Made in Hollywood

Why do these Hollywood studios operate Oscars? Need to invest a lot of money in it? If the investment in award-winning films in the past was roughly hundreds of thousands or more than one million dollars, just like this edition of "Chicago", the total investment was only one million dollars, then since "The English Patient", Mira Max officially joined the game, and Oscar rush expenses will pile up to millions of dollars or even tens of millions of dollars at lightning speed.

By the turn of the century, tens of millions of dollars is even just an entry-level guarantee for awards.

Why do film companies invest so much money? Because of honor and artistic achievement? This is indeed a high-sounding reason that can improve compelling.

Actually?

Perhaps last year’s victory in "Saving Private Ryan" is the best example. The film won nine Oscars. At the time of the awards, they were basically offline from the global market. The winnings were not very helpful to the box office.

but! Don’t forget that a movie does not only have box office revenue. As time goes by, the ratio of the movie’s box office revenue to the total revenue is declining!

After the last Oscar, "Saving Private Ryan" launched video tapes and vcds in the global market including North America, including both sales and leases. As of the new year, "◇, the total revenue in the global market" For 144.58 million US dollars!

There are also TV broadcast rights, and the total global revenue reaches 41.8 million US dollars!

In addition, the film also cooperated with Hasbro to launch dolls with roles such as the rescue team and Private Ryan. Although the sales situation can only be said to be very general, there are more than 4 million US dollars in revenue.

The best film can be said to have played an important role.

Before the Internet is underdeveloped, information has not completely exploded, and the Oscars have not been completely niche and politicized, Oscar nominations and best films are still the vane of quite a lot of candidates. Except for a few weird films such as "The Shawshank's Redemption", films that have received multiple Oscar nominations will generally see a substantial increase in commercial income.

After the Oscar nominations were announced, the North American screenings of "Chicago" expanded again. The first time it fell to 428 theaters to 1,550 theaters, just like last year's "Saving Private Ryan". Stimulated by the Oscar nomination, many viewers who hadn't planned to watch the film walked into the theater, and others who had already watched it reviewed it again.

In the first weekend after the theater’s skyrocketing, the box office of "Chicago" rebounded strongly, showing a significant reverse increase, closing at $10.78 million in three days. In the following three weeks, the film won $8.75 million, $5.89 million and At US$4.58 million, the North American box office totaled US$169.81 million.

The film's North American box office potential is gradually exhausted. The theaters once again fell sharply, with less than 500 companies continuing to harvest the last possible gains in North America.

Also after the nomination list was announced, the overseas release of "Chicago" officially opened, and the film also landed in some markets in Europe, Latin America, Australia, Asia and even Africa.

The ten Oscar nominations did give the film a dazzling halo, but the song and dance film left the Western world and was doomed to be unaccustomed. It was during the four weeks that Duke and Charles Rowan discussed New Zealand affairs. "Chicago" received 11 million US dollars from Australia and 6.37 million US dollars from France. It received 5.32 million US dollars in Germany and 9.22 million US dollars in Spain.

The film’s two largest overseas ticket warehouses appeared in the United Kingdom, which shares the same roots with American culture, and Japan, which is deeply influenced by American culture. They received the highest overseas US$27.33 million and US$25.93 million respectively, plus other millions. In the market, the film’s overseas box office quickly reached 100 million US dollars!

Until late February. The global box office of "Chicago" has accumulated to $287.55 million!

Subsequently, Duke Studios cooperated with Warner Records to release the original soundtrack of "Chicago". The disc was released for two weeks, and its sales in North America alone easily exceeded one platinum level. Up to 1.52 million sheets.

The discs were also listed on overseas markets. When the time came to mid-March, the soundtrack album had sold for more than 30 million US dollars. Although the Duke Studio had to split the accounts with Warner Records and the marketer, but only this item was recovered. A quarter of the production cost!

The popularity of the film also drove the development of other peripherals. At the same time, the Duke’s Studio and Mattel reached an agreement to authorize the copyright of Velma and Roxy’s doll models for 1.5 million US dollars, although according to Hollywood practice, three of them One part will be used to pay for the portrait rights of Naomi Watts and Catherine Zeta Jones, and the remaining US$1 million is also a significant gain.

Duke Studios and Warner Bros. are still negotiating with a number of TV stations. At this time, they also reached a partial agreement. NBC took away the North American first-round TV broadcast rights for the film for $3 million.

Because the film is also shown in North America on the scale of more than 300 theaters, and it can contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars in the box office every day, TV broadcasts can only wait until after the Oscars.

…………

"Charles, after all, we have to go and inspect it ourselves."

In the Duke’s studio, Duke closed the thick folder and said to Charles Rowan, “After I came back from London, we called Robin and went to New Zealand together.”

Charles Rowan checked the time, stood up and said, "Then I will wait for your call."

The two shook hands and said goodbye. Duke watched him leave the office and sat behind his desk. In fact, it was not only New Zealand. He also wanted to go to Hong Kong to find some action guides.

New Zealand is preparing the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Of course he will not be stupid enough to add kung fu-like action elements to it, otherwise the film will be nondescript, and the street may be infinite.

Duke looked for action guidance, naturally, for a science fiction film that was filed a few years ago, using kung fu to show program conflicts. Using a name he was familiar with, this project could be named "The Matrix."

This is also a very troublesome film to prepare. Not to mention the special effects that consume a lot of time and manpower. It will take several months to train Hollywood actors to become effective Kung Fu actors. And it is difficult to save time and effort, and the preliminary training is not enough. It will inevitably lead to endless problems during shooting, and even the actors are injured.

What's more, Duke has also discussed with the action coaching team who has worked on several films in succession. They will definitely participate in the film in the future. All training and performance processes will be filmed with high-power cameras, and then high-tech means will be used frame by frame. analysis.

The purpose of this is clear. Just to steal the teacher.

Of course, Duke is not a kung fu lover, nor is he interested in flying around and complicated fights. Instead, he allows his action team to combine kung fu, Muay Thai, wrestling, karate and free combat to design more direct and aggressive With simple and crude action routines, he knows after all that Kung Fu movies have been popular in North America and the entire Western world for a very short time. After the audience's freshness disappeared, they were quickly beaten back to their original form.

Speaking of which, Hollywood's way of action has been like a day for decades. It's so hard to look at...

This can be said to be one of the reasons why Kung Fu movies can prosper in North America at the turn of the century, but Hollywood has always been a melting pot. If you know how to integrate, you can become an important member of this circle. If you follow the old ways, you will soon Eliminated by this circle.

And Hollywood does not need to understand what kung fu is. For a highly professional and technological team, it can learn a little bit of kung fu. It is enough to combine other fighting methods to design action routines that are more suitable for the world.

As for pushing Kung Fu movies to the world? Duke believes that in the East where talents are born in large numbers. There are countless people more suitable than him.

After thinking for a while, Duke pressed the phone and called Tina Fei in. His female assistant had just experienced a terrible incident that was so horrible that many people could collapse, and only recently returned to work again.

Duke pointed to the chair across from the desk. After Tina Fei sat down, she asked, "Are you moving out of North Hollywood?"

"Yes, I don't want to stay there anymore."

After long hours of work, Tina Fei also found a way to get along with Duke. Knowing that my boss is very good to the people around me, he said frankly, "I usually live in the Duke Manor, but I only live in the Duke Manor occasionally on weekends, but I encounter this kind of thing. My impression of North Hollywood is extremely bad."

"Have you found a suitable house?" Duke saw Tina Fei shook his head and said, "Temporarily put the luggage at my place, and the house can be found slowly. Also, I'm going to London on the weekend, and you stay in Los Angeles to rest. All right."

"I have recovered." Tina Fei insisted.

Seeing the firm eyes of the other party, Duke couldn't say anything, and waved to her, "Remember to book a flight to London."

Tina Fei nodded and stood up, turned and walked out of the office.

Duke sighed, this woman was also considered strong.

On the last day of February, the worst bank robbery in Los Angeles history occurred in North Hollywood. Two bandits armed with drums and ak rifles robbed the Los Angeles branch of Bank of America on Laurel Valley Boulevard. Department, and the hapless Tina Fei happened to go to the bank to deal with her own accounting problems. Unfortunately, she was involved and witnessed the whole process of the incident.

In fact, Duke also saw it, because at the time of the incident, abc TV station had a helicopter nearby to do live broadcasts, and he rushed to the scene as soon as possible. Through the camera lens and TV screen, it showed two people in the United States wearing double layers. How did Kevlar, a gangster with automatic firepower, suppress more than fifty Los Angeles police officers and hold their heads up until the swat came to support...

Such an event is likely to leave a shadow for a lifetime.

Recalling the picture he saw on the TV, Duke suddenly flashed an idea, this should be good material for adaptation, right?

When the "Lord of the Rings" series arrives in the latter two, the narrative method will become extremely complicated. The two-line three-line narrative will become the norm. The investment in the film is so huge that he cannot be missed. It is bound to be a low-cost three-line narrative film. helpful.

Duke wrote a note in his memo. This is just a very rudimentary idea. Whether it should be implemented or not, it is better to make plans after participating in the Victoria's Secret annual show from London. (To be continued...)

ps: The weather is gloomy and not raining, and it is very boring~~~~ Ask for a recommendation ticket to comfort your mood~~~