The King of Directors 2000

Chapter 447 The original intention of being a director
2009年6月初最引人关注的大片就是《终结者4》，这部电影在内地与漂亮国同步首映，于6月9日晚上六点开始全国大规模公映。

The quality of the movie... so-so.

There are two main reasons. One is that Arnold Schwarzenegger is no longer acting, and the other is that it is still the old routine.

In the eyes of increasingly strict audiences, such movies are naturally not attractive enough.

"Terminator 4" can still get more than 1 million in the beautiful country, but in the mainland, it can only get tens of millions.

At this time, "Taken 6", which was released on June 14, has attracted more attention.

In the afternoon of this day, Li Shengyao came to the headquarters of Fenghua Film and Television Company. He asked his assistant to pay close attention to the data and word-of-mouth of the film.

For this movie, he actually didn't hold much hope. In his opinion, the global box office should break [-] million dollars.

If "Taken 1" is an amazing work, it created a super cool father.

Then "Taken 2" is a high-quality, improved work.

And "Taken 3" is an old-fashioned, uninspiring movie.

In fact, in his previous life, the word-of-mouth box office of "Taken 3" was not as good as the second one.

The fact that "Taken 4" has not been released in the follow-up is because the production team has never thought of a wonderful story. They are afraid that shooting randomly will ruin the reputation of this movie, so they have been holding back and did not start the fourth movie.

Li Shengyao hoped to earn [-] million US dollars and make a little money, and then this series of movies would stop here. Of course, if Cheng Long still wanted to make a film, he could continue to make up a story.

But he himself will definitely not direct it himself, and the movie budget will certainly not exceed $5000 million.

For a sequel movie like this, if you want to maintain the previous reputation after shooting three movies, you need to invest more and have a cooler story.

It's like the "Mission: Impossible" series of movies. Three movies have been filmed. Even if Tom Cruise is starring, he still presses the pause button for Ramon Pai.

It is because they did not think of a new explosive point.

Later, in "Mission: Impossible 4", they planned to add some funny elements while maintaining the big scene and Tom Cruise's extreme challenge.

Tom cruise, who fought alone in the previous three films, has a team, and his actions are more thrilling and the scene is bigger.

This is where Mission: Impossible gets an upgrade.

As for the "Taken" series, Cheng Long is already very old, and it is obviously impossible for him to play more thrilling and cool moves now.

As for scene upgrades and production upgrades, this requires a lot of money.

Judging from Cheng Long's basic plan, the production cost exceeds [-] million US dollars, so it will be difficult to recover the cost.

To sum up the above reasons, in the eyes of Director Li, "Taken 3" is the last one, and he will not want to develop it.

If Cheng Long wants to act, he will not pay too much attention to it, and the production cost will not exceed 5000 million.

Of course, "Taken 3" is premiering at this time, of course he would not say such depressing words. In fact, even though he knew that the quality of this movie was not as good as the previous two, during the promotion, Lee Sheng Yew still said a lot of things against his will , he praised "Taken 3" as a breakthrough movie.

The same Cheng Long and Warner also promoted "Taken 3" in the beautiful country.

In the dead of night, Li Shengyao would occasionally consider whether he was being unkind.

However, he later reconciled with himself.

"Taken 3" is indeed not as good as the previous two films, but it is still a qualified commercial film, and the audience will not lose money if they watch this film.

With such thoughts like Ah Q, he went on to vigorously promote "Taken 3".

And today we will know whether this movie will work or not.

With the joint efforts of Fenghua and China Film, the first day of "Taken 3" has reached 40.00% of the film schedule, and it is all in prime time, and the vast majority of film schedules are arranged after six o'clock in the evening.

Li Shengyao soon got news from Fenghua Cinemas.

"Boss, in our own theater chain, "Taken 3" is the most popular movie, with the highest average attendance per game, and the average number of moviegoers per game is 43."

Most of the theaters in Fenghua Cinemas are small halls, which is popular now.

There can be 43 people in each theater, which is quite good.

Hearing this, Li Shengyao secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't show it, his expression remained unchanged, and then he asked, "How's your reputation?"

The assistant glanced at Director Li secretly, and then said: "Word of mouth is not bad, but now most of the complaints are made, and it is better to save that."

"I think this is the opinion of individual viewers. The silent majority is actually not that negative. The vast majority of people still approve of this movie."

The assistant's voice became smaller and smaller, and his upper body twisted around, as if ants had crawled into his clothes, making him very uncomfortable.

Li Shengyao laughed, "There's no need to make excuses. I made the movie myself. Of course I know what level this movie is. "Taken 3" is indeed not as good as the previous two. It's a qualified popcorn movie."

"Then should we ban Douban ratings?"

"No, doesn't this make us feel more guilty? This movie is still available on Douban Liufen. Don't worry about a lot of bad reviews. It can only be said that it is not as good as expected."

Li Shengyao clicked on the table, then picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea, "You arrange the navy in the studio, and you just say that this movie is to suppress drug dealers, it's very cool."

"Yes, I understand."

"Go, remember, don't brag about other things, just brag about suppressing drug dealers, as long as the plot is cool."

The assistant then left the office.

Li Shengyao closed his eyes, leaned back on the seat, and lit the table.

At this moment, the phone vibrated, and he opened it to see that it was a message from Yan Danchen and Dong Xuan, saying that "Taken 3" was not as good as the previous two, and asked Li Shengyao why this time it was not up to standard.

Not only the general public, even the people around Lee Sheng Yew, they are used to his movies being well received and well received.

Now this movie is not that good, so I'm not used to it.

Li Shengyao immediately responded to the message, saying that the film was too rushed from the preparation to the shooting, and it was not well polished.

"Then you'll have to work on it next time. I don't think the movie's reputation is that good."

Yan Danchen quickly replied a text message.

Li Shengyao smiled and put down the phone.

He thought that when Cheng Long had time, he would shoot "Taken 23" together, so that he would not have to find time for the follow-up. He just thought that the movie could make money, and he didn't think enough about the word-of-mouth rating.

It looks like "Terminator 4" now. It looks okay in all aspects, but without breakthroughs and innovations, the audience will naturally get bored.

Several of his previous films, including "The Hangover", which was not released in the mainland, all scored above 3 points on Douban. This time, "Taken [-]" may drop to [-] points.

If you want to maintain Director Lee's strong style, you really have to work hard for the next movie.

Li Shengyao was sitting in the office like this. At about ten o'clock in the evening, the assistant knocked on the door again, "Boss, we have a general understanding of the data of other theaters. In the first and second tier cities in the Mainland, "Taken 3" The most popular movie, firmly suppressing "Terminator 4."

"In Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, "Taken 3" is also the number one hit, ahead of "Terminator 4" at the box office."

"But on Hong Kong Island, we are in the same situation as "Terminator 4."

Because of Yan/Zhaomen, Cheng Long's current reputation in Hong Kong Island is not good, and "Taken 3" is not favored, but it is understandable.

But it's almost the same as "Terminator 4", which has been released for five days, that's really bad.

"Which one is the highest-grossing Chinese film on Hong Kong Island so far this year?"

"It's our "Introduction to Architecture", which got more than 600 million yuan. No.2 is "A Happy Event in the Family 2009". This movie got 500 million yuan."

No.2 so few?
Li Shengyao felt a little better when he heard that.

"How's the reputation of "Taken 3" now?"

"Douban has opened, it is now [-]:[-]."

[-]:[-], much better than Lee Sheng Yew expected.

He nodded, "Okay, that's it. I'm going back to rest. I won't turn off the phone. If you need anything, just call me."

Li Shengyao then left the company and drove home.

Two hours later, he received a text message from his assistant, saying that the company's market statistician predicted that the box office on the first day would be 100 million.

The first-day box office was higher than the previous two.

There are no competitors in this schedule, and the previous two films have good reputations, so they attracted a lot of viewers on the first day.

Lee Sing Yew predicted that the box office will remain high for the first five days, and word of mouth will ferment after five days, and the box office will gradually decline by then.

……

The next morning, after breakfast, Li Shengyao came to the company and saw the assistant with red eyes.

The assistant looked excited, "Boss, the box office on the first day was even higher than we expected, with a total of 230 million."

The box office on the first day was considered to be the highest among Lee Sheng Yew's movies screened in the mainland.

Li Shengyao was also very happy, he patted his assistant on the shoulder, "Very good, you are tired, take a good rest."

He then went into the office, opened the window, and closed the door.

It was not yet eight o'clock, the sun had not risen from the east for a long time, and the sun had not scorched the earth yet.

The cool summer wind from afar outside slowly blows in, carrying a faint fragrance of mud.

Standing in front of the window, Li Shengyao felt a little guilty inexplicably feeling the breeze.

He knows the quality of "Taken 3", and he actually has many better choices.

At the beginning of his journey, the goal he set for himself was to make a good movie and make Huaxia movies better because of him.

But "Taken" made money, "The Hangover" made money, and he got carried away.

This is a very bad thing.

"I have to keep this in mind. In the future, when I make a movie, I must think about whether it is interesting enough and whether it is a movie that can make fans proud of me."

……

Although "Taken 3" was despised by Li Shengyao, it still scored [-] points on Douban. This is definitely a qualified popcorn movie.

In addition, the characters in the previous two movies were well created, and once the movie is made, it will satisfy many fans who are looking forward to it.

Therefore, the movie did not encounter large-scale bad reviews, although there were many complaints, and the story of the movie felt a bit routine.

But the overall evaluation is still acceptable, reflected in the box office, that is, in addition to Hong Kong Island, in the Mainland, Pretty Country, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Europe are all rising steadily.

There are almost no film critics in the mainland to criticize, after all, many people know the energy of Director Li.

Professional film critics in the beautiful country have more criticisms. From a professional point of view, they feel that the film is lacking in character creation, story structure, and artistic innovation. They think it is a mediocre film.

Regardless of what these people say, the box office of the movie is still growing.

In the first three days of the beautiful country, it was 600 million US dollars. The box office forecasting experts of Rotten Tomatoes think that the final box office of the movie should be [-] million US dollars.

Pretty Country's movies are basically like this. For movies with average reputation, the total box office is twice that of the first week's box office.

Movies with a better reputation will increase their total box office.

Some phenomenon level, triggering the whole people to watch movies, can be multiplied by three, or multiplied by four.

Like The Hangover, Transformers 2.

Regarding the public opinion in the beautiful country, Li Shengyao had expected it a long time ago, but he didn't take it to heart.

Four days after "Taken 3" was released, "Fake Marriage", a romantic comedy movie starring Xiao Jianjian and Sandra Bullock, gained high reputation after its release.

Sandra Bullock does not seem to be as famous as Charles Theron and Nicole Kidman in the mainland, but in the beautiful country, her status in the film industry and her appeal are definitely among the top three among actresses.

At this point, only Angelina Jolie should be able to compete with her.

"Fake Marriage" grossed US$8000 million on its first day, and received extremely high ratings on imdb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Yahoo Movies.com.

Fortunately, as Lee Sheng Yew predicted, "Taken 3" is an action movie, and "Fake Marriage" is a romantic comedy movie.

The explosion of "Fake Marriage" did not affect the box office of "Taken 3".

"Taken 3" grossed $300 million in its second week.

And "Fake Marriage" got a box office of 700 million US dollars in the first week. This movie surpassed the box office of the movie version of "Friends" in the first week and became the highest-grossing romantic comedy movie in the past ten years.

"Fake Marriage" is so strong, even if "Transformers 2" is released, it still does not affect its box office harvest.

As for "Taken 3", it would be bad. "Transformers 2" was released in the beautiful country, which instantly took away all the topics and light of "Taken 3", and the whole beautiful country was discussing "Transformers 2".

Cheng Long and Warner's people were stunned. They thought they could still make money at the box office in the third week, but now it seems that it will be very difficult.

"How is this movie so good?"

Cheng Long even called Li Shengyao to express his doubts.

"It's a big scene, and there are handsome men and beautiful women, as well as emotional bonuses, it must be a blast."

The "Transformers" series of movies can be said to be popular in the beautiful country. Paramount can suppress Warner in Hollywood, and this movie is indispensable.

"Transformers 2" exploded in the beautiful country, and it also exploded in the mainland.

This movie has also attracted a lot of attention. Judging from the popularity, it is even stronger than last year's "On the Red Cliff" and "If You Are the One". This movie has a box office of at least [-] million in the Mainland.

Fortunately, "Taken 3" has already received almost [-] million box office in the first ten days, and slowly, it should break through [-] million.

In this case, "Taken 3" should have a total box office of over [-] million in the mainland, and about [-] million US dollars in the beautiful country.

There are a total of 7000 million in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and a total of [-] million in European countries. The global box office is about [-] million.

This result is about 3 million dollars more than Lee Sheng Yew's "Taken 5000" in his previous life, so it must be making money.

Li Shengyao himself was very satisfied.

"Director Li, if "Transformers 2" wasn't so fierce, we should still break $[-] million."

Cheng Long called Li Shengyao, expressing his regrets.

"I can't help it, this is fate, big brother, "Taken 3" is almost over, you should prepare the new movie well, don't think so much."

Compared to other people, Lee Shengyao really has no regrets, he is more fortunate and introspective.

He often stands in front of the window these days, blowing the cool breeze, recalling his original intention of being a director, and vowed not to make such low-quality movies again in the future.

(The two films of "Taken 23" were written very quickly, including the previous "Countryside of Alinka". There is no foreshadowing, no detailed description of the movie. It looks like a running account)
(It's my fault. When I wrote the outline, I thought that the movie could make money, and I didn't think about whether the movie was suitable.)
(It wasn't until I started writing "Taken 2" that I realized that this movie has nothing to write about. The sequel movie is similar to the first one. I shouldn't arrange for the protagonist to shoot "Taken 23" of.)
(By then it was too late to bite the bullet and write, "The Hangover 23" won't let the protagonist direct.)
(I will be more careful when writing movies later)

(End of this chapter)