giants of the era

Chapter 138: Star Wars Released

Six days later, Dongfang Yuqin came to report and moved into the villa.

Li Zetian signed a confidentiality agreement and contract with her, temporarily hired her as a secretary, and then casually threw a lot of materials to her, asking her to familiarize herself with the business content first.Li Zetian plans to train her for a period of time, and then depending on the situation, see if she has the ability to be the CEO of Times Technology Company.

……

Li Zetian is now reading a lot of books related to artificial intelligence, which is the main development direction in the future. Research in this field includes robotics, language recognition, image recognition, natural language processing and expert systems, etc., involving philosophy and cognitive science, mathematics , neurophysiology, psychology, computer science, information theory, cybernetics, uncertainty theory...

Li Zetian said that "the pressure is huge", it seems that it is difficult for a person to complete the scriptures alone.

On a sunny afternoon at the end of July, Li Zetian was swimming in the swimming pool when George Lucas suddenly called to say that the post-production of "Star Wars" had been completed and was ready to be released.

"George, bring the reels to me, I have a little home theater."

"Okay, Chronos, I'll send it over in person right away, and talk to you about something."

"Ah."

Beverly Hills is too close to Hollywood. In less than an hour, George Lucas came to Li Zetian's house.

After a simple greeting, everyone came directly to the home cinema.

Li Zetian called Yu Jingqiu and Dongfang Yuqin to watch the movie together.

The first "Star Wars" was shot very wonderfully, and it was similar to the work in Li Zetian's impression, except that there were some more things, such as Apple's Apple-ll and Walkman, and special effects shots were added, but it made the film even more impressive. It looks more colorful and technological.

While watching the movie, Yu Jingqiu and Dongfang Yuqin made sounds of surprise from time to time, which shows that the movie should be a success!

Afterwards, everyone answered the living room, and Li Zetian poured a glass of water for George Lucas and said, "George, it's a good shot, I like it very much! By the way, didn't you say you have something to talk to me about? What is it? "

George Lucas shook his head and sighed, "Twentieth Century Fox is not optimistic about "Star Wars". Our movie has just been filmed, and they are planning to release it before it has even been promoted."

"No publicity?" Li Zetian frowned when he heard the words.

"It can't be said that there is no publicity at all - there are some "Star Wars" movie posters pasted at the entrance of the movie theater. However, what is extremely bad is that [-]th Century Fox only allocated a dozen movie theaters to us..." George Lu When Cass said this, he almost had a tone of despair.

In my previous life, there were more than 30 movie theaters in my previous life. In this life, because of Apple's investment, the number of movie theaters is even less.

Li Zetian cursed secretly in his heart, but on the surface he forced himself to be calm, patted George Lucas on the shoulder, and comforted him: "It's okay, I believe "Star Wars" is a very good movie. More and more people will go to the cinema to see our movies! At that time, [-]th Century Fox will naturally increase the number of screens for "Star Wars."

"hope so."

After George Lucas finished speaking, he took a sip of water.

Li Zetian asked: "George, do you plan to make the second part of "Star Wars"?"

"If the movie becomes popular, of course I would!"

"Hehe, then it's settled, I look forward to our cooperation again!!"

Li Zetian stretched out his hand and shook his hand.

The copyright of "Star Wars" belongs to the Star Wars Film Company. Li Zetian has the final say whether to shoot the second film or not, who will be the director, but he is more inclined to let George Lucas shoot it, because George Lucas His understanding of "Star Wars" is unmatched by others.Moreover, the previous life has also proved the success of George Lucas!

It wasn't long before George Lucas left.

"There is no market for sci-fi movies in the United States, and it is only natural that [-]th Century Fox does not value "Star Wars". There are only a dozen theaters in the United States, and I am afraid it will be difficult to pay back..." Yu Jingqiu said.

"Do you dare to bet with me? I think "Star Wars" will be popular all over the world, with a box office of more than 1 million US dollars." Li Zetian laughed. He said a very conservative figure. The global box office of this movie in his previous life reached an astonishing More than 7.75 million U.S. dollars, close to 8 million U.S. dollars, of which the national box office is as high as 4.6 million U.S. dollars.

Yu Jingqiu obviously didn't believe it, "Just bet! What are you going to bet on?" She raised her head and said.

Li Zetian chuckled, and whispered in her ear.

Yu Jingqiu blushed instantly, and glared at Li Zetian coquettishly.

"Do you dare?"

"Why don't you dare? However, you haven't said yet, how will you be punished if you lose!"

"If I lose, please listen to me!"

"Then I have to think about it, what kind of tricks can punish you! Then don't complain!"

Li Zetian smiled triumphantly at this moment, every pore of his body became excited when he thought of the bet that Yu Jingqiu agreed to him.

……

On August 8st, "Star Wars" was officially released.

Due to the lack of publicity, and the number of screens is only a dozen, the box office of "Star Wars" on the first day was terrible. After one day, it was less than 2 US dollars.

On the second day, it was unexpected. Almost all the movie theaters of "Star Wars" were full of people.

"I want a ticket to the Star Wars movie!"

"I want two tickets to the Star Wars movie!"

"I want two tickets to the Star Wars movie too!"

"..."

In less than an hour, the "Star Wars" movie tickets for the day were sold out!

Those who did not get tickets sighed or complained.

"Fuck, it's sold out, and I want to see how this movie is going to be! My friend said that "Star Wars" is super good. He bought three tickets, and it seems that three times is not enough!"

"My classmate also said that "Star Wars" is super good. The movie has unprecedented space scenes, complicated galaxy struggles, and super cool laser swords. He strongly recommends me to watch it! Oh, unexpectedly, I can't buy tickets !"

"Brother, let's go to other cinemas to see if there are still tickets!"

"Okay!"

"..."

A lot of people went to other movie theaters, which sadly didn't show Star Wars at all.

Everyone couldn't help complaining, why is such a good-looking movie only shown in more than a dozen movie theaters, is the movie distribution company showing off its head?
One day passed, and the next morning, the movie theater hadn't opened yet, and there were even more people queuing up. The long queue of tens of meters was shocking!

Passers-by were very surprised: "What's the situation, what movie is so good, there are so many people queuing up before the movie theater opens!"

An insider told these passers-by: "The most beautiful and coolest sci-fi movie "Star Wars" in history, it is said that a scalper ticket has been sold for 50 US dollars!"

Passers-by widened their eyes and couldn't believe it.

"I didn't lie to you! You don't know, so far, there are only a dozen movie theaters in the United States showing this movie, and the value is in short supply! All the tickets for the whole day are sold out in a short time in the morning! Look over there, The grand occasion of queuing attracted all the reporters!"

On the fourth day of the film's release, word of mouth spread, "Star Wars" became even more popular, and hundreds of meters of long queues at the entrances of various cinemas blocked traffic.

That night, the local TV station made a special report on "Star Wars", and the media newspapers also made reports on "Star Wars".

Twentieth Century Fox quickly called a meeting.

A middle-aged man looked at Alan Ryder Jr., the CEO of the film company, and said excitedly: "Mr. Alan Ryder Jr., the dark horse has appeared, the dark horse of the movie has appeared!!! That sci-fi movie "" by George Lucas Star Wars was almost full, and there were hundreds of people queuing at the entrance of the movie theater in the morning, occupying several streets, it was simply too exaggerated, this is something I have never seen in the industry for decades!"

In the conference room, many people were very surprised and talked a lot.

Alan Ryder Jr. thought for a while, and said in a deep voice: "Make 500 copies of the movie immediately and distribute it to 500 movie theaters!"

"Yes!!!"

By the end of the week, "Star Wars" had grossed $55 on just a dozen screens.

And in the second week of the release of the "Star Wars" movie, the number of screens of "Star Wars" finally increased to five hundred. Although compared with other movies, the number of screens is still relatively small, but George Lucas is very happy , contented.This means that "Star Wars" is a success, not only can pay back, and may even make a lot of money.

However, "Star Wars" clearly exceeded the expectations of George Lucas and everyone else.

As before, long queues formed at the entrances of many movie theaters, and more than 500 movie theaters were almost full.

At the end of the week, "Star Wars" made a box office of 1580 million US dollars, and directly won the box office champion of the week!
"Fuck, "Star Wars" is so fierce!!!"

Everyone at Twentieth Century Fox was shocked.

Alan Ryder Jr. waved his hand, "Another 2000 copies!!!!"

"Yes!!!"

As a result, in the third week of "Star Wars" release, the number of screens has become more than 500.The occupancy rate of the movie theater is as high as 90%. There is no doubt that "Star Wars" won the box office champion again this week, with a box office of 7020 million US dollars this week!
At this moment, Twentieth Century Fox was speechless, immersed in great grief.I thought, if I was willing to invest more at the beginning, the copyright of "Star Wars" would belong to me! ! !
Deep resentment!

I regret it!

However, it is not the true nature of the company to make money but not make money.

Theater companies came to the door one after another, asking [-]th Century Fox to give them copies of the film.

So Alan Ryder Jr. waved again, "Another 2500 copies!"

In its fourth week, the number of screens for "Star Wars" hit a jaw-dropping 5000-plus.Many people were waiting for "Star Wars" box office, "Star Wars" did not disappoint them, this week's box office hit 1.14 million US dollars.

"Star Wars" has been released for a month, and the cumulative box office in the United States has exceeded [-] million US dollars!
Twentieth Century Fox's share price has doubled!
Because of the many close-up shots of Apple-ll and Walkman in the movie, the sales of these two products increased sharply during this period, which greatly improved Apple's brand awareness. Wall Street estimated the market value of Apple at 70 billion U.S. dollars , an increase of US$10 billion from the last financing!
Thomas Rockefeller, like Twentieth Century Fox, was green with regret.Twentieth Century Fox's reluctance to make additional investments is risky and understandable.However, Thomas Rockefeller took the initiative to hand over the Star Wars film company, and he regretted it to death.

"Star Wars has sold well at the box office and is popular in the United States, Chronos should be proud now..." Thomas Rockefeller smiled wryly.

In fact, Li Zetian is indeed very proud now.What he was proud of was not how much money "Star Wars" made for him, but that Yu Jingqiu lost the bet and had to fulfill the bet.

"You, you go take a shower first, I'll brush my teeth..." Yu Jingqiu said shyly.

(End of this chapter)