New Age Artists

Chapter 684: All-round Collapse

"What, you actually recorded it secretly?"

Shen Santong had just finished a telephone conference with Warner regarding the release of "The Return of the Great Sage".

Simply put, Warner or Hollywood is somewhat out of fashion.

Shen Santong didn't see Ning Hao, but Xu Guangtou came over and brought him some things.

After a quick look, Shen Santong was shocked.

Seeing this, Guangtou Xu couldn't figure out whether Shen Santong was pretending or it was real. After all, the tricks of the man in front of him were not exaggerated.

It is hard to determine whether Shen Santong used any tricks during the review stage of "No Man's Land", but he did take action to raise the production cost of "No Man's Land".

Ning Hao walked step by step towards the podium of the Berlin Film Festival, including performing a double act with the other party's tacit consent.

As the actual executor, Guangtou Xu used coercion and bribery to control Ning Hao, and Shen Santong must have known about it.

It’s just that some people play tricks on others in a big way, while some people play tricks on others so that people have to submit to them. Shen Santong is probably the latter.

Of course, Shen Santong must be pure and innocent.

Guangtou Xu immediately said, "I was afraid that Ning Hao would turn against me and deny my responsibility. After all, he was able to win the award with your guidance, so I had to have some means to control him. That's why I took the initiative to record the video."

Shen Santong denied: "I didn't give any advice. The movie No Man's Land is good and Ning Hao is capable."

Xu Guangtou: "Yes, yes, how to make a documentary?"

Shen Santong: "Wait a moment, I'll finish the things at hand first, let me take a look, and then we can discuss it together."

Guangtou Xu stood up to say goodbye, not forgetting to send his best wishes: "Okay, I'll wait. Congratulations to Director Shen for "The Return of the Great Sage" ranking fourth in the global box office! I wish "The Return of the Great Sage" to break the single market record in the United States!"

The explosive performance of "The Return of the Great Sage" allowed Ning Hao to cut off the last trace of indecision.

After returning to China, Xu Guangtou asked Ning Hao why he took this step.
Guangtou Xu himself also has a filter for the Berlin Film Festival. If the Golden Bear Award is really awarded to him, he may not be able to refuse this temptation even if there is a video of a private transaction.

Therefore, Guangtou Xu admired Ning Hao very much for having such courage, and was also very curious about his inner thoughts.

“After comprehensive consideration of the pros and cons, the domestic benefits are very large, while the foreign benefits are very small, almost non-existent.”

The answer Ning Hao gave was beyond his expectations but also reasonable.

Guangtou Xu also attaches great importance to interests, so he can understand it.

It is now the 11th day of the Lunar New Year, three days have passed since the Berlin Film Festival Awards Ceremony, and "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" has been released overseas for thirteen days.

Overseas box office exceeded $600 million.

This year, the Spring Festival falls on Sunday, so the overseas premiere of "The Return of the Great Sage" was two days earlier than its domestic premiere.

"The Monkey King: Hero is Back" has been released in China for eleven days, and the box office exceeded 200 million yesterday. The domestic box office has reached 4.6 billion in ten days, which is close to 800 million US dollars based on the current exchange rate.

Including overseas box office, this means that "Monkey King" has grossed $14 billion worldwide.

Now, the top of the box office ranking is "Avatar", which has not been re-released and has a global box office of more than 27 billion US dollars.

The second place is still Cameron's "Titanic", which exceeded 2012 billion US dollars after its 3D re-release in 21.

The third place is "Avengers", $15.18 billion

"The Return of the Great Sage" has been released overseas for less than two weeks and in China for more than a week. Its global box office has surpassed "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" and is now ranked fourth in the world.

"Harry Potter" is a mature IP developed by Warner, but it was directly surpassed by Shen Santong's "The Return of the Great Sage".

This is a global box office record!
Today, the largest single market for movies is the United States. In the domestic box office in the United States, the first place "Avatar" took in $7.6 million, the second place "Titanic", which will just exceed $7 million including re-releases, and the third place "Avengers" took in more than $6 million.

According to the box office trend of "The Return of the Great Sage", it will definitely break the single market record and the domestic box office record.

The Chinese market will produce the first movie to break $1 billion in domestic box office.

Horror!
Guangtou Xu now just wants to hold on to Shen Santong's thighs tightly, he is so awesome!

All the boasts I made to them back then have come true!
The potential of the Chinese film market exceeds everyone’s imagination!
After returning to China, Ning Hao, who originally felt a little lost, now only feels relieved!
Shen Santong has become synonymous with audience appeal.

Going against Shen Santong is basically equivalent to cutting oneself off from the domestic market. In comparison, a Golden Bear Award is nothing.

Even if the trophy is pure gold, let alone gold-plated, it is just a drop in the bucket compared to the domestic market.

Seeing Guangtou Xu's undisguised admiration and respect, Shen Santong sighed and told Guangtou about his troubles.

"It's okay in China, but overseas I asked the distribution department to keep an eye on Warner's fulfillment of the contract. I guess they can't afford to play with it anymore."

Guangtou Xu couldn't help but stop and said, "The overseas box office is high, so Warner, as the distributor, should be happy, right?"

Shen Santong shook his head. "Movies are not just movies. Some theaters in Europe and the United States have had problems, with frequent water and power outages, false fire alarms and other accidents. Warner said that it has been almost two weeks since the release, and the audience has gotten over the hype, so they will gradually switch to long-term screenings, which means gradually reducing the number of screenings."

Guangtou Xu said angrily: "This is too despicable and shameless. It's less than two weeks. The Monkey King is a commercial film and it still has potential for at least one to two weeks. This is hurting others and not benefiting yourself!"

Shen Santong sighed: "After the first weekend results came out, they were already playing dirty. They control the market and public opinion, which means it's hard to fake the box office. Otherwise, it wouldn't be surprising if they stole the box office."

Guangtou Xu was really confused: "Why, Director Shen, your interests are tied to Warner's!"

Shen Santong: "Look at the global box office rankings. In the past, my movies were only ranked in a single year, but this time, "The Return of the Great Sage" is on the overall list. It hurts their self-esteem."

According to the box office trend of "The Monkey King", it is almost inevitable that the domestic box office in China will exceed 60 billion, which means that the domestic market can take away billion US dollars.

Coupled with the mature Asian, Central and Eastern European markets developed by Santong Entertainment, and the appeal of Shen Santong's popularity in these regions, it is not difficult to take away two or three hundred million US dollars.

As long as it can get a passing score in North America and Western Europe, similar to that of "The Lost Tomb", it will be a bit difficult for "The Monkey King" to surpass "Avatar", but it should be certain that "Titanic" will surpass it.

At that time, "The Return of the Great Sage" ranked second in the global box office.

After Shen Santong said this, Guangtou Xu thought about it and realized it was true.

On the overall list, apart from Hollywood, the only movies that can make it into the top 100 in the world are those produced by Shen Santong. This time, "The Return of the Great Sage" directly made it into the top ten, reaching fourth place, which looks very eye-catching.

But Guangtou Xu couldn't understand why someone would go against money: "Doesn't Warner even care about its own interests?"

Shen Santong: "Interests can only be discussed if they do not touch core interests. The Monkey King: Hero is Back was inserted into a bunch of Hollywood blockbusters, which is touching their core interests."

"Disney is also putting pressure on me. Warner Bros. is promoting The Return of the Great Sage overseas as my exploration of mythological narratives. This means they want to recruit me, but Disney and Marvel definitely don't want to take the risk."

"The Avengers proves that Disney has struck gold by acquiring Marvel. Warner Bros. has been slow to make superhero movies. If I can help Warner Bros. make it, Marvel won't be the only one."

"Fox doesn't want Monkey King to surpass Avatar. Cameron has always been a unique director. If I make a naked-eye 3D screen and the box office can be comparable, it will directly touch the core of Hollywood's painstakingly cultivated cultural hegemony."

Shen Santong spoke briefly because he was also thinking about it.

In recent years, Hollywood's best-selling films have been less and less original IPs, and more and more sequels are at the top of the box office rankings.

Cameron is unique, and in the future this unique Cameron will turn to making sequels.

If Shen Santong continues to move forward, he will not only win the market, but also win in terms of status.

Hollywood has a zero-sum game mentality. If Shen Santong wins, they feel like they have lost.

Guangtou Xu was very confused. Shen Santong was at a much higher level. This was an international-level game. Ning Hao's refusal of the award was a bit of a petty quarrel in this regard.

Guangtou Xu: "Is there no other solution?"

Shen Santong: "The Monkey King is too strong. This is the first one. If the first one can reach the second place in the world and then be re-screened, there will definitely be another wave of growth, and then the second one will achieve even better results."

Guangtou Xu took a deep breath, and then he realized that the overseas crackdown was not just aimed at "The Return of the Great Sage", but had already seen the potential for a sequel.

Indeed, there is clearly a second part to "The Return of the Great Sage".

Not to mention how much the overseas market will grow, the domestic market will definitely continue to grow in a few years. Shen Santong has come up with a trick of "making friends", and it is possible that the next domestic market will exceed 10 billion.

By that time, if the overseas market achieves any success, the record of "Avatar" will be broken.

After chatting for a while, Shen Santong asked Xu Guangtou to wait for a while while he continued to discuss the response with the issuing department.

After some discussion, there was good news and bad news.

The bad news is that "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" will definitely be suppressed. Since Santong Entertainment cannot cover the European and American markets, all kinds of problems are inevitable, and a sharp drop in box office revenue is inevitable. Shen Santong can't do anything about this.

Because they have control over the market and the media, and they can be ruthless.

Blocked at both ends.

If Shen Santong wants to find a company with a similar stance, the only option is Chinese Cinemas, but the number of theaters in Chinese Cinemas is limited.

Cinema chains and distributors with a large number of cinemas have a firm stance.

Once a non-Western film attempts to break the record, it will definitely be suppressed.

The good news is that Shen Santong knows that Warner will still ask him for help.

The fantasy film "Jack the Giant Slayer" which is scheduled to be released early next month will flop, and Zack Snyder's performance as DC's second giant Superman is also not as good as expected.

However, in the future, even Shen Santong’s films may not be able to get into overseas markets, especially the European and American markets, and they can only get a share through cooperation.

It was more than an hour after the meeting.

Shen Santong and Xu Guangtou looked at what he had filmed and found that it had already been edited, totaling more than fifty minutes.

After reading it, Shen Santong was shocked.

This video shows the private transactions surrounding "No Man's Land" in a documentary format, with the three parties involved in the deal.

Ning Hao, the artistic director of the Berlin Film Festival, and another force that is acting as matchmaker are unknown but very powerful.

If this thing is released, it will be a solid proof.

Not speculation and archaeology, but a huge scandal at the Berlin Film Festival.

Shen Santong asked Xu Guangtou: "What do you think?"

Guangtou Xu: "Now that we have it made, of course we want to release it."

Shen Santong: "You should ask Ning Hao for his opinion. After all, this is about him, so I can't say anything."

Shen Santong felt that it was necessary to let Xu Guangtou and Ning Hao discuss this documentary, as the grudge between him and Ning Hao had been resolved.

"Row."

Guangtou Xu understood and left.

The turmoil at the Berlin Film Festival has spread to the three major film festivals.

Many past events surfaced.

The timing of the awarding of the "King's Award" is neither too early nor too late, in sync with the timetable of Southeast University's reform and opening up.

The current president of the Cannes Film Festival, Jacob, also took office in 1978. From 1978 to 2000, Jacob served as the general representative of the Cannes Film Festival, responsible for the artistic direction and film selection of the festival.

From 2000 to 2014, he was promoted to the chairman of the film festival, leading the overall strategic development of the festival.

When he came to power, he did something "big", which was to change the nature of the film festival.

The original system of each country selecting its own films has been replaced by film festivals entering each country to select the filmmakers and actors, thus taking away the aesthetic and moral rights that originally belonged to each country.

It also transformed the original European-focused film festival into an international film festival that competes with Hollywood and cultivates non-Western "cultural rebels."

After 1978, it was first the Taiwan Strait, then the mainland, and finally Hong Kong.

However, the mainland's film and television industry wants to take advantage of fame and fortune despite its backward economic level.

Win an award and you will become a "master" overnight, and make a lot of money from overseas copyrights.

Artistic director Fremaux sometimes goes to the University of Tokyo in person and is surrounded by filmmakers who throw themselves at him, all of whom want to get close to him.

The Cannes Film Festival has set up a special selection team for the above three places, which has gone deep into every corner of the mainland. Rather than being an art selection team, it is more like an ideological, international strategic investigation team and source of ideas.

This is the case in Berlin and Cannes, so is Venice special?
There is no use for balancing words.

It wants to both affirm the courage to maintain cultural subjectivity and emphasize the need to avoid confrontational thinking in international exchanges. Finally, it calls on Chinese filmmakers to learn to tell local experiences in the world language, rather than choosing either this or that.

This wave of competition for aesthetic standards and cultural definitions is labeled as public sentiment, downplaying the color of resistance.

However, the more you talk, the more mistakes you make and the more loopholes you find.

More and more people are discovering the pattern.

The standards are set abroad, and the industry relies on foreign awards. It has a high status in the West, but has a low status in China or is not that profitable. It is easy to be infiltrated and lose the right to define aesthetics.

Especially looking back at Mo Yan winning the Nobel Prize last year.

Perhaps the Nobel Prize itself is not a literary award that serves Western cultural hegemony, but it has in fact become such a literary award.

There are some things that are not for the members of the Swedish Academy to decide.

As it stands, the Nobel Prize objectively appears to be an honor bestowed upon Western writers and Eastern rebels.

It's not about who the Nobel Prize serves, but in fact, he became this.

A few months ago, if you said anything bad about the Nobel Prize, you would be accused of "having no independent thinking ability", "too easily brainwashed", or "conspiracy theorist".

At this point, without guidance, different people came to similar conclusions.

Culture, literature, art, science and sports cannot rely on an "international" organization to be fair and authoritative enough to exercise the highest authority of judgment on our behalf.

The right to define must be in your own hands!
Shen Santong was also paying attention. In just a few days, public opinion changed very quickly and his eyes moved.

If cultural standards are extended further, it is labor pricing.

Today and in the future, the manufacturing industry's income is meager, which has nothing to do with labor intensity or technological content.

There is only one reason: the world's labor pricing power does not come from manufacturing.

In the 1960s and 1970s, an industrial worker in the United States could support a family of four, own two cars and a pet, and live a comfortable life.

Other manufacturing countries will never be able to reproduce this glory again because the United States, which holds the power to price labor, has changed its industrial structure.

When the United States is engaged in industry, manufacturing will be "expensive" and the income will be high. The United States is mainly based on finance, so finance, art, and sports become expensive.

Unless you take the initiative to break this, you will have no pricing power. The more you can endure hardship, the more suffering you will suffer.

2 month 24 day.

Ning Hao agreed to Guangtou Xu's proposal.

However, he requested that the documentary be released by himself.

Ning Hao wants to replicate Shen Santong's path to success, to establish himself as a warrior against Western cultural hegemony, and to continue tearing off the emperor's new clothes.

Become the middle force between the literary and artistic faction and Santong Entertainment.

He is not only a new generation of film director who broke the kneeling position of the sixth generation of directors, but also different from the model of Santong Entertainment.

As soon as the documentary "Dream Berlin" was released, it caused an uproar and exploded public opinion.

June 2013, 2 Beijing time.

At the 85th Academy Awards, Ang Lee won the Best Director award for the second time for "Life of Pi".

The award had originally made some groups celebrate, but when the news came out, they all fell silent.

When "Life of Pi" was released, there was a wave of debate.

The award at this moment was the Oscar-winning medal given to Li An.

If a “conspiracy theory” can explain reality, is it still a “conspiracy theory”?

(End of this chapter)