1990: Starting from Baojia Street

When "Rumble in the Bronx" earned more than 30 million US dollars and became the highest-grossing Chinese-language film in North America, the public's reaction was very complicated.

Since "The Sixth Sense", the box office records of Chinese-language films released in North America have been broken one after another, finally reaching "Rumble in the Bronx" with more than 32 million US dollars.

Such a huge improvement in such a short period of time gives the public hope that Chinese-language films have a bright future in the North American market.

Not only people in the Chinese film industry are happy, but some people who are close to the industry are also happy.

Since last year, many American distribution companies have gone to China to look for movies they believe have commercial value and then sent them to the United States for release.

This kind of "speculation" business has very high profits because the film budgets in China are generally not high.

For an ordinary movie, a production cost of one or two million US dollars is considered good, while a big production would cost at most seven or eight million US dollars.

Moreover, the market these films were originally targeting was the Chinese-speaking region, and now that American companies have come to represent them, it is like a windfall, so the prices they ask for are generally not expensive.

From the perspective of the producers, all the money that should have been made from the film has been made anyway, and now there are American companies willing to pay for it, so they will actively sell it as long as the price is not too low.

For many movies, companies in the United States can get the agency rights for only tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

From the production company's perspective, making money is secondary. This is also an opportunity for them to rush into Hollywood. Moreover, tens of millions of dollars, the distribution rights in Europe and the United States are taken away, which can even be said to be a big profit for them.

Many movies don’t make much money at the box office.

For example, many movies in Hong Kong cost 20 or 30 million to produce, and then only sell 20 or 30 million at the box office. Just considering the box office revenue, they are still losing money. Now, if someone offers a few million, they can make a lot of money back.

Therefore, since last year, a large number of Chinese-language films have appeared in American cinemas, most of which are Hong Kong films, a small portion are from Taiwan, and there are very few mainland films.

After all, except for those directed by Zhou Yan, other mainland films have never proven to be commercially viable.

Some of these movies that appeared in American theaters performed quite well, with some of them earning millions or even tens of millions of dollars.

For the agent, it is no longer a loss.

However, among so many movies, none of them could earn more than 32 million like "Rumble in the Bronx", and it didn't even exceed the more than 13 million of "The Sixth Sense".

There are also some movies that fail to make even a splash after their release.

Although the distribution rights did not cost much, we cannot do business at a loss.

As a result, the enthusiasm of these American film and television companies began to decline again, and the frequency with which they purchased Chinese-language films for release in the United States also dropped significantly.

Gradually, people began to believe that the reason why "Rumble in the Bronx" could achieve such a box office success was related to its story background, rather than the fact that Chinese-language films had opened up the market in North America in the past two years.

The story of "Rumble in the Bronx" is originally set in the United States, which may be more acceptable to American audiences.

Many people naturally think that if you want to achieve a high box office like "Rumble in the Bronx" in the United States, the story should be set in Europe and the United States.

It would be difficult for purely Chinese films to stand out from the crowd.

In addition, the budget of "Rumble in the Bronx" itself is not low. It is Jackie Chan's first film with a production cost of more than 100 million yuan. This budget can be used to shoot three "Time Travelers" films with a lot left over.

Another important point is that "Rumble in the Bronx" is an action movie, which is related to Chinese Kung Fu, which is also a point that can attract American audiences.

The current situation is that many people are paying attention to whether "Time Traveler" can regain the top spot in the North American Chinese box office rankings, but a large number of people are not very confident.

When Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng heard Zhou Yan say that "Time Traveler" had a chance to gross over 200 million US dollars, they couldn't help but be amazed.

Just two or three years ago, after the revenue-sharing system was introduced, detailed data on movie box office revenues were gradually released and discussed by more and more people.

At the beginning, it was a great thing for a movie to get 20 or 30 million at the box office. If it could exceed 40 million, it would definitely be a huge hit.

Now, Zhou Yan's movie not only earned more than 80 million yuan at the mainland box office, but is also expected to earn 200 million US dollars worldwide. This number is so high that it is a bit disorienting.

"With 200 million US dollars, is there a hope of making it into the global movie box office rankings?" Yu Hua asked.

"That depends on how many movies are on the list. If there are ten, then $200 million is probably not going to be enough."

Generally speaking, 1994 million US dollars cannot rank among the top ten in the global annual box office. "Pulp Fiction", which ranked tenth in 2.13, earned 2.3 million US dollars, which was the closest to million US dollars among the top ten movies in recent years. In other years, the box office was basically above million US dollars.

There are many competitive movies this year. The box office of "Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World" has basically been released, and its box office in North America alone has exceeded million US dollars.

"Liar Liar", which was released in March, grossed 180 million U.S. dollars in North America and 400 million U.S. dollars worldwide.

"My Best Friend's Wedding" was just released on the 20th of last month, and it has already grossed 70 to 80 million US dollars. The possibility of it grossing over 200 million US dollars worldwide is very high.

"The Fifth Element" was released in the United States in May. Although the North American box office was lower than expected, with only more than 60 million US dollars, the film performed very well in Europe. Now the global box office has exceeded 130 million US dollars, and there will be no problem in exceeding 200 million US dollars in the next few months.

Other films that have already grossed or are expected to gross over $007 million this year include "Tomorrow Never Dies," "Mr. Bean's Great Disaster," "As Good as It Gets," and "Air Force One."

Of course, if "Titanic" could be released this year, it would definitely be in the 200 million club.

Because it is only July, many movies have not been released yet, or have only been released in some countries and regions, so there is no way to determine how many box office can make the top ten.

Combining the experience of previous years and the situation this year, it is basically impossible to enter the top ten without a box office of 250 million US dollars, and even if there is 250 million US dollars, it may not be very safe.

In fact, the public does not pay much attention to global box office statistics.

In other words, it is because the relevant institutions are not active in statistics, so the public has no way to pay attention to it.

There are reasons why the relevant organizations are not active. This is because the release dates of most movies are relatively scattered, which makes it difficult to count and there are also many difficulties in publishing the list.

For example, last year’s global box office rankings have not yet been determined.

Last year, "The Sixth Sense" and "Twister" were released first, and the time intervals between their releases in different countries and regions were relatively short, so they basically got all the box office revenue they could get in the past year.

However, "Independence Day" was released a little later, and other countries and regions also released it later. As a result, if statistics were taken at the end of last year, the annual global box office champion was not "Independence Day", but "The Sixth Sense".

For example, if Titanic was released in December this year, not only would the global box office rankings be delayed, but the North American box office rankings would also be delayed for a while. Zhou Yan's The Sixth Sense eventually grossed over $100 million worldwide, but because the release dates were so long apart, no one kept statistics, so only Tomson did it himself.

Therefore, Zhou Yan didn’t pay much attention to the global box office.

"What if it's the top 20?" Yu Hua asked again.

"If you are in the top 20, 200 million US dollars should be no problem."

The global box office is so small, and it is not easy to produce more than 20 movies with a box office of over 200 million US dollars a year.

Last year, the total global box office was only 24 billion US dollars. If the top 20 movies all exceeded 200 million US dollars, the total box office of the top 20 movies alone would have to be at least 70 to 80 billion US dollars, leaving 16 to 70 billion US dollars for other movies to share, which would not be enough for other movies.

……

Two days later in the afternoon, Zhou Yan boarded a plane to Hong Kong.

Zhou Yan had joked with Yu Hua before, saying that he would not let him get on the plane, but in the end, not only Yu Hua was allowed to get on the plane, but also the entire exchange group sent by the Writers Association.

The plane chartered by the studio has enough seats, and many of them are already empty, so allowing the exchange group from the Writers Association to come on board can be considered saving resources.

There are many familiar faces in the exchange group, including Mo Yan, Liu Zhenyun and Chi Zijian.

Yu Hua and his friends played cards all the way in the first-class cabin.

Yu Hua was the one who put together the poker game, but in the end he became the biggest loser.

When the plane landed, Yu Hua had lost exactly two hundred and fifty yuan, no more, no less.

When Zhou Yan heard that Yu Hua lost two hundred and fifty, he was quite surprised. He wondered if they had played cards so big in first class that they could lose so much in a short time.

Later I asked and found out that they were not playing big at all. It was just three people playing Landlord, with a two-dollar base bet, no landlord competition, and bombs didn't double, only triple. Normally, even if the landlord got one card, they would only lose a few dollars.

But Yu Hua had bad luck today, or rather, Liu Zhenyun and Mo Yan who were playing cards with him had good luck, because they kept catching bombs and multiplied their bets every time.

Once, three people caught a total of eight bombs and played them all out. Yu Hua was the landlord and lost thirty-six yuan with just one card.

Fortunately, the money was only doubled and not tripled, otherwise Yu Hua would have lost more than a thousand yuan for each card.

……

More than 200 people got off the plane in a mighty procession, and then met a large number of fans in the arrival hall.

This event was invited by the SAR government, and the SAR government had already announced the itinerary of the event in advance.

Although Zhou Yan’s plane information was not directly released, this kind of thing can be found out with just a search, after all, their band is such a big target.

Although there were many people picking up the passengers at the airport, there was sufficient security on site and order was well maintained.

Zhou Yan had no luggage, so the task of pushing Shi Tiesheng fell on him.

Originally Zhou Yan was walking in the front, but now he was pushing Shi Tiesheng, so naturally Shi Tiesheng was in the front.

The following scene appeared at the scene: Zhou Yan pushed Shi Tiesheng and walked in the front, followed by more than 200 people, with a very strong momentum.

Shi Tiesheng felt the gazes of countless fans who came to pick him up at the airport, and said with a twitch of his lips, "Don't tell me, I'm actually a little nervous."

Zhou Yan joked, "Don't be nervous. Although we don't have as many people as them, our band is made up of young people. If a fight really breaks out, we won't be at a disadvantage."

Shi Tiesheng also joked, "I'm afraid if a fight really breaks out, one or two of you will be quick and leave me here alone."

"It's no problem for you to be alone at the pass."

"When Yu Hua tricked me into guarding the gate, he also said that I could hold the gate alone and ten thousand men could not get through."

……

Joking aside, Zhou Yan did not push Shi Tiesheng closer to the fans. Instead, he handed Shi Tiesheng to Yu Hua halfway, and then he took the band members to face the fans.

After not coming for some time, Xiangjiang’s fans have become more and more enthusiastic.

Normally, Zhou Yan doesn't have time to come to Hong Kong for meet-and-greets or autograph sessions, so when fans come to pick him up at the airport, as long as conditions permit, he is willing to sign more autographs and interact with the fans.

The so-called permitted conditions refer to the environment at the airport.

After all, the airport is a public place. Hundreds or thousands of people stuck in one place for a long time can easily cause chaos.

If order at the scene cannot be maintained well, Zhou Yan will probably just pass by and leave to avoid disturbing other passengers.

But the order at the scene was maintained very well today, and the necessary passages were reserved, which naturally left space for him to interact with his fans.

In fact, the SAR government also hopes that Zhou Yan can maintain his popularity from the moment he landed, so when Zhou Yan landed, the SAR government carried out controls inside the airport early on.

Naturally, reporters from Hong Kong's major newspapers and tabloids were also present at the scene. They were also arranged in a specific area. There was also a large sign in this specific area with the words "Interview Area" written on it, which could be seen from a distance.

There was no on-site interview in Zhou Yan's schedule, so Zhou Yan could choose to stop when passing by the interview area, or he could choose to walk directly past.

Some tabloid reporters didn't want to go to the interview area and wait to be "favored", so they concealed their identities as reporters and mixed in with the fan group, ready to take the initiative.

When Zhou Yan was interacting with fans, a young man wearing a baseball cap suddenly raised his camera and took pictures of Zhou Yan. While taking pictures, he asked, "Director Zhou, your movie "Time Traveler" has become the highest-grossing movie in Hong Kong film history. Do you have anything to say? The movie will be released in North America soon. What are your prospects? When will the soundtrack of this movie be released..."

The young man spoke very quickly and asked a lot of questions in a short period of time.

However, the security personnel at the scene reacted quickly. When the man asked the third question, two security personnel came up and dragged him to the back.

Zhou Yan smiled and continued signing autographs for fans, as if nothing had happened. (End of this chapter)