I really don't want to be in the entertainment industry.

Chapter 369 Don't play with fire (Please subscribe for support!)
...

Although it's not a comedy movie, and it's not even suitable for watching during the Spring Festival, which is a time for family reunion, but due to Xu Kai's reputation in the past, he and "Farewell My Concubine" have already won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and the highest honor at the Cannes International Film Festival. Nearly a hundred awards and nominations, including the Palme d'Or, have accumulated great popularity. Once "Farewell My Concubine" was released, it still led the box office of the Spring Festival.

——The box office of "Farewell My Concubine" was still more than 2 million on the first day, and nearly 10 billion in the first week.

Moreover, the reputation of "Farewell My Concubine" is overwhelming, and everyone has to admit that "Farewell My Concubine" is an excellent movie, worthy of its name.

but--

After all, literary films are still literary films. After the initial enthusiasm for supporting the best films in Huaguo, the box office of "Farewell My Concubine" also began to decline, and it went down like a cliff.

To paraphrase an audience member, I know "Farewell My Concubine" is a good movie, even the best movie in Huaguo, but I want to watch those funny comedies that Yu Qingyun made in the past, even more Laugh heartlessly while watching a movie, instead of crying or learning something after watching a movie. Movies are just a pastime in my spare time. I don’t want to shed tears for it, and I If you really want to study, isn’t it good to read books or look up information? If you really can’t do it, you can enroll in a cram school. Why go to the cinema?

As far as the facts are concerned, this viewer's statement actually represents the aspirations of many moviegoers. After all, many people watch movies just to have a laugh, not to seek abuse or enlightenment, especially during the Chinese New Year.

This can also explain why the box office of "Farewell My Concubine" went up and down.

As Xu Kai often said, artistic movies have a high threshold and high reputation, but the public does not buy it, while entertaining movies have a low threshold and low reputation, but the public buys it.

Therefore, if you want to make money, don't talk about art. Only by sinking to please the public can you make money.

"Farewell My Concubine", which has won numerous awards, must be a good movie, there is no doubt about it.

But it's a bit unrealistic to want "Farewell My Concubine" to make more money than Xu Kai's past entertaining movies.

To put it simply, while everyone says "Farewell My Concubine" is good, fewer and fewer people are willing to spend money on "Farewell My Concubine". This is actually a very normal market phenomenon, and there is nothing surprising about it.

Moreover, Xu Kai had expected this.

Fortunately-

"Farewell My Concubine" has a lot of halos and is indeed blinding, and it has some commercial aspects.

Therefore, "Farewell My Concubine" still won more than 15 billion movie box office for Xu Kai.

In addition, the overseas box office of "Farewell My Concubine" is good, and it has won a high box office of nearly [-] million US dollars in North America alone.

Therefore, "Farewell My Concubine" still earns more than other films, and it doesn't mean that Xu Kai's title as the number one commercial director has been insulted.

The key point is that although the box office of "Farewell My Concubine" is not satisfactory, another "Rush Hour" also bears the title of Xu Kai's director, which helped Xu Kai "get the place back".

At the same time that "Rush Hour" was released in North America, it was also released in China during the Spring Festival.

As a result, "Rush Hour" not only stirred up the box office market in North America together with "Iron Man", but it was also a latecomer in China and overwhelmed "Farewell My Concubine" to become the final winner of the Spring Festival.

——In the end, "Rush Hour" temporarily drew the curtain with a total box office of 4.11 million US dollars in North America and 21 billion Chinese dollars in China.

Yes.

This is only temporary, because "Rush Hour" will be released in other countries and regions.

By the way, "Iron Man" also achieved a final box office of 3.19 million US dollars in North America, and it has begun to be released in other countries and regions of the world.

It is expected that "Iron Man" will land in China during the summer - this is Xu Kai's idea, mainly to prevent "Iron Man" from colliding with "Rush Hour" again, and then there will be internal friction again.

It is conservatively estimated that the total global box office of "Iron Man" should exceed 5 million US dollars.

Compared with the production cost of "Iron Man" of more than 1 million beautiful gold, "Iron Man" is undoubtedly a big profit.

——Don’t forget, as long as this kind of sci-fi superhero becomes popular, the peripherals will definitely sell very well, so there is also a large part of the income there.

All in all, "Farewell My Concubine", "Rush Hour" and "Iron Man" all made Xu Kai a lot of money. With these three movies, although Xu Kai cannot repay the 100 yuan he owed to Minxin Bank [-] million loan, but to ensure that his capital chain is sufficient, there is no problem at all.

Of course, not all Xu Kai's movies are satisfactory.

Relatively speaking, Xu Kai's "Lover's First Kiss" and "The Grandmaster 4", which he invested in and starred in, are a bit unsatisfactory.

Let's talk about "The Grandmaster 4" first.

Yuan Xiaoliang and Xu Wenguang originally planned to use "The Grandmaster 4" to conquer Hollywood and conquer the world.

But the people of the beautiful country did not buy "The Grandmaster 4"-originally, the people of the beautiful country could not get the point of martial arts movies in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and Yuan Xiaoliang and Xu Wenguang combined the most rare and invaded movie The indigenous class, beautiful Chinese people are even less willing to watch "The Grandmaster 4".

Overall, "The Grandmaster 4" has earned a box office of nearly 500 million beautiful gold in some theaters in Chinatown.

This is also mainly due to Xu Kai's fame and the overseas foundation laid by the first three "The Grand Master".

What's even more embarrassing is that the Chinese people don't understand or like the Hollywood western cowboy-style drama that Yuan Xiaoliang and Xu Wenguang joined.

In the words of a film critic from a domestic audience: Except for Yu Qingyun's fighting, which is as exciting as ever, other aspects of the film failed to leave a deep impression on people.

Another die-hard fan of "The Grand Master" said fairly "fairly": The flavor of Hollywood western cowboy movies has made the life of Chinese in the West superficially lively.The film not only has exciting and fierce fighting scenes, tender love stories, and laugh-out-loud burdens, it does not simply promote patriotism in the style of "Kung Fu Fighting Foreign Boxing", but also brings the protagonists to face the advanced nature and traditions of foreign cultures. In the confusion brought about by the clash of cultures.The whole film is fast-paced and has many scenes. All the elements of a western cowboy film are complete, but the details are lacking, and there is no opportunity for in-depth description. After watching it, you can't have more aftertaste.All the actors are the cast members of the New Grandmaster series, and they are familiar with each other.

Under such evaluation, "The Grand Master" only made more than 4 million domestic box office.

And this is due to Xu Kai's strong box office appeal and the strong popularity accumulated by the first three "The Grand Master".

In short, although "The Grandmaster 4" also made Xu Kai and others earn some money, the word-of-mouth of the "Grandmaster" series is over, and "The Grandmaster: The Lion of the Western Regions" can be regarded as the last story between Huang Feihong and Thirteenth Aunt.

This is actually Xu Kai's decision.

After the failure of the Western Expedition this time, Yuan Xiaoliang came to Xu Kai again, wanting to make another "Grandmaster 5".

Yuan Xiaoliang said: "This time we won't go to Hollywood, we will honestly make money in China."

But Xu Kai still refused.

Xu Kai said to Yuan Xiaoliang: "Our failure this time is not only because we added elements of Hollywood westerns, but also because the "Grandmaster" series has made the audience a little bored, so let's stop with "The Grandmaster" and continue shooting. It’s just exchanging our character for money.”

It can be seen that Yuan Xiaoliang is not reconciled to the end of the "Grand Master" series, which is so profitable.

But Xu Kai is still determined to end the "Grand Master" series, at least for him.

Let's talk about "Lover's First Kiss".

When Claude Binodeau made "The Lover's First Kiss", he originally wanted to make an art film. Of course, he also took into account some commercial elements, and he was also a little ambitious for the box office.

Anyway, Claude Binodo actually wanted a lot.

But it turned out that "Lover's First Kiss" only won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, and it was only one nomination.

Of course, as an art film that has also worked hard, "The Lover's First Kiss" is still touted by some people in Claude Binodeau's stronghold of Romance.

——At Romance's Cesar Awards, "Lover's First Kiss" was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Editing, Best Product Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Actress lead nomination.

However, "Lover's First Kiss" actually won only one award for best music at the Romantic Country's Cesar Awards-this is the music composed by Xu Kai.

Looking at it this way, "The Lover's First Kiss" is obviously not very successful in terms of art.

Let's talk about the box office.

Claude Binodeau filmed "A Lover's First Kiss" in Hollywood, using Xu Kai as the male lead and Sophie March as the female lead, hoping to reap the box office in North America, China, and Europe at the same time.

But in the end, people in North America did not recognize "Lover's First Kiss", so it was a waste of Claude Binodo's Hollywood filming of "Lover's First Kiss" and a large number of Hollywood actors were used. "Lover's First Kiss" was finally released in North America Only got a box office of more than 800 million beautiful gold.

After all, Europe is the headquarters of Claude Binodeau, and Sophie March is also known as the French rose. In the early years, she also gained a lot of popularity in Europe by shooting commercials.

This made "Lover's First Kiss" a box office of more than 4000 million euros in Europe.

What really surprised Claude Binodeau was that "Lover's First Kiss" won a high box office of more than 3 million Chinese dollars in China by virtue of Xu Kai's strong box office appeal.

——Although "Lover's First Kiss" has a mediocre reputation in China, Xu Kai is really popular at the box office in China, and Sophie March is so beautiful, plus "Lover's First Kiss" " was released in time for Valentine's Day, and "Lover's First Kiss" earned more than 3 million Chinese dollars at the box office.

As an art film, "Lover's First Kiss" can get such a high box office, which made Claude Binodo and the film company that invested in him a lot of money. Claude Binodo and others are already very Excited, Claude Binodeau even wanted to find Xu Kai to cooperate with "Lover's First Kiss 2", and let Xu Kai partner with Sophie March.

Xu Kai didn't want to accept "Lover's First Kiss 2", but Xu Kai couldn't stand Sophie March, the goblin, torturing him on the bed, so he promised Claude Binodeau to wait for his script to come out and watch it for himself Decide later.

……

Since "Iron Man" made Marvel a fortune, Marvel couldn't wait to find Xu Kai to co-produce "Iron Man 2" before "Iron Man" was drawn globally.

This also involves the need to add some new actors.

The first to join is the Black Widow who introduced Iron Man to join the Avengers.

In addition, under Xu Kai's suggestion and insistence, Shang Qi will be Iron Man's fighting skill teacher, teaching Iron Man close combat skills.

This is of course a storyline that was not in the original book.

In the original book, before the Spider Island incident, Julia Carpenter asked Shang Qi to train Peter Parker's fighting skills to make up for Peter Parker's loss of spider sense, to help Peter Parker develop a unique fighting style, and to find Back to Peter Parker's lost powers.

In other words, in the original book, Shang Qi is just Spider-Man's melee teacher.

In Xu Kai's plan, Shang Qi will be the melee teacher of all Marvel superheroes, and Iron Man will be his first student.

A bit too far.

Today is the time for Xu Kai to decide on the candidate for Black Widow.

When the interview recruitment information was sent out, the recruitment information of Artisan stated that the role of Black Widow will be "lifelong", that is, to play the role of Black Widow for a lifetime, so if you want to get the role of Black Widow, you have to contact Artisan. Sign a "lifetime" contract.

In fact, all the actors who have received Marvel superhero roles from Artisan have signed "lifetime" contracts with Artisan, including Robert Stark.

Of course, artisans can't just give Overlord terms and no benefits.

The recruitment information of Artisan also stated that once the "Black Widow" is hired, she will immediately star in the two Marvel superhero movies "Iron Man 2" and "Shang Qi", and the salary will be generous.

In this way, even with the overlord clause, Hollywood actresses are rushing to the charming Marvel superhero role of Black Widow.

——Currently, there are at least ten well-known and powerful Hollywood actresses who want to apply for the role of Black Widow, and several of them have already expressed their willingness to sign in Artisan Films and be artists of Artisan Films for life.

Although it is not stated clearly, those Hollywood actresses who are willing to join Artisan and are willing to work in Artisan Film Company for life are obviously more likely to get the role of Black Widow.

This is actually quite normal.

Xu Kai didn't want to, he filmed half of his own Marvel Universe, and replaced him with another person to play Black Widow.

Therefore, even if "Black Widow" is not Yijiang's artist, it will definitely be Yijiang's long-term partner.

When he came to the headquarters building of the artisan, Xu Kai walked straight to the interview place.

But just as Xu Kai was about to walk to the interview location, Nicole Johnson, dressed as an office worker, suddenly appeared in front of Xu Kai, smiled and said, "Mr. Xu, can we have a chat?"

Xu Kai asked in surprise: "Why did you appear in my company, I don't remember that you are in the company?"

Artisan Company didn't have many people in the first place. After Xu Kai acquired it, he left some more. Xu Kai didn't even want to make Artisan stronger and bigger, so he didn't recruit new people, but transferred some managers from China. personnel, and through a headhunting company, he dug out a copyright manager who is good at handling copyright transactions and leases to assist him.

Therefore, Xu Kai is sure that there is no such person as Nicole Johnson in his artisan company.

"Natasha was trained by secret agents since she was a child to be the best agent. If I can't even sneak into your company, how can I be qualified to be a black widow?" Nicole Johnson said with a smile on her face.

Listen to the sound of the gongs and drums, listen to the sound of the words, not to mention that Nicole Johnson has almost made it clear that she came for the role of Black Widow, so if Xu Kai still can't guess Nicole Johnson's purpose, then he will be in vain. Live two lives.

To be honest, Xu Kai still really hopes to see the widow in his heart.

but……

At this moment, Nicole Johnson suddenly took off her hood, revealing a very beautiful head of red hair underneath.

When Xu Kai saw it, his eyes immediately lit up: "It's more like the widow sister in my heart!"

But Xu Kai remained calm.

Nicole Johnson saw it, and continued to fight for it: "Mr. Xu, can you give me a drink with your face?"

Xu Kai shook his head: "No need, I have something to do later, I don't want to go out."

"Then let's find a place to chat?" Nicole Johnson didn't let Xu Kai go because of Xu Kai's refusal.

"Forget it, I don't think it is necessary to talk to you." Xu Kai began to test Nicole Johnson.

Nicole Johnson was a little anxious, she moved closer to Xu Kai, and said: "Mr. Xu, I know I made a stupid mistake last time, this time I will never cherish opportunities like last time, In fact, I have read all the cartoons about Natasha, and I really have the confidence to play the role of Natasha well."

Xu Kai was very satisfied with Nicole Johnson's answer this time, but because Nicole Johnson had a criminal record, Xu Kai still bypassed her and went into the bathroom——Xu Kai wanted to test Nicole Johnson's Sincerity and patience.

Xu Kai stayed in the bathroom for about 10 minutes before going out to check. Is Nicole Johnson still there?
But at this moment Xu Kai saw a figure approaching, and then the figure pressed Xu Kai against the wall of the corridor.

Xu Kai immediately discovered that it was Nicole Johnson, but he didn't make a sound.

Nicole Johnson thought that Xu Kai was frightened by her actions, so she took a step forward and said, "Natasha's other skill is seduction, and I am also very good at it."

Nicole Johnson's words are quite seductive, and her movements are quite in place, but her body is shaking all the time, exposing that she is not as good as she said, and she may even have no experience at all, otherwise how could she Maybe shaking so much?

It was impossible for Xu Kai to be led by a rookie, so he turned back and threw Nicole Johnson against the wall.

Nicole Johnson panicked when she saw this, and hurriedly said, "Mr. Xu, please don't do this!"

Xu Kai stopped and asked, "Isn't this what you want?"

Nicole Johnson was indeed preparing to seduce Xu Kai in order to get the role of Black Widow, but she obviously overestimated herself. In fact, she didn't want to be as open as she thought.

Xu Kai has no intention of forcing others, and he has no shortage of women, so why take the risk?
So, seeing that Nicole Johnson hesitated, Xu Kai retracted Nicole Johnson's arm and said at the same time: "Little girl, if you can't afford it, don't play with fire."

Seeing that Xu Kai seemed to be about to give up on her, and felt that the role of Black Widow was about to leave her, Nicole Johnson, who was really eager to get the role of Black Widow, couldn't help asking: "Is this a deal?"

Looking down at Nicole Johnson's beautiful and sexy face and hot figure, the key point is that this is the top cosplay, so Xu Kai couldn't hold back, and said, "If you think it is, it can be too."

After receiving Xu Kai's affirmative answer, Nicole Johnson closed her eyes and said, "I hope you keep your word, otherwise I won't let you go."

Xu Kai didn't pay attention to Nicole Johnson's words, but simply lowered his head and kissed her.

Nicole Johnson, who kept her eyes closed all the time, her brain was blank. She just vaguely remembered that she was dragged to a lounge by Xu Kai, and was hugged to the bed by Xu Kai as soon as the door was closed. ...

……

(End of this chapter)