrous failure.

This failure has taught many film companies a lesson: never challenge films that you think are strong unless you are equally strong.

Not everyone can afford to mess with people like Little Gilbert and his movies.

However, this highlights the value of Michael Bay, because although his "Armageddon" did not beat "The Matrix" every week, it was not completely defeated.

This allowed more Hollywood film companies to realize Michael Bay's potential, and more big projects approached him.

Michael Bay has also become a trump card in the hands of Michael Ovitz. Without Little Gilbert, a substitute for Little Gilbert is not considered a failure.

After finishing the North American promotion trip, little Gilbert no longer followed the crew for overseas promotions, but went on vacation.

Although there is still a lot of work behind "The Matrix", that is no longer Gilbert's main task.

In addition to constantly going to China to check on the preparations for "Lord of the Rings", he also started preparing to adapt "Chicago".

Little Gilbert is finally ready to bring this Broadway classic that has been copyrighted for several years to the big screen. Naomi Watts has been waiting for a long time.

In addition to Naomi Watts, the originally confirmed actor, Gilbert Jr. also sent an invitation to Catherine Zeta Jones, and also handed over the cooperation invitation that Tom Cruise had been thinking about.

The original Richard Gere was abandoned by Gilbert Jr. Who in their right mind would choose a third-tier actor when Tom Cruise is available?
Little Gilbert had no idea, so he chose to cooperate with Tom Cruise.

However, the main purpose of this film is to target next year's Oscars. Cruise will definitely have to cut his salary to star, otherwise the crew will not be able to afford it.

The same goes for Little Gilbert. He will only receive a symbolic salary of one million US dollars, but he will not compromise on the box office share.

As for Warner and Disney, when they heard that Gilbert Jr. planned to shoot a musical, their immediate reaction was:

Our summer king, he’s gone crazy…

It's really crazy. Obviously "The Matrix" has done well!

Even if you don't make a sequel movie, it's not bad to work on your "Lord of the Rings" movie! Why are you just thinking about making a musical? Incomprehensible.

However, the investment scale of this film is not large, and Xigua Studio will invest independently.

Little Gilbert's original words were: If any of you are interested in the distribution business, just come and talk.

This is almost an attitude. Little Gilbert seems to be hinting that whichever company is interested in publishing, Melon Studio will be more inclined to this company in terms of mergers and acquisitions.

Therefore, there was no need to hesitate. Although they were not optimistic about the prospects of musicals, Warner and Disney did not give other film companies a chance and took over the overseas and North American distribution of the film.

Little Gilbert does not have the aura of being mentally retarded, and the two companies released this film with the intention of losing money, in order to win Little Gilbert to rely on their companies.

Is it really impossible for musicals to succeed in today's film market? I'm afraid there is a question mark.

(End of this chapter)