The king of ghost horse comedy

Chapter 236 Another great achievement
In November, another piece of good news came from across the ocean. After a year of filming, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was finally finished.

When Xu Guanwu heard the news, he couldn't help being taken aback, and after thinking for a long time, he remembered that it was true that he had indeed invested in such a movie.

That was about a year ago, so long that even Xu Guanwu forgot that he invested in such a movie.

Compared with Xu Guanwu's indifference, Michael Douglas, the producer of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", seemed very excited. He talked on the phone about how wonderful the movie was, and it could compete for next year's Oscars, etc. Wait.

Xu Guanwu couldn't help yawning after listening to Michael's long-winded speech, "Very good, not bad, is it arranged to be screened?"

Michael Douglas was taken aback after hearing this, "Not yet, the post-production editing is in progress."

"Okay, let's hand it over to 20th Century Fox for distribution after we're done." Xu Guanwu nodded.

Michael Douglas didn't have any objections to which film company to distribute the film to, but he immediately agreed after hearing Xu Guanwu's words.

""One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"?!" After hanging up the phone, Xu Guanwu was stunned again.The reason why he invested in this film at the beginning was because it once appeared in the "Chinese Reader" in high school.

Movies that can be included in mainland high school textbooks, without exception, must have extremely high artistic value, such as "The Sound of Music", such as "The Dawns Here Are Quiet", such as "The Wrangler", such as "A River of Spring Flows Eastward" ...

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" can be juxtaposed with these classic masterpieces, which shows that its ideological artistry must be top-notch.It's just that when it comes to box office results, it's hard to say.

Xu Guanwu didn't expect it to win much box office. He only hoped that when it was included in "Chinese Reader" in the future, a line of small words would be marked below, "This film was invested and filmed by Mr. Xu Guanwu, an outstanding Chinese filmmaker", and it would really be famous in history. .

So when Michael Douglas called for the second time to inform him that the box office of the movie exceeded 8000 million US dollars, Xu Guanwu was completely stunned.

"What do you think is the box office of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"?" Xu Guanwu asked in surprise.

"Eighty four and a half million dollars, sir, it's eighty four and a half million dollars." Michael Douglas shouted ecstatically.

"Damn it!" Xu Guanwu couldn't find any other suitable words to describe his current mood except for swearing.

It was a surprise that a movie that I had no hope for at all achieved a box office score of 8000 million US dollars.

Even though Xu Guanwu is not short of that box office right now, but hearing this news, he still can't help admiring his shit luck. "How can you vote for a random film and have such an astonishing box office result?" Now those media have to report again.

"I wanted to call you a long time ago to inform you of the good news. But the box office is rising every day, so I want to tell you the best news when the growth rate slows down." Michael Douglas explained.

Xu Guanwu didn't have the time to find fault with his negligent reporting responsibilities. He was just happy that he had gained tens of millions of dollars out of thin air.

Michael Douglas was also overjoyed. He wanted to make this movie before, just to fulfill his old father's dream, but now he accidentally made tens of millions of dollars. It was really a surprise.

When Xu Guanwu invested in the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", because he didn't know that the movie would be so profitable, he generously distributed 15% of the box office to Michael Douglas and his father. Now it seems that he has given up at least Tens of millions of dollars at the box office.In the future, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" will sell well all over the world, and Douglas and his son can still get a share.

If it was Xu Guanwu a year ago, he would definitely be annoyed by his hasty decision, but now he has completely seen it.

Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong, he has acquired 30% of the shares; Li Shau Kee’s Henderson Land, he has nearly half of the shares; Hu Yingxiang Hehe Real Estate also has half of the shares; Guo Desheng’s Sun Hung Kai Properties, he still owns 18% of the shares ...

To put it bluntly, the biggest land king in Hong Kong in the future is no longer Li Ka-shing or Guo Desheng, but Xu Guanwu.So how do you count the gains and losses of that $2000 million?

What's more, he originally invested more than 300 million US dollars, and now he can earn tens of millions.

……

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" has successfully won the favor of North American audiences with its high degree of thought and artistry.

When the film was first distributed by 20th Century Fox, Darryl Zanjuk already knew it was a great movie.

And he still remembers that when the filming started last year, it caused controversy in the American media: Is it appropriate to hand over this masterpiece of the hippie movement to foreigners for investment and filming?I remember that the entire United States was in a quarrel at that time.

Darryl Zanjuk is not afraid of quarrels. On the contrary, he thinks that the louder the quarrels, the better. The louder the quarrels, the more people will pay attention, and he can save a lot of publicity costs.

So what Darryl Zanjuk needs to do is to issue another report to provoke the keen nerves in the hearts of Americans and make them revive and become excited again.

Darryl Zanjuk was really scheming. After a report was published, it was immediately reposted by other media and spread throughout North America within a day.

""One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is about to be released, can Stanley create another miracle? The latest masterpiece of Stanley Xu, the legendary investor of "Rocky" and "Jaws", is one of the masterpieces in the hearts of hippies, can "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" be repeated? A miracle?"

Not long after "Jaws" came out, audiences all over the United States were still scared by the ferocious great white shark and dared not go swimming in the sea. The seaside tourism industry in the United States was devastated, and the entire Hollywood filmmakers were extremely fond of that film. The strong ability to absorb money is still fresh in my memory.

Now, after a lapse of one month, the third film invested by Stanley Xu is going to be released in North America again, causing panic among many Hollywood film companies.

Last year, "Rocky" was released, earning 4000 million US dollars. At that time, it beat all the other films released at the same time. No.1 list lasted for seven weeks, leaving No.2 far behind.

Now the third film is about to be released, and it is also a film adapted from the famous book "Flying Over the Cuckoo's Nest".The starring role is the well-known Hollywood actor Jack Nicholson, the director is the famous Czech director Milos Forman, and the producer is the famous Michael Douglas...

Whether it's reading the script or looking at the crew lineup, this "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is far superior to "Rocky" and "Jaws", and judging from several previews held by 20th Century Fox, the evaluations given by the audience They are all very high.So it seems that this "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" will repeat the scenes of "Rocky" and "Jaws" sweeping all the films of the same period.

Under such concerns, several other distribution companies in Hollywood have adjusted their film release schedules for a while, pushing back all the films that are expected to achieve high box office, and only use some low-cost films to fill the schedule as cannon fodder .

Of course, there are also those who are lucky and will not return even if they are killed. For example, MGM Pictures released the tens of millions of dollars in the same period "Black Lion and the Great Wind". En Connery starred, and the content of the story is also similar to the 007 movie.

MGM has a lot of confidence in this movie, hoping it will achieve another success like the 007 movie.And it is played by old 007 actors, which is also very gimmick, so there is no need to worry about not having audiences who like 007 come to join in.

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is not like "Jaws", which was released in more than 400 theaters across the United States at the same time.Strictly speaking, this movie is not a blockbuster commercial movie. Although the quality of the movie is very high, it may not be a blockbuster if it is well received.Darryl Zarnuk is well aware of this.

So in the beginning, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was just a pilot show in a few theaters around Los Angeles.

20th Century Fox did not promote the film too much, relying on the spontaneous publicity of the media and word-of-mouth from the audience.But what is surprising is that the box office of this movie has achieved very good results.It was full for three consecutive days, and there was still a long line of people waiting in front of the theater to buy tickets.

Such a scene made Darryl Zanjuk very excited, and quickly expanded the scale of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", and finally expanded to 800.Although it is far inferior to the more than [-] theaters of "Jaws", compared to other art films, it is already a super-scale release.

At the same time as the movie was released, movie reviews from major newspapers were also published.Compared with the two films of "Jaws" and "Rocky", the film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" received overwhelming applause.

All the media praised this film for using the special institution of the mental hospital and the special group of mental patients to satirize the rigidity of the Soviet political system and everyone living in a cage.The chief who finally escaped from the mental hospital is the incarnation of director Milos Forman.He escaped from the Czech Republic, a country ruled by the iron fist of the Soviet Union, and came to the United States, a free and democratic country...

The in-depth interpretation of the media actually made the director Milos Foreman very depressed. This film is adapted from "Flying Over the Cuckoo's Nest" written by Americans. In fact, it is the exercise of power to control the people, suppressing human nature and restricting freedom.

In the end, because of my identity as a Czech director, I was abruptly dragged by the media to the Soviet Union. It was like a crow fell on a pig, and I couldn't see my blackness.

But while the director Milos Forman was depressed, the distributor Fon Daryl Zanjuk was very happy.Relying on these media’s continuous singing of praises for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and making various deep or shallow interpretations, the exposure of this film has greatly increased, basically without spending any publicity fees, and it has obtained what is difficult to do with money. Propaganda effect.

With the media's continuous reports and interpretations, while the popularity of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" has greatly increased, the box office has also risen rapidly.

After one week of its release, it ranked seventh in the weekly movie box office list, and ranked first in the box office list with US$2000 million in the second week, which was US$2 million more than No.100, a huge difference. .

However, MGM's "Black Lion", which intends to challenge the 007 series of movies, has a box office of only 300 million U.S. dollars, ranking tenth on the weekend movie rankings.

The box office performance of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in the third week is still astonishing, and it is proud of its peers. MGM Pictures' "Black Lion" is still sad. It is estimated that in the end, MGM can only recover the cost by selling overseas copyrights.

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", the third film invested by Stanley Xu, once again achieved an astonishing box office performance, which made people admire his investment vision.

The previous "Rocky" and "Jaws" were shocking enough, but this "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is still not inferior.

"How on earth did he do it?"

"What exactly is Stanley Xu's investment know-how?"

……

For a while, many film company bosses wanted to ask him this question.

(End of this chapter)