hollywood melon man

Chapter 429: Hollywood Earns Hard-earned Money

This year's Chinese mainland market does not seem to be as lively as last year, but a big event did happen in April. Zhang, a generation of Chinese pop superstar known as Brother, jumped off a cliff and died.

Perhaps this also indicates that the Chinese-language film market will be unsettled this year.

In the first half of the year, the mainland movie market was basically dominated by Hong Kong movies. However, there were few movies with a box office of more than 30 million RMB, as if mainland audiences were no longer interested in Hong Kong movies.

The highest-grossing Chinese-language film in the first half of the year was "Cat Loves Mouse", starring Tak-wah Liu and Cecilia Cheung, with a box office of 3300 million RMB.

The highest-grossing movie is "X-Men 2" from Hollywood, which has accumulated 4300 million RMB so far.

After last year's "Hero", there are no new works released by the national director this year. Feng Dapao's "Cell Phone" will be released yet in the distant future, and Gilbert said he has never heard of the names of the other mainland movies.

Although the overall box office performance in the mainland was not ideal in the first half of the year, this situation changed after the release of "Pirates of the Caribbean".

The film was released on Tuesday, June 130, and earned million RMB on the first day, which is higher than the total box office of many movies released in the first half of the year.

You should know that among the top 30 films on the mainland box office chart in the first half of the year, there were films with box office revenues of hundreds of thousands, which can be described as extremely bleak.

Next, "Pirates of the Caribbean" continued to dominate the mainland film market.

It earned 221 million RMB on Wednesday, 307 million RMB on Thursday, and 1160 million RMB on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the first week's box office reaching 1818 million RMB.

Looking at the box office situation, although it cannot replicate the success of "The Return of the King" in the mainland last year, it will not be a problem to get 80 or 90 million RMB, or even hundreds of millions of RMB.

It seems that apart from Hong Kong films, this year will also be dominated by Hollywood movies, as many films will be released in the mainland market in the future.

Since the signing of the WTO agreement, the mainland's quota for imported films has reached 20 films per year. More and more Hollywood imported blockbusters have become an important part of the mainland market.

However, the potential of this market needs to be explored. Even if "Pirates of the Caribbean" earns 1 million RMB at the mainland box office, it would only be more than 1200 million US dollars.

According to the profit-sharing agreement, the distributor can only get more than 180 million US dollars in box office revenue.

Looking at the revenue from this box office revenue sharing ratio, it is even lower than some small European countries. In other words, Hollywood movies earn hard-earned money, and the real big share goes to China Film Group, which is responsible for introducing the films.

The film profit-sharing system in mainland China is different from that in Hollywood. In Hollywood, the distributor takes the majority of the profit, while the cinema chains take the smaller share. The cinema chains mainly make profits from peripheral ancillary products, which has been explained before.

Mainland cinemas that rely on peripheral products for profit are probably going to starve to death, so box office revenue is the bulk of mainland cinema chains’ profits.

So Hollywood filmmakers would be very confused, since it is obvious that Chinese production and distribution companies have spent investment and energy to make the movie and promote it.

As a result, Chinese cinemas do nothing but take the most money. So what’s the point of these production companies making movies?
In fact, this is because many Hollywood filmmakers do not understand the situation of the mainland film market, because Hollywood has a system of separation of production and broadcasting.

A film company is a film company, and a cinema chain is a cinema chain.

Chinese film companies, such as China Film Group, are not only responsible for production, but also control the screening process and own cinema chains.

So you think that Chinese film companies only get a small share of the box office revenue, which seems to be a loss, but in fact, part of the theater revenue also belongs to them.

This is equivalent to a person who has a job, is responsible for all aspects of the job, and then makes a lot of money.

In the case of "Pirates of the Caribbean", China Film Group made a huge profit, while Disney and Warner, as the producers, made very little money.

It seemed that this box office revenue didn't warrant a special trip for Gilbert Jr. and Johnny Depp, but they came anyway.

Many times we should not focus on the present, but on the future.

The film received good reviews when it was released in its first week, and many mainland media gave "Pirates of the Caribbean" their positive reviews.

But when it comes to talent, Chinese netizens are still the most talented.

One netizen composed a limerick, the poem goes like this;
“The captain is very charming and the crabs love him.

If you follow Jack, you will go hungry nine times out of three days.

I have no food to eat, and I am beaten with steel sticks for no reason.”

Another netizen commented: "I have to say, the part where the pirates attacked the castle in the moonlight and turned into skeletons, and the part where Elizabeth saw the skeleton crew on the ship scared me."

"Hollywood blockbusters' special effects are so real. Captain Jack and Barbossa are fighting with swords in the cave. The two of them are moving back and forth in the moonlight-filled cave, sometimes turning into humans and sometimes turning into skeletons. It's so exciting."

"I'm going to watch it again. This is the best movie I've seen this year. The last time I had this experience was The Return of the King."

"I'm different. My favorite movie is Titanic."

"Me too……"

In short, netizens have given very high praise to this "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.

As for the plot, to be honest, the fans who watched the movie in the cinema didn't pay any attention to it. They were all attracted by the special effects and exquisite scenes. When "Pirates of the Caribbean" was released in mainland China, Gilbert also participated in the lecture of Shanghai Film Festival and sat together with the national teacher Zhang and director Chen Gezi to communicate.

The host of the lecture was still the leading actress of CCTV-6, and the lecture was also broadcasted in full by CCTV-6.

There is also an introduction at the beginning, introducing Gilbert Jr.'s resume to the TV audience.
"He is one of the most successful Hollywood directors since the 80s. Every one of his films has amazed people, and the box office of his films has exceeded $ billion.

He is persistent, hardworking, studious, diligent, and tenacious. He represents the American dream. Let us welcome Director Gilbert Landrini..."

As the host spoke, little Gilbert walked onto the stage with mature steps, waved to the guests at the lecture, and greeted the audience in front of the TV.

After little Gilbert came on stage, national teacher Zhang and pigeon Chen also came on stage. After the three of them sat down, the etiquette lady served tea.

The format this time was quite innovative, similar to a tea party, where the three of them talked about Chinese and American culture and movies in the form of a chat.

The organizers also hoped that Gilbert would not be too formal, because the words used in formal occasions are very formal. Chatting like this would allow him to speak some truth.

Liu Ji and Guo Fan got the qualifications to attend the lecture, mainly by Liu Ji. Of course, he did not forget his good friend and dragged Guo Fan to attend as well.

The two found their seats and sat down. The lecture hadn't started yet and people around them were whispering.

Many of the people who attended the lecture met Gilbert Jr. for the first time and were very curious about this handsome director from Hollywood.

"I heard that Director Gilbert Jr. can speak Chinese. Is that true?"

"Of course it's true. He even greeted fans in Chinese on the red carpet."

“Curious, how did he learn Chinese?”

This is indeed a question, but soon Chen Gezi on the stage asked the question on behalf of everyone: "Director Gilbert, can I ask you a personal question?"

Little Gilbert nodded and said, "Please ask..."

As expected, he answered in Chinese, and his fluency in Chinese was better than that of many Shanghai locals.

Pigeon Chen asked: "I have been to the United States, and I know that for many people, Chinese is a nightmare. How long did it take you to reach this level?"

Gilbert Jr. pretended to recall the past and answered, "It was probably during my time at USC, about four years."

There was a burst of exclamations from the audience. Learning a language in four years, and Chinese at that? Unbelievable.

Little Gilbert seemed to know everyone's confusion, he smiled and said: "English is made up of letters, if you want to learn it, you must remember the words.

But Chinese is different. It is one of the few writing systems and languages ​​in the world that evolved from hieroglyphics. At least for me, this language is not difficult.

On the contrary, I studied French with Sophie Marceau, but I only know a few French curse words."

Gilbert's next words made the atmosphere light-hearted and humorous, but it was also strange at the same time. Is Chinese really that simple?

In fact, it is not that simple. Little Gilbert just wants to pretend to show how awesome he is.

Just like promoting a movie in France or the UK, Guibert Jr. talked about how interested he was in Chinese culture in China, and how interested he was in French culture in France.

"You are interested in Chinese culture. Have you ever watched Chinese-language movies?" the host interrupted.

"Of course I have," Little Gilbert looked at Master Zhang and Pigeon Chen and said, "In fact, I have seen the works of both directors, such as "Hero" and "Farewell My Concubine", both are good."

Big Hollywood directors have seen their movies. Master Zhang is not too impressed, but Chen Gezi is a little proud of it.

The look in his eyes seems to be saying: You, a foreigner, have good taste.

National Master Zhang finally asked a meaningful question: "What do you think is the gap between Chinese and American films?"

Gilbert Jr.'s answer surprised everyone: "I think it's the industrial base."

This answer surprised Zhang, the national teacher, and also surprised the audience. Guo Fan and Liu Ji looked at each other in bewilderment. They both thought that Gilbert would talk about multiple factors such as culture and politics!
But Gilbert Jr. certainly didn't want to talk about such a sensitive topic, so he talked about the most basic film industry, which is indeed related to the development of the film industry.

Without waiting for the audience to think, Gilbert Jr. continued, "Hollywood was not popular all over the world from the beginning. Before the 1990s, European films could compete with Hollywood films.

But by the mid-1990s, with the advancement of the Hollywood film industry and technology, European films were already far inferior to Hollywood films.”

In fact, the main reason for the global popularity of Hollywood movies in the 1990s was the fall of a giant bear, but obviously this reason cannot be said on this occasion.

I have to say that looking at Chinese-language films and the development and changes in the film market from the perspective of Hollywood directors has given mainland filmmakers a lot of inspiration, and this lecture is still very meaningful.

(End of this chapter)