The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 1184 Pioneer

The Christmas atmosphere is still in the air.

During this week, the North American film market often triggers a holiday effect, and the box office of movies currently showing in theaters has rebounded across the board. Movies are still one of the preferred choices for thousands of family gatherings during the holidays.

This year is no exception.

Movies such as "The Lord of the Rings", "The Butterfly Effect", "The Matrix 3" and so on are still in theaters; new works such as "A Lot of Kids", "Cold Mountain", "Peter Pan", "Memento Motion Picture" and so on will all be released this week.

Dazzled and overwhelmed.

In this wave, a trickle meandered from the East Coast to the West Coast. Independent art theaters got the news one after another and took action one after another, attracting the attention of veteran fanatical movie fans.

The general public has their own fun at Christmas, and veteran movie lovers also have their own parties at Christmas, without interfering with each other's general carnival.

Houston. Dallas. Seattle. San Francisco. And, of course, Los Angeles.

All without exception, all in busy mode.

All because of the "elephant".

There is no doubt that the "Elephant" currently being screened has nothing to do with the North American weekend box office rankings. The huge gap in the number of screening venues ensures that the movie and the box office boom will not appear in the same news headline.

However, this still did not affect the movie lovers from enjoying the party——

No matter what attitude they hold, even if the trolls go to the cinema to find fault with the intention of complaining and being picky, they still become part of this wave and quietly become a wonderful spectacle of this Christmas.

SOLD OUT! SOLD OUT! SOLD OUT!

It all started at the Angelica Film Center and IFC Film Center in New York. The unexpectedly long queues and incredibly sold-out shows caused a surge of astonishment and exclamations in the independent film community.

The virus continued to spread, and later screening venues in other cities made timely adjustments, but they still could not avoid the outcome of all Friday screenings being sold out.

"The Palme d'Or-winning film 'Elephant' premiered today, and all screenings in North America are sold out!"

Mainstream media, led by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, immediately updated the news on their official websites, and the news spread in a mighty manner.

America is shocked!

Even though this is the Palme d'Or, even though this is Anson, even though people have just marveled at the incredible box office performance of "The Butterfly Effect" in North America, when I see this news at this moment, my brain is still in a storm.

Especially in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, even though theaters have added screens and showtimes in a timely manner, it is still a drop in the bucket and has not been able to stop the wave of movie tickets being sold out.

"The bottom line is that there are too few cinemas."

“Vanity Fair” hits the nail on the head.

Only Los Angeles and New York had two theaters each, while all other cities had only one. No matter how the screens and showtimes were arranged, it still could not satisfy the audience's needs.

"If this was a marketing exercise, then there's no doubt they were hugely successful; now there's a real possibility that HBO didn't anticipate it."

“So, here comes the problem.”

"How long can this wave last? What will be the attendance rate on Saturday and Sunday? After the audience's curiosity and impulse subside, what will be the subsequent reputation of the movie? How should the next expansion of the movie be arranged?"

“This is the biggest unknown.”

"Of course, before these unknowns come to a conclusion, 'Elephant' has already won. This independent film, which cost only three million U.S. dollars to produce, will have no problem recovering its costs. It may even become a rare profitable work in HBO's film investment in recent years. They are already a winner." Hotly discussed, attracting attention and focus.

During the Christmas season, other works were competing fiercely, including "The Butterfly Effect", but unexpectedly, "The Elephant" quietly stole the topic, making people curious about the next development of the film.

As Vanity Fair said, Friday is just the beginning. What about Saturday and Sunday? What about the second and third week and beyond?

This time, even HBO's attention has focused on it——

HBO had no expectations or set any goals for the box office of "Elephant". Their plan was to let the movie stir up discussion and promotion on the big screen, and then attract viewers to return to their TV screens and subscribe to HBO.

Anyway, HBO has no ambitions for the awards season prospects of "Elephant". At the very beginning, "Elephant" was an experimental TV movie, and its current position has far exceeded expectations.

However, the film was sold out across the United States when it was screened on Friday.

Things suddenly became different.

In the bustling tide, the importance of "The Elephant"'s media reviews and theater ratings soared, attracting countless attention in an instant.

Friendly reminder: "Elephant" only scored 2.1 in the official Cannes program.

2.1 out of a full four points is failing.

Obviously, the sold-out tickets on Friday were the unexpected result of an unintended hunger marketing campaign. If the media reviews of "The Elephant" are not satisfactory, and curiosity and expectations cool down, the subsequent performance of the film should plummet.

After all, unlike "Elephant" and "Butterfly Effect", it is difficult for such art films to attract the public through controversy or to create a wave of heated discussion.

For them, media reviews do play a key role.

At the first moment, Roger Ebert stepped forward, did not hide his position at all, and stood behind the "elephant" without hesitation.

Previously in Cannes, Roger gave "Elephant" a full four-point rating; and now returning to the North American continent, he continued his attitude in the "Chicago Sun-Times", generously giving all the praise to "Elephant".

One hundred percent!

“If I had to choose one must-see film from all the works in this year’s award season, I would recommend ‘Elephant’, not because it is so excellent or perfect, but precisely because of its imperfections, it becomes real and brings more aftertaste after it ends.”

"While we are pursuing perfection in artistic creation, more perfect scripts, more perfect character arcs, more perfect performances, and more perfect thematic expressions, the incompleteness and vitality rooted in reality are gradually lost in the mature industrial production system of Hollywood."

"All the way to 'Elephant.'"

"It reminds us why we create art. Not for awards, not for box office, but to explore ourselves, society and life."

This scene is rare.

Roger wrote film reviews for the same movie twice, both times he gave them full marks; and he approached the film from different angles, giving it top praise.

One small action can show Roger's love for this work.

Following "The Butterfly Effect", Roger praised Anson's work for the second time in a short period of time. This treatment is rare in Hollywood.

No wonder some people joked that Anson's dazzling debut at the Cannes Film Festival this year not only conquered movie fans and French audiences, but also conquered Roger Ebert.

Who would have thought that this Pulitzer Prize winner would become Anson's biggest fan?

(End of this chapter)