Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 178 188 [Tyrannosaurus Rex sweeps across North America, the nameless ones start]

"Okay, stop praising each other."

Li Yishu introduced Yongmei again: "This is Yongmei, my person in charge at Yanjing Film Company. She will be my assistant for the next few days and get familiar with the working environment of the crew. If you have any questions in the next few days, please contact her directly."

Yongmei stepped forward with a smile: "Hello, Miss Zhang."

"Hello, Manager Yongmei." Zhang Manyu said with a smile, "If Director Li hadn't told me, I would have thought you were an actor. You have such a great temperament."

"Thank you." Yongmei smiled. No matter whether what Zhang Manyu said was true or false, she was very happy in her heart.

This is Zhang Manyu, a big star in Hong Kong.

After introducing each other, Li Yishu also asked people to gather the main creative staff of the crew, and prepare to familiarize themselves with each other for two days before starting filming directly.

The male lead of "The Unknown" is Zhang Fengyi, who is tall and strong with a beard. His image fits Ma Xianyong very well. Besides, he is a member of Emei Film Studio. Who else should we choose but him?

The role of Li Haigen is played by Liu Deyi, an actor from the Sichuan Opera House in Shancheng. He had been unknown before and even though he had acted in TV series, he had not caused any sensation. But what made him famous was the TV series "The Foolish Commander" which was broadcast in Sichuan last year.

As soon as this TV series was broadcast, it immediately created a sensation in Sichuan and Shu areas, and Liu Deyi also became a well-known comedian in the local area thanks to this role.

After that, he filmed "The Foolish Commander" and "The Foolish Commander" one after another, and later became well-known across the country.

The style is somewhat similar to Li Baodian's later "The New Biography of Wang Baochang". Although the dialogues are in Sichuan dialect, they are full of laughter.

The role of Liu Deyi was chosen by Han Sanping. He watched the TV series "Silly Teacher" and felt that Liu Deyi's image was inherently funny.

He was able to have a chemistry with Hu Guangsheng played by Lei Han, and the two of them, one fat and one thin, one tall and one short, were hilarious from a dramatic point of view. (Lei Han, who played Lu Hanqing in Kite, also starred in Farewell My Concubine as mentioned above)
As for the other roles, they were all actors from Sichuan Film Studio or theaters across the country, all of them were talented, and Li Yishu had seen many of their plays and dramas, so after Han Sanping selected them, he basically did not make any changes and only asked for two roles.

One is the role of Ma Xianyong's daughter, which was given to Jiang Qinqin, and the other is the female police officer investigating the robbery, which was given to Yu Feihong.

They all have few roles.

6 month 11 number.

The day Lee Ye-su started filming.

The United States, across the ocean.

The premiere of "Jurassic Park" was very grand.

A large number of actors, directors, producers, and film critics came to participate in this science fiction and thriller masterpiece directed by Spielberg.

Amy and Monica also disguised themselves and took the movie tickets given by Columbia Pictures to sneak into the premiere, intending to find out the story of the film.

Since June 6, the topic of "Jurassic Park" has been spreading across North America, with various articles and reviews stimulating the audience's expectations for the film.

What is Tyrannosaurus Rex?
What are dinosaurs?
To be honest, many people have no idea about dinosaurs. Except for relevant researchers, almost 99% of ordinary people don't know much about dinosaurs.

Even if there are some people who know about them, they only know that they are creatures that became extinct hundreds of millions of years ago and that their skeletons are very large, like those of elephants and giraffes.

At that time, dinosaurs were not as popular in North America as they are later. Only a very few people who went to fossil museums knew how huge dinosaurs were.

And even if they knew about dinosaurs, they didn't know that there were many species of dinosaurs.

But "Jurassic Park" tells the audience what the Tyrannosaurus Rex is. In front of it, humans are no less than ants that can be easily crushed to death.

"Oh my god, what the hell!"

"It's too scary."

"If this... if this Tyrannosaurus Rex could live to this day, would humans still be the overlords of the natural world?"

"..."

There were exclamations in the cinema, especially when the Tyrannosaurus Rex appeared. Its tall body and sharp fangs shocked countless people.

At a time when "giant beast" movies are not very popular, the sudden appearance of Tyrannosaurus Rex satisfied human beings' psychological fear and sensory stimulation of giants and beasts.

Thirty years after the highly developed Internet, audiences have long lost interest in movies about giant creatures and behemoths, and even if they did, there wouldn’t be too much psychological fluctuation.

But in 1993, the appearance of the giant Tyrannosaurus Rex undoubtedly brought a great shock to the world.

"This……"

Monica looked at Amy beside her and said, "Amy, I'm afraid our movie box office is going to be cut in half."

As of now, "The Sixth Sense" has grossed 1.17 million in North American box office alone.

If nothing unexpected happens, after today, $1.2 million will not be a problem. After 10 days of screening in Europe, the film also managed to get $1.02 million at the box office.

The total box office is 2.2 million US dollars. According to the data report provided by Columbia Pictures, Europe still likes this movie very much. It is expected that it can be released for another half a month, and the box office will be at least around 5 to 6000 million US dollars.

There will definitely be no problem in the end for the European box office to break 1.5 million US dollars.

Before watching "Jurassic Park", Amy felt that the box office of "The Sixth Sense" in North America would most likely exceed 2 million. After all, it has been growing in recent days.

But after witnessing the shock brought by the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Amy finally understood why Li Yishu asked Amy to pay more attention to the box office of "Jurassic Park" when he called her before returning to the mainland.

Looking at it now, Amy suddenly feels that the hope of "The Sixth Sense" breaking the 2 million box office in North America is slim.

So shocking.

How can this dinosaur be so real?!

You have to know that before this, Amy, as a Hong Kong native, had no idea what a dinosaur was.

It was only after I came to North America that I learned from newspapers and magazines that dinosaurs were a group of inhabitants of the Earth that became extinct hundreds of millions of years ago during the Jurassic Period.

"Don't be too nervous."

Amy's mouth twitched as she said, "Director Li told me before he left that Jurassic Park would definitely be a worldwide sensation. Although it might sweep North American cinemas at the box office, The Sixth Sense still has a chance because people won't watch just one movie, and our movie is about different subjects than dinosaurs."

Hearing this, Monica forced a smile. She was very skeptical about Amy's words.

Their concerns are not without reason.

"Jurassic Park," which premiered on Friday, June 6, grossed an astonishing $11 million on its first day.

This number shocked countless people.

The box office on Saturday was even more terrifying, directly breaking through 2000 million US dollars and reaching 2300 million US dollars.

Sunday box office, $2600 million.

In just three days, the company achieved an astonishing result of 6400 million US dollars.

You have to know that the production cost of "Jurassic Park" is only 6300 million US dollars if the publicity and promotion costs are not included.

This is equivalent to earning back 7% of the production cost in just three days of release. (The box office decline in the first week was 7:3)

It was already June 6th when Li Yishu received the news.

At this time, the North American box office of "Jurassic Park" had reached 1 million US dollars.

After six days of release, the box office exceeded 100 million US dollars.

Countless people are speculating whether the film will break Spielberg's own North American box office record of $3.59 million.

"Okay, I get it. Let's cut back, but you'd better tell Hisao Morishima that if necessary, give concessions to the theater chain and split it 7:3 directly, and try to get the box office of the movie to exceed $4 million."

Although "The Sixth Sense" is still in theaters, it has entered the "garbage game time".

It's just because almost all movie theaters in North America are showing "Jurassic Park", and there are screenings of it almost from morning to night.

Now that the costs have been recovered and a huge profit has been made, for Li Yishu, the goal is definitely to seek as high a box office as possible, and the less profit the better.

He believed that Hisao Morishima would have the same idea.

3 million US dollars and 9 million are two completely different concepts.

At present, "The Sixth Sense" has been released in Asia, and has also been released in English-speaking countries such as Canada and Australia.

Japan is influenced by American culture, and the director is Lee Ye-su. It was released on the 10th and has already grossed over 2800 million U.S. dollars. The final box office is expected to reach over 6-7000 million U.S. dollars.

So after some calculations, we still need 20 to 30 million US dollars to break the gap of 400 million US dollars, and we can only make up for it from the North American market.

Amy nodded: "Okay, boss."

After hanging up the phone, Li Yishu also came out of the Shancheng Telephone Office.

After Li Yishu returned to the crew, he felt a headache about the next scene because Lei Han could not act out the feeling he wanted.

(End of this chapter)