Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 590: Joker is a global hit

On March 2012, , the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood and Highland Center became the focus of attention of movie fans around the world.

This year's 84th Academy Awards ceremony was held here.

This is not only a vanity fair for Hollywood stars, but also a vanity fair for Hollywood companies.

Winning an award represents benefits.

But there are only so many awards, so some are bound to be happy and some are bound to be sad.

In this event, the crew of "The Artist" is undoubtedly the biggest winner.

It won five major awards including Best Original Score, Best Costume Editing, Best Editing, Best Director and Best Picture.

This black-and-white film tells the story of the transition from the silent film era to talkies in a silent film style, and is very popular among the old-timers of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

"The Artist" won a big victory, so Liu Zhou naturally became the one who was worried.

"Joker" was nominated for five awards, but only won two trophies: Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor.

This result is pretty good, two out of five, and also won such a heavyweight award as Best Actor.

Overall, the public relations done by Warner and Summit Entertainment for the film was basically successful.

Moreover, the Best Actor trophy was snatched from "The Artist".

The original Best Actor trophy was won by Jean Dujardin of "The Artist", but now Joaquin Phoenix has defeated him and won the Oscar for Best Actor for the first time.

But for Liu Zhou, it was somewhat disappointing.

The awards he wanted most were Best Director or Best Picture, but he missed them both.

"Liu, that's what the Oscars are like, full of uncertainty. If you fail this time, you can try again next time," Kevin Channa comforted.

"I understand, but I still feel a little regretful."

“In my opinion, Joker deserves Best Picture and you deserve Best Director, but the Academy is full of old-timers, they are very old-fashioned.

Movies like The Artist are clearly made specifically for them to win awards.”

"Forget it. For a Chinese person like me, getting this result in my first award-winning effort is pretty good. It would be even weirder if I won both Best Director and Best Picture."

"It's good that you think this way. Oscar is raised by your cousin, so you don't have to take it too seriously. Let's discuss expanding the scale of the film's release."

"What are your plans, Warner?"

“We are planning to expand the number of theaters showing Joker from 200 to 3,000, 4,200 screens, and you are also getting quite a bit of popularity in North America.

So you may need to personally bring Joaquin Phoenix and others to promote the movie."

"No problem, that's what I should do."

At this year's Oscars, Liu Zhou, as a Chinese, was shortlisted for five important Oscar nominations and of course attracted a lot of attention.

After all, before this, only Li An had done it.

What's more, Liu Zhou already had some fame in North America, and the character of the Joker is also very popular in North America.

Therefore, at this Oscars ceremony, Liu Zhou received as much attention as some Hollywood stars.

Now Liu Zhou won the Best Adapted Screenplay award, and Joaquin Phoenix won the Best Actor award, especially the latter, which are both very worth reporting.

There will definitely be some media outlets that will use discrimination as an example.

Although this factor is definitely involved, it certainly cannot be brought up publicly. Besides, the Oscars don't mean you won't get any awards.

Of course, if you don’t want to bother with the Oscars in the future, that’s fine. But if you still want to participate in the Oscars, you have to abide by their rules.

Liu Zhou had no resentment about this. He would not think that his film was definitely better than others or that the Oscar judges were definitely unfair just because of a certain degree of discrimination.

I'll come again next time.

This is the case in North America, so people in China are paying even more attention to Liu Zhou's trip to the Oscars.

Most netizens are looking forward to the results of this year's Oscars. Fortunately, Sina has won the live text and picture broadcast of the Oscar awards ceremony.

Late in the night, many netizens were watching Sina’s live broadcast room.

Many people felt that what they saw was not enough, so they went over the firewall to watch the live video broadcast on the Internet.

Most people in China still think the result of "Joker" is good, at least it produced an actor best actor.

Of course, there are also some people and self-media who bring up the issue of discrimination in order to attract traffic.

But no matter what, the movie "Joker" has already become a highly anticipated movie even before it has started to be promoted in mainland China.

Warner naturally would not ignore this popularity and immediately arranged for people to discuss the introduction of the film with China Film.

Naturally, China Film responded quickly. After all, they were not fools either. Moreover, the film was directed by Liu Zhou, and there was nothing taboo about the plot.

So naturally it was a green light all the way.

Even though it’s released in March, which is an unpopular time period, the movie is still very popular.

On March 17, "Joker" will be released in all major theaters across the country.

In North America, the film will be released on a large scale on March 13, the day after the Oscars.

The movie had been previewed for more than three months and its reputation had already spread.

Next, Warner’s publicity machine will start to promote the film on a large scale.

At the same time, Liu Zhou and Joaquin Phoenix also started their promotional tour for the film.

On its first day of release, "Joker" grossed 18 million U.S. dollars in North America, becoming the box office champion of the day.

The next day it grossed another 23 million, and on the fourth day, Saturday, word of the film began to spread widely.

The film grossed $64 million over the weekend.

In the first four days of its first weekend, it grossed $1.05 million, becoming the weekly box office champion in North America.

This result also broke the record for North American opening in March.

Even Warner Bros. did not expect "Joker" to achieve such a strong performance.

After the film came out, although they thought it was good, the box office was at most over 100 million, and if it won an Oscar, it might reach 200 million US dollars.

But now, the box office has exceeded 100 million in the first week, and the North American box office may reach 300 million.

This even alarmed the president of Warner, who personally arranged to increase the publicity of "Joker".

It is the second week of its release in North America, and the film will also begin its full release overseas.

In the new week, "Joker" once again earned 1.2 million in seven days, pushing the total North American box office to 2.25 million, and retaining the North American weekly box office championship.

However, what shocked the outside world even more was that "Joker" landed in 1.68 overseas markets and took in $ million in the first week, setting a new record for overseas opening box office in March.

At this point, the movie "Joker" has become a global hit.

"Liu, we succeeded. You are amazing."

Kevin Channer excitedly hugged Liu Zhou tightly when he returned to Los Angeles after finishing the promotional activities.

Liu Zhou couldn't stand the strong perfume on him and quickly pushed him away. "I don't really like hugging men."

"It makes me so sad, I only do this to my very close friends."

Liu Zhou would not believe his lies and changed the subject:
"I will be returning home tomorrow. From now on, the promotion of the movie will be handed over to you and Anthony."

"Are you going back so soon? The box office in North America is so good now, you can stay for two more days."

“No, now it doesn’t matter whether I am there or not for the movie promotion, Joaquin is the more important one.

Besides, I can also promote the film when I return to China, and the promotion effect in China will be even better.”

"Joker" has been released in China. Due to the popularity of the Oscars and Liu Zhou's fame, the movie grossed 57 million on the first day of its release.

However, the plot of this movie did not leave a deep impression on the Chinese people, and it felt like an art film.

The movie "Original Time and Space" had a high box office overseas, but it was a cold performance in mainland China.

Of course, it was already 2019 by then, and the halo of Hollywood movies was almost disappearing in the mainland.

Mainland audiences are no longer as enthusiastic about Hollywood movies as before.

Therefore, the total box office of "Joker" in mainland China is less than 50 million.

Now that the movie has been released in mainland China seven years ahead of schedule, and with the support of various other favorable factors, the box office on the first day exceeded 50 million.

However, the subsequent box office of the movie did not continue such a strong momentum. After maintaining a box office of 50 million on the second day of its release, the box office began to decline.

Within one week of its release, "Joker" earned 2.12 million yuan in box office in the country.

Now the single-day box office has dropped to around 10 million, and the final box office of the movie in the mainland is probably around 300 million.

This result is actually quite good, but it is a bit average for Liu Zhou.

But this is a Hollywood movie after all, and the actors are all Americans, so there was no ridicule of Liu Zhou in China for this.

Liu Zhou naturally already knew the domestic box office situation, as Zhang Zhao had already reported the situation to him.

Of course he won't promote the movie anymore after returning to China, as it won't have much effect anymore.

What's more, he rarely participated in promotional activities during the promotion of "Aftershock".

Moreover, for the movie "Joker", the domestic box office does not have much impact on the global box office.

However, the additional domestic box office revenue of 30 to 40 million US dollars should be able to help the film's global box office break the 1 billion US dollar mark.

The reason why he said this to Kevin Channer was simply because he felt that there was nothing for him to do in North America and he might as well return to his country.

"Okay, you can go back to your country first. You can rest assured about the movie matters. Just wait to share the money when the time comes." Kevin Channer said with a smile.

Kevin Chandler cares more about the movie "Joker" than Liu Zhou.

This movie can be said to be single-handedly directed by him.

He was responsible for everything from personally going to China to invite Liu Zhou and reach a cooperation with him, to the preparation and filming of subsequent projects, and finally to the current release and promotion of the film.

Judging from the current performance of "Joker", the film's global box office has a great chance of exceeding $800 million.

This result can rank in the top ten of the global box office list.

This is his real achievement.

I heard that the president of Warner might be promoted to Time Warner Group, and I might be able to take the position of president with the help of this movie.

Therefore, he now wishes to worship Liu Zhou.

He now feels more and more that Liu Zhou is his lucky star, who has given him a great boost at this critical juncture in his career.

"Then I'll leave it to you. I have a flight tomorrow morning, so you don't have to see me off."

Kevin Chandler has been a little too enthusiastic recently, which makes him a little uncomfortable.

"Ok, by the way, Liu, do you have any idea for your next movie?"

"Not yet. The movie hasn't even been released yet, but I plan to try for an Oscar again next year."

Hearing Liu Zhou's next words, Kevin Qianna's eyes lit up and he said:

"Liu, you should know that I am a very good partner. Maybe we can continue to cooperate on your new film. Warner will definitely do its best to help you win the Oscar."

"No problem. I feel very happy to cooperate with Warner."

If you want to win an Oscar again, you can't do it alone.

It feels really good to work with Warner this time. There are not so many routines, and it gives him more freedom.

His next movie may not be a box office hit like "Joker".

To run an art film well, you need the cooperation of a giant.

Recently, several other Hollywood giants have been contacting him, including Columbia, which had just had some unpleasantness with Liu Zhou, and wanted to reach a cooperation with him, directly offering him an unlimited budget and the right to final editing.

It is better to do what you are familiar with. If you cooperate with other companies, you will have to start all over again. It is better to continue cooperating with Warner.

Especially considering Kevin Chandler's current enthusiasm, cooperating with Warner can save a lot of trouble.

"Then contact me as soon as you are ready to start. Leave everything else to me and just focus on preparing the movie."

The next day, Liu Zhou returned to China on his own private plane.

"Joker" is still raking in box office revenue around the world.

On March 2.86, the movie had been released in North America for days, and the box office has accumulated million US dollars, once again winning the weekly box office championship with a box office of million US dollars.

At the same time, overseas regions once again grossed $1.48 million this week, and the overseas box office has accumulated to 3.16 million.

"Joker" grossed $6.02 million worldwide.

At this time, major professional media have raised their box office expectations for the film, predicting that the film's box office will eventually exceed US$900 million.

At this point, domestic media also began tracking the box office of "Joker".

The global box office is over 600 million.

Converted into RMB, it has reached nearly 5 billion yuan. This achievement was created by mainland directors, which makes them feel proud.

And this is the current box office, and the movie is still in theaters.

According to foreign media predictions, the box office may even exceed one billion US dollars!

It shouldn't be a big problem to round them up, right? And it's just an extra $100 million.

At this time, domestic netizens also began to pay attention to this news.

They didn't expect Liu Zhou to be so aggressive. When the country was still bragging about the billion-dollar box office, Liu Zhou had already converted the box office units into US dollars.

This is not even on the same level.

With the resurgence of popularity of "Joker" in China, the box office, which had been somewhat stagnant, has started to grow again.

(End of this chapter)