Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 589: Box office surpasses "Aftershock"

On Liu Zhou's private plane, he and Zhang Yimou sat opposite each other.

At this time, the two were ten thousand meters above the Pacific Ocean.

This time, both of them went to the United States to attend the 69th Golden Globe Awards.

Liu Zhou's "Joker" and Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War" were both nominated.

This year, both the domestic films submitted for the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film were "The Flowers of War", but the former was shortlisted while the latter was not.

There is nothing that can be done about it. Due to Sony's suppression, the reputation of "The Flowers of War" in the United States is somewhat controversial.

Sony would certainly do its utmost to prevent an award as influential as the Oscars. They didn't want "The Flowers of War" to even be nominated, let alone win.

Of course, it is also related to the strong strength of its competitors during the same period. The five films that were finally nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film are all art films that are deeply loved by the Oscar judges.

As a commercial film, "The Flowers of War" naturally missed the nomination.

The film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award thanks to the joint efforts of Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate.

As for whether it can win the award in the end, it is up to fate. Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate can only help to this extent.

"Director Zhang, we didn't get nominated for an Oscar this time. Do you have any plans to continue to strive for an Oscar in the future?"

Zhang Yimou shook his head and said:
“At my age now, I’m not as obsessed with Oscars as I was before.

From now on, I just want to make a few good movies, and as for awards, I'll just take it as it comes."

At the beginning, he was most obsessed with the Oscars. After all, he had won all the European awards except the Palme d'Or, so he naturally set his sights on the world's number one film award.

But after several attempts, only "Hero" was nominated once.

Later, he gradually realized that discrimination exists in every field.

The Oscars are just a regional award like the Golden Rooster Awards in China, but because Hollywood movies have a global reach, they have a huge influence around the world.

This is what made the Oscars a globally watched event, but it mainly awards prizes to Hollywood films.

Films from other countries can only compete for the Best Foreign Language Film award.

In the past, he still had the ambition to fight for it, but now he doesn't care about fame and fortune as much as before.

He is now 62 years old and his career as a director is coming to an end. He just wants to make a few more movies.

"Director Zhang, 66 is not old. It is still the time to pursue career. Look at Spielberg, he is years old and still very ambitious."

"It's not that I don't have ambition anymore," Zhang Yimou said with a smile, "I just don't want to deliberately strive for awards anymore. I just want to focus on making movies."

Liu Zhou didn't expect that Zhang Yimou had become a bit Buddhist now.

But this is actually quite good.

He has almost won all the honors. The number of important awards he has won overseas is barely equal to that of other people in China combined.

The only regret may be that he did not win the Palme d'Or and failed to achieve the honor of collecting all three European gold medals.

As for the Oscars, there's really no need to take them too seriously.

If it wasn't for the purpose of leaving something behind in his directorial career, such as surpassing the person in front of him, Liu Zhou wouldn't have planned for an Oscar.

He doesn't think much of the Oscars, but everyone in China, from large official media to ordinary netizens, holds a unique position in the Oscars.

And he felt that he probably didn't have much chance to continue making movies.

The company's affairs will become increasingly busy in the future, and it will be unlikely for him to be able to spend several months shooting a movie as he does now.

And given his current status, he is indeed not suitable to continue being a director.

So after making two or three more movies in the future, Liu Zhou may stop filming.

He also wanted to gain more honors while he could still shoot.

If he wants to surpass Zhang Yimou and become the country's top director without a doubt, perhaps only an Oscar award can do it.

"This is also good. Maybe I can win an award by accident."

"I hope so." Zhang Yimou continued, "Director Liu, do you think your Joker will win an award this time?"

"To be honest, I have no idea. I have done everything I can. Whether I can win the award or not is up to fate."

This time, "Joker" received many nominations at both the Golden Globe Awards and the Oscars.

At the Golden Globe Awards, it received five nominations including Best Picture - Drama, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score.

Because the Golden Globe Awards are divided into film and television categories, the list of film awards is not as complete as the Oscars.

In addition to Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor and Actress, there are only Best Screenplay, Best Original Music, Best Original Score, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Animation.

Other awards like Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Costume Design, etc. were not available.

Therefore, the influence of the Golden Globe Awards has always been average in the United States, but precisely because it is an American award, it is highly regarded overseas.

Zhang Ziyi was nominated for the Best Actress at the Golden Globe Awards for her role in "Memoirs of a Geisha" and was highly praised in China.

Of course, there is another reason why the Golden Globe Awards attracts so much attention, and that is that it is a barometer of the Oscars.

Judging from past results, many films that have won the Golden Globe Awards have also won Oscars.

Gradually, people began to call out the name of this weather vane.

For example, Liu Zhou’s “Joker”.

Not long ago, the Oscars also announced the nomination list, among which "Joker" received six nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Costume Design.

Each of them is considered one of the more important Oscar awards.

This is the result of the joint efforts of Liu Zhou and Warner. In total, the two parties spent nearly 10 million US dollars.

But actually it wouldn't be too much of a loss, because even if it didn't win the last award, being nominated for six important awards would be of great benefit to the promotion of the film.

The reason why the Oscars are so popular among major film companies is because of their huge exposure, which can bring them benefits.

If the film wins an award, it will be even better news for the promotion of the film.

Generally speaking, the box office can increase by at least 20 to 30 million US dollars, and there are many cases where the box office can increase by over 100 million US dollars.

Many art films start out by marketing their reputation and then strive for the Oscars. As long as they are nominated or win an award, they begin large-scale publicity and promotion.

But later on, the Oscars lost their magic.

Because the film industry is shrinking worldwide, people have more entertainment options that are no longer limited to movies.

Moreover, people are tired of watching the same old special effects blockbusters. On the contrary, the market value of the gaming industry is rising.

But now, movies that can win Oscars generally have good box office results.

After more than ten hours of flight, the two finally arrived in Los Angeles.

After resting in the hotel and adjusting to the time difference, the two of them also went to visit Summit Entertainment.

This was Zhang Yimou's first visit. As the company's core director, he had some knowledge of Summit Entertainment. When he first learned about Summit Entertainment's achievements in North America, he was very surprised.

I didn’t expect that Golden Harvest also has such an outstanding film company in North America.

After having dinner with Anthony Edwards, the three of them went to New York the next day. This year's Golden Globe Awards was held at the New York Hilton Hotel.

The Golden Globe Awards certainly doesn't get as much attention in the United States as the Oscars, but it's still a pretty good awards ceremony in the country anyway.

So there were many stars at the event, such as George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, etc., all dressed up.

At the same time, many media reporters also came.

The host was British comedian Ricky Gervais. After a talk show-like performance, the award ceremony began immediately.

The television awards had just started, and among so many TV series, Liu Zhou had only heard of "Game of Thrones" and "Downton Abbey".

But the former only won the Best Supporting Actor award, while the latter was a runner-up throughout.

Then finally came the time for the film awards.

The Best Animation was won by "The Adventures of Tintin", and the Best Foreign Language Film was won by Iran's "A Farewell".

Liu Zhou couldn't help but comfort Zhang Yimou with a few words. Zhang Yimou seemed quite relaxed about missing out on the award.

However, Liu Zhou still caught the fleeting disappointment in his eyes.

This is also human nature. After all, he is not a saint and he really doesn't care about fame and fortune.

After the Best Original Score and Best Original Music awards were presented, the next Best Screenplay award was finally related to Liu Zhou.

The competitors were also strong, and the final award was won by Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris".

Although Liu Zhou was a little disappointed, there were still several awards to come, so he was more concerned about whether he could win one.

The Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards went to Christopher Plummer for "Beginners" and Octavia Spencer for "The Help" respectively.

The best actor in a comedy category went to Jean Dujardin for The Artist, a retro black-and-white film.

The Best Actress award went to Michelle Williams for "My Week with Marilyn."

The next best actress in a drama series award went to Meryl Streep for her role in "The Iron Lady". This is Meryl Streep's second Golden Globe win.

The competition for Best Actor is quite fierce, mainly between Joaquin Phoenix and George Clooney.

Both of them are the favorites for this year's Golden Globe Awards and the Oscars.

In the end, Joaquin Phoenix had the last laugh and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.

In the original time and space, this award went to George Clooney, but Joaquin Phoenix's performance in "Joker" was truly amazing.

Giving him the Best Actor award won't cause much controversy.

However, just after congratulating Joaquin Phoenix, Liu Zhou missed the Best Director award, which was what he valued most.

The Best Director award was given to Martin Scorsese, one of the four major directors in Hollywood, who won the award for "Hugo".

The final Best Picture award also went to "Joker" but was won by "The Descendants", starring George Clooney.

This is obviously sharing the fruits.

Liu Zhou was also very helpless about this.

No wonder the Golden Globe Awards are not as good as the Oscars, they are really nothing.

He could only complain like this in his heart, but he still had to put on a smile and applaud to congratulate his opponent.

At the subsequent dinner, Liu Zhou stayed for a while and then left.

Back at the hotel, Zhang Yimou asked:
"Will you return home first or continue to stay in the United States? The Oscars will not be held until next month, which is still more than ten days away."

"I'll go back home first, since I don't have much to do here anyway."

"Don't be discouraged. I think you have a chance, Oscar."

"No, I just feel a little emotional. I've always complained about how the awards in China are distributed equally, but I didn't expect it to be the same abroad."

"Isn't this normal?"

The two stayed in the United States for another two days, learned about the film market there, and then returned home.

When I returned to Beijing, the most popular news in the country was still about "Lost in Thailand".

At this time, the box office of "Lost in Thailand" has exceeded 1.1 billion.

It would probably be impossible to break the box office record of 13.4 billion set by "Interstellar".

However, it is still possible for it to challenge "Aftershock" for the second place in the Chinese-language box office with 12.1 billion yuan.

"Lost in Thailand" has only been released for 25 days, but it is still able to earn several million every day, and even nearly 10 million at the weekend.

If it is postponed for one month, even if the subsequent single-day box office continues to decrease, there should be great hope that the final box office will exceed 1.2 billion.

It is not impossible to surpass "Aftershock".

So now many people are paying attention online as to whether "Lost in Thailand" can surpass "Aftershock".

There was even a resourceful reporter who knew in advance that Liu Zhou would be returning to China that day, and specifically stopped him at the airport to ask him about his opinion on the matter.

He was too lazy to pay attention to her, feeling that the other party had nothing to do and was asking such meaningless questions.

Not to mention that "Aftershock" was surpassed, even if "Interstellar" was surpassed, he wouldn't care too much.

What will a box office of over 1 billion mean in two years?
If the box office is less than 40 billion, it won’t be in the top ten, and if it’s not 5 billion, it can’t even be called a hit.

Of course, a movie like "Nezha 2" with a box office of over billion is not just about the movie itself.

The public and even the higher-ups have given this movie more meaning.

Sometimes Wu Jing feels quite wronged. The box office of Wolf Warrior 2 has reached over billion yuan, which has caused a lot of controversy. Many people accused him of being a patriot.

But now that "Nezha 2" has a box office of over billion yuan, no one would criticize Jiaozi like this.

It is estimated that the box office record created by "Nezha 2" will be difficult for any other movie to break in the next five or even ten years.

Even Jiaozi's "Nezha 3" is unlikely.

So for Liu Zhou, he never thought about how long the box office record of over 1 billion could be maintained.

He has never thought about competing for the title of number one at the box office.

The greater significance of "Interstellar" lies in that it broke the box office record of "Avatar".

The title of the highest box office in the mainland was regained by domestic films.

By March 12, 40 days after its release, Lost in Thailand officially surpassed Aftershock at the box office, becoming the second highest-grossing Chinese-language film.

At this time, Liu Zhou flew to Hollywood again to attend the Oscar Awards ceremony.

(End of this chapter)