hollywood melon man

Chapter 516: Unpredictable
Not only "Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith" was released in early May, but also several small and medium-budget films were released, giving audiences more choices.

If you are not that fond of Star Wars movies, you can also choose to watch these movies.

The most popular one is undoubtedly the American version of "The Ring 2", which won the second place. The film was released together with "Star Wars Episode 3" and won a box office of 3507 million US dollars in the first weekend due to the huge power of "Star Wars".

Another movie is "Sin City" starring Jessica Alba. This low-budget crime film earned 2912.5 million US dollars in the first week, ranking third.

After leaving the "Fast and Furious" series, Jessica Alba also has a representative work, just like Kate Beckinsale's "Underworld".

After Sheena Boone got the opportunity from Gilbert Jr., she immediately went back and communicated with Kate Beckinsale, asking her to fight for the role with all her strength.

Kate Beckinsale still had some questions: "Don't I have to accompany Director Gilbert Jr."

"Do you want to go?" Sheena Boone asked.

Kate Beckinsale hesitated for a while before whispering, "I don't want to go, but if you want me to accompany you, I can go."

"I knew you would say that," Sheena Boone rolled her eyes and said, "No need for that. You can't get a role in a big project or a big production like this just by having sex. You just need to prepare well for the audition."

"Oh!" Kate Beckinsale turned her beautiful neck and lowered her head, as if she had made up her mind: "I will definitely get this role."

Regardless of Kate Beckinsale's mental journey, in the second week, "Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith" unsurprisingly retained the weekly box office championship.

Everyone knows that "Star Wars Episode 3" is a big hit, so all the big productions avoided it for two weeks.

The new movie released this week is actually Memoirs of a Geisha, starring Zhang Ziyi. Perhaps because of the success of the Mystery of the Talisman series starring Shu Chang and Bingbing Li, Zhang Ziyi is unwilling to give up.

But the positioning of "Memoirs of a Geisha" was wrong. It was actually moved to the summer vacation for release. Such a film should be released during the awards season, and it might even win one or two awards.

Sure enough, the revenue in the first three days was only 68 US dollars. The bloody reality dealt a heavy blow to Zhang Yimou.

At this moment, Zhang Jie also understood that it was not because of the craze for Chinese stars in Hollywood, but because the producer of the "Mystery of the Talisman" series, Gilbert Jr., was too amazing.

He was able to produce an international action superstar, Jackie Chan, and two international movie stars, one big and one small, in a situation where the status of Chinese people was generally low.

It would be a lie to say that she is not jealous. Zhang Ziyi often fantasizes about how great it would be if she were Bingbing Li. It would be much more reliable than having a Hollywood producer as a boyfriend.

Now in China, when a big director has a suitable role, the first people he thinks of are Li Bingbing and Shu Chang, and then other actresses.

There's no way. Compared to her, a fake international movie star, these two are the real deal, and the director is not a fool.

This kind of status cannot be achieved by just walking on a red carpet abroad, but requires real achievements. The two "Mystery of the Spell" movies have grossed $11.6 billion, and the third movie will be released this year.

This made Bingbing Li and Shu Chang the two actors with the highest box office among mainland star-starred movies, making many other stars envious and jealous.

It is worth mentioning that Guo Fan has now become a very popular rising star director in the mainland Chinese film industry.

The black comedy "Frankenstein", directed by him, was adapted from real events and actually earned 7300 million RMB at the box office during the Spring Festival.

This was in 2005. In those days, it was difficult for a domestic film to even break 25 million yuan in box office, let alone a novice director achieving this result at the young age of .

Although this film alludes to many people, Guo Fan still attracted the attention of many film companies and big bosses, as well as the pursuit of the media.

Among them, Guo Fan’s most famous nickname is probably the Chinese version of Little Gilbert.

Because Gilbert Jr. also directed a movie in his twenties and achieved great success, embarking on the path to becoming a world-class director. It is rumored that Guo Fan is also Gilbert Jr.'s student, so this nickname is well-deserved.

As the Chinese film market enters the commercialization era, it doesn’t matter who Guo Fan offends. What matters is that he can make money, and making money means being popular.

Now, Guo Fan doesn’t have to worry about investment for his next movie. What he should worry about is which investors to reject and what movie to make.

As for those people who were offended, it actually doesn’t matter, because most of them have been disciplined by their superiors and have become much more honest, so there will be no danger for the time being.

However, when Guo Fan recently talked to Liu Ji about his next project and said that he wanted to shoot a science fiction film, he was strongly opposed by Liu Ji.

"Think about Gilbert Jr., did he start out with a big production? He also took it step by step. After The Shallows came Final Destination, and then Speed," Liu Ji advised earnestly.

"But," Guo Fan explained, "Science fiction films don't have to be big productions, as long as you have a big enough imagination!"

"But there is no soil!" Liu Ji said: "We don't have the soil for domestic science fiction films, and many audiences don't believe we can make science fiction films.

Even if it is really produced, if the box office is not good, the audience will immediately lose trust in this subject matter.

So let's be pragmatic and wait for the right time." "What's the right time?" Guo Fan asked.

"Wait for the day when we become truly strong. That day will be your chance to shoot a science fiction film," Liu Ji said.

Guo Fan understood. He had heard people say before that movies are the mirror of a country, which can fully reflect the country's spiritual civilization and its comprehensive national strength.

In the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, mainland directors could only film the inferior human qualities of ordinary people in poor areas in order to win awards abroad and make foreigners happy.

Later, the film market became commercialized, Hollywood blockbusters invaded, and the audience was dazzled. Suddenly, a movie called "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" not only achieved box office success, but also won awards, instantly setting off a wave of costume blockbusters.

This trend is now at its peak, and every director wants to give it a try. Their main purpose is to make a film to please foreigners, because mainland audiences have lost interest after watching many similar films.

The failure of "The Promise" proves this point.

What’s even more amazing is that the leading and second male actors in the movie “The Promise” are Jang Dong-gun and Hiroyuki Sanada, while Hong Kong stars Nicholas Tse and Nicholas Tse are the third male actor, which fully reflects the perception that Chinese people are third-class citizens abroad.

This incident illustrates a problem, that is, lack of self-confidence, and this lack of self-confidence often has deep-seated reasons.

Because of lack of self-confidence, they have to consider the opinions of foreigners in everything they do. This is the general environment of Chinese-language films today. Otherwise, how can a star who has traveled abroad become an international superstar immediately after returning, and his status rises by more than one level?

It’s the same as those who returned from studying abroad. They all think that coming back from abroad is good, which is a manifestation of lack of self-confidence.

Of course, at this time, many aspects are indeed better in foreign countries, which is an objective fact.

Guo Fan would not think about such a profound question. What he was thinking was, if Gilbert Jr. was Chinese, could he bring some changes to Chinese-language films?
What Guo Fan didn't know was that little Gilbert really was like that once, but he didn't bring about any change because he didn't have the ability to do so.

Now he has the ability, but he is already a well-known Hollywood director. Saving and changing Chinese-language films has little to do with him.

If there is any connection, it probably affected Guo Fan's life trajectory and caused quite a stir in the Chinese entertainment industry.

Along with "Memoirs of a Geisha", "Monster" released by New Line Cinema was also released. The film earned 2930.6 million US dollars in the first week, easily crushing "Memoirs of a Geisha".

However, the two films had different screening schedules. After the first week, "Memoirs of a Geisha" was shown in only more than 300 theaters, which was a huge success.

There is no way. Cinemas are the most realistic. It is normal for the number of cinemas to be cut due to poor box office.

In mid-May, "War of the Worlds", produced by DreamWorks, directed by Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks, will be released.

When the film was promoted in advance, it received unanimous praise from media critics, who said that this was another ambitious masterpiece by Spielberg after "Jurassic Park".

But the audience didn't seem to be very enthusiastic about the film, with mixed reviews and a disappointing ending.

Although the film won $6443.8 million in the first week, becoming the weekly box office champion, the box office curve is not very healthy. On weekdays, the box office has declined by %.

In this summer season when the first week is becoming increasingly important, the first week box office of a commercial blockbuster often accounts for more than one-third of the film's total box office.

Based on this data, the North American box office of "War of the Worlds" is estimated to be around 1.8 to 2 million US dollars. If it wants to make a profit through box office, it has to rely on overseas box office.

This type of film is not like the "Star Wars" series, there is no hope for peripheral products, and the only way to make money is through copyright.

Simply put, although "War of the Worlds" will not lose money, it may be a bit difficult to save DreamWorks from its predicament through it.

It is a universally acknowledged truth that has been discussed repeatedly in the film industry that once a film company is saved by one film, there is usually no need to save the film company anymore.

Obviously, under the siege of major giants, DreamWorks has reached its end. It will disintegrate either this year or next year.

Another fact is that a number of Hollywood film company executives suddenly discovered that Spielberg's magic was no longer working.

This once-powerful super director seems to have reached the end of his directorial career, with each film he directed being worse than the last.

Everyone grows old, and Spielberg is no exception. After the first week of "War of the Worlds", The New York Times reviewed Spielberg's directorial career in detail with the title "The End of an Era".

This is like the final verdict and epitaph for Spielberg, but Spielberg may not be happy about it.

No one wants to admit that he is no longer capable, especially someone as proud as Spielberg. He will definitely continue to prove himself.

He believes that he is still one of the best directors in Hollywood.

(End of this chapter)