Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 482 Global Weekly Box Office Champion

In China, there are rating websites such as Douban and the not-so-long-established Time.com. In Hollywood, there are also IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

The original Douban and Mtime were equally powerful, and they were the only two rating websites in China. In 2016, when Wanda was at its peak, it acquired Mtime.

However, now that Sina Group has acquired Douban, it has not only solved the problem of development funds, but also has a development plan formulated by Liu Zhou, making Douban the only dominant player.

Mtime.com is far from being comparable to Douban, and is now on the verge of going out of business.

In North America, the strength of the two rating websites, IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, is not too different. IMDB is slightly stronger because Amazon is behind it.

However, the standards of the two rating websites are also different. IMDB and Douban are similar, and netizens give ratings based on how much they have watched movies or other film, television, music, and novel works.

Rotten Tomatoes is the audience's opinion of the freshness of a movie before it is released. The Rotten Tomatoes rating can well reflect the audience's expectations for a movie.

But whether it is the two domestic rating websites or the two in North America, they all have one thing in common.

That is, Douban and Time.com will naturally give foreign films a higher score. Even Douban, which is controlled by Liu Zhou, is no exception. This is something he cannot change. After all, the ratings are given by the audience and movie fans.

IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes are more harsh on overseas films. North American audiences have always looked down on films from other countries and subconsciously give them low scores.

Therefore, it is very good that "Interstellar" can get above-standard ratings and reputation among such a large number of viewers.

The fact that "Interstellar" earned $3.2 million on its first day of release is well deserved.

This result also ranked third on the December 7 box office list, second only to "Tangled" with $ million and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" with $ million.

Needless to say, "Harry Potter 7" has reached the penultimate part. This movie in the original time and space has taken nearly million in North America and more than million in the global box office.

Tangled is a 3D animated film produced by Disney Animation.

In the past, Disney Group's animated films mainly relied on Pixar. With Robert Iger taking charge of Disney Group, Disney animation has regained vitality.

A large number of well-known animations were rebooted, and there were also new innovations, and the box office was very good. Later, there was also a live-action animated movie, which also had good box office.

Therefore, the reason why Disney can be so successful in the future is that it is really good at making money.

"Tangled" is a landmark film for the resurgence of Disney animation. Historically, the film has grossed $5.9 million in North America and $ million worldwide.

Although these two movies have been released for more than half a month, in the absence of any blockbuster releases, no other movie's single-day box office can surpass them.

Following "Interstellar" are "Hustlers" with 210 million, "Speed" with 200 million, and "Love and Other Drugs" with 200 million.

Although these films have been released for more than 10 days, it is a great honor for "Interstellar" to surpass them all.

As for the newly released "Knight of the Yellow Sand", its box office on the first day barely exceeded one million, only one-third of "Interstellar".

Although it was already late at night, a Chinese movie ranked third on the North American box office list, which also attracted the attention of many netizens and media, and there were more and more discussions about this movie.

The next day, many media outlets spontaneously reported on the situation. Together with the media found by Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment, "Interstellar" also gained considerable popularity.

The outstanding first-day data and the popularity of the movie also gave Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment more confidence in negotiations with theater chains. On the second day, another 200 theaters were added and publicity efforts were also increased significantly.

On Saturday, December 2, Interstellar's box office surged nearly 30 percent, earning $4.1 million in a single day.

On Sunday, the number of cinemas showing "Interstellar" increased to 2300, with a single-day box office of 480 million.

After three days of release, the North American box office reached 1210 million, still firmly occupying the third place on the North American weekly box office list.

第一名依然是投资高达2.6亿美金的动画大片《魔发奇缘》2100万，上映20多天的《哈利波特7》以1600万排在第二名。

"Hustlers" ranked fourth with a second-week box office of 610 million.

The action blockbuster "Speed," which cost over 600 million yuan, only grossed 7000 million this week, with a total box office of less than million. The participation of Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington failed to convince the audience.

"Warrior of the Yellow Sand", which was released at the same time, ranked ninth with a box office of 305 million.

$1210 million in the first three days of the weekend!
A Chinese-language film without Zhang Yimou, Jacky Cheung, Jet Li, even Chow Yun-fat, Gong Li, or Zhang Ziyi, not a single familiar face.

The only director who is somewhat familiar to North American audiences is Liu Zhou.

"Interstellar" was released on a large scale for three days, which was enough time for the movie to enter the vision of more people.

A Chinese science fiction film has surpassed many Hollywood films, including some with investments of over 100 million yuan. This is definitely big news.

At the same time, some well-known Hollywood directors and stars have publicly recommended the movie "Interstellar".

Some people spoke out because of the relationship between Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment, but some people really approve of or like this movie from the bottom of their hearts.

For example, the original director of this film, Christopher Nolan, not only likes the story of this film, but also likes the texture of the film shot with a 70mm film camera.

For this purpose, he even called Liu Zhou across the Pacific Ocean to discuss the film and its special effects with him.

In addition, even James Cameron, who just won the global box office championship again, expressed his approval when asked by the media about his opinion on the movie "Interstellar".

He also publicly praised the special effects of the film, calling it the best 2D movie, and especially recommended the film IMAX version.

All of a sudden, news about "Interstellar" can be seen more or less on various websites, media, and newspapers. North American audiences are becoming more and more curious, and more and more people are going to the cinema.

At this time, the North American box office results were also reported back to China, and everyone discovered that when they focused their attention on China, "Interstellar" also achieved quite good results in North America.

After three days of release in North America, the film grossed $3 million in its first weekend, ranking third in the box office that week. This can be said to be the best start for a Chinese-language film in Hollywood.

So far, there are only a few Chinese-language films that have achieved good box office results in Hollywood. In addition to Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" and Cheng Long's "Rumble in the Bronx", there are only Li An's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and Zhang Yimou's "Hero". "Enter the Dragon" was a bit too old, and its box office of more than 10 million US dollars may not be very high now, but you have to know that it was the early 1970s.

At that time, it was not easier to get more than 10 million US dollars than it is to get 300 or 400 million now.

Jackie Chan's "Rumble in the Bronx" was the movie that really made him enter Hollywood, but its total box office was only over 30 million. It certainly cannot be compared with "Interstellar" in the first three days.

Zhang Yimou's "Hero" achieved very good results in North America, earning 53 million US dollars.

But because Miramax, the North American film distributor at the time, was more cautious and initially screened the film on a small scale, the start was not very good.

Finally, there is "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which is said to have created the box office record for Chinese-language films in North America. The box office of more than 100 million yuan really makes other Chinese-language films far behind.

No matter what the core of this movie is, at least it is a movie starring all Chinese actors and it is also a Chinese-language movie.

However, in order to compete for the Oscars the following year, this film was initially released on a small scale, so the start of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was not very impressive.

It was not until Li An won the Best Director award and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won the Best Foreign Language Film award that movies began to be released on a large scale and the box office began to explode.

Therefore, "Interstellar" earned 1210 million US dollars in the first three days of its release in North America, setting a record for Chinese-language films in the first week of release in North America.

This record may not interest anyone in North America, but it is a good publicity gimmick in China, and netizens and audiences are also very interested in this record.

But a piece of news published by Sina.com has aroused greater interest among domestic netizens.

Although the Hollywood blockbusters "Tangled" and "Harry Potter 7" have been released in North America for more than half a month, they have not been fully launched in overseas markets and have only been released in some regions.

Therefore, the total global box office of these two movies this week was not high. Although "Interstellar" was only released in North America and China this week, its North American box office of 12 million US dollars was neither high nor low, but its domestic box office was not low.

The domestic box office revenue in the first three days was 2.53 million RMB, equivalent to nearly million US dollars. Together with the box office in Hong Kong, Taiwan and North America, the total box office reached million US dollars.

But it was this not-so-high box office result of 46 million US dollars that actually made "Interstellar" the weekly box office champion in the global film market!

This honor is much more valuable than the previous record.

Although this result was somewhat due to luck, no one can deny the honor of "Interstellar" being the global weekly box office champion.

Following Sina.com's report, other media quickly followed suit, adding fuel to the already hot popularity of "Interstellar" in China, making it even more popular.

This is also one of the reasons why the box office of movies has not shrunk much even though the number of movie screenings has decreased and it has come to weekdays.

At this time, not only the media was reporting extensively and netizens were discussing it heatedly, but peers were also silent once again.

After this news came out, they also specially arranged people to go to Hollywood to understand the situation, so the bosses of these film and television companies knew more information than domestic media.

"Interstellar" not only took third place in the North American weekly box office, but also had very good reputation.

These are only the first three days of the weekend, and judging by the above word of mouth, daily box office growth, and theaters showing the film, it has been on a steady upward trend.

The final North American box office forecast given by professional organizations in North America is 6000 million US dollars!
6000 million US dollars, equivalent to more than million RMB.

Looking at all the Chinese-language films released in North America, it exceeded the 1.28 million of "Hero" and ranked second only to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" with million.

But "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" can truly be considered a co-production.

Many people have also made a simple estimate that Hollywood blockbusters can generally get a 60% share. Even for Chinese-language films, it should not be a problem to get 50% with the joint distribution of Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment.

One company is a partner of Golden Harvest, and the other is a subsidiary of Golden Harvest. The distribution fee should not be too expensive, 10% is about right.

Even so, Golden Harvest can still get the remaining 40%, which is 2400 million US dollars. In North America, there is more than box office revenue, including other income from videotapes, TV on demand, and online copyrights.

Even if a portion of these copyright incomes have to be shared with the distributor, Golden Harvest can still get three or four million US dollars, which adds up to 2.4 million US dollars, which is equivalent to nearly million yuan in RMB.

This directly recovered all the production costs of "Interstellar".

And since this movie has achieved good results in North America, its box office in other overseas regions will not be too bad.

It is conceivable that if a purely Chinese-language film like "Interstellar" achieves excellent box office overseas, it will definitely cause quite a stir and may even receive recognition and praise from above.

Golden Harvest Group has gained both fame and fortune.

In fact, not only that, if "Interstellar" is really successful overseas, there is a more important meaning that Golden Harvest now has the ability to operate Chinese-language films overseas.

It's not just a random overseas screening, but a large-scale and successful screening.

This further reflects the Golden Harvest Group's strong production and overseas distribution capabilities.

Although the success of just one movie may not mean anything, it at least proves that Golden Harvest has the ability to do it.

And it won’t take long to see whether “Interstellar” is a flash in the pan, because “Aftershock” will also be released during next summer’s theaters.

At the beginning of the film project, Liu Zhou publicly stated that he wanted to promote the film overseas.

If Aftershock also performs very well at the overseas box office, it will show that Golden Harvest really has the strength.

From this, we can see that the gap between his company and Jiahe Group has become even bigger. Even if the company goes public, it may not be able to catch up with them.

At the same time, Han Shanping from China Film Group Corporation also laughed heartily when he received this data.

The fact that a domestic Chinese-language film has achieved such outstanding results both at home and abroad proves that the domestic market is becoming more and more prosperous and the promotion of Chinese-language films overseas is becoming more and more successful. I have contributed to this.

(End of this chapter)